The Source (30 page)

Pursing my lips together I respond, “Thank you for
your diligence, Officer Davis.” I get a scrap of paper and pen from the small
table beside the door and write down my cell phone number, then hand it to him.

He nods at me as he takes the paper from my hand,
careful not to make contact with my fingers, almost as if I have a contagious
skin disorder. Taking one last look over the apartment, he says, “Make sure to
keep your door locked. And be careful of who you associate with, especially
since you’re not from around here and people don’t know you.”

With that he walks back to his car and I’m left to
ponder what exactly he meant. Would people be suspicious of me because they
don’t know me? Or am I an easy target because people don’t know me?

“Is the good officer gone?” Rick calls from the
bedroom.

I lock the front door then return to my bed. “Yes,
he’s gone. Not like it matters. But at least there will be a record of what
happened.”

I pull my legs up and rest my forehead on my arms,
resting on my knees. Rick sits down beside me.

“We should really get some rest. We have a big night
tomorrow.”

I look at him, eyes wide. “Where are you going to
sleep?”

“Well,” he replies, “there are really only two
options. The bathroom floor or we can drape blankets over the sides of your bed
and I can sleep under it.”

“Sleep under my bed?”

“Actually I could get by with sleeping on the floor in
here. But under the bed, I’ll have extra protection from any possible sunlight.
And you’ll have a little more privacy with me hidden away.”

I scowl at him, “A little more privacy, but a lot more
creepiness.” I shudder. “No offense, I don’t think I could sleep with a vampire
under my bed. Too many childhood issues there.”

He briefly smiles. “Bathroom, then.”

“No,” I say as I start to grab his arm, but thankfully
refrain. I lay my hand on my leg, fighting the urge to be all needy-Emma. “No,
it’s okay. You can sleep on the floor in here.”

“Are you sure?”

I nod, “Yes. There is only one window in here, so we
can completely block the sunlight. There are too many windows in the living
room and I don’t have enough heavy drapes to block the light out completely.
It’s fine.”

I get up to retrieve an extra pillow and comforter
from the closet. I lay them on the bed and then in second thought, get another
comforter from the closet.

“Here,” I lay the second comforter on top of the
first. “You can lay on top of one and use the over to cover yourself. That way
it won’t be as hard as lying directly on the floor.”

He smiles, “I appreciate the thought, Emma.”

I smile quickly then burry myself in my own comforter,
turning my back to him. I can hear the faint sounds of the comforters being
spread out on the floor, then Rick settling in for the day.

I bite my lip, “Have a good day, Rick.” I cringe,
feeling like a complete moron.

He laughs, “You, too, Emma.”

I lay in the silence for several moments, thinking of
the events of the day. “So you could just walk in?” I ask.

“Walk in where?”

“To my apartment. I thought vampires had to ask for
permission.”

His voice seems slightly edged with humor. “Another
myth. It’s much easier for us to prey upon unsuspecting humans if they think
that we’re
not
vampires because we didn’t have to be invited into the
home.”

I groan in contemplation then, turn the bedside lamp
off and look at the wall for what seems like forever. My mind focuses on the
faint sounds of Rick moving, slightly “fake” breathing and adjusting to the
floor.

So much happened today. I killed a vampire. A
murderous vampire, and I killed her in the name of science - and fifty thousand
dollars. I have felt threatened with the disconcerting words painted across the
door of my apartment. I was berated by a small-town cop and made to feel like I
was the criminal for being an alleged outsider who cavorts with other
outsiders. And now I feel safer. Safer in the company of a vampire.

A very attractive vampire, who is sleeping in my
bedroom. My mind wanders to scenes of Rick embracing me, caressing his cool
fingers over my face and expressing his undying (and undead) love for me.
Grinning at the spectacle in my mind’s eye, I finally fall asleep.

I wake up in the late afternoon with the blankets all
rumpled on the bed. I must’ve been fighting something in my sleep. I lean over
the bed to check on Rick, who is mysteriously not on the floor. I sit up and
see the comforters neatly folded and resting at the end of the bed. Order among
my chaos. That’s either the mix for a perfect team or utter disaster. I guess
we’ll just have to wait and see about that.

I stretch while getting up to check the rest of the
apartment for Rick. I glance at the clock which reads 3:45 p.m. Huh. Looks like
I slept a little late. Or Rick is just an early riser, which doesn’t make sense
considering his nighttime inclinations.

I stumble into the living room and that’s when I hear
it – the faint but unmistakable sound of the shower running. Rick in the
shower. Naked in the shower. Okay, I need the distraction of coffee.

By the time I have the coffee brewing, Rick emerges
from the bathroom, his back close to the wall as he inches back toward the
bedroom.

“Good afternoon,” I say a little too loudly.

He turns to me after he gets to the doorway of the
bedroom, leaning against the jamb. His chest glistening, with a towel – my
towel – wrapped snuggly around his hips and his discarded clothes in his hands.
“Good afternoon, Emma.”

I arch an eyebrow at him. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I just needed a shower to scrub the remnants of
the last evening off. Unfortunately I don’t have a change of clothes, so that
will have to wait until we get back to the facility.”

“I could offer you one of my yoga outfits.”

His lips twitch. “As tempting as that sounds, I think
I’ll pass.” He turns to go into the bedroom.

“You’re probably right,” I call after him. “They’re
probably too big for your buff frame.” I immediately smack myself in the face.
What was the point in saying that? Hurry up, coffee maker. I need to wake up my
brain filters stat.

I finally get my cup of hot, black sanity and go back
to the bedroom. Rick is already dressed and sitting on the end of the bed. He
looks up at me, his hair wet and dangling in the way of those enigmatic lavender
eyes. I sit on the side of the bed and take a slow but hearty drink from my
cup. “Would you like some coffee?” I ask.

“No thanks, I’m fine.”

“Do you need anything else? Sorry, but I’m all out of
blood.”

He turns to me, grinning, “Oh, I’m sure you have a
vein or two that’s full.”

My mouth drops open as he laughs. “I’m only kidding.
I’ll eat when we get back to the facility. And get some new clothes.” He looks
down at his shirt and pants and makes a show of brushing some unseen grubbiness
from the cloth.

“You can get clothes at the facility?”

He looks up at me, slightly turning on the bed. “Yes.
Since some of the people working there are vampires, they have made
accommodations for us. It was actually part of the employment agreement. Many
vampires will not take this type of job without it.”

“What type of accommodations?” I ask.

“Well, you already know about the donation of the
administrators. We also have a place to sleep, store clothes and shower rooms.”

“Shower rooms?”

“Like many stalls in one big room. Like you might have
experienced in secondary school,” he explained.

“Oh, not me. I don’t take my clothes off in front of
other people.”

His eyes narrow slightly as he regards me. “An
interesting tidbit of knowledge about you. I’ll have to keep that in mind.” His
voice is low and almost predatory, in a very salacious way.

I clear my throat and look down into my cup of coffee
before busying myself with another drink. When I finally have the nerve to look
up at him, I smile timidly. “I’m going to go ahead and shower and get ready.”

He nods, smiling. “Good. We’ll leave when the sun goes
down.”

Once it was safe to go outside, we drive in near
silence to the research facility. I arrive at the suite alone as Rick makes his
way to the vampire quarters to get further cleaned up and fed for the evening. 

I look through all of our notes that are in the
drawers of the center island. We still have a ways to go with this project. We
have learned that vitamin D is the source of vampire fatality when it comes to
the sun, but using vitamin D alone is too unstable. Thalia’s reaction showed
that the vampire would almost go crazy in pain and had a few precious moments
to wreak havoc on the closest possible human. Not exactly the result we were targeting.
The goal was to save human lives, not possibly cause more human deaths.

I turn, my backside resting against the center island
as I look at the notes scribbled across the whiteboard. After thinking for a
few moments, I let out a rather puzzled “huh” to be heard by only myself, and
maybe Gwen in the observation room. Our solution effectively killed Thalia,
causing an acid-like burn with eventual explosion that we have yet to explain.
Bree’s and Abe’s solution incapacitated Thalia. Maybe what we need to do is
figure out a way to implement both approaches to effectively destabilize
vampires while the vitamin D burns them to a gory, piñata death.

Okay, obviously the trauma of having vampire bits
sprayed all over me has caused me to lapse into an almost sophomorically
inappropriate line of thinking. When I try to analyze this later, I will
probably realize that it’s nothing more than a defense mechanism and I’m not
really making light in all of the darkness.

The door opens, and I turn to see Rick walking in with
a bottle of Coke in his hand. I raise my eyebrows at him, “Switching from
hemoglobin to caffeine?”

“It’s for you. I was at the cafeteria and thought you
might be thirsty. I know I was.”

I try not to grimace at the thought of him getting his
drink from one of the administrators, probably Rita. But, hey, he is thinking
about me and what I might need or want. I’ll have to analyze that later, too. I
take the bottle from his hand. “Thanks.”

“Have you come up with anything?” he asks.

“Sort of. It has just dawned on me that we would have
the perfect approach if we combined our project with Bree’s and Abe’s.”

He nods. “That would definitely help with keeping
intended targets from thrashing out and hurting anyone before the vitamin D can
take effect.”

“Which is exactly what we need to do. So, do you
remember what Bree had said were the chemicals they used in their solution?”

“
Saline and alcohol at elevated levels and
mortuary-grade formaldehyde. Simple enough, but we will have to test for the
possible reactions with the vitamin D,” he replied.

“It definitely wouldn’t help if the other elements
destroyed the effectiveness of the vitamin D. It would just render the solution
pointless.”

Rick appears to chew at his bottom lip as he regards
me. “There may be another option.”

“Which is?” I ask.

“Well, in the very least we could develop a dual
delivery system so that the actual saline-alcohol-formaldehyde solution doesn’t
touch the vitamin D until it hits the vampire. At that point there most likely
wouldn’t be enough time for any molecular destruction before the vampire begins
to, um, deconstruct.”

My brows raised in wonder and appreciation. “That’s
actually an excellent idea. That way we can go ahead with the final
demonstration without any further tests. If it works the way we think it will,
we can head off the possibility of another team beating us to the punch. Or the
splat, as it were.”

Rick looks at me with a somewhat shocked expression on
his face.

“Sorry. I’ve recently embraced humor as an
inappropriate, yet effective, way to deal with stress.”

He walks over to me and places his hands on my
shoulders. “We’re doing the right thing. What we have accomplished here at this
research facility will surely save hundreds, if not thousands, of human lives.”

His gaze deepens as his thumbs lightly caress the
front of my shoulders, soothing me while igniting a fire in my veins. My lips
part as I stare up at him, trying to remember what I should say as it feels
like all the blood drains from my face.  My lips quiver as I try to smile. “I
know. I just need the mental wall to dam the flood of internal conflict.
Logically I know that not all death is senseless. That doesn’t mean I want to
be the one pulling the proverbially trigger.”

He runs his hands down my arms as he takes a step back
and leans his hip against the center island. “It’s a step in the right
direction. I don’t think any of us actually enjoy that part of it. If we did,
vampire or not, I would have to question our mental stability. What we have to
come to terms with, what we have to accept is that we’re the ones that have to
make these decisions because we’re the ones who have the intellect and talent
to solve these very delicate problems.