The Source (18 page)

Using the tweezers and eyedropper, I place a piece of
the somewhat dehydrated tissue on a slide.  I look at Rick, take a deep breath
then put the slide under the lens.  After viewing the slide I look up and say,
"Much of the same with the previous slide.  The cells just look damaged
rather than looking completely dehydrated."  He nods and writes some notes
as I remove the slide and use the eyedropper to put a drop of condensation on
the tissue.  After allowing a few moments for the fluid to saturate the tissue,
I place the slide back under the microscope.  I look through the lens trying to
determine if there is any significant change that would indicate that the
tissue is coming back from the dead as it were.  I stand straight and shake my
head. "From the looks of it, the cells just look more healthy, but no
indication that reanimation would be possible."

Rick moves in close so that he can view the sample. 
Looking up he nods and says, "Just looks like what you would expect in
rehydrating any material."  He leans against the island with a curious
look on his face.  "Unless..." he begins, letting his voice drift off
to an unknown conclusion. 

"Unless what?" I ask.

His mouth opens and closes in a manner that reminds me
of a blowfish before he says, "Unless blood would make a difference."

My eyes narrow. "What do you mean unless blood
would make a difference?"

"Well," shrugging one shoulder, "blood
makes ALL the difference to a vampire.  It's what we live on.  It just makes me
wonder if adding human blood to the equation would have any impact on the
tissue."

I grit my teeth, pressing my lips together in a thin
line before I say, "As much as I would love to help in that regard, I've
not seen any sterile instruments that I would use to extract any of my blood.
Besides, I thought it could be any blood, not necessarily
human
blood?"

“You would support killing a rabbit or laboratory rat
for this when you’re concerned about the way a criminal vampire was treated?”
he asks.

I scrunch my face up in distaste. “Point taken. Still
doesn’t help the fact that we don’t have anything sterile to draw my blood.”

Rick quickly goes to one of the cabinets.  He returns
to the center island with what looks like a diabetic care set for the morbidly
curious.  The set includes stick instruments, sterile strips, a syringe, test
tubes, plastic tubing and shot glasses.  I stare at the items and ask,
"What the hell?"

"Don't look so shocked," he says. "These
are common items that not only could be used in scientific research, but could
be beneficial for vampires who have to spend significant amounts of time away
from their donors or the admins."

"The admins?" I ask.

"The admins are basically surrogate donors. 
That's what I'm doing when I need to see Rita.  I'm feeding."

I look away. "Okay, on some level I knew that,
but I was making myself comfortable in denial by the fact that no one had come
out and said it."

He smiles at me. "Sorry to destroy the
illusion."  With a more serious, concerned look on his face he says,
"Are you sure that you're willing to do this?  We could get one of the
admins to help us out."

I ponder the offer for a few moments while
simultaneously thinking about what I had already done and what I had seen
happen to Thalia all for the sake of this project.  I feel a deep need to go
forward without involving anyone else.  To stop at this point would be like
admitting that I knew that what we are doing is wrong.  If I start down that
path, I would leave the project completely, which I don’t want to do.

I nod my assent. "I'll do it."

I remove the slide from the microscope and set it on
the top of the island.  I then proceed to insert one of the lancets into the
sticking instrument.  Rick watches me intently before saying, "You do this
so flawlessly, like you have done it before."

"The unfortunate expertise of growing up in a
family with multiple diabetics.  You can learn a lot from just watching."

"Indeed you can," he says while smiling at
me. 

I give him a blank look before I hold the index finger
of my left hand out in preparation for quick, stabbing pain.  "Here
goes," I say.  I place the sticking instrument to the side of my finger
and press the button, slightly jerking when the sharp tip strikes my flesh. 
Blood begins to well around the small wound.  I place my finger over the
specimen slide and begin to gently milk the tip so that more blood would flow
into a generous drop onto the damaged tissue.  Once the specimen is covered in
my life source, I quickly put my finger in my mouth, sucking at the wound.

Rick raises his eyebrows at me. "So it appears
that you do have a touch of the vampire in you."

I pull my finger from my mouth. "No, that's just
a natural reaction from decades of habit.  Now, if I would suck someone else's
finger,
that
would make me like a vampire."

Rick looks longingly at my finger.  His gaze rises to
meet my eyes. "You have no idea."  He grins as if his thoughts were
creating a world where my fingers were his appetizers.  I don’t even want to
think about the main course.  I quickly place my hand in my pocket. 
"Okay, let's see if there is any change."

I place the slide under the lens as Rick scoots closer
to me.  I peer into the scope and jerk to a standstill.  Trying to keep my
pulse rate regular, I breathe deeply as I continue to watch the ever so slight
movement within what was previously dead tissue.  Remembering that everything
was being recorded, I make a conscience effort to control my movements so as not
to give anything away.

"Nothing?" Rick asks.

I glance up from the scope and whisper, "Keep
your voice low.  We are being recorded.  And Ms. Montgomery is actually
watching us from the observation room.  It would be best if we did not reveal
what we have found.  Best for humans and best for vampires."

His eyes grow wide as he subtly nods.  He leans
forward to look into the scope.  After a few moments he draws back and stands
up straight, watching me.  Trying to act as normal as possible, I remove the
slide and say, "Let's go ahead and talk about the results and possible
ways to replicate them without the aid of the sun."

"That's an excellent idea," he adds.

I gather up the slides in a box, doing my best to palm
the bloody slide without the notice of absent, but observing eyes.  Rick walks
over to the whiteboard and begins cleaning it so that we can begin another
brainstorming session.  I straighten the logs on the island to give the
indication that I have nothing in my hands.  I very nonchalantly place my hand
back in my pocket, "Before we get started, I'm going to get something to
drink from the machines."

"Okay," Rick says over his shoulder.

I walk from the research suite and head down the hall
toward the pop machines.  Before getting to my destination, I turn right and
head toward the public restrooms.  I open the door to the women’s facilities
and slowly walk past all of the stalls to make sure that I am alone.  I then go
to the sink, turn on the water and remove the slide from my pocket.  I begin
washing the remnants of our extracurricular experiment from the slide. 
Suddenly the restroom door opens.  I jerk so quickly that the corner of the
slide cuts my palm just below my thumb.  I look up in the mirror to see Bree
watching me.  I lower my head and go back to washing the slide, trying hard to
make it seem like I was washing my hands, which I am sort of since my hand is
bleeding.  I look back up into the mirror and Bree is still standing there,
staring at me.

“What?” I ask, trying not to seem too irritated. 

She motions to me with a slight lift of her chin. “I
can smell the blood.”

“Oh, right.  Vampires and their sense of smell.”  I
force a laugh.  “I will be out in a moment.”

She continues staring at me, as if she is mesmerized
by my very essence.  “What are you doing here anyway?” I ask.  “I didn’t think
vampires had to use the bathroom.”

With her eyes focused on the sink she says, “Only if
we drink various beverages.  If the only thing we have is blood then we have no
use for a toilet.”

I laugh nervously, “Well, please, don’t let me to
interrupt your restroom trip.” 

She continues to stare at the sink for a few more
moments before she slowly moves to the first stall and latches the door shut. 
I quickly turn the water off, drop the clean slide into the garbage then get a
few paper towels from the dispenser.  I wrap the paper towels around my hand
and exit through the door. 

Free and clear in the hallway, I take a deep breath. 
I continue on my way to the pop machine so that Ms. Montgomery won’t notice my
lack of beverage and question what I am really doing.  After I select Coke,
Tucker comes out of the cafeteria and walks my way.  I turn toward him as I
hold the cold bottle against my throbbing palm.

“Good evening, Emma,” he says, smiling broadly.  The look
on his face quickly turns to one of concern as he looks at my hand.  “My God,
what happened?  You’re bleeding.”

I look down at the bottle pressed against my hand. 
The paper towel I have covering the wound has quickly turned red.  I press
against it harder, willing the bleeding to stop.

“I cut myself with a microscope slide of all things,”
I force a lighthearted laugh.

Tucker reaches for my hand. “You need to be more
careful.  I can’t make it my full time job to clean your hand wounds.”  He
looks up at me briefly and smiles.  He takes the bottle of Coke and motions for
me to hold it with my other hand.  He then carefully removes the soaked paper
towel to inspect the cut.  It is barely bleeding now, but still looks jagged
and raw.

“It’s starting to clot,” he says, “but you need to
make sure to put some antiseptic on it and a bandage.  You can pick up some
weird bacteria in a research facility, so you definitely don’t want it getting
infected.”  He lightly rubs his fingers against the back of my hand as he’s
talking.

“I will.  We have some supplies in the suite.”

He finally looks up at me, releasing my hand.  “Good. 
Just be careful if Rick is there.”  I give him a questioning look.  “He’ll
smell the blood and it might make him...hungry.”

“Ah, yes.  I was reminded of that when I ran into Bree
in the bathroom,” I grumble.

As if I had summoned her, Bree turns the corner ahead
of us and walks in our direction, determination punctuating every step.  Tucker
and I both watch her as she stops just a few feet away from us.  She is looking
directly at me, before glancing down at my hand, which is still in Tucker’s
grasp.  I remove my hand from his and place it in my pocket. 

She turns her gaze to Tucker.  “We’re close to
completion, Tucker.  We don’t have time for fraternization.  I expect you to
get back to the suite a.s.a.p.”  I notice the muscles in his jaw twitching as
his lips nearly disappear.  Glancing once more at me, Bree turns and walks back
down the hall.  We both watch her until she is out of sight.

Face still tense, Tucker turns to me saying “bitch”
under his breath.  I incline my head questioningly as I see a dark glimmer in
his eyes that I’m not afraid to say makes me weary.  Then just like that, as if
someone has pulled the blinds, Tucker relaxes and smiles at me.  “I should get
back to the suite,” he says.

I nod, “Yeah.”  I look at the floor before thinking of
something.  “They’re close to finishing their project?” I ask.

He nods quickly as he starts to back his way down the
hall, “Yeah.  But then they’ll have to test things to make sure it works.  But,
yeah, they’re close.  I’m sorry, but I better get back.  We’ll talk later about
returning to the mine.”  He smiles at me before he turns and disappears down
the hall.  I shake my head hoping that he won’t be too disappointed to learn
that my answer hasn’t changed in regards to the mine.   

Anyway, I need to focus.  The race is on.  We have
some serious time to make up and hopefully Rick has already gotten us started
in that direction.  We shouldn’t have done the extra experiment, but hopefully
we will learn from that and avoid further distractions.  I clutch the Coke
bottle against the cut.  Yeah, no distractions, including my bleeding hand
wafting in front of a vampire.  Shouldn’t be a problem, right?

I walk back into the suite, happy to see Rick at the
whiteboard, writing furiously.  Before I can walk two steps into the room, he
stops and lifts his head into the air.  I slowly walk toward the center island
as he turns to me.  I set the Coke bottle on the island and wait for him to say
the expected “what’s that smell.” 

He looks at my hand. “What did you do?”

Close enough.  “Bree surprised me in the bathroom and
I ended up cutting my hand on the corner of the slide.”  I walk over to the
storage cabinet as I saw a first aid kit on the wall beside it. 

As I am busy sitting by the computer arranging
bandages, tape and anti-bacterial ointment, I can hear Rick’s soft steps headed
in my direction.  I look over my shoulder and up into his face.  He seems to be
trying to be very careful not to express too much one way or the other.  And
what was that he said about not being afraid of him?