Bloodline by Joel Abernathy

10

Once Daniel left,I explored as much of the apartment as I felt I could get away with. Bobby found me in the middle of the hallway and though I could tell she was as wary of me as Catch was, she did a better job of hiding it.

“I’m supposed to show you to your room.”

“Yes, thank you,” I said, hoping not to get off on the wrong foot with everyone.

Without a word, she turned and walked down the hall. I followed her into a surprisingly spacious bedroom with a large mattress that took up nearly half the wall, a strangely sleek black dresser, a plush brown rug, and a shelf lined with books. At least I knew what I’d be doing once she left me alone.

“This is mine?” I asked doubtfully.

She gave me a strange look. “Yeah. Knock yourself out,” she snorted, lingering by the door. “Chill out for a bit. Doc’s gonna wanna take a look at you later.”

“Chill out?”

She sighed. “Just relax.”

“Oh… right. Thank you.”

She shut the door, and I sat down on the bed, surprised at just how soft it was. Everything in the room was strangely sharp and clean, too perfect to be carved from wood. Even the fibers of the rug felt strange.

I walked over to the bookshelf and studied the faded volumes lined up in alphabetical order. At least they looked familiar. There were a few volumes of history, the beginnings of which read like a series of current events from my most recent memories. I followed their timelines through and wove together a story that corroborated everything Daniel had told me.

There were pictures of humans in blood camps out east, images that churned my stomach. Even children… It seemed Enoch’s brood knew no limits of depravity.

I placed the book back on the shelf when I could bear no more. The others ranged in topic from biochemistry to poetry, and I couldn’t help but wonder who had occupied the room before I had. None of my captors seemed like the studious type.

Eventually, I grew weary of exploring my new cage and sank underneath the covers. The bed was cool and comforting, and although I doubted I could sleep after so many years spent in suspension, exhaustion set in quickly enough.

A creaking roused me hours later, and I’d slept deeply enough to have trouble remembering where I was. I heard someone enter the room, then another set of footsteps that made the floorboards groan.

“Looks like he’s asleep,” Catch’s voice was unmistakable, even in a harsh whisper.

“That’s not possible,” Bobby muttered.

I raised up enough to look at them, and the large man darted back behind his friend. Even Bobby looked alarmed. “What is it?” I asked drearily, sitting up in bed to rub my eyes. “What time is it?”

“It’s after midnight,” she answered. “What were you doing?”

I stared at them both for a moment, as confused by the question as they seemed to be by my existence. “I was just sleeping. Why?”

Catch and Bobby exchanged an incredulous look. “You can sleep?” she finally asked.

“Yes.” I blinked. “Can’t you?”

“I wish,” Catch snorted, turning to Bobby. “What’s wrong with him?”

“That’s above my pay grade,” she muttered, folding her arms. “Let the Doc figure it out. Come on, Marcellus. You’re wanted in the lab.”

I swallowed hard, climbing out of bed. I was overwhelmed enough by their everyday accommodations and I wasn’t sure I was ready to see what the heights of modern science had to offer, but it seemed safer to go along with their wishes for now. I followed them down the hall and over to a set of metal doors with no handles. When Catch pressed a button on the side and the doors slid open, I let out a startled cry and jumped back.

“What is that?” I demanded, looking at the small room within.

“It’s an elevator,” Bobby said, raising an eyebrow. “It’ll take us up to the lab.”

“You expect me to seal myself in that thing?” It was nothing like any elevator I had ever seen, and the ones they had in the mineshafts were untrustworthy enough as it was.

“It’s perfectly safe,” she insisted, stepping inside. “See?”

Reluctantly, I put a foot over the threshold and no sooner had I caught a glimpse of the levers visible through the gap below than the doors began to slide shut on me. I barely managed to escape being crushed as they brushed my shoulders. All the breath drained from my lungs.

Bobby’s hand flew out, and she pushed the doors open once more, but if she thought I was getting in after that, she’d lost her mind.

“Absolutely not,” I said breathlessly, sinking against the wall.

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Fine. We’ll take the stairs.”

“Not me,” Catch grunted, stepping into the death box as if he had less reason to fear it than me. “See you suckers later.”

“Come on,” Bobby said impatiently, walking over to another door. To my relief, the stairwell was far less suffocating. I followed her up into a long hallway with more doors than the building seemed fit to accommodate.

“What exactly does this doctor of yours want with me?”

“You were desiccating for a quarter of a millennium,” she answered, looking back at me. “He’s gonna want to check you over and study you.”

“Study what?”

“You’re Enoch’s sire, and you sleep, for one thing,” she said flatly. “No offense, but you’re kind of a freak of nature. We need to figure out why so we can use it against Enoch.”

“I see,” I muttered. She opened a door on the other end of the hall and I hesitated. Perhaps the rules of chivalry had changed more than I imagined.

When in Rome…

I thanked her before walking through and found myself surrounded by even more impossibly smooth and sharp surfaces. There were dozens of rows of white countertops and enough gadgets and colanders to make an alchemist jealous. There were large black mirrors everywhere, and men and women wearing thick glasses darted about, gazing into smaller black mirrors the same as the one Daniel had.

Bobby took one out of her pocket and started tapping on it as she leaned against the wall. “He’ll be here any sec.”

I looked around, feeling all the more out of place when I realized how hard the others were trying not to look at me. I brushed my hair to cover more of the right side of my face and lingered near the wall until a tall, dark-haired man with warm brown skin and blood-red eyes he hadn’t bothered to mask behind “contacts” strode toward us.

“Hello,” he said, smiling pleasantly. I saw the tips of his fangs, but despite the fact that he made no attempt to hide his nature—or perhaps because of it—he seemed far less intimidating than the others. There was a genuine warmth to his smile and a softness in his features that put me at ease. He must have seen enough of my face to have an idea of how unsettling I was to behold, but he didn’t so much as bat an eye as he held his hand out to me. “You must be Marcellus.”

“Yes,” I answered, reaching for his hand. I was surprised when he took it in both of his and placed a kiss on the back of my palm. Heat flooded my cheeks at the gallant and familiar gesture.

“I’m Doctor Hayworth, but you can call me Rye,” he said, his eyes flashing intimately. “We are practically family, after all.”

“Oh?” My eyes widened. “Are you among Enoch’s children?”

He chuckled. “You could say that. Come,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder as he led me further into the laboratory. Bobby stayed behind, still enmeshed in the images on her strange mirror. “Allow me to give you the grand tour.”

“That’s a lot of trouble to go through for a lab rat, isn’t it?”

He glanced back at me with a gentle smile. “You are hardly that, Marcellus. It is unfortunate that the military arm of our organization awakened you. They’re all quite gifted on the battlefield but notoriously lacking in bedside manner.”

“It was a kinder reception than I expected,” I confessed. “But I’m still not quite sure what you all want from me.”

“I trust Daniel has at least filled you in on the current state of our world?”

“The basic facts, yes.”

Rye nodded, coming to a stop in front of another large window that overlooked the city. It, too, seemed to be protected by the same UV coating that shielded the downstairs windows. The doctor gazed thoughtfully at the streets below for a moment before speaking. “To put it simply, we are at war, and our side is greatly outnumbered. Each vampire we turn to even the odds results in the loss of human prey.”

“So you want me to help you produce more Enochs.”

He tilted his head, as if the disgust in my reply came as a surprise to him. “You possess the strongest blood of all living vampires. Soldiers sired by Daniel and the others would be a fraction as powerful as those sired directly by you.”

“And if I refuse?”

He didn’t respond at first, but the fact that he was still smiling made me trust him much less. “I’ll let you sort all that out with Daniel. For now, I’d simply like to have a look at you. Is that alright?”

As congenial as he was being, something told me it was not truly a question. I nodded and followed him into a private exam room. He ushered me onto the table and I watched nervously as he donned a pair of strangely elastic gloves that were so thin I could almost see through them.

“May I?” he asked, approaching me.

I nodded, surprised when he took out a pen that suddenly shone with the light of a lantern. “Just need to check your eyes,” he said, flashing the light quickly into the one, then the other. “Good. Now, open and say ‘ah.’”

I complied, somewhat disappointed that medical science hadn’t advanced to provide a less embarrassing method of examination. When the doctor’s hands settled on either side of my neck, his fingertips probing gently, I realized how much colder he felt compared to me, even through the gloves.

His eyes widened, and for a moment, his pleasant demeanor faltered. He beheld me with the same curiosity as the others and pressed his fingers more firmly into the left side of my neck. “Impossible…”

“Is something wrong?”

“You have a heartbeat.”

“Yes, I’ve been made aware that is somewhat out of the ordinary.”

“Quite,” he murmured, letting his hands fall away as he stared at me in wonder. He went over to a cabinet and pulled something out of a drawer. A stethoscope. It seemed that much hadn’t changed, either. He pressed the cool device to my chest and listened intently, moving it about.

“Take a deep breath, please.”

I did as he said, breathing and coughing when prompted. When he finally stepped back, I dared to ask, “Do the other vampires really not have heartbeats? Not even Enoch?”

Jonas had, but something kept me from volunteering that bit of information. Perhaps it was because, in some irrational manner, I felt that if I kept him only in my memory, I wouldn’t have to face the fact that he was gone. My little secret, sheltered in the world within. I regretted telling Daniel about him at all and was certain it would be used against me.

“You are the only one I’ve ever encountered,” Rye answered in a tone of strange reverence. “Extraordinary. It’s fainter than a human’s, but steady nonetheless.”

“What does it mean?” I asked warily.

The doctor smiled faintly. “It means, my dear Marcellus, that you are one of a kind. As for the implications… they remain to be seen.”

After the doctor had finished examining me and collected more than a considerable amount of my blood, I retired to my room, lightheaded and uneasy. He seemed kind enough, but who knew what he and the others would do once I refused to turn any others?

And I would refuse, no matter what they did to me. Jonas had been my one and only willing slip of conviction, and look how that had turned out. His death and the fate of his soul would weigh on me forevermore. And then there was Enoch…

It was clear my blood was a poison, and yet they viewed it as the elixir of their salvation. Whatever plague Enoch had unleashed upon this world, creating more of him was the last thing that would undo it. If I couldn’t make them see, I would have to find a way to escape.

I soon gave up on trying to feel for weak spots in the ward. I managed to get the bedroom window open easily enough, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t so much as get a finger through the open space. Meanwhile, the small pebble I tossed out hit the ground below just fine.

The bedroom door opened, and I jolted. It wasn’t that I had expected to be left alone, but the day had already worn my nerves down. When Daniel walked in, I wasn’t sure if it was a relief. He seemed less jumpy around me than the others did, but that came with concerns of its own.

“You might have knocked,” I remarked, turning away from the window.

“I don’t knock to enter my own room,” he said, closing the door behind him.

I frowned. “Bobby said this was where I was to stay.”

“It is,” he said, slipping out of his jacket. He dropped it over the back of the chair by the desk across the room. “It’s my room. You’re staying with me.”

“Excuse me?” I huffed. “I never agreed to that.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You say that like you have a choice.”

My face burned with irritation and Daniel tilted his head, looking at me the way the doctor had. “So it’s true.”

“What?” I asked, flustered when he came close enough to touch my face. His hand was cool, just like the doctor’s, but much rougher.

“You really do have a heartbeat,” he murmured, lowering his touch to my chest. My heart pounded in response as his palm rested against it, as if to announce itself.

“Yes, well, it would seem that I am an anomaly in more than one regard,” I said, stepping out of his reach. “If you don’t mind, I’ve already been prodded and examined enough for one day.”

I expected him to become irritated, but he simply stood there watching me with his hands in his pockets and an uncharacteristically thoughtful expression on his face. “You look pale.”

“They took blood,” I said, sitting down on the bed before I could think better of it. “I’ll be fine.”

“Here,” he said, coming to sit next to me. Before I could scoot away, he rolled up his sleeve and offered me his wrist.

I stared in disbelief. He made the gesture so casually. “What are you doing?”

“Offering my blood,” he said, frowning. “You need to drink. It won’t satisfy you the way human blood would, but we don’t have a supply run coming until tomorrow.”

The realization of just how scarce human blood had become did not escape me, but the thought of biting into someone’s flesh was far more disconcerting. “I appreciate the thought, but I cannot accept. Don’t you have animals?”

He arched an eyebrow. “You realize vamp blood is closer to human than animal blood is, right?”

I didn’t have the experience to realize that at all, but I wasn’t going to remind him. “Be that as it may, but with the recent exception of your blood, I haven’t fed from a person, vampire or otherwise, in centuries. Not willingly.”

It was not quite the truth. Jonas and I had fed from each other, but only in the throes of ecstasy. It was an intimacy I hardly felt comfortable sharing with a practical stranger. It was bad enough I’d debased myself immediately upon awakening.

Daniel looked as if he was trying to decide whether I was telling the truth. “I’m sure you remember how.”

My face grew warmer and I could only hope it wasn’t as obvious as it felt. “It is not something I wish to recall. It took me long enough to overcome those savage instincts the first time.”

Daniel rolled his eyes, and heat rushed to my face for an entirely different reason. Before I could protest, he raised his wrist to his mouth and tore into his own flesh with his fangs.

Unable to stifle a gasp of horror, I scrambled away from him. The scent of vampire blood was indistinguishable from human—or perhaps I merely lacked the ability to distinguish the one from the other.

“It’s just blood.” Daniel snorted. “You have to drink.”

I pressed my back against the headboard, covering my nose in an attempt to dull the alluring scent. It occurred to me that for so long, feeding from another person had been an exclusively intimate act. To him, it was nothing more than maintenance.

“This is unseemly.”

“You drank from me before,” he reminded me.

“That was different! I was half-starved.”

“What, do you want me to put it in a glass?” His tone made it clear the suggestion was a mocking one, but when he saw I was taking it seriously, his eyes narrowed. “Seriously? Goddamnit, fine.”

He got up and stormed out of the room. A few moments later, he returned with a glass and squeezed his fist over it. I watched as the blood trickled in, swallowing the desire that rose in my throat.

When he held the half-full glass out to me, it was hard to resist snatching it. “Thank you,” I mumbled, bringing my lips to the glass. Drinking slowly was a struggle, but I had already suffered enough indignities for one day. Once I’d sated my thirst, I set the glass aside and found him watching me again. “What?”

“You are officially the weirdest fucking vampire I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something.”

I frowned. “And you are the foulest person I’ve ever met, which is also quite an impressive feat.”

To my surprise, he actually laughed. It was a far more pleasant sound than it had any right to be. “How are you feeling now?”

“Better,” I admitted, rubbing my hands together. They still felt cold, but not quite as stiff as before.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daniel peel his shirt over his head. The sight of his perfectly sculpted torso covered in scars was only slightly less shocking than the shameless offer of his wrist. When he began to unbutton his trousers, I cried, “What are you doing?”

He looked at me as if my outburst was entirely unreasonable. “I’m getting ready for bed.”

“But they said you don’t sleep,” I protested.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Of course not, but I can still rest.” He paused. “Are you saying you can?”

“Another difference between us,” I said unhappily.

Daniel fell silent, as if he was considering my words deeply. “What about Enoch?”

“I don’t know. I left shortly after he was turned,” I reminded him.

“And Jonas?”

I winced. There it was. The regret was already setting in.

“When I ask you a question, I expect an answer,” he said in a tone more like the one he’d had when we first met. “I’d rather not have to interrogate you like a prisoner, but I will.”

“Yes,” I answered bitterly. “Jonas could sleep.”

“I see.” Daniel leaned back against the headboard and continued watching me for long enough I felt more exposed than I had under the doctor’s examination. “Get some rest, then.”

“I can hardly be expected to sleep with you staring at me.”

He snorted. “Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

“I thought the place was warded.”

“It is, but the others don’t feel safe with you being here unsupervised, so as long as I’m here, you’re gonna be near me.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered, rolling over onto my other side as I pulled the covers over me. At least there was that much separation between us. As socially evolved as the vampires of this era seemed to be, I doubted a man like Daniel would want to share a bed with me if he knew of my proclivities.