Dead vampires were very bad for business.

Leo Grimheart dragged the unfortunate vamp into his clinic with a gentle coaxing of his magic and dimmed the surrounding mullioned windows. A silver dagger protruded from his chest, blood congealing to the fabric of his official uniform.  A dead police bat.  Goddesses, even worse.  

It wasn’t unusual for attacks of law enforcement bats down in their depths of Sanguine City, but a silver dagger staked to the heart meant they truly wanted him dead.  The miasma of fresh vampire blood singed his nostrils as he 

Leo crouched down at the vampire’s side, gloved fingers wrapping around the dagger’s handle as he channeled warm healing magic in hopes to ease any pain it might cause. 

Under normal circumstances, it was ill advised to remove a sharp object lodged in such a fatal area of the body. But with vampires, anything silver was fatal to their internal organs, especially so close to the heart.  Leo doubted the vampire cop sprawled out across the floor would even make it through the morning, but he couldn’t bring himself to just leave him there and wait until death claimed him. The vamp still miraculously had a pulse, Leo could sense it the moment he’d magicked him inside, how his magic and venom still very faintly coursed through his veins.

That vampire likely had family and loved ones waiting back home for him.  Perhaps if the roles were reversed, that vamp would’ve simply left him to die out in the middle of the street, and he could already hear his vampire hunter sister’s voice in the back of his head, insisting he should’ve let the bloodsucker die.  But no matter, Leo would do everything within his powers to save him.

                                                                                           🪄

Traumatic wounds like the one that vampire cop suffered from typically required a team to treat him, but with Leo the only witch doctor left at his clinic, he worked arduously through the morning to stabilize his wound.  Vampire bodies differed greatly from witches when it came to blood loss, and while it didn’t seem like he’d lost much, vampires carried far less blood than his kind. 

Most importantly though, Leo had managed to flush all the toxic silver from the vampire’s chest to allow his venom to naturally repair the damaged tissue.  It would take much longer for it to heal compared to a normal stab wound, and it would leave a permanent mark on him.  

Leo had managed to get him on a stretcher and into a proper bed rather than leaving him sprawled out in the middle of the lobby floor. He couldn’t imagine what the vampire cop had even been doing down in these depths, but he figured he must’ve had a damned good reason.  

Although it wasn’t in his nature to restrain his patients, he knew all too well the severities of bloodlust in starved vampires.  With how much he’d already lost, Leo imagined he’d wake up ready to sink his fangs in anything he could get his desperate claws into.  So for his own protection, he’d injected him with a vampire sedative, one that would make even the simplest movements a struggle for him.  He had his wand tucked away in his lab coat, prepared to cast any defensive spells as he might need, but he hoped it wouldn’t come down to that.

Bandages woven with aloe and skin-sensitive magical properties now covered the ghastly wound inflicted to his chest.  It had nearly missed his heart.  Leo suspected whoever attempted to kill him was aiming for it, and he was fortunate enough that they had missed. He’d had to cut his uniform shirt off in order to tend to his wound, but he’d set his personal belongings in a little basket on the nightstand table.

Perhaps the strangest item of all had been a white rose tucked into his pocket, its petals crumbled and withered from his attack.  Leo had thought to throw it away, but considered the chance it was important to him and left it in the basket with his belongings.

Curiosity had bested Leo and he’d taken a glimpse at the vamp’s credentials after ensuring his heartbeat had returned to a steady, slow beat and his vitals appeared normal.  Detective Percy Ashmidia.  He placed the ID card back into the basket after not finding any crystal ball codes written down anywhere to contact any next of kin.  

If he hadn’t woken by nightfall, Leo had decided he’d contact the police stationhouse to see if anyone recognized him or knew his family.  Surely they had to be so worried about him.

After ensuring the vampire cop was stable for the morning, Leo moseyed back to his personal office and nearly passed out on the makeshift bed/couch he’d found himself asleep in countless afternoons before.  His little mouse familiar, Nibbles, scurried over to him and Leo lifted the little guy up onto his chest with a soft sigh.

“It’s been a helluva morning,” he murmured mostly to himself.

Exhaustion weighed heavily in his eyes as he blinked fiercely to keep them open, unable to resist a yawn that escaped his lips.  Nibbles curled up on him like she always did.  Many nights, he allowed her to sneak around in his lab coat’s pocket when he wasn’t handling any medical emergencies.  The kids loved him. 

Leo hadn’t closed his eyes for a minute when a jolt of energy surged through his veins so suddenly, he bolted upright from his makeshift bed with a sharp gasp of air.  That surge of power still lingered, enough for him to realize it was coming from the magical wards he’d cast around the place.  He always secured them come morning to keep anyone from breaking inside, which was exactly what someone had to be doing.

Panic pulsed through his very being at the thought as he jumped to his feet, suddenly fully awakened by the thought of potential killer coming in to murder them.  His little familiar squeaked in his pocket as he crept down the hallway, drawing his wand on approach to the lobby. 

Anxiety tightened around his throat to the point every breath felt suffocating.  Until his legs began to tremble with each step toward the entrance because he wanted to be prepared to defend himself against whatever awaited him out there.  He’d rather face an enemy head-first rather than let it come attack him off guard.  Perhaps that was idiotic on his end.  Perhaps he was risking his own life for the sake of the vampire peacefully unconscious in the back, unaware of the danger possibly coming to finish him off.

Stranger things had happened to Leo while staying the morning at his clinic, and he appreciated his foresight to guard the clinic with his magical wards and lock up the entrance after bringing that vampire inside earlier.  He’d enchanted his windows to dim the inside, but from the outside, anyone looking in would be met with pitch black.  

He remained far enough away from the shatter-proof glass but close enough to hear them wrench the lock off.  It sounded like they had some sort of tool, but then a faint trace of magic sparked against his skin, triggering the wards around him to pulse like they had a heartbeat of their own.  

It was enough to scare off whoever wanted inside, but Leo feared it might not be the last he saw of them.

Just when he thought he had a chance to get a little more rest in, a ruckus sounded from the back of his clinic.  Back toward the patient rooms.  That anxiety only blossomed into something worse when he realized Detective Percy Ashmidia must’ve woken up.

 Leo knew he better prepare a pint of blood for the vampire before he lashed out, because some strange vamp’s fangs deep in his neck was the last thing he wanted to deal with so early in the morning.   He had no intention of dying from the blood loss either.  What a fanged up morning it had been.

Goddesses, protect him.