‘Well, this is where the good news comes in. A-and I’m just going to come out and say this, so brace yourself. You… You’re a vampire.’
Juliana looked at Leanne blankly for a moment and then burst into laughter. ‘Oh… Yeah, of course… I’m a… That’s such a funny–’
‘You already noticed the fangs,’ Leanne said. ‘You’re ignoring them because you don’t want to notice. Your skin is cold. Room temperature, actually. You were bitten and killed by a vampire, Juliana. You are a vampire.’
The laughter died away. ‘Let me out of this place!’ Juliana snapped and swung her legs out of bed.
‘No, really. You need to–’ Leanne was cut off as Juliana reached out and pushed her. Leanne was a bigger woman and the fact that it was so easy to send her sprawling onto the chair she had got up from should have raised more red flags, but Juliana just wanted out. She started for the door, but at that point it opened and Dione stepped through it.
‘That will be quite enough of that,’ Dione snapped. ‘Sit down, young lady.’
‘Who are you? Let me out!’
Dione raised her voice. ‘I said sit down!’ Juliana flinched back and Dione stepped forward until the new vampire had retreated back to the bed. ‘Good,’ Dione said, her voice lowering to its normal honeyed tone. ‘We hoped that having Leanne here when you woke would help, but I see that you need a firmer hand.’
‘Go easy, Di,’ Mary said from behind Dione. ‘It’s a shock when–’
‘It might have been several centuries ago, but I woke up the same way. And with no one to tell me what to do.’
‘I’m okay, Di,’ Leanne said. ‘Really. My pride is a little bruised, but I’m not.’
‘Good. I won’t have to slug her for you. Juliana, you’re a vampire, and I realise that this has come as something of a shock, but we’re not what you think and you can “live” with this. If you want to.’
‘You’re one?’ Juliana asked.
‘I’m Dione and, yes, I’m a vampire. This is Mary, and she’s also a vampire. We’re here to help you get through this. All of us are. There’s no delicate way to put this… Your death was very public. Your old life is over. We’ve arranged a new identity for you. Mary and I will be taking responsibility for you while you learn the ropes. Normally it would be the job of the one who converted you, but he’s no longer around.’
‘He’s dead?’
‘He was dead before he bit you,’ Leanne said. ‘Now he’s… permanently dead.’
‘I don’t want this.’
‘No, I’d imagine you don’t,’ Dione agreed. ‘But here is what we’re going to do. You need to feed. Drink blood. If you don’t, it’s a long, lingering end. And in about six hours, you’re going to start feeling a craving you won’t understand or be able to control. You’ll be a danger to anyone near you. So, Leanne and some other people are going to gift you some of their blood. You won’t need to take any more from anyone for a month. If, at the end of that month, you still feel that you want to end it… Then I’ll make it quick for you.’
‘I have to drink blood?’
‘It sort of goes with the concept.’
‘I’ll go first,’ Leanne said. ‘We should do this before you have too much time to think about it.’
‘The wrist is usually preferred for a more formal supplicancy,’ Dione suggested. ‘The neck and thigh are a little too intimate.’
‘Thigh? Oh… Yes, that’s a little…’ Leanne stepped to the bed and held out her left arm. ‘You’re a nurse, Juliana, you know where the veins are.’
Juliana took Leanne’s arm in her hands, holding it as though she might break it. Her tongue ran over her fangs and she leaned forward. Then she backed off. ‘I… This isn’t natural.’
‘It is!’ Leanne said, smiling. ‘That’s what got me. It is natural, in a weird sort of way.’ She looked at Dione. ‘We’ve got time and Juliana’s got medical training. She’ll understand. Doctor Winthrop? I want to show her the virus.’
The newest vampire blinked at the doctor. ‘There’s a virus?’
Fifteen minutes later, Juliana leaned back from the microscope. ‘That’s what did this to me?’
‘That is what was passed to you,’ Winthrop said. Juliana seemed a little calmer: the kindly old man seemed to be helping to lend authority to the whole business. ‘What “did this to you” was a badly wounded, deranged vampire. Most of them are… Well, they’re regular people who happen to be dead.’
‘If it’s a virus, can it be cured?’
Winthrop gave a small wince. ‘There’s only one known agent able to kill it, and that then turns you into a monster before you end. It’s a tough beast. None of the known antiviral agents work on it. But if we could provide a “cure,” it would not result in you being human again. Or not a live one anyway.’
‘The only ways a vampire can die,’ Dione said, ‘are starvation or sufficiently massive damage to stop healing. If you decide that you really can’t go on, I’ll–’
‘No,’ Juliana said firmly. ‘I can’t ask you to do that, and if I starve myself to death… Suicide is a mortal sin.’
‘Hmm… Technically you can’t commit suicide, you’re already dead, but I will accept that your current view of things leaves you in a difficult position there. I’m asking that you give it a chance.’
‘I was in the same position as you,’ Mary put in. ‘Worse, though I won’t go into that now. My father was a minister. I grew up with Christianity, I found myself waking up as a monster, but I had help, eventually, and I grew to like what I am. Except for being stuck at this age. That really sucks, but you can make a life for yourself. We’ve even got a job for you.’
‘And,’ Leanne said, ‘it is not unnatural. It may be weird, and it may not be fully understood, but vampires are the result of one natural organism’s action on another at the moment of death. They don’t think they’re alive, and there are a few oddities about their biology, sure, but do Di or Mary really look dead to you? Do you feel dead?’
‘I feel… kind of cold,’ Juliana replied.
Leanne held out her arm again. ‘Chomp down, you’ll feel better. You can consider it doctor’s orders if it makes it easier.’
‘Not here,’ Dione said. ‘The medical bay. There will be some bleeding until the healing effect kicks in.’
Leanne giggled. ‘At least we’ll have a nurse handy.’
They retired to the main medical room where, once again, Juliana took Leanne’s arm and steeled herself.
‘I’m going to stop you after a few seconds,’ Dione said. ‘We don’t want to take too much or we could risk harming your supplicant.’
‘They won’t… turn?’ Juliana asked.
‘Only if you kill them. Bite in sharply, don’t hesitate. The virus acts quickly to dull any pain, but if you hesitate, it can hurt. Quick and clean.’
‘Like putting in a needle,’ Leanne added.
Looking like she was about to bite into mouldy food or something, Juliana leaned forward, placed her mouth over Leanne’s wrist, and bit down. Leanne gasped, and then relaxed as the euphoria spread through her.
‘Oh… I can see why people like this. I mean… oh… wow… Last time it was panicked and… mmm.’
‘That’s enough,’ Dione said, and Juliana pulled away quickly. Lisa was there to slap on a sterile pad which Leanne held in place before wandering over to a chair and slumping down.
‘I feel really… dreamy,’ Leanne commented, dreamily.
‘And you’re not even getting the good stuff,’ Lisa told her.
‘Everyone I bite is going to act like that?’ Juliana asked.
‘Not everyone,’ Dione replied, ‘but most of them. The effect is quite strong and lasts for several minutes, usually. It doesn’t take hold in some people every time. In about fifteen minutes, another effect kicks in and Leanne will start healing at an accelerated rate.’
‘Um… oh. There seems to be a lot to learn.’
‘You have no idea. Who
’s next?’
‘I’ll go last,’ Lisa said. ‘Leanne should be sensible enough to put my dressing on by the time we get there.’
‘I guess it’s me then,’ Mike said. ‘Hi, I’m Mike, Leanne’s boyfriend.’
‘I’ve seen you at the hospital,’ Juliana replied.
‘Great.’ Mike held his arm out. ‘Be gentle, it’s my first time.’
‘Fibber!’ Leanne said, giggling. Mike rolled his eyes.
‘Don’t worry,’ Lisa told him. ‘You’ll probably still be high when she comes down.’
~~~
Basic first aid had stopped the bleeding, but when the wounds were all checked thirty minutes after the feeding session, Mike’s and Lisa’s bites had not closed properly. Lisa was being taken back to Dione’s apartment, so it was likely that that would not be an issue, but Mike and Leanne were staying over in Mary’s guest room while Mary kept Juliana company in SCU.
Dione took Mike and Leanne up to Mary’s apartment, via an elevator which only stopped at the back of SCU and the top floor of the apartment block behind the precinct building. Mary had an oddly wrong sort of home. For a woman who looked to be in her mid-teens, she lived in a very adult setting. Except for the huge entertainment centre in the lounge, which was equipped with several different consoles as well as two PCs.
‘Mike’s not healing properly,’ Dione said as she showed them their room. ‘I’m sure you’ll complain, Leanne, if you don’t get the same treatment, so I’ll give you both a kiss goodnight and leave you to… whatever happens.’
Mike turned around. He was not really feeling too bad after this bite whereas Leanne looked a little shadowed under the eyes. ‘I’ll be fi–’ He was cut off as Dione’s mouth locked over his and his head began to spin.
Leanne took no encouragement to get her to lock lips with the vampire: she had felt the effects before. A smirk on her face, Dione swept out of the room to pick up Lisa.
‘Quite something, isn’t it?’ Leanne asked as she sat on the bed beside Mike.
‘Uh… yeah,’ Mike replied.
‘How are you feeling? Because I don’t want you–’
‘Horny,’ Mike interrupted her. ‘I’m feeling like I have the biggest erection I’ve ever had in my life.’
‘Oh… Good, because I’m gagging for it right now.’
Mike needed no further enticement.
~~~
Relieved of the need for blood, Juliana’s acceptance of her state appeared to have wavered, but she was wobbling between the bargaining and depression stages of grief at her own death, and particularly about what that meant. Mike and Leanne had come down from Mary’s apartment to see how the filia was doing, and what they found was Mary trying her best to be patient.
‘She says I can’t see my family,’ Juliana snapped, so maybe there was some anger to deal with too.
‘They think you’re dead,’ Leanne told her. ‘You were dead.’
‘They buried you,’ Mike added. ‘Leanne and I were at the funeral.’
Leanne looked at Mary. ‘I still don’t know how you did that. I mean, I saw the coffin going in. They had a viewing before that at the funeral home.’
‘This is not our first time,’ Mary replied. ‘The viewing was real. The burial was closed casket, so we took her out of the funeral home and they buried a dummy.’
‘Oh… The point is, Juliana, that your family think they lost their daughter. What are they going to say if she comes back, with fangs?’
Depression kicked in again as Juliana slumped on the bed and looked pleadingly at Leanne. ‘But I love my family. Them, and my job, were really all I had.’
‘Then you can’t deliver a shock like this to them. And you have a new job.’
‘More or less the same job, actually,’ Mary said. ‘A little less clinical, and probably less work, but… it’s important to us. Important to me.’
‘W-what do you want me to do?’ Juliana asked.
‘Look after Winthrop.’
‘Doctor Winthrop? He’s old, but–’
‘He has a slight malformation of the spine,’ Mary interrupted. ‘It’s congenital and when he was younger it rarely bothered him. Now it’s getting worse and there are days when he finds it hard getting out of bed because of the pain. The prognosis is that he’ll be in a wheelchair most of the time in five years and good luck with keeping him in it. He doesn’t exactly need a nurse now, but he will. So you’ll be his nurse and housekeeper, progressing more from the latter to the former as time goes on.’
Juliana looked at the apparent teenager for a second. ‘I like Doctor Winthrop.’
‘Well, he’s part of my pack, which makes him like my brother, or maybe a slightly disreputable old uncle.’ Mary’s gaze turned to Leanne, whose eyebrows had risen. ‘Yes, disreputable. He’s always on his best behaviour around new people.’
‘You haven’t heard him holding forth about succubus feeding practices,’ Mike put in. ‘If Di’s around when he explains it to you and Lisa, you’ll get to sit through his explanation of this experiment he wants to do with a lot of cameras to catch all the angles, in normal light and infrared, and high-speed so you can slow it down to get all the nuances.’
Juliana was looking blankly at them. ‘It’s kind of complicated,’ Leanne told her, ‘but there are loads of different kinds of vampires. Dione’s a succubus and they tend to have sex while they feed. Actually, quite a lot of them seem to do that…’
‘It’s more of an imperative for succubi,’ Mary said. ‘Anyway, Juliana, you’ll live in Winthrop’s apartment. We’ve arranged a new identity, Juliana Tebbit. You’re a registered nurse, born in Syracuse. You’ll need to familiarise yourself with all that. You’ll probably end up being dragged into helping in the lab too… Yeah, probably best. You can help him with lifting things if nothing else. We’ll train you up in forensics, I think.’
‘What is it you do here? I mean, you said Dione was a succubus… I kind of figured she was a, um, sex worker when I saw her.’
‘The outfit she was in?’ Leanne asked. ‘We were out at a club before coming here. I don’t live that far away so I had time to get changed.’
‘She’s a cop,’ Mike said, ‘and what the vampires call a Hunter. She and I hunt down vampires who’ve gone bad.’
‘She’s a policewoman?’ Juliana said, her tone carrying a distinct hint of disbelief.
‘She’s the Hunter,’ Mary stated. ‘She’s the best one there is. The best one there’s ever been. And you should consider it an honour that she’s sharing the role of your foster creatrix with me. They normally assign the job to a senior vampire and she put herself out on a limb to persuade the Concilium to let me do it. If she hadn’t, we’d be shipping you to the West Coast or something. So stop messing around and come to terms with it. You’re a vampire. You’re part of something important here in New York, protecting the lives of all those humans out there who don’t know we exist, and that includes your family. So… suck it up, girly.’
~~~
The shriek drew Winthrop’s attention away from his PCR machine and he heaved a sigh. He had said he would look after Juliana while Mary caught up on sleep and gunned down some poor, unsuspecting denizen of her online game, and the new vampire had been quiet for the last ten minutes: he had hoped to get some work done.
Walking out from his lab, he made his way to the medical bay and, at first, could not find Juliana. Then he looked in the open door of the little toilet and shower room, and there he found her. Juliana was staring at herself in the mirror as though the face looking back at her was somehow horrifying.
‘Juliana?’ Winthrop said, trying to keep the weariness from his voice.
Juliana’s head flicked around to look at him. ‘My eyes are green!’
‘Yes. Quite a pleasing shade, if you’ll take my opinion.’
‘My eyes are green! My eyes aren’t green, they’re brown! What happened to my eyes?!’
‘Ah. Iris colour changes are not uncommon in carpathi
an conversions. The virus favours green or blue, probably to assist in mesmerising victims. More startling.’
‘Mesmer– What?’
‘Carpathians have a talent for hypnosis, brainwashing of various sorts, and various skills which make it easier to capture their prey, as it were. Most of them don’t bother to learn to use it these days. It’s easy enough to find a supplicant without resorting to hunting.’
‘Oh.’
‘It could be worse. Succubi undergo far more obvious physical changes to facilitate their “ecological niche.” Larger, rounder breasts, longer legs, fuller hips.’
‘That’s why Dione is, um…’ Juliana mimed a pair of truly enormous breasts over her own, rather smaller ones.
‘Well endowed? Partially. I believe she was reasonably blessed before being converted. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some work to do.’
‘Could I sit in there with you? I don’t really want to be alone, a-and they tell me I’m going to be your, um, nurse, and they said I could maybe help in the lab and in the field…’
Holding back a sigh, Winthrop nodded and Juliana followed him out of the medical bay. ‘I don’t really need a nurse, you know?’
‘Yes, sir, I can see that.’
She was humouring him, and he knew it. Worse, he was humouring himself and he hated doing that. ‘Except on some days. The pain is controllable, but it will become less so.’
‘Mary suggested that might be the case, sir.’
‘Please don’t call me that. Everyone calls me Winthrop.’
‘Okay, sir. Um, I’ll try anyway.’
That caused a slight grin to form. ‘Good. I could also use some help with lifting and carrying. I realise it’s rather menial, but you’ll find you’re considerably stronger than you were.’ They had reached the PCR machine again and Winthrop checked it: all seemed to be fine. ‘You need to be careful, however. You don’t feel pain the way you did so it’s quite easy to exceed safe limits and tear something. Of course, you’ll be able to repair the damage faster than a human, but it’s still inconveniencing.’
‘I guess I won’t know what I can do until I try.’
‘Good attitude. Just be careful what you try. You have Mary, and Dione, to help. I suggest you take their advice. Neither of them are carpathian, but even Mary has over a century of experience with being a vampire.’
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