Page 27 of Even Vampires Bleed
I want to vomit, but I keep looking just to be sure what is happening there. There is no tube like the rest of the body, but small cables are still “plugged” into his brain and I think I saw something glint.
I refuse to even blink just to be sure and… here it shone again.
That looks way worse than what was done to Léandre, and I just feel helpless all of a sudden.
No, I can’t think like that. My dad is alive. Whatever was done to him can be undone, I’m sure of it.
“Anna, did you call Elhyor already?”
She’s the only one with a holo here.
“He’s sending someone,” Anna answers, and I slouch to the ground.
Everything is going to be alright.
14
Cassiopé
It’s been a week since Dad was brought back to Notre Dame, and he’s stable. He’s the only one that has been hooked to tubes and cables, according to Marcus and the recovery team. He’s the only one still asleep, but the doctor says it’s normal and that he should be like this for at least another week, if not more.
He can’t shift in the state he’s in, so it’s a slow process, but his heartbeat is strong and all his blood tests have come back all clear.
So, it’s only just a matter of time before he wakes up.
Gabriel—Léandre’s dad—was found in one of the other rooms upstairs in Blois’s castle. Léandre thought he was dead, but I’m not sure he’ll recover the same as my dad. His wings were stumps on his back when we found him. Unless we find the wings themselves, there is no way to know if he’ll recover, but he’s alive. He’s in shock, but alive and awake.
Léandre has tried to take care of him, but more often than not, the old archangel is found in a dark corner of the archives, muttering unintelligible things to the books he reads.
The front of Notre Dame has long been cleaned and the men we took prisoners after the battle against Angélique’s father—the formerMichaël—were given a choice either to join us in the battle or to rot in human jails.
Most of them didn’t know what to choose, so we decided to leave them in the hands of the humans fromLiberation.
What we didn’t know is the fact the humans now have serums. One of those, once injected under the skin, can force any shifter into their shifted form. It’s not permanent, but unless countered, it lasts a couple of hours. They refuse to tell us how they got it, and I have the uncomfortable idea that we should take a closer look at the problem at some point—maybe not while they’re our allies, though.
They injected the prisoners and put them into cages, as if they were pet birds. The only food that has been provided to them is seeds, and it didn’t even take a day for the bird-shifters to change their mind. When they were forced back into their human form—that serum is dispensed through gas—they knew what to choose way faster. Of the twenty-seven birds that were caged, only four of them are still there. The rest are slowly integrating into the ranks of Elhyor’s men.
They’re monitored for now, though. One can’t be too prudent.
There might be spies amongst those men, but Elhyor is keeping an eye on them. Well, it’s actually Luc who is keeping an eye on them, but he reports to Elhyor, so really, it’s all the same.
The humans agreed to give us some of their serum, but they don’t have a lot of stock, and the process to make them is slow. So, they’re supplying it in small quantities.
We’re going to need more, though, if we want a fighting chance against Michaël’s men.
But are they still Michaël’s men?
With him dead, it leaves room for Raphaël, who—according to Angie—is as blood-thirsty as her father.
Everyone is getting ready for the battle to come.
Because I’m sure of it, the battle on theparviswas only the beginning of it. There were only a fraction of Michaël’s men fighting us, and they weren’t seasoned warriors.
All hell is about to break loose, and we need to be as ready as possible.
15
Cassiopé
