by T M Linville
“Jack, would you get to the point already?” Vince asked impatiently. “Will it save her or kill her?”
“Don’t know.” Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Could do neither. Could do both. I don’t know how strong her blood is. I know it isn’t like anyone else’s but I’ve never compared it to an elder’s. Would you be willing to try?”
Jack knew that he was asking to break all kinds of coven laws and quite possibly have them brought up on charges by the Guardians if they were so inclined. Elder blood was as sacred as anything vampire related could be. Only an elder’s blood could change a human in less than two weeks. Any other vampire’s blood was just too diluted to cause the change to occur in anything under a month, which was just an unreasonable amount of time. It could even change a human in less than ten days, if the human were strong enough to survive the excruciating transformation. Elder blood could tame a wild wolf or send a stallion racing so hard his heart would explode. But what would it do to another vampire? Make them stronger? Make them heal faster? Or would it be seen as an invader, like a virus, causing an immune response so strong that it killed the recipient?
No one had ever given Elder blood to another vampire. But why would they? All vampires were created with an Elder’s blood. But Lily wasn’t created, she was born a vampire.
Vince looked at Lily for a long moment, then to Erica and finally to Alexa.
“If we do nothing, I’m afraid she won’t survive,” Jack added with a hint of urgency.
Vince walked over to the coffee table and sat down behind LaShay who was draped across Lily’s chest. He placed his hand on her shoulder and spoke.
“LaShay?” he said. “It’s your call.”
She raised herself slowly from Lily and turned toward Vince.
“I don’t know,” she answered, nearly crying.
She looked at Alexa then Erica. “What do you think? Lily has told me enough about vampires to know that giving her Elder blood is risky. But McGoo is right, Lily isn’t just any vampire. She has Elder traits and giving her their blood may be exactly what she needs, since she lost…”
Shay began to cry and her voice cracked as she tried to continue. “Since she lost so much blood. What would you do, Erica?”
“Personally, I had much rather lose her because we tried to save her and not because we did nothing,” Erica answered.
Vince walked over to McGoo who was standing over Lily and staring at Vince for an answer.
“What are the odds it will work?” Vince asked him.
“Well since she’s still breathing, as bad as she is, I’d say she had a fifty fifty chance with or without your blood. But with your blood.” McGoo scratched his head. “I’d say that she would have a better chance with it. Her blood is strong, that’s why she’s not dead yet, but your blood is stronger. I think.”
“You think?” Vince questioned.
“Yeah, I think. I’ve never actually tested them side by side. Never had a reason to. Hers might be stronger, but yours is definitely stronger than anything else she’s been given. I’d say it would work if I was sure that it wasn’t too strong. Only one way to find out.”
Vince picked up the knife from the table, slit one wrist then the other, then placed one over Lily’s mouth and the other over her stomach.
Lily swallowed slowly and then again. For almost a minute nothing happened. Within two minutes muscle tissue around her jaw and eyes began to heal very slowly. The color of her eyes began to return and the gashes across her torso and legs began to close.
“It’s working too slowly,” McGoo said.
“Let her feed on me”, Shay said calmly.
“No, Shay, it’s not allowed, and you know that.” Vince told her.
“I don’t care if it’s allowed!” she countered. “She’s dying because of me and if there’s anything I can do, I’m going to do it.”
Shay had put the knife on the coffee table and she grabbed it. Before Erica or Alexa could stop her, she had cut a four inch gash in her forearm. She parted Lily’s teeth as carefully as possible and laid her bleeding arm across the exposed flesh and bone. For thirty agonizing seconds, Shay’s blood flowed into Lily’s mouth with no response what-so-ever. Everyone just knew it was too late. Then finally, Lily swallowed. Tears flowed down Shay’s and Erica’s face. Slowly the muscle on her face began to regenerate. Then her torso and then her arms and legs. It was slow at first, but after a minute or two began to heal faster.
The charred, exposed bones turned from black to white. Her color began to turn pink again. The muscles on her face began to cover the exposed jaw and teeth. Then the skin began to cover the muscle. The tendons holding her claws in the fingers began to turn from black to white. Muscle began to turn red as it filled with blood and seemed to inflate as it healed. Bluish looing nerves began winding their way through the muscles. Blood vessels split once then twice then spider-webbed out as the capillaries wove through the new vampire skin. Human skin then covered everything.
McGoo looked on in awe as this normal human’s blood healed Lily.
“What are you?” Jack asked her. “How did you know this would work?”
“I didn’t,” Shay answered, shaking her head.
McGoo looked at Vincent questionably. He was trying to figure out why Shay’s blood had healed Lily. An elder’s blood wasn’t strong enough, but this seemingly normal human being’s did?
“I love you,” Lily told Shay.
“And I really believe that,” Alexa said.
Everyone cried happy, thankful tears as they watched Lily hold LaShay close.
“Why in the hell…” LaShay began.
“Shhhh,” Lily said placing her finger over Shay lips.
“Because I love you,” Lily said.
Shay took a deep breath and took Lily’s head in both of her hands then kissed her gently.
“I love you, too,” Shay said as she buried her face in Lily’s neck.
“LaShay? Where is your Extranet?” Vince asked. “I want to see what happened.”
The building had its own cameras in the hallways and this particular building had cameras on the roof. It wouldn’t take much for the videos to mysteriously disappear.
Shay pointed to the desk against the wall next to the balcony doors. It was already on so Vince looked at his cell then entered the coordinates of LaShay’s apartment and searched until he found when Eric arrived. He followed the florist delivery guy into the building. Vince didn’t want to upset LaShay anymore so he didn’t ask her for any other details. The security cameras would tell him what he needed to know. He didn’t want to upset Erica anymore either, so he muted the volume.
“Do you have access to the roof cameras,” Vince asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never tried,” Shay said.
Vince pushed a couple buttons on his cell and called Parker, the coven’s computer guru. He would be able to get into the files and make sure that they were never seen again.
It only took him ten minutes to get to the apartment from the coven. He must have ran the whole way. He asked Shay for her bio-password and reluctantly she left Lily’s side to press her finger against the little black square in the bottom corner of the keyboard. The screen flashed green as light scanned Shay’s eyes. Parker typed for a few seconds and the next screen was the main screen of the building security system.
“They set up the security system so residents could review the footage if they wanted,” Parker said to anyone that was listening as his fingers flew across the keys. “Here it is.”
The first image of Eric in the building was him following the florist upstairs. He watched as he pretended to fumble for his remotes outside the door across the hall. He changed the card that came with the roses and walked back downstairs. He let in three men and two wolves and went straight to the roof. He told each of the wolves to hold LaShay so Lily could see her when she stepped outside. Then he told the vampires to wait behind the door and attack when the door closed. Then he told them to
hold Lily on the roof.
“Then nature will take care of the rest,” Eric had said.
McGoo walked over to the computer just as one of the vampires hit Shay in the face with the golf club. The second blow to the back of her head knocked her out. Blood leaked from the gash on her cheek. Then she was hit again in the ribs, the mouth and again to the face.
After Lily attacked the two werewolves, Erica turned away from the computer and went back to Lily. She couldn’t watch anymore.
Vince fast forwarded the images through Onyx’s attack and watched him change just long enough to get Shay into the apartment. Then he forwarded it to when Onyx took Eric to the roof. Eric clawed straight across Onyx’s eye and Onyx let go for just a split second, but it was long enough for Eric to get away. Eric ran to the edge of the roof and jumped to the building across the street. Onyx jumped after him and chased him across the rooftops for about six blocks then Eric ran down a fire escape ladder to the ground. Onyx couldn’t change to chase Eric. It was daytime and the cameras would catch the werewolf out in the streets. Most of the rooftops didn’t have cameras, but some did and catching a wolf chasing a man wouldn’t be all that suspicious. Onyx let Eric go, this time.
Vincent was furious.
“Eric is no longer a member of the Crown Coven,” he announced.
Alexa gave no objection.
“I want you,” Vince said, looking at LaShay, “I would like for you to come to live with us in the Crown Building.”
“I’ll give you your own place,” Vince continued. “If you want that is. Otherwise you can live with Lily, she does have two bedrooms.”
“What’s wrong with here?” Shay asked.
“You’re not safe here. And I don’t want Lily to stay here either. Eric will only up his game from here on out. If he tried to kill Lily in broad daylight, there’s no telling what he might do.”
“You are more than welcome in our home,” Alexa said to Shay.
“You can stay with us and we’ll even escort you to work and back,” Vincent added.
Shay looked at Lily, perplexed. What if I don’t want an escort to work? What if I don’t want to live with a coven of vampires? The thought scared her a little. She trusted Lily with all her heart but what would it be like surrounded by blood consuming vampires all the time? Will I be nervous all the time? Would they accept me?
“Can Lily stay here?” Shay asked Vincent.
“Not permanently,” Vince answered. “She’s not safe here. And neither are you.”
“We have plenty of room at the cov… The Crown Building,” Erica added.
“If Onyx is here…?” Lily began.
Vincent interrupted, “Even with Onyx, six against three isn’t very good odds. And Eric will only try harder next time. And I’m sure there will be a next time. He’s been beaten at his own game.”
“Shay, I know you have martial arts training, but today, it didn’t even matter, you were out before you even started. Eric just doesn’t play fair,” Erica added.
“It doesn’t sound like I have a choice,” said Shay.
Vincent shook his head. “Not really. Not if you want to be kept safe.”
“OK,” Shay shrugged looking at Lily. “When do I need to be packed?”
“We’ll take care of all that,” Alexa assured her. “We’ll have you moved tomorrow. In the mean time you can stay with Lily. Or Erica if you prefer.”
“I’ll stay with Lily.”
Jack examined Lily. He checked her heart rate, her blood pressure, her temperature and everything else he had tools for. She was healed. And as near as Jack could tell, completely. He had watched as Lily’s body transformed from a burned piece of charred vampire, into a whole vampire. He had watched the bones that were exposed and black turn white. He saw the muscle regenerate from what was left. He saw the tendons around her claws stretch and connect to bone. Then the skin grew over it all. Not only had he not seen a vampire so injured and still be alive, but he had never in his thousands of years seen a vampire come back from that point.
“Shay, would you allow me to get a sample of your blood?” He asked.
“Sure.”
She was sitting on the coffee table in front of Lily, getting in Jack’s way as he examined Lily, but she didn’t care, she wasn’t moving. Jack got a needle and took a small sample. Hopefully he’d be able to figure out what was so special about her blood.
McGoo’s Experiments
McGoo looked through a microscope in his lab. He had to figure out what was so special about Shay’s blood. And what had allowed Lily to live through such horrific injuries. Love is a powerful thing, but what brought Lily back from the brink was much more than that.
The blood on the slide looked like normal human blood. He compared it other human blood and it was very similar. There were more white blood cells in Shay’s blood, but that could’ve been explained by her injuries that day and the blood she received from Erica. Vampire blood dissipated quickly in human blood. It had to, otherwise they would be detected by the humans if a simple blood test was given after a vampire healed a human. The next logical thing for the human to do after an injury is to go to the doctor.
“So have you figured anything out, yet?” Lily asked as she walked into his lab.
“Not yet,” he said. “But it’s only been two days.”
“Whatcha looking at?” Lily asked as she nudged Jack aside.
“Shay’s blood,” he answered.
“Looks human,” Lily told him.
“Where is LaShay?”
“She took the day off and right now she’s supervising the move into her apartment across from mine. Fifty six B.”
“She’s across the hall!?” Jack laughed. “How did you manage that?”
“It was Vincent’s doing. He thought that she’d be more comfortable living close to me. He basically evicted Brian and Sarah.”
If Lily had known that it had been Sarah that had eavesdropped on her conversation to get information for Eric, there would’ve been a lot more than an eviction. But luckily for Sarah, no one expected her and Brian were spying for Eric. If they were to be caught now, there would be dire consequences for the both of them. They could only hope that if they were found out, that it wasn’t Lily or Erica that learned the truth.
“I bet Brian and Sarah weren’t very happy about it,” Jack said.
“Eh, they didn’t have to do anything. Vincent had the movers pack, move and unpack for them. They just have to go to another floor now. I think Vince put them in 52B. Eric’s lucky that he didn’t put them in 68A! His apartment. Guess there just wasn’t time to pack up his stuff.”
“So Eric is officially out of the coven?” McGoo asked.
“Yup. Alexa even agreed this time,” she said.
“Well, it’s been a long time coming. That boy should’ve been put down a long time ago,” he agreed.
After a few minutes of silence, Lily finally asked, “So why did you want to know where Shay is?”
“I want to get some more of her blood.”
“More?”
“Yes, and let me get a sample of your blood, while you’re here.”
“Why do you need my blood?”
“It never occurred to me before that your blood may be stronger than Vincent’s.”
The importance of that statement hit home with Lily.
“You mean I may be able to change vampires? Then the numbers would rise again and we can come of the endangered species list.” Lily laughed hard. “We could fill the covens again.”
“Very funny. We’re not on the endangered species list, threatened maybe, endangered, no,” Jack snorted a laugh.
“Well, since Vincent can only change the very strongest of humans, the vampire numbers are declining. He can’t change enough to keep up with vampires that are killed. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, Lily, that is correct. But don’t you worry about…”
“What about Shay!” Lily interrupted. “If Vincent won’t
change her, she doesn’t stand a chance against Eric. She can’t be a human forever, she’ll die!”
“Lily, calm down,” Jack reassured, “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about Shay, she’s safe here.”
“But she goes to work, she can’t stay here forever. She likes going to work. She would never work from home like most people.”
Lily was getting irritated and decided that she should probably leave.
“Your blood,” Jack reminded her.
“Right.”
“If you want Shay’s blood, call her,” Lily said.
Lily took a pen and small notepad out of the front coat pocket of Jack’s lab coat. She wrote down Shay’s cell number, handed the pen and pad back to Jack and turned to leave.
“You’re not going to see Shay?” McGoo questioned.
“No, I’m going to blow off some steam.”
McGoo took her blood then Lily left the Crown Building and went to Ellen’s Fight House. Eric had made her so mad that she just felt like she had to hit something. She needed to blow off some steam and knew that she could always find a fight at the club.
“Well look what the wolf dragged in!” Ellen nearly yelled when she saw Lily walk into her fight club. “Where have you been?”
“Around,” Lily smiled.
“Well welcome back. I hate you missed the finals this year. It was a lot of fun,” Ellen told her.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, it just totally slipped my mind.”
“No worries, hon. So, are you here to fight?” Ellen asked.
“Yes ma’am.”
“OK. Come with me,” Ellen said and walked toward the back.
She tapped on the computer keyboard and a screen full of names and ranks came up. Ellen scanned the screen and pushed a few more buttons. Lily took off her jacket and shoes and walked toward the ring.
“OK Miss Lily… Jenkins is here, so how about him? He’s your rank but a lot bigger than you. Will that work for you?”
“Perfect,” Lily nodded.
“Jenkins! Get in here, you have a fight,” Ellen yelled toward the back wall.
Jenkins walked in from one of the back rooms.
