The Source (17 page)

I can feel myself
shrinking in his grip as he practically foams at the mouth, saliva wetting his
lips as his eyes dart all around my face.  I hold my breath, waiting for him to
hurt me in some way.  Like a light switch has been flipped, the storm in his
eyes calms.  He drops his hands from me and storms out of the suite.

I let out the breath
that I was holding and clutch my chest.  Feeling like I am going to
hyperventilate I go to the table to sit down, holding myself as if I am chilled
to the bone with everything I had just heard and felt.  I know that I can’t let
Rick’s personal tragedy distract me so much that I can’t concentrate on work,
but it will be difficult.  Part of me wants to support him.  Another part of me
wants to run screaming in the other direction.  I like Rick well enough, but
his anger scares me.  It is probably best for me to be cautious around him,
just for my own safety.  Or at least for my own sanity.

Once I calm myself I
return to the center island to begin preparing the slides for the microscope. 
The suite door opens and Ms. Montgomery enters, walking toward me with a
purpose.  She lays the portable video camera with an USB cable on the island.
“Here is the footage from yesterday.”  She just stands there and looks at me. 

“Thanks,” I
half-whisper.

She looks up to the
ceiling, taking a deep breath. “Are you okay?”

I look at her.
“Excuse me?”

She gazes at me, her
face completely blank of emotion. “I saw what happened.  Are you okay?”

I slowly nod. “Yeah. 
But I’m surprised that you’re asking.”

She straightens her blouse.
“I have a vested interest in this project being successful.  Everyone must be
at their best.”

“Your sympathy is
reassuring.” I briefly smile at her.

She just looks at
me.  I shrug. 
“It’s been very difficult
for me interacting on such an intimate level with a vampire,” I say.

She puts her shoulders back and stands straighter. “I
will return to the observation room.”  And just like that, I am alone again.

Vampires and the humans that care for them.  The
emotional swaying back and forth makes me feel trapped in a paranormal
pendulum, constantly moving.  No wonder I constantly feel like I have
butterflies in my stomach.  I’m suffering from emotion sickness. 

I turn my head side-to-side as I start gathering more
supplies, such as glass slides, a red marker, an eyedropper and tweezers.  I
pick up the specimen box that contains the remnants of the finger and built-up
condensation.  I carefully open it and use the eyedropper to collect some of
the fluid and place it on a slide.  I mark the slide with a red one and record
on a log sheet the contents of slide one.  I do the same with a sample from
that container and the other in which the finger had been in direct sunlight. 
I think it would be appropriate to compare the cells from the two specimens to
note any differences.

Once I had the slides prepared and logged, I take the
specimen boxes back to the storage cabinet.  When I turn back around, Rick is
there.

I jump, squealing.  “Jesus!”  Placing my hand against
my racing heart. “What was that you said about vampires getting startled, too?”

He has the decency to look embarrassed with an edge of
concern. “I’m sorry.  Sometimes I forget that my stealthy abilities are
heightened after feeding.”

I take a step back trying not to show any level of
disgust on my face.  “Well, I hope that you’re in a better mood now,” I say.

He rubs his hand against his mouth. “Look.  The last
thing that I wanted to do was to frighten you.  I do have a hard time
controlling my emotions when I think of certain things.”

“You think?” I goad him.

He steps closer and I try not to shrink away from
him.  “Emma, I enjoy having you as a partner on this project.  Even through our
bantering, I’ve had nothing but the utmost respect for you and your knowledge. 
To be honest, I even feel a certain protectiveness of you.  That's why I always
make it a point to leave before my passion gets the best of me."

He searches my face as if he were trying to determine
if I understood.  Then he drops the bomb on me. "And it's why I talked to
Tucker that day in the cafeteria."

Completely shocked, I scowl. "You what?  What do
you mean you talked to Tucker?  You talked to him about what?"

He holds my gaze even with my blood pressure rising.
"You had mentioned in passing that you had some difficulties with someone
named Tucker.  When I learned that the young man in the cafeteria was named
Tucker, I stopped by his table before I visited Rita."

"What did you say to him?" I ask in horror.

"Well, I didn't know specifics.  I just alluded
that you had mentioned the difficulties with him and Tucker did the rest.  He
told me about his feelings for you and how he thought maybe he had scared you
off.  I told him that I didn't want to hear about any more difficulties where
you are concerned."

I take a step toward him, slightly trembling in my own
anger, "Why did you do that?  You had no right!"

"Like I said, I feel somewhat protective of you. 
I didn't like the idea of someone causing you trouble, much less a man."
He says the last part under his breath.  Or at least that's what I think he
said.  I turn my head back and forth trying to figure out if I had heard him
correctly.  "You shouldn't have to feel uncomfortable," he
continues. 

Feeling confused, angry and ambivalent by all that he
has said, I drop my arms to my sides as if I am giving up.  Too many mixed
emotions sprinkled with mixed messages is making my head spin.  I feel dizzy
from his intended act of chivalry.

"I don't know what to say, Rick.  I don't need
you fighting my battles."  Want was another story.

He nods. "I know that you are quite capable of
taking care of yourself.  I just wanted to make sure that Tucker didn't get any
other ideas that might scare you."

I rub my hands over my eyes trying to subtly hide any
indication of tears before I say, "As much as I don't like it, I need to
deal with this myself.  With you saying something to him, he's just going to
avoid doing or saying anything while you're around.  What about when you're not
around?"

"There are ways to convince a person that are
permanent," he responds.

I step to the side, away from him. "Now you're
the one scaring me."  I start to walk back to the center island.  With
lightning speed he is around me and standing in front of the microscope. 

"What the hell?  How did you do that?"

"Another vampire perk is being significantly
faster than our human counterparts," he explains.

"Lovely," I muse, "now can you move so
I can begin viewing the slides."

He blocks my reach of the microscope. "You know,
you don't have to be like this."

"Be like what?" I ask.

"Being the one who always has to take care of
everything."

I snort. "Yes, I do because no one else is going
to do it."

He leans against the counter with a wispy look in his
eyes. "Wow.  You have some serious trust issues."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I
ask.

"Well, you didn't want to ask Sarah for help. 
You didn't want to tell me about Tucker.  Now you're upset because you found
out that I went ahead and talked to Tucker on your behalf."  He shakes his
head.  "You don't have to do it all."

I grit my teeth. "Fine.  Okay.  You got me.  Now
I trust
you
to get serious about working on the project.  Is that good
enough for you?"

He grins. "Nice try at deflecting the attention
away from you."

Groaning in utter frustration I exclaim, "If you
weren't a vampire capable of snapping me like a twig, I would smack the grin
right off your face!"

He nods calmly, his grin fading. "There it
is."

Confused I look around. "There is what?"

He takes my hand.  I try to pull away from him only to
be caught in his arms.  My brow furrowed, I wiggle against him as his grip
becomes firmer, contrasting the gentler look on his face.  "When something
upsets you beyond reason, even you, Emma Burcham, can be provoked into
violence.  That's what happened with me.  When watching the videos and when
talking about Serenity.  But I controlled it because I didn't want to hurt
you."  He brushes the back of his hand against my cheek, searching my
eyes, "You don't have to be scared of me."

I turn my head, looking away from him, suddenly
feeling completely foolish and a little bit excited.  I turn back to him.
"Okay, Rick.  I won't be scared of you because I trust that you won't hurt
me."

He runs his hands up and down my arms as he lets go of
me.  A soft smile slowly turns the corners of his lips up. "That's a
start."

I take a step back, overwhelmingly aware of his
fingertips slowly brushing against my skin, tickling the hairs on my arms and
warming me to the core.  I turn toward the island trying to get my mind back on
track.  "I've already prepared the slides and have logged everything.  Now
all we need to do is look at them and assess how the sunlight impacted the
tissue."

He smiles more broadly as he walks around to the other
side, giving me a wide berth.  He picks up the pen and readies himself to be
our note-taker.  I look at him and inhale deeply.  I pick up the first slide
and put it under the lens of the microscope.  I carefully position my eye over
the microscope.  After a few moments of adjusting the lens I say, "This
appears to be nothing more than water with slight traces of sodium crystals.
There also appears to be some traces of blood."

"Where did it come from?" Rick asks.

"I kept one of the fingers in the container when
I set it in the sun, just to see if there was any difference in impact compared
with the finger that was set in direct sunlight."

He nods. "Makes sense."

I exhale rather forcefully while removing the first
slide.  "It appears to be nothing more than a vampire sweat-like residue
along with blood spatter.  Which would fall in line with the theory that
vampires experience an accelerated form of dehydration. Yet, the question is
why is there any blood spatter at all? Why didn’t it all dehydrate?" 

I pick up the second slide and put it under the
scope.  I begin looking through the lens as Rick is scribbling notes on the
log.  I suddenly stand up straight.

"What's wrong?"

"It just doesn't seem right," I respond. 
"I would expect the cells to be more damaged than this if it were
dehydration.  They look like they're just damaged, rather than completely dried
up and lifeless."

"May I?" he asks as he moves forward to look
at the slide.  "Hhhmmm.  Maybe it's just a delayed response since the
specimen was encased in plastic."

"Possibly. But part of the damage appears to be a
warping of the cells. Maybe not all of the cells dehydrated and some only
partially dried up. Still, in those cells, the warping isn’t consistent with
dehydration." 

I maneuver him out of the way so I can look at the
third slide.  "Now that's what I was expecting.  Some of the cells are so
shrunken and shriveled they look more like squiggly lines."  I look up,
staring off into the distance while thinking about whether or not a delayed
reaction is a good enough explanation for me.  I tap my fingers against the top
of the island.  "Another experiment," is all I say before I start
walking back to the storage cabinet. 

"For what?" he asks.

I turn around as a tingling sensation of foreboding
creeps all over my skin.  "If we're talking about dehydration, then
rehydration is possible."

He chuckles. "I don't think we need to fear soggy
vampire parts."

I step toward him, almost excited at the direction my
thoughts are going.  "What if it's more than that?  With a vampire's
healing ability and resistance to most things fatal, what if rehydration
actually had the effect of re-animation?"

Laughing loudly he says, "Are you serious?  If
that were the case vampires would have taken advantage of that a long time
ago."

I step to the side of the island, leaning against it,
inclining my body toward him.  "Only if they knew.  Think about it.  What
usually happens when a vampire is caught in the sunlight?"

Smiling broadly at me while listening, his smile
slowly begins to fade as he thinks about what I have said.  "The remains
usually get scattered in some way. Either by the wind, force of the exposure -
almost like an eruption - or by the person who did the deed." 

Nodding I say, "Many people believe that the
effects are caused by the vampires catching on fire. If people believe this,
then why would anyone even think to gather the remains and rehydrate them?  Can
you imagine the implications?"

He looks at the table then back up to me.  You can
visibly see him considering my words.  "Can you imagine what some vampires
would try to do if that were the case?"

I lean back. "I hope to God I'm wrong."