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Scarlet hefted Vincent over her shoulder in a fireman's carry and took off sprinting through the New York night. She found her way to a small emergency clinic that she sponsored. It was unique, in that it treated the exotic and fantastic creatures that had emigrated to America along with all the European hopefuls hundreds of years ago.

Inside, Scarlet laid Vincent's body on a gurney. A banshee nurse rushed up--she knew Scarlet's face from the dedication plaque in the lobby--ready to take any information on their new patient.

"He's a new vampire," Scarlet told her. "Something went wrong with his first feeding and he can't keep blood down. He's got a stubborn streak as wide as the Hudson, so he refused my blood. Without nutrition, he's likely to go insane. Bring us some juice boxes, asap!"

The nurse ran to the supply room and returned with several pints of bagged blood.

"Of course you lost track of his heart beat. He was dead!" Scarlet snarled as she glared at the intruder. She advanced on the man, her eyes glowing like hellfire and the temperature in the room dropping. The thermostat kicked the heater on, but it didn't work. Ice crystals started to from on the inside of the windows and on the metal railings of the gurney. "His heart shouldn't be beating now! Revival potions are a scam at best and at worst a perverse twist of necromantic arts. I should know--my mother tried them all!!!"

"Ugh, both you and my brother share a certain lack of respect for the dead," she grumbled. She silently cursed that Vincent was alive again. As a living human--no matter how powerful--he was still vulnerable to her fangs and cravings. As a vampire, she could have drained him dry a hundred times and brought him back with little trouble. But if Devonte had really cracked the key to vampiric revival, then... "His blood is as sweet as late harvest wine," she added. "Not that I'll ever let you taste a drop of it."

Scarlet rushed to his side, inserting her body between Vincent and Seth. Vincent was supposed to be hers and she really didn't like trespassers.

"You're safe, although your friend and my brother have been meddling," she explained. She turned to the banshee nurse. "Put the juice boxes back and bring us some dinner--What would you like darling? Steak? Oysters? Your friend's liver roasted on a spit? Name it, and it's yours."

Scarlet scooped Vincent up and held him close like a giant doll.

"I think we've had enough of your home remedies, thank you," she said with forced politeness. "I'll be taking care of him from now on."

She turned on her heel and marched down the hallway to a private room. She lay Vincent on the large bed and quickly stripped him of his second set of blood stained clothes for the evening.

"I'm going to be your nurse, tonight," she told him in a playful voice. "So if you need anything, let me know. Just relax until my doctor gives you a clean bill of health. In the mean time, we could start with a sponge bath or I can call up that dinner we were talking about."

"Easily done, darling," Scarlet said.

She helped him up and into the large bathroom that held an extra-large whirlpool jet bathtub. She gently set him down in the tub and then stripped and got into the tub behind him. First she used the sponge, a little soap, and a trickle of warm water to clean the blood off of him. Then, when the blood was gone, she cranked up the water and filled the tub with warm water. She even found a bag of sea salt and tossed that in. The scent of orange blossoms filled the bathroom with the steam.

Scarlet leaned back and pushed the button to start the jets. Then she pulled Vincent against her chest and sighed.

"Don't scare me again, darling," she murmured. "You've scared me twice already, and we've only been together for 3 nights. We can't go on like this. I'm too old for this much excitement," she teased.

Scarlet stayed in the bath with him until the water cooled. Then she lifted him out and laid him on the bed. She dried him gently and tucked him in. She took a watchful position in a recliner next to him.

Poor mortal, she thought as she drifted into the death-trance of sleep. Jerked between life and death so many times in one night...bound to an immoral succubus with a thirst for all his bodily fluids...and too enamored to do the smart thing and run away... And then she moved no more.