I woke up in bad shape around six the next morning. There was blotchy redness and blistering heat around the bites. The wounds throbbed. I noticed a nasty pus-like drainage from the bite on my hand. It was swollen to nearly twice its normal size. This was not good. I was sick as a dog, and it was the last thing I needed right now.
I drove myself to the St Anthony’s Hospital ER, where I found out that I was spiking a fever. My temperature was a hundred and three.  The emergency-room doctor who examined me was a tall, dark-haired Pakistani named Dr Prahbu. He could have been one of the sons in the movie East Is East. He said that the most likely cause of the cellulitis was staphylococcus, a common bacteria found in the mouth.
‘How is it that you were bitten?’ he wanted to know. I suspected that he wasn’t going to like my answer, but I gave it anyway. ‘I was subduing a vampire,’ I said.
‘No, seriously. Detective Cross. How did you come to be bitten?’ he asked a second time. ‘I am a serious person and this is a serious question. I need to know this.’
‘I am completely serious. I’m part of the team investigating vampire killers. I was bitten by a man with fangs.’ ‘Okay, fine. Detective. Whatever you say.’
I was given tests in the ER: a CBC and differential count, sedimentation rate, and a culture and sensit............