Blood Leverage (Bloodstone Chronicles Book 1)

by J S Hazzard

  “Besides,” he waggled his eyebrows, “seeing your version of ‘persuasive’ was educational.”

  My face turned pink and I flung my legs out of bed while reminding myself that in addition to being a vampire, Ian was already spoken for.

  Then I did a double take. “Holy cats, what happened to my nightgown?” Most of its skirt was gone. I was still decent, but only by a scant inch.

  Ian arched an eyebrow. “Holy cats?”

  “Don’t ask.” I shrugged. “Something I heard earlier.” I was more interested in the fate of my clothes and began poking through the covers.

  “Don’t bother. I tore it off while you slept.” He lifted a shoulder in dismissal. “I realized you weren’t accustomed to sleeping in something that binds your legs. It was bothering you and I eliminated it.”

  He said this like it was the most logical solution in the world.

  “This house is rough on clothing.” I pretended to grumble, but was somewhat pleased the expensive negligee had been trashed. I pettily hoped it had been a favorite of Lillian’s. “Is there something I can wear for the ride home?”

  “You’re all set.” Ian gestured to the chairs by the fireplace, where a pair of jeans and plain white t-shirt were folded. I’d been hoping for something belonging to Ian or Keanu, but didn’t say it.

  Talk about a fashion comedown, I sighed inwardly. Good thing I had my grubby shoes back in the truck; they were a perfect match for this new ensemble.

  After examining the clothes, I took them into the bathroom. Lillian was maybe three inches taller—of course she was—but otherwise her clothes were a decent fit. I rolled the jeans up a couple turns before exiting the bathroom. “I’m surprised I have so much energy after giving blood.”

  “I didn’t take much.” Despite his matter of fact tone, the memory made me flush.

  “It seemed lengthy enough,” I said, closing the door behind me.

  He kissed his fingertips and grinned. “When presented with a delicacy, one doesn’t gulp. One savors.”

  I had no response for that and changed the subject. “Do you mind if I get something to drink before I leave? I feel fine to drive, but I’m thirsty.”

  “Keanu already made dinner for you. It’s only cold stuff since we didn’t know how long you’d sleep, but it’ll save you the effort of cooking later.” He slid lazily off the bed and wandered into his bathroom as I headed toward the kitchen.

  Keanu’s interpretation of ‘cold stuff’ consisted of a spinach salad with steak, hard boiled eggs and a bacon vinaigrette. There were also leftover rolls and butter from earlier, but I couldn’t help noticing all the high-iron food. I wondered if this was coincidence or a subtle reprimand for having given blood twice this week.

  A few minutes into the meal, I decided on reprimand. Keanu had barely spoken and I’d caught him staring multiple times. All I could hear in my head was Ian yelling at him to stop eavesdropping. I wondered if he had.

  In an attempt to break the silence I thanked him for dinner and made a point to praise his bacon vinaigrette. Anything that makes spinach more palatable deserves commendation as far as I’m concerned.

  “No big deal.”

  When I realized that was all I was getting, I gave up on conversation and concentrated on my food until Ian reappeared. However, when Ian offered to guide me to the truck, Keanu insisted on doing it. “I know you’re much better, but there’s no point in having you anywhere near the sun. Besides, the floors are still sticky from the peaches and you’re not wearing shoes.”

  “Peaches?” Ian looked confused—no surprise there.

  Keanu and I answered in unison. “Don’t ask.”

  “You know,” I jumped in, not wanting Ian to hear of my earlier adventure, “I left your Cuckoo book in the bedroom. I’ll grab it and then I need to get home.”

  Keanu cleared the table as Ian and I trotted back to the bedroom. (Okay, it was a trot for me. For Ian it was the equivalent of a crawl.) The book was on the nightstand and I self-consciously turned to say goodbye.

  “Well,” I hesitated. “I’ll see you in a few days then, for my delivery with Keanu?” I felt a little awkward, never knowing where I stood around here.

  Ian nodded, possibly feeling a bit awkward himself. “Thank you again, Aurora. For everything. If all goes well I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow evening. If that’s the case, I’ll be leaving for a day on business. Nothing special,” he added, though it was none of my business, “but you’ll want an account established for your friend. And since Luigi isn’t here, I’ll need her name.”

  I thought about that for a minute. “I’m not sure that’ll work. My friend doesn’t have easy access to a bank.” Not that I’d ever been to the bank either, but Amy had a much greater need for money than I.

  “Besides,” I said. “Who knows how long this arrangement will last? I’m not giving up on Nicky.”

  “Okay,” his voice softened. “I’ll have local credits when you return. Drive safely.” Once again, he picked up my wrist and kissed it, followed by a hug that made me drop his book. He caught it before it hit the ground.

  Back in the kitchen Keanu was waiting with my basket. He opened it to show me he’d filled it with blueberries.

  I looked at him in confusion. “Blueberries?”

  “I felt guilty about letting you waste your peaches,” he said, smiling for the first time since I’d awakened. “Besides, everyone must have noticed you in that knockout dress earlier. If anyone asks, you can say you changed to pick these.” The pride in his logic rolled off him in waves.

  “It’s early in the season for so many blueberries,” I considered, “but I’ll be happy to fix that by eating some on the drive home. And speaking of home,” I glanced at the time stamp on the wall screens. “I can’t be late for class, so let’s go.”

  Upon entering the first peach scented room Keanu hoisted me up, ignoring my squawk of protest. “I picked up the fruit,” he said, “but I haven’t washed the floors. I had to clean the kitchen first.” He sidestepped a tiny puddle of peach juice. “You don’t want to get the floor of the truck all sticky.”

  I had no problem being carried, but still… “It’s hardly fair you were stuck with the kitchen,” I objected. “You didn’t start trashing the place.”

  He managed to simultaneously keep me balanced, shrug, open the next door and keep the basket of blueberries level as he answered. “Ian has cleaned plenty of my messes over the years, believe me. This pales in comparison.”

  That piqued my curiosity, but Keanu had other things on his mind.

  “You know, Rory, about earlier…”

  Oh crap, lecture time. “Which part of earlier?” I tried for nonchalance.

  “Shit, this is embarrassing.” We’d reached the staircase and Keanu set me down a couple steps above him so we were face to face for a change.

  “You’re embarrassed?” I scoffed. “Think how I feel! Though,” I snickered. “At least I wasn’t scolded for eavesdropping.”

  Keanu hunched his shoulders. “I hadn’t meant to but you were pretty loud in there. I couldn’t help hearing, but that’s beside the point. I need to ask you to please be careful with Ian.”

  I softened at his protectiveness and was quick to reassure him. “I promise this wasn’t an everyday thing, but Ian was ill and then he had the fight and the healing… I promise I won’t make a habit of giving blood twice in one week.”

  He shifted his weight back and forth. “That’s good Rory, but not what I meant. Just… be careful, okay? I’ll see you in a few days.” Then he was off with a brief goodbye hug and a whoosh in the opposite direction.

  Though my wrist both looked and felt absolutely normal, I couldn’t stop rubbing it during the drive home. After all the years of illegal blood brokering, I’d finally committed the ultimate taboo. I’d willingly allowed a vampire to feed directly from me, and it hadn’t bothered me a bit. Of course, it wasn’t like I was obsessed with vampires or anything. I’d simply helped
a sick friend, a friend who’d done much larger favors for me. Still, it somehow felt like more, and as I parked the truck at the vault, I was grateful that the combined blood loss between Ian and the glass was enough to keep me from blushing.

  On my walk back, a few people in the courtyard did notice my new clothes, but no one questioned my blueberry story. I’d eaten half of them during my drive home and had acquired some very convincing stains on my borrowed white shirt. In fact, no one seemed to find anything out of the ordinary at all, despite the fact that I’d just allowed a vampire to feed from me.

  Shushing the annoying little voice inside my head, I raced home to put my materials together and change for class. Tonight would be the first time I’d taught my mother’s book and I was both nervous and excited. According to mother, students occasionally still took umbrage at the subject, but I was determined to do her work justice.

  Furthermore, in the spirit of responsible adulthood, I even took the time to clean Her Majesty’s royal tee shirt before I left.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-THREE

  “GOOD evening.” I fought not to fidget as everyone stared. I hadn’t expected such a high turnout. “As you know, we’re here tonight to learn about the events preceding the mass conversions.” I did a quick survey for hostile expressions, but so far, so good.

  “Before we get into the details I’d like to speak about the time period in question, from approximately 2000 to 2060. The world is very different now, but for the purpose of our discussion the most important distinction was that the existence of vampires wasn’t public knowledge then. Humanity’s ideas of vampires came from fiction, not reality.

  “In the books and movies of that time, vampires were romanticized creatures. They were dark and dramatic heroes and the public loved them.” I smiled at the expressions of skepticism and disbelief. This was going to be fun.

  “Of course, there were genuine vampires back then and one can only imagine what they thought of their fictional image.” My best guess was that they’d laughed their immortal asses off. I ought to ask the guys sometime.

  The first hand rose and I gestured to a teenage boy while reminding myself to keep my answer brief. I had a lot to cover tonight. “Yes?”

  “Ms. Strong, do you know where vampires came from? Back in the very beginning, I mean.” He looked half eager and half terrified, but I had to disappoint him.

  “The origin of vampires remains unknown,” I said, not without a twinge of disappointment. “It’s believed vampires themselves don’t know their origin, or even when it occurred.” Something else to ask when I got around to it.

  “The one thing we know regarding the ancient history of vampires is that there have been legends about vampires for as long as humans have kept written histories—which makes sense if they’ve always fed on people. Beyond that, we may never know.”

  I smiled and gave a little shrug.

  “So.” I pulled myself back on track. “Most of you already know how my mother came across a written record explaining how the mass conversions came to occur. Those documents detailed the work of three individuals, two human doctors and a vampire.

  “I know, I know.” I put my hands up in a placating gesture as conversations began to buzz. “You’ve heard that vampires didn’t instigate the mass conversions and that’s true, but vampire blood is still required for conversion to occur.

  “The story begins with a vampire known only as Luke. Aside from knowing he was a vampire prior to the mass conversions, we know little about him. We don’t know his age,” I added, since mom had told me someone always asked.

  “Regardless of how long he’d been a vampire, there is no evidence Luke wanted to convert humans. According to his notes, vampires had been attempting to mass produce human blood for centuries solely to make life easier. However, after vampires became a massive part of pop culture, Luke began to consider working with humans to solve the problem. The turning point was in the autumn of 2034, when Luke sought human assistance and contacted a research professor from Boston University in Massachusetts.”

  I took a sip of water and settled into my teaching mode. “Dr. Marshall Harris studied hematology at the molecular medicine program at Boston University. Or in non-medical terms, he studied the tiny bits and pieces that make up human blood. After Luke contacted him, Harris retired—he was already in his mid-sixties—and told his colleagues he’d be working part time on a private research project.

  “We don’t know what Luke told Dr. Harris and we’re unsure whether he knew Luke was a vampire. However, as their partnership lasted thirteen years, I assume he had his suspicions.

  “Their partnership lasted until Dr. Harris contracted heart disease in 2047 at eighty years of age, at which time he left Luke’s employ with a substantial monetary bonus. I have here a copy of a financial document called a wire transfer, authorizing a large sum of money to be moved to an account established in Panama under Dr. Harris’ name.”

  For emphasis I set a transparency on the overhead projector so everyone could see. “The amount transferred was ten million dollars.” A sharp whistle sliced through the resulting silence and I paused to let it sink in.

  “Dr. Harris was rewarded for his efforts, but we have no evidence of contact between the two men again. Given his advanced age and failing heart, I doubt Dr. Harris ever knew the havoc wrought by his recommended replacement, a colleague by the name of Dr. Warren Neilson.”

  I shuffled my stack of transparencies and stepped away from my podium. “From this point on our story belongs to Dr. Neilson, the man who changed the world as we know it. We’ll take a brief break and regroup in ten.” I made a beeline for the door before a line could form at the bathroom.

  For once, my students were all in their seats on time. Either people were interested in this topic or they’d had the sense to use the bathroom before class. Either way, I was pleased to be on schedule. I needed to continue my streak of promptness.

  “Okay. Before break, we left off with the retirement of Dr. Harris and the introduction of Dr. Neilson. Although the two doctors were colleagues, Dr. Neilson was only in his thirties. Furthermore, though both doctors specialized in hematology, their research was very different. Dr. Harris had spent his career trying to replicate human blood in mass quantities. Dr. Neilson, on the other hand, developed drugs to treat blood-based illnesses.” I consulted my notes.

  “Unlike Dr. Harris, we know Dr. Neilson knew about Luke because Neilson writes of vampirism as a disease for which human blood was the treatment. Instead of replicating human blood, Neilson wanted to study Luke’s reaction to it in the hopes of duplicating the reaction.

  “First, Dr. Neilson wanted to observe how vampire blood interacted with human blood on a cellular level, which he did by mixing the two on a microscope slide, like the ones in your intro to biology course earlier this year. Dr. Neilson watched over a number of days as the vampire blood converted the human blood in a manner similar to infection until no trace of it remained. Through repeated trials, he discovered that additional vampire blood made for a faster conversion. Furthermore, he learned about vampiric cells and how they prevent aging.

  “As you all learned in Biology, humans grow and age through a process of cellular division. In contrast, vampires don’t really age because their cells don’t divide unless an injury prompts them to. According to Neilson, vampiric cells exist in a kind of stasis except for brief periods after exposure to human blood. The process of absorbing human blood brings on a rush of cellular activity during which damaged cells are rejuvenated.

  “When vampiric cells are deprived of human blood their function begins to slow. If left too long, the cells begin to solidify into almost crystalline patterns. However, a reintroduction of human blood reanimates the frozen cells within minutes.”

  A hand shot up and I backtracked, realizing my error. “Not frozen like being cold, Mandy, frozen in the sense that they stopped functioning.”

  The hand went down and I moved
on. “The way vampire blood converted human blood and the way vampire cells responded when denied human blood paved the way for Dr. Neilson’s next series of tests.

  “Human blood has many components, but eighty percent of it is water. And since Dr. Neilson’s blood-deprived vampire cells hadn’t dried out—in which case they would shrink—but instead hardened, Neilson theorized it wasn’t the liquid portion of blood that was important. He theorized that vampiric nutrition required a solid component of human blood, particularly red and white blood cells.”

  My audience was getting fidgety and I needed to hurry before I lost them. “Dr. Neilson proved that blood cells alone could provide sufficient nutrition for a vampire and once he discovered this, his work was all but done. Human scientists had been working on reproducing blood cells for decades. They’d succeeded in small quantities, but their task was difficult because the resulting cells needed to be healthy enough to function in a human body. However, the answer to Dr. Neilson’s problem lay in his previous work with human cancer, specifically leukemia.

  “The term leukemia covers several varieties of cancers, but the common thread is that leukemia affects the blood and/or bone marrow, which is where human blood cells grow. In this case, Dr. Neilson worked with tissue from patients with chronic leukemia, where abnormal white cells eventually crowd out healthy red blood cells in humans. However, this wasn’t a problem for vampires—”

  “Because all the cells would be eaten anyway!”

  “That’s right, Vicki. However, please raise your hand if you have something to add,” I reminded, smiling to take any sting from the words.

  “Dr. Neilson didn’t need to worry about growing healthy cells because they didn’t need to stay alive or multiply normally. They could be consumed and used up.”

  I wrapped up the remaining science, explaining how Dr. Neilson had found cancer cultures that would multiply rapidly, producing abnormal blood cells that could never be used by humans but were sufficient for vampire nutrition.