Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1)

by Jenny Allen

  The sound he made was somewhere between a growl and a snort of contempt. “Would I be so excited about that? I am not some gibbering janitor playing doctor! I know how the transfusions work!” When Lilith merely shrugged, he decided to explain. “Do I really have to explain everything? You’re a forensic examiner. Surely you’ve taken Biology classes.”

  Her eyes narrowed at the infuriated look on his face. “Of course, but they were fairly rudimentary. I didn’t really study DNA structures to that extent. I process crime scenes. I know enough about DNA to do my job. That’s it.”

  With an over dramatic sigh, Dr. Fredrick Nichols, as his badge stated, sunk his bony form back down on the chair. His back straightened, his slightly long chin tilting toward the ceiling. Very purposefully, he cleared his throat and began his lecture. "As you should know…” No one could miss the patronizing tone in his voice. “DNA’s main role is the long term storage of information, a blueprint. It contains instructions needed to construct components of cells such as RNA molecules and proteins. How the DNA is packaged in chromosomes influences the expression of genes.”

  “The point? In English?” Lilith leaned against the counter rubbing at her temple.

  His beady little eyes narrowed at her and he slapped the counter so hard that she jumped in her seat, startled. “I am explaining in English. Pay attention.” The odds of her avoiding the biology lectures seemed to be slim to none. She very simply nodded and Fredrick surged on.

  “With regions that have low or no gene expression that usually contain high levels of methylation of cytosine bases, modifications can be involved in the packaging.” When she simply looked blank, he grunted. “For instance, cytosine methylation produces 5-methylcytosine which is crucial for X-chromosome inactivation.” He didn’t see the look of dawning realization that he wanted so he sighed and tried again. “It’s what allows boys to be born. It suppresses the second X chromosome?”

  Lilith finally nodded. “I still don’t see what this has to do with our blood sample. I need answers not lectures.”

  Apparently the mad scientist decided to ignore her protests. As he started rambling she wondered what kind of parents actually named their kid Fredrick. Probably the same ones that beat a kid for bringing home anything short of an A+. “When mutagens fit into space between base pairs, intercalation, the bases separate, distorting the DNA strands by unwinding the double helix. It inhibits both transcription and DNA replication, which causes toxicity and mutations. Now, in our species, this is similar to our structure. The watered down half-bloods appear to suffer from Thalassemia. The DNA structure is mostly human with mutations shoved into the cracks. In purebloods, such as yourself, it is more smoothly integrated into your DNA strands.”

  “Fredrick. What does this have to do with the blood sample? It’s fascinating, truly, but I really need answers.”

  “I am trying to give you answers. The sample is absolutely unique, because it contains two separate DNA strands, completely intact, spliced together. The dominant strand has fused itself to the other double helix by infiltrating the spaces between base pairs.”

  Her brow furrowed and she looked up at him sharply. “How is that possible?”

  A wild grin split across his face. “It isn’t! That’s the point! This is completely impossible! It’s exactly how our mutations attach to our DNA, but in this case the mutagen is an intact DNA strand of another person! It defies physics, defies everything we have known. The possibilities of this sample are simply endless.”

  Lilith sighed in frustration and pushed off the stool to pace the space between lab tables. “Well it can’t be completely impossible if it’s sitting right in front of you, can it?”

  Dr. Nichols scowled at her and the look made him appear twice his age. “It changes everything. There is no scientific explanation for how it could be possible. You have to tell me where you found this!”

  Telling the mad scientist where she’d found the vial wouldn’t help. He didn’t know anything about her family’s history. Hell she was a member of it and didn’t know enough to even give her a clue what this could mean. It could have to do with this family secret of Gregor and Duncan’s or it could have nothing to do with it. It’s entirely possible that Duncan just crammed a bunch of valuables in one box that were all unrelated.

  “I already told you. It was stashed someplace safe.” Lilith sunk down onto a stool and leaned heavily against the table. “Just more fucking questions and no damn answers.” She glanced up at Dr. Nichols. “So you have no theories on how this could have happened?”

  The doc definitely bristled at that, sitting up straight, sharp chin lifted once again. This time it wasn’t the stance of the aristocratic teacher, it was all defensive pride. “I’m still working the samples. Once I have DNA results and can hopefully identify the two different double helixes, then perhaps I’ll have a better idea.”

  “When do you think you’ll have those results?”

  “In a couple hours.”

  Lilith nodded, deep in thought. Then something occurred to her. “Do they both have the vampire markers?”

  “Well that is another of the oddities. One strand has extremely strong vampire markers, the one that seems to have attached itself onto the other. Now the other one…” He whipped his stool around and stared into the microscope. “It has markers, but they are the strangest I’ve ever seen. It’s almost as if the markers on the strong strand left impressions that sunk into the weaker strain. It’s not possible of course, but then this entire sample isn’t possible. It’s like looking at the mirror image of a mutagen and not the actual thing itself. Not to mention several other markers that I have never seen before.”

  She just couldn’t seem to wrap her brain around that one. “So the original strand may be human or it could be something else entirely?”

  His thin face frowned with impossibly deep lines. “I suppose it could be possible, but it’s definitely not human now. It’s not purely vampire either, it’s… well it’s simply unique. That’s the only way I can put it.”

  Lilith rubbed at her face in frustration with a little groan escaping her lips. “What about the other sample? The swab that I left for you?”

  “Oh that.” His tone clearly indicated that he couldn’t be less interested. “It’s nothing of any importance, classic vampire markers, strong ones. DNA will be back on that one soon as well. I’m running it through the database right now.” He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and returned to staring into the powerful microscope.

  She dragged herself off the chair since Dr. Nichols was obviously done sharing his insights for now. “I’ve got to check on a couple things in cold storage and do some work in the lab over there. Let me know when the DNA workups are complete.”

  He simply waved a boney, dismissive hand at her, not even bothering to unglue his eyes from the microscope much less say anything.

  Lilith was walking down the sterile hallway when her cell phone echoed loud enough to wake the dead. She jumped and quickly fished it out of her pocket, answering it before Dr. Nichols could yell at her for disturbing the peace.

  “Lilith? You there?”

  She jostled the phone in between her cheek and her shoulder as she opened the door to the Cold Storage Lab. “Spencer? Where the hell have you been? Why didn’t you show up at the apartment or at least call?”

  “Yes, Mom.” His sarcastic tone held no humor at all. Chance making the same comment would have made her laugh, Spencer just pissed her off. “I was going through all of Malachi’s real estate records. I didn’t want to exactly alert every house around that someone was in there.”

  “There is such a thing as silent mode and text message you know.” Something about it all just really nagged at her, but it was like trying to remember a date, the harder she thought about it, the further away it seemed.

  “I was busy. Christ, Lilith. I’m trying to help. I didn’t find anything on Phipps Bend. If Malachi was looking into it, there are no records in h
is office about it. I was going to drive out there, but thought I’d check in with you and Chance first. If I’d known I was gonna get my damn head chewed off I wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “Your father is missing; your brother-in-law and your sister are both dead. We were starting to think that you were missing too. I’m sorry for snapping, but I can’t play babysitter.”

  “You don’t think I know that? I can take care of myself. You’re the one that seems to have a problem staying out of harm’s way. Anyway...” Totally dismissing everything as if it was completely inconsequential. “Do you guys have anything at all?”

  “The police came by the apartment this morning and took us downtown for our statements. They have Chance in holding for twenty four hours or until they can confirm our stories. They’re probably looking for you, Spencer. I’m sure they’ll want to take your statement. If we play nice with the cops, maybe we can avoid some of the complications.”

  “Well fuck. So you’re all alone right now?”

  “Not exactly. I’m at the lab.” During the day they seemed to run on a skeleton crew. Blood Analysis was home to half a dozen scientists last night, but today only Dr. Nichols was still working, with Coffee still guarding the front door. “I found a few blood samples I needed analyzed for DNA. I also discovered a slip of paper in Miriah’s pocket. It’s pretty soaked but I’m going to take a closer look at it.”

  “So you have some blood and a scrap of paper? Dammit, we need to find my father before he ends up just like Miriah.” There was so much anger in his voice that it crackled over her phone. It wasn’t directed at her, more like venting extreme frustration.

  “Well I’m hoping they will tell me something. The paper is kinda thick, reminds me of a ticket or something. I’ll need to get it under an infrared light and magnifying glass to be certain.” A thought occurred to her. “Hey have Malachi and Miriah been to New York recently? I mean besides Malachi winding up there?”

  “I don’t know. Why?”

  “It’s just that I found a suitcase just inside the closet door with a luggage tag from Knoxville to New York on the handle. I couldn’t read the date on it.”

  “Well I don’t know. Miriah did lots of things for my dad, Malachi too. Maybe they did. I don’t really…didn’t really talk to them much.” Spencer rephrasing that sentence to past tense made her chest tighten. They were both dead. Sometimes she had a hard time remembering that and sometimes she really wished she could just forget.

  “It was just a thought. You should head over to the Police Station. The Detectives in charge are Cohen and Whitmore. Be careful around Cohen. He knows something.” She’d have to remember to ask Coffee if he knew anything about the almost handsome Detective.

  “Yeah I’ll head there now.” Spencer didn’t waste any time on pleasantries, he simply hung up. She shoved the phone back in her pocket and looked around.

  The cold storage lab was thankfully empty of the dozen or so silent workers that had been there the night before. There were four long black lab tables, like you’d see in a science room, complete with oversized sinks. Utility shelves in the back of the room held a wide range of chemicals in various forms and another set on the adjoining wall held an array of equipment. She should have everything she needed right here.

  Lilith pulled open the giant walk-in freezer and pulled out her cooler as well as the bags of clothes. What to do first? She stared at the contents of the cooler and realized her growing headache was getting worse. She’d popped a couple of the pills first thing in the morning, but the stress of the day was wearing on her. When in doubt, take care of yourself first.

  She filled one of the huge sinks with steaming hot water and lowered one of the blood packs into it. When you didn’t have a microwave, it was a nice safe way to warm it. In some ways it was actually better. Unlike a microwave, it didn’t damage any of the cells because it gradually brought it up to a decent temperature, rather than frying it.

  While she was waiting on that, she pulled all their clothes out of the large plastic bags. Chance’s uniquely rich scent filled his clothes and brought a smile to her lips which quickly disappeared. He was probably still sitting in that interrogation room. Detective Cohen probably hadn’t even told him that she’d been released. Part her hoped that he hadn’t told him. Lilith just knew he’d be driving himself nuts, his nerves twisting up like a top, ready to spin out of control, if he knew she was out here, alone. She pushed the thought away and took the clothes over to another large sink to soak in hot water. Once the blood on them was weakened, she could throw them into a sanitizing solution and run them through a washing machine. Good as new.

  She dug through the cooler and finally found the plastic bag containing the bloody scrap of paper from Miriah’s pocket. As she pulled it out on a clean counter she tried not to think of where it came from. She’d had enough flashbacks about that horrific examination. The blood was dried now, making the paper stiff and uneven. It was a little bit bigger than the size of a credit card, with rounded edges on one side and what appeared to be a perforated torn edge on the other side.

  As her brain rattled the possibilities around, she searched the lab for a magnifying glass. There was no real way to remove the blood without damaging the paper. If the magnifying glass didn’t reveal anything, she could run it under ultra violet and infrared light and try to record the inks color spectrum. If she couldn’t make out words, she could still determine the type of ink used and perhaps that would help narrow things down.

  Lilith trained her magnifying glass on the now red slip of thick paper. There was a date from this year, but she couldn’t quite make out the month and day. A few other numbers were half legible and there was a large 23A on the right hand corner. A ticket, more specifically, a plane ticket. It had to be. If she was right, the most important thing on that piece of paper was the date and destination.

  With a thrill traveling through her bones, she reached for the UV light, holding it over the ticket while staring through the magnifying glass. It was no help at all. Blood absorbs UV light so the entire piece just looked dark. Vampire blood doesn’t always absorb the UV light, but then in theory Miriah was being constantly supplied with blood during her…torture. The ink definitely didn’t pop out at her. Hopefully Infrared would do a better job.

  After a few minutes of searching, she found the equipment she needed. When the ink jumped up from the slip she blinked and just stared down at it. “What the hell!” Lilith shoved the infrared light and the magnifying glass onto the counter as her mind reeled.

  It was definitely a plane ticket, a plane ticket for Miriah Sanders from Knoxville Airport to New York City on a red eye flight Monday night. How in the hell did Miriah get from New York to here? She must have flown there with Malachi. He was killed there and somehow Miriah wound up dead here in Tennessee. A sudden flash of clarity almost knocked her from the stool. The suitcase, in the closet, it had to be Miriah’s. The clothes that were wrinkled in the closet were hers. Someone must have unpacked them and hung them there. It couldn’t have been Miriah. For one thing, Miriah wouldn’t hang clothes that wrinkled and secondly, Lilith was pretty certain she’d never made it back to the apartment.

  Someone didn’t want her to know Miriah had ever been in New York. Why? They didn’t have any problem killing Malachi and leaving him there. Perhaps Miriah ran back here, but why would she? In New York she’d have protection with Gregor, she had allies. She knew Duncan was missing, which only left her Spencer here as an ally. No. She must have been forced to leave. Suddenly she remembered the older bruises covering Miriah’s face, shattering her bones. It had to have happened in New York, perhaps when Malachi was tortured and killed.

  Lilith rubbed furious fingers against the growing ache in her skull. She couldn’t focus, her thoughts were scattering before she could fully form them. She reached over and snatched the now warm bag of blood floating in the sink. She didn’t bother with the social niceties of a glass. She simply tore the bag open and k
nocked it back, draining it. The effect was immediate as it warmed her stomach and instantly spread through her blood stream. A sigh of relief flooded out of her as the headache began to recede.

  There was something important, some vital connection, tugging at her but she couldn’t quite grasp it. She needed to let her mind decompress, let it relax with some menial tasks. After sanitizing the clothes meticulously and wringing them out, she stuffed them into fresh plastic bags. She’d have to make it to a Laundromat when she left here. When she left the lab to go where? If she couldn’t get Chance out of Detective Cohen’s clutches, she’d have to get a hotel room, except that her wallet was locked in the rental car. Somehow she didn’t think she could find a seven dollar hotel room. Maybe Spencer would have better luck with Cohen. He had to be a smooth talker when the occasion called for it. He was an art dealer, after all. That’s all talk. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer that Spencer would succeed in getting Chance out, the very thought of aimlessly wandering Knoxville, by herself, just chilled her to the bone.

  If Chance didn’t get out she could possibly stay with Spencer. She definitely wasn’t thrilled about the idea, not as unstable as he’d been so far. Spencer. Her eyes widened as a string of thoughts came crashing down on her like a physical weight. She fell back on the stool in complete shock. How could she have been so blind? She’d seen every emotion in his face, but she interpreted them the way she wanted to see them, not the way they actually were.

  It all suddenly fit. Spencer being out of contact, not picking them up at the airport, being hours away. Ida seeing him carrying a suitcase, Miriah’s suitcase, into the apartment when Lilith was recovering from a vicious head wound. Spencer had to have killed Malachi. Whoever attacked her couldn’t have done it. All that anger, resentment, rage. It wasn’t directed at the enemy, it was directed at his own family. The guilt was real on his face, because he was directly responsible.