Andrew and Jamie - 2. A rude awakening!!!

Healer Casey Baker woke to hear banging on the front door of the house he shared with his brother. Groaning, he looked at the time and saw it was 10pm. He’d been asleep only half an hour as the clinic he ran with his twin brother had been overrun with a nasty virus that was infecting the witch population of the community. He dragged himself out of bed and shoved his arms into a robe from the back of the bedroom door. By the time he got to the door the knocking had stopped; he opened the door and found a crumpled form on the doorstep.

Taking a cautious step towards the figure he opened his mind trying to sense if there was anyone else waiting in the darkened street. When he was satisfied it was not a trap he knelt beside the form on the ground. Taking in the shape and the uniform he realized it was one of the male guards. He had started to drag him into the house when he saw the blood track that had been left by him crawling up the front steps. He got him inside and shut the door, and then he turned him over to survey the damage.

He was shocked when he finally saw the person’s face. He recognized Andrew straight away. He opened his mind and mind-linked with his twin who he knew was either at or near to the guard headquarters.

“Jamie, where are you? I need you home now” He sent via their link.

“What’s up Case? I’m at the guard headquarters already, you know I get here early to try and see that cute admin vampire Andrew that joined us recently. He’s late tonight but I know he will be here soon.”

“No he won’t because I have him here, now get back here pronto and tell Jackson the young vampire he sponsored has been hurt.”

“HURT!! What is going on, what do you mean Andrew’s hurt?”

Casey cut off the link to his brother and focused on the man bleeding on the floor in front of him.

He had multiple stab wounds to his legs, arms and his face. Knowing vampires could heal themselves given time he was not overly worried about the shallower wounds. Even a vampire could bleed to death, however, before wounds could heal if they were severe enough.

He ran to the bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit and a bowl of warm water with cloths. Sitting back on the floor beside the late night visitor he began by using a short spell to strip Andrew down to his underwear without having to move him. He found the larger wounds and used spells to seal them as best he could. He knew he had to stop all the bleeding for the vampire healing to start taking effect. When he was just starting to wash the smaller cuts and dress them with bandages, his brother came rushing in the front door.

“Oh God!” He cried and dropped to his knees on the other side of Andrew. He quickly assessed what Casey had already done and joined his brother in cleaning and dressing the remaining wounds.

They finished cleaning the wounds and Jamie carried him upstairs while Casey got the guest bed turned down and made sure all the blackout curtains were shut. They used a quick simple spell to conjure clothes for Andrew as they knew he was very shy and would be embarrassed to be only in his underwear when he woke up.

“What happened?” Jamie asked while they moved a chair near to the bed so one of them could watch their charge.

“I don’t know. I heard a banging on the door and opened it to find him passed out on the doorstep.”

“I’ll stay with him,” Jamie said shooing his brother out the door “you’ve been up all day and I’m supposed to be on shift now anyway. I left a message for Jackson. His assistant said she had been told not to disturb him while he was in a council meeting.”

“She won’t last long then will she?” Casey said with a small smile as he exited the room. He knew how seriously Jackson took his responsibility to Andrew and he would have wanted to know immediately when something happened to him.

Jamie fixed himself a coffee from the small guest kettle in the room and as an afterthought he ran down to the clinic and got a bottle of blood from the refrigerator, he then settled down for a long night.

***

Jamie woke with a start and it took him a moment to realize why he was dozing in a chair. He looked over at Andrew to see him moaning and tossing around as though fighting off attackers. He knelt by his side and called to him softly, trying to calm him without waking him. When that did not work he tried being more aggressive, shaking him firmly till he opened his eyes and was looking wildly around the room.

Andrew’s eyes finally rested on Jamie’s “Where am I? How did I get here?” He asked in a rough voice that sounded painful.

“You passed out on the doorstep,” Jamie replied. “Do you remember anything about this evening?”

Andrew shut his eyes in thought, and then shook his head frowning. “All I remember is leaving home for work.” he glanced at the clock on the wall and tried to get up. “I’ve got to get out of here, I’m late.” He swayed on his feet and would have fallen if Jamie had not caught him and laid him back on the bed.

“The only thing you’re doing is going back to sleep. Casey and I did not clean you up so you could start bleeding all over again.” He looked closely and saw Andrew was pale even for a vampire. “When did you last feed?”

Andrew frowned as he thought, “last night before sleeping sometime, I usually grab some blood at work.”

“Lucky for you I treat stubborn vampires all the time, you lost a lot of blood and need to feed, I have some here.”

He opened the bottle before helping Andrew to prop himself up on the pillows.

Andrew tried to take the bottle and drink it down in one go, but he started to gag so Jamie took the bottle from him and allowed him to take small sips until the bottle was empty. With a sigh Andrew sank back onto the cushions and let sleep claim him.

***

The next time he woke Andrew found he was more alert and finding himself alone he took stock of his surroundings for the first time. He was in a comfortable bed dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a baggy blue t-shirt. The room he was in had blackout curtains drawn and a small light on the bedside cabinet cast a soft glow. Also on the cabinet was a bottle of blood and a note which told him Casey had clinic and Jamie was in bed next door. It also said Casey would check on him between patients.

He checked the time as he drank the blood and saw it was nine in the evening and so the sun would be down. He used the furniture to get himself upright and to reach the window; he then opened the curtains to look at the night sky. He jumped at a knock at the door, Casey poked his head in and seeing him up he smiled and entered the room.

“I see you’re up and around at last” he reached out to lift Andrew’s top but the vampire moved back quickly till he was against the wall. Casey arched an eyebrow at him, “I need to check all your wounds, I don’t bite!” He bared his teeth in a wide grin “That would be your domain! Besides I already saw most of you when I cleaned and bandaged you yesterday.”

Andrew still stared fearfully at him, so after waiting some more he muttered a quick spell that had Andrew’s clothes disappearing (except for his boxers, he wasn’t that mean) and left him spluttering oaths and blushing a lovely shade of red.

“Now let’s be seeing you, I haven’t got all night you know. I go off shift in an hour then Jamie takes over. I’m sure he would love to examine you again.” He grinned at his patient’s outraged expression and went about unwinding the bandages from his chest. He knew Andrew was even shyer around Jamie and would not want him seeing him undressed.

Finding all the wounds healing fine he returned the clothes and took a seat in the chair by the bed.

“Now, Jackson should be here soon. He called last night when he finally got Jamie’s message and had fired his latest assistant. He...” they were interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

Casey jumped up and hurried to the door. When he saw Jackson he grinned. “Jackie,” he gushed knowing the elder vampire loathed the nickname. “How nice to see you.”

Jackson just glared at him, and then raised an eyebrow waiting for an invitation to enter the house. As a vampire, he couldn’t enter without permission.

Casey finally rolled his eyes “Please come in, Andrew is in the guest room upstairs.”

He turned after shutting the door and led the way back to Andrews’s room.

Once inside Jackson went straight to Andrew and drew him up so he could look in his eyes to check his condition. When he was satisfied he was just low on blood but not severely hurt he let him sit back on the bed and sat beside him. Casey retook the chair by the bed and Jackson looked at Andrew.

“So what can you tell us about what happened last night?” Jackson asked laying his hand on Andrew’s shoulder.

“The first thing I remember is waking up and taking a shower; I skipped feeding at home as I had forgotten to get in any supplies, and was going to grab something from HQ before my shift.

I was just driving over the bridge when a car hit me and sent me straight over the side and into the river. As I was getting out of the car someone grabbed me and dragged me out and onto the bank. Then that person and another started to lay into me. When I tried to use my strength I realized they were vampires too and that they were older and more experienced than me, which isn’t too hard considering I’ve only been training in self-defense three months. I was almost managing to hold my own until one pulled out a silver knife and started to stab me with it. I managed to curl up, but I don’t remember anything else.” He slumped down onto the bed laying crossways with an arm over his eyes looking exhausted from retelling his story.

Casey took up the story and told of being woken by the banging and he and Jamie healing him and bandaging him up. “As soon as we had him clean and bandaged, Jamie carried him up here. Jamie then watched him and fed him when he woke enough to drink till his shift finished at sunrise and Andrew here was in his day sleep.”

At the last bit of his story Andrew sat back up. “Jamie carried me up here?” he asked, horrified the big male witch had seen him hurt and unconscious, not to mention that he had had to be carried to bed like a child.

“Yes,” Casey replied smiling at the look on the young vampire’s face. “He said to tell you blue is definitely your color.” Looking pointedly at the blue t-shirt he was wearing, which Jamie had chosen. Andrew went bright red and lay back down on the bed. Jamie was the first gay male Andrew had ever met who was so open about his sexuality. He was big and strong. He always wore tight clothes that showed off his body, his hair was long and he had some intricate tattoos on his arms.

Jamie was always at HQ when Andrew arrived for work and was always trying to engage the vampire in conversation. Andrew knew he was just being friendly but he got a funny feeling around the male witch and tended to try and avoid him. The whole community knew he had transferred from neighboring clan but they didn’t know why and Andrew wanted to keep it that way.

As though he had heard his name, there was a knock the door and Jamie poked his head around.

Seeing Andrew was awake, he came into the room and looked him over. “I see you're doing better, Gorgeous.” He smiled waiting for Andrew to move his arm and look at him. When their eyes met Andrew felt like a shock had gone through him and his eyes widened. Hurriedly trying to think of what to do, he sat up and nearly knocked Jackson off the bed. Jamie laughed as Andrew apologized to Jackson and they both righted themselves to sit side by side on the bed again.

“I’m told I have you to thank for getting me up here last night!” Andrew said shyly to Jamie, “Thanks to both you and Casey, I've healed a lot faster than I would have otherwise.”

Jamie smiled and nodded to accept the thanks, and then he turned to Casey looking suddenly very serious. “Hey Case, we got two vampires who’ve just been brought in and I think you and your visitor here should see them before you turn in for the night.” He nodded at Jackson, and then took his place in the chair so he could sit with Andrew while the others went to the clinic.

08/10/2014 - Thanks to Timothy M for his edits, now added
As always:
Read
Enjoy
and please comment (and like)