Blueblood 3: The Others - 21. An Old One

I remember coming to a little and then another feeling, this time in my arm and I was out again. I did occasionally come out of…whatever I was in. Did I hear the sound of engines? I was on a plane? The floor was moving, sort of floating and there was also the occasional turbulence that would shake me. At first, I thought, damn, we’re going somewhere again? I did remember Colin going to take a shower. Colin! I tried to wake up, but it was too hard. I had no concept of time and no recollection how I got…to where ever I was.

I did wake up a little. This time there was no sting anywhere. I was worried about Colin, I was worried about all the others. I had no idea what was happening with them. Were they taken? Where was I taken? Really, the first thing I was aware of; I was freezing. I tried to open my eyes and found it wouldn’t have mattered if I could. I was blindfolded.

“Ah, you woke up.” A man’s voice said to me.

“Yes, until you give me more of whatever that was they kept injecting me with,” I said.

“Yes, well, we had to use a tranquilizer on you.” The man said pleasantly. “The first one was that dart we used. Then to keep you unaware of how much time was passing, you wouldn’t be aware of approximate travel time and how long it took to get here.” He had an accent. He was European, but he wasn’t Russian or Ukrainian. German?

I nodded. “I see.” I tried to move but found my hands and feet were tied. “Well, no, I can’t see. Completing the whole thing, I’m not allowed to?”

“Oh, yes.” He said and I heard him move, the material of…pants or something made a sound as he got up. “Sorry about that.”

I felt someone removing the knot or fasteners. What was covering my eyes wasn’t just a cloth blindfold, but a pair of swimming goggles with the eye parts having cloth stuffed in to make it impossible to see. It wasn’t that bright where I was, but having been without any light, I blinked until my eyes adjusted. I was lying on a mattress in a bed in a small room. No windows here. It had cinder brick walls and the only other furniture was the chair this man sat in.

“Better?”

“Not really,” I said. “I’m still tied up.”

The man was an older man in his late forties or early fifties. His hair was dark with white or grey going through his hair now. He was a man that had been active in the past, maybe sports in high school, but not fat. If anything, he looked like he could have been a father to a neighbor of some school chum I knew from middle school. Dressed in casual pants and shirt, there was nothing with scars or any markings to tell he was a bad guy. He looked like a father watching a son playing little league or something, but he was a bad guy, that I knew. I was being held somewhere and he wasn’t letting me go, so yes, he was a bad guy. “I will let you out of the bindings, but I need you to understand that you won’t try anything, like try to leave or attack me.” He said pleasantly again.

I frowned. “Why would I do that? Where would that get me? I don’t know where I am, so if I escaped from right here. Where would I go? If I attack you, that would be stupid as you aren’t the only one here, I’m sure.”

The man nodded with a smile. “That’s right, but I had to be sure you knew that first.” He said and undid my bindings.

I looked at this man oddly. “Okay. You’re taken me hostage. Now, you’re nice to me?” I asked.

The man shrugged. “Why should I be nasty?”

“Because I was kidnapped and am being held,” I said. “That’s nasty and I expect you are nasty.”

The man chuckled. “I can be nasty, when necessary. I can be nasty with you if you like.” He sighed and sat up in the chair he was sitting in. “I find being nasty makes people I deal with resistant. Being nice often gets results in a more pleasant way.” He crossed his legs. “What I am, is a businessman.”

I know my eyes were opening wider because I couldn’t believe what I heard. “You’re kidding.”

He laughed. “I’m serious.” He shrugged. “I find out what people want and I get it for them and make a profit.”

I nodded a little hesitantly. “Please, if I’m wrong, tell me, but doesn’t your group profit on death?”

He gave a shrug and a nod. “Well, not directly.” He smiled. “Many of our…clients…deal in death. War and things like that. We just…give them opportunities to do it better and more efficiently.”

“So, kidnapping me…and whomever else you brought here…is just a means to an end.” I nodded.

He nodded. “That’s it.” He stuck his hand out to me. “Fredrick Hoffman.”

I looked at the hand. “Do you expect me to feel welcomed?” Asking him if that seemed okay with him.

Fredrick smiled again. “I expect you to help us get what we want.” He said lowering his hand. “And you will. Be it willingly or unwillingly. Either way, we will get the answers. Cooperate and things will be more pleasant for you. If you don’t…well…” he shrugged. “So, why not answer some questions?”

“If you answer mine.”

“Fair enough,” Fredrick said nodding. “I go first. You’re Devon McGee. You are now Devon Wentworth, am I right?”

“Yes,” I answered. “Is Colin alright?”

He nodded. “Fine, as far as I know.” He looked at me. “Is Colin Wentworth a vampire?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “But not like some others.” I frowned. “Was anyone hurt when you took me?”

Fredrick gave a grimace. “Well, kind of…but no one with you or the people you spent that evening with. We did sort of harm, but not critically, a few employees at the hotel. How old is Colin Wentworth?”

I thought if I should answer, but figured they already suspected. “Well, he turned two hundred in 2015. Did you bring anyone else with us?”

When I told him Colin was over two hundred, he smiled even more. “He’s that old!? Really?”

My eyes narrowed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Fredrick looked surprised but nodded. “Oh, yes. Sorry. No, you were the only one we could get. Are you a vampire?”

“Yes.”

“Really?” Fredrick marveled. “But you don’t show any…”

That’s when the door opened and another man came storming in. “Enough of this, Hoffman.” He wore a regular suit, but even in that, it looked like a uniform. He was military.

The new man was older than Fredrick by about ten years and I could see a little of Tad Morsi in him. He was Egyptian.

“Now, I see Rafa Morsi’s here.” I smiled.

Rafa looked angrily at me. “I’m not one to play games, Mr. Wentworth. You say you’re a vampire. I’ll test that to see if it’s true.” He reached for me, took my arm roughly and hauled me up and began dragging me through the door.

Fredrick sighed and came with us. “I was doing fine, Rafa.”

“And wasting time,” Rafa said. “If you are a vampire, there’s a way to find out. If not, you will be.”

He brought me through a corridor with other doors. It looked almost like a prison. It was a prison if no one could get out. Then he brought me into a larger chamber. This chamber had cages. All along the corridor and in this chamber there were no windows. Nothing to tell me what time of day it was. The chamber was set up like a kind of lab, there were tables with the test tubes, chemicals used and equipment. It was dark even with the overhead lights on. We had to be underground. Unlike George’s labs, this was not…that sophisticated. What was in the cages…I was not prepared for. There were several cages with about four vampires and I mean, wild vampires. They all turned, saw us and hissed as Wayne had done at first. They were not clean and were naked. All well-toned males and even in their wild state, I could see military tattoos and the build of a man that once had served in militarizes. What nationalities or countries, I couldn’t really tell. Rafa brought me to another cage with the fifth vampire and there it was…

“An Old One,” I said nodding. Before me was another naked vampire. He was bald with a smooth round head. Like Wayne told me, you notice when what’s supposed to be there, isn’t. He had a penis but had no scrotum. When he saw me, he hissed like the others…no other teeth but the fangs, but he turned away. That’s when I noticed he didn’t have an asshole. You don’t seriously want to know if I know an ass, I’m gay, of course, I know about asses! We have that crack in the back for a couple of things; one of which a lot of people think we shouldn’t. I was instantly seeing that movie (sorry, but I did) in the movie Coneheads when Beldar was going in the shower at the club where he played golf and we all saw he had no ass crack. He didn’t have an asshole! I didn’t need to look closer to confirm he didn’t have one. This thing had no ass! He had something to sit on as in padding to sit on, but no crack and no opening for solid waste. That surprised me. Yes, I noticed what wasn’t there. He didn’t poop! He just pissed ammonia. He was a grayish-white all over and no hair. Not anywhere. Beldar was an alien, but this vampire looked alien.

Rafa barked a command and the Old One backed away from the door pressing on the bars of the cage to get away. Rafa opened the lock of the cage, opened the door and shoved me in the cage. “He’s been trained to know if he does attack me or one of the technicians, he’ll be hurt,” Rafa said. “Now, we’ll see. He hasn’t eaten today. He’ll be hungry.” He said to me.

I looked at Rafa. “So, if I’m telling the truth, I’ll be alive and if not,” I waved at the four others that we wild vampires. “I’ll be like them.”

Rafa nodded. “That’s right.”

I shrugged. “Well, here goes.” I turned to the Old One. “Here I am.” I held my arms out. “Din, din.”

The Old One looked at me and sniffed, then turned away and hissed.

“There.” I turned back to Rafa and Fredrick. “Happy now?”

Rafa looked at me crossing his arms. “You knew what he is. You’ve seen others?”

“No,” I answered. “I know of them. I have a friend that was attacked by one.” I looked back at the Old One. “Where did you find him?”

“I’ll ask the questions,” Rafa said angrily.

“Rafa.” Fredrick sighed a patient sigh and walked over to the door of the cage. “There’s a saying: it’s easier to attract flies with honey rather than vinegar. Devon was answering the questions I asked.” He opened the door and waved me out. That’s when the Old One looked and his eyes narrowed. “No!” He said to the Old One. “You stay put.” He pulled me out of the cage and shut and locked the door again.

“We need answers, Hoffman,” Rafa repeated gruffly. “He’ll give them.”

Fredrick smiled at Rafa. “And I’ll ask them. Not you.” He said firmly. “We found him near where you were in Egypt. We lost a few men getting him here.” He waved at the four wild vampires. “These are the ones left. That was ten years ago and they haven’t aged a day.”

“Do you torture them?” I asked waving at the other four. “They have needs. One of those needs is blood.” I looked at the Old One. “Even he needs blood.”

“What do you know about this…Old One?” Fredrick asked.

“I know he was born this way,” I said. “He and others like him were created about seven to ten thousand years ago. There was a king…sorry, a pharaoh that used them to send out and reduce resistance. This is according to some old records we have now. There was a problem with making it so they wouldn’t attack the pharaoh’s people and just attack the people whose land they wanted to invade.”

“Records?” Fredrick asked. “There are records of this creature? He’s almost ten thousand years old!?”

I nodded. “From what I understand, yes.”

“And you can’t see the potential for profit here?” Fredrick asked. “My GOD! You say that Colin is over two hundred. You don’t see why we want what you have?” He waved at me. “Forget profiting from death. We could profit from LIFE! What you have in you, people would pay…everything to have what you do right now.”

I nodded. “I was afraid of that when Colin told me.”

“There are so many applications with this.” He waved at the wild vampires. “An army of these would be valuable.” He waved at the Old One. “He can make more!” He looked at me. “And you won’t die! Ever!”

“But we can die.” I shook my head. “And by means of gunshots, car accidents and other things.”

Fredrick nodded. “So, we found out. In stopping the other that one made…” he pointed to the Old One. “…Rafa killed a number of them.”

“How did you do it?” Rafa asked me.

I smiled. “Now, we’re getting to what you really want.” I nodded. “What they are...” I waved at the wild vampires. “What I am…what I have is a physical condition. We use medication to counter some of the effects.”

“What’s the medication?” Rafa asked, but still a little angry sounding, but I was answering his questions so he toned the anger down.

“I know it’s a serum created by Dr. George Holms,” I said. “He’s in Manhattan. I really don’t know what’s in it.”

Rafa nodded. “But it’s in your blood. How often do you take it? Do you have more?”

Now, I was in trouble. “No. I don’t have more.”

“But you need to take it again,” Rafa confirmed.

“I need further doses and will be on it the rest of my life.” I nodded. “I’m due in two weeks for the next dose.” I looked at Fredrick. “If I don’t, I’ll be a vampire again in a matter of days.”

Fredrick shook his head. “Don’t you see it? It’s a trade off. You won’t die! Yes, you can die, but that’s not certain. So, you have to take this…serum…but it works. People will pay good money and will take whatever medication to do that…” he thought. “Doctors that can keep practicing medicine and keep working on a disease or illness until he finds a cure.” He laughed suddenly. “Do you get sick?”

I shook my head. “No.”

He suddenly beamed. “I guess we wouldn’t need doctors for illness then. They can be scientists to discover other things! Artists can keep working…” He was laughing. “What else are things you need a long time for?” He looked up suddenly. “Space travel! The nearest star is four light years away! A crew that won’t die and can make it there and back even if it takes a thousand years. They won’t die! As long as they’re fed they can go on forever!”

I nodded. “Or have families. Once you’re a vampire, you can’t have children.”

“So?” Fredrick shook his head. “People won’t need to. They’ll be around a lot longer. No children needed!”

“What are the chemicals in this serum?” Rafa asked.

“George created it,” I answered with a shrug. “He said the chemicals were common, but the combination or creation of the serum takes a pretty sophisticated lab to make. He’s got the necessary knowledge in Chemistry, Bio-Chemistry and all that’s needed to create it.”

Fredrick stood in front of me to stop Rafa’s constant scowling of me so I wouldn’t be intimidated by his expression. “We know that there is a substance in you that makes you what you are. We did some blood tests on you.”

I nodded. “Okay. You tell me after the fact, because…?”

“We saw something that wasn’t normally in human blood. Is that the serum?”

“It’s a combination of the serum and vampire venom,” I answered. “The serum attaches itself to the venom and renders it dormant...sort of.”

“Venom?” Rafa repeated in disbelief. “There’s a venom?”

“That’s how more vampires are made. It’s not just a bite.” I nodded. “Didn’t you find that out when you did tests on them?”

Rafa shook his head. “They are hard to control.”

“The venom alone doesn’t last long outside of the body. The venom changes a person into a vampire. It rewrites a person’s very DNA so we can make the venom.” I explained.

Fredrick looked at Rafa. “And you thought he’d be uncooperative.”

“We need that venom and the serum,” Rafa said back coming closer to me. “You have the venom. We want it.”

I shook my head. “The serum controls my making of the venom. I don’t have any real venom to give. I can’t.”

Rafa smiled, but it was a nasty smile. “But you will have the venom; if you become a vampire again. You said you needed a dose again in two weeks. We can wait.”

I turned to the wild vampires and the Old One. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the man in that closet. I was now in lot more. My telling them about all that wasn’t the problem. I didn’t dare tell them about the disc and removing it would speed things up. Finding out what they knew was important. They didn’t know about the venom. Whoever was doing the science here may not know and didn’t tell these guys. I looked at the Old One. He was created to kill. That was his job. Looking at his face, never did I imagine I’d feel sorry for the damned thing, but I did. I saw he was clearly scared. Did I feel compassion? He probably killed hundreds, thousands or even more! I looked at the other vampires. They were scared, as well. I saw in them what Wayne had been. “Are you going to feed them?”

“When we get blood,” Fredrick said. “It’s on the way.”

“They’re animals,” Rafa said simply. “Why do you care?”

I pointed at the wild vampires. “They were…according to you…your men. They weren’t animals in the beginning, but men.” I looked at the Old One. “He is what he was created to be. A killing machine. I know that, but he’s suffering now.” I couldn’t look at either Rafa or Fredrick. “It’s cold in here and they are hungry. Even lab rats get fed. Feed them and warm this place up, or kill them now and be done with it.”

Rafa growled. “They serve a purpose.” He looked at Fredrick. “When the others come down in the morning, we need his blood and test it. Maybe they can get the answers out of his blood.” He said pointing at me. “We’ll get the answers.” He said and walked out. “Be sure he’s locked away.” His voice said as the distance grew.

Fredrick shrugged and rolled his eyes. “I wish I could say he’s really a nice guy.” He smiled speaking quietly. “But he’s really not a nice man. But, we’ve done well having him in our group. The money-making potential is very good.”

I nodded. “And you think this all going to turn out okay?” I waved at the other vampires. “There is a lot wrong here. A lot of mistakes can be made. It will cost lives. Most likely yours.”

Fredrick nodded. “There can be mistakes. That’s why we make sure there aren’t any.” He looked at me. “It’s been a while since you’ve eaten. You need to keep your strength up. You can’t give blood if there’s nothing in you to make blood.” He walked with me back down the corridor. “We’ll get you something. I know you eat.” Fredrick said. He waved at the ceiling. “And we’re being watched, so no funny stuff.”

“Of course not.” I said as I rubbed my chest. They hadn’t known about the venom, I hope they didn’t know about the locator. It was untouched. That means my Personal Data Transmitter was still in there. I hoped it was being picked up on satellite. They might be smart here. They couldn’t know everything.

“So, who were those other two that joined you?”

I looked surprised, but I nodded. “You were watching, right.” I shrugged. “Just friends we made in Egypt.”

“Are they vampires, too?”

I smiled. “One is, the other is not.”

“How many vampires are there?” Fredrick asked. “We know because of all the messages that were sent around the world there are a few.”

I shrugged. “Thousands?”

“Thousands.” Fredrick nodded. “So many.”

“Why me?” I asked.

Fredrick looked confused and then nodded. “We didn’t intend it to be just you. We wanted Colin and any others. You were the only one we got in the van and got away with.”

I nodded. “I’m glad you didn’t get him.”

“Why’s that?”

“Colin is not like me and always nice.” I smiled remembering. “He can be…difficult to deal with when he’s mad.”

Fredrick nodded. “Well, having you will force him to be.”

My thoughts were about Colin and I hoped Stan could find out where I was. I knew, if anyone could find me, he could. Colin was coming. I just knew it. “He doesn’t like be forced to do anything.”

Fredrick smiled. “But he loves you. He will do as instructed.”

Hurry Colin!