Blood Legacy: Heir to the Throne (8 page)

Ryan returned to Victor’s side, and Susan joined her. Susan’s manner became brisk, professional.

“I would like to do an updated examination as soon as possible,” Susan said, “to see if there are any changes that are not outwardly detectable.”

Ryan bowed slightly. “Of course. I am grateful, as always, for your assistance.” She glanced down at the paperwork Susan held in her hand, and at the lab coat she wore over her clothes. “I see you have wasted no time in returning to work.”

Susan was mildly embarrassed. “I don’t know if what I’m doing will be of any help to your father, but this is an opportunity I could not pass up.”

One arched eyebrow moved slightly upward. “Let me guess, you are experimenting on yourself.”

Susan could not contain her excitement as her words began to pour forth.

“This is a researcher’s dream, an opportunity without equal. I am devising so many experiments in my head that I literally cannot keep up with them. Every time I find something new, it opens up a different avenue of investigation. I could spend a lifetime just studying the genetic differentiation that is occurring in my body.”

“Good thing you have more than one lifetime,” Ryan reminded her.

Susan caught her breath, realizing she must sound ridiculous. The act of breathing reminded her of one of her preliminary findings, and she immediately returned to her exposition.

“For example, I could never figure out why your heart beat at times, and other times did not. Or why sometimes you appeared to be breathing, and other times had no need to do so.”

Ryan was curious. “I have wondered that myself.”

“Apparently the autonomic nervous system still functions, although it is no longer necessary. Many of the activities the autonomic system performed have either ceased or been taken over by the somatic nervous system. In other words, previously involuntary actions are now under conscious control.”

“And yet my body remembers how to do these things,” Ryan mused, “so sometimes it still does?”

“Yes, as far as I can see. That doesn’t mean your heart never needs to beat. There might be times when there is still some physiological purpose…” Susan paused, clearing her throat, “For example, when Sharing blood.”

The thought flustered Susan, and she focused her attention on the papers in her hand, shuffling through them loudly in the silence. Ryan graciously did not point out that Susan’s autonomic nervous system was shunting blood to her cheeks. Susan found something to focus on in her printouts.

“I discovered the composition of my blood has changed, and I’m beginning to find traces of some of the attributes I found in your blood when I first examined you.”

“For example?” Ryan asked politely.

Susan read from the paperwork. “I have identified L-gulonolactone, an enzyme that converts glucose to Vitamin C, not normally found in human beings. My growth hormone levels have dramatically increased, with no attendant negative side effects.” Susan shuffled the papers again, peering over an MRI printout.

“My digestive system has begun to reroute itself, merging with the circulatory system. The aorta and esophagus are now connected. My heart is beginning to enlarge.” Susan shook her head. “It was difficult enough to note these changes in you. It is bizarre to watch my own anatomy change this way.”

She flipped through a few more pages. “Some of the most exciting findings have to do with the changes in my DNA.”

“Wait a minute,” Ryan said, “how exactly are you able to make comparisons?”

Susan cleared her throat again. “Well, I kind of anticipated these experiments.”

“Ah,” Ryan said, “you took samples of your own blood and tissue before you were Changed.”

Susan felt the heat rise in her cheeks once more. “I extensively documented my physical condition before my Change. My concern was that I could not anticipate all of the experiments I would want to conduct, or that something would arise later and I would need some type of control measure. So, yes, I saved a little bit of everything.”

Ryan smiled. Susan Ryerson was probably the only human in history that had undergone the Change primarily out of scientific curiosity. “Okay, so go on.”

Susan shuffled the papers once more. “We’ve had numerous discussions regarding the changes in your DNA, relative to a normal human’s. However, you and your father are so unique that I have had to study the Others to get a clear picture of what might be normal for your–, I mean, our Kind. This is really the first chance I have had, though, to conduct a controlled experiment of the transition.”

“So do you have 46 or 92 chromosomal pairs?” Ryan asked.

Susan was surprised and pleased at the question. It indicated Ryan actually paid attention to her often complicated and complex explanations.

“I have 46 pairs, like the Others. The only two I have tested with 92 are you and Victor.”

“I wonder if Drake has 92,” Ryan speculated aloud.

Susan saw her opening. “That brings up something I wanted to ask.”

Ryan already knew the request. “You want to test Drake as well.”

“Well,” Susan said with hesitation, “if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Lucky boy,” Ryan said to herself. She returned to the subject at hand. “How about the extra nucleotide? I believe you designated it with an ‘I’. Do you have that?”

In her research, Susan had identified the strange nucleotide with an “I,” which she had labeled in exasperation as “I have no idea.” It was an addition to the normal four of human beings. She had never seen the compound in any human, nor in any of the Others besides Ryan and Victor.

“No,” Susan replied. “I do not have the ‘I’ nucleotide. I believe that chromosomal variation is something unique to Victor that he passed down to you through sexual reproduction with your mother. And perhaps it was the act of sexual reproduction which resulted in the double set of chromosomes. Again, it is something I would like to test Drake for.”

“Lucky boy,” Ryan repeated.

Susan returned to her paperwork. “You were right about DNA being overwritten.”

Ryan stared at her blankly. “You will have to refresh my memory on that one.”

“When we were first discussing Victor’s illness, you speculated that DNA might be rewritten in the Change, and possibly in the very act of Sharing. I have not had the chance to examine the before and after of Sharing…”

Ryan smiled again. Every time Susan tried to speak clinically of Sharing, she choked on her words like a pre-teen discussing sex.

“But I have documented the alteration in my DNA from pre-transition to the present. I don’t really understand the affects of the changes yet, but they are extensive. Under normal circumstances, this type and level of mutation would cause immediate death, but contrary to all known science, it seems to be doing nothing of the kind. When I am able to sit down and process the data, I assume there will be numerous favorable mutations in chromosomal areas dealing with strength, endurance, stamina, etc. Again, I could spend an entire lifetime just examining this aspect of my anatomy.”

“Well,” Ryan said, her attention returning to her father’s prone form, “I am glad you are making progress.”

Susan set the paperwork aside. “This is not a priority. With your permission, I would like to examine Victor to assess his current condition. And I would also like to examine Drake in the hopes that he is as genetically similar to you as you are to your father. It will give me one more control measure to work with.”

Ryan bowed once more. “I will return with my son.”

Ryan returned a short time later carrying Drake. Susan was still examining Victor’s prone form, so Ryan settled into a nearby chair with her son. The small boy watched with interest as Susan hovered over his grandfather.

“She’s going to poke and prod you like that in a moment,” Ryan said, nudging the boy in the ribs. Drake grinned at Susan, then buried his face in Ryan’s shoulder.

Susan paused in her ministration. “He is a doll.”

Ryan brushed the hair at the nape of Drake’s neck. “Do you regret not being able to have more children?”

Susan paused, and her silence was telling.

Ryan ruffled Drake’s hair again. “You saved your ova as well.”

“Well,” Susan stammered, “it seemed like a good idea. With the technology available to preserve the eggs, it seemed foolish not to maintain that as an option.”

“I think it was a very wise decision,” Ryan commented, and Susan relaxed. “I wonder if more of my Kind will take advantage of these medical procedures as time goes on. Think about it. You can continue to have children after your Change. You could have a child born a thousand years after Jason.”

This thought was as awe-inspiring as it was frightening. Susan was still adjusting to the sense of timelessness that Ryan took for granted, and really did not want to think about it. Ryan continued her casual conversation.

“You seem to have been very clinical about your Change.”

Susan thought back to the passionate exchange that sparked her transformation, to the times she had ventured into the dark eroticism of Sharing, to the dangerous, sensual currents that swirled about her constantly.

“No,” said Susan, “not exactly.”

Ryan merely smiled.

Susan turned back to Victor, resuming her examination. “Actually,” she said over her shoulder and under her breath, “I still keep looking in my mouth for fangs.”

“You won’t get any,” Ryan reminded her.

Susan quickly finished her assessment and set her instruments aside. She brushed her hands on her lab coat.

“Okay, if you want to just hold him, I’ll get a blood test.”

Ryan shifted Drake onto her knee as Susan approached with a needle. He gazed at the needle somberly, then looked askance at his mother.

“It might hurt a little,” Ryan said, “but only for a moment.”

Susan took his tiny arm as Drake locked his blue eyes on Ryan’s. Ryan reached out mentally to soothe him, and he did not flinch when Susan inserted the needle. Nor did he take his eyes from his mother.

As the blood began to pour into the vial, Susan felt the inopportune stirring of desire and inwardly cursed herself. All sorts of recriminations began to fill her head: her lack of professionalism, her lack of control, an appetite that had obviously turned to pedophilia.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Ryan said. She had not turned her gaze from Drake, but she was evidently aware of Susan’s internal struggle. “There was a reason my father kept me from the Others when I was a child.” Her eyes drifted down to the blood pouring into the vial, “and a reason why he kept me from himself.”

Ryan returned her gaze to Drake’s. Susan watched the two, fascinated. There was clearly the gentle devotion customary in a mother/child relationship. But there was also an underlying current of sensuality between the two of them. It was hard to define, a way of interacting that was non-sexual but intensely intimate.

Susan withdrew the needle and a small drop of blood appeared on Drake’s arm.

“Do you want me to kiss that for you?” Ryan asked him, dark amusement in her eyes.

It seemed Drake knew full well the game they were playing, and Susan swore there was dark humor in his eyes as well. He lifted his arm to his mother. Ryan leaned down and kissed the small puncture wound. It stopped bleeding immediately. Ryan gazed at her son for a long moment, then glanced up at Susan.

“He’s going to be a handful.”

Susan tucked the vial of blood into the pocket of her lab coat. “It seems to me he already is.” She had a sudden thought, and pulled a swab stick from her other pocket.

“Hold on a moment,” she said. “I don’t even know if you still have saliva, but I want to check something.” The swab hovered near Ryan’s mouth until Susan said with exasperation, “Open your mouth.”

Ryan obeyed the order patiently and Susan took her sample. Ryan then turned to Drake.

“This whole ‘king’ thing does not appear to generate any additional respect.”

Drake grinned.

CHAPTER 10

RYAN ENTERED THE LOWER COURTYARD and stopped for a moment. She closed her eyes, listening to the clank of metal on metal. The sound brought back so many memories it was momentarily overwhelming. She opened her eyes and rounded the corner.