As his horribly disfigured hand floated towards me like something out of a nightmare, I slammed my lips shut tighter than a bear trap. My teeth clacked together making an audible snapping sound, and I jerked my head away as if I was a toddler being force-fed a spoonful of beets. There was no way I was letting those nasty digits of his anywhere near my mouth.
Sensing my obvious reluctance to let him touch me, Dr. Kleinrosebroom listlessly dropped his hand back on the blankets. "Forgive me," he said in a raspy whisper. "You survived. I still cannot believe it. I have been so worried something might have happened to you. That you would," he swallowed hard, "die. But here you are...thriving as a vampire." He gasped out the words as if he still didn't quite accept the fact I was indeed alive. His light green eyes looked at me with total admiration, which was a rather pleasant change, although it was also a little disturbing. But, since most of the vampires around here had been looking at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of their shoes, I was willing to bypass the creepy factor. It was a nice change of pace to be seen as something other than a freaky science experiment gone wrong...or worse...as an abomination.
"Oh, well, you know, I've always been a tough cookie." I puffed out my chest with pride. "There was this one time, all the kids in my high school came down with mono, but not me. Nope. I was as fit as Hey Diddle Diddle's fiddle. Not even a sniffle."
Of course, everyone knows Mono, or Mononucleosis is referred to as the "kissing disease", and since the only kissing I was doing at that time was long make-out sessions with my life-sized poster of John Stamos, the chances of me catching anything but an infection from a papercut was virtually impossible.
Yeah...I had a huge crush on the dreamy Uncle Jesse, so sue me. I don't care if he used to rock a mullet, he was sexy as hell and still is. The dude can make me buy yogurt for crying out loud, and I hate yogurt...so there you go. Undeniable proof of his hotness status.
"Yes, Melanie has astounded all of us with her remarkable fortitude," Fang said, totally ruining my moment to bask. "None of Stoker's other experimentations have lived for more than a few hours, and if they did, they were not," he paused for a moment, his head turning to run his eyes over me from head to toe, "as complete with their mental facilities as she is."
The velvety soft rumble of his voice sent tingling shivers of hunger down my spine. I was starving, and not for food...if you know what I mean. Suddenly, Fang grinned, and my knees tried to melt. But, fortunately, I was sitting down and safe from ending up in a puddle of swooning female flesh at his feet. Drat! I keep forgetting him being tapped into my emotions like illegally spliced cable. Sighing, I inched away from him as far as I could go without falling out of my chair. I swear the vampire was making me lose my mind. But...I suppose...as long as I managed to retain the part that tells me when I need to pee, I should be okay. I hoped.
"The question is, why did your serum succeed? What made your formula so different than the rest that it managed to create a vampire?" Fang asked, his glowing eyes leaving me to concentrate on the doctor.
Him turning his attention away sucked because I was in the process of sending him one of the best you've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me glares of all time.
"Really? That's your pressing question? Not, why did you pop poor Melanie in the ass with something that could have killed her? Or worse, turned me into a drooling idiot with the IQ capability of a kumquat?"
"But it didn't kill you," Dr. Kleinrosebroom gurgled happily, causing me to look down at him. Ugh, the guy's face really was a disaster. A small river of spit, drool, blood, and God only knew what else was leaking out of the corner of his mouth, making my stomach hopscotch up my throat. "I have a theory it was the Chinese food."
"Chinese food?" Fang's dark brows arched to his widow's peak. Tipping his head to the side, he eyed the doctor more carefully. Obviously, he didn't have any issues with the bodily fluids seeping out of the man.
"Yes," The doctor nodded his head causing more yucky things to ooze out of his wounds. "She had consumed a vast amount of Chinese food prior to my accidentally running into her."
"Hey! It wasn't a vast amount," I snapped, feeling my face flame a bright red, which was probably a better color than the slight greenish tint it'd been since I got my first glimpse of the doctor. It was safe to say, a career in any kind of medical field was not going to be in my future.
"If I remember correctly, there were several containers of various concoctions. Unless, perhaps, you were dining with someone else?" Dr. Kleinrosebroom's right brow did a perfect curve on his bloodied and bruised forehead, making me want to rip it out by the roots. "I must confess...I was extremely agitated at the time. But, I do recall a strong, pungent aroma of garlic on your breath."
"I am well aware of her immense...hunger," Fang murmured, a powerful yearning was flashing in his eyes as he sent me a knowing smirk filled with dark, sexy and steamy insinuations.
Leave it to Fang. If someone leaves the sexual innuendo door open a crack, he was going to come crashing through it like the Kool-Aid man.
With a huff of air that sounded suspiciously like a gasp, I crossed my arms over my chest to hide my suddenly pebbled nipples and attempted to give him a quelling look. "I had skipped breakfast that morning," I said in a voice I wished wasn't quite so breathy as I squirmed on the stool.
"From now on, moya solnishka, I will personally guarantee you will never go hungry again," he said in a hushed whisper he knew only my vampire hearing could detect. With a casual swipe of his hand, he brushed the side of his neck, sending a wave of his silky locks over his shoulder and exposing his pulsing, luscious, smooth jugular to my view. A thousand fantasies all involving him flickered through my head. Each one filthier than the next. Most...probably illegal in the Southern states.
My teeth sprang to life, popping out of my mouth like an erection with copious amounts of saliva. I licked my lips, recalling the feel and his decadent taste of him on my tongue. He had felt so good when I had climbed that massive naked chest, sinking my teeth into the soft, tender skin at his throat. He had made those little erotic growls of pleasure as I sucked on him and it had been hot as hell. If Bubbles hadn't interrupted us, I could have tasted the rest of him. Let my mouth close over one of those manly nipples...maybe bite him there...then sweep my hand down that lovely man-trail of hair that leads to...
"I believe it was the combination of my serum enhanced by the amount of MSG and garlic already in her system."
Dr. Kleinrosebroom's croaky voice broke my sexual hypnotic trance, snapping my attention back to him. "Garlic? What doeth garlic hath to do with it?" Double drat! My lengthened canines were making me talk with a lisp again, and I closed my eyes willing them to retract, but, of course, they didn't. Goodbye letter S. It was nice knowing you.
"Garlic is a blood coagulant," Dr. Kleinrosebroom wheezed out before dissolving into a coughing fit. Spittle, blood, and mucus went flying like confetti, turning his face whiter than the sheets covering him.
While I ducked for cover and tried not to heave on my shoes, Fang calmly got up and fitted an oxygen mask over the man's face. Stroking the doctor's head, he uttered a few soothing words in what I thought might be Russian, relaxing him enough to take a few deep breaths. Dr. Kleinrosebroom's skin was still the color of skim milk, but at least the horrible rattling noise coming from his chest subsided. The hardest part was not trying to get all sapped out over seeing the kinder, gentle nature of Fang.
"Garlic helps the body's immune system," Fang muttered, standing next to the gurney. I wasn't completely sure who he was talking to. His eyes were focused on one of the many monitors beeping and...well...monitoring. "It contributes to the production of antibodies which protect the body from adverse impacts. The antibacterial properties of garlic are caused by phytoncides." His long tapered fingers caressed his chin thoughtfully. "MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid which is an amino acid. In this case, it could have resulted in increasing the inhibitory neurotransmitters."
His out loud thinking was making my brain hurt. I'm not saying I was dumb or anything, but when it came to this kind of scientific stuff...yeah...I wasn't going to be winning any Nobel Prizes any time soon. Besides, I was more street smart rather than book smart. Okay...I was more like Sesame Street smart, but hey...it's a street, and I can sing the whole Rubber Ducky song from start to finish much to anyone who knows me annoyance. I know...you're singing it now, aren't you? See? It's a catchy tune. In fact, it's so addictive, it could be used as a tactic of torture for prisoners of war to get them to spill their guts.
"But in order for those things to be imperative, then there had to be something in the formula he knew would rely on those factors, and it was the reason he chose you to receive the serum."
Rubber ducky you're the one. Rubber ducky you make bath time lots of fun...
"Vampire."
The way Fang spoke the word like it was a filthy curse had me extricating from the siren call of the song, and transferring my attention to him. "Huh?"
His lids lowered over his icy-colored eyes. For the briefest of seconds, I thought I saw something flare in that far-off stare of his, but when he turned towards me...it was gone.
"There was vampire blood in the serum."
"But you th'aid you couldn't bite a human and change them. I thought you th'aid vampire'th were born, not made."
"That's true. Vampires can only be born." There was a stretch of silence, then he turned towards Dr. Kleinrosebroom, his eyes glittering dangerously. "You are the only exception to the rule."
Well, that didn't clarify diddly squat. "Then what ith the big deal about vampire blood being in the th'erum?"
"Garlic clots the blood..." Dr. Kleinrosebroom mumbled on a raspy breath, his thin chest heaving with each inhale of air. "It slows the process...human blood too weak to subsist..."
"Exactly," Fang spat. "That explains it."
"Explains what!" I shouted, jumping down from the stool I had been sitting on to start pacing manically around the room. "None of this makes sense. I eat an egg roll and suddenly, poof! I'm a vampire!" I felt like everyone was on the same page, but me. Hell...I don't think I was even looking at the same book in the same library. At this point, I had to wonder if I could even read! On the bright side though, in my frustration, my fangs had retracted, and I was back to speaking like my regular melodious self.
The alarm on one of the monitors started wailing ominously, bringing Fang and me back to the doctor's bed in a hurry.
"What's going on? Did something come unplugged?"
Fang leaned across the gurney to place his fingers on the side of Dr. Kleinrosebroom's neck. With a shake of his head, all the oxygen seemed to leave the room. "His time is coming to an end."
My face must have looked as blank as I felt because Fang turned to me and elaborated. "He's dying." The beeping alarm of the equipment seemed to swell in the silence, leaving an odd awareness tickling the back of my neck before Fang flicked them off.
"Oh." The word came out of my mouth on a tiny squeak. My gaze drifted to the doctor who now seemed so much smaller than he'd been a few minutes before. His slightly blue lips were drawn into a tight grimace as he fought for every weak breath of air, and there was a mottled grayish hue to his pallor. Not knowing what else to do, I reached down and picked up one of his poor mutilated hands and held it tightly in mine. I no longer cared about him being able to reverse my vampirism or not. I just wanted him to get better. "Don't die," I whispered as I felt a tear fall from my eye and roll down my cheek.
Suddenly, his eye's blinked open. The green was hazy and cloudy, but he did manage to focus on me. His cracked lips moved, but because of the oxygen mask, the words were too garbled for even my vampire ears to hear. With an irritated jerk of his free hand, the doctor shoved it off his face.
"No, you need that," I said, trying to put it back in place, but he kept blocking my attempts until it looked like we were playing a game of one-handed slapsies.
"It's too late for that," he said, his voice reedy and hoarse. Grabbing the mask from me, he set it to the side. "I am a doctor, and I know my time is short." He gave the hand I was holding a weak squeeze, before turning his unsteady gaze towards Fang who was silently hovering over my shoulder. "I need to apologize to you, your Majesty. I am sorry, for all that I have done. I...I didn't know. I thought I was saving her from him." The doctor shut his eyes wearily, and for a moment, I thought he had drifted off to sleep, but eventually, they fluttered back open. "I was foolish." He tore his gaze away from us to stare off into space. "I...I thought myself in love with her. She was...so very beautiful. I believed..." Another spasm of coughing racked his body before he continued on a harsh, gravelly whisper. "I believed I was helping her...but...it was all a lie." He feebly shook his head and his lids dropped. The doctor's breathing turned more irregular with every slight rise of his chest, the rattling sound growing more pronounced.
"Whose blood did you use?" Fang's demand came out a stern bark that made me jump about ten feet. "Who was she?"
"She...was...so lovely...an angel...a vampire..." his mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments as he struggled to breathe. "Forgive me," he sighed out on a long exhale that sounded like the air being let out of a tire.
The hand I was holding pressed to my chest grew limp, and Dr. Kleinrosebroom's eyes gradually became glassy with a fixed stare as his life slipped away. I'd never seen anyone die before...well...other than the vampire's we had killed at the Waffle House, but this...this was different. Though I didn't know him very well, I felt oddly close to him. He was, after all, responsible for turning me into a vampire and therefore, my creator in a sense...and now...he was gone. I bit down hard on my bottom lip, but it didn't stop the sob that broke through.
Fang wrapped his arms around me and drew me to his chest as easily as if I were a child. His strong, broad hands soothingly caressed my hair while a lament of words fell from his lips. I didn't recognize the language. It sounded really old, maybe even alien, but it was beautiful and sweet...sounding almost like a lullaby.
"That's pretty," I mumbled on a hiccup when he was finished, tears still streaming down my face leaving a large wet blob on his shirt.
"It's an ancient death prayer of our people. We believe by generating calm, accepting and supportive thoughts, the grieving will ease the path of the deceased from this world to the next. It gives the departed our final farewells, good wishes, and love so they can travel unburdened."
"That was nice of you to do that for him." I sniffled, burrowing further into his embrace. His scent was comforting. It was hard to believe that his unique mixture of after-shave, natural musk, and body wash fused together so perfectly to produce something so heady and almost magical with the effect it had on me.
Fang looked down at me and gave me a small grin, his irises held the colorless splendor I had grown to love and gleamed brighter than a full moon on a cloudless night.
"Death is a part of life, and it doesn't discriminate. Everyone is susceptible to the whims of fate, Melanie. No matter your species, death comes to us all, making us equals. He may not be of my kind, but he deserves my respect." He brushed my jaw line with his fingertips, sending little zaps of electricity dancing across my skin. "Allowing his death to proceed undisturbed in a peaceful atmosphere, and send him from this world to the next with our blessings, was the least I could do."
"Who do you think he was talking about? Who was the woman he thought he was saving?"
"I don't know." He let out a sigh filled with the weight of the world and tugged me closer. "But one vampire has betrayed us all."
Author's Note:
Hello my FANGED Fiends!
I know...it's been a while, but I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of FANGED and if you like it, you'll give it a vote.
I'm going to keep this note short, since it's so late, but I do want to wish each and everyone celebrating a safe and fantastic Fourth of July! :)
Sincerely,
K