Blood Like Poison (32 page)

Within seconds, Bo drained the bag.  Beneath my hands, I could feel his body temperature warm a few degrees.  I watched, fascinated, as life began to slowly seep back in to his features.

Next, Lucius held the sealed jug sideways against Bo’s mouth.  With a loud pop, Bo obediently sank his teeth into the rigid plastic.  I watched his throat work as he pulled large gulps of liquid down his throat.  He frowned as if it wasn’t something he was enjoying.

When Bo had finished the animal blood, Lucius took the empty container and set it aside, turning to lean his back against the couch and stretch his legs out in front of him.

“Now, we wait,” he announced. 

“Alright.”  Though I agreed easily enough, I felt anxiety curl in my stomach, twisting it into a tight knot. 

“I feel like I know you, Ridley, what with Bo talking about you so much.”  Lucius rolled his head toward me, a pleasant smile on his lips.  “And of course, I’d like nothing better than to use this time to get to know you better, but I would imagine that you have even more questions than I.  Is there anything you would like to know?”

Was there ever!  With nothing but time on our hands, I knew I’d have the opportunity to get a few answers, but not to the million or so questions that started clamoring for attention all at once in my head.  One drifted to the top, however, taking the position of top priority.

“Can Bo be saved?  From the poison, I mean?”

Lucius sighed, a sad look coming to settle on his face. “You would ask that,” he said.  “No, lass, I’m afraid not.”

My heart broke a little bit more with his answer, like he’d been the final word on the matter, the one tiny thread of hope to which I’d been clinging.

“How long does he have?”  I smoothed my hand over Bo’s brow, dreading the answer.  Anything less than one hundred years was not enough.

“I can’t be sure.  There aren’t very many vampires who try to kill themselves in this manner.”

“It’s not like that’s the only reason he’s doing it,” I snapped.  Then, shaking my head regretfully, I apologized.  “Sorry.  I’m just- I’m just frustrated.”

“As am I, Ridley.  As am I.”  Lucius looked morosely into the flames licking greedily at the wood inside the fireplace.  “He’s been like a son to me, a breath of fresh air in a long and lonely existence.”

“He said you’re four hundred years old.”

“The brat,” he chortled.  “Telling a woman how old I am.  And lying about it no less.  I won’t be four hundred for another nine years.”

I couldn’t help but grin.  “What was he thinking?  I mean, nine years makes a world of difference when you’ve lived nearly half a millennium.”

Lucius smiled broadly up at me, apparently enjoying my sarcasm.  “Oh, Ridley, what a joy you are.”  When he sobered, he continued.  “Yes, I’ve lived a long, full life, but now—after all these years—it seems it was full of loss and heartache more than anything else.”

I sat quietly for a moment, not knowing what to say to that.  Finally, I asked, “Do you regret coming to America?”

“Good Lord, no!  I love it here.  It’s been like watching a child grow up.  I only hate that now they’ve infiltrated this continent.”

“Who?”

“The Uccideres,” he answered, the “r” rolling off his tongue.

“Who are they?”

“To best explain them, I must first give you a short history lesson about the vampire.  Do you mind?”

“No, no.  Please.”

“It all started with the venom.  It is said to have been given to man by the devil himself, a weapon through which he hoped to enslave the human race.  According to legend, it nearly worked.  But over time, as vampires learned to control themselves and learned the dangers of feeding off one human too often, we were able to settle down into a very peaceful existence. 

“A code of sorts was adopted among that first small band of European vampires, who we now call the ‘Elders’.  Humans were rarely turned, usually only for the purpose of preserving one’s mate.  After all, it would be far too painful for a vampire to live without his mate, so not turning
anyone
was out of the question.  Turning one’s mate is really the only option in such cases.”

Lucius paused, lost in thought, lost to something that took him from the present for a heartbeat.  While he tarried elsewhere, a multitude of new questions rose to my mind.  Before I could ask any one of them, however, he drifted back to the here and now to continue.

“Apologies, lass.  I digress,” he said, clearing his throat.  “What you saw tonight was an Uccidere.  They are aberrations that arose from one elder many, many years ago.  His name was Constantine. 

“For centuries, Constantine had never been satisfied with the low-key way of life the vampires had adopted.  Though he’d had his missteps every now and again, none of the elders ever expected that he might defy The Tribunal so completely.  But, alas, he did.  When he left Rome, no one could have anticipated the havoc, the destruction, the slaughter that he would wreak upon the human race.  By himself, he was quite the scourge.  Some say it is as vampires were intended to be.

“Before Constantine could be stopped, he had turned hundreds, probably even thousands of humans into vampires.  That, however, was not an issue in and of itself.  It was the
kind
of people that he turned that posed such a problem.  Criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts, sex fiends, masochists, killers, thieves, all from the distasteful company he kept.  Unfortunately, when they turned, they not only brought along many of their own hedonistic habits, but learned the way of the vampire from Constantine himself.  It was a bloody, bloody time.”

“You said he was stopped, though, right?”

“Yes, but not before damage more than a thousand lifetimes could be done.  Some of the world’s most notorious murderers have been traced back to Constantine or one of his people.  Jack the Ripper, Attila the Hun, Amelia Dyer, Darya Saltykova.  There were even some Americans suspected of ties to Constantine’s children, people like The Green River Killer and Son of Sam.  The list is endless and spans hundreds of decades, but the vampire epidemic has never really been a confirmed threat in this country until recently.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that they must be stopped before another army, of Constantinian proportions, can be created.  These days, it’s easy to see why legend claims that the venom was born of the devil to destroy mankind.  It is a power, a thirst that only the strong can contain, can manage without giving in to the euphoria of it, the thrill and the pleasure of it.” 

An odd look came over Lucius’s face, a look that made the hairs on my arms prickle.   I could tell he was lost again—somewhere, some place in time, in sensation—and for some reason, I was afraid to bring his attention back to me.   Survival instinct maybe.

After a few tense moments, his expression cleared and he turned to me and smiled.  I was glad to see that he had returned from…wherever.

“Honestly, I’m a little surprised that you wanted to use this time to learn about vampires.  I just assumed that you would want to know what happened to you in the woods.”

His statement puzzled me.  “I’m sorry?  I don’t understand what you mean.”

“My guess is that Bo has fed you, at least once.  Is that right?”

“Yes, but how—”

“The poison affects humans differently.”

“The poison?”  I felt the blood drain from my face.  I hadn’t even thought of that.  I wondered if Bo had.  “How did you know?”

“Even if I hadn’t seen what you did to that Uccidere, I would’ve known by your skin.”

“My skin?” 

“Yes.  Standing in the forest, you looked just like Bo does after he ingests the poison.”

In perfect clarity, the image of the gangrenous color spreading across Bo’s nearly translucent, cracking skin came to mind.  Reflexively, I looked down at my arms.  I was incredibly relieved to see that they were the same medium olive tone that they always were.

“But- but—”

“Oh, you will only be able to see it when Bo’s in danger.  It’s your body, your blood reacting to his.  You share a common bond.”

“When Lars exploded, is that how I- I did that?”

“Yes.”

I struggled to wrap my mind around it, but I just couldn’t get there.  “But
how?”

“Many strange and powerful things lie in the blood.  The venom changes it, mutates it in various ways and, depending on the person, a broad spectrum of reactions can occur.   For example, most vampires can affect a fair amount of influence over humans, an ability that only gets stronger with age.  But some are so powerful, they can literally compel humans to do anything, even things that would bring pain and harm to themselves.  It is a very dangerous ability.”

“But I won’t turn into a vampire from just drinking it, will I?”

“Oh, no.  You have to be infected with venom for that to happen.  But when you drink infected blood, its properties sort of
enhance
your human traits.  You may experience better hearing, vision, healing, strength and speed, but it is usually short-lived unless you ingest blood regularly.”

I shuddered.  “Why would anyone want to do that?”

“Many humans like the augmentation, but even more, there are those vampires who would use it.”

“Use it?  How?”

“Unfortunately, in our history, some vampires have made a weapon of sorts out of humans.  A vampire can turn several humans and feed them his own blood.  His ‘children’ then go and feed their blood to any number of humans that they drink from, giving that one vampire—the father of them, if you will— control over the masses.  Through his ‘sons and daughters’, he has access to the minds of all the humans they’ve bonded with.” 

While I was assimilating all that Lucius had revealed, I busied myself smoothing Bo’s hair.  It was then that I noticed his deteriorating condition. 

His skin had begun to cool again and his gray-green pallor was deepening.

When I looked to Lucius, he was frowning.

“What’s happening?”

“It appears the animal blood is not going to be enough to supplement the human blood.”

“Can you give him more?”

“No.  It’s all I have.”

“Is he going to get worse?”

His frown deepened.  “That is a distinct possibility.”

My mouth gaped open.  While Lucius might be alright with that outcome, I certainly was not.

“Can’t you get more?”

“I could hunt, but the animals can sense me, which means that they are scarce around here these days.  I have to travel quite a ways to find prey.”

That didn’t sound very promising and I searched desperately for another option.  And then I found one.

“Wh-what about me?”

Lucius cut his eyes to me in a look that gave me pause.  “That’s not an option.”

“But why?  It could save his life, right?”

“Yes, but it could risk yours.”

“How so?”

“It’s possible that he could accidentally inject you.  In his current state, I’m not sure his control is completely intact.”