The Source

by J B Stilwell

  I place the slide under the lens as Rick scoots closer to me. I peer into the scope and jerk to a standstill. Trying to keep my pulse rate regular, I breathe deeply as I continue to watch the ever so slight movement within what was previously dead tissue. Remembering that everything was being recorded, I make a conscience effort to control my movements so as not to give anything away.

  "Nothing?" Rick asks.

  I glance up from the scope and whisper, "Keep your voice low. We are being recorded. And Ms. Montgomery is actually watching us from the observation room. It would be best if we did not reveal what we have found. Best for humans and best for vampires."

  His eyes grow wide as he subtly nods. He leans forward to look into the scope. After a few moments he draws back and stands up straight, watching me. Trying to act as normal as possible, I remove the slide and say, "Let's go ahead and talk about the results and possible ways to replicate them without the aid of the sun."

  "That's an excellent idea," he adds.

  I gather up the slides in a box, doing my best to palm the bloody slide without the notice of absent, but observing eyes. Rick walks over to the whiteboard and begins cleaning it so that we can begin another brainstorming session. I straighten the logs on the island to give the indication that I have nothing in my hands. I very nonchalantly place my hand back in my pocket, "Before we get started, I'm going to get something to drink from the machines."

  "Okay," Rick says over his shoulder.

  I walk from the research suite and head down the hall toward the pop machines. Before getting to my destination, I turn right and head toward the public restrooms. I open the door to the women’s facilities and slowly walk past all of the stalls to make sure that I am alone. I then go to the sink, turn on the water and remove the slide from my pocket. I begin washing the remnants of our extracurricular experiment from the slide. Suddenly the restroom door opens. I jerk so quickly that the corner of the slide cuts my palm just below my thumb. I look up in the mirror to see Bree watching me. I lower my head and go back to washing the slide, trying hard to make it seem like I was washing my hands, which I am sort of since my hand is bleeding. I look back up into the mirror and Bree is still standing there, staring at me.

  “What?” I ask, trying not to seem too irritated.

  She motions to me with a slight lift of her chin. “I can smell the blood.”

  “Oh, right. Vampires and their sense of smell.” I force a laugh. “I will be out in a moment.”

  She continues staring at me, as if she is mesmerized by my very essence. “What are you doing here anyway?” I ask. “I didn’t think vampires had to use the bathroom.”

  With her eyes focused on the sink she says, “Only if we drink various beverages. If the only thing we have is blood then we have no use for a toilet.”

  I laugh nervously, “Well, please, don’t let me to interrupt your restroom trip.”

  She continues to stare at the sink for a few more moments before she slowly moves to the first stall and latches the door shut. I quickly turn the water off, drop the clean slide into the garbage then get a few paper towels from the dispenser. I wrap the paper towels around my hand and exit through the door.

  Free and clear in the hallway, I take a deep breath. I continue on my way to the pop machine so that Ms. Montgomery won’t notice my lack of beverage and question what I am really doing. After I select Coke, Tucker comes out of the cafeteria and walks my way. I turn toward him as I hold the cold bottle against my throbbing palm.

  “Good evening, Emma,” he says, smiling broadly. The look on his face quickly turns to one of concern as he looks at my hand. “My God, what happened? You’re bleeding.”

  I look down at the bottle pressed against my hand. The paper towel I have covering the wound has quickly turned red. I press against it harder, willing the bleeding to stop.

  “I cut myself with a microscope slide of all things,” I force a lighthearted laugh.

  Tucker reaches for my hand. “You need to be more careful. I can’t make it my full time job to clean your hand wounds.” He looks up at me briefly and smiles. He takes the bottle of Coke and motions for me to hold it with my other hand. He then carefully removes the soaked paper towel to inspect the cut. It is barely bleeding now, but still looks jagged and raw.

  “It’s starting to clot,” he says, “but you need to make sure to put some antiseptic on it and a bandage. You can pick up some weird bacteria in a research facility, so you definitely don’t want it getting infected.” He lightly rubs his fingers against the back of my hand as he’s talking.

  “I will. We have some supplies in the suite.”

  He finally looks up at me, releasing my hand. “Good. Just be careful if Rick is there.” I give him a questioning look. “He’ll smell the blood and it might make him...hungry.”

  “Ah, yes. I was reminded of that when I ran into Bree in the bathroom,” I grumble.

  As if I had summoned her, Bree turns the corner ahead of us and walks in our direction, determination punctuating every step. Tucker and I both watch her as she stops just a few feet away from us. She is looking directly at me, before glancing down at my hand, which is still in Tucker’s grasp. I remove my hand from his and place it in my pocket.

  She turns her gaze to Tucker. “We’re close to completion, Tucker. We don’t have time for fraternization. I expect you to get back to the suite a.s.a.p.” I notice the muscles in his jaw twitching as his lips nearly disappear. Glancing once more at me, Bree turns and walks back down the hall. We both watch her until she is out of sight.

  Face still tense, Tucker turns to me saying “bitch” under his breath. I incline my head questioningly as I see a dark glimmer in his eyes that I’m not afraid to say makes me weary. Then just like that, as if someone has pulled the blinds, Tucker relaxes and smiles at me. “I should get back to the suite,” he says.

  I nod, “Yeah.” I look at the floor before thinking of something. “They’re close to finishing their project?” I ask.

  He nods quickly as he starts to back his way down the hall, “Yeah. But then they’ll have to test things to make sure it works. But, yeah, they’re close. I’m sorry, but I better get back. We’ll talk later about returning to the mine.” He smiles at me before he turns and disappears down the hall. I shake my head hoping that he won’t be too disappointed to learn that my answer hasn’t changed in regards to the mine.

  Anyway, I need to focus. The race is on. We have some serious time to make up and hopefully Rick has already gotten us started in that direction. We shouldn’t have done the extra experiment, but hopefully we will learn from that and avoid further distractions. I clutch the Coke bottle against the cut. Yeah, no distractions, including my bleeding hand wafting in front of a vampire. Shouldn’t be a problem, right?

  Chapter 17

  I walk back into the suite, happy to see Rick at the whiteboard, writing furiously. Before I can walk two steps into the room, he stops and lifts his head into the air. I slowly walk toward the center island as he turns to me. I set the Coke bottle on the island and wait for him to say the expected “what’s that smell.”

  He looks at my hand. “What did you do?”

  Close enough. “Bree surprised me in the bathroom and I ended up cutting my hand on the corner of the slide.” I walk over to the storage cabinet as I saw a first aid kit on the wall beside it.

  As I am busy sitting by the computer arranging bandages, tape and anti-bacterial ointment, I can hear Rick’s soft steps headed in my direction. I look over my shoulder and up into his face. He seems to be trying to be very careful not to express too much one way or the other. And what was that he said about not being afraid of him?

  He takes the seat next to me and looks at the wound on my hand without touching me. Trying for distraction I say, “Have you made much progress?”

  “Hhhmmm...?” he groans as he continues to watch me.

  Catching myself in mid-eye-roll, I say, “Bree happened to mention that they were close
in completing their project work.”

  He looks up at me. Bingo. That got his attention. “Close? And why would she even mention that? Was she taunting you?”

  “No, she said it when she not-so-subtly told Tucker to get back to work.”

  He raises his left eyebrow. “Tucker was in the restroom with you?”

  I shake my head. “No, I ran into him as I was getting my Coke.”

  “That’s convenient,” he says with a sneer.

  I give him my best “really?” look. “I know he told you about what had happened before, but he hasn’t done anything since.”

  He shrugs one shoulder, “Is that because he has learned the error of his ways or because I said something to him?”

  “Oh, right. You should get credit for his behavior,” I grimace sarcastically.

  Looking down at my hand he says, “Never underestimate the power of the vampire threat.”

  I turn my hand over so he can’t see the cut. “Don’t worry. I won’t be forgetting that any time soon. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “Did you hurt your head, too? I work here, remember?”

  “No,” I start, “why aren’t you continuing to work, especially since the other team is close? Instead you’re sitting here watching me bandage my hand.”

  He looks back up into my eyes, “What can I say? Your blood is intoxicating.”

  I take a slow, deep breath as I can feel the heat of embarrassment sprinkled with excitement inch up my neck, over my jaw and invade my pleasantly round cheeks. Looking away from him I quickly apply the anti-bacterial ointment and tape the bandage securely to my slightly perspiring skin. I pack the supplies up and begin to turn in my seat only to nearly collide with Rick as he leans in closer to me without me realizing it. He is still looking at my bandaged hand. I cover my wounded hand with the other as I move to look into his face. “Rick?” Clearing my throat I stammer. “The show is over.”

  He looks up at me with a rather peaceful smile on his face. “And a fantastic show it was.”

  I hold his gaze for a few moments, not really knowing what to do with that tidbit of information. Rick slowly reaches up and lightly traces his fingertips down my cheek. I am slightly conscious that I am more comfortable, no longer feeling embarrassed. He slowly glides his fingertips over my chin, just below my lip. I feel as warm and nurtured as I would be swaddled in a huge afghan crocheted by granny Burcham. I blink while shaking my head as if I am ridding myself of a dusting of personal comfort.

  Rick is leaning back in his chair, a slight smile on his face. I close my eyes as my temperature elevates, and not in a good way. “I thought I told you to never do that to me again?” I open my eyes and he is leaning forward again, inches away from me. Instead of shrinking back, I try to maintain my posture because I don’t want him to think that I am still scared of him. If he said that I didn’t have to be, then I’m going to call him on it.

  He nods, “I know. I would apologize, but it would be a lie.”

  I scowl, “What the hell? So, you would do that whenever you want to? How dare you? What was that you said about feeding off a human against their will was like rape?” I cross my arms over my stomach, my body not knowing whether to be angry, throw up or both.

  Smiling, he slowly shakes his head. “No. If that were the case, it would have happened more often already. I only did it because there is absolutely no reason why you should be embarrassed by my reaction to you or your blood. It’s natural for me to have urges and I try to express that in the least harmful way possible. I just don’t want you to feel badly about it.”

  I softly chuckle. “Natural for you? So it could be any human bleeding and your reaction would be the same? You must go around invading people’s will all of the time.”

  He laughs as he lightly places his hand on my arm, hovering ever-so-slightly below my breasts. “It’s natural for me to have the reaction to anyone, but I wouldn’t concern myself with that person’s feelings unless I cared about them.”

  His fingertips lightly slide over my arm before he pats my knee. “Come on, let’s get back to work,” he says.

  I watch him walk back to the whiteboard as I take a moment to regroup my jumbled nerves. He cares about me. What type of caring, exactly? Friendly? Brotherly? Or is it the type of care that is given to Kobe beef so that we can have a better cut of steak? I definitely don’t want to be considered anyone’s delicacy, at least not in a food sense.

  Now I’m hungry. Dammit.

  I join him at the whiteboard as he is writing more notes. “Okay, so what do you have so far?” I ask.

  “Well it seems that we’re actually dealing with dehydration, at least in part. Now we need to brainstorm on all of the possible variables that contribute to the state of dehydration. The tricky part is that just because it causes dehydration in a human, doesn’t mean that it will do so in a vampire.”

  I tap my fingers against my lips, scanning his notes as thoughts seesaw through my head.

  I slowly walk over to the whiteboard, pick up a marker and begin to quickly make notes down the left side of the board. When I’m done, I turn back toward Rick. “Okay, in a human we know that dehydration is most often caused by a combination of water loss and not enough water taken in. But vampires don’t even drink water.”

  It isn’t exactly a question but Rick responds, “We get some water through the blood we drink. That’s apparently all the water we need.”

  I nod slowly as I tap the end of the marker against my lips, scanning my notes on the whiteboard. “That might suggest that vampires need a lower threshold of water to remain hydrated.” I look at him, “I say think because it really depends on how much blood you actually drink.”

  Rick’s lips twitch as he tries not to smile. “Definitely more than 8 glasses a day.”

  I close my eyes for a moment as my tongue rises in the back of my throat to block the coming bile. I give him my best smile. “Okay, so vampires seemingly drink enough to parallel how much water humans need. So that leaves loss of water.”

  I point to each option as I ready myself to mark off the ones that we don’t need to test. “Diarrhea?” I ask.

  Rick walks over to the whiteboard, a few feet by my side. “Not an issue.”

  I raise an eyebrow, “What if you eat human food that doesn’t agree with you?”

  “I guess it’s possible. But most vampires just don’t bother, so it’s not really an issue.”

  I “humph” then mark it off the list. “What about vomiting?”

  “We do vomit, but not from sickness. It’s usually because of either gorging ourselves or being hit too hard in the stomach.”

  Another one marked off the list. “Sweat?”

  He nods, “Yes, we do sweat. Either from strenuous activity or heat. And like humans, some of us sweat more than others.”

  “Deodorant?”

  Rick looks at me, grinning. “I didn’t realize that deodorant caused dehydration.”

  I shake my head as I wriggle my nose. “No, do you use deodorant? Or do vampires sweat all over the place without any care for body odor? That would definitely lend credence to the stereotype of vampires smelling like the dead.” I unsuccessfully stifle a giggle.

  “Maybe some, just like humans. Believe me, there are some humans whose lack of deodorant consideration is so extreme that I couldn’t even bring myself to bite them if I were starving.”

  I laugh as he smiles at me. Composing myself I say, “Okay, so just like humans, many vampires do use deodorant but there are still some that are stinky.” I move on to the next option. “What about diabetes?”

  Rick shakes his head, “I’ve never heard of it with vampires. I guess if we only drank from sugar or carb addicts, it might come up, but I doubt it.”

  I mark it off the list, “Burns? I don’t really have to ask that because that’s a no-brainer.”

  He nods without commenting.

  “Inability to drink fluids?”

  He puts his hand on h
is hip, his face scrunched in concentration. The silence grows for several moments. He finally says, “I cannot think of an instance where a vampire would not be able to drink blood, unless there was torture involved. There are some vampires who for whatever crazy reason abstain from drinking blood altogether. They would be more susceptible to dehydration, but more than those types die because of sun exposure.”

  I nod once then mark it off the list. “Okay, that means that vomiting and burns are left as possible factors.”

  “Unless there’s something unique to vampires that causes dehydration.”

  I lay the marker down and cross my arms. “How do we find that out when there hasn’t been much research done on vampires much less on this specific topic?”

  Rick raises his eyebrows and cocks his head. “Thalia?”

  I drop my arms to my side. “You can’t be serious.”

  “What other choice do we have? Like you said, there’s no research on this. We’ve already done experiments on her, so why not continue until we get the information we need?”

  Breathing deeply I nod my head in reluctant agreement. “So what’s your suggestion?”

  There is a knock on the door. We turn to see Allison walk through the door.

  “Good early morning,” she announces cheerfully without cracking a smile. “Everyone is meeting in the conference room in 15 minutes. One of the research teams has come up with a solution and they will be presenting their findings to everyone, along with a demonstration.”

  She looks at me then at Rick as she smiles briefly. “See you in the conference room. Please be prompt as Mr. Caulfield wants no delays.”

  Allison briskly exits the suite, closing the door firmly behind her.

  It is like all of the oxygen left the room with her. I don’t realize that I am holding my breath, or maybe I have forgotten to breathe, until Rick touches my shoulder. I jump at the brief contact and look at him, eyes wide and rimmed with the sadness of defeat.