Tainted Blood

by Martin Sharlow

  “Things have changed, Meryl.”

  Meryl held her arms to her chest and started to blow another bubble. “Go on, I'm listening.”

  “For one, Bobby and I are teaming up to rescue a friend of ours that another vampire has.”

  “Is she your girlfriend?” Meryl asked as she started to fiddle with her black beaded necklace.

  “What's that got to do with anything?”

  “I'm just wondering if you're free. By the way, I like your hair.”

  She likes my hair? He thought, frowning. Alright, she doesn't have anything. How can she? She doesn't seem serious about this at all. “Listen, could you please stop circling me? I feel like a piece of meat.”

  She stopped, but she didn't seem happy about it.

  “Look, if I were the bad guy, wouldn't I have just come and taken the info if you had any?”

  That seemed to catch her attention, as she stood up straight and seemed to take issue with what he said. “You could try. Like I said, I've found something.”

  This had to stop now. He needed to come up with a way to convince this girl, otherwise he was going to have to just suggest her and be done with the nonsense. Heather's life could depend on it, and he wanted to be ready when Bobby got into town.

  “What do I have to do to convince you?”

  At least she wasn't circling him any longer.

  She stood there twirling her gum around her little finger again as she stared at him. “I could ask Bobby, I suppose.” She said, “are you sure you're a vampire?”

  “How are you going to ask him? He's not in town yet.”

  “I have his number.” She said, and then produced a small black cell phone. Brian couldn't believe this was happening. The whole conversation could have been avoided, and they could have been working on more important things than a stupid cat and mouse game if she'd just called Bobby to start with. The woman was beginning to infuriate him.

  “Well, please do call him. We need to settle this before tomorrow.”

  “Why?” She glanced up from the phone. “Do you burn in the sunlight?”

  Brian pointed at the nearby windows, which currently had light streaming in from the afternoon sun. Meryl looked and then turned back with a giggle. “Guess not!” She smiled and dialed Bobby's number...at least he hoped that was what she was doing.

  “Hi, Bobby? Yeah, he's here....Um, are you sure? He could have compelled you to tell me that you know.” Brian really couldn't hear what Bobby was saying, at least until that point in the conversation. Once she had said that, a flood of obscenities poured into the room, with a telltale voice that could only belong to Bobby. :

  “Hey!” she raised her voice back at him. “I'm doing this to help you, remember! You don't need to talk to me like that.”

  Bobby's voice faded, and whatever he said must have made amends, as Meryl voice calmed down as well. “Okay Bobby, I'll do what I can. What's that? Yeah, he is.” She looked over at Brian and smiled at him. He couldn't help but wonder what that was about. “I'll see you then.”

  Brian watched as the phone disappeared into her faded blue jeans.

  “Bobby said he should be in town sometime tomorrow night. “

  “And?”

  “And?” She mimicked.

  “What about the reason you called? You know, if you can tell me what you found out?”

  She smiled at him. “You know, you're really cute for a vampire,” she said as she started to walk out of the room, before pausing and waving for him to follow. “Come on. I'll show it to you.”

  The two of them walked silently through the library, then went down a set of stairs marked staff only. The place was stuffier and definitely smelled of old books and dust. After several turns through what appeared to be a maze of book cases and file cabinets, they finally arrived at a large wooden door. She produced a key for it but it seemed)? vaguely out of place for a modern building. Not that he was an architect or anything that could make that call. It was just that the door looked more like something that should have been part of the vault in Gringott's, from that movie he watched years ago.

  “What is this place?” Brian asked as the door opened. It was filled with lots of old books lying around as well as newer ones. A table or two sat around the place as well.

  “Huh? Oh, I think this was supposed to be used for meetings and such originally. For some reason it's just been sitting around and used mostly for storage these days. I like to come here and read. It's my little getaway.” She smiled and walked over to one of the few places that actually had a space cleared off on a table. A soft reading chair was pushed up to the place, and an assortment of occult and vampire books were piled up around the clear spot.

  Meryl produced a manilla folder from one of the nearby piles of books and opened it up, then smiled at Brian. “My notes, you know, to keep my thoughts together. Are you sure you're a vampire?”

  Brian nodded, then started looking through the pages of chicken scratch. None of it made any sense. It was more like a crossword puzzle. Words just ran along in one giant word sentence, and sometimes intersected with other words to form patterns, then seemed totally indecipherable.

  “What is all this? I can't make heads or tails of it.” He picked up a page and turned it side to side and even upside down to see if it made any difference.

  “It's my notes,” Meryl said defensively. Her whole body language withdrew into herself.

  “I can’t read any of this and I'm not sure how you do.”

  “Hey, I don't criticize the way you do things!” She shouted and jerked her notes out of his hands. “I was just doing this as a favor to Bobby...and because I'm interested in vampires.” She said as she hugged her work to her chest. Her overreaction was confusing. He hadn't meant to upset her. It was simply that no one could read that writing, and he seriously doubted she could, either. He was expecting some serious research work done, maybe a list of things that could hurt real vampires, or those sorts of things. In desperation, he began to look at some of the books piled up in the place. Twilight, Vampire Academy, Vampire diaries.

  “What is all this? Fiction? I thought you were doing serious research for Bobby.”

  “I am doing serious research for him!” She emphasized her words by slamming her notes on the table.

  “Then what's all this?” He waved his hand over the myriad of books that seemed to be all about fictional vampires.

  “I told you, I like to read down here.” She spoke like he was a child. She walked over to another table and picked up a large book, something that looked like one of the old family bibles he'd seen in movies before.

  “This is one of the oldest books I could find on the subject.” She then pointed to another table that was littered with other books, “And those are everything I could get from inter-library as well as interstate library books on the occult and vampires.”

  “So, you did find something?” Brian asked, hopeful.

  “The problem isn’t in finding something, the problem is figuring out what’s real and what's not.” She said, smiling at him.

  “So then, you know how to fight vampires?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Which is it?”

  “Well, I need answers to some questions before I know which book is right. Once we know that, then we know which methods should work. I'm betting on the oldest one,” She pointed at the big bible-like one that she had carried over to the table. “It seems to be the most complete and dates back with info collected from the earliest times in our history.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Brian asked.

  “I was hoping you’d say that. Tell me everything you know about vampires.”

  That wasn't going to take long. What did he really know about them? Even Jason accused him of not being one. Everything he knew about them had been learned either just recently or through movies and books, just like how she got her information. He looked at her as she waited expectantly for him to start speaking. What cou
ld it hurt to share what he knew?

  He shared everything he could think of, from his abilities to being normal most of his life, to changing into what he was today. Even the few differences that he noticed between Jason and himself, as well as some of his dream experiences. In the end he had more than he'd realized, and with Meryl asking questions, the conversation went on for some time.

  “So you can change shapes by using an illusion?” She asked excitedly while she made more notes in her sheets of paper. He wondered if he should discourage her from doing so, but then again, whoever could decipher her notes deserved to find all the information he shared.

  “Yeah, I don't use it too often, but I can do it.”

  “And um, these dreams...” She looked down at her notes. Brian almost thought she seemed embarrassed for a second. Did she just blush? “Can you enter anyone’s dreams?” She asked, not quite meeting his eyes.

  “Yeah, sure. I suppose so, but it's not like I wander around looking for someone to see what they're dreaming.”

  “So could you enter my dreams?” She met Brian’s eyes then. Her face seemed flushed. “I mean, I think it would be a cool experiment to try sometime.”

  “Um...” Brian felt heat rising to his cheeks. He wasn't quite sure why he was starting to feel a bit embarrassed, but the idea of maybe going to Meryl's dreams did seem to have some appeal to it for some reason. “Yeah, maybe later,” he said, and then tried to change the subject. What was it about this girl that just seemed to get him feeling like he had two left feet when he talked to her? He'd only just met her, and yet he kept feeling like he was losing control of himself at every turn. “So is that enough information, or are you going to need more?”

  “Yeah, I think this is enough, and I was right.” She got up and walked over to the bible like book. “This seems to have the most information we need, but there’s just one problem still.”

  “Still?” Brian groaned.

  “It's not really that big a deal, and really has more to do with the other vampire. You know...I don't see any fangs on you.” She paused and just looked at him.

  “I have them.”

  “Are you sure? Are they, like, retractable?”

  “Yeah. Anyway, what's the problem?”

  “Well, here it is...” Brian listened as she outlined the entire history of vampires from the earliest times. Apparently, the myth went that a race of beings known as the Grigori watched over mankind originally. Not happy with just watching, they eventually involved themselves with humans and began to mate with them. Depending on what civilization the records were taken from, their God condemned them and they began to wander the earth. The children of their unions with humans became powerful heroes and villains from the dawn of history and all throughout time.

  “What happened to these Grigori?” Brian asked.

  “Well, according to this, some of the most powerful were locked away until the end of time, while others stayed on earth. There is some reference to them moving to the Romanian lands.”

  “You mean like Transylvania?” Brian asked, a bit shocked. “That stuff was real? As in...Dracula?”

  “Maybe?” Meryl said.” Most myths have some basis in fact.”

  “Okay, okay, that’s all interesting, but what's that got to do with killing vampires?” Brian walked over and started looking into the book with her.

  “Well, it depends on the vampire, which kind he is.”

  “Which?” Brian asked confused again. “I thought you just said all vampires are from these Grigori?”

  “They are, but there's more than one kind.”

  Brian sat back down, isn't this ever going to be easy?

  “Listen,” Meryl began again. “The Grigori can't just mate with humans. They aren't quite like us, they're different. Incompatible. According to this, they have to drink the blood of a human and then let them drink their blood. After that, the Grigori is able to have sex and conceive.”

  “And what's in it for the human?”

  “Well, it says here that there are two possibilities. The first is that with the help of a few black magic ceremonies, the recipient can get long life and super strength, but that he will hunger for human blood to keep it.”

  “Sounds like a vampire...sort of.” Brian nodded. “And the second?”

  “The second says that with even darker ceremonies they can become wolves or even other dark creatures of the night.”

  It was starting to make some sense now. A lot of what she said was lining up with some of what he already knew. There was just one problem.

  “I never drank the blood of one of these Grigori creatures, Meryl. And I definitely didn't do any ceremonies.” Brian said, as he got up and shook his head. “If this information was completely true, it doesn't account for me. So there’s a flaw in your theory.”

  Meryl paused and looked down in her book for a second. “You're sure you never drank the blood of anyone earlier on in your life?”

  “I'm sure, Meryl. That’s not something I'm likely to forget. Not to mention you said they had to feed on me, as well.”

  “No, wait.” She lifted her hand to pause him. “There is...one other option that would explain your existence.”

  “Which is what?”

  “You're one of their young.”

  14

  “You're joking, right?” Brian choked at the thought. Raffian had almost suggested it, but he hadn't really considered it before. “Meryl?”

  “Yes?” She glanced up from the book at him.

  “Is there any mention of the Nephilim in that book?”

  “Could you spell that?” She asked, as she started flipping through the pages quickly.

  Brian shrugged. “Not correctly, I'm sure.”

  “Here it is. I thought so.”

  “What is it?” he asked and walked over to her side to try and see what she was pointing at.

  “Yeah, that’s it. The Nephilim are another word for the Annunaki's half human offspring.” she nodded with a smile as she looked up at him.

  So it was true. He was one of them. Different from Jason and yet still one of those things. Raffian had called him a Nephilim back at the old Warren's place, hadn't he? In fact he thought he had called him one of their Nephilim. Finding another chair in the room, Brian sat down in it.

  He wasn't sure what was wrong with him. He knew this was a possibility, in fact it proved that he wasn't quite human, yet...he did not want to be like that thing down in the basement. Was Raffian his father? His real father he'd never met? Brian buried his head in his hands. Why did it matter so much? Was it any different than just being a vampire? Wasn't it better? He wasn't undead, and that should make him happy.

  “What’s wrong, Brian?” Meryl asked, as if she just noticed his reaction.

  “Can you tell me anything about these Nephilim?” Brian asked her. “Were they all vampires?”

  “Actually, no.” She said, as she stood up and walked over to him. She started rubbing his shoulders as he sat there slumped over, still holding his head. “Many of them were supposed to be great heroes. Some were giants. From what I've read they could turn out in almost any way.”

  “What kind of heroes? Have I ever heard of any?”

  “Yeah, I'm sure.”

  “Like who? Meryl, I really need to know this.” He stood up and shrugged off her hands.

  She stared at him for a second, chewing her gum apparently thinking about how to answer him. Or maybe she was just admiring him again. Brian really didn’t know, and in truth, he didn't care. He wanted to finish up and get away from the girl. She was way too distracting.

  “Hercules.” She finally said and walked back over to the book.

  “Hercules?” Brian laughed. “I think you're getting your myths crossed, because if I remember my myths right, wasn't he the son of Zeus or something?”

  “And who do you think Zeus was?” She started playing with her gum again.

  “You're telling me that the Greek god Zeus was one of th
ese...Grigori?” Brian couldn't believe it. That was starting to push the lines of credibility. He didn't really have a problem with claiming that Zeus was one of those Watcher things. What he did have a problem with was in believing that there had actually ever been a Zeus, or for that matter a Hercules.

  “According to these books, that’s what they were.” Meryl said, as she walked back over to Brian and tried to rub his shoulders again. Brian was far too distracted to stop her, as he continued to mull over the information. “In fact, it makes perfect sense.” She went on. “Remember how Zeus had a thing for mortal woman? All of his offspring were special in some way, in fact there’s tons of myth from different cultures that support this.”