by T M Linville
“Lily? Hell yeah!” He yelled. “Let’s do this!”
Jenkins held the top rope up as Lily stepped through. He stepped through himself and waited until Lily was across the ring. He stretched his arms and his claws on his hands came out. Then the claws on his feet and last he pushed his canines into view. Lily did the same. The referee climbed into the ring and the doctor sat in a chair by the wall.
The buzzer sounded and they both headed toward the center. Lily took a swipe with her left hand then a hook with the right. She was surprised when the hook connected. That almost hurt me! Lily thought. She kicked at his head and their shins met in the air as he kicked back. There was an audible pop when they hit. Lily then turned, jumped and kicked a perfect round house right into Jenkins right jaw. Lily turned again but this time her feet were swept out from under her and she hit the concrete hard. It took a moment for her to refocus. She rolled out of the way of a foot stomp from her opponent then jumped to her feet. He took a swipe with each hand and connected the second across Lily’s chest and shoulder.
“Yeah!” Jenkins yelled out. “Blood! Smells like human blood, Lily!”
Jenkins licked the blood from his claws.
“It even tastes human,” he smiled.
Lily didn’t say a word and went straight at Jenkins. When she was within reach, she started swinging. First he ducked but Lily kept swinging. She connected three consecutive swings across each side of Jenkin’s head when he stood up. He put his arms around his head and ducked again. Lily kept coming.
“Time out!” The referee yelled.
Lily stopped and took three steps back.
“You OK Jenkins,” the ref asked.
“Yeah,” Jenkins said shaking his head and rubbing his jaw.
Blood dripped onto his shirt and floor from the many gashes. He shook his head and waited a moment while he healed.
“Fight!” The ref called out.
This time Lily stood her ground and let him come to her. He took a running start, jumped and came down with a right punch. Lily stepped out of the way then swung her leg to meet his. He went down with a thud flat on his back. Lily was on him before he could clear his head. She straddled him and began punching, left then right then left again. All Jenkins could do was cover his face with his hands. Lily kept swinging.
“OK,” Jenkins mumbled from under his forearms.
The buzzer went off just as the referee yelled, “Fight goes to Lily.”
Lily stood up and offered her hand to Jenkins. He took it and she pulled him to his feet. He brushed himself off and looked toward Lily.
“Next time, human,” he joked.
McGoo took the elevator from the basement below the garage to the fifty sixth floor. He was carrying an old black medical bag. He walked to LaShay’s apartment and knocked on the half open door.
“Hello?” He shouted as he stuck his head inside.
“Coming,” Shay called from the back bedroom.
“It’s Jack,” he called back.
The movers walked out of the back room in front of Shay.
“What can I do for you, Doc,” Shay asked.
“I came to get another sample of your blood, if that’s alright,” he told her.
“Sure, why not,” she said. “Can I sit?”
“Of course,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out why your blood healed Lily. And why she survived such a horrendous attack. I’ve ran tests on your blood but they all come back normal. If you would be so kind, could I get a couple vials from you today so I won’t have to ask you again any time soon.”
Shay sat on the arm of her couch and lifted her arm, palm up to McGoo.
“Oh, thank you,” he said.
He took the blood quickly, thanked her again, told her the apartment looked nice and was on his way back to his lab.
He removed the three glass vials from his bag and placed them in a holder with LaShay’s other blood sample. He poked a needle through the rubber end on one of the new vials. He placed a drop on a slide, covered it and put it under the microscope. He saw plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Nothing unusual.
Then he took a sample of Lily’s blood and placed it on a slide. Lily’s blood was very similar to Shay’s. But in addition, it had stem cells floating around in the sea of red blood cells. The stem cells were larger than the other cells in the blood and had a visible nucleus. There were also more white blood cells in Lily’s sample. Although it couldn’t be seen here, McGoo knew there was also the virus that had created the vampires in the beginning. The virus had been mistaken for influenza ever since human scientists has first seen it in the 1930’s with the invention of the electron microscope. McGoo had an electron microscope built from his own schematic almost fifteen years before the humans.
Under an electron microscope, the virus looked almost exactly like influenza, a ball with spikes all over it. At the ends of about half of the spikes there were clusters of small oval shapes. But in the vampire virus, about three of those spikes ended in a single long, oval shape. It was a detail so small that human scientists had never realized that the virus they were seeing would create an entirely different species. Luckily, vampire scientists in the virology field had kept the vampire virus from being confused with the influenza one during flu research.
This vampire virus could replicate itself so rapidly in human blood that it literally took over. Quickly, if the volume of vampire blood was equal to or more than five parts human blood to one part vampire blood. When enough of the virus is introduced to human blood, the virus begins to create stem cells that make more stem cells that take the place of every cell in the entire human body. That’s why the transformation is so painful. It literally rewrites the entire DNA code in a week. The human that is changing feels the dying of the old cells and the replacement with new cells. It’s like the equivalent of recovering from major surgery of your entire body. Everything inside has been cut on or moved and the body fights to heal it. It once was a process that only took a couple of days. Now, the human has to endure ten to fifteen days of agonizing pain. Most did not make it through the change.
McGoo never thought that Lily’s blood was special so he never had a reason to study it. Now he did. This whole time he just believed that her blood was just a mix of human and vampire blood. He made more slides of Lily’s blood and studied each of them. He did notice that there was less plasma in Lily’s blood. Which meant that her blood consisted of a higher concentration of all the other components. And after examining the sample under an electron microscope, the blood also had more of the virus. As near as he could tell, Lily had about one third more virus in her blood than vampires.
“Humm,” he thought out loud.
He got up and rummaged through a rack of blood samples in his refrigerator. He found Vincent’s blood sample and made a couple of slides. Over the centuries, Vincent’s blood had weakened, but Jack could never figure out why. Now he knew. It had simply thinned. There was more plasma than Lily’s sample and nearly half as many platelets. Lily’s blood was stronger.
One could only pump so much blood into a human’s body. The average body can only hold about five liters of blood. And with less virus and less stem cells, it takes longer for the change to happen. It took longer for the virus to affect every cell because there was less virus. At least that was Jack’s theory. The only way to test it was to change a human with Lily’s blood.
Jack went straight to Vincent.
“Absolutely not!” Vincent nearly yelled.
“But Vince, if her blood…”
“No!” Vincent said sternly.
“Vince, you’re not listening!” Jack yelled back. “Lily’s blood may be the answer to changing vampires like we did centuries ago. Look how empty this building is. At one time a coven would fill every room in this building and then some. You know our numbers are declining. They have been for decades, Vince. Lily may be able to raise our numbers again and be as strong as we once were.”
&nbs
p; “Our numbers are fine,” Vincent countered.
“The Nashville coven is empty. The Houston coven is at less than half its capacity. The Seattle coven lost over thirty vamps just last year. Our coven has let feeders go into the free world and live their lives there because they just weren’t needed. We’ve kicked out feeders, Vince. Our numbers are dwindling. And you know it. When was the last time you successfully changed a human?”
Jack waited for an answer. After a moment of silence, he continued.
“If Lily’s blood could even cut the time in half that could mean that twice as many survive.”
Vincent shook his head and looked over at Alexa who had entered the room shortly after Vincent and Jack began yelling. She heard the conversation.
“What do you think, Lex?” Vince asked.
“What could it hurt?” She answered.
Jack crossed his arms and looked at Vincent.
“Well? What do you say?” Jack asked.
“Fine, as long as it’s not Shay,” Vincent finally answered after a moment of silence.
“Lily wouldn’t allow that anyway,” Jack shot back.
Vincent just shook his head and continued what he had been doing when McGoo arrived, reading reports from the other coven leaders. Jack smiled at Alexa and mouthed Thank you.
Lily returned to the coven and went directly to Shay’s. Then she remembered the little box she had made. She had finished it and had written a short letter and decided to give it as a housewarming gift. She ran and grabbed the box with the letter inside. She knocked on the door and waited. After a minute, Shay answered, covered in sweat and breathing heavy.
“Why are you knocking?” Shay asked her.
Lily looked around the hallway and shrugged. “I don’t have a remote yet.”
“That’s a good reason,” Shay smiled and grabbed Lily’s arm.
She pulled Lily into the living room and stopped.
“What do you think?” Shay laughed.
“Looks just like your apartment.”
“Yup! Now come on and help me move the guest room around.”
“Why didn’t you have the moving guys move everything?” Lily wondered.
“They had already left when I decided I didn’t like it.”
“Wait, I have something for you,” Lily said.
“For me?” Shay questioned.
“Yes. I made it.”
“Aww. Really?”
Lily handed Shay the little box made out of craft sticks. The letter was inside. Shay took the box and looked it over. The box was an oval shape and had little diamond shapes on each side. On the outside there was a peg that held the lid on.
“Are those craft sticks? How did you get them to bow like that?”
Shay tried to open the lid but it wouldn’t budge. Lily reached over and pointed to the little peg protruding from the side. Shay slid out the peg and opened the box. The tiny music apparatus came to life and played the first thirty notes of Fir Elise as she looked inside and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She looked at Lily as she opened it. She read the short, hand written letter that told her how much Lily loved her. She wrapped her arms around Lily’s neck.
“Thank you. I love you, too,” Shay told her.
Lily took a deep breath, hugged Shay tight then followed her into the back bedroom. When Shay turned to face Lily, she noticed a small drop of what looked like dried blood on Lily’s neck.
“What happened? Is that blood?”
Lily had never told Shay about fight club. And really didn’t want to now. But she didn’t want any secrets between them either.
“It happened at a place called ‘Ellen’s Fight House’. It’s place where vampires go to fight with other vampires.”
“Fight?” Shay questioned. “Like as in claws and fangs fight?”
Lily only nodded.
“Why?” Shay asked.
“To blow off steam mostly. I started when I was young as a punishment by Vincent. I was young and bored and fighting with the other young vampires and feeders in the coven. I think Erica took me there just to scare me. But it backfired. I enjoyed fighting. I had been fighting with Eric my whole life. And it just came naturally to me.”
Shay took a deep breath and stared at Lily for a moment.
“You enjoy fighting?” Shay asked slowly. “And I have Eric to thank for that?”
“I won’t go anymore if you don’t want me to.”
“Can I go with you?” Shay asked.
“No, it’s not a place that’s safe for humans.”
“I don’t want to tell you that you can’t go. But what if you got hurt?”
“I won’t. Really,” Lily reassured. “I’ve never been seriously hurt in the one hundred plus years I’ve been attending.”
“Then I’m not going to stop you,” Shay said.
“I don’t have to go,” Lily told her. “Today is the first time I’ve been in months. Well, since I met you,”
Shay wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t want to tell Lily she couldn’t go but she didn’t want to tell her she could, either. She knew nothing about vampire fighting and was afraid to ask.
“I’m not going to tell you that you can’t go, Lily. But you fighting scares the hell out of me.”
Before Lily could respond, someone knocked on the front door and Shay went to answer. Lily was only a few feet behind her. She didn’t know who could possibly be knocking on the door already.
“Hey Doc,” she said when she opened the door. “Need more blood already?”
“Well yes, but not yours. I assumed Lily would be here.”
“You assumed right,” said Lily. “Why do you need more of my blood?”
“I actually need all of your blood,” Jack told her.
“Huh?” Lily and Shay said at the same time.
“I would like for you to administer a blood transfusion to a human.”
“You want me to change a human? I can’t do that! What will Vincent say?”
“Vincent knows and I have his approval,” McGoo reassured.
Lily looked at Shay and Shay looked at her. Lily shrugged and looked at Jack. About then, Alexa appeared behind Jack in the doorway.
“It’s an experiment Lily,” Alexa stated.
“An experiment to what? Watch me kill a human after a couple of weeks of agonizing pain? What are you thinking, McGoo?” Lily asked.
“I think your blood is stronger than Vincent’s. Actually, I know it is.”
“Then I assume this is not open to discussion,” Lily smirked.
“Not really,” McGoo confirmed.
“Well then Shay is coming to keep me company,” Lily demanded.
“No arguments here,” McGoo agreed. “Tomorrow at noon in my lab.”
Lily nodded, watched Jack leave then went back to rearranging the back bedroom with Shay.
The next morning at around eleven thirty, the girls headed down to the lab to meet McGoo. Vincent was waiting in the lab when they arrived. Standing beside him was a rather large man. Muscular with a heavy build and broad shoulders. He was already wearing a hospital gown that was more paper than it was cloth.
“This is Mark,” Vincent announced to everyone. “He wants to become a vampire and has ever since the day I met him, twenty-two years ago.”
The man didn’t seem to be that old. Lily didn’t recognize him as a feeder, in fact she had never seen this man before.
“I met Mark at the Atlanta coven. He was only five years old at the time and he already knew that vampires existed. He would not take ‘no’ for an answer, because apparently, he had seen a vampire. He was an orphan that was found living on the street with a group of street kids. He had found his way to the coven by way of a doctor of psychiatry. Word of mouth throughout the community had brought him to me, as I was the so-called vampire expert. I made him a feeder at the Atlanta coven and although we rarely take in anyone not born into the coven, he was determined. He wanted to be a vampire. So I told him I would make him one
as soon as I could find a way to guarantee his survival.
“That day is today,” Vincent continued. “This is the only shot that there will be, Mark, you understand that, right?”
Mark only closed his eyes and nodded, as if for the hundredth time.
“If this works, the vampires may be ‘off the endangered species list’ as Lily so lovingly put it,” Vincent added.
Lily could barely even smile at the joke. She was nervous. Her part would only take a few hours, but what if it didn’t work. What if Mark was still writhing in pain after two weeks?
“Lily, if this doesn’t work, it is not your fault. It’s mine,” McGoo told her. “There’s only one way to see if it will work and that is to try.”
McGoo motioned to the hospital bed that was facing the opposite direction of Mark’s. Lily sat down and McGoo connected her to a blood transfusion machine. It was basically a modified bypass machine that took blood out of the human and replaced that blood with vampire blood. The vampire blood had to be warmed to 98.6°F because it was too cold to go directly into the human. It would’ve caused hypothermia if it weren’t heated in the machine.
It was obvious that Lily was nervous. Alexa left and came back with a chair. She sat it next to Lily’s hospital bed and motioned to Shay. Shay sat down and took Lily’s hand.
Next, McGoo connected Mark to the machine. Only this time, there were four tubes instead of Lily’s two. They connected to Mark’s major arteries. The carotid in the neck, the brachial in the shoulder and the femoral artery in each leg. McGoo then connected blood bags to the machine. These would replace Lily’s blood as hers was being drained. McGoo looked at Lily, took a deep breath then threw the switch. The machine whirred to life.
Shay squeezed Lily’s hand and Lily remembered that she was there.
“This is not normal,” she told Shay.
“She’s going to be weak for a few days after this,” Erica told Shay.
Lily didn’t even realize that Erica had walked in.
“Is there anything I need to do?” Shay asked.
“No, she’ll be fine, just no marathons for a few days,” Erica smiled then winked at Shay.
