by C. L. Quinn
“You’re waking someone up,” Zach said.
“Good. Let’s go to our room. Tamesine and Olivia will still be there tomorrow night. This…” Her fingers closed over the mound in his pants. “This will not wait.”
An hour later, naked and happy in their roomy bed, Zach and Dez sat up, pillows behind them, a big tray of hors d’oeurves on the bed, Zach leaned over and kissed Dez on the belly as his call connected.
“Park, hey, buddy. How’s Burne doing?”
“It isn’t good, Zach. I’m so thankful that Vaz made it here to be with her, because, damn’t, I’m afraid that she might not make it.”
“Park, I’m coming to you. I want to see Bernie.”
“No. Zach, she’s unconscious, so she won’t know that you’re here. And you can’t get near her, she’s in a quarantined chamber. The further away you stay, the safer you are.”
“I feel so fucking useless. Can’t your first blood skills do anything for her?”
“I’ve tried. But this virus is inside her body, asserting its own genetic material, and superseding our own dominance. Zach, we have four top virologists here, compelled, of course, and none of them have any idea what this is. No one has seen this strain before.”
“Someone has to have.”
“So far, that isn’t true. Even Eillia and Koen have said that they’ve never known of any virus that can do this.”
“I just want to help.”
“Take care of your lady, Zach, that’s enough. If anything changes, I will let you know.”
After Zach ended the call, he was quiet.
Dez kissed his shoulder. “I’m sorry, love. You were close with those two, I remember. I’m sure she’ll be okay.”
“I’m not. Someone has already died.”
Sarah left the party early, choosing to do some of her research before daybreak. Koen had loaned her a laptop, and she’d finished with her search for ancient people in the Lake Baikal region.
In an old Buryat text, she’d found a reference that struck her as odd, and knew that it might refer to vampires.
It translated into descriptions of people who came to the village that existed thousands of years earlier.
They only came out at night, the pretty ones. They were kind and gentle, most of us were taken with them, the people would do whatever they asked without question. It is a magic they wielded, one could not resist. It came to be known as the Star Shine, because, once under the pretty ones influence, the eyes would be glazed and unfocused. In the daylight, no one would know where they were or where they went.
“Vampire,” Sarah whispered, then continued through the diary. Several passages later, she found a section that shocked her.
The day came that the pretty ones stopped coming. The people were saddened to miss their company. By then, the people had grown fond of the pretty ones. I never saw one again after they all disappeared one night. The people would gather out among the dark skies and ask the stars for them to return. I remained in the village all of my life but I never saw a pretty one again.
“Vampire,” she repeated out loud, “And the sudden disappearance of them. Something happened.”
Glancing up at the clock, she saw that it was closing in on sunrise. Sighing, she stretched and laid the book aside. Her eyes hurt and she was exhausted from the all-night party and session of research. More than anything today, she wanted the sun’s rays on her skin.
After a quick clean-up, Sarah slipped on a sundress she’d borrowed from Eillia along with some flip-flops. Adding a pair of sunglasses, she headed to the beach.
The vampires would, of course, be secured for the day behind UV barriers. This, lying on a warm beach with sunlight on her cool skin, was exactly what she’d needed after the bitter conditions in Siberia, and the stress of the new contagion.
Sarah relaxed fully on a white blanket, her eyes closed, her mind on her samples. If Xavier refused to take her home, she might as well use Park’s lab facility. She was curious to see it anyway.
Deep breaths helped her to fall asleep on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Paradise after Siberia? Oh, thankfully, yes!
“No, Dr. George, that didn’t have any clinical affect at all on any of the samples,” the tall man answered.
“We are getting nowhere with this,” a second man agreed, his English poor, but understandable.
Her eye locked to a microscope, a woman looked up.
“We must take a different approach,” she commented.
Park turned away. She should have been in bed three hours ago, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. A moment earlier, she’d checked in on Burne, whose condition hadn’t changed. She didn’t know whether to be pleased or upset by that. Vaz had been snoring in the bed beside her, exhausted beyond all measure, both physically and emotionally. So was she.
Earlier tonight, they’d given Burne an infusion of Park’s blood. It had shown no effect on the virus in a test tube, but they tried the infusion anyway with the hope that it may work. It hadn’t. At this moment, there were no good options to help Bernie.
“Go to bed,” Park whispered to herself. “You’re not helping out here anyway.”
The door leading to the quarantine section of the lab opened and a woman she did not know walked in with a black leather case.
“Oh, hello,” the stranger said. “I would have thought that you would be resting now that it’s day.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Park asked abruptly.
“Oui, you would not know. I am Sarah, blood-bond to Xavier.”
“Oh, I apologize if I sounded inhospitable, I’m tired and my mind is consumed with this situation. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Park.”
“I know. Xavier loves your vibrant hair. I am pleased to meet you, too.” Sarah came up to the window, and stood next to Park, her eyes moving to Burne’s bed. “She is not doing well.”
“No. We’ve tried my blood, which has some unique healing properties, but it hasn’t affected the mutations occurring in Burne’s body.”
“I am so sorry. I came to see if I could use your lab for some samples that I took from the ancient gravesites at Lake Baikal. I’ve been wondering if they might have relevance here. The graves are first bloods, and there is some evidence that they may have died all at once. I wonder, is it possible that a vampire illness may have indeed happened before?”
Park turned her head sharply to look at Sarah. Her first impression was that her eyes were the biggest, gentlest, most intelligent eyes she’d ever seen. This woman was a blood-bond, but other than that, she was completely human, Park knew that. Yet there was something extraordinary about her, she could feel that, too.
“By all means, yes. Please. We’ll take any hope at this time. I can have a full staff at your disposal. Lab 7 is just behind this one, clean, and ready to use. Sarah, if you need anything at all, just let me know.”
“I will. Park, we’ll work this to every possible outcome. We won’t give up.” Sarah hoped she sounded reassuring.
With a single nod, and a sad smile, Park let her know that she had hope, but not a lot of it.
“Park,” Sarah said suddenly. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Quickly, Park lifted a hand to her nose, and it came away bloody. She backed away immediately.
“Sarah, get away from me. Oh, God, this is how it starts. I’m infected.”
Park twirled and hit the intercom button.
“Dr. George, I’m showing one of the symptoms of infection. Will you prepare a cell for me?”
“Give me a few moments, Park. Stay where you are.”
“Park, just a nose bleed doesn’t…”
Park cut Sarah off. “Yes, it does. That’s how it began with Burne and Vaz’s friend who died.”
Sarah’s eyes went to Park’s swollen belly as Park dropped a hand to curve around the sleeping child. He was still for the moment.
“I know,” she said in answer to Sarah’s unasked concern.
Sarah looked
up as a tall dark-skinned man came through a sealed doorway with a mask over his face.
“Park, come this way.”
Before she followed him, Park looked back at Sarah.
“I’ll have someone set up that lab for you. Can you be prepared to begin in about an hour?”
“Of course. Take care, Park.”
“Thank you.” Park nodded to Dr. George and stayed several steps behind him as the door closed automatically.
Sarah heard the hiss as it resealed and dropped onto a bench near the entrance to the room.
This situation worsened by the day, and she prayed the niggling suspicion that these two events, this unknown virus, and the discovery of a vampire gravesite, were connected, might be true, and that it might hold a clue as to how they could protect the world. Through the years, her intuition had often been almost premonitory, a gift, she thought, from her decades-long blood bond with Xavier.
Sliding the laptop from her satchel, she opened it again to continue searching through old regional documents as she waited for her lab space.
“Are you comfortable?” Dr. George asked.
“As I can be. The bleeding has slowed.” Park held a sterile pad to her face and lowered it every few seconds to see how much she still bled.
“Do you want me to call anyone?”
“No. Baron will be in shortly and he’ll take over so that you can return to the lab.”
“You don’t want me to notify your husband?”
“Absolutely not. My mate would rush to my side and I don’t want him to risk that. Once we find out what my status is, we’ll go from there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, compliant, as expected. “Your blood sample is being analyzed right now.”
“I have the results,” Baron’s voice boomed as he walked into her cell. “You test positive for the virus, Park, I’m so sorry. Because you are first blood, onset of symptoms and appearance of the virus in your tests may have been delayed. Park, you know where we are.”
“I do. We’re still searching for answers. Make me up a bed next to Burne and Vaz.”
“Park…”
“Baron, no. We’re scientists, and we know how this goes. We’ll keep working the problem until we find the solution, right?”
“Oui.” He paused. “I’ve set your friend from Paris up in Lab 7 as requested. Shari and Aliene will assist her.”
“Thank you.” Park dropped back onto the hard bed, her mind fractured, her heart aching. The baby still hadn’t moved in the last hour. Something was wrong with him too.
Ten
Bas stared at his cell phone because Park hadn’t answered hers. After he woke, the first thing that he did every night right away was call her to see how she was doing and to hear her voice. He missed her beside him in bed worse than almost anything, and he knew that she felt the same way. Just hearing her voice kept him sane. But tonight, after twenty minutes of redialing, she hadn’t answered. Something was wrong.
He dialed another number after he tried to call the lab facility and got no answer either. “Hey, Fedor, I’m going to the lab for a little while. Cairine is up and dressed. Will you take her to first meal and watch her until I return?”
After his head of security agreed to come right away, he sent the most precious thing in his life with a man he trusted completely, and blew up the hill.
Bursting through the doors, he headed right for the isolation rooms. As he entered the area, he walked up to the glass viewing area and saw, inside the protected cell, Burne, prone in a bed, Vaz sitting on one beside of hers, and his mate walking away from Vaz as she started towards a counter in the back of the room. She stopped suddenly, didn’t move, and then turned.
“Bas,” she said, only he couldn’t hear her without the intercom engaged.
His heart nearly stopped. She was inside the quarantine, so the thing that must have changed, that he knew without being told, was that his mate was infected with the deadly virus. Bas nearly fell onto the floor.
Slowly, Park walked up to the glass that divided them and touched the intercom button.
“Baby, I was going to call you when I knew that you were up tonight.”
“Yeah, not soon enough. Park, how are you?”
“I’m okay. I had a nosebleed this morning, and we checked my blood.”
“I’ve already gotten it. Where are you on a cure?”
She hesitated before she smiled. “We’re working on it.”
“So, nowhere. Park, something has to happen here and fast. I won’t let anything happen to you or our son.”
“Of course not. Bas, try not to worry.”
He didn’t speak, but he didn’t have to. She could see the pain in his eyes.
“You are my heart, Bas, and you’re tearing me apart. I hate that you’re hurting like this.”
Bas put a hand up to the glass. Park matched his movement, palm to palm with thick glass between.
“I’ll be strong, but you’d better be, too. Don’t let this thing get you. Don’t make me have to say goodbye.”
“Never.”
“Okay, then. Do you need anything?”
“Just tell Cairine that I love her and miss her.”
“I will.”
Neither moved for long moments, black eyes locked on green, mind to mind, heart to heart, blood to blood. Bas flexed his fingers as if that would let him feel her hand instead of the cold glass. Long minutes passed before he finally dropped his hand and gave Park a little wave.
“I’m going to go.”
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you back, beautiful lady, more than yesterday, less than tomorrow. I’ll see you later.”
“Just take care of my baby girl.”
“Always. Get well. I mean that, it isn’t a platitude. Get. Well.”
“Yes, dear.”
Bas backed from the room, the door closed and he finally lost sight of his woman. Using air displacement, he flew from the lab to a cliff between the villa and the lab and just stood, toes on the edge of the cliff, and watched the sea. It was angry tonight, a storm brewing somewhere nearby.
Good. It should be. Tonight, the world got darker and uglier. If he lost her…
Time to make a phone call he really didn’t want to make.
First meal was served, the room filling up quickly. Luckily, Koen’s chef was accustomed to unexpected visitors, so he had no trouble adjusting the volume to meet the demands of so many vampires.
Olivia sat at a table with her new great-grandmother and her family. Marc, handsome, funny, devoted to Tamesine, sat at her side, the twins between them. Olivia’s exposure to children over the years was almost non-existent, but she took to the smart toddlers easily.
Dez followed Zach in after they’d started, stopped to stare at them, and then chose another table.
“Bullshit,” Olivia said, and pushed back her chair. “Excuse me,” she said to Tamesine and Marc. She walked over to Dez with a long brisk stride.
“Join us,” she invited.
“No, we’re good here,” Dez answered.
“Join. Us,” Olivia repeated, her tone now demanding.
Dez smiled and aggressively bit a piece of thick bacon, began to chew, then looked up at Olivia standing over her.
“You back-mouthing your grand-mum, girl?”
Olivia leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You want me to respect you, get your ass over to our table and play nice.”
Zach started to laugh so hard he began to choke, and pushed away from the table to get a glass of water.
Dez stood and faced Olivia.
“You’ve got my kick-ass attitude. Good. Just don’t think that it will work on me.”
“It will work on you, grand-mum. Watch.”
Olivia stared at Dez’s plate. This went on for thirty seconds before Dez looked up at her.
“I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove.”
“Watch,” Olivia repeated.
Moments later, t
he plate lifted, unsteadily at first, then slowly moved from where it was on Dez’s table to a place next to Olivia’s plate two tables away.
Everyone in the room watched the feat, and when it was finished, a nice round of applause made Olivia smile and take a deep bow. “I’ll be performing the matinee on Sundays so don’t miss it!”
She turned back to Dez. “So will you join us?”
Quiet, still, Dez finally nodded. “It appears that is the thing to do. Zach?”
Zach snatched his own plate and moved it next to Dez’s.
As they all took their seats, Tamesine glanced at Olivia.
“My, my, telekinesis. It’s a valued skill and rare. Dez, if you want to keep up, it might be wise to try your merge soon.”
A loud crash outside of the dining room brought all heads around, Eillia and Tamesine out of their chairs, Daniel and Marc behind them. They cleared the doorway to see Koen standing in the hallway, a large marble statue shattered at his feet, his cell phone hanging from his hand.
Alisa had her arms around him and looked up to see the diners slowly coming from the open doorway.
“Bas just called to let us know that Park is infected.”
No one spoke. There was nothing to say.
Koen stood outside the glass enclosure. Park smiled when she saw him and hurried up to the partition.
“Father.” He could only see the word, he couldn’t hear it.
She touched a button.
“I asked Bas to call you, but told him to tell you it was best to stay away.”
“Fuck that. You’re my daughter and you’re in danger, that wasn’t happening. Are you okay?”
“I am. My head hurts and I feel as if someone crammed concrete up my nose and filled my chest cavity with it too, but I’m fine.”
“Daughter, you’re not. You’re sick. And with child. Someone has to be able to fix this.”
Park shrugged. “Not yet, but we’ve got the best on it. I wanted to ask one last time, would you or Eillia have any ideas at all?”
