“How do you know she’s in the final stages? Aside from her blood being primarily human. Does the serum cause loss of senses, strength?”
“Yes, once your blood cells are one hundred percent human, you’ll feel like a human again because you will be.”
“That may be true, but right now I feel weak and dizzy.”
Charla patted her arm. “That’s due mostly to the anesthesia which will wear off soon. The serum will affect your vampire senses and strength somewhat too.”
“Like how? And how soon?”
Charla hunched a shoulder. “Based on the fledging subjects here who have lost the majority of their keen senses and abnormal strength, I’d say you’ll find yourself somewhere in between human and vampire abilities for a while. Katie seems to be a bit of an enigma. Her blood work shows her at about eighty five percent human, yet for some reason she retains the speed and agility of a vampire. Then I have to consider the fact her sire is a feral vampire and they are by nature a much heartier beast physically and telekinetically. We’re hoping once Katie’s turning is complete her abnormal abilities will decrease and her mental state will improve. I believe the feral vampire’s blood caused Katie to experience a psychotic break along with her captor’s abuse of course. Once we gave Katie the serum and she started to respond, we stopped the experiments at the clinic. I can’t say we’re sorry the V clinic’s patient and fetuses didn’t survive the serum. As I said before the world doesn’t need more vampires. But we’ve discontinued experimenting there for obvious reasons.”
“They were on to you,” Tiffany hissed.
She let out a scoffing laugh. “They have no idea I’m behind this and they never will until all of us are far away from this place.”
“Oh they will figure out you kidnapped me and Teresa. You stole Nathan’s SUV.”
“Yes, well that was necessary to get you here. It doesn’t matter if they do figure out I’m behind the testing at the V clinic. They’ll never find me. Or you.”
“Dear God. Where are we?”
“Never you mind.”
Tiffany didn’t figure she’d get very far there, but other questions fired through her head so fast she struggled to pick one. “How did you do it? How did you pois—put the serum into the food or drink without being noticed.”
A sly smile spread across her face. “You were the only person whose food I tampered with. The other test subjects received the serum in their vitamin booster vials they were each given per their doctor’s order. I simply removed some of the vitamin serum and put the correct amount of my own serum in the vials. The subjects did the rest when they added the vitamin regime to their daily blood transfusions. It was absolutely perfect. See the serum doesn’t work unless the test subject is taking daily human blood transfusions along with the serum. A mature vampire doesn’t need to feed but once or twice a week, but a pregnant vampire needs human blood daily.”
Oh God! How many more of Christian’s patients had this woman poisoned? She had to know because Christian had to know in order to help them. “How many of the V clinic patients were part of your study?”
“The number is irrelevant now. The doctors discovered my final subjects and began reversing my treatment with vampire blood. Thus the reason you and the three pregnant females are here. If we achieve success and all test subjects turn human the trial studies will cease. We’ll begin offering the drug to vampires who truly want to be human again or vampire parents who want to save their child the horror of a life wrought with blood lust. For a price, naturally. No charge to you of course. Your thanks will be enough.”
Thanks? The woman truly was mad. “Well, lucky me, I guess. You keep saying we. Who’s we?”
“My brother, Terry, Katie and I and a few successful test subjects who are now a part of our team. They reside here at the lab and assist wherever necessary, like Chrissie. She was an OB nurse like Katie before some sick vampire turned her.”
Tiffany would just bet those test subjects weren’t here helping Charla’s cause of their own volition.
“So is Blake your brother too?” It would make sense with his suspicious behavior and nosy questions.
“Blake my brother?” She let loose a dark, yet somehow feminine trill of laughter. “Heavens no. He was an idiot. I don’t even know how he graduated from nursing school.”
“What? Wait a minute. What do you mean was an idiot?”
“He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Terry is my only brother. He has no medical background but I’ve trained him to be a decent lab assistant for our test subject fledglings. None have tested one hundred percent negative for vampire blood, but I give them a few more weeks.”
“Wait. Back up. What do you mean Blake was in the wrong place? What happened to him?”
“Hon, he’s dead. Look, I know you have many concerns and questions, but if you want me to get through this story you need to quit interrupting. I have other patients to see soon.”
“Uh, sure.” Oh my God. Blake was dead! And she conveyed the information as if she were merely telling her the time of day.
“Anyway, while I worked for the CDC in California this happened to Katie. She was an OB nurse for Dr. Langston’s mother in Los Angeles. One night she encountered the feral vampire who destroyed her life, but we knew nothing about why she disappeared at the time. Weeks passed then finally one night she was able to escape and get to a phone. We rescued her, tried everything to help her mentally and emotionally deal with the attack and repeated rapes. Nothing helped. She slipped further and further into insanity.”
Oooh! That’s a shocker. Obviously, the nut case gene ran strong in that family. Tiffany could muster little sympathy. The real Katie was in on this too. And God, she was a murderer!
“So, long story short we moved here. Katie was to take the RN position at the V clinic, but she was in no state of mind to do so. I did instead. Katie and I have been working on the cure for her, here at our laboratory for about five months now.”
Tiffany swallowed hard and tried to wrap her mind around what Charla told her. It all seemed so improbable that a pair of psychopaths were smart enough to come up with a cure for vampirism. “Why Christian’s facility? What does the V clinic have to do with Katie getting attacked by a feral vampire?”
“Questions. Questions. Then I suppose in your position, I would be asking a bunch too.” She resumed her seat. “The particular reason had to do with Katie applying for a position there last summer when her job in Los Angeles ended. When I learned the V clinic was a renowned vampire fertility clinic, I knew it would be absolutely perfect for obtaining specimens. So, I became Katie and went to work for the V clinic. Mrs. Langston’s recommendation got Katie or rather me the job. I easily fooled Dr. Langston who tried to enchant me prior to hire and failed. When we had the new serum finished and were seeing good results here with captured subjects, we began more aggressive testing at the V clinic. Had I not worked for the CDC in a special department that lets just say knows vampires exist, I wouldn’t have gained the knowledge to create the serum. But that’s a long story and rather top secret.”
Oh sure, protect the secrets at the CDC. We wouldn’t want to do anything smacking of no ethical behavior, now would we?
Tiffany needed to keep her talking. She had to find a way to get her to tell her something about this location so she could tell Christian. “Sorry. I’m still not understanding why this only works on fledglings and babies? What’s up with that?”
She sighed and crossed her arms. “I think eventually it will work on mature vampires, but our success rate is best with very young fledglings such as yourself. And babies of course. In the beginning, we merely stumbled onto this fact. If you can find one, fledgling vampires are very easy to catch because they don’t develop physic or telekinetic abilities for at least a year or two after they’re turned. None of them responded to the early version of our drug.”
“What happened to them?”
“Unfortunately, they w
ere victims of collateral damage. As I said, at that point we hadn’t perfected the serum.”
Tiffany really wished her hands were free if for no other reason than to grabbed the sides of her head and shake out some of the crazy going on inside her skull. “Okay, but why the poisons like arsenic? Wouldn’t that kill the mothers and babies or cause major side effects? Obviously, it did, there were multiple miscarriages at the clinic. A mother died too.”
“There’s a rather complicated answer to that question, but I’ll give you the short version. Basically, those poisonous substances we mixed with what we call the human turning serum, or HTS, when administered to pregnant vampires kill off their blood cells, giving a way for human blood to dominate. However, with a mature vampire it doesn’t work as well and I don’t know why. At this point the serum seems to only be affective on very immature fledglings like yourself or vampire fetuses who have limited antibodies.
But in answer to your question, we’ve had so few test subjects we simply haven’t been able to figure out exactly how much HTS is too much. We’ve learned a great deal in the short time I’ve worked at the V clinic. Dr. Langston who in my opinion is a most arrogant creature and not too bright, did a poor job of keeping his findings in a safe place. He stupidly left them in the top drawer of his desk giving me access to where they stood on their little investigation and what they were doing to reverse the effects of my serum.”
“Well, I can agree with you on the arrogant part. Noah’s a class A snob.” She meant that, but she wanted this woman to think she was beginning to understand the purpose behind her cause. It might give her the leverage she needed to get out of these restraints and this freak lab.
Charla laughed and gave her arm a friendly pat. “You’re funny. I really am fond of you, you know. Believe it or not, just because you’re a brand-new fledgling isn’t the entire reason I brought you here to test the HTS. You were so upset after Dr. La Mond turned you. I felt so terrible for you. Eventually, you seemed to come to terms with it, but something tells me that’s not really so. Is it?
Tiffany stared at her, so glad Charla couldn’t read her mind. What she envisioned doing to her and her brother and anyone else embroiled in this mad science going on here would get her far worse than a slap across the face.
“Well? Surely you can’t accept the horror that doctor inflicted upon you. I know you have a thing for him, which I find disgusting, but your violent reactions spoke volumes.”
Tiffany nodded and answered honestly. “I was beyond pissed, yes. At first I wanted to tear up anything I could get my hands on or anyone who came near me. I accepted it though. What choice did I have?”
“None. It was unfair what Dr. La Mond did to you, seducing you. It was bad of you to allow it, but both vampire sexes have very seductive sexual powers. I can see how you were lured into his web. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Once I realized he actually had romantic feelings for you, I knew you’d be the perfect candidate for the HTS. He would have never let you die. And you would have died had he not had the insight to turn you, but I knew he would.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
Charla looked at her as if she were nuts. “Because he’s in love with you, or as close as one of those beasts can come to feeling such an emotion. I caught the way he looked at you. Tell me it’s not true.”
“It’s true.” The bitch was so stupid. Her actions had removed one of the critical barriers for her and Christian to be together. Tiffany was okay with it now, but not the way it had all happened. “So why try this HTS on me if it’s been working on your sister? It makes no sense.”
Charla smiled and reached over to pat her arm. “Because you didn’t want to be vampire. I’m doing this for you, Tiffany. To right my wrong by giving you the drug initially in order to make you a test subject and to right Dr. La Mond’s wrong. He should have never tried to seduce you while you were human.”
“You should have never poisoned me to begin with. I could have died before and during the turning. Do you even care about that fact?”
She hunched a shoulder. “You’re young and healthy. I expected you to live and of course I wanted you to live. I needed you. Fledgling vampires are not all that easy to come by.”
“Bull Charla. You were righting no wrongs. You needed a lab rat and chose me.”
“Fine. I did,” she said, obviously exasperated.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why me if this has been working on your sister?”
“Because my clinical trial studies aren’t over yet. My original plan was to treat you immediately after your vampire turning, but Katie didn’t want to wait any longer. The other fledgling test subjects were coming along nicely and well, honestly, I was so caught up in Katie’s treatment, I had no time to take you here and administer the HTS until the day we commandeered the pregnant females. You see we still need to do this further testing because someday my hope is to get the formula to work on all vampires no matter their age or if they’re turned or born. You however, although a most surprising subject are more of a charity case born of my guilt. You see what I mean, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Makes perfect sense.” If you’re Josef Mangele! “Okay, so explain to me why I’m restrained if you feel sorry for me because of your mistake and Christian’s. You said I’m responding to the treatment, which is obvious. I’m tired and weak. My senses are dulled. I certainly don’t feel vampire any longer. I’m no physical threat. All that should be a good thing in your book. Right?”
“Of course.”
“Then when can I go home?”
“When your turning is complete.”
“When that day comes, will you release me?”
She pursed her lips and frowned.” I don’t know yet, but I do know how you feel about Dr. La Mond. If I were to let you go with the mind set you have right now, I know you’d run right back to him and beg him to make you vampire again. I’ve seen the way the two of you look at each other. You even allowed him to bite you, drink your blood. I can’t understand that. It’s sick. I’m not about to release you so he can jeopardize everything I’ve worked so hard to do for you, Katie and others like her. You’ll see things differently once you regain your humanity.”
“So, I’m basically a prisoner here? Wherever here is. Are we still in New Orleans.”
Charla stood took hold of her hand and squeezed ignoring her last question. “I have no intention of keeping you tied up the duration of your stay. Just long enough to trust you’ll cause no trouble. In fact, later this morning I’ll allow you a walk outside the facility prior to daylight. You can even take your breakfast outdoors if you’d prefer. Under guard of course.”
Tiffany battled tears of desperation and lost. She couldn’t help herself. How would she survive being in this place for days, maybe weeks? She didn’t think she could endure another hour. Human, vampire—she didn’t care. She just wanted to go home.
“Tiffany, please don’t be upset. I know right now this seems overwhelming, but in the end, you’ll be you again. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted? To be human? Certainly, a little time inconvenience is worth that?”
“Yeah, sure.” This could not be happening. It had to be a dream, a really bad dream.
Charla stood and gave her hand a pat. “Try to get some rest. I have other patients to attend to. I’ll be back in a couple hours. Okay?”
“Wait. If you don’t trust me not to tell someone what’s happened to me here, why would you ever let me go?”
Charla shrugged, her expression sage. “When Katie is whole and all of us can safely relocate you can go home. But if you do anything to jeopardize this facility or Katie’s treatment the only home you’ll be going to is your Makers.”
Her threat didn’t make that much of an impression because Tiffany already knew her life dangled by a thread. Nothing Charla said could be trusted.
Charla turned and started out of the room.
“Wait.”
She faced her, cl
early agitated. “What now?”
“What about Teresa and the baby? Please don’t hurt them.”
She sighed. “Do you honestly think I could let her walk out of here with everything she’s witnessed? The baby has a very good chance of having a normal human life and it needs its’ mother for a while, so quit worrying about Teresa. Someday perhaps the HTS will save millions of vampires from their sorrowful disease. It’s my mission, my greatest hope that some vampires will thank me for all the work I’ve done and the sacrifices I’ve made. In the meantime, the only thing you need to concern yourself with is your own wellbeing. Get some rest.”
“I can’t. You still haven’t explained this place. Where are we?”
She laughed softly and wagged a finger at her. “You’re smart, but not smarter than me. Where you are is none of your business. Rest. Consider your stay an extended vacation. You might not think this way right now, but one day you’ll thank me when blood lust no longer dominates your every waking thought. Tell me I’m not right?”
She couldn’t because she’d had her moments, but she’d never considered attacking someone. She’d break into a blood bank before that ever happened.
“I thought so.”
Tiffany watched her leave so sorrowfully sick. For herself, but also Teresa. At some point, Charla intended to end her life and probably the lives of every test subject she had here. She began to shake imagining the ghastly horror of Charla’s veiled threat.
“Lord, if you’ve got a miracle handy, please save Teresa. Please. If you can give another, help both of us to get out of here in one piece.”
Tiffany knew with prayer she needed to believe and look beyond the circumstances. Actually, she should even pray for Charla and the lot of those murderers. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t. Scripture also talked about the whole eye for an eye thing. Tiffany liked that line of thinking much better.
Dark Experiments Page 30
