“I’m looking at blood that has both the DNA of human and animal? That’s what you’re telling me?” She pulled her face away and stared at the other scientist with narrowed eyes.
“You’re looking at the blood of a dormant werewolf. A human with lupine blood.” He shifted on his feet, and Alice thought he might be seconds away from jumping up and down. He stepped to the right and pointed at another microscope. “Now look at this one.”
Alice bit her bottom lip before moving to the scope and pressing her eye to it. This blood sample was different. There wasn’t just an elevated number of white blood cells; there was a massive amount in the sample. “This person clearly had an infection?” The statement came out as a question.
“Negative.”
Alice forced herself not to roll her eyes. “Fine. What the hell am I looking at?”
“That’s afull-blooded werewolf sample. Not a dormant. They heal ridiculously fast. Hence all the white blood cells. Okay”—he rubbed his hands together—“last one.” Willis pointed to the third microscope on the table.
Alice placed her eye on it and stared at the blood under the slide. The cells didn’t act like blood cells at all. Instead of simply moving around one another, the cells looked as if they were attacking each other. “What the…” she muttered.
“Right!” Willis exclaimed. “It’s like they’re killing each other. That’s the virus. It’s why the vampires have to continually take in more blood. Their own virus kills off the blood cells they ingest, and their body doesn’t make more.”
“Why?” She looked over at him. “I mean, is it like the movies and they don’t have a heartbeat?”
“Oh,”—he shook his head—“no, they have a heartbeat, but the vampiric virus prevents their body from producing red blood cells. At least, that’s my theory. I’ve only been studying this for a couple of months.”
She stared at him and then glanced back at the three microscopes. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
He sighed and then walked over to a window that was covered with closed blinds. “Come here, Alice. And please, don’t scream.”
She joined him, and he pulled the blinds. Her eyes widened when she saw the room full of bodies that lay upon rows of gurneys. “What in the world?” She breathed out. Then her eyes froze on Cain. He sat on one of the beds next to the body of a woman. She watched as he gently lifted the body with one hand. With his other hand, he pushed the woman’s head to the side, baring her neck. Then his lips pulled back, and Alice saw the fangs once again. She pressed closer to the glass and watched. Alice gasped when Cain’s head darted forward with inhuman speed, and he sank his teeth into the woman’s flesh.
Without even realizing it, Alice lifted her hand and placed it on her own neck. Her body shivered. “That’s not real. There must be another explanation.”
“I know you probably feel like someone is going to jump out at any moment and yell ‘gotcha.” Willis’s voice was low, though they were the only ones in the room. “But I swear to you, this is as real as it gets.”
She glanced at him and then back at Cain. The vampire—gah, I can’t believe I just called him that—laid the woman back down just as cautiously as he had lifted her. “Doesn’t he need more than that? He can’t have taken that much blood.” She paused and then frowned. “As if I have a clue how much blood a freaking vampire needs.”
“He’s not feeding.” Willis closed the blinds. “He’s tasting each of the people out there.”
Alice scoffed. “What? Like a winery? Is he trying to find his favorite flavor?”
Willis chuckled, though Alice saw no mirth in his eyes. “In a way. But it’s not their flavor he’s interested in. Their blood tells him something important.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
“How much dormant blood each one possesses.”
“Who are they?” Alice followed him back over to a table. He kicked out a stool for her, and she took it. She rested her elbows on the table and ran her hands over her face and then through her hair. She gave her dark, chin length locks a sharp tug.
“You’re not dreaming. No need to pull your hair or pinch yourself, for that matter. Those people are the dormants I mentioned. Everyone out there is a human withCanis lupusblood.”
“Canis lupus?”She frowned. “That’s the scientific term for wolves.”
Willis nodded. “It’s also what they call themselves. You have to admit it sounds a lot cooler than werewolves.”
“If you say so. I’m sure that’s exactly what they were thinking when they decided to give themselves a name.” Alice sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be taking my irritation out on you. I’m just a tad ticked off at my”—she stopped before she said the word father and then said—“employer.”
Willis slumped down on the stool next to her. “To be fair, no matter what they told you, you wouldn’t have believed it without seeing it.” He motioned to the now-closed blinds. “Despite what I said earlier, we’re scientists. We need proof.”
She couldn’t disagree with him there. Knowing the truth—the facts, the whys and hows of the world—is what drove Alice to become a scientist in the first place. But there were some questions she knew weren’t even worth asking because the answer was so obviously no—like were vampires real? And the tooth fairy? And Santa Claus? With that, she peeked between her fingers. “Santa Claus is still totally not a thing, right?”
“That’s above my paygrade.” Willis gave her a small smile.
Alice chuckled. “All right.” She looked at him and then made a “give me” motion with her hands. “Lay it on me. What do you know, what do I need to know, and what is it you can’t figure out?”
