“Damn it! Where the hell is Vivian?” Rick said impatiently. “We were all supposed to be here by eight to go over these plans.”

“He called a little while ago and said he was just leaving. And he did apologize for making us wait, Rick,” Joe said quietly. Lyra’s hand ran gently over Joe’s shoulder as he tried to calm Rick down.

“UGH!” Rick said, pounding his hand down on his leg. Siona rubbed his back, wondering why he was so frustrated tonight. But she had to admit, there was a lot of tension in the air. Something just didn’t feel right. Phil and Steve were tuning their guitars, both on edge cuz nothing was working right. Sav finally gave up pacing and threw himself down on the couch on Lyra’s other side.

A moment later, both of Siona’s and Lyra’s heads snapped up. They looked at each other and stood up in unison, with the others looking on. Joe, Sav and Rick could tell there was something seriously wrong, feeling the vampires’ distress as their own. Joe reached for Lyra’s hand and said quickly, “What’s wrong, luv?”

She turned and looked at him, saying softly, “It’s Vivian. He’s in trouble.”

“Jesus! We’re already claiming to be using studio musicians for the guitar parts Steve and Phil are doing!” Rick exclaimed. “How bad is it, Si?”

“Bad, luv. We’ve got to go,” Siona answered, grabbing Lyra by the hand and pulling her out the door. They flew off with Siona in the lead, because her bond with Vivian was stronger. As they landed, they found what was left of Vivian’s car, now a twisted lump of metal that had been rammed into a tree. Another car was about a hundred yards away, already in flames. Lyra ran over to see if she could help anyone out of the second car before it exploded. The driver, a young woman in her twenties, was obviously dead. As Lyra started to turn back to Vivian’s car, she heard the wail of an infant from the back seat. The door was jammed, so Lyra thought for a moment. Then, seeing the fire start to spread and hearing Siona scream for her to get away, Lyra put her fist through the window and leaned into the car. Siona was frantic, thinking Lyra had lost her mind. They’d come to help Vivian, not play hero to strangers!

Lyra undid the child’s safety seat and pulled the baby from its seat, grabbing the diaper bag on her way out. Then she took off running away from the car with the child in her arms. She settled the baby down in the grass as Siona pulled an unconscious Vivian out of his car. He woke up as Siona laid him on the ground. Looking around desperately, he cried, “Where’s Kerrie?”

“I’m not sure, but I think she’s dead, luv,” Siona said gently. Lyra leaned into the car and yelled, “No, she’s still got a heartbeat, but it’s really faint. She’s not gonna last much longer.”

“Help her!” Vivian screamed. Siona leaned down and said quietly, “The only thing we can do for her is bring her across, luv.”

“THEN DO IT!” he cried frantically. “PLEASE!”

Siona walked over to Kerrie’s limp form as Lyra pulled her from the wreckage. Siona leaned down and carefully took what blood remained in Kerrie’s body, until she had gotten to that final point of death. Then she feed Kerrie from her own wrist until she’d had enough to bring her over. Kerrie’s mortal life had been faint enough that she died almost immediately after taking Siona’s blood.

Vivian laid back weakly, murmuring a soft thank you to Siona. He looked over at Kerrie and smiled, whispering, “I just couldn’t live without her.”

“Well, she’ll be back soon, luv,” Lyra said quietly. Just then there was a screech of tires as another car skidded around the isolated turn and tried to stop. Two drunken men stumbled from their car, looking around in dismay. One of them swayed and passed out as soon as he saw what was going on. The second wobbled over to Siona and asked, “What the fuck happened here? You guys fucking drunk or something? Can’t handle a god damn car anymore?”

“Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this,” Lyra whispered as she felt Kerrie start to stir. Lyra grabbed the child and moved her farther away from Kerrie, knowing its warm human blood would put it in danger around a vampire in the throes of first hunger. Siona maneuvered Vivian around behind the man, leaving him the closest one to Kerrie. The man had his back to Kerrie and never saw her rise from the ground and fly at him. She tore into his throat mercilessly as he screamed out in pain. Within moments, she drained him completely and tossed his body to the side of the road. She looked around, still hungry for more. Lunging after Vivian, she froze as Siona grabbed her by the throat. Then Siona led her roughly to the second drunken man and stood back, watching her attack his limp form. She pulled back after taking what she needed, leaving the man alive and breathing, but still unconscious.

As Kerrie came back to herself, she found Vivian watching her from a tree. She ran over to him and started to cry, asking, “Vivian, my love, are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine, luv,” he whispered softly as he pulled her into his arms. “I’m just glad you’re safe. I was so scared...”

“Well, it seems that thanks to Lyra and Si, I’m gonna be fine now,” she whispered into his ear. “I love you, Vivian!”

Pulling her in closer, he said, “God, I love you so much, Kerrie. I couldn’t live without you!”

In the distance, they began to hear sirens heading their way. Kerrie looked over at Siona and asked, “Will he be okay until the medics get here?”

“I’m sure he will, luv,” she said softly. “But, we’ve got to be gone before they arrive.”

“What do we do about the child?” Vivian asked quietly.

Lyra moved over and put the child in his arms and said, “Listen, luv. I’m going to make sure you’re asleep when they get here. Just tell them you don’t know what happened, okay?”

“Can’t we take him with us?” Kerrie asked quickly.

“No, it would look too suspicious, luv,” Siona answered. “They don’t even know you were in the car, so they won’t miss you, but they’ll be looking for the driver.”

“And they’ve got two bodies on their hands, so they’re going to be busy wondering what happened to the second guy,” Lyra said. Siona walked over and picked the dead man up, throwing his body into the burning car so that it looked like he was trying to save the woman. Lyra nodded in approval. As Siona moved away from the car, the gas tank finally ignited and the car went up in a fire ball. Just before the ambulance rounded the corner to the accident, Lyra, Siona and Kerrie flew off and left Vivian sleeping where the paramedics would find him and the baby.

Where they reached Joe’s place, the rest of the band was on edge. Steve, Phil, Leesha and Lisel had all told them there was a new vampire with them, but they couldn’t tell who it was. Siona told them that Kerrie had crossed over, but Vivian was still alive and being taken to the hospital. Joe, Rick, Siona and Kerrie waited a short while to give him time to arrive at hospital, then drove over to stay with him and let the others know how he was doing.

Within a week, Vivian was home and back in the studio, ready to get back to work. And from that point on, Kerrie was never far from his side.