Chapter 15

The pain was excruciating this time, different. The hot, searing sensation was no longer limited to the bite itself. It traveled throughout me, making it feel as if my blood were on fire. I screamed, wondering if this was it.

Was I dying?

“What the hell?” James withdrew from me, spitting out the blood he’d consumed. “It can’t be…”

A wave of pain cascaded through my body, as if my very cells were being torn apart. “What is happening to me?” I doubled over, sending my glasses to the floor.

Then I gasped, feeling the air leave my lungs. My heart stop.

I collapsed and everything went black.

***

My eyes suddenly opened, and I felt a chill throughout my body. Cold everywhere, like someone had injected liquid nitrogen into my veins.

But then I also felt new. Powerful. Bursts of pain shot through me, excruciating but at least short-lived.

James stared at me, his jaw hanging open.

“Ryan’s b-blood,” he stuttered. “It-it must’ve m-mixed with yours. I could taste it was different.”

The pain finally started to subside. But what followed was far worse.

Hunger.

Hunger like I’d never felt before, and not just in my stomach. I felt it all over my body, an ache that seemed to be getting worse.

Nothing else mattered. I had to feed.

James tried to run, but I jumped and pounced on him, as if he were my prey. Only vaguely aware of my actions, I chomped down on his throat, ripping it open. He didn’t even have the chance to scream.

I kept devouring him, hoping to lessen the burning within. It wasn’t until I chewed through his neck entirely that I realized it wasn’t working. His detached head rolled to the side without a sound.

I somehow heard the quietest footsteps approach outside of the room. Then a knock on the doors.

“Master James?”

The blonde female who entered seemed familiar, but it was like a distant memory of a past life. Something I couldn’t quite recall.

At once I was hit with the most delicious aroma. It was like I was starving and hadn’t eaten for weeks…then someone placed a rack of lamb in front of me.

I drooled, watching her. She stepped farther into the room and screamed, I presumed at James’ decapitated corpse, but it could’ve easily been me she was screaming at. When she turned to run, I headed her off at the door, running impossibly fast and arriving nearly instantly.

The look of terror in her eyes was palpable.

And it turned me on.

In a flash, I sunk my fangs into her neck. The warm blood rolled down my throat, easing the burn inside me. Coppery, yet sweet, the delicious fluid tasted better than any drink or food I’d ever had. She screamed, kicked, scratched, but none of it registered. I simply continued to feed.

The woman lost consciousness after a while, and I lowered her to the floor, still feeding. Small puffs of smoke began to infiltrate the room, but I didn’t care. I had to satisfy the hunger.

I drank until the burn disappeared. And then I rolled over next to her on the floor. For some reason, I became drowsy. I knew I needed to stay awake, that I was in danger. But the weight of my eyelids was too much. I closed my eyes and succumbed to a deep sleep.

***

I was underground, which I knew although I was unfamiliar with the location. Hundreds of vampires stared at me. At first I thought it was an attack. But then I realized there was fear in their eyes.

“We’re not all like the ones who make the headlines,” a voice said. Someone I knew, someone standing right next to me. I turned to see who it was, and the scene dissolved. My body was moving, being dragged, by who I didn’t know.

When I came to a stop, I opened my eyes. Darkness. It took me a second to fight off the grogginess. Images of the dream and what had transpired flashed through my head. Was it a vision? I coughed, as I realized the darkness was simply clothing draped over my head. I pulled it off and coughed some more. Was that smoke?

“You’re awake,” Amy said. “You might want to—”

I screamed out in pain as my skin started to burn.

“Put that back on,” Amy finished. “Guessing it’s a bit bright for you out here.”

I took her advice and draped the coat back over my head but kept it up so I could still see what was going on. The mansion was covered in flames. I was on the front lawn with Amy and what I guessed were her friends.

I rubbed my forehead, as my mind slowly returned. I remembered that poor girl. I remembered pouncing on her, and how delicious her blood tasted. And now the sun was burning me?

It wasn’t a dream. “I’m a…” I couldn’t finish the thought. If I said it out loud, then it became real. True.

“Vampire?” Amy said. “Yeah.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“There were multiple bodies. You were the only one moving—you were twitching, I guess dreaming? With all the blood on your face…I just put the pieces together.”

I remembered coming here, to save Ryan. But then James snapped his neck. The sadness washed over me anew. I wasn’t able to save him.

But his powers…what if he could heal, even from a broken neck?

“Ryan.” I made it to my feet. “I have to go back for him.”

With the coat still shielding me from the sunlight, I bolted for the door. I heard Amy yell something, but I was already there by the time she finished speaking. The fire raged on, and up close I could see it was much worse than I had thought. I peered inside. The flames consumed the grand hall entryway, and smoke was everywhere. But if there was any hope Ryan was alive, I had to try. I turned the handle on the door, wincing at the heat searing my hand. As it opened, a powerful backdraft knocked me on my ass several feet back.

“Are you crazy?” Amy helped me to my feet. “Vampire or not, it’s not safe to go in there.”

“But Ryan…he could be alive!” I stammered out.

“I didn’t see anyone else, when we rescued you,” Amy said. “I mean, other than the woman I assume you drank from, and James. Well, James’ head, anyway.”

“There wasn’t another man in the room?” I asked.

“Not that we saw. Oh hey, this is my brother, Brandon.” She wrapped her arm around the man approaching us. I could see the resemblance in his face—same bone structure and eyes.

“You guys did this?” I walked back with them to a safe distance away.

“I did say I was going to,” she said casually. As if it were something she normally did on a Tuesday for fun. “My only regret is, I think Galen got away. Didn’t see his slimy ass in there.”

“Did you happen to see a pile of ashes on the floor, in the room where you found me?”

She shook her head. “We didn’t have time to look everywhere, the place was already starting to burn.”

“Well, that pile of ashes was Galen.”

“You did that?”

I nodded.

“Oh man!” she whined. “I was kinda looking forward to fucking him up.” But then an appreciative smile spread across her face. “Thanks.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I am now. Well, I mean after this place is totally burned to the ground, but yeah, I’m getting there.”

I wanted to laugh. And cry. And run away. It’s like all the emotions from the past couple of hours washed over me all at once.

“We should probably get out of here,” Amy said. “Hey, you’ve fed, right?” She looked me up and down. “I mean, you seem normal.”

I nodded, avoiding her eyes. “I’m okay.”

“It would suck to have to kill you.”

I laughed. “It would suck to have to die. Again.”

Her warm smile made me feel just a little more human. I missed her friendship so much.

“At least I was able to take out that crazy bitch, Rose,” she said. A satisfied grin appeared on her face.

I made a mental note to never cross Amy.

Ever.

I watched the flames lick higher and higher, under the protection of coat. It was bizarre and kinda cool at the same time. What the vampires had done to humans there, it seemed like a kind of penance. I just hoped that the innocent human servants, and the vampires that did play by the rules, like Ryan’s friend Teddy, were able to escape.

Amy introduced me to everyone there. Three were her brothers, and the other three were her brothers’ friends. They stood closer, to admire their handiwork. One of them actually broke out a bag of marshmallows and started roasting.

“Aren’t you worried about the cops?” I asked.

She laughed. “This is DC. They’re not going to figure it out til there’s smog in the city from it.”

“And everyone’s already wearing masks, so it’ll be all right,” Brandon said.

Masks… Damn. My father. “Amy, I have to go. My father’s got the virus, he’s in the ICU. I don’t know if he’s going to make it…My notes on the serum, I have to try to find something…”

As I kept rambling, that feeling of hopelessness came back. I couldn’t save Ryan, and he didn’t even have an incurable virus. What chance did I have to help my father? I couldn’t hold back the tears.

Amy hugged me tightly inside the coat. Which was warm and a little strange, but somehow exactly what I needed.

“I know I said I never tell anyone their own stories…you know, the ones I come up with. But yours pretty much fits now: Badass female warrior chick with a penchant for romance novels.”

I half-smiled, thinking about how she totally nailed me. “How’d you know?”

She released me, and her face became serious. “Let me help.”

“I can’t ask you to…”

“Nope, not gonna work this time. Look, I’m sorry for being a bitch these past couple of weeks, but the thing is, I’m not a victim. And feeling like one screwed with my head. I’m better now.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I know you want to do it all yourself, I get that. But you need help now. And dammit, I’m smart. I won’t fuck it up, if you just give me a chance.”

She was absolutely right. There wasn’t time for me to worry about everything being perfect. Her help could mean the difference in producing a serum that worked before it was too late.

“You’re right, about everything. And I do need your help.”

Amy laughed. “Finally! And the first thing I’m going to help you with is getting you to the lab. It can’t be safe to drive like this.”

***

The upside of being a vampire? I now had my own blood to analyze. I drew a few vials and looked at it under a microscope. It appeared as if it were stale, like a donation past its expiration. I sighed. There wasn’t enough time to try to extract anything from it, if that was even possible.

I was about to tell Amy about my findings, when my brain turned on. My father always used to say my brain was my superpower—that was how I was able to skip five grades. I remembered what Ryan said about his healing power. So maybe my brain is now more enhanced, with this new condition? And maybe that’s why I couldn’t be hypnotized. But after my transformation, I was able to recall and analyze all the facts I had studied in a manner of minutes. It was like there was a fog in my brain before, and it suddenly lifted. The answer came to me so easily—I simply had to alter the serum I’d already devised that turned the mice into mini-vampires.

I made the changes and had Amy administer the serum to the control group of newly infected mice, the three I hadn’t injected with the serum.

Then I took a moment to try and clean myself up. I turned my bloodstained shirt inside out and draped a fresh lab coat over it. In the bathroom, I washed my face, scrubbing it hard even after I got the blood off. I kept seeing that poor girl’s face, the terror in her eyes. And then her body there on the floor. I recalled where I had seen her before—it was the girl I walked in on in her room. Having sex. And now she was gone. Dead by my hand. I wasn’t in control—I knew that, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

I texted my mother for a status update. She wrote back that my father still wasn’t breathing on his own. And his blood oxygenation levels were dropping. I knew it was only a matter of time before his body gave up. I texted her that I’d be there soon.

I returned to the clean room, and Amy was all smiles. The mice showed an immediate improvement, particularly the two sicker ones, without any of the side effects from the first serum. I lifted up the gums of each mouse and checked their canines—all normal. Then I compared the blood work of the vampire mice to the new mice. Several differences in the makeup led me to believe the problem was fixed. I would’ve liked to have tested more, particularly with human subjects, but there wasn’t enough time. We prepared a couple of syringes and packed up.

Night had fallen, so I was able to drive to the hospital. To be safe, Amy wore the mask she was wearing at the lab, and I slipped on a disposable one, as it was a requirement.

The moment I saw my mother outside of the hospital, alone on a bench, I ran up to her and hugged her.

“Baby, you’ve got to stay away from me!” she yelled and attempted to push me away.

“Things have changed, mom.” I slipped my mask off and smiled. “I found a solution!”

Her lips parted open. “You mean, for…”

“Yes!”

There was a twinkle of hope in her eyes, but it faded fast. “Oh sweetie, there’s no time for testing, and if it’s not approved, the hospital won’t let you—”

“Don’t worry about all that. I’ll take care of everything.”

She nodded. “Do you think they’ll let me come with you?”

I grinned a sly, mischievous little grin. “They won’t have a choice.”

***

It took me hypnotizing no less than four people to gain access to the area my father was in. I wasn’t thrilled to be a vampire, but that power was just awesome. After peering around the curtains of six very sick patients, I finally found him.

I couldn’t believe how bad he looked. His eyes were closed, and with the tubes shoved down his throat plus all the wires connected to him, I couldn’t imagine he was anything short of miserable. My mother took hold of his hand.

Part of me was deeply concerned about the recklessness of what I was doing. Administering a drug that was, for all intents and purposes, untested—it was against everything I believed in. But as I watched his numbers continue to drop, I reasoned it was better than death, no matter the side effects. And if he ended up as a vampire, well, at least I’d have company.

Something in my mind was sure this was it, the right serum to help him. I unsheathed the syringe and injected the contents into his IV.

And we waited. With mice, the time for relief was always faster with their tiny bodies. It took a solid ten minutes before his numbers rose and his eyes flickered open. The machines started making weird noises, and I knew that meant nurses or doctors would be on the way.

I motioned for Amy and my mother to follow, as I snuck over to a nearby bathroom. I cracked the door open and listened.

“He’s breathing again?” the nurse said. “We need to remove the tube.”

There was a lot of talking over one another, but the final thing I heard was, “I can’t believe his vitals are almost back to normal. I can’t wait to tell Mrs. Meyer.”

When the coast was clear, we slipped back out, making it out of the hospital safely.

“My little brilliant one,” my mother said as she gave me a hug. “I knew you could do it!”

“Let’s see how he recovers, then I can give you this, too,” I said. “Call me if either of you get any worse.”

I thanked Amy like twenty times on the way to her house. I decided she’d proven herself as “essential personnel,” and begged her to come back to work with me tomorrow. I figured if I got there before daybreak and left at night, I could still pull off working.

At my house, Thundarr barked at me nonstop. I gave him a couple of minutes to try to get used to the new me, but he wouldn’t stop treating me like I was Ryan. And like Ryan, I ended up knocking him out.

I took a shower, crashed on my bed, and then I cried. Mostly for Ryan, but also for Thundarr. And maybe for this new life, this new “condition” I had to get used to.

Then I got to work. I taped, pinned, and shoved up blankets, broken down boxes, and anything else I could find to block out the sunlight in my apartment, so I wouldn’t be dead in the morning.

As per my new permitted outside hours, I got to work at five the following morning. Optimistic from my father’s recovery, I setup testing for the new serum on a larger scale. With any luck, we could have something available to the public in a year.

I couldn’t help but feel grateful for my work. So many things had changed in my life, but the one constant was my job and the opportunity to make a real difference. I loved my research, and even with gloaty and superior Frederick, I looked forward to work every day.

It was a few hours in, when everyone else showed up to start their day. Strangely, Frederick’s entire team was gathered near John’s office. Except for me. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach watching them talk and glance over in my direction.

Then John called me over.