The Darkest Colors Page 23

  The doctor hesitated a moment before admitting, “We, ah … we don’t know for sure. As far as we can tell, you may be a different sort of vampire altogether. A new breed, if you will. Your Change resulted in a, ah … a genetic mutation, maybe … or … perhaps a hybrid of two races.”

  “Hybrid?” Raina echoed. “Look, I’m not an economy car, doc. I’m a friggin’ vampire. And with vampires, there’s no such thing as a hybrid. I don’t know the specifics of why, but … there just isn’t.”

  “Ordinarily, I would have to agree,” he confirmed with a nod, “but somehow, you exhibit visual traits and blood chemistry that aren’t consistent with any race of vampire that has ever been reported.”

  Raina narrowed her eyes at him. “Meaning … what? I really am a Toyota?”

  “No, no,” he chuckled, pausing before he became very serious again. “What I’m saying is that…”

  The doctor’s words trailed off as he became distracted by a rising commotion from out in the hallway as the main gate crashed shut and a group of people could be heard approaching. With each step, Raina could hear the rattle of keys, the soft clattering of restraint chains, and the distinct hollow-heavy sound of boots, and there was a brief squawking of a loud but distorted and static-heavy transmission over more than one handheld radio. The doctor drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly in a heavy sigh of frustration. One of the deputies leaned back to glance down the hallway, then looked back with a smirk.

  “Sheriff’s here.”

  “Good. I need to have a word with him,” the doctor said as he stepped away from Raina’s bedside. He halted in his tracks as soon as several men came into view in the doorway. “Sir, you’ll be making a huge mistake if you remove this sub— … this patient from this hospital.”

  “Is that so?” was the Sheriff’s haughty reply. “Well, doc, that’s unfortunate, but I’d be making an even bigger mistake by keeping her here.”

  “She’s not stable enough yet to be discharged,” the doctor insisted. “We don’t know enough about her condition yet to safely say that she won’t develop an episode of bloodlust. She’s had an extremely unusual Change, and it’s simply too soon for us to release her. Her bodily systems have not stabilized completely, yet. As far as we can tell, her Change is still in progress.”

  “Really? We’ll see about that. Would you mind stepping aside?”

  Reluctantly, the doctor moved away from the doorway, and several individuals filed in from the hallway. Right away, Raina recognized the Sheriff’s familiar face, as she had seen quite a bit of him on television over the past few years. He was something of a national celebrity, actually. The Sheriff was dressed rather casually in a polo shirt and dark brown slacks, with his badge in a flip-over wallet tucked into his waistband along with a clip-on pistol holster and a handcuff case – not that he had likely ever used any of those things since he’d been voted into public office. He was a good sheriff, as far as his policies regarding the enforcement of immigration laws and his no-nonsense methods of handling the county jail system.

  However, Raina had never particularly liked him personally. For one thing, he was terribly full of himself. He had allowed his national popularity to inflate his ego to absurd proportions. He fancied himself to be a rock-star cop of sorts, and Raina was not one of his fans. And, given his heavy-handed and ultra-conservative policies for dealing with vampires in general, he likely wasn’t going to be a fan of hers, either.

  Accompanying him were two other deputies, apparently of a higher rank than the two prior deputies she’d seen, given the look of their lapel pins and sleeve patches. So, the Sheriff had an entourage, no surprise there. What caused Raina’s breath to catch in her throat, however, was when she saw one of those two deputies escort Brenna into the room. Her wrists were cuffed and secured at her midsection by a waist chain, her ankles bound in chains and shackles, and they had even fitted her with a ball-gag. The kinky bondage-like gag was one of the Sheriff’s trademark methods of retraining vampires, supposedly to prevent bites, but more likely just for the sake of humiliating his prisoners in the same way he made all inmates wear pink underwear and classic black-and-white striped jumpsuits. Brenna’s hair looked frizzy and disheveled, her makeup long gone, and her clothes looked like they had been rolled around on a dirty floor. Clearly, she had been treated less than kindly by the authorities. However, she appeared to be just as relieved to see her as Raina was to see Brenna, and she did her best to give a little wave of greeting with her fingers in spite of her handcuffed wrists.

  The Sheriff folded his arms leaned back a bit, and eyed Raina over for a moment. “So … you’re Raina Delgado.”

  “Yes. Why are you—…”

  He held up a hand for a moment to silence her, then jerked a thumb toward Brenna. “You know her?”

  “That’s Brenna Douglass,” she replied with a nod. “She’s my friend.”

  “Your friend, huh? What kinda friend?”

  “My best friend.”

  “Are you two, ah … life partners? Is that the term?”

  Raina tried not to scowl at him too deeply. “No.”

  “Friends with benefits?”

  “Not that it’d be any of your business if we were,” she responded, “but, no, we’re not.”

  “So … just friends?”

  For a fleeting moment, Raina thought of her friend, Lisa. However, realizing that Lisa was the reason they were both there at that moment, having betrayed her trust, she realized she would have to seriously re-evaluate her definition of a “friend.” In that respect, Brenna was the best friend she’d ever had. More than once, Brenna had been afforded opportunities where she could have taken advantage of Raina for blood, sex, money, all, or other. And although she had admitted to the temptations she’d felt, Brenna had never screwed her over, neither figuratively nor literally. The things that Brenna had done for her, especially in the past few days, gave Raina the inclination to bestow a title upon her that was more significant than the ordinary, casual “friend” tag … although “lover” certainly would have been a stretch. She could do little or nothing about the feelings Brenna had for her. Unfortunately, Brenna’s love for her was not mutual, or at least not in the same context. Raina felt a bit guilty, almost sensing the subtle hurt in Brenna’s eyes as she nodded.

  “We’re just friends.”

  “Close enough that you’d share your blood with her?”

  Raina sighed, rolling her eyes slightly. “We’re not lovers, we’re not blood buddies, and she did not kidnap me, hold me against my will, suck my blood, and force the Change on me, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “Who said anything about kidnapping?” the Sheriff asked with a shrug. “I’m just asking what kind of relationship you two have that would have you letting her stick you with a syringe and shoot you full of her own blood.”

  “She was just trying to help me, Sheriff,” she insisted tiredly. Raina’s eyes met Brenna’s from across the room. “Honestly, if I was in such bad shape that she had to inject me with her own blood, then chances are that she was trying to help me. In fact … she probably saved my life.”

  The Sheriff considered that for a few moments before he turned and asked the deputies to escort Brenna outside of the room for the time being. As they complied, he pulled up a chair and began to quiz Raina about what had started her Change. The doctor interjected a few questions now and then, as they pertained to the start of her Change and the medical events that took place throughout. She was as completely and fully honest with them as she could possibly be, going into more detail about the start of her Change than she had ever told Lisa or even Brenna. She worried that she might be somehow betraying her promise to the Grand Duchess to remain silent on the matter, but she feared that if her story did not check out against the conclusions the Sheriff’s Office had drawn on its own, they would dismiss her story as a cover for Brenna’s presumed crimes against her and would summarily charge her with a slew of felonies punishable b
y death.

  Of course, it took some time to relay the story in its entirety. The Sheriff and the doctor squabbled back and forth occasionally as they stepped on each other’s toes, so to speak. Eventually, though, both the doctor and the Sheriff seemed to accept her version of events as satisfactory, and the Sheriff suddenly seemed a bit more cordial towards her. She finished, and for a few moments, they were all silent.

  “So … basically,” the Sheriff summarized with sigh, “you’re saying Brenna did inject you with her own blood, but that’s okay with you because some other guy … this Duke, uhh…” He paused to consult his notes. “Sebastian Fallamhain … he already had knocked you out, raped you, and injected you with his own blood. At that point, you were already infected with vampirism and the Change had already started. Is that right?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “So, if we run a blood test on you, we can verify this other guy was your Maker by comparing your DNA with his,” the Sheriff said more than asked. He then glanced to the doctor. “We can do that, right?”

  “Ah … I’m not really sure,” the doctor confessed, looking a bit embarrassed.

  “And why not?”

  “Because this other vampire … the Commoner, Brenna, injected her with her own blood, Raina’s body was forced to simultaneously undergo two Changes at once, so to speak,” he explained. “The fact that we had to give her a transfusion for several pints of blood once she arrived here may also have complicated things. Once her Change had begun, her body was being subjected to three influential sources of DNA at once. Rather than only adhering to one new source, it seems her body may have tried to accept all three sources of genetic input at once.”

  “Which means what, doc? In layman’s terms, please.”

  “I’m a mutt,” Raina said for him. “I’m a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

  “Prettiest mutt I ever saw,” the Sheriff said with a smirk. He got up from his chair and moved it back against the wall where it previously had been. “All right, then. I won’t pretend to understand any of the technical genetic stuff, but as far as my involvement is concerned, I don’t really need to. Hendrix?”

  “Yes, sir,” one of the deputies responded as he stepped forward at attention, almost military-like.

  “Go unhook the Commoner. Her story checks out. We don’t have a case.”

  Hendrix hesitated for a split second, then nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  The Sheriff turned to Raina with a shrug. “Honestly, half of what you’ve said doesn’t make any damned sense to me. For one thing, I can’t see why you’d let a vampire you don’t even know manage to get you alone like you did … especially since you’re obviously familiar with vampires, in general.”

  “Yeah, well … that makes two of us, sir,” Raina sighed. “Then again, I haven’t always been known to make the smartest choices in life.”

  “Another thing I don’t get is why you didn’t let your friend, Lisa, check you in to the hospital here when your Change first started,” he went on. “While I can’t prove anything illegal ever actually took place, I’m not so sure your little side job of drawing blood is entirely legal, either.”

  “Consensual blood donation has always been entirely legal, sir,” Raina said with a nod and a smirk, relieved to hear that Brenna was safe. “All I do is provide humans with a safe, clinical means of donating and vampires with a legal means of satisfying their needs.”

  “Yeah, well … now that you’re a vampire … or whatever you are, technically,” he said, “I’d suggest you find a different hobby. I don’t like it, and frankly, I hope the laws about that get changed so we don’t have any more problems like this. In the meantime … just don’t let me catch you biting anyone, okay?”

  “Not a problem, Sheriff.”

  “So then,” he began after a moment’s pause, “how are you feeling?”

  “Less than alive, but better than dead,” was Raina’s shrug-accompanied reply.

  “Able to walk out of here on your own?”

  “Probably,” she confirmed with a nod. “Why?”

  “Your Maker is here to claim you.”

  Raina blinked at him almost dumbly. “My Maker?”

  “Yeah. You know, remember the guy that you’re claiming gave you those pointy ears and fangs?” the Sheriff replied with a smirk as he gestured to her new features.

  “But … technically, sir, my Maker is dead. I saw it on the news. I even saw his body in the morgue,” Raina informed him, incredulous.

  “Well, some folks of his are here on behalf of the Grand Duchess. I guess the way it works, since she was his mistress and she owned him, and now that he’s dead, then the Grand Duchess owns you by default,” he explained. “The press is out there, too, and lots of ‘em. It’s a damned circus.”

  She shook her head, feeling her eyes growing wide as her stomach knotted up nervously. Something was very wrong here … and it wasn’t just the idea that the Sheriff was implying that someone owned her, as if she was a material possession.

  “How are you sure this person is who they really claim to be?” Raina asked.

  “He’s got signed and notarized credentials, passports, an official sword, and the whole nine yards to back up his claim,” he explained with a shrug. “He even brought a whole entourage with him … a limo and everything. We’ve already checked him and the others out, and we ran their VIC info through the FBI’s database to be sure. Far as all the information we have shows, these folks are legit. This guy and his group are here to escort you to go meet the Grand Duchess, and since she’s got legal rights over you by direct ancestry, then it looks like you’ll be leaving with them tonight.”

  Raina stared at the Sheriff. “Then … wait a second. If you already knew Brenna wasn’t my Maker and you’d already found all of this other stuff out … then why did I have to explain everything to you before you would let Brenna off the hook?”

  “Just making sure everyone’s story matches,” he replied. “It’s just standard police procedure, covering all the bases. We don’t like to make too many assumptions about things like this. The last thing I need is for my department to be held responsible for turning you over to the wrong party, you winding up dead, and then having the Grand Duchess file a wrongful death lawsuit against us.”

  She frowned. “In other words, you’re more worried about saving money than saving lives.”

  He met her gaze squarely, unflinching. “When it comes to the lives of vampires … frankly, yes, that’s where I stand. You’re a special case, though. I know you didn’t really intend to become a vamp in the first place. I know who you were as a human. It happened just before I became sheriff, but I remember what happened with you and your parents. I was there on the scene just after it happened, and…”

  “Yeah, yeah, I understand,” she sighed, waving it off. “Let’s not go there, okay? Please … just let me get the hell out of this place.”

  The Sheriff paused, eyeing her over almost suspiciously for a moment before finally shrugging his shoulders dismissively. “All right. Stay safe out there.”

  As Raina tied her shoes, the Sheriff bid her farewell and departed. Brenna entered the room a few seconds later, running her fingers through her hair and looking terribly relieved to be free of her restraints. Raina’s weariness and aches were forgotten as she practically leapt from the hospital bed and met Brenna with a fierce hug.

  “Oh, my sweet,” Brenna sighed, kissing her cheek, “I was worried sick about you.”

  “I was more worried about what they were going to do to you,” she replied as she continued to hold her close.

  After a few long moments, they moved apart slightly. Brenna held her in place by her shoulders, smiling as she gave her a thorough look-over.

  “Wow,” she said with a nod and wide eyes. “I mean … just … wow.”

  “I know. I look like a circus freak.”

  “Not at all! God, you look amazing!” Brenna insisted. “Y’know, you really, really look
good without your glasses.”

  “Hell of an alternative to Lasik surgery, huh?”

  Brenna shook her head lightly, still smiling. “Man … never thought I’d see the day…”

  Raina slumped a bit as she sighed, “And I never will see the day. Not anymore…”

  “Actually … that might not be true.”

  They both turned to face the doctor, whom Raina had nearly forgotten about. He stepped around the bed and withdrew what looked like a pen from the front pocket of his shirt.

  “As I said, your condition is unique,” the doctor explained. “Because you were receiving blood infusions from three different sources during your Change, where your body was in the process of literally rewriting its DNA sequence, you somehow developed traits consistent with more than one race. Perhaps it was a result of genetic dilution, rather than mutation, or perhaps a chemical reaction of sorts. We just don’t know yet. Of course, we could confirm it with further blood studies…”

  Raina held up her hands and backed away a step. “Oh, hell no! Forget it. Nobody’s taking my blood. I just got done having needles taken out of me. I’m not about to go letting you put a bunch more back into me!”

  The doctor visibly had to swallow back his frustration, overruling it with professionalism and patience as he said, “We would not take a blood specimen from you without your prior consent, of course. But it would be to your own benefit, as well as ours, if you did allow us to draw at least one final specimen for study. The better we are able to understand your condition, the better you will know how to cope with your new … features.”

  “What’s with the light?” Brenna asked, gesturing to what the doctor held.

  He clicked on the light and shined it upon his own hand, first the palm and then the back. The light was very bright and dark purple in color.

  “This is a high-intensity UV light, similar to the light used in tanning beds. It’s essentially harmless to humans, as you can see,” he said, “because my skin is not photosensitive. But, as you probably know, ultraviolet light is very damaging to vampiric flesh because of its photosensitivity. We use lights such as this to gauge an individual’s progress through the Change, or to diagnose possible cases of vampirism in development.” He clicked off the light and offered it to Raina. “Try it on yourself.”