Blueblood 2: The World - 14. Jerry, a Ring and Lilly

The investigator looked so…blown away by what Colin said, he just kept backing up.

George looked at Colin in horror. “Colin!”

Colin frowned at George. “We need allies!”

The investigator was shaking his head. “This is a joke.” He said refusing to believe.

I questioned Colin’s telling the man, too. I walked to Colin. “Colin, maybe…”

Colin looked at me. “I’m right, Devon.” Colin urged me to believe. “You know I have these feelings…I think we should trust him.”

I looked and Colin was right. “You’re right,” I said moving my head toward his and placed it against Colin. “I’m sorry.”

Colin looked at the investigator again. “I’m trusting you, Mr. Burrows. I’ve just outed a lot of people. Was I wrong to tell you?”

The investigator was still looked at as he is working it out in his mind. “But it’s just…” he said again, “…impossible.”

I looked at the investigator. “What’s impossible? That Jerry is a vampire?” I waved at Jerry who was still looking angrily at the investigator. “Or that we are vampires?” I opened the container. “Maybe it will be easier once Jerry calms down.” I picked a bag of blood out of the container. “He has a need that’s making you are a target. The reason is simple as to why he doesn’t see us as targets. We are already vampires.” I said and turned to Jerry. “Here, Jerry. This will help.” Gone was the snatching of the blood. Jerry simply reached for the blood and drank it.

The investigator was working on the idea, but he was still having trouble. “I saw you eating and you were walking in the sun!” What he believed was arguing with what he saw. I had it too, at first.

I nodded. “All which can be explained,” I assured. “If you’re willing to listen.”

Colin smiled. “I have the feelings about people, Mr. Burrows. Tell me I wasn’t wrong to trust you.”

The investigator was beginning to relax a little. “Dave.” He said.

I smiled. “You say that because?”

“It’s my name. Dave.” The investigator said. “So, explain about…” he looked at Jerry. “…him.”

“This is a man that became a victim,” I said. “He is a nice man inside. I know it.”

Dave shook his head. “He’s hideous.”

“At one time, he was a woman’s son. He is in his thirties, I think. He may have been someone’s husband or lover.” I said. “He had a life.” I frowned. “Your first reaction was to kill him.”

Dave shrugged. “I just…reacted.”

I nodded. “Of course, you did.”

“We are vampires, but we have a treatment that we take,” Colin said. “It makes us able to have a life.” He looked at Dave. “There are people here that need you.”

Dave’s eyes widened. “I can’t do this alone.” He said simply. “Can I call my partner? She needs to witness this, too.”

Colin nodded. “Certainly. We’ll wait for her before we explain more.”

It was while Jerry was consuming his second bag that George came over.

“You let them in,” George said.

Colin nodded. “We need him.”

“But you didn’t ask anyone!” George said in a loud whisper. “He could betray us.”

I was with Jerry who was finishing the second bag but looking at Dave very carefully. I was confident with my connection with Jerry now. I rubbed his arm through the bars as he drank his blood. I looked at George. “Has he been wrong about people in the past?” I asked.

George looked at me and had to shake his head. “I don’t want this time to be that one time he is wrong.” He looked again at Colin. “That was very dangerous.”

Colin smiled with a nod. “I know.”

A few minutes later, Dave said he needed to go to the surface and returned with the woman that was his partner.

“This is Deborah Saxon,” Dave said. “We’re both with MI5.”

Edwin nodded. “Which part?”

Ms. Saxon shook our hands. “We gather information.” She explained. “Possible foreign terrorists.” She said not quite pointedly.

Dave chuckled. “Well, it was terrifying, but they aren’t Terrorists.”

Ms. Saxon looked at Dave. “So, what are they?”

Showing her Jerry who was satiated now and calm. She looked baffled.

“Now, you were going to tell me how he’s different from you?” Dave asked.

“No.” I smiled. “We were going to explain why we’re different. We aren’t like him.” I said touching Jerry. “But we aren’t like you, either.”

We explained what we are, what Jerry was as far as we knew. We ended with them as they were taken upstairs where Colin and Edwin were going to explain more about what we were. I knelt by Jerry. “That wasn’t fair, I know,” I said to Jerry. “I’m sorry.” I grinned as Jerry smiled at me. “I’ll take that as your forgiveness.” I felt nothing from Jerry, but good feelings. I raised a portion of his hair. “Do you mind if I clean you up more?” Jerry looked puzzled again. I touched my hair and the brought some of his hair into his vision. He snickered! A vampire that laughs? He then nodded. I nodded and went to get some scissors.

Matt was watching me. “You know Colin will have a fit if he finds out about this.”

I looked back at Jerry. “Jerry’s not a threat.” I wasn’t as good as Gabriella was with Willie, but he looked so much better! I even could trim his beard. What was there was a long time growing. It had been years...decades...since his last haircut and shave. Looking at him when I was done, I smiled again at Jerry. “My goodness, Jerry. You’re a heartthrob.” Whether he understood or not, he smiled as he ran his hand over his face. I looked at the abundance of hair on the cage floor.

“Can we get another sample of his venom?” George asked. “The venom begins breaking down almost immediately…” He held out the jar.

I held the jar up to Jerry who smiled and did it again. This time, I didn’t guide him. He remembered and gave his sample and handed the jar back. I looked at Jerry. “I will clean up.” I pointed to the door of the cage. “I’m not shutting the door. Can I trust you?”

Jerry smiled.

I did clean up and Jerry remained where he was. George kept looking at us but continued to work. It was a few more hours before our guests returned with Colin, Edwin, and Willie.

Colin looked at Jerry and looked surprised. He looked at me and shook his head. “You said you were going cut his hair.” He shrugged.

“Can we see what you have?” Deborah asked.

Colin went to George. “What can we show them?”

George smiled. “Quite a bit now.” He motioned to the computer he was working with. He pointed to the screen. We’ve all seen the DNA breakdown. Little slots that showed the various alignments. “This is a normal human DNA chain.” He looked at Chuck. “His, in fact.” He pointed to the screen. “This is ours.” The screen changed.

Deborah nodded. “I understand what I’m looking at, but reading it is not my strong suit.”

George nodded. “Very well.” He hit the buttons again. “This is the breakdown of the venom we have in us.” He ran a finger over the readings. “This shows our venom contains many parts of the human nucleotides. The order and make up show many parts that are human.” He hit the button again. “This is Jerry’s.” He ran his finger over the screen. “He has some human nucleotides, but not nearly as many.” He looked at Deborah and Dave. “He is what he is because of this.”

Deborah nodded. “Can he be treated?”

George gave a shrugging nod. “He’ll be my first one that is…what we consider a wild vampire.” He looked at a petri dish. “I’m testing his blood and venom with the serum now.”

Colin walked over to me and kissed me gently. “He looks almost human.” He grinned. “But why does he remind me of Hugh Jackman in that movie? The X-Men?”

I looked back at Jerry. He did sort of look like Wolverine. “It wasn’t consciously done.” I shrugged and grinned. “He is handsome though.”

Jerry was smiling almost nonstop now.

Deborah didn’t dare to come close to Jerry. She looked at Dave. “We don’t have the clearance to really do anything.” She looked at George. “Can we have one of our medical people look at this?”

George frowned. “If he does it here.” He pointed at the computer. “This network and computer is secured. I won’t risk letting it slip out to others.” He words were friendly, but he was making sure they knew it would be hard to hack into.

Deborah nodded. “We have a doctor we can use.” She smiled. “He doesn’t have nearly the decades of experiences, but he can be shown and understand.” She looked at George and then me. “And you don’t want anything?”

Colin shook his head. “What we want is to attack this vampire problem head on. There are literally thousands out there around the world. We can only do one place at a time. We chose here because a vampire came to the United States that is responsible for almost every vampire there…she came from here.”

“Here?” Deborah repeated. “Where is she now?”

“In a holding area run by the FBI,” I said.

She nodded. “Okay.” She sighed as she pinched her nose. “This is all…so…unbelievable.”

I chuckled. “I know.” I put my hand on Jerry. “But if we can help someone here that’s suffering, like Jerry here. It’s worth it.”

The meeting with whomever they had in mind would be the following week. In the meantime, I worked with Jerry. I was very pleased with how much he was trusting me. He no longer was anxious or violent. Getting a guaranteed supply of blood, he knew he didn’t have to be. More importantly; he remembered!

It was later after the sun was rising, that we came back upstairs and got something to eat.

Colin smiled. “You were right.” He said softly. “I was wrong.”

I looked at Colin in surprise. “Wrong about what?”

Colin gave a grudging nod. “About Jerry.”

I smiled at Colin. “You were wrong about what with Jerry?”

“You saw him as no threat. I only saw him as a dangerous vampire.”

I chuckled. “You weren’t wrong, Colin. He is a dangerous vampire.” I nodded. “He still will be if not supplied with blood and finally the serum. I’m not sure how he will make out.”

Colin took my hand. “With you guiding him, he’ll be fine.” He smiled again. “You’ve become very attached to Jerry.”

I nodded. “Sure. I just know he’s a good man. Right now, he needs someone to look out for him. That’s me.”

“How will he make it when we go to London?”

I frowned. “I promised Willie I’d help him pick out the ring for Mom. We promised Lilly we’d be there.” I shrugged. “I’ll tell Jerry what will happen. I think George can handle Jerry one night.”

That Friday night…into Saturday morning. I told Jerry what was going to happen.

“Okay,” I said to Jerry. “I will be gone when you wake up.”

He understood me because I saw his eyes become worried.

I touched his arm. “I’m coming back, I swear,” I said in a hurry. “I’m not leaving you, Jerry,” I assured. “I wouldn’t do that. I really like you, Jerry. I will be back. In fact, I will be back before you go to bed.”

Jerry was comforted a little, but he was still worried.

We went to London as soon as I was finished with Jerry. This would be a long day. I slept on the way to London. Gabriella came with us as we went to London Jewelers and got Mom a ring. She was there to help Lilly, but we told her she was there to help Willie pick out the ring.

Willie shook his head as they handed him the ring in that distinctive box. “I can’t believe how expensive this is!”

Gabriella nodded with a smile. “It’s a marque solitaire. She’ll love it.” She assured. “She’ll love it because you gave it to her.”

At the agreed time, we were waiting for Lilly at the agreed spot. We waited. The agreed time came and went. It was two hours after the agreed time Gabriella sat up suddenly. “I feel them.” She frowned. “I smell them.”

“Them?” I repeated. “How many is them?”

Gabriella shook her head as she sorted her senses. “Two…I think.”

We got out of the SUV. Now, I was sensing the two. We saw the figure running toward us. It was Lilly. I saw the man running after her.

“Help me!” Lilly shouted.

Willie, Colin and I stepped forward as she ran to us. Gabriella was right behind as Lilly came within arms’ reach. Lilly stopped when we stepped in front of her, blocking the male pursuer.

“Stop!” Colin shouted and the male vampire did stop.

“That’s Paul,” Lilly explained. “The man that made me this. He was following me. He knows something’s going on.”

“Paul,” I said. “This is not the way to win her back.”

The man stopped. “She’s leaving me?” He asked, not believing it.

“She’s a grown woman,” Gabriella said. “Why should she remain here? She’s chosen a way out. She can do that.”

“Lilly!” Paul said pleading.

“I’m going with them,” Lilly said firmly. “There is no us anymore.”

Willie stepped forward. “Don’t even think about doing anything. She has chosen.”

We helped Lilly in the SUV and Colin drove away.

Lilly sighed in relief. “I wasn’t sure you’d wait.” She smiled. “Thank you for doing that.”

I turned to Lilly. “As you can sense. These two are vampires like me and Colin. This is Colin’s daughter Gabriella and my future stepfather, Willie.”

Lilly shook their hands. “It’s so good to meet you all.” She smiled. “I am so glad to be out of London.”

We got back to Thornwood before sunrise. Gabriella, Willie, and Colin were taking Lilly to the underground room to be safe.

“I promised Jerry I’d be back,” I said to Colin. “I’ve got to see him.”

Colin nodded. “I’ll be down soon.”

I raced back to the barn and ran downstairs. George was talking to Jerry, but Jerry was pacing. He looked up at me when I came down.

“Hi, Jerry.” I smiled. “I promised I’d be back.”

Jerry looked like a ton of worry was suddenly lifted. We hadn’t locked him in for a while. The door was open and he rushed to me.

I smiled as he grabbed me in a hug! A hug!

George sighed. “Thank god.” He said. “He was like a caged tiger, pacing, not sitting down or relaxing…”

I hugged Jerry back. “It’s okay, Jerry. I’m back.” I smiled. “I promised I would be.” I rubbed his back. “I’m glad to see you, too.”

“It will be sunrise in an hour,” George said as he walked out of the cage. “He’s all yours.”

I pulled Jerry back into the cage. “I’m sorry, Jerry. There were some things that took a little extra time.”

If Jerry had tears, he would like many, he'd be crying. He put his head on my shoulder as I rubbed his back as we sat on the cot.

Colin came down almost as Jerry was getting too sleepy to stay awake. He frowned but didn’t say anything.

I got up and moved Jerry back on the cot as I lay him down. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.” Jerry nodded and closed his eyes. I remained until he went into the state all vampires not on the serum go when it becomes day. Well, almost all. Willie was the exception as he had one long night. I looked over at Colin and I will say, I’ve never seen that face like it was. His whole stance was his arms folded and he was shutting down. I stood coming out of the cage I saw Colin turn away and go back upstairs without a word. “Colin.” He didn’t stop. I took off running after Colin. Catching up with him in the garden. “Colin Wentworth!” I said loudly. “Stop!” I watched him stop and he stiffened but didn’t turn around. “We don’t do this,” I said coming to him. “We don’t have emotions we don’t express. I thought that was a thing that made us great. We tell each other everything. Don’t shut down on me now.” I said coming around him so he could see me. “You’re jealous.”

Colin looked frustrated and even a little ashamed. “I can’t help how I feel!”

I nodded. “Okay.” I touched his arm. “Jerry is dependent on me. I give him blood when he wakes and talk to him all night…he’s a child! He’s got the body of a full-grown man, but in his mind, he’s a child.”

Colin nodded. “I know that.” He said helplessly. “I see how…dependent he is on you. I see how you respond to him.” He closed his eyes against his thoughts. “I know…” he tapped his head, “…what he is in here. I see the closeness and I feel…” he tapped his chest, “…something else I feel in here.”

I nodded. “I’ll say it. I love Jerry.” I confessed. “I do. I won’t deny that. He is very dependent on me. He trusts me. I love you, but I’m in love with you, Colin. You know that.”

Colin grudgingly nodded. “I know!” He said pitifully. “Why am I feeling this way?”

I smiled. “Well, I’ve heard of fathers becoming jealous of a baby when a new baby comes in the parents’ lives. His partner is now focused on someone else.”

Colin’s eyes grew. “How does the child…” he thought. “He’s not our child.”

I grinned. “Isn’t he?” I came up to Colin. “The fact is, he’s my child, not yours. At least that’s what you seem to think.”

Colin shook his head. “What?” He frowned, shaking his head again. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

I took Colin’s arm in mine. “And you know what helps?” I asked as we started walking back to the house.

Colin smiled. “What?”

“We talk about it,” I said. “You and I will have a good meal together, go to our room and make love.”

“That’s a treatment?”

I gave a shrugging nod. “Of a sort. The other thing is…you need to be more involved with Jerry’s treatment. You can help me not to become too attached. When he goes on the serum and he gains some independence, you can help me tear away from Jerry. I may have a tougher time than he will.”

Colin chuckled. “That sounds like a plan.” He leaned in kissing me. “I’m sorry for my bad reaction.”

I put my arm around his waist. “You can’t help how you feel. We’ll just promise to deal with it.” I tapped him on the chest. “No walking away,” I said. “Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Colin smiled. “I love you, Devon.”