Southern Comfort_Chandler's Story Read online

  “God, Chandler, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Baby.” He held me gently.

  “I’m sorry, Banton. I just, I…I guess it finally all hit me. The attack, I mean. I hadn’t really had time to react. Then I felt so helpless, and you having to see me like that…” The tears came again in a rush as I whispered, “I wanted the first time you saw me – this exposed – to be the first time we make love.”

  He stared at me in wonder. “Oh, Chandler! I promise you, I will see you for the first time, when we make love. This was different. I’m just concerned for you. I love you so much, I just want to make this all go away.” His eyes darkened and burned with a fury that almost frightened me.

  I got a hold on my emotions then, pulling him closer to me, assuring him, “You have made it go away. I’m all right. Everything is okay now.” Suddenly, I felt I was calming him. Then there was a knock at the door.

  Banton rose, and relaxed, taking a deep breath. He opened the door, and the young man at the door spoke.

  “Mr. Gastaneau, I have the prescription for Miss Collins, as well as the bandages and tape. Here is a room service menu, and housekeeping is sending up extra ice and bottled water. Do you require any extra linens or anything else that we can help you with? The hotel manager asked me to inquire as to how Miss Collins is doing?”

  “She’s a bit shaken up, but she is fine. Please thank him for me,” Banton replied.

  “If you require any help in any way, please let us know at once.” Then I heard another voice in the doorway. “I have a delivery for Miss Collins?”

  “I’ll take those, thank you,” Banton took something from the second man, and then tipped them both and thanked them before shutting the door.

  He came back into my view, and he carried a crystal vase with at least three dozen roses in it.

  “Banton, you didn’t have to do that,” I whispered in awe.

  He smiled back at me. “Hey, when my girl’s down, she gets flowers. Okay?”

  I smiled back at him. “Okay. I could get used to this.”

  He placed the flowers on the nightstand beside the bed, and then went to retrieve the medicine. “Here, the bottle says take two.” He picked up a bottle of water from the nightstand.

  “What is it?” I asked warily. I didn’t really like taking anything stronger than a Tylenol.

  “Hydrocodone. Just take it. It will make me feel better if you take something.”

  I smiled. “All right, when you put it that way.” I took the pills from him, and washed them down with some water.

  “I think I’ll go and change these wet things, so I can give them to the laundry with yours,” he said over his shoulder.

  “Well, there goes our weekend, I guess,” I sighed. “I’m sorry. Maybe after I take a nap, I’ll feel like going out again…”

  “No way,” he called out from the bathroom. A few moments later, he came back into the room wearing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. “Besides, I think I can manage being alone here in this hotel room with you,” his eyes sparkled, and his dimple finally made an appearance for the first time this afternoon. He placed the bundle of bloody, wet clothes by the door.

  “What time is it, anyway?”

  “Five-thirty,” he answered, and then turned as we heard another knock on the door.

  He opened it again, and a female voice said, “Here is your bottled water. And we can take your room service order now, if you would like.

  Banton turned to me. “Andie, what sounds good?”

  “Anything is fine,” I answered.

  “Andie, you need to eat something,” he said sternly.

  “I promise I’ll eat whatever you order,” I replied obediently.

  He looked the menu over quickly, and then ordered two plates of pasta, two salads, a bowl of potato soup, and two glasses of iced tea.

  After he closed the door, he asked gently, “What would you like for me to get for you to put on?”

  “You don’t have to wait on me, Banton. I can walk.” I started to get up.

  “Humor me, please,” he smiled at me.

  “Okay, there is a pair of pink pajamas in my suitcase.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  I could hear him unzipping my suitcase in his pursuit of sleepwear. I leaned over to smell the fragrant roses beside the bed. As I straightened, he returned with my pajamas, grinning.

  “What?” I asked him warily.

  “Well, I ran across your other sleepwear while I was looking for this.” He held up the pink pajamas.

  “Oh.”

  “I’m looking forward to seeing you model the other one soon,” he said, smiling.

  “Yes, me too,” I replied, smiling back. “That was one of Everett’s contributions to the weekend. He is really cheering for us, you know.”

  “I have to say, I’ve learned to love that guy. A lot,” he added.

  “I just need the top, I think. And some panties.” He held the second garment up for me, as he’d already guessed I’d ask for them.

  “Here. He gathered the top up and held it up. I sat up, and he dropped the top over my head, and then placed his hand gently under my arm to support it. I worked my hand through the sleeve, and then he helped me ease it on, dropping the towel down around my waist underneath. Taking both towels from me, he then brought me a brush and the sheer white bikini panties. I blushed, taking them from him. Sheer was all I had packed. I slipped them on under the covers while he had his back to me. Working the brush through my wet tangled mess of a mane, I then tied it in a loose knot at the nape of my neck.

  Banton came back over to the bed with the remote control to the large TV, and crawled on to the bed beside me, being careful not to jostle me too much. As he flipped the channels, the warmth of the painkillers began to spread throughout my body. The dull ache in my head subsided, and the tightness in the stitches began to relax, as did the ache in my ribs and shoulder. I felt like I was floating. I sighed, and let my head slide down into the curve of his shoulder.

  “Feeling the medicine yet?” He looked down at me.

  “Mmmm. Nm…yeah,” I slurred.

  He laughed, and said, “We probably should have gotten some food into you before we gave you those, huh.”

  A few minutes later, there was another knock at the door.

  “That will be our food,” he said, gently untangling himself from me and rising to go to the door.

  I barely heard him.

  He urged me to eat a little of the soup and the pasta, and then I drifted off to sleep, nestled safely in his arms. I began to drift. Banton’s arms around me, his soft kisses, his hands sliding slowly down my body…Then I was walking. Rows and rows of tombs, angels, headstones. The clouds swirled overhead, and thunder rolled in the distance. Then I was running from someone, faster, faster, till my legs felt like lead, and I couldn’t move them any more. I rounded a corner and fell into the tall, olive-skinned man with the ethereal green eyes. I pushed him away, but he was stronger, pulling me in. His eyes gleamed at me as he smiled, and gleaming white fangs sank into my neck…

  I jumped and called out, “Stop…Banton, help, please!” I woke with a start, as a lightning bolt lit up the sky through the window. Banton dropped my laptop, and folded his arms around me.

  “Shhh….Shhhh. It’s okay, it was just a dream.” He kissed the top of my head and then hugged me close to him. I struggled to get control of my senses. I had a throbbing pain in my arms, and my ribs ached horribly. I winced, trying to re-adjust and sit up. Every bone in my body felt like it had been disjointed.

  “Do you need some more pain medicine?” he asked me. “It’s been about five hours since the last dose, so you can have more.”

  “No. I don’t care how bad I hurt. It made me have bad dreams.”

  “Chandler, that isn’t what made you have bad dreams. I can’t stand to see you hurting. Please take some more – I promise, I won’t take my arms from around you the rest of the night.”

  “No, really.
I don’t like how they make me feel when they wear off. I will take some of your Tylenol, though.”

  “Coming right up. He got up carefully, and asked, “Do we need to rewrap those ribs? I meant to do it earlier, before you dozed off.”

  “That might help. Okay.”

  He came back to the bed with the pills and the bandages. I pushed myself into a more upright position, and he pushed my top up under my arms. “My God, Andie, that looks awful. You are definitely going back to the doctor Monday for more x-rays.” He began to wrap the bandage carefully around my ribs, tightening the wrap slowly. “Is this all right?”

  He held me so closely while he worked that I could feel his breath in my hair. He smelled wonderful…like clean soap and his heavenly cologne. I closed my eyes for a second, taking in his scent. Then I opened them as I replied, “Yes, you make a great nurse. The best-looking nurse I’ve ever seen.”

  “Okay, Miss Collins, only professionalism in my clinic!” He tried to suppress his smile.

  With the bandages secured firmly with the tape, I wrapped my arms around his neck and drew him in for a kiss. He lingered there, kissing me like he knew I wanted to be kissed. Enjoying the moment, I was aware of the rain pattering softly against the window. The sound was soothing.

  After a few moments, he drew away and commented, “I think the patient is on the mend. What can I get for you?”

  “Actually, I need a private moment in the bathroom.” I threw the covers back, and got up slowly from the bed. He was around the bed and at my elbow before I could straighten. I waited for the room to stop spinning, and then made my way across to the bathroom.

  “Really, Banton. I can make it on my own.”

  “Okay, but call me if you need me.”

  I returned to the bed a few minutes later, where Banton had my books lying on the foot of the bed, and my laptop in his lap. When he looked up at me, he threw the covers back for me, and as I got back into the bed he commented, “Chandler, it’s time for that talk.”

  “Okay.” I was ready with all my questions. “Why did you think that man was after us?”

  “After me, I think. You were just a more tempting target at the time.”

  “What do you think they are, Banton?” I whispered. A crack of lightning hit outside, and then the inevitable boom that followed made me jump.

  “Did you see something, something you didn’t tell the police?” he questioned, studying my face.

  “Yes. Banton…He had…”

  “What? You can say it,” he whispered back.

  “He had fangs. His eyes glowed. I know I didn’t imagine it,” I said firmly.

  “No, you didn’t imagine it,” he said, with just as much conviction.

  “These are vampires? Real vampires? That’s crazy, Banton. Vampires don’t exist.”

  “Not vampires the way you mean, but some sort of creatures. According to my research, what I’ve seen, the military reports, and my own father, they do exist.”

  “If these …creatures…aren’t vampires, then what are they?” I asked, with chills up and down both arms.

  “My dad called them Orcos. Night stalkers, flesh-eaters. I looked it up online just now. The translation means literally, “the guilty ones.”

  “How long have you known about this?” My voice rose in disbelief.

  “I had my suspicions after I read the classified military report about the autopsies on the bodies from that yacht. Then the military asked me to do some searching for them here in Louisiana. They claimed they had information about Sam, and about a cell of terrorists hiding in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Terrorists with ties to the Somali pirates. They indicated I might be able to find something about Sam, that they were holding him for ransom. I began meeting more frequently with the base here in New Orleans, and filing my own reports about the recent murders and activities in the area.

  “So you are doing more than just teaching on campus?” I asked.

  “Yes. And then you told me about the man in the shop downtown. Your description of the eyes, their expressions, matched what we’d seen on the yacht two years ago. Then the other night, when John and I chased the peeping tom down the alley and he disappeared, I caught a glimpse of him, carrying someone. He appeared to be …feeding on them,” he said carefully as he watched me. “Then we found all the blood in the greenhouse, like we’d startled one of them, and he didn’t get to finish. We found the bodies of several small animals under the bathroom window. He’d had a snack in the bushes.” He shot me an apologetic look at his choice of words. “Then last night, before we left home…”

  “You saw more than you told the police.”

  “Yes. John saw it too.”

  The rain beat a steady pattern outside, and then became more intense and louder, hitting the window with force.

  I turned my attention away from the window, and back to Banton. I exclaimed, “The dead man – he’d been bitten, hadn’t he?” I was much calmer than I imagined I could be.

  “Yes. His blood was drained when we found his body behind the greenhouse. Chandler, I didn’t want to tell you all of this, but I feel like I have to. For your own safety.”

  “And for yours,” I added. “But why are these vamp…these Orcos seeking you out, if they know you are hunting them?” I shuddered as Banton put his arms around me.

  “It’s a two way street. They don’t want the military to have me, and the military doesn’t want these creatures, or Orcos – whatever they are, to have me… not totally,” he added, wryly.

  “Banton, what on earth? This has something to do with what you were arguing with your father about,” I reasoned.

  “Yes. I suspected something when John, Sam and I were serving together. We were all tapped for Navy SEAL training, a special unit they were putting together, a unit to send in on missions to Somalia. And now that we aren’t really on ‘active status,’ we’ve been placed here in Louisiana, on this wild goose chase, working with the CIA. All of our files, we found out through privileged information, contained something medically that matched. We all carry a developed, unusual gene…a mutation, of sorts, something passed on from generation to generation.” He was watching my reactions intensely, so I was careful not to react to what he was saying. I stayed calm.

  “What does it mean?”

  “Well, in essence, we are all immune to transformation if we are bitten and infected by the venom from these creatures. We didn’t know that was what the gene involved, only that we all had it. And whatever it was, the military and the CIA wanted us in a special unit because of it.”

  “It would be a good thing to have, right?” I couldn’t think of a negative, in light of the fact I’d just discovered vampires, or Orcos, did exist.

  “Yes and no. Something else happens if you are infected. Any physical abilities or traits you possess are multiplied, or enhanced. Your strength is multiplied by ten, and your speed and accuracy, by ten as well. But so are your emotions, your temper, any bad traits. Evidently, from what my dad has told me, it is an excruciating experience, but mostly emotional. It is a roller coaster, trying to get a handle on the runaway hormones and testosterone. And the anger management is a problem.”

  “Your dad went through this?”

  “Yes. At the end of the Vietnam war, before any of us kids were born.”

  “And you never knew?”

  “I always thought of my dad as kind of a super-hero. I knew he was super strong, and super tough. But I was just a kid when he was still in the military. He was away so much, and the transformation took place while he was deployed, away from my mom. It was right before they were married. When he came back, he was withdrawn and moody, like many soldiers were coming home. While he was trying to get a hold of the ‘beast inside,’ as he put it, my mom just thought he was trying to readjust to life at home.”

  “But why is the military after you? You haven’t been bitten… Oh, my God! That is what your dad meant by putting you in harm’s way for their own purposes! They wan
t to expose you! Banton, No!” I almost yelled it at him.

  “Shhh. It’s all right, Chandler. I’m not going to get bitten, now that I’m more informed. And I’m going to be more careful with you. Now I know the truth, I’m going to talk to my commander. I need more information than what I have in order to protect you. All I can find in these books and online is just the silly superstitious stuff about folklore-ish vampires…like not coming out in daylight, which we know is false, and crosses, which obviously don’t work either, since our Orco today was in a cemetery full of crosses in broad daylight.”

  “How do they know about you?”

  “Well, I don’t know if the attacker today was part of the cell, but the ones in Baton Rouge are well-informed, and are operating out of somewhere organized. I don’t know if they are aware I’m searching for Sam, but Dad says there are ways they sense someone with the gene. And they don’t want the military to have us. My dad thinks that is why they took Sam.”

  “Why wouldn’t they just kill him, instead of holding him? Or make sure he isn’t bitten?” I wondered aloud.

  “They want to turn him, and use him against the military.”

  “And they could do the same with you!” I could no longer control my terror. I began to shake, and the fear of losing him came flooding into me like red hot fire. I couldn’t stand the feeling.

  He held me closer, rubbing my back, and whispering into my ear.

  “I can’t stand the fact I’ve scared you even more. I wanted to keep all of this away from you, but I’ve put you in so much danger by being near you, I’ve got to prepare you.”

  “I’m glad you’ve told me.” I pulled away slightly so I could see his face. I placed both my hands on his neck, and caressed the skin along his strong jaw with my thumb. “I can’t put into words how I feel about you. I’m so afraid of something happening to change everything, that something will take my happiness away. I don’t think I could live through that.”