Piotr frowned at the sounds coming from the alley between this week's location and his hotel. It sounded like a post-club mugging, but one of the heartbeats was fading rapidly. He shifted into a cloud of bats and flew down the alley, where he saw a mugger going through the clothes of a girl who was rapidly bleeding out on the alley floor.
He didn't even think about what he was doing, just reformed into his human shape, grabbed the mugger and threw him into the wall across the alley, then knelt over the victim, just as her heart stopped beating. No! I was too late! No... not too late. But do I...?
While he was arguing with himself, he had already bit open his wrist and pressed the bloody wound to her lips. Come on, come on, come on...
He had to move her enough to lay on her back, so the blood would run into her throat, and drain down, but once enough had, he could tell, because her hands reached up to grab his wrist and hold tight while she began sucking on him as if she could draw his life out through his wrist.
"That's it... that's the way... " his eyes fell on her discarded driver's license. "...Aurelia. Don't worry. I'll take care of you. I promise."
Once she had drunk enough to fall into the normal transformation coma, he scooped her up in his arms, made both of them invisble, and ran back to his hotel, staying invisible until he reached his room, Once she was arranged on the bed, he hissed softly under his breath. Hopefully, the hotel was not so tall as to take her out of the influence of her native soil, so she could get adequate sleep. What floor had the Sutherland condo been on? Forty-five? Judy didn't have any trouble resting, so the hotel should be all right.
He took his phone from his pocket, turned it on, and dialed a number.
"Yes, I am. I need your expertise right now, though."
"Uh-huh. Laugh it up while you can. I'm serious, little brother."
"I rescued a girl after she was killed in a mugging..." He held the phone away from his ear as the man on the other end threw imprecations in their native language at him for over a minute before finally letting out a sigh and asking, "All right. So you've already made the mistake. What do you need?"
"Her name is Aurelia...something. Her driver's license was damaged too badly for me to get anything other than that name and her birthdate from it. Her date of birth is eleven oh one two thousand two."
He pinched the bridge of his prominent nose as Gregor laughed at the other end of the phone. When the laughter finally died, he asked simply, "Can you find her? Tell me what you can about her? Maybe find otu if she has family who need to be notified that she is no longer among the breathing?"
He nodded as he listened, and checked on the girl. She was still in the position he'd put her in when he had put her on the bed. "Thank you, Gregor. I appreciate it. I'll bring her to Aunt Willy and Uncle Vlad when she's in good enough shape to travel. The mugger used a heavy pipe on her head. It's going to take a while for her memories to return, if they ever do." He gave the girl a worried look and added softly, "I just hope he didn't take away her intelligence, too. I would hate to have created a Bubba."
He snorted at what came out of the phone "Hey! I'm an actor! Of course I've seen that abomination. I think I've seen every abomination put on film since Nosferatu." After a pause, he said, with obvious gratitude. "Thank you, Gregor. I'll be in town for at least another two weeks, so if you want to drop by the hotel, just let me know, OK?"
Once he'd hung up, he slipped his travel bag of Wallachian soil out from under the mattress and lay it on the floor, firmly told himself to wake if she came out of her coma early, or just before sunrise if she hadn't awakened before then, so he could cover her against the sun, and lay down to rest on the sacred soil of his homeland.
