Binded (The SHIELD Series) (2 page)

Carmen
idly put her hand on the top of Cooper’s head, and he shifted awkwardly, causing her brow to furrow.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, looking down, confused.

“My head hurts,” he sounded equally confused at admitting that. 

“You couldn’t hold your
liquor as a human, Cooper, so I expect Carmen is making it no different,” Nathaniel smirked from the background. “Have you sobered up and are hung-over already?”

“Shut up,”
Cooper replied, and Carmen leaned back, the weight of his warm body a comfort on her sore muscles. She rarely spent a night in, a quiet night of normalcy, but this was nice. She even mentioned how wonderful it was to James as they closed the door to their bedroom.

“Even the bickering was great,” she said, as she went to brush her teeth. “But do you think
Cooper is alright?”

James
shrugged.

“
Nathaniel was right, although he could have put it more delicately than that. Cooper was only 16 when he was turned, and the youngest. You being around has given him more chance to be human than he actually has.”

“Sure,”
Carmen splashed cold water on her face, the jet leg getting to her. “You don’t think it’s something like a spell or something? That he was trying to block off?”

“Interesting,”
James’s alcohol soaked brain hadn’t considered this. He hadn’t actually considered many things tonight beyond Carmen’s slim curves. “Of course, it’s possibly. If someone hexed him, than his instinct would be to move closer to you, to starve off the spell. It’s not uncommon, for someone to try and hurt us, as you know.”

“Can’t please all the people all the time,” she said, with a smile, as she got onto the bed, straddling him. “Although I’m pretty sure I can come up with several ways to please you tonight.”

“I’m open to your suggestions,” James said, as their lips met, tongues darting in and out. Their hands explored each others familiar bodies, knowing exactly where to touch and rub. Carmen closed her eyes as she let her feelings take over, relaxing into his arms. This couldn’t be a marriage, not when the sex felt so good, surely that was illegal. James’s body reacted to her every move, and soon, they were lost in the cries of the night.

Chapter 2

Carmen was slicing watermelon with precision in the quiet dawn, her leotard covered by a sweatshirt. Even if vampires didn't sleep at night, they seem to settle down, and she didn't want to awake whoever was actually asleep.

In the theatre, they barely got a 20 minute break, so they often needed to bring food for lunch if the dancers wanted to eat. Most, however, did not.

A shuffle behind her made her turn and she found James standing there,

half
dressed in his shirt sleeves, tying his tie.

"Ah, Carmen," he said with formality, as if they didn't just spend a

torrid
night together. They had also spent a late night together, after the others had gone to bed and before their night of passion started.  She had spent 2 hours searching on a laptop what they needed to do to end a marriage made in Poland without having to actually go there, something neither of them had time for. It was 4am before she closed her eyes. "I forgot that you had an engagement today."

"Can I take a car?" She asked and he nodded.

"Of course you may. I'm in need of the SUV but anything else is at your disposal."

She smiled at him, putting the remainder of the watermelon in the fridge.

"

You hauling bodies or something?"

"Hardly," James began tying his tie.

"Bloody hell!" Their quiet moment was interrupted by Cooper, shooting into the kitchen and grabbing into the fridge for a bottle of vodka, and taking a shot. James glanced at the clock.

"It's 6am, Cooper."

"And never too early for the hair of the dog that bit ya," Cooper replied, putting a hand to his head. "I'm getting soft, Brother, I never used to get hangovers like this."

Carmen winced. Cooper, recently, had been getting deliberating headaches,  in the 2 weeks since she had arrived. Some days, he claimed hangovers, some days exhaustion, some days injury.

But it didn't change the fact that he got them. No one had
discussed it much, and his normal solution was to curl up next to her, eyes closed and the lights off. She assumed it was a spell, and a powerful one. What bothered her was that it didn’t seem to be getting any better. The strongest Shield of the strongest bloodline, and getting stronger the older she got, she didn’t know of a witch powerful enough to make a spell stick this long.  It must be recast again and again, meant to harm Cooper whenever he was away from her, she concluded.

"I'm not even hung over, Cooper," she said. "And you left us at 11pm."

"Well, we all know the druggie ballerina can't even operate if there's not something in her blood," Cooper snapped.

"Cooper!" James growled, and Cooper relented, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry."

"I should think so," James replied and then was thrown off balance as Cooper cried out and fumbled for his brother. The vodka bottle smashed and Carmen, in bare feet, leapt back. James had an awkward grasp on Cooper's dead weight and his face was twisted in worry.

"We have to do something, “James said,  as Cooper withered. "This is the 2nd time he's hit the deck."

"I really don’t think it’s magic," Carmen said.  "Since I'm right here. This has gone on too long."

Cooper squirmed again, and then gagged and vomited, blood spewing everywhere. James met his wife's eyes.

"Call Dr. Octivia," he said, an option discussed before and shot down. The vampire doctor was an expert of diseases and medication for both races. He knew what worked on vampires and what didn't. His adoptive son was even cured of depression by high doses of modern medication. However, he also disagreed with a vampire lifestyle, having more than once exposed his true kind to humans. Each time, he and his family barely escaped the law. While pleasant enough, they weren’t on good terms with the Elders.

Carmen scampered away, to retrieve the phone and make the call. Cooper's pain seemed to ease a bit, long enough to be able to relax.

"James?" He said, his voice sounding small and young. "What's happening to me?"

"I don't know," James said. "But we're going to find out. And we're

going
to make you better, kid, I promise you."

A half hour later, James was sitting on the phone with Dr. Octivia, sitting on one end of the sofa, with Cooper’s feet in his lap and his head on Carmen’s lean legs. The two of them were trying not act worried, for Cooper’s sake, although she could tell the phone conversation with Dr. Octivia was not going well.

“I have a
Shield, a powerful one, so unless it’s the most powerful witch ever created, I don’t think it’s a spell...I’ve never met a Shield that Carmen couldn’t stop…well, if it was Allium Sativum poison, than as soon as Carmen came around, it’d stop, those things don’t affect a human…Well, I don’t know then,” James exchanged a worried glance with Carmen, who was running her fingers through Cooper’s hair. They had turned the lights off, and lowered the blinds. The symptoms were similar to a migraine and yet, it was impossible. “I think that would be the best solution, these things are happening far too often. We have access to state of the art facilities, as soon as you can. ” He hung up, turning to the other two. “Cooper?”

“
Mmph,” his brother answered, his fist clenched in pain.

“Dr.
Octivia is going to fly out here as soon as he can get someone to cover his patients.”

“And when will that be?”
Cooper’s mood was clearly not the most agreeable. “God damn it, you’re the King, James, can’t you get him to move any faster?”

“As fast as he can,”
James replied calmly. “Is there anything we could get you?”

“Less pain,”
Cooper gripped Carmen’s thigh, causing her to wince. “I will find whoever is doing this to me, and I will kill them. Can’t you turn it up?”

She laughed nervously.

“Shield powers don’t work like that, my darling,” she glanced to James, across the way. “But I would if I could.”

“You should rest,”
James said. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

Cooper
seemed to find that agreeable, at least, the human side of him magnified with exhaustion from Carmen, and it wasn’t long before his muscles relaxed and his breathing became regular. Carmen reached across the couch to hold James’s hand, a romantic move that didn’t often happen between them. James gazed at his brother a few moments before he spoke.

“I hope you will understand, my dear, that the divorce papers will have to wait until this gets resolved.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she shrugged, trying to keep her voice down.

“But they will get done, I assure you.  You came here for this purpose and it will not be a wasted trip.”

“Sssh, James,” she said, tenderly. “Right now it doesn’t really matter.”

They fell into silence, and then she spoke once more.

“I’m sorry I held you to it so long, really. When I was 17 and needed help, it was everything. But now…”

He smiled at her.

“Carmen, once marriages were only ever made for purpose, and convenience, not love. Love never entered into them. You needed assistance and I provided it for you.  It was a dark time for me, and your…powers got me through it. I would say it was a mutual need.”

“Right,” she agreed, looking at him in a way she really hadn’t before. Aside from her best friend,
Donovan, there had never been another man to say such kind words to her. Carmen was the Queen on one night stands, and relationships that only ever led to the bedroom. Only James had made it into something more, had genuinely cared about her as a person.  

Dr.
Octivia didn’t arrive until that night, and each hour was more tortuous than the last. Cooper’s headache was not subsiding, and Carmen, for the first time in her Shield career felt weak and useless. She and James had held hands for 8 hours over the sleeping body, moving only to get food, or allow Nathaniel a moment to whisper encouragement to his brother. Around dusk, Phil had come to sit with them, although he didn’t have much to say.

When Dr.
Octivia was escorted into the house, he barely bowed to his vampire kings and princes, something that was built into his blood, before he spoke. He hadn’t so much as touched Cooper, but he didn’t like the colour on his face, or the blue around his lips.

“We need to get him to a hospital, now,” he said. “
James, I’ll need access to an MRI machine and a CT scanner. Are you on any friendly terms with the local hospital?”

“I can be so,”
James replied.

“This is
bizarre,” Carmen said, shaking her head. “You’re supposed to be immortal.”

“He is immortal,”
Nathaniel assured her. “He is.”

“
Carmen,” Dr. Octivia apparently knew who she was without even meeting her. “I don’t want you to let go of him. Whatever magic this is will probably send him into Torpor if you let go, it’s that strong. I need to see what it’s doing to his body, inside.”

“Aye
aye,” she said, following the doctor’s orders. Only then did Phil, the tallest and broadest of all of them, step forward. Cooper was looking at them with glazed eyes, as if it was a dream, and Phil knelt to pick his kid brother up. He had heard the word Torpor, no doubt, and Carmen half wondered if this was some sadistic move to catch whatever his brother had. But she didn’t say anything as James drove them to the hospital, his jaw clenched in fear.

“There are some ways,
Carmen,” he said, clearly reading the expression on her face. “To force a vampire into Torpor that he will never awaken from. Alive, preserved, but gone.”

“A coma,” she said, aware of
Phil’s self chosen Torpor. She turned around, her hand still clasped in Cooper’s, who was trying not to cry out in pain. “Don’t worry. I’m the most powerful Shield there is.”

“Then I can only imagine how much worse this could be without you,”
Cooper managed and then let out a strangled cry.

Once at the
hospital, James worked his magic to let Dr. Octivia into the MRI room. Part of it was brute force and threats, but whatever it did worked. They stood outside the booth, the only place that she couldn’t be near Cooper. Nathaniel and Phil were seated in the uncomfortable plastic chairs by the door, while James paced the hall. Her heart breaking, she went over to him, offering her arms and he nearly fell into them.

“It’ll be ok,” she said, placing a hand on the very spot on his head that was giving his brother trouble. “Whatever it is.”

He stayed in her arms quite awhile, regulating his breathing and regaining his composure.

“Thank you,
Carmen, you are very kind.”

“Compassion gets me into boy’s beds. I take all types,” she smiled at him, although it was a poor attempt at a joke. “I noticed we passed a city office on the way here. Hopefully this will be over by morning, and we can kill two birds with one stone and stop in, hmm?”

“I have a hard time seeing all of this alright by morning,” James replied, and she kissed him lightly on the cheek. She had never been this romantic with him, and although it was foreign, it felt oddly comfortable.

Their hands were clasped together an hour later, when Dr.
Octivia came bursting out of the MRI room, 2 scans in his hand.

“
Carmen, back up,” he blurted out, and her jaw dropped.

“Excuse me?”

“Whatever you have to say, Dr,” James’s jaw clenched. “You can say it in front of Carmen.”

“I understand that,” Dr.
Octivia replied. “But we need to give this room a wide berth if she’s involved.”

“Why?”

“Look,” he walked down the hall to one of the clinic rooms, and the others followed, stunned into silence. Placing the scans on the light on the wall, he flipped it on.

“Do you see that dot there?
Cooper has a 3 blood clots in his brain, threatening to block the flow to his spinal cord.”

“What?”
James’s mouth dropped.

“Did he used to get headaches as a child?”

“Yes,” Phil blurted out, surprising them all. “I remember more clearly than you, it wasn’t that long ago for me. He did, Cooper was a sickly child.”

“Becoming a vampire saved his life,” Dr.
Octivia said. “Had he not, at the moment he did, he would have been dead within 72 hours. These clots, from my experience, are moving fast.”

“Oh my God,”
Carmen’s hand went up to her mouth. “I did this to him.”