Sam was waiting at the door of the institution for us. We both got out of the taxi and he smiled and gestured at the lightening sky. “Cutting it a little fine, aren’t you?”
“Oh, Sam, don’t you know that living dangerously keeps you young.”
“Oh, is that what does it?”
“Absolutely. And I’ve brought you another cold body to experiment on. Vivienne Courbet, meet Dr. John Samuels.”
He took the hand she held out, “Sam to my friends if you don’t mind.”
“Enchanté, Dr. Sam. It is an honor to meet someone who is so willing to help our kind.”
“Ready, willing, and able.” He glanced at the sky again. “But I’d better get you inside to safety right now. If anything happens to you while you’re under my care I have no illusions about what Mitch will do to me. That kind of living dangerously can put you in an early grave.”
He opened the door. “Deirdre, why don’t you go in first and get settled in? I’ll show Ms. Courbet around a bit and we’ll meet you at the room.”
“If it’s all the same to you, Sam, I think she should come with me. She needs protection as well.”
He blushed. “Of course. I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking of. You two go on ahead and I’ll find an extra bed.”
Vivienne took hold of my arm and we went down the hallway to the deserted wing. When I figured Sam was out of earshot I turned to her. “Maybe he didn’t know what he was thinking about, but I sure did.”
She giggled. “As did I. Because I was thinking the same thing. He’s a very beautiful man, Deirdre. I can’t believe Mitch would allow you to be alone with him for too long.”
“Why not? I allow him to be alone with you. And minus his clothes.”
She blushed, “It’s not what you think, Deirdre. I like Mitch very much, but he’s your husband and you’re my sister.”
I stopped. “You don’t need to explain anything to me, Vivienne. I trust Mitch.” I gave her an affectionate look. “And I’m learning to trust you. Anyway, we are here.” I opened the door and let her enter first. “I’ll admit that it’s not a very pretty room, but it’s completely shielded from the sun. We’re as safe here as anywhere these days.”
I walked in behind her and saw that Sam had refurnished the place a little. Instead of the small chair, there was now an overstuffed armchair, next to it was a square end table on which a row of pill bottles were arranged along with a pitcher of water and several glasses. And although the bed was still the narrow hospital one, it was now made and had two pillows at its head instead of one. On the top of those pillows rested a single red rose.
My heart started to race and I felt Vivienne’s startled gasp next to my ear. When we heard footsteps in the hallway we both turned around and snarled in unison.
Chapter 27
Sam entered the room. “I have an orderly bringing an extra . . .” He stopped in midsentence and looked first at me and then at Vivienne, taking in our defensive stances. “Something wrong, ladies?” Nervously, he backed off just a little.
My voice was stretched and anxious. “There’s a rose on the pillow, Sam.”
“Yes, I know.” His tone was so matter-of-fact that I wanted to strangle him. “I put it there.”
Vivienne let out a long breath and I felt the tension flow from my body. Unfortunately for him it was replaced by anger. “You put it there? Damn it, Sam, take it away. Now. You should have know better than that.”
“Better than what? For Christ’s sake, Deirdre, it’s only a rose.”
“Didn’t I tell you how Larry was keeping track of his kills with roses?”
“Oh.” The color drained out of his face and he rubbed his hands over his eyes. “Jesus. I’m so sorry. I guess I wasn’t thinking. It seemed like a welcoming gesture, somehow.”
I shook my head.
“Don’t worry about it, Dr. Sam,” Vivienne sat down in the chair, “it’s over and done now. We had a shock, that’s all. Deirdre doesn’t like shocks. And these days, neither do I.”
A metallic squeal came from the hallway and an orderly entered the room wheeling another narrow hospital bed. “Where do you want it, Doc?”
“Anywhere,” and he looked over toward us, “unless the ladies have a preference.”
“Anywhere is fine by me.” I said, my good humor returning. “What do you think, Vivienne?”
She waved her hands in the air. “Anywhere is also fine by me.”
“Thanks,” Sam said dryly. “You’re both such a big help.”
The orderly set the bed up on the opposite wall and left the room. Sam went over and closed and locked the door. We grinned at him and then at each other. I saw the mischievous glint in Vivienne’s eyes and knew that no matter what, it would prove to be fun to watch her work him over.
Sam looked at his watch. “Sunrise time. You ladies might as well settle in. It’s going to be a long day.”
I slipped off my shoes and crawled into the bed. Vivienne did the same but with a giggle. “We should have brought our nighties, Deirdre. We could have had a pajama party. Did you bring your pajamas, Sam?”
“No, I’m the doctor, I’m not allowed to wear pajamas. Deirdre, how do you feel? Have the visions started?”
“Not yet, Sam. Maybe there’ll be no visions this morning.” But even as I said it, I knew I was wrong. The fourth rose had been taken and the fourth vampire would die. Once again I pushed my consciousness out into the dawn and braced myself for contact.
When I finally made contact, it was weaker than any of the others. It was the same feeling, the same scenario, but watered down as if layers of insulation had been interposed between my mind and the pain. And then the tenuous grip I had loosened further and I lost the vision completely.
I sat up in bed. “I think there was something, Sam, but it was so very far removed, that I’m not entirely sure it actually existed. It may have been nothing but my imagination this time.”
“Oh, well,” he said, sympathetically, “you can’t be right every time. How about you, Vivienne? Did you get any visions, clear or otherwise?”
“I’m afraid I didn’t. But then I didn’t have them with the others, either. Perhaps I’m just not a vision kind of person. In fact, when I closed my eyes and tried to get a vision, the only one that came was that of you, Dr. Sam, sans pajamas.”
“Right.” He took her teasing good-naturedly. “Let’s talk drugs. I thought I would start with the more common tranquilizer families today. We might even get through them all, since I now have two lovely volunteers instead of one.”
“What exactly will we need to do, Sam?” Vivienne waved to me from her bed and gave me a sly wink. “Will it involve long needles, electrodes, or being strapped down?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Ah, too bad.” Her voice was totally believable, but I could see her face. I stifled a laugh.
“What?” Sam spun around and she tried but failed to compose her face into the disappointed expression that her words required. “Oh, I see,” he said, “teasing the doctor again. Ms. Courbet, if you would like needles or electrodes or black leather straps I’m sure we can reach an amiable agreement.”
“No,” she said, somewhat chastened, “that’s not really necessary.”
“So I thought.” He turned his back to her again. “To get back to the original question, all I will be doing is giving you each a pill and studying your reactions, if any. Before that, though, I will need to administer a small physical examination. Not anything terribly involved, simply a recording of vital statistics: body temperatures, pulse rates, reactions. General medical background. Who wants to be first?”
“Let Deirdre go first. If she lives through it, I’ll be next.”
Sam opened his black bag and came over to stand by the side of my bed. “She’s charming, Deirdre, under what rock did you find her?”
“Be nice, Sam,” I advised him as he poked and prodded at me. “She does have a temper, you know.”
/> “She’s not the only one.” His teeth were clenched together and he held an instrument with a small knob on the end of it.
“What’s that?”
“A new kind of thermometer. You insert the knob into the ear. It will record body temperature in three to four seconds.”
He put a hand on the side of my cheek and attempted to take my temperature. After much longer than the time he’d specified, he took it back out of my ear and hit it on the back of his hand. Then tried again, still with no result. “So much for modern technology,” he said in disgust, put it back into his bag and pulled out another instrument that I understood. “Open up,” he said and plopped it under my tongue. “This one will take three to four minutes, but at least we’ll get a reading of some sort.”
After he had finished with me, he did the same series of tests at Vivienne’s side. Finally, when he’d written all the numbers and results on his charts, he turned to the row of pills. “Now, let’s see.” He made a show of picking out exactly the right pill for each of us. “Ah, here we go, how about a nice little black and green one for Deirdre?” He handed it to me, along with a glass of water and I swallowed it. “And,” he carried a glass and a pill across the room to Vivienne, “here’s a nasty little red and white one for Ms. Courbet.”
“Why thank you, Sam.” She took the pill from him and looked at it intently before popping it into her mouth and swallowing it without use of water. “I see that your adjectives work properly, even though your instruments do not.”
“Quite to the contrary, it’s not my instruments that are at fault, but the person whose temperature registers below the normal range.”
“Touché,” she said with a smile. “I think we have had enough sniping, don’t you? I promise to be good if you do. So now what happens?”
“We wait.”
“Wait? I’m not very good at that. What are we waiting for?”
He sighed. “I thought you knew what you were getting into here, Vivienne. We wait to see if you have an adverse reaction like total paralysis to the drug. If it does not happen within four hours, we try again.”
“This could get very boring, Sam, and very quickly at that. Have you brought any games for us to play?”
“I think you play enough games on your own, Vivienne. You certainly don’t need any encouragement from me.”
“Sam,” I called him from across the room. “Can we sleep?”
“Only if you don’t mind being woken up every fifteen minutes or so.”
“You know,” I said, looking at the many bottles of pills displayed on the table, “this could take more time than any of us actually have. Is there any way to streamline the process? Take the pills closer together, perhaps? Or narrow down the infinite choices?”
“I’ve thought about all of that, Deirdre. If you take more pills than one every four hours we’d have no way of knowing whether an adverse reaction was caused by the particular drug, or by a combination of it and the previous ones ingested.” He straightened the row of pill bottles and sat down in the chair. “And I’ve already tried to narrow down the choices. They must be drugs that would have routinely been prescribed for somebody of Larry’s mental health background and they would have to have been available during the years that he spent time in hospitals.”
I sighed. “I should have known that you would be thorough about all of this. I don’t mind for me so much, I rather enjoy the peace and quiet, but my little sister is not quite as tractable.”
Sam gave a laugh. “So I’ve discovered.”
“I will have you know, Dr. Sam, that I am not her little sister, I am her big sister. Deirdre’s a mere babe in arms compared to me.”
Sam perked up slightly. “How old are you, Vivienne? If that isn’t too rude a question to ask of a beautiful woman.”
“I don’t mind, I’m not ashamed of my age. Why should I be? I still occupy the body of a nineteen-year-old. I was born in March of 1698.”
Sam gave her a long and very pointed look. Then he whistled between his teeth and she laughed. “Thank you, Sam. Even after three hundred years a girl likes appreciation from a healthy and handsome young man.”
We all waited in silence for a while. Until Vivienne sat straight up in bed. “Mon dieu, this will drive me crazy and you will have your adverse reaction in a lot less than four hours. Is there nothing for us to do? And if so, do we have to lie around like lumps for the rest of the day?”
Sam looked over at her and so did I. “I never said you had to stay in bed the whole time. And as far as something to do, I did have them bring the VCR and some appropriate movies for us earlier this morning.” Sam got up from the chair, went to the closet in the side wall and wheeled out a cart containing the television, the VCR, and his determination of appropriate movies.
I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “Movies? What kind?”
Vivienne was faster than I. Before Sam could even plug in the equipment she was examining the boxes. When she finished, she looked up at him and smiled. “Dr. Sam, I take back every insult I have thrown your way today. If this is your assessment of appropriate viewing for two female vampires, you are one very sick person. And,” she blew him a kiss, “I think I love you.
“Deirdre, come here and see what he brought for us.” She waved her hands excitedly. I came over and knelt next to her on the floor and she pushed the boxes into my hands. “Look, here’s Love at First Bite and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Fearless Vampire Killers, along with a whole bunch more. Sam, where did you get all these? I can’t believe that these are standard fare for a place like this.”
He looked slightly embarrassed. “I brought these from home; I’ve been acquiring quite a collection the past year or so.”
“Interesting,” I said very quietly to myself. “But where are the alien movies, Sam?”
Our eyes met and we laughed.
“Aliens?” Vivienne missed the private joke completely, of course, but she was too preoccupied with the movies to even notice. “Pooh, who needs aliens when you can have Louis Jordan? Oh, I don’t know which one to pick first. Deirdre, you pick. Which is your favorite?”
“I’ve never seen any of these.”
“What?” Both she and Sam looked at me in astonishment. “You’ve never seen any of these?” Vivienne spread the boxes out on the floor. “These are all the classics.”
“Oh, I did see that one in black and white many years ago.” I pointed to the box with the picture of a hideously deformed vampire. “Nosferatu. It was too sad for me.”
“Well, if you don’t like sad, my melancholy friend, then I have the perfect movie for you.” She selected one and put it into the machine.
Vivienne and I watched the movie four times in a row, curled up together in her narrow bed, interrupted only by Sam’s occasional physical checks and new pills. The only adverse reaction we reported at the end of the day was that our sides hurt from laughing. And every time I did my best George Hamilton imitation by waving my hand and saying, “It’s a creature of the night, it flies,” we would be assailed by uncontrollable hysterics.
When Sam announced that the sun had set and that Mitch was waiting for us outside, I was disappointed that the day had ended.
“Will I see you ladies tomorrow?” Sam asked as he escorted us down the hall toward the lobby.
Vivienne gave me an encouraging look. “I will come if Deirdre does.”
I sighed. “I’m not sure, Sam.” The previous day’s fervor for this experiment had waned when I viewed the prospect of spending whole days confined here, without sleep, without Mitch. Maybe Sam was right in his assessment of vampires being selfish and uncaring. Or maybe I was just tired.
“Deirdre, is there any special reason why you don’t want to continue?” He rubbed his hand over his neck.
“Not really, Sam. But it seems like we’re searching for a needle in a haystack here. There are too many choices and so few days left. I’ll let you know.”
“Fair enough.
I hope you both come back.”
Chapter 28
Mitch was holding a cab for us in front of the hospital. “I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t come inside to get you.” He held the cab door open for us; Vivienne hesitated just for a moment, then got in first. I followed her, Mitch sat down next to me and closed the door. “That place gives me the creeps.” His eyes sought out mine and I caught a brief glimpse of the haunted visions he had experienced there.
“I understand, Mitch.” I took his hand in mine, brought it up to my mouth and kissed the palm before bringing it down to rest on my thigh.
He patted me briefly. “So, how’d it go in there today?”
Vivienne smiled. “It wouldn’t exactly be my first choice in how to spend my time. But Deirdre and I enjoyed the movie.”
“You saw a movie? I thought you were supposed to be testing drugs.”
“We were, Mitch. The problem was we could only test one drug each every four hours. We couldn’t sleep, couldn’t leave the room. It was frustrating.”
“And a waste of your time, I would think. Did you find anything out?”
“Not a thing.”
“Sam’s nice, though. And Deirdre finally got to see Love at First Bite.” Vivienne chuckled to herself. “You two should really leave your bedroom every once in a while. There’s a world out there, you know. See a movie, take in a show, ride a roller coaster, do something for God’s sake. You both need to realize that there’s more to life than blood and sex.”
She smiled at us, then, to soften her lecture, “Not that there’s anything wrong with blood and sex. Except that I can’t quite decide which is the proper order.”
“Will you be going back there tomorrow?” Mitch asked.
“No,” I was sure now, “it really is a waste of our time. We could test these drugs from now until next Christmas and it wouldn’t really do anyone much good. Sam was very persuasive when he first spoke of it.”
“He could persuade me to do almost anything,” Vivienne interrupted.
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