The Source (25 page)

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.”