Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 9, 2011 23:22:49 GMT -5
Chapter Twenty-One – Demonic Blood Ties
Brianna had taken to pacing the waiting room. Several people had already given her dirty looks, but she had noticed that she wasn’t the only one pacing, so she ignored them.
“Brianna, I think you’re scaring people,” her father’s voice said from behind her.
She looked up to see her dad, Sean McInnis, coming toward her with Max’s half-human little brother, Daemon Thompson. “Daemon, it’s been a while.”
“Your dad said Max’s in surgery,” Daemon commented, looking worried. “I was hoping you could tell me how he was doing.”
She sighed. “I haven’t heard anything.” She looked at her dad. “I don’t remember telling you that Max was in surgery.”
“You didn’t,” Sean admitted. “Toby stopped by and suggested I find Daemon.”
Brianna looked at them for several seconds as a smile formed on her lips. “That boy doesn’t know when to quit interfering.”
“You should have called me,” Daemon informed. “Max is my only family.”
“I guess that means you are on his mother’s side,” Dr. Ava Nicolae said from a few feet away. She looked at the two additional sets of eyes on her. “I assume these two are with you.”
Brianna nodded. “This is my dad, Professor Sean McInnis. He teaches literature at City College.” She hugged her arm around Daemon. “And this is Max’s youngest brother, on his father’s side. I don’t know of any on his mother’s side. This guy does not acknowledge any of them with the exception of Max, though.”
“And River?”
Brianna looked at her surprised. “Can we talk somewhere else?”
Ava nodded. She led them into the main part of the hospital and into an empty exam room. “Dr. Ava Nicolae,” she extended her hand to Brianna. “I don’t believe we were actually introduced earlier.”
“Brianna McInnis,” Brianna informed her. “What was that about River?”
“The boy shimmered into the operating room while we were working on Max,” Ava informed her. “I almost had a very talented doctor quit on my right there. Considering every person in that room was a gypsy, witch, or some nonmagical who is well informed about the magical world, no one was comfortable with the fact that our patient was a demon in the first place. When we have a second demon shimmering into the operating room, it’s bound to cause tensions to rise even more. Add to that the almost completely alien layout of his vital organs and that young man is extremely lucky to be alive. Does he even have a heart?”
Brianna blinked at the question. “A heart?”
Ava nodded. “We couldn’t find it. We didn’t spend too much time looking since we had a lot of internal bleeding to fix. Fortunately we didn’t need to have a complete understanding of his anatomy to sew up his innards.”
“Will Max be all right?” Daemon asked, turning concerned eyes on her.
Ava nodded. “I believe so. He wouldn’t have been if River hadn’t of shown up.”
“What happened?” Brianna requested. “You said River was a distraction. You said someone almost quit because of him.”
Ava nodded. “And that’s true, but River provided two very important things to us. He donated blood, which considering what we were dealing with, it was a blessing that he was a match. You didn’t mention that some of those sixty-four siblings were part human.”
Brianna did a double take at those words. “River’s part human?! That can’t be right. Daemon’s the only one that’s part human.”
Ava shrugged. “I’ll admit, my experience with demon blood is a bit limited, but those two didn’t even share a blood color. And Max doesn’t have a known blood type. River’s O negative with just enough demonic blood in his system to make his brother accept the transfusion. He had lost a lot of blood, so we couldn’t leave him without giving him a couple of pints of blood. He seems to be responding well. He’s in recovery, under guard so I don’t have someone trying to take blood samples or anything else that might lead to someone realizing he’s not exactly human.”
“Can we see him?” Daemon requested.
Ava nodded. “Yes, but the brother you don’t acknowledge is there, too. Will that be a problem?”
Daemon shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met him.”
“Actually, it kind of will be,” Brianna admitted. “Their father doesn’t know how to find Daemon. We don’t actually know if River would let him know where to find him.
“You’ve never met your father?” Ava looked at the boy surprised.
Daemon shook his head. “No. Max says he’s bad.”
Ava stared at him for several seconds. She shook her head bewildered. “Well, we will just have to find a way to make this work. I assume he’s met you, Brianna.”
Brianna nodded. “He tends to leave when he sees me, says I’m a bad influence on his brother.”
“I see,” Ava considered this. “Well, he can’t leave this hospital for at least a day due to the blood we took from him, so I’d suggest not scaring him away. Okay?”
Brianna sighed. “I’ll do my best.”
“Those boys are leaving this hospital only when they are safe to leave,” Ava informed her. “See to it that you don’t.”
Brianna sighed and looked at her dad. “I’ll go in and see him first. Keep an eye on Daemon, okay.”
“No one is hurting this boy on my watch, Brianna,” Sean informed her. The entire coven had taken to protecting the half demon boy they’d adopted. The Snake Lord might be a dangerous demon, but had he known were to look for his youngest son, even he wouldn’t have been foolish enough to go about against over a dozen well trained witches. And well trained they were, if for no other reason than the fact that they did harbor Daemon within their midst.