CHAPTER 21
When I arrive at my apartment, my mom is standing at the door with a baseball bat, looking like she is ready to hit a homer.
“Mom, what the hell are you doing?” I shriek.
“Emma Jean, don’t you talk to your mama like that.” She drops the bat to her side. “I’m an old woman alone in a strange place. And I thought I heard rustlin’ around outside earlier. Coulda been anyone at the door.”
“Opening it with a key?” I ask.
“Don’t sass me, young lady! You’re book smart enough to know that fear overrides clear thought. And senility starts early in our family, so just be thankful we ain’t at home where I have my gun.”
I try not to giggle. “The gun you were going to use on the neighbor’s dog?”
She looks agitated. “Don’t be silly. I wouldn’t try to stop an intruder with a pellet gun. They’re deservin’ of buck shot.”
I lay my purse and jacket on the couch. In moments like this, I should not engage in further conversation. Just let her have her say and accept that I shouldn’t expect an elder to change her ways. Not after years of this line of thinking anyway.
“I need to get to bed,” I tell her. “When do you plan on going back to Huntington?”
“Tryin’ to get rid of me so soon?” she huffs. “I was plannin’ to start back when the sun comes up.”
“That will be soon enough.” I grin as I hug her. “I do miss you, mom.”
She squeezes me tightly. “And I miss you, too, Emma Jean. It’s not the same at home without you.” She sniffles as if she is trying not to cry. “Well, get on to bed. I’ll be outta your hair by the time you wake up. I love you. Always be careful. Be mindful of strangers.”
I smile. “I do remember all of this, mom.”
“Just remindin’ ya. You tend to get distracted with other things and forget the important stuff, like comin’ in outta the rain.”
I smile again and kiss her cheek. “Love you. Call me when you get back to Huntington so I know that you made it safely.”
“Will do,” she says.
When I get up that afternoon, mom is already gone. Actually, I learn that she has already called, leaving a voicemail to say she had arrived. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even hear the phone ring.
I go through my normal routine of breakfast and shower all while thinking about what our focus should be for the day. The vitamin D powder had eaten through Rick’s skin like acid. We need to make sure that it was definitely the powder that caused the reaction. And if it was, then why? Was the reaction because of some allergy? Or was vitamin D poisonous to vampires? And what about the apparent dehydration? There are still so many questions to be answered.
When I get to the facility, I’m just lucky enough to arrive exactly when Ms. Montgomery is. As she walks up to the door, I rush after her.
“Ms. Montgomery! Please wait.”
She stops and waits without turning to face me.
I step around to look at her. “Hi. We met our new archivist yesterday. I was wondering, why did they assign you to Dr. Vinh’s group instead of Gwen?”
She looks at me as if it’s completely unacceptable for me to even ask. “Archivists are not given the reasons behind decisions that are made.”
“Oh,” I whisper, my face falling in disappointment.
Ms. Montgomery adjusts her shoulders. “An educated guess would be that it is better to place an archivist who is familiar with previous events with this particular team given...the challenges of dealing with one of the researchers.”
Without further comment, she walks into the building.
Surely she meant Bree. That woman - er, vampire - gives me the heebie-jeebies. I would also hate to foist her on anyone. Still, I don’t know the real reason why, and I don’t have any information on what happened to Tucker. Maybe he quit after what happened in the park. That would be a blessing. With my usual luck, he would stay around as a reminder of the ugly incident. But, the incident did include him getting his butt kicked, so maybe he doesn’t want to show his face.
When I get to the suite, Rick is already standing at the center island, and Gwen is nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning.”
Rick looks at me with one eyebrow raised. “Good morning?”
I shrug. “Well, for you.”
“Indeed. Although I’ve been up for a while just thinking over everything that happened yesterday.”
“I have, too,” I begin. “There are still many questions that need to be answered.”
Before I can finish, he interjects, “Like what happened to Tucker.”
I just look at him, not saying a word.
“You don’t know?” he asks.
“No. How would I? Last time I saw Tucker, he was laying in a bloody heap at the park. Next thing, he seems not to be working on the project anymore. I don’t know anything more than you do.”
“Oh, but I do know more. He was fired.”
“What?!” I exclaim.
“From what I understand, he showed up yesterday looking quite haggard, with his face rather mangled. When questioned about it, he actually told the truth. Evidently there have been other incidents with him and his temper. With the latest example, he was considered too much of a liability and they let him go.”
I breathe deeply in relief. Thank God. Now that I know what happened, I can rest a little easier knowing that I don’t have to wait for him to jump out at me. Knowledge certainly dampens fear, while ignorance breeds it.
“You should be careful,” Rick says.
“Why?”
“Because,” he explains, “Tucker told the truth. Including the fact that he was in the park to meet you. Then after relaying what happened, he got fired. Sure, he was fired for multiple incidents, but don’t put it past him to blame you for losing his job. People like him have a twisted sense of logic.”
I walk over to the table to sit down, slowly setting my purse on the tabletop. I feel like someone has just grabbed a hold of my insides, squeezed and are attempting to pull them out through my mouth. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion. Or maybe it was my brain trying to catch up with what my heart already suspected.
What am I going to do? What if he does blame me and tries to do something stupid, like get revenge? And here I am in this town all by myself, without anyone to help me be careful. Yes, I need help with that considering that I’m not the best at considering all angles, especially since I actually thought that knowing why he was gone was enough to keep me from being scared.
I look up and Rick is standing in front of me. He kneels down so that he is at eye level with me. He lays his hand on my knee. “If you want, I can come by in the evenings, and we can ride to the facility together.”
I smile, “That’s a nice gesture. But what’s going to protect me during the day? During those hours when Tucker will be up and around plotting my death?”
He takes my hand. “That’s not going to happen.” He looks around, his eyes darting around the table. “Maybe I could start spending the days at your place.”
I look at him questioningly. “You can’t do that. I just live in a little apartment. It’s not like I have a coffin in the bedroom.”
“I haven’t slept in a coffin in a long time.” He smiles at me.
“Another vampire myth?”
“Not exactly. All vampires have slept in a coffin at some point and many continue to do so. They are the best protection against the sun. I choose to sleep in a big, comfy bed in a room with no windows or with blacked-out windows.”
“And that’s enough to protect you?” I ask.
He nods.
“Huh. Then the idea that when the sun’s up and it having some type of draining effect on vampires is bunk.”
“Well,” he says, “vampires are only ‘drained’ during the daylight hours if we’re exhausted or sleep deprived. The fact that someone took notice of this is what started that particular piece of the vampire legend. The fact is that vampires cannot go out in daylight, so it only makes sense that our days and nights are reversed, as it were.”
I cock my head to the side. “Again, I’m beginning to see how much vampires are really like humans.”
“Oh, don’t ever mistake that. We are most decidedly different in many ways. It’s just that those differences have been blown out of proportion to the point that people fail to see the similarities. Besides, the sun is up all of the time, it’s just not always direct because of the revolutions of the Earth. No one seems to think of that.”
I look down at his hand on mine. He removes it with a look on his face that suggests that he hadn’t realized he was still holding it. He smiles, “Which brings us back to the point of our research. What is it with the sun that is fatal to vampires?”
He stands up and watches me. After a few heartbeats, I stand and follow him to the center island.
“I was thinking,” I start, “what about the effects that looked like dehydration? How does that correlate with the acid-burn effects that you experienced with the vitamin D powder.”
He shuffles his stack of notes. “Not only that, we saw how dehydration is not the answer. Does vitamin D ultimately cause death or is it a combination of the vitamin D and dehydration?”
“What if the vitamin D alone is not fatal? Can you imagine what that would be like if someone had that type of burn all over them?”
“Actually, I can,” he responds. “I’ve even seen humans with chemical burns over most of their bodies. It’s extremely painful. The person is in utter agony and wishes to die if it will just make the pain stop.”
“Then what if we ask to try this possibility on Thalia and that happens?”
“What if we do and it doesn’t - and she dies?” he adds.
I look down at the countertop. “Well, I guess that’s what we’re ultimately here to do. In some ways it would be worse if it didn’t kill her, and she ended up like one of the burn victims you were describing.”
“She’s a vampire,” he says as he lays his stack of papers down, “which means she will heal rather quickly. She’ll be in a lot of pain, but she will recover. She probably wouldn’t even have a scar.”
I humph. “If that’s the case, then everyone should want to be a vampire.”
He leans one arm against the counter. “You would want to drink blood and never go in the sunlight?”
“Well, when you put it that way...”.
“We know the vitamin D causes significant damage. Now we need to determine if it’s enough to kill.”
I look up at him. “We’re going to need more vitamin D tablets to have enough to cover her. Even if we buy every bottle they have at Wal-Mart, it still may not be enough.”
He lifts one shoulder, “Are there any other options?”
Looking up at the ceiling, “Not so much.”
“Then let’s go to Wal-Mart.”
I pick up my jacket and purse from the table as we leave the suite.
Thank goodness it gets darker in the early evenings of autumn or else we would have to wait for our little excursion. However, because it is earlier in the evening, there are also many more shoppers in Wal-Mart. Many of the people who are rummaging through racks of clothing and shelves of cheap consumer goods stop to stare as we walk by them. Many of them are probably seeing a vampire for the first time. West Virginia is not exactly known for embracing those of the fanged persuasion, although there might be plenty of them here. Heck, vampires are probably part of the reason why many of these areas are so steeped in so-called superstition. At this point, who really knows if what we call superstition is actually the truth.
Come to think of it, that’s probably also the reason why people aren’t accepting and stare us down when we’re in public. If you’ve grown up being told that a certain group is the reason for all of your nightmares, I guess it would make it difficult to give them a big hug when they announce their presence. At this point I’m just thankful that they’re not screaming and running in the other direction.
Still, I have to remind myself of these things to keep myself from staring at everyone else and allowing myself to get lost in my own prejudicial thoughts. Places like this get a reputation for being frequented by unsavory individuals. The truth is that in towns like Rowan, people don’t have a lot of money, so much of the town goes to the one place where they can afford to get daily essentials. And those not-so-essential items, like a pair of boxer shorts depicting popular cartoon characters in compromising positions. I mention these particular boxers because they’re the ones that the gentleman in front of us is flashing due to his jeans being too small to fit appropriately over his backside. I’m just glad the boxers are there to cover his crack because that is something that I so do not need to see.
Rick pushes the cart up alongside the shelf containing multiple bottles of vitamin D, produced by multiple companies, although the ingredients are the same. How many different brands of vitamin D do we need? I mean, if they’re all the same dosage, isn’t one brand good enough? Apparently not.
Rick uses his arm to sweep all of the vitamin D bottles into our cart. When he’s done, our cart is literally half-full of little plastic bottles. We move ahead to the cashier section where we have to stand in line. Thankfully there are only two customers in front of us.
“Do you think this will be enough?” he asks.
“I don’t know. It will definitely do some serious damage, but not sure if it’s enough to kill.”
The people in front of us look at us with wide eyes, shocked looks filling their faces.
I press my lips together and mentally kick myself for saying that out loud.
Rick looks at me, “We’ll discuss it later, then.”
“Right,” I say.
When Rick begins to empty the cart onto the cash register’s conveyor belt, the cashier stops what she’s doing to gape at us.
I smile at her. “He has a sun allergy, so he needs the vitamin D.”
“Yeah, like a stake in the heart,” he mumbles.
I elbow him in the side as the cashier finishes checking out the customers in front of us.
“Hi, how’re y’all?” the cashier asks.
Rick looks at her. “Fine, thanks.”
She looks at the pile of bottles as she starts to separate them by brand. “You sure do need a lot of vitamins.”
“We’re starting our own vitamin shop,” I advise.
Rick gives me a dirty look, then turns to her, “Actually, we will be using these for a medical experiment.”
She dips her head with one eyebrow raised. “A medical experiment?”
With a confounded look on his face, Rick continues, “Why, yes. We’re working at the government research facility.” He looks at me as if I can help the situation. I keep my mouth shut before I say anything else like how he has a vitamin D deficiency. I raise one shoulder and let it drop.
The cashier continues to scan one bottle by brand, then multiplies by the number of each type that we have. Thankfully she isn’t going to try to scan each bottle. That would keep us here forever.
I look around at the front of the store while Rick puts the full bags into the shopping cart. Workers and shoppers alike seem to be overly interested in what we are buying - or that it’s a vampire bagging up our loot. Either way, I start to shift and fidget as discomfort shimmies its way up my back. I tell myself that I should stare back at each of them in defiance, but I relent and stare at the floor instead.
After paying the cashier (who appears hesitant to take Rick’s money) we walk silently from the store. Once we get out into the more private space of the parking lot, I ask, “Did you notice all of them staring at us like they were waiting for us to break out into some show tunes or something?”
“They were hardly waiting for that,” Rick responds. “Besides, I’m used to it. That type of thing always happens whenever I’m in a place with an invisible vampire population.”
I open the trunk to my car and help him load the bags. “Invisible. More like practically non-existent from what I can tell, although I’m sure there’s a few around.”
“Don’t kid yourself. Rowan has plenty of vampires. They just choose to hide.”
I drop one of the bags. “You’re joking, right?”
“No joke at all. Unlike your admission that I have a vitamin D deficiency. What in the world made you say that?
“I panicked.” I bend to pick up the contents of the dropped bag. “I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell the truth or not.”
“You didn’t have to give specifics, just the truth in general. It would have made us look a lot less conspicuous.” He closes the trunk and walks to return the cart to the corral.
“Sorry,” I say in a slightly raised voice. “Not like we were inconspicuous anyway. A woman and a vampire shopping together in a no-visible-vampire town. I’m sure the locals thought up a lot more interesting explanations than you having a vitamin D deficiency.”
He gets in the car and turns to me. “Best not to encourage their imaginations. Especially when you’re with a vampire.”
I swallow the enormous lump in my throat as we begin our drive back to the facility. Nearly a mile and half before we reach the building, I see flashing lights in the rearview mirror.
“Those lights are red and blue. Means it’s probably a cop car.”
Rick turns in his seat. “Maybe they’re on a call for something out past the facility.”
As the lights get closer, it becomes clear that the call they’re on is for us. The cruiser gets right up behind us as a “whoo-whoo” alarm sounds.
I slowly pull off to the side of the road. “Great. There goes my perfect driving record.” My hands tense on the steering wheel as I wait for the officer to approach.
Rick turns back around in his seat. “Just do what the officer says. We need this to go as smoothly as possible.”
When the officer reaches the side of the car, I roll my window down. “Good evening, officer. Was I doing something wrong?”
Whoops. That must’ve not been the right tactic because I can literally feel Rick’s body tense up although we’re nowhere near touching. The vibe he’s putting off is most definitely that of a cornered animal. Not that Rick’s an animal. But the feeling’s the same.
“What’re y’all doing out here after dark?” the officer asks as he shines a flashlight inside the car.
I look at Rick before turning back to the officer, not liking how the officer has started. “We’re actually returning to work.”
“Uh-huh. What type of work is that?”
“We work at the research facility up yonder,” I respond. Seems appropriate to fall back into some of the regional colloquialisms. Maybe it will win me points.
“Is that so. What do you have in the trunk?” he asks.
“How do you know we have something in the trunk?” I foolishly reply.
“Ma’am, I’ll ask the questions and you’d do best to just answer them. Now, go ahead and exit the vehicle.”
Rick leans over me to look up at the officer, “Sir, with all due respect, we are just on our way back to work. I’m sure if...”
Before he can finish the officer insists, “Ma’am, exit the vehicle. Sir, you’d do best to not interfere. When I want answers from you, I’ll ask for ‘em.”
I slowly look at Rick as I unbuckle my seat belt. I get out of the car and close the door. The officer walks to the back of the car and motions for me to follow him. He then directs me to open the trunk.
With the trunk open, he begins rummaging through the Wal-Mart bags. I try to edge around the open trunk to see if Rick is watching, but it’s too dark to see much of anything without a light - or vampire sight. I’m sure Rick is watching and seeing everything as plain as day.
“What’re y’all planning to do with all of these vitamins?” the officer asks.
I stammer, “Like I said, officer, we work at the research facility. We’re researchers. Both of us have PhDs. We need the vitamins for a project we’re working on.”
The officer humphs. “Is that right? What type of project would require this much vitamin D?”
“A research project sponsored by the Federal Office of Human and Vampire Administration.”
The officer stands up and leans back on his heels, staring at me for several moments as he shines his light in my face. I can hear his teeth grind as I wait for the next question.
“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to come with me.”
As soon as the words are out of his mouth, Rick is by my side. The officer jumps back and points his gun at us. “Don’t move!”
Rick holds up his hands. “We don’t want any trouble. If we could all go to the facility, the research director can explain everything.” Rick glances at the officer’s chest so quickly I almost don’t notice it. “Officer Davis. Let’s not make things more difficult.”
Officer Davis keeps the gun on Rick. “I’ll make the decisions, vamp. You see we don’t take kindly to outsiders coming into our town and making trouble. It’s highly suspicious y’all being out with a trunk-load of pill bottles in the trunk of your car. I’m not stupid. I know all kinds of things that can be cooked up with stuff you buy at the store.”
“With vitamin D?” I ask before suffocating the smart aleck twinge to my voice. I am thankful that I’m able to mentally kick myself before pointing out to the huffy officer that I’m West Virginian, too.
He glares at me. “You got a real smart mouth for someone with a PhD. Now, both of you get into the back of my car.”
I look at Rick, feeling completely helpless. Rick starts to walk to the police cruiser before he suddenly turns around. Officer Davis still has his gun pointed as us. Everything is very quiet for several heartbeats. I know because my heartbeat is so loud that I’m sure that even the non-vampire can hear it.
Rick looks intently at the officer. His shoulders squared, Rick catches his gaze and slowly says, “I know that it’s difficult. Being an officer in a small town. Especially someone as talented as you. You are capable of so much more, but with little opportunity, you can’t prove to everyone just how great you really are.”
Officer Davis’s gun hand begins to slowly drop to his side. He tilts his head to the side as he continues to stare into Rick’s eyes.
“Bringing us in, making an example of us, especially a vampire,” Rick continues, “that’s one small step in building your rep as someone who should be heading the force. It’s a lot more impressive than a routine cow-tipping call or domestic dispute.”
“Nothing major ever happens around here,” Officer Davis admits.
Rick nods. “And you also realize that bringing us in, when we have done nothing wrong, will only cause more harm to your rep than it’s really worth.”
Officer Davis turns to the side and motions to my car. “Why don’t you all get on back to work and be safe tonight.”
Rick waves his hand at me and I hurriedly close the trunk then get into the driver’s side of the car. I look back to see that Rick is still talking to the officer. I start the car. After what seems like forever, he finally gets into the passenger side. I quickly, but without speeding, take off toward the facility. I look in my rearview mirror and see the officer still staring after us.
My hands twisting around the wheel, I glance at Rick. “I’m so glad that you finally did that. I was wondering when you were going to use your spidey sense on him.”
Rick’s brow furrows. “Spiderman’s spidey sense alerts him to possible danger, not helps him influence people.”
“Whatever, you know what I mean. Anyway, thanks. I did not want to spend any time in a small-town jail.”
“Me neither,” he concedes, “I just did what I had to. I don’t like doing that often.”
I snort, “You could’ve fooled me with how many times you’ve played those mind games in my head.”
He grins, “Well, you’re different. If I do it too much, especially to police officers, vampire powers will be more widely known with humans. Right now only those who are educated on the subject are aware of what’s possible, mostly scientists and medical researchers.”
“What does it matter if everyone knows?”
I can see from the corner of my eye that he’s looking at me more fully. “Do you think that the human powers-that-be would feel comfortable knowing just how easily vampires can influence events? That we could possibly change the course of human history through these, as you said, ‘mind games’?”
“Well, when you put it like that.” I bite my lower lip, thinking. “But you know, everyone will find out eventually. Those of us that know, not me, but others who know - well, they’re liable to tell even more people about it.”
He turns in his seat, facing forward. “The longer we can keep it quiet, the better off we’ll all be.” He says this in such an ominous tone that it’s almost as if he’s whispering, not wanting to tempt the universe to make his fears come true.
How bad could it be? Well, if there already is an extremist fringe group that wants to shove vampires back underground then I’m sure there are some that want far worse. A shudder runs through me as I decide that now is not the time to think about that.
We get to the facility and each take handfuls of Wal-Mart bags from the trunk.
Once inside our research suite, we set all of the bags on the table. I take my purse and jacket to the closet while thinking out loud, “Okay, now how can we get some better equipment to crush up all of these tablets in the most sterile way possible?” I continue to think aloud as I walk back to the table.
“I’m sure that FOHVA has some equipment available,” Rick offers. “If not in this building, then in the experiment building.”
Right then Gwen rushes through the door. “What do you all need?”
Rick and I both look at her. Slightly startled I motion to the table, “We have a lot of vitamin tablets that need to be ground into a powder. It’s for another experiment so it needs to be done in the most sterile way possible to eliminate contamination.”
“I’m on it.” And with that Gwen takes off from the room as quickly as she entered.
I practically collapse in the seat; the adrenaline rush from our run-in with the police capped off by Gwen’s startling appearance has emotionally exhausted me. Standing is just too much effort right now.
“Are you ready for this?” Rick asks.
I run my hands through my hair, stopping to run the heels of my palms against my temples. “Yes, although I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I wouldn’t be heart-broken to put it off for a while. A couple of hours. Until tomorrow. Whatever works.”
Rick sits down beside me. “And that just gives the other teams more time to catch up or even bypass us.”
“I know. The adrenaline crash just has me wanting to curl up in bed with a good book instead of play mad scientist on a vampire guinea pig.”
“I agree with Bree in this case.”
“How do you mean?” I ask.
He looks deeply into my eyes. “It’s only mad if we don’t try to protect those that we can. Even if it means hurting, even killing, a few.”
I bob my head up and down. “It’s not that I don’t agree. What scares me is who gets to decide who ‘the few’ are. Today it’s a criminal vampire. What if tomorrow it’s a vampire who didn’t pay their taxes?””
“That’s a crime, too.”
“Worthy of torture?”
“Depends who’s President,” Rick responds.
“Comforting,” I groan.
I stretch my legs out and close my eyes. I rest my hands behind my head and lean back as much as possible. I can sense Rick watching me, but I don’t want to continue this line of conversation because I don’t want to think about where Thalia could be tomorrow. I let my mind wander as I envision myself stretched out on my couch, in the comfort of my own apartment, not having to deal with hard questions or what it means to have moral integrity.
After several minutes Rick asks, “Do you think there would be a more humane way to do it?”
“Do what?”
“Administer the vitamin D,” he replies.
I raise my head and look at him. “More humane than sprinkling acid-like powder all over a trapped vampire?”
“We could inject it into her, with a syringe. That’s more clinical. And some would say the more clinical, the more humane.”
“People say that to make themselves feel better about what they’re doing. Ugh. Can you imagine? It would be like basically injecting acid into someone’s veins, giving them a chemical burn from the inside out.” I scrunch my face up in a look that mixes utter disgust and abject horror.
“We would have more control of our sample if we did it that way.”
I look at him again. “My God, you’re seriously considering this?”
Rick shrugs, “Why not? If the end is the same, does it really matter?”
I look down at my lap as I rest my hands there. “I guess not,” I say quietly. “I mean we’ve already mutilated her, so why be all moral now.” I seriously don’t like the decisions and opinions I was being forced to form during this project. If I had known all of this before, would I have still answered the ad? I don’t know. I have to be honest and say that the money would have still been a big draw. I would like to think that I would have been against answering the ad more than taking the money. But everyone has his or her price, especially in this economy.
The door opens and Gwen’s head peeks inside, “Bring the bags, we’re going to the other building.”
I guess the time for self-reflection is over. Regardless of my feelings on the outcome, it is time for action. In some ways I hope that Thalia does die. I don’t know if I can look at myself in the morning if she has to live the rest of her existence looking like a vampire Freddy Krueger. Or even worse, particularly if Rick was serious about the injection. Either way, I expect to have nightmares for weeks to come.