Maddie had placed a call to the hospital the second they left the dungeon. So when the vampires touched down on the helipad of the Revera Hospital, a medical team was already waiting with a gurney.
Ryker and Anna were whisked away into the emergency room. Liv tried to enter the operating room but a nurse with a stern face blocked her path.
"Sorry miss, doctors and authorized personnel only," The nurse's gaze was unwavering.
She turned to her mother who was already in a surgeon's scrubs.
"Please," Liv's voice was barely audible.
Her mother didn't look at her, her focus was solely on the double doors. She needed Liv to be tough now and follow protocols.
"I'll take care of him," she said, and disappeared into the sterile white room.
The doors swung shut behind her, a final, decisive clang that echoed in the empty hallway. Ryker was on the operating table, doctors and nurses swarmed around him, their voices a low murmur of medical jargon.
Maddie was standing over the operating table, her face unreadable. She was looking down at her son's mangled hand.
"Ready when you are," Dr. Vex, a cat demi-human, asked her. His tail waving back and forth in anxious anticipation.
Maddie took a deep breath.
The ice around Ryker's hand started to dissipate and blood poured out.
"Clamp," Dr. Vex ordered and nurse handed him a surgical tool.
Maddie watched for a few more moments, ensuring everything was going smoothly. Her mind was preoccupied with something far more dangerous than a severed hand. If the hand and broken ribs were the only things wrong, that would be a miracle.
An hour later, the surgery was complete.
"His hand is stabilized, his internal wounds are mending. But his pulse is still erratic," Vex said, looking at the monitors.
"His mana core is heating up and cooling down at unpredictable intervals," he added.
"Ryker is a disabled vampire he doesn't have a mana core," Maddie responded.
The cat demi-human shook his head.
"Seems your son developed one during the trauma," the doctor said, "The mana we found in it was inconclusive but it's killing him, we can't figure out why it's rejecting it."
His cat ears perked up like he had a revelation.
"He was found with that dryad right? Did he drink her blood?"
A sudden weakness overcame Maddie. She quickly checked the reports on Anna and found a bite mark and traces of vampiric saliva.
"Shit," she whispered under her breath.
"Mana poisoning," Vex concluded, "But it's an easy fix,"
He gave his chief of surgery a reassuring smile but Maddie knew this wasn't easy.
"We just need parental blood transfusion. One from you should be enough."
Maddie sat down on a chair. Her face was buried in her hands.
"Everyone out," she demanded. Her authority was absolute.
The medical team filed out, their footsteps receding into the distance.
She was scratching her own arm with her fingernails until it bled. A habit she did whenever she felt powerless.
"Fuck."
But she was his mother. She had to do whatever it takes. Taking a deep breath she picked up her phone and called a number she hadn't dialed in almost a decade.
The phone call went to the fourth tracker located in the capital city of the west. In the most secure, heavily guarded building, akin to the pentagon.
A meeting was taking place with various important people of the military. They were talking about the traitor who fled to the east. At the head of this meeting was the oldest fire dragon, ruler of the skies in the west.
"Valerica it seems your assistant is calling for you," he pointed towards the vampire that was waiting at the door. An assistant to the head of the Dracula family.
"It can wait," she said with a venomous tone.
Her assistant shook her head and the dragon chuckled at that sight.
"Seems like it's more important than protecting national security."
The fire dragonkin was about to press the issue but Valerica held up a slender hand.
"You have my vote to launch a strike in the East. Regardless of the implication it has on the cold war," Valerica's eyes glowed purple, making the other council members flinch.
She left the room and into a private one where she was alone with her assistant. A private screen was waiting for her. It was a call from Maddie.
"I'm in the middle of something," she said.
Her tone was sharp. There was no hint of warmth.
"He needs your blood," Maddie said without preamble.
Valerica's expression, a perfect mask of bored disdain, remained unchanged.
"And why would I give it?" she asked, "He's as useless to me as you are, dear sister."
Maddie wanted to scream, to throw her phone against the wall, to rip her sister's perfect face off through the screen.
"He awakened," she forced the words out, a betrayal to him.
A smile played on Valerica's lips. She leaned closer to the screen.
"Space or ice?" she inquired.
The question hung in the air, a test. A measure of worth.
"Space," Maddie whispered.
A joy, pure and unadulterated, lit up Valerica's face for a fleeting second before being replaced by a cold calculation.
"I'll be there shortly," she hung up on her sister.
"The jet is ready," her assistant announced, as soon as the call ended.
"I won't take the jet," Valerica said looking outside the window, "Have the nearest S-rank healer meet me at Revera Hospital immediately."
She didn't open the window, instead space twisted around her and a small portal opened before her.
Then she stepped through. Then another and another until she reached her destination.
Meanwhile in Ursula City, a city far more impressive than Revera, three black SUV's pulled up to a lavish nightclub.
In a VIP room, a dryad was drinking, shots after shots. Keith had a lot of money to spend thanks to him being an S-rank healer. He had girls around his arms and expensive suits as bodyguards.
The men in the SUV's that came for him were different. They radiated an aura of power that made the guards tremble.
"What the fuck is this?" Keith said, his voice slurring.
"Valerica Dracula requests your presence."
Keith froze. He pushed away the girls.
"I'm off-duty," he said.
"Not anymore."
He was picked up like a sack of potatoes and thrown into one of the SUV's, only let out when the cars stopped at the airport.
"Wait I'm terrified of flying," he screamed.
Carried onto a private jet, Keith tried to resist but a single cold glance from the men was enough to break his spirit. He was strapped to a seat.
Ten minutes later, one of the men came with a parachute in hand.
"This is for the landing," the man said and left.
"You're joking," Keith's face was pale.
"Revera has no airstrip."
With a small push Keith was now falling from the sky, screaming. He used nature magic to soften the landing and he crashed into the parking lot of Revera Hospital.
A portal opened up next to him and out stepped Valerica, who landed gracefully without as much as a stumble.
"Pathetic."
Keith wanted to argue back but he valued his life.