Girl, Forsaken

by Graceley Knox

  A knock on the door scatters my thoughts and my head whips around, not knowing who to expect on a weekend. Jackson slips in with two vials of blood in one hand.

  “This is all they had.”

  “We can work with that. Let’s get started.” I should have thought of this before and ignored the different goose chases Demetri had sent me on. Maybe with him gone, and Jackson helping me, I can make real progress. I take the vials, and then remember Arsen’s sister’s blood is still in my backpack. Normally, I would have worried about its viability but I found early on that vampire blood doesn’t need to remain at a certain temperature like human blood does.

  I begin another slide, this time with my human blood, intent on the task. Soon that slide is in another small dish getting the requisite stain, and I prepare another with Annabelle’s blood. Now I have three slides going, and I’m like a kid in a toy shop on Christmas day, dancing with glee in anticipation.

  The first slide is ready and I pop it onto the viewing pad for the compound microscope. It’s Annabelle’s old sample, and I’m hoping to compare the newest one I took yesterday with this damaged one from her earlier onset.

  When I move my eye to the lens, I stare. It can’t be. I haven’t seen anything like this on any other slides. But there it is. Not a virus or bacteria, but a parasite. An honest-to-god living creature and what is more incredible, despite getting air dried, it wiggles on the slide making a break for the side. “Son of a bitch.”

  Parasites are larger than viruses and bacteria and nastier. While you’ll live through the majority of viruses, and we can kill most bacteria, parasites are difficult to eradicate. They can hibernate for decades in a human body and cause long-term neurological damage if left untreated. And a parasite is easily transmittable, which would make sense as to how it spreads far and wide and quickly. But something’s gnawing at me. I didn’t see this on the slide before and even now, I don’t think I would’ve—could’ve—missed something this big.

  I wait another while until Anabelle’s fresh sample is ready. With how far she’s progressed, her new sample should be teeming with parasites. Instead, it’s completely absent of them, only carrying the virus. Which leads me to a single conclusion. There are two culprits killing the vampires. A virus and a parasite. And the parasite is new.

  Holy shit.

  “Jackson!” I call out. “Come here. You’ve got to see this.”

  My excitement overwhelms me. This is the breakthrough I’ve been searching for. But there’s no answer, and when I check, Jackson isn’t in the lab any more.

  He’s gone.

  Well, hell.

  How much could I expect Jackson to take? He is a vampire hunter. I’m anathema to everything he believes in. My old friend may feel responsible for me but at a certain point, I have to expect he will break.

  I grab my phone and type him a message.

  I made a breakthrough. But time isn’t on my side.

  Promise me, that if you have to, you’ll end it for me when I’m too far gone.

  I wait for him to reassure me that he won’t let me hurt anyone, but there’s no answer. I can’t blame him for keeping his distance, but his stealthy departure still stings.

  I don’t have time to worry about Jackson and what’s going through his head right now, though. There is a parasite growing in me, and I need to find a way to eradicate it. Permanently.

  Before it kills me.

  Chapter 14

  Adrenaline-induced excitement mixed with a heady dose of foreboding nausea makes for one hell of a shitty combination. My stomach is a dreadful mess, and I wish I could calm the fuck down, but I’m high as a rocket right now on my breakthrough. My next steps are to confirm my hypothesis and identify this parasite. I hope I have better success than with the virus. I’m fairly certain that one will lead me to the other.

  But this isn’t as easy as it sounds because I have to run genetic tests on it to see what it is. So far, this thing isn’t like any parasite I can find information on. It’s a wide world out there with bacteria and protozoa we’ve yet to discover, but I find it odd that my tests aren’t yielding constructive information.

  Though, why would they? Yes, science is fucking awe-inspiring, but most of it is based on human or animal diseases and issues. So far it feeds off only an undead host. I attempt to mingle the tainted sample with a sample of human blood but nothing happened. No transfer or replication. So I call this thing a zombie parasite.

  But I can’t help asking myself, am I doing something wrong?

  Infectious diseases are not my area of specialty. I’m writing, or supposed to write, a master’s thesis on rare blood types. Everyone knows A, O, and B, but there are actually other rare types and these fascinate me. This work stretches every bit of my knowledge and the internet only takes me so far.

  I’ll have to go talk to Nikolai or Arsen to find out more about when and where the illness showed up.

  And even then, if lady luck is kind and I get the answer, then I still have to figure out how to kill it and cure it, and this is what I’m most afraid of. Even though I am one, I have no clue how to treat a vampire. They—we—have extreme healing abilities and someone has to work extremely hard to circumvent that.

  A horrifying thought freezes me where I sit at my workstation.

  Someone has to work extremely hard to circumvent the healing abilities of vampires.

  Holy shit. This isn’t about where it came from—but who it came from. Because if there’s one thing I’m suddenly certain of, this thing is engineered. The virus and the parasite. They’re’’ too similar not to be and this isn’t naturally occurring, a random trick of fate unleashed on the undead.

  This is biological warfare.

  How the hell has someone found a virus or parasite that would affect vampires?

  Not sure if I’m excited by my breakthrough or so horrified I have to tell someone. I pull out my phone from my pocket to call Niko. Then I stop.

  Do I trust Niko? No, I do not. Nor anyone in his camp. And creepy Dr. Idiot Demetri works for him, and he’s created as many roadblocks as possible to slow my progress.

  In fact, once he left, I had the problem figured out within a few hours. What would I have accomplished if he wasn’t around to “help” me? Clearly, he’s tampered with every slide he’s prepared for me. And he is the one that caused the slide to fly in the air, and like the good vampire I am, I just had to snatch it. And with the scoring in the glass, it broke into pieces and the blood infected me. So what does this mean?

  But the thing that makes no sense at all is an infected Nikolai that started my life down the path to perdition. He was raging when he attacked the lab and turned me. It makes no sense for Niko to have infected himself on purpose without a cure. The risk is too great. And he couldn’t have known that my blood would kill the parasite.

  Was Dr. Creepo working for someone else besides Niko? If so, who the hell was it?

  I can’t know, and if I walk into Niko’s compound I might not walk out alive.

  The distrusting voice in the back of my mind asks, Is Arsen part of this plan? No. He can’t be.

  He wants Nikolai dead. Their clan rivalry pushes their survival to the limits. Perhaps he thinks a parasite would be a quick and dirty way to eliminate his rival. But no. Arsen seems as clueless as Niko on the cause of the illness. And his sister is sick. Whatever else, he wouldn’t let that happen to her.

  My head spins and I’ve done all the genetic work I can do.

  It’s going to take a couple hours for my last batch of genetic tests to process, and I have to get out of here, anyway. I take a coin and flip it. Niko or Arsen.

  I clutch the coin because I don’t like the result.

  Niko.

  I don’t have to walk into the lion’s den. But it’s important to see his face when I tell him what I’ve discovered. I need answers, and there’s nothing more telling than looking someone in the eye. Besides, Nikolai likes me. Whether or not I want him to. And h
e wouldn’t have fought hard to keep me alive and well, or undead and well, just to kill me.

  I just hope I know what the fuck I’m doing.

  Twenty minutes later, the Uber pulls up to the gates of Niko’s compound and slows to a halt.

  “Are you sure you want me drop you off here?” The driver asks, glancing at the formidable gate.

  “Sure,” I say. “I live here.”

  “Okay, then,” he breathes. “Do me a favor and don’t ask for me again.”

  “Sure, Rude Boy. Just so you know, no tip.”

  “Fine, whatever.”

  I scoff and go to the gate and buzz it as the car roars off.

  “Who is it?”

  “Tell Niko that Sasha’s here, and I want to see him.”

  “Yeah, right,” Mr. Non-Too-Swift replies. I need a better set of friends.

  “Fine. Don’t tell him. To tell you the truth I’d rather not talk to the dickhead, but it’s your cojones not mine on the line.”

  “Cohon-what?”

  “Get away from the speaker.” It’s Niko and he sounds none too happy.

  “Sasha.”

  “In the undead flesh.”

  The buzzer sounds and the gates open. I walk the long gravel walk to the house that serves as a front to the underground compound Niko has built for his coven. The house is dark, as usual, but the door is opened part way.

  I push it wide and walk inside to the marble-tiled vestibule.

  “Niko?”

  My vampire ears catch rustling in the shadows but I ignore the curious coven members who’ve come to spy on Niko’s recently turned vampire. Another door opens mysteriously ahead, and it is the great room.

  “Come,” Niko calls.

  Although I just want to speak with him here, in a less intimate part of the house, I step into the great room. Heavy drapes cover the windows letting in none of the afternoon light in and weapons hangs on the walls like fine paintings—intimidating and overwhelming.

  Niko sits in a Queen Anne’s chair before the fire. His face is brooding and unhappy. Do I care? Not really. I’m only gauging the level of danger I’m in and right now it’s in the red zone.

  “I’m glad you are here, little rabbit,” he says with oily smoothness. “Have you any news about the virus?”

  I hate him referring to me like that. And I think about Dr. Creep-a-lot and how he must know what is causing the illness in the vampires if he was working that hard to stop me from finding out it isn’t a virus, but a parasite. If his own employee won’t share the information, why should I?

  “The virus eludes me. I’m sorry, Niko.”

  “You’re sorry,” he mocks bitterly.

  “I need to ask you some questions. It might help me nail this thing.”

  He waves his hand tiredly.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “When did your coven start getting sick.”

  He huffs. “About nine months ago.”

  “Who was the first one who got sick?”

  “I don’t know. Can’t you get this information from Demetri?”

  “His answers aren’t helpful. I was hoping for a better accounting from you,” I say blandly, as professionally as I can. “When did you get ill?”

  “Shortly before I attacked the lab on campus. Close to two weeks I think.”

  “So from the first symptom to the time you attacked the lab, it took what? Fourteen days? Nine days?”

  “About that. Does any of this help you?”

  “Considering that’s a pretty large time gap, I’m afraid not.”

  Niko’s arm snakes out and grabs my bicep. He’s strong and pain rips up my flesh like a knife scoring my skin.

  “You are lying to me,” he growls.

  “Stop, Niko. You’re hurting me.”

  “Stop, Niko. You’re hurting me,” he mocks. Nikolai pulls my wrist to his mouth and his fangs flash.

  “Sure, do that, if you want to get sick again,” I say. My grim tone tips him off that something is seriously wrong.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m infected, too.”

  “What do you mean?” He looks genuinely shocked, and I’m beginning to think he may not be in on Dr. Doom’s plans for me. For the vampires.

  “Why don’t you ask your pet scientist. It’s his fault.”

  Niko jumps up and towers over me, rage flashing in his eyes. “You lie.”

  “That’s right, Niko. I lie. All the fucking time. Because I really enjoy you acting like a total dickwad to me. Because I really love it when you question my professional ethics. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about how much I adore the fact that you made me into an creature that feeds off people, and chips away at my humanity.”

  Niko runs a hand through his hair. “I gave you a gift. I didn’t have to let you live.”

  Did he really fucking believe that? What a total nut job. Who’d choose to live like this on their own? Certainly not me.

  “Is that what you call it? A gift?”

  We face off, daring one another to make the first move as the tension between us crawls up the walls of the room. He could kill me yet, rip my head off with his preternatural strength. The wheels churning in his head are probably picturing just that. His brows knit together.

  “Are you quite done?” he says coldly.

  “I wish I could be, but right now I’m dying. Again. So thanks for that, too.”

  He pushes me away with a hard shove, giving me no illusions about how he feels about me. “You know I can I smell him on you.”

  If I cared, I would have blushed at his mention of my sex with Arsen. But I don’t. I shrug one shoulder.

  He growls, a low feral grumble.

  “Oh, yeah. Didn’t have time to shower. I had work to do after I was infected.”

  “Then get to it. While you still can and find the damned cure like you promised you would. If you don’t, I’ll make sure you suffer. No more tricks. No more delays, Sasha.”

  I rub my arm where he’d grabbed me. “Sure, Niko, no problem. I’m not working with Demetri anymore so I should be able to have results faster now that he’s not tampering with my samples.”

  “Clearly the virus is already effecting your mind if you think Demetri isn’t working as hard as you are to find the cure for our kind. Don’t make any more mistakes, Sasha. Time is of the essence.”

  “I’ll be careful, I can promise you that.”

  “Sure you will. Like you were careful in your lab.” His tone is eerily calm considering the situation. Could he be in on it with Demetri? I’d assumed he’d fly off the handle after finding out his pet scientist seemed to be working against us.

  “Whatever you say, Niko. I just came for the rest of my notes. I’ve got tests running at the lab on campus and I needed to check something. Few minutes and I’ll be out of your hair.” Hopefully for good.

  I don’t know what his end game is, or what’s in it for him and Demetri, but I’m not sticking around to find out. Not when he looks like he wants to play soccer with my head.

  Chapter 15

  My head circles the drain as I wake from another sleepless night.

  It’s been two days since I left Niko’s compound, and though he hasn’t come after me, I know he’s. Maybe it’s my imagination, but it doesn’t help that I’m feeling worse than ever. I get tired, and my hunger grows but I’m too exhausted to do much about it jacking my feral responses into overdrive. And I know what’s coming. I’ve seen it. Pure, utter madness.

  And now, I walk across campus to the administration building because I’m on a mission.

  I pass the student parking lot where I parked the car that Niko bought me. Driving just isn’t as much fun without Arsen, and I can’t go near him while I’m infected. It’s pretty obvious we can’t keep our hands off each other, and since I don’t know if this parasite is sexually transmitted, I can’t risk exposing him. I did ask for help, though, sending him a questionnaire via phone asking what I needed to know.<
br />
  Who got sick when?

  What was the thing or person they were doing?

  Did they participate in group sex?

  What or who was the last thing they ate before they got symptoms?

  It’s clear that it takes some time for the first symptoms to develop, and the questions are a stab in the dark. If I can find one common thing that would narrow down how it is transmitted, it could lead to a clue as to what is the source of the parasite and maybe the source will show me the who. Just call me Nancy Drew.

  The tests return confusing results and only confirm my suspicion that the parasite is engineered rather than homegrown—much like I suspect the virus is. And this carries frightening implications. Whoever designed something that could destroy the unnatural healing abilities of vampires has intimate knowledge of us. I’m certain the creator and the leader are not one in the same. The scientific mind behind this illness is the truly dangerous one. He is the real threat to us all.

  I’m not pleased that I have started seeing myself as a vampire rather than human, nor do I appreciate my increasingly callous attitude toward my human classmates. Without my work to keep me focused, grounded, I think I’ll go insane.

  This “taking on everyone’s emotions” thing is a total drag. I sit in the quad and get assaulted by a dozen conflicting feelings. One second, I want to suck face with the guy next to me and another I want to rip his head off and watch his blood drip to the concrete. It’s disorienting in the extreme, and finding equilibrium is impossible.

  With the possibility of transforming into a feral, mindless psycho looming on the horizon, I need access to the main lab in the evenings, after hours, if I want to continue working. While I still can. The late night is my only option, and I’ll have to beg my advisor for a key since I’m a lowly grad student.