Riding Rifts (Vampire's Elixir Series Book 2)

by Pippa Amberwine

  “Dragon form.” Nindock gave such a simple reply that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it.

  “I didn’t see it,” Jevyn said.

  I turned to him. “You were asleep most of the way back, Jevyn.”

  Nindock snorted and held his hand over his mouth but couldn’t hide his amusement.

  “I was not asleep . . .” He hesitated, seeming to seek the right words, “. . . I was merely resting my eyes.”

  I looked at him with lowered lids, nodding as if to say, “Yeah, right.”

  Nindock sat up. “Anyway, he followed you here and then came back to report what he had found. I have to say I was surprised, Jevyn. I would never have you down as someone who would have anything to do with a witch. Lynnette’s quite—”

  “You know Lynnette,” I cut in quickly, straightening.

  Nindock face took on a dreamy look. “Oh, yes. Everyone knows Lynnette.” He whistled through his teeth at whatever he was remembering.

  I glanced at Jevyn, who just shrugged.

  “What do you want, Nindock, now that you’ve found us?” I asked.

  “Well, see, after I found out you paid us a little visit, I got to talking with one of the residents about what you were doing there. After I’d filled his glass a few times, he soon spilled the beans, so to speak. So, you need dragon blood, right?”

  “What business of yours is it?” Jevyn said sharply.

  “Well, all I know is, when a vamp, and there are a couple in the camp, takes dragon blood, it controls their symptoms for days, even weeks at a time. Now I know there’s only a few of you guys, but out there, in the big bad world, there must be thousands of vampires who want to be like you. If you had a supply of dragon blood. Fresh. Untainted. You could gather more vamps and get yourself an army. Fight back against SCAR and Gregori Industries instead of running and hiding all the time. You have the vampires. I have the blood. Put the two together and boom.” He made hand motions imitating an explosion.

  “What’s in it for you, Nindock? You wouldn’t do anything like this unless you’re earning something out of it,” Jevyn said bitterly.

  “My people would want to be paid for offering their services. I’d skim a percentage off the top for . . . errm . . . expenses.”

  “Blood money. I can’t allow it, Nindock.” Jevyn pulled himself to his full height.

  Nindock stood and stepped toward Jevyn until they were face to face and only inches apart.

  “It’s a business transaction, freely entered into, and my prince, might I just point out that on Earth, what you will or will not allow has no influence because here, among free dragons, you have no power.”

  The two men stared at each other, neither of them willing to back down. It struck me then that if I could get both of these stubborn, mule-headed dragons on the same side, they would make a great team. I couldn’t see that going down too well with either of them initially, but given time and a common cause, who knew.

  “Name your price,” I said before they could come to blows.

  Nindock named it. It was less than half what I’d be willing to pay.

  “Or goods to the value?” I offered.

  “Okay, or goods. Anything I can sell. Or my people can sell,” he added hurriedly.

  “You have a deal.” I spat in my hand and stuck it out, forcing Nindock to turn away from Jevyn for the time being at least. He did the same.

  “Deal,” he said. “Now, as our business is concluded satisfactorily, I’ll be off. See me to the door, Jevyn?”

  Nindock moved out into the shop while Jevyn allowed a low growl to escape his lips.

  “That puffed-up, know-it-all son of a bastard. I should—”

  I interrupted him. “You should go let him out and then come back, and I’ll explain why the deal works so well for us.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. Now go, and hurry back.”

  Jevyn was back just a couple of minutes later, looking angry and confused all at the same time.

  “So, Katie, tell me how making a deal with Nindock and his mob makes sense. I don’t know—”

  “Give me a moment to explain before you head off into a rant,” I interrupted quietly but firmly.

  Jevyn looked genuinely surprised. “I do not rant. I may go off on a short tirade about certain things, but I most certainly do not rant. If anyone around here . . .” He finally made eye contact with me, which was a good thing because holding my eyebrow aloft for so long was starting to make my face ache.

  “You were ranting.”

  He thought about it for a moment, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a way that made my insides jump around.

  “I was, wasn’t I? Sorry.”

  “You were. Now, about this deal. It’s perfect for us. We have a ready supply of blood. We have a ready supply of goods, at least until Lynnette comes back, and we’ll be able to keep an eye on Nindock when you’re not around. Add to that, what Nindock said. He has plenty of blood. If we can find other groups like ours, it will mean we can help them out and maybe get some proper resistance going. Start to fight back against SCAR at last.”

  “I don’t like the idea of leaving dragons on Earth, especially with Nindock in charge of them. On the other hand, I want to help you guys out. Okay, I agree with you, but at some stage those dragons are going to have to come back to Dracos. It’s too dangerous here.”

  “Isn’t that their choice, Jevyn?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was their decision to come live here. What right do you have to try and tell them what to do here on Earth? It was their call, and they all seem okay with it. Maybe you need to accept it too.”

  Jevyn stopped and looked at me for a few moments, I assumed thinking about what I had said. My great hope was that he would accept that Nindock’s dragons were going to be staying, no matter what he said.

  Just as he opened his mouth to say something, he looked off to one side of me. I turned instinctively to see what was happening. The air began to shimmer at one small point at the back of the room, slowly circling and extending until a fully formed tear hovered just ahead of us. I wondered initially if it was Lynnette putting in an appearance, but the whole thing looked too neat and controlled for one of her monstrosities.

  Derek was downstairs, so he wasn’t involved, which left either Nindock—but he’d only just departed—or someone on Dracos. Eventually a male dragon stepped out of the rift. He was tall and wearing the same kind of clothes I’d seen Famil wearing when I visited there before.

  “Prince Jevyn, I have a message from Famil. She wishes you to return to Dracos to see the progress that has been made. She said you would understand.”

  Jevyn turned to me, eyebrows raised. I nodded quickly. This was the best news I’d heard in ages, and if it worked out, it would mean Jevyn could stop worrying about dragons giving blood to me and my friends.

  Jevyn stepped to the rift and held out his hand.

  I dashed back to the door leading to Derek’s basement and yelled down the stairs.

  “I gotta go out for a while. Penny, you’re in charge. Make sure everyone stays here.”

  “Okay,” various voices yelled back up the stairs at various levels of disinterest.

  I stepped back over to where Jevyn was waiting and took his outstretched hand. The shock of electricity from his touch almost took my breath away. It was so intense, but I grabbed a couple of quick breaths and stepped inside.

  Chapter Four

  Jevyn

  Famil’s laboratory

  Eastborne, Dracos

  WHEN WE STEPPED out of the rift and straight into Famil’s laboratory, I was still holding Katie’s hand. It was soft and warm, and just holding it—with her interlocking her fingers with mine—felt good, but as soon as I saw Famil, and she saw me, I loosened my grip and gently shook Katie’s hand free. She looked puzzled, but I didn’t want Famil to see, mainly because I didn’t want my interfering mother to get involved and try to tell me what I cou
ld or couldn’t do again.

  I wasn’t absolutely sure, but I didn’t think Famil had seen.

  I also wasn’t exactly sure how holding Katie’s hand had turned in an instant from something pleasurable to something uncomfortable, but it had.

  I’d apologize later to Katie.

  “Jevyn,” Famil said, stepping forward to greet me with a smile that didn’t look totally genuine to my suddenly suspicious eyes. She threw her arms around me for a hug, which I happily returned. Whatever else was going on, she was still my oldest and best friend, and that wasn’t going to be changing anytime soon.

  She stepped back and then turned to Katie, all signs of the fake smile gone. Her lips were thin and her face set into some look that I’d never seen from her before and didn’t recognize.

  “Katie.” She held out her hand formally, and the two women I most wanted close to me, but for entirely different reasons, shook hands like they’d just arrived at a business meeting.

  “How’s Nova?” Katie asked. I’d forgotten all about Nova with everything going on around me and my mind and feelings in a complete whirl.

  “He’s okay. Sleeping right now. Some of the experimental treatments have left him a little tired.”

  Katie immediately seemed to get fired up.

  “You’ve been experimenting on him? Why? Where is he? I want to see him.” Her eyes were wild, searching around the laboratory.

  Famil had her hands up in defense. “Calm down, Katie. He’s tired, as am I, because of the long hours we’ve been putting in. None of the experiments have been on Nova. He’s just been there monitoring them with me.”

  Katie seemed a little taken aback by how calmly Famil had dealt with the outburst. That was the Famil I knew from when we were kids. Calm. Unflappable. Rigorous. Focused. I couldn’t think of anyone else who was so born to be a scientist.

  “Sorry, Famil. It’s just . . . well, there are so many stories on Earth about people disappearing and being experimented on without their consent. I just reacted as I would to that.”

  “That’s not how we work here, Katie. Nova is fine, just sleeping, okay?”

  “Okay. Sorry again.”

  “Don’t be. If I’d heard stories like that, I’d be quick to jump to conclusions too.”

  Having watched the two of them for a while, I thought it might be time to get back to the reason why we were here.

  “I understand you’ve made some advances, Famil.”

  Famil pulled her gaze away from a slightly shrunken Katie and looked at me.

  “Indeed, we have. Come with me. I’ve got something to show you.”

  Famil turned away and headed out of the laboratory while Katie and I followed. She took us into what seemed to be an office and indicated for us to sit before she went around the room and closed all the blinds. The seats faced a large expanse of what seemed to be a plain wall with a glass covering.

  Famil sat behind her desk and fiddled with her computer for a few moments, and then the wall burst into life, showing a blank screen with a long list of file names ordered by date.

  “Okay, after you left Nova here, the first thing we did was take a blood sample—with his permission—so we had a starting position to compare any results with. That’s this file. You can see the virus has been dyed to make it show up as blue dots in the red blood.” I heard a click, and an image appeared on the wall. It was bright red with a scattering of blue specks almost invisible to the eye, even magnified as much as it was. “So, this was right after Nova took the dragon blood you left behind, Katie. You can see the virus cells are there but not at a level that would cause harm. This is the same blood after four hours. We took photos every hour, but this will show the change more starkly.”

  Another click, and the image on-screen changed. Instead of bright red, the blood had changed to a duller red color, and the blue specks had grown substantially.

  “This next one is a side by side, a photo of the sample blood and Nova’s after eight hours.”

  The screen filled with red, brighter blood on the left and duller, nearly brown blood on the right. Both samples had large quantities of blue specks apparent in them.

  “By this time, Nova was feeling slight symptoms. Shortness of breath, general drowsiness, but not enough to affect him greatly. The next slide shows the effect of one drop of dragon blood in each sample—in case you’re wondering, it was my blood, given freely.”

  I thought that comment was intended for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

  The image when it came up was incredible. Both samples were bright red, and they had barely any tiny blue specks.

  “This proved that the dragon blood does indeed have an amazing and marked effect on the virus Nova and the other humans are carrying.”

  In the darkness, and even though the subject matter was interesting, I felt my eyes starting to close. I was, in truth, exhausted after the last few days, and the idea of getting some sleep was very enticing. Famil’s voice announcing the next slide burst through my drowsiness, and I forced myself to concentrate.

  “The next thing we did was separate out the component parts of the dragon blood, mine again, which we did by using a centrifuging method I’ve used before, which I won’t bore you with, eh, Jevyn?” She said my name loudly enough to make me jump, and I noticed the note of amusement in her voice. Katie was grinning and shaking her head at me as I realized I’d closed my eyes again.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Long days.”

  “No matter. Once we had the components separated, we tried just a small dose of each on the sample of Nova’s blood after another four hours. This slide has five images. The top is the blood before treatment, but the bottom right image is the interesting one.”

  When it flashed up, the top image was spotted with blue as were all the others except the bottom right. That was back to almost completely free of blue spots.

  “The bottom right image was the one we used dragon blood leukocytes on. This is a mix of platelets and leukocytes in fact, so we then separated that mixture and tried again to identify the effective part of the blood. The right hand image of this next slide shows the sample we used platelets on, so this finally identified that the dragon blood platelets are the active part of the blood.”

  “That’s fantastic, Famil. So, what did you do next? Is it possible to get platelets easily?” Katie asked. Her eyes had barely left the displays all the time Famil had been explaining, except to laugh at my nodding off.

  “Unfortunately, the platelets are a very small component of the blood, only about one percent, so a lot of blood would be needed to produce enough platelets to make up an effective aid. But, I knew of some work one of my colleagues was doing in one of the biolabs. He was most of the way through the process of creating artificial platelets to help in medical treatments. He gave me a sample for the promise of a dinner date and also said he would push through the research to finally get them into production. The good news is that the artificial platelets work just as effectively as natural platelets.”

  “The bad news?” I asked, just to prove I was actually awake.

  “Ah, yes, the bad news. Well, the bad news is we’ve developed a method for delivering the platelets. It’s a simple throat spray.” The screen went blank and dark, as did the room until Famil went around to reopen the blinds. Then, she stood in front of Katie and handed her the spray.

  “One spray should last a few days.”

  “Excuse my stupidity, but that sounds like good news, not bad.” Katie fiddled with the small opaque bottle.

  “The bad news is next.” Famil smiled. She looked like she was enjoying herself. I was more concerned with shielding my tired eyes from the bright light.

  “Okay, hit me with it,” Katie said.

  “It’s going to take another few days to get enough artificial platelets together to give you a meaningful supply. My colleague also insisted that the artificial platelets shouldn’t be banded around too much yet. That’s a commercial request, so they
shouldn’t be used on Dracos yet, only on Earth to maintain the lab’s control as we are the only lab able to do this. Finally, the really bad news.”

  I sat up at that. The other stuff were non-issues as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t interested in commercial espionage, just in keeping Katie well. And her people of course, I added to myself as an afterthought.

  “Go on, Famil,” I said.

  “Okay, the really bad news is that the virus is communicable to dragons.”

  I didn’t know why, but I clapped my hand over my mouth. I’d kissed Katie. That was it.

  “What are you doing, Jevyn?”

  I pulled my hand away quickly when I realized Famil wasn’t looking worried or, in fact, looking unhealthy given her proximity to Nova for the last few days.

  “Sorry, thought I was going to sneeze.” Both women looked at me as though I was an idiot, which I suppose I actually was.

  “How can it spread, Famil?” Katie asked the obvious question I’d not asked in my haste.

  “As far as we can tell so far, the only way it can spread is from a dragon consuming human blood.” I pulled a face at that idea and then stopped when I thought about it. That was what Katie and her people had been forced to do for months now. Just in reverse.

  “So as long as a dragon doesn’t drink human blood, the virus can’t spread? I just want to get this clear in my head,” I said, trying to ascertain how this affected Nindock’s people in particular.

  “That’s to the best of our knowledge so far. We’ve tried many different ways of infecting dragon blood with human blood, and that and one other method of transmission are the only two ways left to rule out.”

  “So, if you can rule those out as well?”

  “Then it will be safe for humans to be here and dragons to be on Earth.”

  “What’s the other way?” Katie asked.

  “Ahh. Errm, the only other way we haven’t been able to rule out is … errm …” I couldn’t understand why Famil was being so hesitant.

  I was even more confused when Katie and Famil seemed to send some secret message to each other on the female-mind network that males had no access to.