by Sloan Archer
Robert’s face fell. “Is there a journal in that pile . . . one for Raquel?”
Raquel was the human actress Robert had been in love with during the 1920’s. She’d vanished without a trace on the night Robert asked her to be his wife. Robert had spent many years agonizing over her disappearance.
Marlena picked up a forest green leather journal and passed it to Robert with gentleness. “I’m so sorry, Robert.”
Robert took the journal and silently flipped through a few of the pages. When he looked up, his face was stiff with rage. “At least you killed the bastard,” he said to Marlena. “I’m only sorry that I wasn’t the one to do it.” He placed the journal back on the table and patted it lovingly. I was sad for him. “Please continue, Mercy.”
I looked at Marlena. “You thought that Michael’s murderous rage stemmed from jealousy—that he was jealous of other humans who had been able to find love with a vampire. That wasn’t the case at all.”
Marlena was stunned. “I . . . How could I have not realized what he was up to sooner? I was so blind . . .”
“You figured things out in time to save my life, Marlena. That most certainly counts to me.” I added, “And there was no way that you could have known. Michael was not just sneaky, but he was the only vampire on earth—that he knew of, anyway—who could detect the uniqueness of Cataclysmic blood. It was no coincidence that Michael happened to meet me on the night he gave me his card and offered me a job at Dignitary. He’d singled me out because of the smell of my blood.”
“Son of a bitch,” Marlena fumed. “It all makes sense, now. Michael brought in a few applicants that I’d wondered about. I never would have personally selected any of them.”
I continued. “Michael justified his actions by claiming that he was murdering Cataclysmics for the greater good of the vampire race. He would have continued killing until his visions stopped, if they ever would have. I’ve tried dismissing Michael as a garden-variety loony tune, but the general consensus amongst vampires seems to be that Michael’s visions were spot-on . . . Which is why I didn’t speak up sooner.” I took a moment to catch my breath. “I’m sorry that I hid this from you guys, but you all must understand why I haven’t been too eager to clear things up.”
Robert brushed my hair back from my shoulders. “No, sweetheart, I’m afraid I don’t understand why you’ve hidden this from me. Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you Robert!” I gazed at Marlena and Liz. “And the two of you. I don’t know . . . I guess it was a mixture of things—shame and fear, mostly. I felt like I had to prove myself before I said anything, show you that I’d never hurt any of you. I could never live with myself if something happened to you guys.”
“We know that you’d never hurt us,” Liz told me. Marlena didn’t concur, but she wasn’t really the comforting type.
“There’s also the threat other vampires pose,” I said. “What do you think they’d do if they learned that you all were sympathizing with a human who was a danger to vampires as a whole? Think vampires would be cool with that? They’d not only kill me, but all of you as well. And I dare any of you to say otherwise.”
I folded my arms across my chest. Nobody contradicted me.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Liz commented. “Michael said that he thought you’d be the Cataclysmic who’d destroy us. But his illustrations don’t even have you in them!”
Marlena spoke carefully. “Elizabeth, did you thoroughly look at those sketches in the journals? Study them closely?”
“Sure.”
Marlena shifted her eyes from Liz to Robert and then me. “Okay, you three, I’m picking up that there’s more you aren’t telling me.” She sat back in her seat and said to me, “You’ve confided in me this much. In for a penny, in for a pound, Mercy.”
I raised my eyebrows at Robert. “Well?”
“Go ahead.”
“Okay,” I said. “Well, you noticed how in those sketches the vampires were holding their fangs? That they had become human?”
“Yes,” Marlena confirmed.
I waved a hand at Robert.
Marlena’s mouth fell open. “You mean . . .”
Robert spoke up for me. “If you would have shown up yesterday, you would have seen a live performance of those sketches.” He opened his mouth to show Marlena his dull human incisors. “See. No more fangs.”
“So, you believe your recent change relates to Mercy?” Liz said with skepticism. “But how? There’s no way. She’s human herself. She doesn’t have mythical powers. I don’t care what other vampires believe about Michael’s visions. He was a total nutcase.”
I said, “I appreciate you sticking up for me Liz, but you have to admit that the similarities are pretty uncanny.”
“I guess,” she admitted. “What do you think, Robert?”
“I don’t see how Mercy could be responsible for turning me human.”
“And whatever this . . . disease is that you’ve been stricken with, it clearly isn’t airborne,” Marlena declared. “Or else Liz and I would have been affected.”
“Or we would have heard about it happening to other vampires at Dignitary,” Liz said.
“Exactly,” Marlena agreed.
Robert raised my fingers to his mouth and kissed them. “You didn’t put a hex on me, did you darling?”
“How can you possibly be joking around?” Marlena asked Robert.
Robert shrugged. “What do I have to worry about?”
Marlena was aghast. “You mean you actually want to be human?”
“If you want, I could change you back into a vampire,” Liz offered.
“That could be suicide, Liz,” Marlena said. “We have no idea what’s wrong with Robert. What if his blood turns you into a human? It could kill you for all you know. No, what has happened to Robert is not normal.”
“No, I don’t want to be human, Marlena,” Robert cut in. “And I appreciate the offer, Elizabeth. But I’m going to have Leopold change me back when he gets here.”
“Leopold is coming?” Marlena asked.
“Oh, yes. I nearly forgot that you two know each other,” Robert told her with blandness.
Marlena quickly returned to our main topic. She didn’t seem too thrilled about Leopold’s visit. “And what if it doesn’t work? What if Leopold can’t change you back?” There it was, Robert’s fear articulated by another vampire.
Robert waved a hand dismissively, though his eyes were anxious. “You’re being hasty.”
“And you’re being foolish if the possibility hasn’t crossed your mind, which I can plainly see it has,” Marlena retorted.
Liz said, “I still don’t see what any of this has to do with Mercy.”
Marlena folded her hands in her lap. “Let’s think about this. Have you done anything out of the ordinary lately?”
“You mean besides turn into a human?” Robert smiled.
Marlena sighed and then fired off a series of questions. “Prior to that. Have you sampled exotic blood?”
“You mean like tiger’s blood?”
“Or perhaps a heavy drug user?”
Robert shook his head. “I get my blood at the same place you do, Marlena. You know they test it a thousand times over before it hits the market.”
“Right.” Marlena thought a moment. “Have you been experimenting with tanning lamps, maybe built up an immunity to the sun?”
“As if such a thing is possible. No, I haven’t.”
“Injected human plasma into your bloodstream? Like with a hypodermic needle?”
“Do I even need to answer that? No.”
Marlena drummed her fingers on her chin. “Wait a second! I just had an epiphany! Have you recently started drinking Mercy’s blood?”
Robert said, “I do drink Mercy’s blood, yes. But I’ve been doing so for a while.”
“How long?” Liz asked. I was glad it was Liz who’d pushed further and not Marlena. I could tell Marlena’s brashness was wearing thin on
Robert’s nerves.
“I’d have to look at a calendar to figure out the date,” Robert answered.
“Uh, no you wouldn’t,” I told him. “Liz, not to bring up bad memories, but when were you changed over?”
Her mouth spread into an incredulous smirk. “You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re telling me that as my cold body was sitting in a morgue freezer turning into a popsicle, you two were getting it on? What the hell?”
“It was our first time being together,” I admitted sheepishly. “Robert was providing me comfort.”
“Sounds like he was providing you with a lot more than that,” Liz simpered.
“This is all very touching, but you haven’t answered the question, Liz,” Marlena quipped.
“It was sixty-one days ago exactly.”
“You sure?” Marlena asked.
“I’m positive,” Liz said with a nod. “I know because I’ve been counting the days down on the calendar. I’m planning on splurging on a piece of jewelry for my six-month vampire anniversary.”
“Here’s a theory,” Marlena began. “Suppose there’s something in Mercy’s blood that takes about two months to incubate and then it knocks vampirism right out of your system.”
“That’s a pretty farfetched theory,” Robert said. “And how would we test it?”
“Have any other vampires drunk your blood?” Marlena asked me.
“Only James.”
Liz frowned. “James?”
“Michael’s trusted hitman.”
“Right. The guy who was fried by the UV lamps in the pot warehouse,” Liz recalled.
“Yep.”
“So there’s nobody else?” Marlena charged on. “Nobody at all? Liz?”
Liz shuddered. “You’re asking if I’ve tasted Mercy? Ew, no. That would be way too creepy.”
“Yah, way creepy,” I concurred. The very idea of Liz sucking blood out of me . . . bleh. We were close as two girls could be, but even Liz and I had our boundaries.
“I suppose . . .”
“You suppose what, Robert?” Marlena demanded.
“I suppose we could have my blood tested.”
“Tested for what, though?” Liz asked.
“We could give a lab samples of my blood, and Mercy’s blood. And, if it’s okay with you ladies, we could give them samples of yours, too. That way they’d have vampire blood to test my new human blood against.”
“No way,” Marlena said. “I’m assuming you’re referring to human establishments?”
“Why wouldn’t we take the blood to a lab run by vampires?” I asked.
Marlena, Robert, and Liz looked at me like I’d suggested jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn.
“Duh. That was stupid of me.” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t need labs since you don’t get sick. So there aren’t any.”
“Vampires have labs, alright,” Robert said, trying to make me feel like less of a dullard. “But they’re used for developing medications for humans. It’s staggering how many vampires work in the pharmaceutical business. It’s a billion-dollar industry, so why not? But, no, we do not have labs used solely for running tests on our blood the way humans do.”
“We can’t go around giving out vials of our blood to humans, Robert,” Marlena scolded. “You know it’s strictly forbidden—the only exception, of course, being when they turn a human vampire. Furthermore, how would Liz and I justify the discrepancies in our blood? Our plasma would look a lot different than Mercy’s.” She sat back in her chair. “But your blood, Robert—who even knows what it would look like under a microscope?”
“I wasn’t suggesting giving our blood to just any old human,” Robert clarified. “I’m not new to vampirism, Marlena. I know the laws.”
“So then what are you suggesting?”
“I know a human who is . . . sympathetic to our needs,” Robert explained. “Her name is Shelia Davies. She’s a medical examiner here in San Francisco. We can trust her to keep quiet.”
Marlena was dubious. “And how are you sure that we can trust her?”
Liz spoke up. “Because I nearly drained her when I woke up in the morgue.” Marlena shot her an incredulous scowl and Liz defended herself by adding, “What? I was hungry! And confused. I wasn’t thinking about the possible repercussions at the time. Hey, when you wake up in the morgue as a different species, I’ll invite you to judge the recklessness of my actions. Until then, you can’t fault me. You have no idea what it was like.”
“Humph,” Marlena grunted.
“I paid the mortician handsomely for her silence,” Robert said. “And it was not a bribe, Marlena, if that’s what you are thinking. Shelia made no attempt whatsoever to extort funds from me. I gave her the money as a preemptive measure. Shelia is more of a don’t ask, don’t tell type and has absolutely no desire to meddle in vampire affairs.”
“Do you think she’d be willing to help us now?” Marlena asked. “It wasn’t like she volunteered to work with vampires to begin with.”
Robert nodded. “I do. Shelia has a great desire for money. She has an infant son and her finances are strained. She also values her reputation; she would never discuss vampires with her colleagues for fear of tainting her professional standing.”
Marlena mulled this over. “If you say the Shelia Davies human is trustworthy, I shall believe you.” This was as close to gracious acceptance as Marlena was going to give.
“Great,” Robert said, pushing his chair back from the table. “I’ll call her. Perhaps we can get her to come here now.”
I asked, “But it’s the evening. Won’t she be at home?”
“She keeps the hours of a mortician, Mercy,” Robert told me.
“Right. I guess the dead don’t abide by a nine-to-five schedule.”
Robert went into the office to use the phone, leaving the three of us at the table.
“Sad, really,” Marlena commented, regarding the journals. She sounded almost human.
Liz and I nodded.
“Which one was yours?” Liz asked me.
“That big stripy one.”
Liz picked up the journal and flipped through the pages. She stopped on the sketch with the vampires emerging from coffins. “This is just like what happened to Robert. Do you think . . . Never mind.”
“No, what? You can’t leave whatever you were going to say hanging out there like that,” I said.
“Maybe I shouldn’t.” Her eyes flickered to Marlena. “It was a crazy idea.”
“Go on,” Marlena pressed.
“It’s . . . Okay. Michael’s visions suggested that you might put the vampire race in danger, right?”
“Which I never would,” I said.
“And if what Marlena suspects is true—that your blood can turn a vampire human—doesn’t that mean that Michael was, um . . . sort of right? Look at those drawings. Vampires turning human, their fangs falling out, the sunlight . . . Doesn’t this seem all too familiar?”
“Way to state the obvious, Liz,” Marlena said colorlessly.
“This has already occurred to you?” I asked. “Why didn’t you speak up sooner?”
“You mean it hasn’t occurred to you? How could it not, Mercy?” Marlena scoffed. “And I would have mentioned something sooner, but I didn’t want to offer up the theory in front of Robert. He dislikes me enough.” Marlena didn’t expect me to argue and I didn’t. No denying the truth.
“If what you guys are saying is true, I still don’t see how my turning vampires into humans—well only Robert into a human—puts your race in jeopardy,” I said, defensive. “Robert is going to have Leopold change him back. So . . . ?”
“And what if he can’t?” Marlena asked quietly.
“I don’t see why he couldn’t,” I retorted.
“Hey, hey—we’re not attacking you, Mercy,” Liz said.
“That’s right,” Marlena agreed. “But there’s no point in ignoring the gigantic fangless elephant in the room. Until Robert gets this illness sorted out,
you shouldn’t let any other vampires bite you, Mercy.”
“I wasn’t planning on it!” I huffed. “And Robert doesn’t bite me regularly, just sometimes when we . . . you know. It’s nice when the mood is right.”
“Sure is,” Liz agreed. “I call David my snack in the sack. He thinks it’s hilarious.”
“I bet David wouldn’t mind if you drank from Mercy,” Marlena remarked.
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s nothing,” Liz dismissed. “Sometimes David gets bummed out. He wants children and, being a vampire, I could never give him one.”
“You never told me that,” I said, weirdly jealous that Liz had relayed such personal information to Marlena but not to me. I was her best friend, not Marlena.
“It’s no big deal,” Liz said. “I ran into Marlena one day at Dignitary after David and I had gotten into a tiff.”
“Really?” I said.
“No! It’s not like that,” Liz hastened. “He’s a little disappointed, is all. He wants kids.”
“So, you’re fighting because David wishes you were human?” I said, not thinking. Airing dirty marital laundry was maybe something Liz did not wish to do in the presence of her employer, though it did appear that Marlena was privy to some of David and Liz’s issues. I backtracked, “What I mean is, do you wish you were human? Imagine if my blood does reverse vampirism, Liz. You could go back to the way you used to be!”
Liz didn’t seem as excited. “I enjoy being vampire. I never thought I would—on account of being changed without my consent. But I do love it.”
I was not expecting such an enthusiastic response.
“But, uh, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention any of this to David. If he thinks there’s even a chance that I could become human again, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
That didn’t sound good, Liz keeping secrets from David. She was usually so open with him about everything. I hoped there wasn’t trouble in paradise, with Liz and David being newlyweds.
“See, Mercy, you should consider changing over. I love it, Liz loves it, your man loves it. And you aren’t getting younger,” Marlena announced, subtle as always.
