Jamie and Andrew Ch. 03

Jackson and Casey hurried out the room and down to the clinic. Inside they found a small team of vampire and witch nurses working on two young vampires one male and one female, who looked as though they had been in a fight.

"What happened here?" Jackson asked with authority ringing in his voice. Being the senior elder in the vampire council meant that all vampires within the community answered to him instinctively.

The female vampire managed to raise her head and answer in a whisper, "We were coming into town when we were run off the road and attack by two older vampires with silver knives. Henry covered me with his body so he took the brunt of the attack. They only stopped because someone heard us shouting and came to see what was going on.

Sir," She added looking directly at Jackson, "I recognized one of them as I saw his face during the fight. He is from the Delaney clan to the west. He is an elder there, his name is Samuel, he visited our community a while back." After she had finished, she lay back down, and before Casey or Jackson could ask anything else, she passed out.

The vampire nurses had started blood IVs into both vampires to help them heal more quickly, and the witches used magic to heal the deeper wounds.

Jackson and Casey returned to Andrews's bedroom to find him fast asleep again with Jamie watching over him, so leaving them in peace Casey took Jackson to the living room where they could talk without being disturbed.

"What's going on with this Samuel?" Casey asked as he headed for the adjoining kitchen to make some coffee.

Following him Jackson helped himself to a bottle of blood from a small marked refrigerator; he then leaned against the kitchen counter to gather his thoughts.

"Well, Samuel came to the vampire council first about three months ago, his clan borders ours and their clan membership is significantly lower than ours. They wanted to know if we would be willing to allow them to hire some of our vampire members as they are having trouble with their other neighboring clan, the McClens, and they need more people to help with defending themselves." Casey nodded thinking that few people would want to leave the community here as everyone was treated well.

Jackson continued,"When he came to the council he wanted to offer for some of our male vampires to join their guards and some witches as healers. We told him he was welcome to make his offer to some of our men but they had the choice of whether to take him up on it.

"He offered several men wealth and prestige in his clan if they would go with him, all declined and the council refused to let him approach the last two. He also approached several women as apparently he is looking for a wife as well.

"One was Sara, the female vampire currently in your clinic, she declined because she was promised to Henry who is her mate, the other victim in your clinic, and their link had already started to join them together.

"Another female he offered for was Alice and when she said no, he tried to persuade her by showing her what he personally had to offer. He kissed her and when she took offense, he tried to coerce her.

"Andrew stepped in to defend her, he told Samuel that he wasn't much of a male if he had to force women to kiss him and that he should learn how to treat woman properly before trying with another one. I think he was acting on instinct, as you know he's usually shy. And to make matters worse Samuel recognized Andrew as Andrew transferred from his clan; he called him a few rude names and told him he was no match for him as he was an elder. A few of our other guards heard the commotion and backed Andrew up.

"Samuel was asked to leave and he left swearing we would regret our choice to not help his clan. It seems he has decided to take his vengeance the coward's way by sneaking in and taking out his frustrations on the ones he feels have wronged him. In the case of Sara I would guess that he would have taken her, if Henry had not been with her at the time. And in the case of Andrew he probably meant for him to be killed as he did not like that one of his people got away even if he didn't like him much."

Casey moved into the lounge and sat in silence digesting what Jackson had just told him. The vampire came and sat opposite him and seemed to be trying to decide something.

"There's something you should probably know," he took a deep breath before continuing, "The last two men Samuel wanted to offer for were you and Jamie. He had heard of how good you two are at healing, especially being twins and that you can join your magic. But the council said no as you're our only healers and we need you both. In addition, we believe he had an ulterior motive in asking for you two. There are rumors abroad about his sexual appetites and we believe he wanted you two so he could bed you as twins and more. He has been asking questions at the vampire research facility about how the blood bond works. He wanted to know about bonding more than one person and about bonding with someone who isn't your mate."

Shocked Casey stared at him certain he must be having a joke at his expense, but the more he studied Jackson's face the more he saw he was serious and actually seemed to be holding back some anger too.

"I know all there is to know about the blood bond as I have been doing a research project on it in my spare time, as you know because the council had to give permission for me to contact the research facility. Do you think he'll come after us?"

"I don't know, but you need to be careful. I can have a guard assigned to you if you want for protection."

"I do not want one of your guards hanging around me twenty four seven and I rarely leave the house or clinic except for medical emergencies so I should be fine. I have my magic to fall back on if I need to protect myself, Jamie works three nights a week at the guards HQ so he should be well protected there and here he will be with me."

"Your magic will not be fast enough to beat a vampire!" Jackson looked at him in challenge.

Casey bristled at the insult "I can take down a vampire if I need to..." he barely got the words out before Jackson had him off the chair and pinned to the floor. He stared up into his face; he hadn't even seen him move.

"Vampires move faster than magic spells can be said," Jackson sneered at him with their faces close together. Casey just looked him with one eyebrow raised, then with a pop he disappeared.

Jackson looked around in surprise to see Casey sitting on a chair nearby watching him.

"How did you do that?" Jackson asked getting up; he made some show of straightening out the clothes he was wearing before picking up his drink and sitting down again.

Casey shrugged, "It is a power given to me by the witches' council to get me to any emergency quicker. That way I can treat people on the edges of town. I am the only one with it, Jamie only has the magic he was born with. His duties only include running the clinic here and at guard HQ in the evenings.

Jackson opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a cry of alarm from upstairs.

They both bolted up the stairs and burst into Andrew's room to see Jamie trying to hold him down as he thrashed around in his sleep. "Help me!" Jamie called and redoubled his efforts as Andrew nearly threw him off by hitting him in the eye.

Jackson quickly went to Jamie's side and held Andrew down easily by his arms. Jamie immediately starting chanting a simple calming spell until Andrew finally opened his eyes to focus on him.

When he stopped struggling, Jackson let go of him and sat on the end of bed but stayed within reach, just in case.

Andrew looked at everyone crowding in his room again and blushed red, "Sorry, I must have had a nightmare!"

Jamie sat at the head of the bed and when Andrew saw the bruise forming around Jamie's eye his eyes went wide with shock.

"Oh God, did I do that?" he cried in alarm, his eyes fixed on Jamie and his hand reached out to touch the bruise. The minute his hand made contact with Jamie's skin he felt a shock go through his hand and he snatched it back quickly.

Casey saw Andrew's reaction to touching Jamie and decided to get Jamie out so he could check his eye and fill him in.

"Jamie, I need to fill you in on a few things, so be a dear and come with me. Jackson, you can keep an eye on Andrew a while, can't you? He still needs observation for another night and day yet."

Before Jackson could answer he was pulling Jamie out the door and trying not to laugh at the furious look Jackson was sending his way, he had obviously seen Andrews's reaction too.

"What was that all about?" Jamie asked pulling his hand back and frowning at Casey's laughing face.

"I think Jackson is still getting used to being a sponsor to someone so young and thought I was going to look after his charge for him." Casey chuckled heading back towards the clinic.