by R. E. Carr
41
“Come again?” Gail asked incredulously as she got out of the tinted car. Mysterious men in black suits and earpieces escorted Gail and Merlin through the garage that serviced several buildings in the financial district. She could still hear the crowds chattering in the street, and a definite police presence blocked all entrances and exits. “Did you just say that you’ve found people who cannot die?”
“Oh, they can die quite easily. It just doesn’t always stick,” Merlin said, with a trace of irritation in his voice. He gave a little salute to the guards by the inner gate. Gail stiffened at the weapons clearly visible on their hips.
“That doesn’t sound right,” Gail protested. “Surely if something like that happened, it would be in medical journals. There are eight billion people out there, you couldn’t hide that for thousands of years—”
“And when exactly did you hear about vampires?” Merlin replied with a wink. “How about everyone else?”
“Touché. I’m guessing these people are extremely rare?”
“Rarer even than vampires. I had heard rumors in Egypt and across Europe of monstrous men who would wake up after you drank them dry. We were encouraged to behead them if such a mythical monster emerged. It was only when Arthur and I made it to the islands in the hinterlands of civilization that we found a whole village famed for its deathless warriors. Naturally, we did what we do best as vampires—we enraged them and found the best possible way to kill them. Much to our surprise, they had learned a lesson from the barbarians in the north, and next thing we knew, we had Undying berserkers ripping our expedition to shreds. It was not my finest decade, I’m afraid.”
Gail tuned him out for a bit, focusing instead on the tunnel leading her back into a familiar building. The guards changed from plain clothes police to black-clad security staff, much like the ones Gail had encountered in Texas. A pair moved to flank the vampires as they passed.
“They are with us, never fear,” Merlin reassured. “Anyway, I think it’s better if I show you. I need your assistance, after all. As much as I would love to be able to do everything myself for my experiments, it’s simply impossible. I’m certain that you of all people can understand how hard it is to find good help.”
Gail rolled her eyes. “Last time I went looking for a job with a vampire, it didn’t turn out so well.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Miss Harker. You get to assist Merlin the Magnificent with one of his grand experiments. Somehow, you’ve managed to stay alive and in the thick of things despite all my children squabbling around you, so you must be rather competent—or extremely lucky. Either way, you’ll be useful.”
Gail gritted her teeth and followed him into the sub-basement levels of the DeMarco, Lambley, and Young LLC building. Instead of rounding the corner towards cold storage, he led her to a nondescript door with only the number 22 on it. He leaned back and whispered confidentially, “I think you will find this particular experiment most intriguing.”
Gail found herself in a familiar setting—a man strapped into a bed with tubes leading out of him. Merlin swept a tablet into his hands and became lost in figures and results, while Gail took a few tentative steps towards the gauze-wrapped patient. She sniffed the air. “Something is wrong,” she said as she took in the strange, minerally scent of his blood. A lingering sweetness told her that another vampire had recently been nearby. “Subject Lazarus-1?”
“He looks pretty good for someone born in the Roman Age, don’t you think?” Merlin asked. “Remember that tribe of rampaging berserkers who couldn’t die? His grandfather was one of them—or was it his great-grandfather? I decided to turn the worst of the lot into one of us. It took a few tries, but I finally managed to create a vampire whose host did not die and retained his ability to change shape—”
“Mordred.”
“Of course. Well, the only way I could get Mordred to behave was by setting an example, so we killed his family in front of him.”
Gail stared at him in horror. “How can you say that so calmly?”
“It was thousands of years ago, and it was necessary to advance our race. In any case, if I hadn’t killed them, I wouldn’t have learned that this reanimation trait is hereditary. The poor Beast got the scare of his life when that little brat woke up screaming on the way to the boneyard. His daughter had managed to remain cold long enough for the bleeding to stop. Honestly, I don’t think Klaus put his heart into it. I saw his conversion centuries ago, you know. Anyway, we set up the little lass in Gaul and made sure she had a comfortable life, education, and an elevation in status, so we had a chance to breed her off to better stock. Eventually we got him—Lancelot—quite possibly the pinnacle of potential host evolution.”
“Is this . . . Lorcan’s old body?” Gail asked, wide-eyed. “But he’s alive.”
“Barely. There is hardly any brain function, but I can still farm him for blood. The vampire he hosted for so long has indelibly changed his DNA. He makes the same proteins that accelerate blood production and healing in other humans. It’s been invaluable for Lazarus-2.”
“You have another one?” Gail took the poor creature’s hand. Only two fingers and a thumb remained. “Is he as weak as this?”
“She is quite weak indeed. It’s interesting though, I went through generation after generation of attempts to find the next Lazarus subject, and suddenly in the twenty-first century, I get three in a single crop. It’s really rather exciting!”
Fingers latched onto Gail. A bright green eye opened, and the creature let out a desperate moan. Merlin silenced his unfortunate patient with an injection. “It’s really more humane to keep him sedated,” Merlin explained calmly. “Now, I think you have a pretty good idea who one of these Undying descendants is. After all, you were in Texas with Su Min, weren’t you?”
“Jonathan,” she said without skipping a beat. “That’s how he survived after Lori beat him to death—and then again when his heart stopped on the operating table.”
Merlin let out a chuckle. “We simply must document everything, Gail. I’ve been poring over my research for months, trying to figure out why the second host died and then only reanimated after the vampire was removed, while the other two immediately restarted after implantation. The only difference I’ve noted is—”
“The berserker virus,” Gail finished for him. Merlin laughed again.
“We are going to have so much fun! Now, come with me so I can show you the second subject.”
Gail lingered for a moment, taken in by the pleading in the victim’s eyes before they closed. She barely had a moment to recover as Merlin led her to the next room. Her jaw dropped as she saw green eyes again, but this set was surrounded by dark circles and bulging bags. Gail fumbled for words as a pasty, pudgy ginger vampire hopped to his feet, and after a moment of swooning to steady himself, he puffed out his chest, and took up a defensive position between the woman on the bed and the bemused Merlin.
“You said that you would leave her in peace if I stayed here, Merlin,” Mr. Lambley blustered. “And now you bring in another poor girl to be tortured! You are not behaving as is becoming to either a vampire or a gentleman.”
“Geoffrey, put a sock in it,” Merlin sighed. All eyes turned at a gurgling giggle the moment Merlin uttered the word sock. A pair of glassy blue eyes stared into the corner of the room in a feverish daze. Gail had to steady herself as she finally recognized exactly who lay in the bed.
“We did see her body, didn’t we?” Gail gasped.
“Pieces of it that she wasn’t using at the time, actually,” Merlin answered, while checking the tablet in this room. “Meet Lazarus-2. I’m pretty sure you knew her as—”
“Georgia . . . what have they done to you?” Gail had to look away from the scars bisecting Georgia’s face and the blood-soaked bandages wrapping her shoulder. Her blonde locks had been shaved to a fuzz, showing off a round scar that made even Gail’s vampire stomach turn. She whirled around to Merlin. “What did you do?”
“I took a look at her amygdala,” Merlin said with a shrug. “As I suspected, it is well below average in size. I thought about taking it out for study since it was so puny, but I had other pressing concerns.”
“You can’t just take out chunks of her brain while she is still alive!” Gail protested. Mr. Lambley joined in her bluster.
“I’ve taken a piece out of just about every part of her. That is one of the few samples I found that was actually aberrant. Now, I need you to clean away any remaining vampiric filaments from the shoulder wound and assess her viability for a repeat experiment. I estimate that it will take two to four weeks before I can put another section in her. After all, she’s the first human with an immune system capable of killing a healthy adult vampire. We need to know the limits,” Merlin said matter-of-factly.
“Are you kidding me?” Gail asked.
“If you won’t do it, I’ll have one of my other vets rip it out and stitch her up again. I think you can see that their results probably won’t be as considerate of her wellbeing as your own.”
Gail choked back her sneer. The lights flickered overhead. She gave a sidewise glance to the seething Mr. Lambley. He looked at the sparks dancing on her fingers that closely matched his own. His eyes widened to the point that Gail wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t roll out of his head. He simply pointed and stammered, while Gail clammed up as well.
“Guys, I’m bleeding here,” Georgia whimpered weakly, her voice crackly and faint. The nurse’s instincts in Gail took over, and she went diving for supplies. She made a shooing motion to the other vampires in the room.
“Both of you, out!” Gail commanded. “We have an eternity for awkward introductions and explanations, Mr. Lambley. As for you, Merlin—I’ll treat her wounds, but I definitely need personal space.”
“Come along, Geoffrey—I’ll take a look at you and our other patients as well. Let the girls have a little bonding time. Oh, and there is a camera trained on her bed. We will know if you are in any trouble. Ta-ta,” Merlin said sweetly.
“Did he just say ta-ta?” Gail mumbled to herself while she gathered up antiseptic, scissors, and a tray. Georgia moaned a little in agreement, while Mr. Lambley practically had to be dragged from the room despite his apparent weakness.
“He does that,” Georgia wheezed. She winced as her wound was exposed. Gail tried to keep her face calm as she saw blackened, oozing tendrils snaking through Georgia’s gaping wound.
“Are you in pain?”
Georgia responded with an incredulous look. Gail took a deep breath and continued with, “Would you like something for the pain?”
“Used to it now,” Georgia said, motioning her chin towards the remains of her vampiric tumor. “Gail . . . like me . . . Javier is like me.”
“Javier,” Gail gasped, nearly dropping her tweezers into the wound.
Georgia looked up at the camera. She made sure to keep her lips mostly together as she hissed. “Still alive . . . can help you. Forget about me and find Steve . . . help Steve. I’m screwed . . . anyway.”
“No,” Gail protested softly. Tears welled in her eyes. “You really mean that Javier is alive—”
“Can’t see him,” Georgia hissed. “Miasma . . . overdrive.”
“OK, let’s get you better—” Georgia shook her head as best she could. Gail gnashed her fangs a bit. “Listen to me, I need to clean out this wound and patch you up, or you might die.”
“Been there . . . done that. Help Steve . . . please,” Georgia begged.
“There are cameras. I need to keep working on you.”
Georgia looked to the corner of the room and smiled strangely. “My regular surgeon is back. He says you can . . . you can sneak out,” she choked out. Georgia gave one more pleading look to Gail.
“Someone else is here? Is it Javier?” Gail whispered.
“My invisible friend . . . trust me.”
Gail’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She looked to the corner of the room, and the lights flickered. Tears rolled down both their faces as Gail set the tweezers down and left a suffering patient alone on a bed. She took a deep breath. “Please don’t notice me,” she mouthed as she willed herself to fade from view. For the briefest of moments, she could see a pair of dark eyes staring curiously at her. She darted for the door, lifting a security guard’s keycard with as much finesse as she could muster.
“Where do I go?” she whispered. One light flickered down the hall. She ran towards it, then another, and another until she found herself in front of the stairwell. She breathed a sigh of relief as her keycard worked despite her not typing in a code. She felt a crackle of electricity beside her and heard footsteps shuffling down the stairs. “Javier, is that you?”
She hustled down one more level where she saw the exit just closing. She managed to get her foot in the door and slid into another institutional hallway. The light on the left side of the T-junction at the end of the hall blinked. Gail followed it and found herself staring at a door marked simply “Storage”.
“What are you storing here, Merlin?” Gail asked as the door opened on its own. She gulped as she saw row upon row of steel bars. A shiver ran along her arm. To her left, she saw a glassy-eyed man leaning against his cell wall. His rainbow-streaked hair fell limply over his face, while an impressive scar cut from his bare shoulder all the way up his neck. A tattoo of some sort of snake wrapped from one hand all the way to the other. He twitched from time to time, then his ink rippled and changed color. He turned and looked right at Gail the moment she walked past. She froze. He winked.
Gail blinked, and the stranger grabbed the bars right in front of her. He looked up to the ceiling where a little black camera watched the hall. “Microphones everywhere,” he mouthed with enough exaggeration that even Gail could pick it up. He danced and stretched as if preparing for a kung fu action sequence. “Yes, I can see you.” He added sign language for effect.
“Steve here?” Gail mouthed back. The stranger nodded, then tilted his head towards the corner. He gave her a sarcastic salute then pointed to the cell across from him where an eerily calm gentleman sat cross-legged in the center of his cell. She looked back to the tattooed stranger who gave her a thumbs-up. “Big help,” he mouthed.
Gail approached the cell with caution. This stranger had an impeccably neat blond buzz cut and ferociously bright blue eyes under a heavy brow. Something about his face seemed out of proportion and alignment, and his hands and feet seemed disproportionately massive for a man in yoga pants and a T-shirt. Unlike the inked guy, this stranger seemed oblivious to Gail’s curious stare.
“Is someone here?” Gail heard a familiar voice call from down the hall. “Hey, you can’t just lock us all up down here, Merlin. I demand to talk to Arthur! You might be a vampire, but this here is America, and we still have rights!”
“Steve!” she hissed under her breath. She ran to the end of the hall where the righteously indignant Steven James DeMarco hung onto the bars and occasionally shook them. He didn’t seem to notice her even though she stood directly in his sight line. “Steve!” she hissed again, but he was simply too busy having a tantrum to notice. He jumped as a surge of electricity rushed through the cage.
“What the—?”
“Notice me, damn it!” Gail said as loudly as she dared. Steve’s eyes widened as Gail suddenly shimmered into view directly in front of him.
“Pumpkin? You’re—”
“We’re getting out of here,” Gail said quickly as she walked to his cell door. She yanked on it once or twice before noticing a set of keys left thoughtfully on the floor. “Yeah, Javier is definitely around.”
Steve stared at her wild-eyed. “Gail, you’ll never believe this, but—”
“Georgia is back from the dead? Yeah, she sent me to help you,” Gail snapped as she ran back to the hall to open the other two doors. The blond gentleman raised a brow but calmly rolled to his feet.
“I knew the universe would send help for my family,” the str
anger said. “It was only a matter of time.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dad—rub it in for the heathens,” the inked stranger replied. He grabbed Gail and kissed her full on the lips as he bounced out of his bondage. “Oh, hi, I’m Bam-Bam, Stevie’s far more attractive older brother.”
Gail froze, blinking rapidly as Bam-Yin Lung winked at her again. He pointed to the blond man. “That is our dad, the Beast, but he hates that name and likes to be called Klaus now. He’s about the only vampire on the planet as insufferable as my dorky brother.”
“You’re the Beast?” Gail asked softly.
“A different name from a different time,” Klaus replied. “Now, I believe it is time for us to make our escape. I’m certain it will not take long for them to realize that our cages have been opened even if they cannot see us on the monitors.”
“Why are you all prisoners here?” Gail asked as they hustled for the door.
“We are conscientious objectors to Arthur and Merlin’s rule,” Klaus explained.
“I don’t think Merlin has any interest in ruling, though. He’s far more obsessed with experimenting on the Undying—both the human and the vampire kind.”
“There are no human Undying,” Bam-Yin scoffed.
“Actually,” Gail started but was cut off by the door bursting open. She ducked behind the bulkier Klaus. Bam-Yin cracked his knuckles and danced a little more. All the physical gestures proved pointless as a frustrated Steve barked, “Just get the hell out of my way!”
Both Bam-Yin and Klaus did a double-take as the guards flattened against the wall. Before they could raise their weapons, the bouncy, hyperactive Bam-Yin took out his frustration by knocking in the heads of the brutes, sweeping the leg, and generally making a mess of things.
“He’s frustrated. I apologize,” Klaus said, both to the guards and to Gail.
“See how you like it if they lock you up and chop out parts of you. I’m going to get my gland back—”
“Not possible,” Gail told him as they moved out into the hall. “Merlin ended up . . . using it.”