The Source (24 page)

I can’t help but smile. I abruptly turn to Rick,
walking to him slowly, “Are you okay?”

He looks at me as if I have claimed to be the Queen of
England. “Why, yes. I’m just peachy. Thank you for asking.”

I don’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. “I know
you’re hurt, but are you okay now. Do you still feel something? Is it
spreading?”

Holding his arm, he walks toward the table to sit
down. “I feel fine, except for the burning sensation in my arm.”

I practically trip as I rush to him. “The water didn’t
work? It’s still eating away at your flesh?”

Closing his eyes, he says, “As delightful as that
sounds, no. It’s not still eating away at my flesh. I just have a sensation
that is like what I remember a burn to feel like. Like when you remove your
hand from a hot stove. It still ‘burns’ although there’s no longer any real
danger.”

I sit beside Rick as he begins to slowly pull the
paper towel from his skin. Gwen lays the extinguisher on the table and resumes
her job of taking notes. Rick grimaces as the paper lifts, showing a mass of
molten skin, blackened bubbles and exposed meat and veins. My stomach twists as
my heart wrenches. I peer more closely. Before I realize what I am doing, I
take his arm in my hands and begin examining the wound. I am racking my brain
for an idea of what type of First Aid you give a vampire. Not like I would
know. I shake my head. “What do we need to put on this so that it doesn’t get
infected? Or so that it can heal quickly?”

I look up to see that Rick is looking down at my
hands. He looks into my face for a beat then lightly shakes his head as if he
were shaking the cobwebs from his mind. “None needed,” he says. “I can’t get
infections and vampires heal so quickly that in a few hours, you won’t be able
to tell that anything had happened. If you look closely, the skin is already
starting to knit itself back together.”

I look back at his arm and sit up, my hands slowly
sliding from the unmarred part of his skin. Indeed. It is as if small threads
of skin and flesh were weaving under and over in their mission to rebuild
perfect, unscarred vampire skin. I rest my hands in my lap and nervously smile
at him. “I’m glad you won’t hurt for long.” We hold our gazes for a while
before I rub my eyes with the back of my hand, feigning sleepiness as I poorly
execute an attempt to stifle a fake yawn. I get up and head back to the center
island. “I will jot down a few notes, then get ready to leave for the day,” I
say over my shoulder. By the time I reach the island, Rick is already by my
side, the crumpled paper towel neatly placed in the wastebasket.

“So you know,” he begins, “it was worth it. There’s no
major damage and now we know that we’re heading in the right direction. We’re
on the right path. Tomorrow we’ll start planning on what we need to do before
presenting our findings to Mr. Caulfield and the others.”

I try to smile at him as I shuffle my papers, “Yes, I
guess it was worth it.” I write a few lines in my journal to outline how we
used the tablet of vitamin D, the process of making it into a powder and how we
administered it to Rick’s arm. We will need to look at each step to make sure
that no outside variable influenced the reaction, so we can confidently say
that vitamin D is the source of the injury he sustained. In the name of
science. For the benefit of humans. And for vampires. So that we can all be
protected from the horrors of an all out species war and the casualties it will
bring. Casualties that could affect both of us, in many ways.

Once I complete my notes, I go to the closet to
retrieve my jacket and purse. I walk toward the table where Rick is sitting,
nursing his arm in the best way he can. Gwen has packed her things up and is
about to leave for the day.

“Thank you for the warm welcome and the excitement for
my first day,” she smiles brightly, without sarcasm as if she genuinely means
it.

As she leaves the suite, Rick stands to accompany me outside
to the parking lot. We stop not far from my car. We both continue to look
across the lot, to the wooded hills in the distance, the silence broadening
between us like a gulf of hurt, embarrassment and new possibilities.

“Thank you,” he says as he continues to gaze out into
the distance.

I turn my head to him, “For what?”

“For your concern.” He turns toward me, the side of
his mouth raises in a half-smile. “So many humans wouldn’t care, and even those
that do, wouldn’t dare show it. Thank you for that.”

I look down as I feel the blush cover my face. “No
need to thank me for that. I can’t stand to see people in pain.”

He reaches over and takes my hand, lightly squeezing
it. I look up at him again. “Thank you for that, too,” he says.

I just look at him in confusion. “For saying that.” He
smiles. “I’m not a people.”

And with that, he is gone.

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.”