“I don’t believe so, either. Why else would they have held me captive and taken my blood?” I pointed out. “They’ve been up to something terrible. I feel it as much as I know it.”
30
Not so long after our visit at Joseph’s, the world turned upside down in the worst way.
All over the globe, vampires suddenly began reverting into humans. Worse, once they changed, it was impossible for them to turn back. Those in the know could think of only two individuals responsible for the epidemic: my despicable great-grandparents, Richard and Maxine, who I wished I’d never met or even heard of.
The crazy bastards had done it. They’d somehow managed to replicate Leopold’s serum and then distribute it to vampires on a massive scale. Seemed my destiny was being fulfilled, just as my old boss Michael Graves, now proven not so delusional after all, had predicted. My own blood was being used for vampire genocide. Imagine how that made me feel, with my husband and closest friends being vampires.
The VGO wasted no time launching an investigation, deploying reps to interview those who’d suddenly lost their immortality. Was it possible they’d been shot or punctured and not realized it at the time? Had they gone anywhere or doneanything,anything at all, that was out of the ordinary? The data was then analyzed, to no avail.
No matter where the new humans—or “Reborns,” as some vamps were calling them—were located, their answers were always the same. They hadn’t been stabbed, bitten, or shot—not by a needle and most definitely not by a serum-filled bullet. They’d done absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. One minute they were vampire, the next they were human, which was a fate worse than death for some.
To decompress and take our minds off things, Liz and I were at her place doing a little self-care combined with a guilty pleasure movie marathon. We’d just finished applying charcoal face masks and were about to hit play onI Know What You Did Last Summerwhen Joseph, who’d been relaying information from Scotland at the VGO headquarters, called Liz with an update. Embarrassingly, he started in with the dirty talk before Liz had a chance to inform him that he was on speaker. There were a lot of things I liked knowing about my best friend, but her boyfriend thinking her vagina tasted like his memories of sun-kissed strawberries was not one of them.
I looked down at my feet before remembering that I could no longer see them. My gigantic belly saw to that.I love you, my little baby, but I’m ready for you to get out, I thought, and not for the first time.
After a bit of awkward giggling, we finally got down to business. Joseph began by explaining that vampires were continuing to change into humans. “It doesn’t look as if a specific age, gender, race, or economic group is being targeted,” he said. “The infections are still cropping up in random clusters around the world, which makes finding an antidote difficult.”
I asked, “Have you gotten anything more out of Richard and Maxine?”
“Unfortunately, they’re refusing to talk. We’ve done our best to persuade them, but they’re tough old kooks.”
“I can only imagine.”
“So, your update is that there is no update?” Liz asked dejectedly. She’d been hoping the epidemic would run its course and then taper off, but that seemed to be far from what was happening. If anything, the situation appeared to be getting worse.
Joseph said, “Not exactly. Leopold’s got his lab up and running, which you know. His scientists have been running tests on your blood, Olivia, and they think they’re close to a breakthrough.”
My ears perked up. I knew Leopold had been ordered by the VGO to rebuild the same lab that had been destroyed on his estate outside London. That must have galled him to no end, since it was the VGO who’d burned it to the ground. Never ones for half measures, they’d also killed all his scientists, who were the best in their field. Though I felt bad for the scientists, I had zero sympathy for Leopold. All the difficulties vampires now faced could have been completely avoided had it not been for his greed.
Since my blood had such a unique effect on vampires, I’d donated some to hopefully help find a cure for whatever was happening. I figured it was the least I could do.
Joseph had also donated his blood for a unique and possibly related reason. Strangely, some of his colleagues had turned human while he hadn’t, despite them not leaving the VGO headquarters for extended periods of time. Their routines and feeding habits had been identical. As further tests confirmed, Joseph seemed to be immune to the epidemic. It was strange because he, like other vamps over a thousand, was also immune to the effects of my blood. However, vampires over a thousand were not immune to the epidemic the same way Joseph was.
“A breakthrough for what?” I asked. “The cause of the epidemic or the cure?”
“I honestly don’t know. Our scientists keep things to themselves until they’re sure they’re on the right track, which we’ve instructed them to do to save time. No point in hearing about theories if that’s all they are. However, I promise they’re working around the clock. It’s only a matter of time until we find a cure,” Joseph said cheerfully, though his voice was stressed. The epidemic had hit the VGO particularly hard, as vampires everywhere were looking to them to solve the crisis. It didn’t help that they were losing members left and right to humanism.
“Let’s hope they do it sooner rather than later,” Liz said. “I don’t know what’s happening in Scotland, but shit has hit the fan here. Marlena has even temporarily closed Dignitary.”
“I’m glad you told me that, because it saves me from calling her,” Joseph said. “We can’t have humans decoying until we get this thing under control. Vampire behavior has become far too volatile.”
“It’s not as if there’s decoys lining up to go to work, anyway. Most of them are terrified to even be in the same room as us,” Liz said.
I shook my head. “Gee, it’s almost as if my great-grandparents never stopped to consider how their scheming would affect humans,” I commented acerbically. “On the bright side, Jerry’s gotten his wish.”
“Oh?” Joseph said, sounding distracted. “How’s that?”
Since Jerry was frightened of getting caught up in vampire bureaucracy, I omitted the details about how he’d unsuccessfully tried to make me vampire while Robert and I were hiding out from the VGO in Bali. He’d desperately wanted to be human again, so he’d been happy when my blood had knocked the vampirism out of his body. Unfortunately, his new humanismdidn’t last. The epidemic changed that. Jerry was now permanently human, and he couldn’t be happier.
I’d only begun to provide a vague summary of the news when Joseph interrupted me.
“Sorry to cut you off, Olivia. There’s some news at the lab.”
“What—”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll call you back when I do!”
