Frank

I kept my eyes on the flaming remains of the doors, waiting for Gerard to emerge. My heart was in my throat when I saw the first dark, shady figure appear, stumbling slowly forwards. And then I felt like my stomach had dropped through completely when I saw it wasn’t Gerard. It was someone else, someone I’d never seen.

Someone Gerard had saved.

It carried on like that for another half hour or so, figures emerging from the burning palace. Each time I would hope it was Gerard and then feel my heart sink every time it wasn’t. Gerard had to get out. He had to. There was no way he would get stuck down there. It was impossible.

I was doubtful that the palace would last much longer. I kept waiting for the structure to collapse. Although the humongous building was close to indestructible, it wasn’t looking like it could stay standing for much longer. The east wing had already started to crumble, the huge walls slowly breaking down as the flames leapt forwards and carried on with its path of destruction.

The fire fighters hadn’t sent in anyone after Gerard. I’d heard the King mutter to the head fireman that it wasn’t worth trying to get him and it wasn’t worth anymore lives. Gerard was probably dead, he’d told him, and it was his own fault too.

It made me sick to know the King could just easily accept the possibility of his son’s death so easily. If it was my child that had run into a burning building, I would have followed them in there. I wouldn’t have just told people to abandon any hope of trying to get them out.

It just showed how much the King really loved his son.

I, on the other hand, would have long ago run in after Gerard, if it hadn’t of been for Ray’s constricting arms holding me back.

“Ray, where is he?!” I demanded frantically. “Why isn’t he coming out of there?!”

“Frank,” Ray said sadly, “I don’t know if he… if he’s al-”

“NO!” I screamed at him. “Don’t say that! Don’t say that Ray, you’re wrong! He’s not dead, he’s alive!”

“Frank,” Ray sighed sadly, gripping my hand tightly. “I’m sorry.”

I ripped my hand from his in disgust. “How can you think that?! Gerard isn’t dead!”

With that, I took off, hurtling towards the palace.

Apart from Ray shouting from behind me, nobody seemed to care. I was just a human. It wasn’t as if I was anyone important.

As I came nearer to the grand stone stairs that led up to huge wooden doors, a figure came darting towards me through the fire.

It was Gerard. He was holding a small bundle in his arms, clutching it tightly to his chest. He neared the entry way and stopped suddenly, looking up sharply. Within the next few seconds, everything seemed to happen at once. Gerard threw the bundle forwards as a dark, hulking mass of ceiling and the stone of the entry way came collapsing down on him.

The roar of the fire and the sickening cracking and crumbling of the building drowned out my screams as I watched in horror. Gerard’s body was completely flattened beneath the ruins, getting crushed to the floor in a matter of seconds.

I screamed and ran forwards, throwing myself to my knees. The dislodged piece of the ceiling and wooden beams had collapsed onto Gerard’s right side, trapping his chest, shoulder and arm. Other chunks of rubble had trapped his legs too and his neck was twisted in an unnatural position.

I didn’t think. I just acted out of instinct, using all the strength I could muster to drag Gerard out from underneath the rubble. I alternated between shoving the ceiling off of Gerard and dragging him forwards. His face was unrecognizable, smeared completely in black soot and bruises and cuts, blood trickling from his mouth, nose and from a gash on his head.

“Get out of the way,” a venomous hiss ordered me from behind and I was shoved away with a flick of the wrist as another vampire, one of the fire fighters, marched towards Gerard.

He was joined by two paramedics. Together they managed to free Gerard from the mess and load him on to the stretcher.

“Is he OK?” I demanded.

I found myself knocked to the ground within seconds.

“Stay out of this! It’s nothing to do with you,” the fireman snarled at me.

“I’m sorry, is there a problem?” a drawling, almost bored voice asked lazily from behind us.

I turned to see Mikey stood there, picking his nails.

“No Your Highness, just telling this toy to stay out of our business,” the fireman explained.

“Oh,” Mikey said, sounding like it was a task to even speak with him. “I think he belongs to my brother. You should probably take him with you to the hospital. Gerard might want him once you’ve finished with him up. And I doubt he’ll be very happy you’ve hurt his precious little pet. He’s very protective over this one.”

The man paled. “How protective?”

Mikey smirked. “I don’t know. Protective enough. I’d be worried if he ever finds out you hit his human. He’s extremely attached you see. He’s also one of the finest standard one breeding. Or so I’m told. I’d be careful if I were you. That one was an expensive pet.”

“I see,” he mumbled. “I apologise your Highness.”

“Don’t say sorry to me. Just get my waste of space brother to hospital and fix him, alright?” Mikey muttered in an irritated voice, clearly getting impatient. “If he dies, so do you and every single one of the doctors who treated him. You understand that?”

The fireman and paramedics nodded quickly, looking more than just a little intimidated.

Mikey just sighed in annoyance and flounced off, striding towards his parents.

The paramedic just grabbed my arm and hauled me along, shoving me into the back of the ambulance, his face set into a stony grimace. I zoned out completely, just staring at the broken body lying on the stretcher. I didn’t listen to what the paramedics were saying. I just watched as they manuevered his body and strapped braces onto him, fixing an oxygen mask hastily to his face and inserting a horrifyingly long needle into the crease of his elbow. I looked at the clear tube that was attached to the needle, following the tube up to the bag of fluids.

I spent the rest of the ride watching them work over Gerard in silence. When the ambulance jerked to a halt, I was roughly shoved out of the ambulance and dragged along into the hospital. The smell of disinfectant stung my noise when we walked in, the lights too bright and the hushed, buzzing murmur of voices filling my ears.

I followed them along the corridor and straight into the huge elevator.

When we got out, it was clear to me that this floor was strictly only for the important vampires. A doctor joined us straight away, eyeing me with a disgusted glare before taking charge.
The nurses instructed me to wait outside. I just nodded and sank down into a seat opposite the room they’d taken him into. I watched through the glass as they switched Gerard over onto the hospital bed and then began inserting more needles, stripping away his clothes and working over him in a flurry.

Gerard was covered head to toe in gashes and burns and had been bleeding heavily. His body had been so twisted and warped into such an unnatural position when it had been crushed beneath the beams and rubble that it made me feel sick. I clutched my arms around myself to try and comfort myself, but it didn’t work. I needed to be in there with Gerard, I needed to see him.

But I couldn’t.

*Time Lapse*

It must have been two hours since they’d finished working on Gerard and yet I still wasn’t allowed in to see him.

Nobody had even acknowledged me the entire time I’d been waiting outside, apart from to tell me I wasn’t allowed in the see him yet. Or to give me filthy looks.

The quiet of the ward was disrupted by an angry torrent of curse words and yells that abruptly cut through the air and shattered the silence.

I looked over towards the elevator where the noise was coming from to see Mikey marching out of the elevator, Ray shuffling along behind him in his wake, and a clearly terrified nurse.

“But your Highness, I can’t let you in to see him!” the nurse insisted.

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” Mikey snapped back at her. “Which room is he in?”

“I’m sorry, I really am, but I can’t tell you! Your Highness, your brother is extremely sick and-”

“You, my dear, will be the one in a hospital soon if you don’t let me see him,” Mikey snarled at her, his voice dripping with venom.

The nurse paled a few shades and just made a frightened stuttering noise, staring at Mikey with dread.

“Where is he?”

The nurse just swallowed and pointed over to the doors that Gerard lay behind.

Mikey stormed over to the room and burst in, the doors swinging shut behind him.

Ray sighed heavily and sat down next to me, staring at his shoes.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Silence.

Neither of us said anything and just sat in silence, listening to the argument that was coming from behind the doors. They opened suddenly and nurse came out. She looked like she was about to pass out.

“Frank?” she asked a little shakily, quickly fixing her composure and looking between me and Ray.

I stood up and she nodded slightly.

“You can see him now,” she told me flatly.

I just walked forwards, following her into the room. The doctor and Mikey were having a much quieter argument over in the corner and another nurse was adjusting Gerard’s IV. Gerard was lying motionless on the bed, looking oddly small amongst the mass of tubes and machines surrounding him. His dark hair was pushed away from his pale, bruised face. The wound on his forehead had been bandaged but the rest of his face was still a map of bruises and scratches. There was a burn peeking out of the top of his hospital gown on his shoulder. The blanket was pulled up over him but I could make out the bumpy shape of a cast on his arm and a sling had been secured over his shoulder.

I stood motionless by his side, swallowing the thick lump in my throat. I wrapped my fingers around the cold metal of the railing on the bed and blinked away the tears.

“Gerard,” I whispered. “You’re a fucking idiot, running into a burning building. And now… now look what you’ve done.”

The tears gushed down my face all of a sudden. Gerard just lay motionless, his chest rising and falling, very, very slowly and his bruised eyelids remaining glued shut.

I wiped away the tears and turned to face the nurse.

“E-excuse me?” I asked quietly, flinching when she looked at me with an icy glare.

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Could you tell me what’s wrong with him?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the floor.

She huffed an irritated sigh and crossed her arms. “He has multiple burns and lacerations, a broken collar bone and a broken arm and a bad concussion.”

“Will he be OK?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course he will.”

I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t.

“Thank-you,” I mumbled and turned back to Gerard.

“Gee,” I began, “wake up. Please. Just wake up.”

Nothing.

I sighed heavily, my shoulders sagging.

I gasped and jumped in shock as a harsh hand clamped down on my shoulder.

“Outside. Now,” a voice commanded quietly in my ear.

I span around to see Mikey looking down at me. I nodded and let him steer me out of the room and back into the waiting area outside. He nodded at the chair next to Ray and I lowered myself into it. Mikey sat down opposite me, his eyes sweeping up and down my body and face for at least five minutes. I squirmed under his gaze, not meeting his eyes and shifting in my seat. I felt like… I didn’t know. But being under the harsh, scrutinizing gaze of Mikey was torture.

Mikey drew in a deep breath before resting his eyes on my face. “Where was my brother earlier this evening?”

I blinked in shock, my eyes widening. “H-he… he was with me.”

Mikey smirked and leant forwards, studying me carefully. “And were you?”

“With Gerard,” I breathed out heavily, feeling an awful sense of dread washing over me.

Mikey’s eye twitched slightly in annoyance before his face settled back into it usual stony, angry expression. “Don’t. If you know what’s good for you, don’t.”

He stared at me for a few seconds before glancing at Ray. “Leave us. I want to speak with him alone.”

I’d never seen anyone move so quickly. Ray was up in the blink of an eye and sitting at the opposite end of the room within a few seconds.

“Now,” Mikey began, “I’ll start again. Where were you and my brother earlier this evening Frank?”

I came up with a suitable lie as quickly as I could. If Mikey ever found out-if any vampire for that matter-we would both be dead. Well. Something like that.

“Gerard took me out,” I answered shakily.

"Oh, he did, did he?” Mikey asked sourly, rolling his eyes sarcastically. “Look Frank. Don’t try and
fuck around. Don’t lie to me. It’ll be better for both of you if you just tell me what really happened.”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked a little boldly, feeling slightly angry towards Mikey.

A sharp slap against skin echoed around the room the minute the words left my mouth and my cheek stung with unbelievable pain.

“Are you fucking stupid?!” Mikey hissed, getting in my face. “I told you not to fuck around! You’re going to tell me everything, you understand that?! If I find out that-”

“Your Highness?”

Mikey’s head snapped up suddenly and I followed his gaze to see the nurse standing outside of
Gerard’s room.

“Your brother’s awake. He wants to see Frank,” the nurse informed us.

“Later. We’ll finish this talk later,” Mikey muttered in my ear before shoving away from me and stalking over to Ray.

I got up straight away, a sense of relief flooding through my veins as I dashed into the room, leaving behind Mikey in the waiting area and into the private room to see Gerard.