Several minutes passed as he searched the racks of blood vials. “God, some of the doctors need to take handwriting classes,” he thought as he struggled to read the messy handwriting. Sulie was the only doctor he knew who had beautiful penmanship.
Scanning containers of vials, he searched for the name of the cord blood company. He discovered a collection of vials in the fifth refrigerator compartment he inspected. Reading the labels, he found cord blood for the last five obstetrics patients that were in Dr. Brigg’s care. He texted Ben the results of his findings, focusing mostly on the patients who given birth within the last twenty–four hours. Hopefully, those patients would still be at the hospital so Ben could question them. That is, if Ben was done helping Kate.
He couldn’t think about Kate right now. The only thing he could do to help the team was to focus on Sulie’s disappearance. He could at least bring her home for them.
Dixon placed a small transmitter under the label of each vial of cord blood, leaving only one sitting in his pocket. He then closed the refrigerator cabinet door. He barely had time to hear the door close before a man entered the room.
Dixon nodded a hello to the man and walked over to a batch of non–refrigerated specimens. He busied himself by reading the inventory listing on the door and looking like he was searching for a specific tissue sample.
The man glanced over to Dixon and then did a double take. “You find everything you need?” he asked with a playful grin on his face.
Dixon pulled a random sample from the compartment. He smiled, “Everything’s fine.” He set the vial back in its holder and took a good look at the man. He had dark hair and stood tall enough to be the man from the video. Dixon watched to see which refrigeration unit the man went to.
The mystery man walked with wide strides towards the refrigerator compartments that contained the cord blood. More than just cord blood was stored in the compartment, so Dixon bided his time and continued to feign work at the opposite end of the lab. The man held a container of new vials — possibly containing cord blood. Dixon realized that if it was cord blood, that a new baby must have been born.
He felt certain that if it were blood, that it didn’t belong to Kate and her twins. Even if Kate was done delivering her babies, there probably wasn’t time for him to collect and be down in the lab right now. That’s when Dixon remembered there was a scheduled C–Section being performed. The team was too busy with Kate to monitor that operation.
He watched as the man, who he assumed to be Dr. Briggs, put the new vials in the unit next to the stored ones containing cord blood.
Dixon slyly took out his phone and snapped a picture of the man while he remained busy with the vials. The picture was mostly profile, but easily a good image for facial recognition. Before he could send the picture to Raymond, the man turned around and faced him. Dixon quickly hid the phone back in his pocket.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” the man said. He held his chin high and stood with straight posture — as though he were the grand high poobah of the lab world. He approached Dixon with ease and looked him directly in the eye. “Do you have a badge to enter this lab?” he asked as Dixon closed the compartment door.
Dixon realized he was dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, not a lab coat or anything else to suggest he had any reason to be in the lab. He glanced over at the man and felt an eerie sensation took over. He felt the start of a brain freeze, like eating ice cream too fast. The sensation was a feeling he understood very well. Before him stood a vampire and that vampire was trying to compel him.
Thankfully, the subroutine Raymond had implanted worked well. Dixon looked at the vampire with a blank stare. “Badge missing,” he said, trying his best to act compelled.
The man’s eyes shifted to Dixon’s chest and pants pocket, where an ID card would usually be. “Do you know who I am?” he asked Dixon.
In a flat tone, Dixon replied, “No.”
The man turned to show his name tag from his hospital smock. “I’m the new doctor, Dr. Briggs.” He walked closer to Dixon. “I’ve searched the hospital employment records and I didn’t run across your picture in their database. Who are you?”
Sweat threatened to drip down Dixon’s forehead, and give him away. He had to think quickly. “Private physician assistant.”
“Private?” he asked, his eyebrow rising.
“Not hospital staff. Paid directly by a physician.” The excuse seemed weak, but the first one Dixon could think up to explain why he worked in the hospital but was not on the payroll.
The doctor tilted his head and leaned in for a better look at Dixon. “What’s your name?”
With a straight face, he replied, “Dixon.”
“Dixon?” the vampire repeated. His brow furrowed as though deep in thought; then he took a step back, his eyes widening. “Jonathan Dixon?”
Dixon drove his fingernails into the palms of his hand to keep from reacting. “Yes. Do you know me?” he asked.
The vampire started to laugh. “Several months ago, I saw your name written down somewhere.” An evil smirk crossed his lips, “Sorry, old boy, but I rejected your turning.”
Dixon almost made eye contact, but bit his tongue to keep focused. The Vampire Council had rejected his turning. For a moment, Dixon wondered if the vampire held a seat on the Council, and then he remembered he wasn’t supposed to know about vampires. “Turning?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter, Johnny. It’s all water under the very mortal bridge — so to speak.” The vampire chucked and then looked at him from head to toe. “To whom do you assist?”
Dixon swallowed the lump in his throat. Perhaps it had been this vampire who had rejected his request to be turned into a vampire, not the Council itself. This vampire had taken away his dream, but who the hell was “Dr. Briggs”?
The vampire snapped his fingers. “Who do you work for?”
Dixon focused. “I assist Dr. Anna Smith,” he said.
The vampire let out a booming laugh as he walked over to a table and set his medical bag down. He next removed a flask from the bag and took a long swallow. Dixon caught a quick glimpse of the design on the flask before the doctor returned it to the bag. “Do you know Dr. Anna Smith well?”
The question was a loaded one. Dixon figured he was fishing to see if Dixon knew of the existence of vampires. It would be the obvious first question. “No. I met her only a few months ago.”
“Really?” Dr. Briggs reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny trinket that Dixon knew all too well. He opened the locket and glanced at the picture and then back at Dixon. “Is this you?”
Dixon looked at the picture of himself as a young boy. Sulie had been wearing it the last time he saw her. He had placed the locket around her neck himself. He had to second guess what his answer should be. Did he say no and risk the vampire dismissing him? If so, he may lose the vampire’s trail and the only true lead he had to Sulie. If he answered yes, the worst case scenario might be death, but best–case he could take him to Sulie. He barely glanced at the picture. “Yes. That is me.”
Dr. Briggs leaned in and smiled to show his fangs. “Do you know what we are?”
Dixon did his best to pretend to be half paralyzed with fright and frozen statuesque by the compelling. He must have pulled the performance off because Dr. Briggs started to laugh. The doctor pulled out the flask once again and took another long pull of what Dixon knew had to be blood.
“Forget you saw my fangs,” Dr. Briggs said sizing up Dixon. “What are you, a hundred?”
To Dixon, the vampire sounded condescending and belittling. He knew he didn’t look bad for his age. “I am 66 years old,” he said almost robot–like.
A chuckle escaped Dr. Briggs mouth. “Simple minds.” He put the flask away and walked over to Dixon. “What is Anna’s real name?”
Without hesitation, Dixon answered, “Annabel? Annalisa? I don’t know.”
“Uh huh. Well, tell me Johnny. What is your relationship wi
th Dr. Smith?”
There were many choices, but Dixon needed one to explain why he was poking around the hospital. “She is my employer.”
Dr. Briggs dangled the locket in Dixon’s face. “And you give your employer a locket with your picture in it.”
“I wanted her to have the locket,” Dixon blurted out before thinking everything through. He felt on display as the doctor studied him. The man had the locket; he obviously had Sulie. Dixon had to figure out what the man wanted, what Sulie had led him to believe, and what answers would get this vamp to take him to her.
Dr. Briggs grimaced. “You and she are lovers.”
Dixon almost made eye contact once again, but held himself back. Calculating that Dr. Briggs perhaps was looking for leverage against Sulie, he answered. “Yes.”
“What was that answer?” he said, staring into Dixon’s eyes evidently to see if he were compelled.
“We are lovers.” Dixon did his best to keep his heart rate at a steady beat and not get too anxious over the line of questioning.
“And yet you said you don’t know her very well.”
Oops, he had forgotten about that. “She is in love with me. She’s a young kid, and I’m old school. Want to court her more. Need to know her better.”
Dr. Biggs let out a chuckle as he poked Dixon in the chest with his finger. “I can actually respect that. Fake her out with the guise of respecting her and yet still dabbling in the nasty.” He took another good look into Dixon’s eyes. “She has a birthmark on her upper thigh,” he pointed to where the mark was on his own leg. “What shape is it in?”
All the years of playing poker with the team helped Dixon to keep a straight face. Because of some field work he and Sulie had done decades ago, Dixon realized he did know the answer. “Mickey Mouse,” he said. His jaw slightly clenched as he wondered how this vampire knew she even had a birthmark, let alone the shape of it.
Dr. Briggs lips curled into a grotesque smile. “Puts new meaning to the phrase ’find the hidden Mickey’, doesn’t it?” He pointed to a nearby table. “Put your phone down. You’re coming with me.”
Chapter Twenty–Three
Kate’s emergency C–section was successful and two beautiful twin boys had come into the world. Although on the small side, the boys were healthy and crying up a storm. While the team was packaging the babies’ cord blood to use as bait, Alex left the room to call Kate’s mother. The new grandmother was now racing to the hospital.
Alex smiled. As Raymond’s wife, she realized she was the boys’ step–grandmother. Just a few months ago, she had been single and desperately wanting a family. Now she was a wife, mother, and grandmother. Imagine that.
During the few minutes Alex was on the phone, she saw Kate and the twin boys leave the ER and be admitted into the maternity ward. She guessed Kate’s paperwork indicated she was in her mid–twenties when she gave birth. Thank goodness for the gift of compelling humans. Nearly a dozen humans were compelled and paperwork modified to bring these two angels into the world. Alex could definitely understand why vampires sought Sulie out as their doctor.
Knowing that Raymond would want to stay behind to help Sterling with the boys, at least until Kate’s mother could arrive, Alex continued the search for Sulie. She noticed a new stork picture plastered on another door of the maternity wing. She knocked and then pushed open the door to enter the private hospital room. “Hello?” she said before she pulled back the entry curtain just inside the door.
“Come in.” A female’s voice rang out. She sounded tired.
Alex entered the room and the woman quickly put a finger to her lips and whispered, “Shhh. Darla just fell asleep.”
Alex studied the new mother, who looked ready to pass out as well. Not a vamp, but human. They were the only ones in the room. She walked over to the woman’s chart and quickly read her name and noticed the birth had been a C–Section. “Congratulations on the birth of your daughter, Mrs. Rottier. I’m Dr. Johansson.”
She nodded as she corrected Alex, “Ms. Rottier.”
Alex noticed she wore no wedding ring, but an indention existed on her ring finger where obviously one had been. “Newly divorced,” she thought. The baby’s father probably wasn’t in the delivery room with her, so Alex only had one person to question instead of two.
“I have a few questions for you.” She compelled her and discovered that even though she opted not to store the cord blood because of the cost, that the procedure was done anyway by a tall doctor with dark hair that she had never seen before. Alex asked if she knew Dr. Briggs and what he looked like, but she didn’t recognize the name. Alex texted Dixon the woman’s name so he could check in the lab for a vial with her name on it.
Alex broke the compelling by easing the new mother into a deep and restful sleep. She’d wake up thinking Alex’s visit was nothing more than a dream, if she remembered her at all. Alex left the room and bumped into Ben in the hallway.
“Briggs isn’t on staff today,” Ben began. “Brigg’s address is an empty lot.”
“This new mom,” she pointed back to the patient’s room she had just left, “did not request cord blood storage. The baby was delivered by C–Section and the cord blood was collected anyway. I texted Dixon to see if he found any blood in the lab with her name on it. He’s also checking for the cord blood company name and anything marked with Dr. Briggs’ name on it down in the lab.”
Holding up some vials, Ben said, “We had the doctor store the cord blood from Kate’s babies.” He pointed to the labels on the vials. “It was a standard collection, so they should match any other blood down in the lab. We also have the signed paperwork for the collection, which we’ll place in her folder at the nurses’ station as bait.”
Ben scanned up and down the hallways. “The only vampires on this floor are us. Let’s go to the lab and help Dixon.” When they got to the lab, the only thing they found was Dixon’s phone. It chirped with the unseen texts Alex had sent.
They searched the hallways, but only found an orderly cleaning test tubes in a washroom. Under compelling, the young man said he had seen an elderly man leave with a doctor.
Ben grimaced as he put Kate’s cord blood in his pocket. He then announced in his ear’s com unit, “We now have a double rescue effort.”
Chapter Twenty–Four
Sulie couldn’t be sure if she napped more to conserve her energy, or because her older age needed more rest. Hunger pains may have also been a reason for her over tired state. Either way, she suspected she had been asleep for hours just now, even though she didn’t feel rested.
She didn’t want to even guess how old she had become during her nap. Taking a deep breath, she glanced down at her veiny hands and noticed how paper–thin her skin had become. Hands always gave away a person’s age. Many people thought wrinkles around the eyes held the secret of someone’s age, which Sulie knew she also had, but the true evidence of age always appeared in the hands.
Days had passed since she last fed, and she felt the soreness of her muscles and the stiffness in her joints as what little blood she had left had recycled within her. Her body needed fresh blood. When she had taken the blow to the head from Charles, her blood appeared still reddish in color. She now suspected her blood had changed to a darkening purple hue — just like oil in a car when the vehicle needed an oil change. Her body was wearing itself out. Once her blood blackened to the color and consistency of tar, she would be dead. Turned to dust — and gone.
Of course, the flip side of her problem was Charles. Even if she came close to death, she couldn’t marry the bastard. The only way she would is if Dixon’s life depended on the marriage. Hopefully, Charles wouldn’t find him.
Sulie had so wanted to see Dixon again — if only to immediately declare her love for him. But now she prayed she never laid eyes on him again. It would be better for him to be safe.
Another hunger pang hit her. Her twisting stomach felt like a rock in her gut. If she had tapered off blood and allowe
d her body to gradually age, the pain would be minor. Cutting off cold turkey was sheer torture. Her skin was shriveling, her hair was turning gray, and her bones were getting brittle. She figured it wouldn’t be much longer before death would take her.
In her weakened state, she had trouble holding her head up. She passed out due to hunger as she rested on the bed in the dank cell.
In her dream, she walked along a babbling brook in the middle of a beautiful forest. She walked until she discovered a clearing where many people stood waiting in a line. She didn’t understand why, but she knew she had to stand in this line. People at the head of the line offered to let her cut in front of them, but she quietly walked to the back. Once in place, she noticed people at the head of the line pairing off and entering tiny two–person boats to float down the brook, which now became a quickly moving stream before her eyes.
Each person wore a brightly colored outfit as they waited in the line. Some wore red outfits and others wore purple ones. The people approached the stream where a cloaked man put a sign around each of their necks, and then the people paired off into the tiny ships to sail down the stream. Some boats carried two people in red outfits, some carried two people in purple outfits, and others carried a mix of the two colors.
Sulie could not read the signs being placed on the necks of the people who stood before her. She glanced down and discovered she now wore a purple sweatshirt, purple sweat pants, and even her running shoes were purple. She stood in the line and noticed that none of the people were talking, nor were they smiling. They merely stood until it became their turn to enter their boat.
The line shrank away as more and more people entered their personal carriers. As they boarded their boats, they finally smiled and talked to one another. She could hear some pairs laughing as they sailed down the stream. Sulie’s heart raced when she knew her turn would be soon. She didn’t know where the people sailed. All she knew was that she wanted to be in one of those boats — as if her life depended on this journey. She thought about asking someone in line for information, but didn’t want to appear weak, so she stood quietly instead, awaiting her turn.
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