The Living Blood

by Tananarive Due

  Justin was mute, afraid to answer. His mind was cleansed of any thought of Rusty Baylor. Jesus, was his father dying?

  Patrick went on, slapping Justin’s thigh. “I’m clean, that’s what. Heart is plugging away like I never spent a day at the hospital. Cholesterol count is a joke. My liver is picture-perfect. Lung capacity, too. Know what the doctor said? I’m as healthy as a thirty-year-old. He’ll fax me the results tomorrow, and you can see for yourself.”

  Justin’s mind wheeled. “But . . . Dr. Freeman said your heart still has blockages. And your liver, for God’s sake—”

  “That was then, Justin. This is now.”

  “Someone’s scamming you, Dad.”

  The smile grew. “I could go to a hundred doctors and get the same answer every time. That’s the reality of it. Your pop isn’t the same broken-down seventy-year-old SOB he was a year ago. Your pop is a new man who’s going to live a long time. And I’ll tell you why.”

  The realization washed over Justin precisely as the voices of the chorus on the speakers behind him blended into a crescendo, and he would remember that instant of understanding for the rest of his life. Justin glanced at his daughters splashing each other in the pool, then back to his grinning father. “Our client’s blood drug?”

  “Last year, he gave me a shot of the stuff.”

  “Are you crazy? This isn’t even approved by the—”

  “Why do you think it’s running around on the South African black market? Why do you think our client hired a fucking army to get it? Because it works. I’m living proof. Now, let’s get back to the question you asked me earlier . . .”

  Justin noticed that Caitlin was tugging on her sister’s hair, and he was about to ask her to stop when the two girls began to squeal with giggles. Their heads bobbed underneath the water, and Justin began unconsciously counting the seconds until they would pop back up.

  “Let’s say there was some kind of blood drug out there that could fix a blocked heart. Cure a booze-poisoned liver. Knock out cancer. Revolutionize medicine, all with no side effects. Oh, and let’s say, if everything went the way we want it to, your personal access to this blood would be guaranteed, that you’d never have to worry about the health of your hot little wife or those two angels of yours again. Ever. And while you’re at it, you’d happen to have a major stake in the company that brings it to the mass market, which’ll make Microsoft look like a corner lemonade stand. Just pretend, hypothetically speaking, something like that was true . . .”

  Twenty-eight . . . twenty-nine . . . thirty. After thirty seconds, the twins’ heads burst above the pool’s surface, and they argued loudly over who had held her breath longer. Justin couldn’t stop watching his daughters, as if he were hypnotized. He heard his blood pounding in his eardrums.

  “You tell me, counselor,” Patrick went on. “What’s something like that worth?”

  Justin never answered his father’s question. The two of them watched the twins in silence, then Holly called out on the intercom to let them know dinner was ready.

  At the table, Holly said she’d checked out a modeling agency for the girls, and Justin said he thought it would be all right as long as it didn’t interfere with school. The twins mugged all throughout dinner, striking poses with their silverware. The paella was nearly perfect, except that the yellow rice was a bit gummy. Justin didn’t mind. He drank two glasses of sangria with dinner, and his father had three.

  Then, at seven-thirty, Justin excused himself from the table to go upstairs to his office. For a minute, he gazed at the photograph of his daughters in a heart-shaped frame on his desk, a gift from Holly on Valentine’s Day. Then, he dialed directory assistance for the number to the Marlin Hotel.

  After steeling himself with a sigh, Justin called the killer. He told him to bring back his client’s blood drug by any means necessary. “Brilliant,” Rusty Baylor said, and for the first time there was evidence of emotion in his voice. He sounded genuinely happy.

  Justin hung up, feeling dizzy. After a dozen years of marriage, he was about to keep his first important secret from Holly, wasn’t he? And once he started bringing secrets into his house, he was really no better than his dad. He had never been, most likely. Justin was honest with himself about that, just as Holly would want him to be.

  17

  Lalibela, Ethiopia

  By dawn, Jessica had already been wide-awake for hours, unable to follow any strains of thought but also unable to sleep well. Occasionally she dozed and wandered into folds of her consciousness that were bewildered and terrified, but she always woke up, reminded herself where she was (I’m in a hotel room in Ethiopia, and I’m taking Fana to her father), and waited for her disquiet to pass. She was taking Fana to her father. There was a soundness and logic to her mantra that stilled the creeping, hidden terror trying to convince her that she had no business here. Or, better put, that she must be insane, medically insane, to want to subject Fana to these immortals, even David. Or, just maybe, especially David.

  When she opened her eyes and saw the light of early morning, she gazed at Fana’s sleeping face beside her and asked herself how she would feel if one of these Life Brothers tried to hurt her daughter. The very idea of it made Jessica’s chest lock tight.

  I’m taking Fana to her father.

  “Teferi seems like a good man,” she said aloud, a reminder. She did not point out to herself that the key words in that sentence were seems like, because then she would be back where she’d started. Further, she did not allow herself to ponder the more obvious question of why a stranger had been sent for her instead of her husband; it might not be a good sign, but it wasn’t necessarily a sign that she should not have come. Jessica believed in Teferi. She believed in her purpose here. She believed God would protect them. It was all she had to go on, but it would have to be enough. “Either you’re going to do this or you aren’t,” she lectured herself quietly. “If you’re not, then wake Fana up and take her straight to the airport. If you are, then you need to trust and stop giving yourself pop quizzes on how many ways this could go wrong.”

  I’m taking Fana to her father.

  In the end, her mantra won.

  When she finally got up to dress, Jessica thought about it a moment, then she dug into her straw-woven purse to find the tube of lipstick she hadn’t even thought about using in at least a year. She was afraid she’d thrown it away, but she found the shiny black tube in a deep corner of the bag. Why not? David had always loved this color on her, she thought, as if he were an old beau she was about to meet at their ten-year high school reunion. Besides, she heard her mother’s voice advising her, you always want to put your best face forward.

  Best face. Jessica nearly chuckled, outlining her lips with the bright (blood) color as she gazed at her work in the bathroom mirror. The eyes staring back at her were as wide and anxious as a doe’s, and lipstick wouldn’t help that.

  • • •

  Teferi was already waiting for them in the lobby, dressed exactly as he’d been the night before, as if he hadn’t left. He was standing next to a red Jeep at the curb outside the hotel like a limousine chauffeur, even down to his welcoming smile. At the sight of him, Jessica felt her chest tense despite his smile.

  “You’re sure David is at the colony?” Jessica asked him, not moving. She was standing rigid at the edge of the road, her backpack slung across her shoulder, holding Fana’s hand tightly.

  Teferi’s pleasant expression didn’t falter. “Of course. He has been back with us a year.”

  “Why were you sent for us, then? I need to see him.”

  “And you will.”

  “Now, I mean,” Jessica said firmly, surprised at how easily she had shed her awe of this creature. “I need to see him before I take my daughter there.”

  Jessica didn’t like the flicker of hesitation she saw pass across Teferi’s face. People who hesitated often had bad news or were about to tell lies, she told herself. Just then, Jessica felt Fana pulling wildly
at her hand. “D-Daddy . . . did’n wanna come,” Fana said, and Jessica knew the words were true from the sad affirmation in Teferi’s eyes. Fana must have taken the knowledge from his thoughts.

  Jessica took a deep breath as pain crawled through her chest. Her heart seemed to have thudded to a stop. She hadn’t known how she would feel about seeing David again, but at least now she knew how she felt to be rejected by him. She felt sick to her stomach.

  Teferi took a deep breath, drawing himself even taller. He lowered his voice slightly, even though no one else near the hotel had risen at this early hour. The street was as deserted as any Jessica had ever seen. “When we learned that you intended to see us, a few days ago Khaldun urged our council to vote in favor of your visiting our colony. And they did. But afterward, Dawit had a problem with some of the other brothers, those most opposed to your arrival. I do not know the details of the dispute because I was away from the colony at the time, but perhaps that’s why Dawit asked Khaldun to assign a guide. Simple politics, for lack of a less crass term.”

  “Who’s Khal-doon?” Jessica asked quickly. She thought she might know that name.

  “Please. We should speak more privately of this,” Teferi said, his face alarmed, suddenly free of his smile. “It is impolitic to utter Muslim names in this very Christian village. If you would be so kind as to get into the vehicle—”

  “Not until I know who he is,” Jessica said.

  After a sigh of surrender, Teferi’s expression grew rapturous. He leaned over to speak very softly into Jessica’s ear, and when he did, Jessica smelled a sweet-scented cologne, or oil, radiating from his skin. “He is our father and teacher, who brought us the Living Blood.”

  “He knows where it came from?”

  “He knows all and sees all. We live by his laws.”

  “Then he’s the one I need to see,” Jessica said, bolstered by sudden determination. Even if David didn’t want to have anything to do with them, at least Khaldun could give her some answers about the blood that would help her with Fana. She still felt a sting when she remembered David’s promise: For all of time, I will be waiting for you. But she had to let go of that, she decided. This visit was for Fana’s sake, not hers.

  “The Man!” Fana suddenly piped excitedly, tugging on Jessica’s hand again.

  “What, sweetie?”

  “Khal-doon is The Man from when I’m not-awake!” The disappointment that had soured Fana’s face earlier was now replaced by joy, as if they were talking about Santa Claus.

  Jessica was confused. “Not awake? You mean from your trances?”

  Fana grinned, nodding wildly.

  Jessica squeezed her daughter’s hand as Teferi opened the passenger-side door of the Jeep. Could that be true? Had the creator of the Life Colony been communicating with Fana while she was in those trance states, even from so far away? He knows all and sees all, Teferi had said. Jessica felt a genuine shiver. She hoped to God Khaldun was a friend.

  Jessica climbed into the front seat and pulled Fana onto her lap, and Fana pulled her Raggedy Ann doll onto her own lap, imitating her mother. Jessica suddenly remembered that she’d driven an old Jeep exactly like this one, the very same color, when she was in college, and it struck her now as disturbing déjà vu. Unlike hers, though, this car smelled new, clean of papers or any kind of debris. A rental? Or did the immortals have a colony fleet?

  “I guess I’d expected a mule or something,” Jessica said, forcing a joke even though she felt far from lighthearted.

  “Mules are popular transport here, but hardly suitable for a queen and a princess,” Teferi said graciously, closing the door behind them. Fana giggled excitedly at Teferi’s flattery, swiveling her head around to watch his every move as he walked to the driver’s side with long strides. Jessica took Fana’s delight to be a good sign; if Teferi were secretly planning to take them somewhere to lock them in a tomb or chop them into a million pieces, Fana would probably know it. Wouldn’t she?

  Once he was inside the car, Teferi hesitated before turning the key in the ignition, suddenly glancing toward Jessica with discomfort. “I should tell you this—and please understand that this is not intentional on my part—but I’m learning proficiency with thought interception . . .”

  He went on, but Jessica had stopped listening to him momentarily as her mind gnawed over the phrase thought interception, because she was stuck on the idea that Teferi, in his matter-of-fact way, had just told her he could read her mind.

  “. . . strong feelings, sometimes words and images, too,” Teferi was saying. “And that imagery just now from you, the hacking image, is painful to me for reasons I’d rather not elaborate. I should have assured you before now that I have no intention of hurting you, nor am I aware of any intentions to hurt you. I won’t pretend there aren’t those who wish you and this girl did not exist. You represent a disruptive factor, a variance with our laws. But you have been well protected by our creator, Khaldun. Your whereabouts have never been a secret to our Searchers, so why would we have left you untouched until now? Khaldun has forbidden anyone to do you harm. So please banish any thoughts that I plan to chop you and your daughter to bits. Please?” His voice trembled slightly.

  Jessica felt ashen. She hadn’t even opened her mouth, and she’d offended him. “Sorry,” she managed to utter past her constricted throat.

  While Fana looked thoughtful, studying him, Teferi started the car with a vigorous burst of the engine. “As you can imagine,” he said, “there are very few secrets where I come from.”

  “Yeah . . . I know the feeling,” Jessica said, glancing at Fana, who was gazing up at her with a frown. “God, at least now I think I know where Fana gets it. But I don’t understand. I have the blood, too, and I can’t—”

  “M-Mommy . . . ,” Fana whispered, shaken. She craned upward to find her mother’s ear. “Teferi did bad things.”

  Jessica glanced at their host, alarmed that he might have overheard Fana, but he didn’t show any reaction, staring straight at the road, which led them past a row of long, tin-roofed structures that looked like warehouses; beyond them, she saw rocky escarpments in the distance. What kind of bad things had Teferi done? With Fana, that could mean anything from eating a lamb chop to . . .

  What?

  Jessica heard Teferi sigh with resignation. “I’ve tried to keep my mind clear for your daughter’s benefit,” Teferi said, “but your words triggered some unpleasant memories for me, Mrs. Wolde. So I’m now in the embarrassing position of having to offer an explanation to you. I apologize in advance for fouling your daughter’s mind with this knowledge, but I do not have enough discipline over my own thoughts to keep it from her.”

  Sure enough, when Jessica next glanced at Fana, she saw her daughter’s eyes brim with frightened tears. Jessica’s mind reeled as she held Fana close to her. “What—”

  “It happened long ago, in Turkey. Like your husband, I, too, ignored our creator’s teachings and allowed myself to love mortals. I was notorious among my kind for my peculiar tastes, preferring the company of mortals, whom many of my brothers, I’m afraid, are bigoted enough to compare to chimpanzees. I easily had ten times the number of wives and children Dawit had, and loved them all. Fana can tell you that this is the truth. But there is a damnable underbelly to love, Mrs. Wolde, and that is loss. And I had lost a child that day—not a young child, but an old man who was still my child nonetheless—and it ignited a strange madness in me. I found the first weapon I could lay my hands on, a meat-cutting knife, a cleaver. And I went to the town square, where I began to kill every mortal within my sight. Not out of anger, you see, but out of mercy, to release them from their short, pitiable lives. As I said, it was madness. Fourteen people died at my hands that afternoon. This is the biggest shame of my life, and I have been punished for my recklessness by Khaldun. I assure you, I am that man no more.”

  Get out of this car right now, Jessica’s mind shrieked at her, and she had no hope of censoring that thought even if
she’d wanted to. One arm tightened around Fana’s middle while the other snaked toward her door handle.

  Instantly, Teferi jammed his foot on the brake, lurching their car to a stop in the roadway, which was still deserted except for a bearded man in layers of robes selling bundles of thin firewood at the edge of the road. He was staring at them. “I sense your fear, but I haven’t said this to frighten you. Of course you are free to go,” Teferi said, looking at Jessica. “But you won’t find the colony without a guide. Khaldun can dispatch another Life Brother—”

  “Tell me why David didn’t come,” Jessica demanded. David may have lied to her for years about who he was, but she had to believe she knew him some; and the man she had known would have come to meet her. Angry or not at being deceived about his second child, he would have at least come to see Fana. Something was wrong.

  “I know only what I have told you. Your daughter can say if I speak the truth.”

  Breathing hard, her heart galloping, Jessica stared at Fana’s face, which was still hollow-cheeked with fright. “Is he lying, Fana?” Jessica said softly, trying not to sound as frenzied as she felt. She hated to put the burden on her young daughter, but what choice did she have?

  Fana paused, glancing at Teferi. Then, slowly, she shook her head. “I don’ see lies, Mommy,” she whispered.

  Jessica sighed. Maybe she didn’t know David, then, she thought. She rested her chin on top of Fana’s head, hugging her, and Teferi sensed he had permission to drive again. Or, more likely, she remembered, he just knew what she was thinking.

  As the car jerked forward, Jessica heard dirt and rocks grinding beneath its tires; it sounded like the last vestiges of her old life being crushed beneath her. The morning sky was still as gray as a sheet of metal, but last night’s rain had been reduced to a mist that added a surreal haze to a scene that was already completely outside of Jessica’s experience or imagination. She saw more of the village now, shabby tin-roofed homes given slight shade by eucalyptus trees—and more villagers, most of them barefoot or wearing thin sandals, with even young men and boys using wooden staffs to help them walk up the inclines. Most people she saw were on foot. Even the scent here was fascinating to her, smoky and spicy, perhaps from the soil, or from incense. Then, more than two miles from their hotel, the car took them away from anything that looked the least bit modern, across a rocky terrain that tested the vehicle’s abilities.