Dominion of the Damned (25 page)

Alek suggested that she prop him up to help him breathe, so Hannah settled Noah in his stroller. She rolled it back and forth, hoping that the motion would lull him to sleep.

“
Let’s go for a walk,” Alek suggested. “Maybe that will calm him down.”

Hannah didn’t like the idea of taking him out so late, but at that point she’d try almost anything. “Let me get my gun.”

“
You don’t need it,” said Alek. “You have me.”

She stopped, and looked at him. He seemed unaware that she was watching as he hefted the stroller effortlessly and carried it to the door. Hannah remembered the barn, the way he had torn through all of those zombies with his bare hands.

She remembered being carried to the barn, held gently in arms that felt like they could just as easily crush her.

You have me
, he said, and she realized she believed him. They had him, and he had their backs. She still didn’t totally understand it, but she was starting to accept it.

Instead of getting her gun, she went to get the door.

“
I wish my mom was here,” she said as they headed down the street. “She’d know how to do this.”

Alek looked over at her. “You’re doing a great job.”

“
You’re
doing a great job,” she corrected him. “If you weren’t here I’d have no idea what to do.” A thought occurred to her, and she looked up at him. “Did you have any kids?” The question made him flinch, and she instantly regretted asking. As he looked at the ground, she said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“
I said you could ask me anything. No. I was never a father.” He looked up at the sky. “But I was going to be, once.”

Putting it all together, Hannah said, “She was pregnant. Your wife, I mean.”

“
Six months and two weeks, when they took her.”

“
The Nazis?”

He nodded, and neither of them said anything for a while. Noah’s fussing filled the silence. Finally, Hannah said, “I’m sorry.”

He waved a hand, as if to wave away his pain. “It was a long time ago. Ancient history.”

“
But it still hurts.” She sighed. “The hurt never completely goes away, does it?”

“
No. It doesn’t.” He looked at her again. “I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you otherwise.”

“
At least you tell me the truth. Most people tell comforting lies.”

“
Most people don’t deal well with the truth. But you, you’re made of stronger stuff.”

“
I wish I felt as strong as everyone keeps telling me I am.”

“
You survived. That takes a lot of strength. So does deciding to raise and protect your brother.”

“
What else could I do?”

“
Give up. That’s what I did.” His mouth twisted into a wry half-smile. “That’s why I’m a vampire.”

They walked in silence for a moment before Hannah asked, “What did you want to be?”

“
A good husband. A good father. And a good doctor.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground. “But that was all taken from me.”

“
Not all of it,” said Hannah. “You’re still a good doctor.”

Alek turned his head to look at her in surprise. When he smiled, it had a bashfulness to it that tugged at her heart. “Thanks.”

They fell into silence as they turned the corner onto School Street. As the school playground came into view, Hannah said, “I’ve never had big aspirations. All the other kids in my little town, they couldn’t wait to get away. They were going to move to New York, or LA, and they were going to be actors or writers or politicians or whatever.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t want to leave. It was my home, you know? I always planned to go back there after I finished nursing school. I just wanted to graduate and get a good hospital job, or maybe at a private practice. All I wanted was to help people feel better and make a decent living at it. Maybe meet a doctor, or another nurse, and get married, and then be a mom. I always dreamed of a big house out in the country to raise kids in.” She smiled. “I used to daydream about stupid, mundane stuff, like homeschooling and baking brownies and sewing Halloween costumes every year.”

“
That sounds like a perfectly lovely dream.”

She nodded, and wiped her nose. “And now it’s all gone.”

“
Well… you
did
meet a doctor, at least.”

She smiled, in spite of herself, but said nothing. She briefly imagined herself in that big house with Alek and Noah, then banished the thought from her mind. Of course it would figure that the only handsome doctor in her life would turn out to be one of the monsters.

Except, he really wasn’t, was he? Hannah still didn’t know what to think, or what to
feel.
His inhumanity still made her uneasy, even as she grew to trust him more with each passing moment. What he was… it wasn’t natural. It wasn’t
right
.

So what did it say about her that she was so drawn to him?

Suddenly, Alek stopped walking. “Do you hear that?”

“
Hear what?”

“
Listen.”

Hannah strained her ears, but she couldn’t hear anything. The nights here tended to be eerily silent, and this was no exception. Then it dawned on her. “He stopped crying.”

“
He’s asleep. Let’s get him home. You should get some sleep too, while you’ve got the chance. I’ll stay and watch him.”

“
You don’t have to do that.”

“
I don’t mind. Besides, I have a feeling you’ll be able to sleep better if I’m there, in case he has any more complications.”

He was right. Even as recently as last night, Hannah would never have been able to sleep while a vampire watched over Noah. But whatever Alek’s ulterior motive might be, whether he influenced her thinking or not, she knew one thing on a gut level: he would protect them. And if Noah’s fever rose again, or if he had trouble breathing, Alek would know what to do.

“
Okay,” she said. “Let’s take him home.”

THIRTY-ONE

Hannah slept on the sofa, despite Alek urging her to go to bed. She left Noah to sleep in his stroller, and Alek camped out in the easy chair, where he could keep an eye on the boy. But it was Hannah he found himself watching more often than not. She looked so young as she slept, her face free of the load she carried, and so innocent without the weariness and apprehension in her eyes. When she rolled onto her side and a lock of hair fell across her face, it took every ounce of his willpower not to reach over and smooth it back from her brow.

He needed a distraction. He looked around for something to read, but if she had any books, they were still packed in one of the boxes stacked at the other end of the room. He wasn’t about to dig through them without permission. With a sigh, he hauled himself out of the chair, its cushions so deep they threatened to swallow him. He checked to make sure the baby was still breathing freely, then went out to the porch, leaving the door open behind him so he could hear if Noah ran into trouble.

As he leaned against a post and stared out at the night, his fingers itched to hold a cigarette. It had been a lifetime since he’d last smoked one. The cravings had mostly died along with his humanity. But it had been a comforting habit, even more so in a time when nobody knew it could be a deadly one, and sometimes he still missed it.

He still missed so many things.

One of those things was simply being a doctor. Over the last several decades, he had mainly been a researcher, a scientist chasing that elusive cure. It wasn’t exactly easy to run a practice when you were confined to the night, although he had occasionally found work in emergency rooms and overnight clinics, and he’d managed to stay current on modern medicine. But since the outbreak, he’d been all scientist, all the time. Of course he was available if his camp residents needed a doctor, and they thought of him as the local “doc,” but there was never anything so severe that Zach couldn’t handle it during daylight hours. Noah’s illness was the first he’d actually been called upon to treat. It felt good to be able to simply help. He’d missed that.

He had loved his former life as a simple village doctor, before the Nazis made him a field medic. He could still picture the faces of every single fallen “enemy” soldier they had refused to allow him to treat. But there was one face in particular that still haunted him. A woman. A
civilian
. Debris from a mortar shell had torn through her torso, leaving her bleeding out from the stomach. An awful way to die. He had just knelt down to try to stop the bleeding when the butt of a rifle struck his jaw and knocked him over. “You’re not here to help that trash,” the German soldier had said. “She’ll go on the pile and be burned with the rest.”

“But she’s still alive,” said Alek. “I can help her. At least let me make her more comfortable and ease her pain!”

The soldier turned the rifle around, and Alek found himself staring down the business end. “You have more important work. Come with me.”

He reached out and squeezed the woman’s hand as he climbed shakily to his feet, a small gesture of comfort that he wasn’t even sure she’d be conscious of. He got a jab in the ribs for his efforts. “Come!” the soldier repeated, and herded him into a medical tent that had been erected in the center of the village. Its patients were all German soldiers and officers—not one cot was given to the civilians they’d just butchered. “Here,” barked the soldier, and led him to a bed holding a man in an officer’s uniform… or what was left of one. There didn’t seem to be much left of the officer, either. “Save him.”

“I don’t know if I can,” said Alek as he surveyed the damage. “His chances don’t look good.”

“You will make them good,” said the soldier, “if you want any hope of ever seeing your wife again.”

Alek closed his eyes. “Forgive me, Irina,” he prayed, and then he got to work.

He had saved the officer, although he hadn’t saved the man’s arm. Small revenge. Not long after that, an English battalion defeated his unit, and took him captive before realizing he’d been forced into service. By the time they processed him and released him, it was already far too late for Irina.

He had given up medicine by the time Esme found him. Of course, by that point he had given up on everything. And after his transformation, for a while it was the furthest thing from his mind. He remembered the day it all changed, when he knew he was and would always be a doctor. He and Esme were on the prowl, strolling the streets of Berlin. Hunting. They stepped onto a busy street just in time to see a boy get struck by a car. Alek didn’t think, just acted, and managed to keep the boy stable until help arrived. It was the first innocent life he’d saved since before his village was invaded.

Esme had laughed when he tried to tell her how good it had felt, that he knew deep down that saving lives was still his purpose. “A vampire doctor,” she’d said, cackling. “Don’t be absurd. Your purpose is to kill. Your purpose is vengeance. Don’t ever forget that, my sweet Alek.”

Alek’s itchy hand had balled into a fist, so tight his nails dug into his palm. He forced himself to unclench, and pushed bitter thoughts of his past from his mind. Inside, the baby started to cough. He was already there, unbuckling the straps that held him upright in the stroller, by the time Hannah sat up. “Is he okay?” she asked.

“
He’s fine. It’s time for his medicine. I’ve got it. You go back to sleep.”

“
I don’t think I can,” she said, pushing back the coverlet and standing up. “I’ll get it.” She disappeared down the hallway, then came back a moment later with the medicine. Alek held the baby while she administered a dose. He started to cry. “Aw, c’mere,” she said as she took the baby into her arms.

Alek stood back and watched as she bounced him and did her best to sooth him, until his angry cries subsided into hiccups and sniffles. “Is he gonna be okay?” she asked.

“
He’ll be fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing. This should run its course in a day or two. If it doesn’t, I’ll need to see him again.” He smiled as she nuzzled her brother. “You’re really good with him.”

Hannah gave him a sleepy smile. Her hair was tangled and disheveled, and sleep still clung to her eyes. But she was beautiful. Alek caught himself imagining what it would be like to wake up to this sight every day, and cut off that fruitless line of thought.

Hannah’s smile morphed into a thoughtful frown. “What time is it?”

Alek checked his watch. “Just after six.”

“
You should go,” she said. “The sun’ll be up soon. You don’t want to get stuck here all day again.”

“
I’ve been stuck worse places, believe me. Are you sure you don’t want me to stick around?”

“
You said he was out of danger.”

“
He is. Just remember to give him his medicine every four hours. That should keep his fever down.”

Hannah nodded. “Thanks.”

Alek returned her nod, and turned for the front door. She grabbed his hand, and he froze. Slowly, he looked down at his hand caught in hers, and then at her face, full of earnestness and gratitude. “I mean it,” she said. “Thank you.”