"All right."
Councilman Klaus fed her some of his blood. Her scent diminished slightly. She stopped. "Oh my! That is filling." She laid down on one of the beds. "Now I am too full." She moaned.
"Did it work Kylie?" Elder Camarillo asked hopefully.
"It worked slightly Sir."
"We may have to do it everyday until the scent is completely gone." Elder Camarillo said.
"Oh dear." Lady Maxine moaned as she rubbed her belly.
"Good idea we will do it everyday at this time." Councilwoman Cleo said. "We will see you tomorrow Lady Maxine." The Council left.
Athos, Julian, Scott and I went into my kitchen and made a huge meal for everyone.
For the next month all the vampires took turns feeding Lady Maxine their blood.
"Elder Camarillo the scent is completely gone." I told him.
"Excellent!" He clapped for joy. "We will meet again tomorrow, Kylie."
"All right Sir." I nodded to him.
"Cam, she said the scent was gone." Lady Maxine whined.
"Yes she did Maxine but I want to be sure it is completely gone."
"All right Cam." She smiled.
The next day Elder Camarillo asked Paddy and Athos to be present for a test.
Lady Maxine was feeding off of Julian today when she was finished the Clan Elder approached her. "How are you feeling my dear?"
"Not too bad." She answered.
"Good," he patted her arm, "now I want you to shift."
"Cam I can not you and Paddy will be ill." She was very upset.
"Nonsense my dear Athos, Julian and Kylie are here."
"But ..." She looked at us with great concern.
"It is all right. Shift. It is the only way to be certain that it is gone."
She nodded. "I am sorry." then she shifted.
"The Shifter's disease scent is there but not as strong." I said.
"Well at least we know it is working." He stared at Lady Maxine then walked into the kitchen. He came back with a bowl. "I think she needs to have some blood in her animal form." The three of us slit our wrists and filled the bowl.
"Excellent." Elder Camarillo put the bowl on the floor in front of Lady Maxine as a cougar.
I fed Paddy some of my blood to ward off the illness. Athos did the same with the Clan Elder. When Lady Maxine finished the bowl of blood I walked back over to her. The scent was completely gone. "It is gone Sir."
"Excellent!" He held Lady Maxine's head. "All right my dear Shift."
I covered her with a blanket then waited for a moment to see if the scent came back. She was clean. No more deadly scent. I then checked Paddy and Elder Camarillo to make sure the scent did not transfer to them. They were clean also.
Elder Camarillo had me check the rest of the shifters to make sure the scent was completely gone from the cave.
Commander Comerford was visiting the Council when I was coming back from Katey's kitchen where the shifters were eating their dinner. The Commander nodded to me. I nodded back. Elder Camarillo was waiting for me at the entrance to the family corridor. "Well?" He asked impatiently.
"I can not smell it on anyone." I told him.
"Good." He smiled then nodded. "Good." Then he whispered to me. "I think we may have cured the Shifter's Disease Kylie."
"I hope so Sir." He patted my arm affectionately then went to his quarters.
"Kylie." Rufus Comerford called to me. "What happened to Pvt. Paddy?"
"He was ill for a while but he is on the mend now."
"Good to hear we will be going back to the outpost soon." He smiled.
"So soon?" I thought for a moment. "That is right it is almost spring."
"Yes it is." He said excitedly. I noticed his eyes were red. He was in his passion. All the females are going to have to watch out for him. The Commander left to look for Rachelle. I went to my quarters to start the evening meal.
Paddy, Quinn and John came in a short time later. The three of them still looked like they could use more sleep. The Shifter's disease took a lot out of them. They have been eating twice as much as they usually do and sleep every five days instead of ten. I am worried that they might not ever recover fully.
They started eating the stew I had simmering on the stove while I made their dinner. It was not long before they were eating the main meal.
I sat down with them while they ate.
"I noticed Rufus was here." John said.
"Yes, he told me we were going back to the outpost soon." I told him.
John looked sad. "You will be all gone again."
"Yes Son." Paddy smiled.
"What is so funny?" John asked.
"Rufus told me he is looking for a cook. The one we had died in the fall on our way back here."
John's face was all smiles. "Do you think he would let me Dad?"
"I will ask him after dinner."
"Um ... he might be busy." I said quietly.
"Busy doing what?" Quinn asked.
"He is in his passion."
"Oh?" Quinn laughed. "OH!" Realising what I meant. "then we might not be leaving as soon as he thinks."
We all stopped the summoning bell was ringing. We left for the main square.
Councilman Klaus was standing in front of the Council Chamber. He was scanning the square. "All right, all of you are here. I want all of you to go quickly to the shanty town. Grab the wooden buckets as you leave. The Army barracks are ablaze." We gasped.
"GO!" He said quietly.
We were at the Army barracks five minutes later. The soldiers had already started a bucket brigade. We joined them.
The furthest barracks from the hospital was fully engulfed in flames.
Paddy and Shaun told all the women to help with moving of all the patients out of the hospital. Rachelle, Samantha, Annabelle, Mariela, Colleen and I setup a large tent at the top of the hill from the shanty town. The rest of the women started moving the patients to it.
It took us a few hours to move all of the mortals when we returned to the men fighting the fire. There was now five barracks burning.
There were lines and lines of people hauling buckets of water from the river. We followed the lines down to the river. All the people who were standing in the frigid water were vampires. Many of the mortals were trying to keep them out of the freezing water.
We went to the river's edge to help them. We noticed after a half hour that ten of the men that were at the fire came down to the river and moved everyone up.
Walter whispered to us. "They do that every half hour the heat from the fire is too hard on them" We nodded in understanding.
One of the mortals pointed to the other end of the line where the fire was. "The fire has spread to another barrack." They moved with more determination.
