Blueblood 4: Dracula - 23. What's Really Desired

We did go to our apartment at the VUN to do just that. We proved we loved each other…once…and basically lost consciousness afterward. We were tired. It had been an intense couple days…hell, the entire journey from Egypt to Transylvania had been very intense. There was little time to really rest. I know even Colin had no idea how far spread the vampires were at the beginning. The vampire never trusted anyone and was always hidden. Now technology was catching up even with us. We were no longer hiding and trying to encourage others to take the serum and step back into the world and in the daylight. Colin and I really needed to go back to Dragon and try to stop this…crazy Russian from doing damage. What he wanted, I was pretty sure, was he wanted…well…to take over the world! Lucian was being used. He was another one that wanted something. Not to take over the world, but to strike back at a world he thought was unfair to him the past. I think.

We needed to get back, so…well…we needed to make showering faster, but I always enjoyed Colin. A hot, wet and soapy Colin, how could I resist? The shower together ended up taking longer than we planned. Go figure. The plane would wait. It was the VUN’s plane!

“We communicate with each other,” I said finishing dressing as I put my shoes on.

Colin froze as he was putting his shirt on. “You and I communicate well.” He almost objected.

I chuckled. “No, we…” I pointed at him and me, “…we are fine. I meant the different vampire groups around the world.”

“That’s because of the trust issue again,” Colin said.

I smiled at him. “Apparently, we don’t communicate that well. I need to just say it clearer. The Manhattan VUN and the British VUN need a better way to communicate.” I said standing up. “Soon…and I know we’ll be successful…are going to have to include the vampires in Romania with our group. All of Europe can become part of the VUN. We need a way to keep each other up to date. Like when we called Edwin for help with what’s coming up on October 31st. If we had…a web page, or something that can do that. We could just send them a request for help. In fact, I’d bet Edwin would volunteer if we didn’t ask because they’d already know.”

“But webpages aren’t always secure,” Colin stated his doubt.

“Our broadcasts with Dragon weren’t secure. Otherwise, that Vampire Death Squad wouldn’t be waging this…vigilante war on us now.” I walked over to him. “Don’t you think Stan…our brilliant Stan…couldn’t come up with a Website, secure, access restricted by…not passwords…” I frowned, “…I hate passwords, but retina scans, fingerprints…something that Edwin, you, me, Matt and soon Dragon or Gaius can access alone? Create a dummy page in case someone no part of the VUN accesses the page, but if accessed correctly, give us access to all things…” I grinned, “vampire.”

Colin chuckled as he brought me closer to him. “I think we need to ask him.” He kissed me. “This is beginning to sound like…” he grimaced, “running a country.”

“We are a country,” I said simply. “We are not in the same place by geography, we’re not held together to any ideology or religion, but we share an affliction. We’re vampires who need to take our place in this world.” I kissed him again. “And right now, you are the president of this country.” I grinned watching his eyes grow.

“Me!?” Colin balked. “I’m not qualified to lead a country!”

I smiled. “Are you kidding!? You are the most…dedicated man, honest, hard-working trustworthy man I’ve ever known. You’re smart. You’re overqualified! We can have elections when we are more consolidated, but for now, you’re president!”

“You are too!” Colin stated firmly.

“I don’t want to be seen as First Lady or First Gentleman.” I then gave him a serious look. “We may be facing something…” I hesitated. “If Iilya does what he wants…if they attack those people at the Transylvania Halloween festivities…we could all be exposed.”

Colin nodded. “I thought of that.” He shrugged looking away. “The government in Romania can deny what happens, but…a lot of people will be exposed and they won’t be able to deny it long. There would TV coverage, not to mention the thousands of personal footage circulating on the Web.” Colin sat on the bed again. “In many ways…it would be a relief.”

“How so?”

“All this sneaking around and trying to avoid being discovered about who we are, avoiding daylight because it could kill us. We are what we are.” Colin said.

“Do you think that would be better?” I asked sitting next to him.

“Not at first,” Colin admitted. “But after people see us as just people…”

“They won’t,” I said simply. “They can’t. I worry if people can accept we’re gay, add a vampire to the resume and just paint a target on us, aim and shoot. We are vampires. You know first, they will fear us. Once that is proven untrue there will be those that want to be us, but many just won’t believe we aren’t dangerous.”

Colin was shaking his head. “No. We need to stop Iilya from making more and killing.” He stood up and face away from me. “No one should go through what I did. What Gabriella went through and George, Willie…”

I stood next to him. “But I haven’t.” I turned him around to look at me again. “Colin, you lived through Hell, I understand that, but I haven’t. My mother hasn’t. I have it pretty damned good.” I smiled. “Sure, after I was bitten, the first time I went through the serum to stop me from becoming a vampire. It worked, but I remember how much that hurt. The next time, I didn’t suffer…well, I did with the serum like you did a week. I got the disc and I haven’t had the hunger like you did. That one night I fed on blood because we had no serum. I never got the driving hunger. After I got the disc, I haven’t hurt at all.”

Colin shook his head. “But you could become that vampire with that desire for blood you can’t control.”

“Could! Not, would, as long as George has the serum and I take it, I won’t.” I was trying to impress on him that what we were and the serum could be misused. “George came up with this serum, chemically to take away all the bad parts about being a vampire and kept the good.”

“Good.” Colin nodded but clearly couldn’t accept what I was saying.

“It’s obvious! We won’t die!” I said louder. “We don’t get sick! I’m saying there are people who will pay top dollar to be able to live and not get sick! Including Iilya. That’s what he wants.” I took Colin’s hand. “We need to talk to George.”

“Why?” Colin asked as we left our apartment.

I spoke as we walked into the corridor. “I kept trying to figure out why Iilya wanted the Old Ones,” I said. “I couldn’t figure it out, but I’m…getting an idea.”

“We assumed he was going to use them to make more,” Colin stated.

“Is he?” I asked going down the hall faster. “That’s the only reason?”

Going into the lab, of course, George was poring over what he’d gathered in Romania and other finds. This was a passion for George.

“George,” I said causing him to turn around. “Why do you think Iilya will want Repetate and Iustina?”

George looked puzzled. “To make other vampires. That’s why we brought them here to take that option away. And I could continue working on the cure, but Iilya would use them to make wild vampires.” He folded his arms as he thought. “He may think they could be used to make him a stronger vampire. It’s all conjecture right now as we’re guessing.”

“Why an Old One?” I asked. “He has vampires and humans.”

George shrugged. “Again, it will be conjecture, but they are the living source of the original venom; undiluted, pure venom.”

“They knew about the serum, when?” I asked.

“Just a few weeks to a few months ago, maybe,” George said.

“You discovered the venom,” I said.

George chuckled. “I didn’t discover the venom. It was always there.” He shrugged. “It more like when we say Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. It was always there. Ben just figured out what lightning is made from. I just noticed the venom and found where vampires came from.”

I held my finger up. “But are you the only one to notice this venom?”

George’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t know.”

I threw my hands up at the obvious. “You couldn’t know! We weren’t even really talking before a few decades ago. How could we know?” I touched George’s arm. “You are a brilliant man. I don’t know of a soul that knows more about vampires…” I stopped. “Wait! I couldn’t know, no one would share and kept it secret as we weren’t talking to each other yet. The closest we came was letters that took weeks to months in the beginning and only recently they hooked up by phone and email. What I’m going to say…” I collected my thoughts. “When did you notice the venom?”

George thought. “It was in the 1950s. After I was bitten and became a vampire, I worked to discover what this was and find a solution. I was bitten in the late 1940s. It took about ten years to discover the venom.”

“And the serum, when did you discover that?”

George threw his arms in frustration. “I’m always finding the serum.” He said helplessly. “It’s been an ongoing, never-ending process and still is. The first working serum I had in the late 1970’s allowed us to go in the sun for a few hours before we began to tingle. Additions were made and refinements were made as I worked out problems. I learned the best way to process what worked, a little, and made it work better. Then I got the serum to last most of the day. Then I got it to work all day, but it hurt a lot each time. Then down to a few hours a night after injecting the serum and the sun didn’t tingle or burn at all, the serum was worked better, we only suffered a few hours of agony a night.” He waved at Colin. “By the time he met you, I had it refined and so we could keep the serum levels up and only suffer a few minutes of pain a night. Now, we have no pain at all due to a better delivery method.”

“And that is for as long as the serum disc is inserted.” Colin pointed out. “We could go back to what we are!”

“But Nicolae could help eliminate that!” George argued back to Colin.

I was nodding raised my hand to stop them. “Yes, yes…I get that. My point is there was no formula until recently. We are offering what people want! No inevitable end of life at fifty to eighty years. We don’t get sick. We now know of five Old Ones. There were two in England, Gizmo in Germany and the two we have here. There were hundreds…or even thousands of them at one time. We also know that they created hundreds, thousands of vampires, not to dismiss the countless deaths. Vampire to vampire, as we talk about generations, vampire bites a man and that man bites a human, so forth down the line to us! Among those vampires made…like you, they weren’t necessarily stupid. Someone may have noticed the venom before you did. They may want an Old One. Iilya’s trying to do the same thing! I’ll just bet on it.” I looked at George. “That morning we were shot, George, were there any vials of the serum missing? They knew we were starting Dragon on the serum. You would have it with you. The house was protected, but…on the path and not in the caverns?”

“There vials were taken by the police and…I don’t know. There were several missing.” George shrugged. “Things were a little chaotic.”

“They knew about the serum! That may be what they were after.”

“But they weren’t there to know how to administer it!” George objected. "We didn't show that on those videos. They won't know how."

“It’s medicine as far as they’re concerned. They wouldn’t know the serum has to be in the heart at first to start the heart again.” I said the obvious. “If they try it in the arm, it won’t work. These men aren’t stupid, they could figure it out with enough trial and error.” I said. “What are you going to do with Repetate and Iustina?”

“I was going to try Nicolae’s natural…antivenin and antibody on the venom.”

“Would the serum work on their venom?” I asked.

“Well, Wayne was bitten by an Old One and the serum worked on him if administered correctly,” George said. “But I wasn’t going to do that, I was using the antivenin and antibodies I strengthened from Nicolae on the Old One’s venom.”

“But Iilya and Lucian don’t know about Nicolae.” I looked at Colin. “Do they?”

“Lucian knew about Gaius, I’m sure he knows Nicolae is Gaius’ son, but…” Colin shook his head. “No, they probably watched us come and go, but we didn’t do much with Nicolae there or know why we need him.” He looked at George. “We really didn’t talk about Nicolae. Most of the things with him was done at the house or his own house.”

“And we moved Repetate and Iustina so quickly. They may know we took them, but not where.” I said. “I never sense a vampire around other than Dragon’s people. They may not even know they’re gone.”

“You think they’ll attack Halloween Night?” George asked. “To get the Old Ones?”

“Dragon is not one of them anymore,” I said. “We changed many of the vampires with Dragon and the last of them is being changed this week,” I said. “They did know we were doing that. While everything is going on at Dracula’s Castle, the defenses for the cavern where Dragon kept Iustina and Repetate will be at their lowest. They think we’ll all be at the Castle to stop them, I bet they will go to the caverns to get Iustina and Repetate! Dragon wouldn’t allow anyone to take them, but they might count on Dragon being busy that night as well.”

Colin gave an appreciative nod. “Do you have a plan?”

I grinned. “Of course! Let’s give them what they want! The caverns with few guards.” I smiled. “Only we’ll be waiting for them.”

“They’ll sense us,” Colin said.

I shook my head. “Other than your daughter, can vampires sense anything else other than there is a vampire?”

Colin chuckled. “I can’t.” He waved at George. “Can you?”

George shook his head. “Nope.”

I nodded. “They will expect some vampires will be there, but this time…it will be us! The festivities at the Castle and in the town will have a few of our vampires in it. That’s covered. We need to be there when Iilya and Lucian get there.”

“They will bring others to help them,” Colin said.

“We’ll be armed,” I said. “With serum and sun guns as well as other things like pepper spray or mace for the humans. They won’t expect that.” I frowned. “Maybe a gun for Iilya and Lucian.”

“But, Honey, they’re dangerous.” Colin reminded. “They won’t stop.”

I nodded holding my hand up to stop him from going on. “I know! I was willing to shoot Iustina and Repetate, but only if I had to. I would shoot Iilya and Lucian…if I have to.” I sighed. “Iilya is a product of Soviet attempts to take control. It was overdone, but he is what he was created to be, just like Iustina and Repetate.” I looked at Colin. “You said it before. With Iustina and Repetate, we give them the blood and satiate their hunger and keep them away from untreated humans and they are no threat. We can’t give Iilya anything to do that. There’s a reason he is what he is, but that’s no excuse.” I nodded. “We will have to kill him. He’s gone far beyond his training and conditioning. He’s a psychopath, a threat. We have to rid us of that threat and Lucian with him. I don’t think he will listen to reason.” I looked at Colin. “I don’t have to like it.” Colin brought me close to him as he hugged me and kissed my forehead.

George gave a smile. “Well, before you leave…why not have a meal? I was going to meet with Nicolae and Helga later. You should meet them too, and their three children.”

Colin nodded as he released me a little. “That would be great.”

We gathered in the VUN’s restaurant where we saw Nicolae again. Helga was blonde, but that wasn’t her fault, poor thing. (My preference, remember?) She was in her late thirties, but a pretty woman. They had three children; two boys and a girl. The girl was in the middle in age with her brothers, one older, about sixteen or seventeen with dark hair like his father and grandfather, named Rica, the girl, about twelve named Gina, also had dark hair and the other youngest was blonde like his mother named Jan about seven. The children knew, like most in Romania, how to speak English, so no translators were needed.

Helga smiled as we consumed our meals and again, amazed at how much Colin could eat. “I hope this situation is over soon.” She said quietly. “I know this is important.” She looked at me and smiled as she told us. “I met Nick and he told me before we were married what his father was…” she laughed lightly, “of course, I didn’t really believe him at first, but I met Gaius and who could deny it?”

Colin nodded. “People always have a problem with accepting what we are.”

Helga nodded. “And you’re like Gaius? You have to be. I’ve seen what you've done for Gaius and I want to help…but we have jobs…a life in Romania I want to go back to it.”

I smiled at Helga. “Well, the next week will tell the tale.” I said. “But it would be very dangerous if anything happened to your family; Nicolae in particular. He carries a natural way to keep him human. We need that. It could be a cure for us. We’ll get you back as soon as it’s safe.” I brightened and looked at her children. “In the meantime, enjoy Manhattan! There are all sorts of sights and places to go.” I looked at Rica. “We have a gaming system in your suite. There is a library of games to choose from and movies by the thousands.” I watched Rica’s and Jan’s eyes grow hearing that.

Nicolae growled but smiled. “Don’t tell them that! We’ll never get them outside!” Then he chuckled at his sons. “You’ll be spoiled staying here. I may not be able to pry you off!”

The visit was nice. They were good people, but soon, we needed to return to Romania. Saying good-bye to George and Burke, we then took the helicopter to the airport. We took the plane back, only this time, not in a container!