Dismissed - Nico Pontevecchio

Nico doesn’t need to see the red stamp on the chart hanging next to the bed to know he’s got that monster’s venom in him. He can feel it running through his veins right now. 
There’s claw marks in his ribs and across one shoulder, a bite wound on his neck, and a thick bandage on his thigh from where a piece of rebar was driven all the way through his leg. He’s looking at PT for months just to get back on the job, if that’s even possible.
But none of that hurts as much as watching his partner bleed to death feet away from him, unable to reach him because he was literally pinned down. 
Maybe he shouldn’t be going back into the field at all, if he can’t even keep the guys with him safe. 
“Mr. Pontevecchio. You’ll need to sign these.” A handful of papers are slid onto the tray in front of him. “You know the drill for on the job injury.”
He does. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s taken a hard hit. That’s what he’s here for. The tank of any team he’s on, barreling in first, taking the hits and doling them out, giving as good as he gets.
This time, he didn’t even come close to doing that.
He fumbles through the signature lines marked with little yellow sticky tabs, his handwriting shaky but good enough to count. Everything has to be done yesterday around here. 
“Since it happened during an active, sanctioned hunt, you are eligible for severance pay.”
“What?”
The painkillers are making everything a little hazy, but when he reshuffles the papers, he can see the one that is very clearly a notice of termination. That he just signed off on. 
“The hell is this?”
“Standard operating procedure for infection when the vamp doesn’t get staked.” It’s their unit chief, now. Sneaky bastard appeared as quietly as a vamp. Either that, or the mix in that IV is a lot stronger than Nico’s leg is telling him.
He’d thought the guys who got bitten quit. Either because they got spooked, wanted out of the game after that, or because they felt too sick to keep doing such a demanding job. 
He didn’t know they were all mandatorily fired.
“If someone gets the guy, you’re free to come back. But as of right now, you’re a liability. If we put you in the field, you could lead your team right into an ambush. Put you on a desk, no way to know you’re not feeding the information that comes past you on to whatever coven wants you in their back pocket.”
“This is bullshit and you know it.” Vamps can’t create a mental link with a still living human unless that human has drunk some of their blood. 
“It’s protocol. I know you think that’s all protocol ever is. You’re already a loose cannon at the best of times. That’s not making this decision any harder.”
It’s probably not the best idea to snarl at the guy like a feral animal, but Nico is fresh out of good ideas.
“No one wants that guy more than me, Sawyer. You know it.”
“That’s exactly why you’re not on the hunt, Pontevecchio.” The unit chief snaps, snatching the papers off Nico’s tray table like he’s afraid Nico’s going to lunge for them and tear them up.
Damn, he wishes he’d have thought of that a little sooner.
“You’ve got no desk to clear out, but you’ll need to return the gear in your car to the ward office as soon as you’re on your feet. Keeping any of that is gonna get you an immediate charge of theft of our property. Got it?”
Nico nods.
He doesn’t really need their gear. All any hunter worth their salt needs is a sharp piece of wood and a good head on their shoulders.
And a motivation.
He’s got that in spades.
He’s going to have to find that vampire and kill him. 
It’s the only way to get his life back.