American Blood: A Vampire's Story (6 page)

Calida positioned the open corner at her mouth and began to drain its contents. Her throat muscles visibly worked as she swallowed the first mouthful, but she suddenly stopped and her eyes opened wide.

Calida’s face exploded.

Blood would have sprayed all over Ryan and Siri if not for the plexiglas wall in front of them.

Ryan jumped up. He could only see Calida’s legs and feet. The large blood splatter coating her side of the plexiglas concealed her upper half.

“What did you do to it?” Calida stepped into view from behind the huge splatter that began to run down the transparent wall.

“I don’t . . . .” Ryan stopped.

Siri also sprang to her feet. “What happened?”

Blood ran from Calida’s nose. Her mouth gaped open and her delicate looking fangs gleamed red in the light of the cell. She gagged and coughed until she finally composed herself.

“It’s horrible! It tasted horrible! What’s in it to make it taste like that?” She threw the blood bag down on the concrete.

“Uh . . . there’s an anti-coagulating agent . . . sodium citrate, you can actually taste that?” Ryan asked.

“Can I taste it? It’s horribly sour.” Calida’s eyes were a deep pink that Ryan associated with strong emotions.

“Calida,” Siri began, “we didn’t know this would happen. Most of our stored blood has chemicals added to keep it fresh.”

“You people are crazy. That wasn’t fresh.”

“We’re sorry,” Ryan said. “We didn’t know you’d react like this.”

“Well, I can’t wear this anymore.” Calida tore the blood stained patient gown from her body like tissue paper. “And may I have something to clean myself with? Or do you want to look at me naked with blood all over my face and neck?”

“I’ll get you some things to clean up with.” Siri quickly went over to the door and left.

The heavy scent of blood diffused through the air on both sides of the plexiglas and Calida’s eye’s slowly returned to the soft violet color. She gave Ryan an injured look, then smiled, and started to laugh.

“What’s funny about this?” Ryan asked. He could feel his heart pounding.

“You, the look on your face . . . you put me in a cage and think you can feed me like a zoo animal.”

“Look, we’re sorry about this. After you get cleaned up we’ll get a rabbit, okay?”

Calida pulled her lips away from her fangs. “I don’t want a rabbit.”

“So you won’t even try one?”

“You try it.”

The bag of blood on the floor had spilled out and formed a large puddle that crept toward one of the floor drains. Calida stepped through it and left a trail of bloody foot prints as she walked over to the feeding station.

“What about this?” she asked, sliding a finger along the plastic tube on her side of the plexiglas.

“Uh, we sort of have a protocol we’re trying to follow.”

“Oh, come on sweetheart, I want to see if you taste better than what’s on my feet.”

“Is that necessary?”

“I’m the one walking in blood.”

“Let’s just follow the protocol.”

“The protocol? And how’s it working out?”

“You said you’d try a rabbit tonight.”

“I lied . . . vampire, remember?”

“You’re not being helpful.”

“I’m supposed to be helpful after you’ve put me in here?”

“And you’d be helpful if you weren’t in there?”

“You’re so clever . . . and here I am naked covered in blood.”

“If we start using this,” Ryan said, pointing at the station, “and give it to you as it comes out of our veins will you start cooperating?”

Calida gave Ryan a bloody smile. “I gave you the precious bit of my cheek, didn’t I? For the right blood I’ll do anything.”

“Yeah, but you’re a vampire, remember?”

“Don’t ever forget it. I may kill you one day.”

“I’ll be careful,” Ryan said. “When Siri gets back we’ll get you cleaned up and use the station.”

“The two of us?”

“It’s my design so I’ll go first.”

“To be honest, Ryan, I’m expecting to be a little disappointed with you.”

“Why do you say that? You’ll be getting blood straight from a person.”

“Not all blood is the same, silly man. Sometimes it’s too salty, sometimes it’s bitter, even a little sour. But once in a while it’s real sweet. I always remember the sweet ones.”

“You sound like a real connoisseur.”

“I am.”

The door to the cell opened and Siri walked in carrying fresh towels, soap, a bottle of blue shampoo, and another patient gown. “Calida, I’ll turn on the water supply to that shower head and you can get cleaned up,” she said. “Ryan, why don’t you call your lab and get an update or something? Figure we’ll need thirty minutes in here.”

Calida looked at him. “Thank you, Siri for allowing me some dignity. And remember Ryan, when you get back . . . .”

Siri stared at Ryan.

“Don’t ask,” he said. “Miss Vampire is being difficult.”

Ryan left the cell, annoyed. As a purely visual exercise, Calida’s body didn’t hold any secrets for him.

Ryan headed for his laboratory so he could get the sample of Calida’s epithelial cells prepared. This would take at least half an hour, which meant that she would just have to wait to be fed. It was a clear early March night and already the spring peepers were starting their chorus from the wetlands surrounding the facility. The five-minute walk breathing in the cool, fresh air cleared his mind and allowed his sense of smell to reset from the odor of blood.

Back inside his lab he completed the prep work on the sample. Ryan considered taking another THC pill as an added measure against Calida, but he placed the vial down next to the keyboard. Designing the feeding station was one thing but now, with his participation imminent, its purpose became a disturbing reality. Although the process did hold a certain morbid fascination for him, he needed to approach this from a scientific point of view. Of course with her that could be extremely difficult. Calida had intruded into his personal mind space and he didn’t know if that was entirely her fault.

The phones in the lab started to ring. Ryan reached over to the phone at his workstation and placed the call on the speaker so he could continue entering the test parameters of the sample.

“Ryan, here.”

“My good Doctor Ryan,” the voice of the Director beamed from the speaker. “Doctor Lei has briefed me on your progress and I want to congratulate you, both of you, for getting her to cooperate.”

“She doesn’t have much choice.”

“No, perhaps, but there seems to be a developing, and how should I say this . . . a friendship between you and her.”

Ryan stopped entering on his keyboard.

“I hadn’t noticed that.”

“Oh, come now, Doctor, I’ve been watching the video feed. There is an attraction.”

“Her only attraction is for my blood. She’s made several comments about feeding on me, I think.”

“She is a vampire after all, Doctor Ryan, but I’ve noticed that these comments are more of a friendly or even, and I apologize if I’m wrong here, possibly romantic nature.”

“You’re wrong.”

“It is important for her to start trusting us.”

“I don’t think that’s in her nature.”

“Many living creatures can learn that with acceptable behavior comes reward.”

“Where’s this going?”

“Please allow me to simplify. Your relationship—call it what you like—must be allowed to develop. This is also true of Doctor Lei. We want her to feel that this is a place of safety for her.”

“She’s in a cage. She’s pretty safe.”

“Ah, but here our two paths of understanding can cross.”

“I don’t understand you at all.”

“This creature has great value in many areas, would you agree?”

“Go on.”

“Besides the research value, which is considerable, she can also be trained to be a contributing member of society.”

“What? Society is her food. We’ve already discussed this.”

“Not all food is worthwhile, do you understand?”

“I’m beginning to, and I don’t like the implication.”

“This agency, Doctor Ryan, serves a singular function. We are given the task to protect this country against only the most sophisticated threats both abroad and within.”

“So does the FBI and CIA. We’re just somewhere in the middle of the two, or at least that’s what you told me when I joined this project.”

“We are more independent than I originally explained. That was for your protection as well as the agency’s.”

“Okay, so you held back. What’s this got to do with her?”

“I’ve explained it quite clearly, I think. We want her to join our efforts.”

“Join the agency, as in become an operative?”

“Precisely, Doctor Ryan. She would be a tremendous asset.”

“Are you saying that you want to let her back out into the world?”

“She must be convinced that to work with us would be beneficial to both her and the agency.”

“I can’t believe you’d considering giving back her freedom when several nights ago five men died taking it away.”

“Is there a better incentive we can give her than her freedom? Of course it will be a conditional freedom. In the end she’ll find my offer impossible to refuse.”

“So this is all a lie . . . the research, everything?”

“No, conduct your research, find out all that you can about her, but the time will come when she we’ll be given the choice to join us, or be confined to that cage, indefinitely.”

“How much of this does Siri know?”

“Doctor Lei follows her instructions, so the question is, Doctor Ryan, can you?”

“Look, I’ve got to get back to the subject—she’s being difficult with our feeding protocol.”

“Oh yes, you are on the menu tonight, isn’t that so?”

“As I said, I’ll go first to make sure the system works properly, but you better have the other donors ready.”

“Not to worry, that has all been arranged.”

The speaker made an audible click and the dial tone came on. Ryan reached over and turned the speaker off. He stared at his display for a moment, placed his hands behind his neck, and leaned back in the chair. The Director’s motives regarding Calida didn’t surprise him. The man manipulated everyone to suit his needs. Yet Ryan didn’t believe Calida could actually be controlled to the point where she would do as the Director asked. The man was clearly insane.

The phone rang again, but Ryan ignored it and stood up. He picked up the THC pills, hesitated, and placed them back on the desk. It was time to get back to the isolation unit. He’d been gone for nearly an hour and he knew that if he didn’t show up soon they’d send someone to find him. Not that he really cared.

“I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.”

—
Richard Feynman
, American Physicist

R
yan walked up to the medical building and noticed that additional armed men had been placed around the perimeter. With Calida awake, not even the Director was taking any chances. Ryan had no doubt that if she somehow managed to get outside the building she’d instantly be cut down.

He stepped out of the air lock and was waved on by the two armed men. William entered the code on the entry keypad and the door opened. Ryan took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The pleasant fragrances of body soap and shampoo filled the air inside the cell. Calida brushed her hair as she sat on the cot. She wore a fresh patient gown and had on a pair of white flip-flops. Ryan made a quick inspection of her cell. The blood on the floor and plexiglas barrier had been washed away.

“Hello Siri,” Ryan said. “Everything seems nice and calm, again.”

“Except for you,” Calida said. “I can hear your heart beating for me. So fast . . . how sweet.”

“Please, Calida,” Siri said. “For us, for Doctor Ryan, this is a strange situation, so don’t upset—”

“It’s fine,” Ryan said. “She’s waited patiently. I shouldn’t have rushed back.” Ryan walked over to the feeding station, removed his clinic jacket, and sat down. He entered some commands on the laptop that controlled the apparatus, made a mistake, and reentered. Ryan gestured to the chair on the other side of the plexiglas. “Please sit.”

Calida put the brush down, stood up, and walked over to the chair next to the feeding tube, her flip flops smacked as she walked. “So, am I going to be disappointed?”

“Please, sit down,” Ryan again instructed, ignoring her.

Calida sat down and expectantly waited with her lips just inches from the feeding tube.

“Before we start,” Ryan said. “Place the end in your mouth and gently bite down. You’ll need to apply just the right amount of force.”

“Siri has explained it to me.”

Ryan looked at her. Her eyes were a vivid deep violet color. “I just want this to go as smoothly as possible,” Ryan said. “And I’ll only be able to give you a pint of my blood.”

Calida frowned. “You’ll just have to get me more. Siri has told me that there will always be enough.”

“Okay, but we need to start off slow to see what your needs are.”

“Seems like poor planning for a bunch of scientists,” Calida said in a light, mocking tone. “If you want to keep a vampire caged you’ll have to feed her.”

“Then don’t be difficult.”

Calida moved forward and started to gently mouth the feeding valve. She kept her eyes on Ryan who turned away and looked at Siri.

“We can get started,” he said. “Siri, connect me.”

“All right.” Siri walked over to Ryan and took hold of his left arm. She opened up the IV needle from a sterilization pouch, rubbed the injection site on his skin with alcohol, and inserted the needle. She then connected the line from the feeding station. “You’re all set.”

“Don’t be nervous,” Calida said. “Your heart is so fast.”

Ryan could feel his heart racing. Calida’s senses were extraordinary. “I’m not nervous,” he said, and entered a command on the laptop’s keyboard, made another mistake and again reentered. Both of the small pumps began to slowly turn and blood began to travel from his arm up to the small reservoir above the pumps. All three watched as the reservoir began to fill with his blood.

Ryan nodded at Calida who surprisingly moved her lips away from the feeding valve. She reached out with her right hand and pinched the valve with her fingers. Blood began its journey from the reservoir, around the circulating pump heads, and down the tube on her side of the plexiglas.

“Uh, what are you doing?” he asked.

Calida moved closer to the plastic valve and watched as blood began to drip out. She then opened her mouth and allowed several drops to land on her tongue which she slowly smeared against her upper lip.

“Hmm . . . I was wrong about you,” Calida said. “You’re actually kind of sweet. Salty and sweet.”

“Calida, please,” Siri said.

Calida’s eyes became deep violet and she reached up and wrapped her left hand around the feeding tube.

“You can start anytime now,” Ryan said, growing impatient.

Calida took the entire valve assembly into her mouth and carefully bit down. She began to feed, yet she never took her eyes off Ryan who could see her throat muscles swallow once every minute or so. The feeding went on for a while with the only sound being the low electric hum of the pumps. Ryan began to relax. Calida rested her hands on the inside of her thighs and gently rocked back and forth, but her eyes stayed locked on his.

Ryan felt himself being shaken. He turned away from Calida and noticed that Siri’s lips were moving.

“Ryan . . . the alarm?”

“Huh?”

“The alarm.”

“Oh. Yes. The alarm.” An electronic beep announced that the target volume had been delivered. Ryan reached forward and shut off the delivery valve. He glanced at the laptop’s display and realized that he had gone past the one pint target volume by two ounces.

Calida kept the valve in her mouth for several more minutes. She gave a final hard suck and tilted her head back. A drop of blood escaped from the right corner of her mouth and ran down her chin.

“So, who’s next?”

Siri removed the IV from Ryan’s arm and disconnected the needle from the tube.

“How much more do you need?” Siri asked.

“The same.”

“All right,” Siri said. “Um, Ryan, let me sit down in that chair and you can help me—”

“No, Siri,” Calida said. “I don’t want to think of you as food.”

“But I am?” asked Ryan.

“You just were . . . what you did for me was sweet, and I’m not only talking about your blood. I guess I should say thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Now Calida,” Siri said. “I’m going to bring in another donor for you. Please don’t do anything to upset him. He doesn’t know that you’re, well, that you’re a vampire. Understand?”

“Won’t it be obvious?”

“That’s been taken care of . . . please behave.”

Calida beamed an innocent smile at them. “Okay, Siri, I’ll be real nice.”

Siri placed a gauze pad on Ryan’s arm and had him bend his arm. She then put the used needle in a bag and walked over to the door and left.

Calida lightly caressed her lips with her fingers for several seconds. “We’re alone again.”

“Yeah, we are. Is that a problem?”

“Not for me.” And Calida’s eyes changed from the deep violet color to a soft pink. “I can see your thoughts a little clearer now.”

“Please don’t do that,” Ryan said. “I don’t want you to do that.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Stop.” Ryan stood up.

Calida’s eyes returned to the deep violet color and Ryan relaxed. The touch of her mind on his faded.

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to upset you, but you’ve been thinking about me. You can’t hide it.”

“I’m not trying to hide anything. How do I know you didn’t place these thoughts in my mind?”

“You don’t.”

Ryan reached for his pills, but they weren’t in his pocket. He abruptly looked at her. “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?”

“You’re not being nice.”

“I’m not trying to persuade you,” Calida replied. “I’ve been thinking about you also. Does that mean anything to a scientist?”

“This all part of how you acquire blood.” Ryan said. “You control your victim’s thoughts and they submit to you.”

Calida looked away. “You don’t understand me as much as you think.” She stood up and walked over to her cot, but didn’t sit down.

Ryan felt lightheaded from the blood loss. “I want to understand,” he said, rubbing his forehead with his hand.

“I don’t always intrude on someone’s mind to get their blood, okay?”

“Then why do it?”

“It’s something you can’t understand.”

“Maybe I could, so tell me.”

Calida turned away from him, reached down, and stroked her pillow. “You only see me as a thing that kills to eat.  There’s no point in talking about it.”

“You do kill us for food, but I’m willing to listen.”

“If you only could feel what it’s like.” Calida turned back toward him. “I’m driven to blood—the desire is overwhelming—especially once I start to feed and then I lose control, but it’s something that I’ve acquired some control over. Can you understand?”

“I think so, I didn’t realize, none of us did, that you had any control over it.”

“It’s taken a long time. I’ve fought with this . . . for centuries.”

“You’re telling me that you can make a choice?” 

Calida nodded. “I can choose not to take someone’s blood, but as I grow hungrier it gets harder for me.”

“Then how do you pick who dies?”

“I take the old, the homeless, or the sick.” And she gave a quick, alarming smile. “Or the occasional jerk who is asking for it.”

Ryan looked away from her for a moment. “These are people,” he said. “And it’s murder.”

“And for me it’s survival.”

Ryan stood up and walked over to the plexiglas. “I just wonder how many people have gone missing because of you.”

“Gone missing?” Calida opened her eyes wide and laughed. “Your society doesn’t miss the homeless. It doesn’t miss the thousands of drug addicts that wander its ghettos looking for a quick salvation.” Her eyes flashed an angry pink. “I feed off the living trash of your society. So who’s really to blame?”

“If only you could testify in front of congress,” Ryan said. “You’d open up some eyes.”

“I don’t know. Your government is blind to everything that goes on. It’s kept me well fed for the past seven years.”

Ryan wondered for a moment where his moral compass was pointing and he wasn’t quite sure. Calida had certainly opened his mind to the sad truth that when he looked into the mirror of society his reflection stared back at him. “But what about the other vampires,” he asked after a quiet moment. “They take anyone.”

“They don’t live long enough to learn control, I think, which is why they’ll take children or anyone else who crosses their path.”

“You told me that you have never taken a child, I remember.”

“I avoid children, although there have been some tough situations.”

“After nineteen hundred years I believe you.”

Calida rolled her eyes. “Ryan, a woman doesn’t need to have her age thrown in her face.”

“Huh? I’m sorry,” he said, and blinked at her. “Uh, so when you look at me I’m not always just food?”

“Not always.”

“And right now?”

“You’re still food right now, but in a good way.”

“Well maybe good for you,” Ryan said, and he found himself smiling.

Calida walked up to the plexiglas and stood right in front of him. “It’s dangerous to be with me, though I don’t always bite to kill.”

“But do you always bite?”

“Almost always.”

“Is that why you’ve turned others, for companionship?”

Calida sat down in the chair next to the feeding tube. “It’s always been a mistake . . . and there’s never any real feelings once they change.”

“What do you mean by them not living long enough?”

“They’re not like me. They age like you . . . a human, and they can’t turn anyone. At least they haven’t so far.”

“That would explain why the world isn’t up to its neck in vampires,” Ryan said. “Tell me something.”

Calida carefully folded her hands on her lap and crossed her legs. “What?”

“Why didn’t you imprint me?”

She was silent for a moment, then looked away and asked, “The night we met?”

Ryan nodded. “Why didn’t you?”

“When I catch food I’m going to eat right away I don’t bother with it. You seemed like a sure thing at the time.”

“I thought so to,” Ryan said. “So you can control both when you imprint and your desire for blood.”

“Perhaps, but only so far.”

“Okay, but maybe this means you’re not just a cold blooded killer, do you see that?”

“My blood is as warm as yours.”

“Yes, I know that, but you also could have imprinted me when you held my hand after you’d been hurt.”

“Maybe I didn’t because you were being kind to me. You touched my cheek. That’s the last thing I remember about my father.”

“How much do you remember?”

“Nearly everything.”

“What happened?”

Calida’s eyes went dark. “He touched my cheek and said goodbye.”

“When you were sent away?”

“No, before I took his life.”

Ryan looked at her but didn’t know what to say.

“Where is Siri?” Calida turned away from Ryan for a few seconds.

“They’ll be here any minute.”

“When they get here I want you to leave.”

“Look, I’m sorry if I’ve—”

“Come back when we’re done,” Calida said. “Please come back and we’ll talk.”

“I’d like that, but I need to set up the device before I leave.”

Calida nodded. “Listen, I won’t reach out into your thoughts anymore. I know a promise from a vampire doesn’t seem like much, but you can accept it if you want.”

“You want me to trust you?”

“I don’t want to hurt you or Siri.” She stood up and stepped over to the table where she took a tissue out of a small box. “I better wipe the blood from my eyes before my new friend gets here. No reason to scare him.”

“You don’t want to give him the full show,” Ryan said. “You didn’t make that easy for me.”

“No, but you certainly watched me,” Calida said. And Ryan watched her smile again, but this time it was a natural smile without any vampire pretense. Calida looked up at the one-way mirror. “They’re here.”

Ryan only saw his reflection in the mirror.

Siri and a young man wearing the agency’s standard dark grey trainee sweats walked through the door. The man had wavy blonde hair and stood slightly taller than Ryan. He was also boyishly good looking. Ryan glanced at Calida. The young man had her complete attention. He also noticed that her eyes were back to their original sparkling blue from earlier. She seemed to have more control over her physiology than she let on. He made a mental note not to underestimate her ever again.