Blueblood 5.1: Red Alert!! - 19. One More Time

The evening was progressing and there were people coming that needed to be seen. Or really, they needed to see US. Yuri and Zoya would be the most persuasive proof as to why we were here. Vampires by nature trusted no one. Humans didn’t trust that much better. Kuyvashev didn’t trust anyone either. That was because of how he operated. He used deceit as a way of life. It was sad, really. He SAW what happened. Sergey had bitten Stan and Mark. Kuyvashev was still looking for a lie. There wasn’t one. I know, I know, it’s been said so often by so many. I hadn’t been a vampire that long without treatment. I wasn’t that distrusting. Colin had been for almost a century, yet he overcame his distrust and made his way to Manhattan…moving on.

Someone was manipulating Kuyvashev, that was obvious. Who and why was something we needed to find out. I didn’t want to believe it, but it could be one of us. Someone at Holms Laboratories or even with the VUN could be the one. Now, the fact that someone was putting memos and reports on Kuyvashev’s desk so he would see it…it was more likely someone in Russia was doing this to get him to come here to find out more. Weaponizing vampirism was NOT new. All the speculation about who started this, how, and why was getting us nowhere. Greedy and powerful men tried to create the perfect soldier thousands of years ago. Human knowledge and development finally got to the point we could do something about it.

Russians were not the enemy. Chinese weren’t the enemy. People were our own enemy. We were eliminating the language barrier, now we had to bridge the ideology barriers. Political barriers were another issue.

Yes, Yuri and his friends had kidnapped George. They knocked John out and that was wrong. Once we convinced Yuri of our intensions, I was liking him and Zoya! I liked many of these Russians! They were people!

Dan-D was awake, until it was feeding time. Feeding him the supplement…he wasn’t competing with any siblings, so he was calm and would drift off to sleep. I fed him, Colin fed him, and he did it with both of us.

“We need to get…” Colin paused as he thought. “The puppy Chuck was getting. What is his name again?”

“Pechenye,” I answered and shrugged. “We could just use the English form of the word. Cookie.”

“We’ll leave it to Amanda,” Colin said smiling sadly. “If she takes him.” He looked at me curiously and his brow wrinkled. “We won’t…” he used his hand in a scissor-like motion, “clip his…”

I chuckled, “Really, Collin? Just say it. Are we cutting his nuts off?”

“Well?” Colin asked. “Are we? He’ll have his sisters around and nature takes its course…we could have puppies that are inbred! We don’t need that.”

I shrugged as I jostled Dan-D to wake him up again, “I’m sure there is something we can do to prevent unwanted puppies. We had medicines to keep Human females and now males from reproducing from random unprotected sex. We’ll ask Anton.”

“Or George,” Colin nodded.

I shrugged a nod and chuckled, “He probably knows how we can do it if we did cut his nuts off!”

Colin grinned, “Probably.”

Vlad walked up behind us, “Yuri and Zoya are asking for us to come to that room we were all gathered that first night.” He smiled at Colin’s feeding Dan-D. He reached up and stopped, “Can I?”

“Sure,” Colin nodded and jostled Dan-D again, “Wake up, buddy and meet a friend!”

“He’s so cute!” Vlad smiled as he touched Dan-D’s ear and then stroked his fur.

“Didn’t you and Gaius choose one?” I asked.

Vlad nodded, “Gaius has spent more time with her than I have.”

“Why?” Colin asked.

“Guilt I suppose,” Vlad admitted. “I couldn’t randomly feed on people; dogs were the logical alternative.” He shrugged. “I won’t now, but I still feel guilty.”

“Dan-D isn’t holding you accountable,” I smiled.

Gaius and a few of Yuri’s men were bringing Kuyvashev, Efim, and the two agents with Kuyvashev in the corridor. Efim was resisting a little. Kuyvashev wasn’t resisting at all.

 

We were led through the winding corridors and again, we led to the large room we had been gathered in after being caught by Yuri and his people. I felt it again. The feeling that vampires were here. It was like at Thornwood in England when the local vampires arrived that first night to meet us.

Yuri and Zoya were surrounded by people all talking at once in Russian asking question after question. There were six vampires. Two women and four men. True to the pattern, not one was over fifty and in great shape when they were bitten.

Yuri looked up and waved in our direction, “Voth oni! Poznakometes s Colinome yi Devonom Ventvorton!”

My translator told me he said in Russian, “There they are. Meet Colin and Devon Wentworth.” Then another lightbulb came on in my head. Yuri was deaf! I know you remember, but it was easy to forget! He didn’t sound “deaf.” He had the pauses; those glottal stops most deaf people can’t hear! He could read English from our lips. He never heard our translator work on the Russian language. I knew he had amazing vision and wondered how far away a person could be and he still would understand. He would be terrific with surveillance!

Another movie moment, (just go with it) in 2001 A Space Odyssey, Dr. Frank Poole and Dr. Dave Bowman get in the pod to speak where the Hal 9000, the crazy computer intelligence, couldn’t hear them. Hal could see their lips and knew what they were planning to do. That was Yuri! Only, he wasn’t crazy. I think.

Anyway, Yuri spoke Russian with these new people. We would reply in English. His Russian friends would hear Russian from our translators, but Yuri read English.

“How did you…” one began to ask.

“This is incredible!” Another said.

“They’re healed!?” Still another balked at what he saw.

Yuri held his hand up to stop them, “Wait.” He cautioned to the others. “These men have made Zoya and me like they are.” The others nodded as every vampire knew another vampire without asking. “They ARE vampires.” He bobbed his head, “First some introductions.” He touched a dark-haired woman in about her mid-thirties nearest him, “This is Daria from Yekaterinburg.” He touched a black-haired man next to her, “This is Akim from Kasli.” He touched the dirty blond man next to Akim, “Edik from Serov,” he waved at a blonde woman. “Lavra from Kirovgrad. Garold from Kopeysk and Kirill from Inza.” They were all vampires. The skin, the dry eyes and I assumed in their mouths…fangs.

Kuyvashev and Efim had been brought in with Colin and me…now that Kuyvashev saw many others besides Sergey, he was almost backing up. Until Gaius changed his mind for him by preventing Kuyvashev from leaving.

“You wanted the truth,” Vlad reminded Kuyvashev. “Here it is.”

Daria saw others from our group in the VUN come in and her eyes widened as she pointed at them, “They are vampires, too!”

George nodded, “Yes, and all under treatment. While not cured, they can work now openly in the world.”

Colin grinned at our friend and touched George’s shoulder, “This brilliant man can tell you more about yourselves than even you can. This is Dr. George Holms who developed a way of putting the vampire in us to sleep.”

For the next two hours, all of our group was introduced to them, and George explained the venom and the serum. He told them about the disks and also about the pain at first.

Yuri really amazed his vampire friends when a large pot of Borsht was brought in. His eyes widened, “Borsht! I love borsht!” The others were even more astonished when he got a large bowl of it and began devouring it quickly. He loved every bite! “I never had it before.” He shrugged as he explained.

Sergey and Daria sat with Kuyvashev, George, Colin and I as we enjoyed conversation.

“All of this sounds great,” Kuyvashev said, and he looked at us with suspicion that still remained. “What are you getting from this?”

Colin shook his head with sadness, “I would think that would be obvious.” He took a deep breath, “The victims are now speaking to each other and no longer having to hide in the dark. For the first time in thousands of years we are a people with the same rights as anybody else.”

“You aren’t getting anything,” Kuyvashev said quietly. “No money?”

“When I was bitten,” Colin started. “I knew of only a few vampires. I went to Manhattan and found a few more. I had no idea there were so many in the world. There are probably hundreds of thousands…maybe millions in the world. All isolated and cut off from the rest of Humanity. It is a kind of Hell. We didn’t ask for it, but it became our prison…our Hell.”

“Then George was bitten,” I smiled. “He is a gifted doctor and scientist. He wasn’t just going to accept what he became and studied why we are what we are and over several decades found the venom and a treatment.”

“A treatment,” Colin cautioned and held a finger up to Kuyvashev. “I KNOW he will find a cure. He’s so close.”

“I don’t see anyone doing it out of the kindness of their hearts,” Kuyvashev grumbled.

“There are some things we’re getting,” I ventured. “Friendship.” I grinned. “Colin’s life…the way he described it, was so lonely. Alone and hiding in the dark…no one he could get close to.” I reached and took Colin’s hand and felt Dan-D lick my hand and try to come to me, which I took him to me. “Now we have friends all around the United States, England, Romania, and at last…Russia. No political agendas or religion. We will continue to spread throughout the world. Every country, culture, and ethnic has stories about vampires or blood demons. We want to cure that.”

Kuyvashev nodded, “And how do we get these people back into the world? How did you do it in America?”

Colin smiled and nodded, “There is the reason we became more public.” He shrugged, “When Holms Laboratories first began, we not only came up with ways to reach others…we had to have a department to cover us with identifications, birth certificates, social security numbers…we were lying! Forging drivers’ licenses. My driver’s license doesn’t say I was born November seventh in eighteen-fifteen. It has to be changed. We asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help us…”

“Actually,” I interrupted. “We were asked by them as a man that worked for them had a vampire in the family.”

Colin chuckled, “Right. He knew about us and asked for our help, which we did! That led to England where we got help from England’s Military Intelligence…and Romania and their intelligence services.”

“Then the medical help in each country and lastly our President!” I added.

“Your President knows about you,” Kuyvashev said to confirm.

“Yes,” Colin nodded. “It’s not something they talk about openly, but he knows.”

“There are vampires that are criminals,” I cautioned. “Because they are vampires, they won’t die. We have a facility to house them.”

Colin grudged a nod, “And there are those vampires that don’t…” he sought a word, “turn as they should. The wild vampires, incapable of speech or even thought and driven to get blood. That’s it.” He sighed, “We have one…” he held a single finger up, “ONE…that we brought back from being a wild vampire.”

“Well, yeah,” I nodded. “But he really wasn’t THAT wild. He willingly came with us and we worked to get him back.”

Colin looked away and then looked at me, “YOU worked to get him back. I would have simply killed him.”

“He was a killer,” I justified defending Colin. “But not really. He was a danger to livestock and family pets outside, but he never killed randomly. Now, he’s a member of our family!”

“You don’t intend to use these people as an army,” Kuyvashev said to confirm again.

“No,” Colin shook his head. “A branch of the Vampire United Nations would be great in Russia!”

“The VAMPIRE United Nations?” Kuyvashev repeated in disbelief.

“That name is my fault,” I admitted and shrugged. “I have a thing for names. Holms Laboratories just didn’t work for me.”

I saw Kuyvashev genuinely smile for the first time, “I see. You tell others that name?”

“Hell, no!” I said back quickly. “We’d scare people! We use it amongst ourselves.”

Colin’s eyes narrowed, “The question now…” he began slowly, “Are you going to be a part of the problem? Or a solution?”

“He’s still looking for that angle,” I smiled which Colin laughed at.

“Angle?” Kuyvashev asked. He might be proficient with the English language, but some terms were not that easy understand.

Colin nodded, “The angle we’re doing here for an advantage just for us.” He waved at the room and all the people gathered, “Somehow, this is all being done to fool Russia and you.”

“Our angle is…” I said simply. “There is NO angle.”

“There are people in the world that need help,” Colin said firmly. “WE are that help.”

Kuyvashev shook his head, and I could see his resistance was lessening. He was beginning to believe us. “No one man should be in charge of all this.”

“You’re right,” Colin agreed. “No ONE man is in charge. George is in charge of research and development but doesn’t do it alone. I head the business part of Holms Laboratories…again, not alone. We all agree on our next location…” he looked at Yuri, “except this one.”

Yuri’s head fell a little and he confessed, “I’m sorry…so sorry.” He looked up and smiled. “I hope you’ll forgive me, but we needed your help.”

The death of our dear friend and family member was still on our minds. It was for me, at least. I know grief is something that will be ongoing. I had gone through counseling when my father died and knew there were stages in the grief process. Knowing this and experiencing it were two entirely different things. Dan-D was awake at that moment but seemed to sense the sadness I felt. He licked my fingers and gave a soft sound that wasn’t exactly a whine, but close. I brought him toward my face and hugged him. Animals could feel a whole lot. No, Dan-D did not understand exactly, but he knew how I was feeling at the moment. He was being a great comfort in my grieving.

Kuyvashev looked at me and asked, “And what is your role in this?”

I was going to answer, but Colin answered immediately, “He is our heart and counselor. We have many that had very traumatic events happen and Devon listens. He offers counsel and he is a great teacher.” He smiled at me and rubbed Dan-D’s head, which Dan-D gave Colin the lick. “The one wild vampire we brought back was kept calm and he trusted Devon quickly. He listened to Devon. As I said, we needed his venom to study. That was all, I thought. No, Devon won that trust and he is a very loved and trusted man now.” He grinned at me, “And that works on animals, too. He can get very aggressive dogs to calm down and act like puppies.” He looked at me curiously. “I wonder if that will work with other species. Or how strong it will become.” He looked again at Kuyvashev, “We have three of the original Old Ones we’re studying now, and Devon has gotten them to trust him and is even teaching them to communicate. They are the first vampires that started this whole vampire drama.”

I chuckled, “These Old Ones can’t speak and don’t reproduce in any traditional way. They make more vampires by the venom and bite.” I shrugged, “They are what they were made to be. Advanced scouts that would weaken a territory before invading.” I smiled, “They are really children and I like them very much.”

Colin looked at Yuri, Zoya, Sergey, and Daria, “Are there many vampires in this part of Russia?”

Yuri thought a moment, looking at Zoya and his friends, “There are perhaps a dozen more hidden. We keep this part of Russia clear of the wild vampires.”

Sergey nodded, “There are more throughout Russia, but really…Moscow is not that busy with vampires.” He shrugged and held the finger up, “That we know of. If any are killed, there would be nothing left. Bodies of drained people killed aren’t publicized.”

Daria agreed, “We have patrols that go into the surrounding areas and…” she pointed at Dan-D, “these wonderful scouts help us locate them.” She shook her head and pointed at my lapel. “That translator is fascinating!”

I smiled at her and grumbled, “It’s a lazy way out of tough situations.” I waved at her, “You, Yuri, Zoya…all of you learned to speak a language. No, we developed a cheat.”

Her head wavered a bit, “Which we would have done, if we had the technology then. We learned because we had to.”

“That and it gives us a reason to be in any country,” Colin replied and took his off and handed it to her. “It translates written language, as well. We can read documents, notes, personal letters…any written form of a language so it can be read.” He looked at Kuyvashev and asked a question, “Do you think you were guided here to do this in Asbest?”

You could see Kuyvashev’s first response was to automatically deny that possibility, but he stopped and thought more before he admitted with a small nod, “I may have been. I have no idea who would do that.”

Yuri looked at Sergey, “We might know who to ask.”

Sergey’s eyes widened, but he knew what he meant. “This person might know something.” He nodded. “I’m sure I would have been told if this person did know.”

Colin rolled his eyes, “Oh, stop it.” He grinned at Sergey. “This distrust stops.” He waved at Kuyvashev. “He knows who and what’s here. Just say it!”

“If she’s just knows Kuyvashev,” I began. “It could she is the one that led him here.”

“Why?” Sergey asked.

“THAT’S what we need to ask her,” Colin said.

“Who?” Kuyvashev asked getting inpatient.

“My granddaughter,” Sergey said quietly. “Alexandria Balakin. She works in the FSB. Russian Intelligence.”

Kuyvashev’s eyes widened, “She’s…” he pointed at him in shock, “your GRANDDAUGHTER!?”

Sergey nodded, “Yes, she is.”

I chuckled, “Am I to gather it’s the age thing that bothers you?” I asked Kuyvashev.

“She’s…” Kuyvashev started and stopped.

“Yes,” Sergey nodded. “And known me her whole life!”

I pointed at Sergey, “Does he look too young?” Having never met her I couldn’t imagine it. Sergey looked to be in his early forties. I pointed over at Gabriella. “There’s Gabriella, she’s Colin’s daughter. I had a hard time with that one myself.”

Kuyvashev looked at Gabriella and then back at Colin and his eyes widened again, “It’s impossible!”

“It’s very possible,” Colin laughed. “It’s the truth. Women don’t normally talk about their age. I was her father before the Civil War in the United States.” He pointed at Alex, “I had a problem with her dating HIM!” He shrugged, “Now, they’re married.”

“You introduced a woman you said was your mother,” Kuyvashev said. “She is a vampire and the man she was with?”

“Willie,” I nodded. “He’s a vampire, too.” I shrugged, “It became a family thing.”

Kuyvashev looked at Colin, “And you’re the patriarch.”

Colin nodded and chuckled, “I’ll admit to that.”

“Excuse me,” Daria began softly. “Sorry to interrupt.” She smiled. “You said to start this treatment…it takes a WEEK?”

“Oh, yes,” Colin answered. “A week of torment. That’s what you said.”

I nodded, “A very, VERY painful week. To get the serum level to a certain point and now we have these disks of concentrated serum which keeps that therapeutic blood level where it needs to be.”

“THEN we can go outside in the daylight and eat meals,” Colin added and pulled up a sleeve, realized he had the wrong side and quickly rolled his other sleeve up, “Forgive me. I forget which side its on,” he chuckled and touched the little round disk that was hidden under his skin. “Here it is.” He nodded at Kuyvashev.

“You will need to see this through,” I cautioned Kuyvashev. “To see that we are what we say we are.”

George smiled at Daria and Sergey, “We will begin with our two friends, Mark and Stan. When they recover at sunset tonight…we’ll talk to them and ask what they want to do.”

“I don’t understand,” Kuyvashev was suddenly aware there was a choice. “There isn’t a choice. Is there?”

Colin nodded, “Simply, there’s life…” he held his right hand up. His left hand rose, “and death.”

“We didn’t get to Chuck in time to stop his death,” I said quietly. “Mark chose to be bitten and he chose for Stan to be bitten, not Stan.”

“Stan could choose death as the outcome,” George shrugged. “We’ve had experience with vampires who chose death instead.”

“Stan has a lot to live for,” I grinned at Colin. “Personally, I’m thrilled to have Stan and Mark more a part of us than before.”

“Who wouldn’t want THIS?” Kuyvashev asked incredibly.

“Who would want something that causes death?” Colin said a bit heated. “You become a demon who lives on death. You lose family and friends. To keep your home is nearly impossible.”

“It isn’t!” Kuyvashev stated and waved at me. “You have him! You have your daughter, and he has his mother. No illness or drug works on you. You won’t die. You eat! You travel and you are VERY rich!”

I touched Colin’s hand gently, “He won’t understand, Colin.” I looked at Kuyvashev. “Colin was in a sort of living Hell for over a century. A nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.” I waved at the others in the room. “That is true for every one of the vampires here now. THAT’S why when offered a way out…even a painful as it is, almost none will refuse. A chance for a life that is normal.” I inhaled a deeper breath, “We are Human, and we don’t do well at all on our own. We need each other. The venom makes us isolate ourselves.” I nodded, “It gives us a long life, but holds us prisoners to the wants and needs of the venom. The serum is just a step further away from that prison.”

“Devon has been the heart of us as he listens to each of us,” he looked at me proudly. “He’s dealt with the many troubles each one has gone through. Willie’s war trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, the trauma Alex had during a war and how to get home and his isolation, Amasis with his distorted view of a world that didn’t exist. Vlad is the REAL Dracula and Devon is helping him come to grips with his past.” He waved at the others, “Poor Wayne who was lost in a mine for decades!” He looked again at Kuyvashev. “You cannot UNDERSTAND what it means to be a vampire.” He pointed at Kuyvashev, “And we CAN die! Not just from the sun or a stake in the heart…we can die from being shot or in an accident. The other horror is that in the accident, if it isn’t lethal, we remain ALIVE! Wishing for death that won’t come. Lose limbs and remain alive to just wait…praying that somehow the sun’s rays will get to us and end it!”

Kuyvashev sat back a little. Even if he had almost no understanding about vampires he heard the pain him Colin’s voice.

Colin looked at the two that had come with Kuyvashev to Asbest, “How long can you be gone before someone comes looking for you? Who else at your…” he waved his hand, “Agency knows where you are and why? Are you reporting to anyone? Will your wife want to hear from you?”

The change of topic threw Kuyvashev’s train of thought off, “What?” Then it seemed he understood, “Oh, no. We can be gone weeks or even months with no contact home…”

Colin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Kuyvashev, “You’ve taken personnel away from other possibilities. Someone will be expecting a report.”

Kuyvashev’s head wavered a bit, “I will have a reason for the expenses. An investigation will often have no results. If I was led to come here by someone, they might know why.” He jutted his head in the two agents that had come with him, “They saw what I did. They can be sworn to secrecy, but they know.”

Colin nodded, “We can make sure that they can’t tell anyone.” He saw Kuyvashev’s eyes widen in alarm. “No, we’re not going to kill anyone. How would that help here?” He waved in Vlad’s direction, “He can make it nearly impossible for them to speak to anyone about what they saw.”

George cleared his throat and then said, “We can begin the serum after sunset tomorrow.” He waved at me. “Devon can administer the serum as well as me. Kev can do it…”

“Sunset is important?” Kuyvashev asked and then nodded, “Oh, right vampires rise at sunset.”

“That part of the myth is true,” George acknowledged. “The venom needs to be fed, so it rouses the vampire at sunset to get the blood it needs. It doesn’t seem to matter much if the sun can be seen, the venom knows when the sun is down.”

I gave a nod at the idea, “This will be the largest number of vampires I’ve done at one time.”

“And it will hurt,” Daria said to confirm.

“There are no words of description we can give you,” Colin gave the grudging nod.

“I’ll not be the dentist that tells the patient it won’t hurt a bit,” I grinned. “It will hurt like a mother fuc…” I felt Colin’s hand come over my mouth to stop me.

“The baby!” Colin grinned and waved at Dan-D, who was asleep again. He looked at the smiling faces of those at our table. “Devon almost never cusses. If he does, that’s because of how strong he feels about a subject.” He nodded, “It will hurt a lot.”

 

By sunrise for that next day, the other Russian vampires had gone to their own quarters underground to rest for the day. The vampires with the VUN weren’t blood seekers anymore, but rest was needed. Colin and I took Dan-D to his mother and met “Pechenye.” Like Dan-D, he had the same coloring but was twice the size of Dan-D! He was still a puppy! Dan-D took up a hand and a half now. Pechenye took both hands to hold him. I thought it was very appropriate for Chuck to get this one. Chuck had been a BIG boy all of his life. Pechenye was just reflecting Chuck. He was cute as he could be! They all were! He loved us immediately. Yes, I was trying to send emotions such as love and protection to Pechenye. He was doing what even Dan-D hadn’t done yet. His little tail was twitching as it was trying to wag. Dog emotions were easy to read. Pechenye was happy.

My abilities weren’t really needed that much this time. All of the dogs in the kennel knew us by scent and sight. Each was happy to us. All I did was send the “quiet” feeling. They did that instantly.

“Are you sure you guys can’t just move here?” Anton asked with a chuckle. He looked at every dog there who was giving a dog’s smile and waiting calmly. “That is just an amazing ability. I know your training of them will be almost instant.”

I held Pechenye up to my face and told him, “We’ll be back soon. We promise to spend more time with you and your brother.” Do dogs understand Humans? Sure, they know instructions and will obey after a period of time. It was the tone they truly understand and Pechenye’s tail was telling me he understood just fine. My reward was the heartfelt licks to my face. “In the meantime,” I put Pechenye with his siblings and mother. Colin put Dan-D with them, too.

“I’m asking for the Holms Laboratories plane to come and get Chuck to take him home,” Colin said sadly.

My head went back slightly, “To Asbest? There is only a small airport here.”

“They do,” Colin nodded. “We will have to transport him to Yekaterinburg. They have an airport with the needed runway. It’s just twenty to thirty miles from here.”

“We brought supplies with us,” I said as we walked. “We’ll need to check with George to see if he needs anything else. You know Rubin will not let this situation just go away.”

“It won’t just go away,” Colin pointed out. “We are here to do things that most won’t see as legal.” He shrugged. “Unwanted attention to this area now is dangerous. We should let this crime be handled and addressed by our new friends in Russia.”

I gave a look of surprise, “Just a week ago or so, we thought they wouldn’t be friends. We need to work on a new approach to new vampires. The distrust is a real problem.”

 

It was just about sunset when we got up again. Colin was again hungry so we headed to the cafeteria to get our coffee and dinners…or breakfast. The first meal! Colin once again got his two steaks. I got one. I asked about them and was told it was “severny olen.” Reindeer. I had deer before, but not one of Santa’s deer! Oh, well. They were plentiful here and could stand the cold. There was a mushroom gravy with it, and it was very good!

Kuyvashev came up and stood near us, “Am I still the enemy?”

Colin looked at him curiously, “Are WE still the enemy?”

I waved at the empty chair at our table, “Sit down, Yevgeny.” The fact that I used his first name put a small smile on his face. “Hint: don’t treat us like the enemy. We’ll treat you in a friendly manner…the trust is going to take a bit longer.”

Kuyvashev nodded and sat down. He watched Colin take another bite of his steak. “You never lost your appetite?”

I chuckled, “No, once he got on the treatment, he found his appetite again. He’s making up for lost time.” I felt how much time was left and touched Colin’s side. “Finish up. Mark and Stan will be waking in a few minutes.”

Colin nodded and moved faster to finish his remaining steak.

I pointed with my thumb over my shoulder toward the kitchen, “I need to get something before we go to the lab. The sun is just touching the horizon.”

Kuyvashev looked surprised knowing we were underground now and wondered how I knew that.

I smiled, “We’re vampires. Knowing where the sun is located is very important. We can sense it.”

“You can?” Kuyvashev asked.

Colin paused eating long enough to glance up at Kuyvashev and gave him the “really?” look.

Going to the kitchen I retrieved what we had asked for. Like with Wayne, Mom…all of them, I got the needed blood for Mark and Stan. It was being kept warm to ease the consumption for the first time.

I got back to the table where Kuyvashev was now standing as Colin was returning having put his tray and plate on the conveyor belt to help the staff clean up.

Colin looked at Kuyvashev and said, “You must do exactly what we say when we go there. Hopefully Stan’s and Mark’s transformation went alright last night.” He sighed. “They will be waking in a few minutes. When they do, this will be day one of their new life. The urge to take blood will be so strong.”

As we headed to the lab, I added, “It will be a compulsion they won’t want to stop. That could be dangerous. They will want YOUR blood.”

“Listen and do as we tell you,” Colin said firmly. “Otherwise, you might die.”

 

As before, in my mind’s eye I could see the last edge of the setting sun gently slip below the horizon. Kev, George, and I were ready. I had put the container that held the blood on a lab table within my arm’s reach. Colin, George, Kev, and I looked at our two friends. Stan and Mark looked dead at the moment. I could see the venom had done its job as the skin was paler and I knew what to expect from their eyes. Stan was a fair skinned, blond man and now he was even more pale.

We saw their eyes suddenly twitch behind closed lids. I was instinctively motioning Kuyvashev back from where he stood behind Colin and me. Kuyvashev was doing what we said to do and moved further back but wanted to see what was happening.

Okay, this was a classic movie moment to me. Our two friends’ eyes opened, the dry eye with no moisture is every vampire. I knew the first thought was BLOOD! Mouths opened and the fangs, the long ones next to shorter ones on the top and the long ones below. Pristinely white and you had no doubt they were sharp. The hiss.

“Hi, Mark,” I grinned at Mark. I waved at Stan, “Hi, Stan.”

Vampires expect certain behaviors from people around them. A friendly greeting wasn’t that expected behavior. They both looked confused a second and then thought a second or two. Even in the dry eyes, focus seemed to come back and knowledge of their surroundings and who we were could be seen.

“Devon?” Mark asked confused. “Colin?”

Stan’s mind was at least working as he did the classic eye darting left and right as he tried to remember, “What happened?”

Colin pointed at them and nodded, “Damned good question, which we will answer, but I know you need something, and we’ve got it.”

Both Stan and Mark looked behind Colin and me. It was easy to see how stories about vampires use sex to lure their victims and get them to not fight. Mark’s and Stan’s look was one of strong desire at Kuyvashev. It wasn’t sex they wanted, but it was Kuyvashev’s blood.

“No!” I said quickly to Mark and Stan. Kuyvashev moved back even more as his eyes opened wider in terror. I opened the container and pulled two clear containers of dark liquid. “You don’t need to do that.” Opening each container, I waved them at our friends. “What you want is right here.” The warmth of the blood radiated from each container. It was the smell that got the wanted attention.

Mark took the container and drank greedily. Stan however, looked at the blood. He had been barely conscious when he was bitten.

“We were bitten,” Stan said to confirm. “We’re vampires.”

“Yes,” Colin answered.

Stan sighed and brought the container to his lips. It took the smell, and first sip and Stan was drinking as greedily as Mark had.

Mark drained his blood, sighed with satisfaction and looked at Stan, “I had us both bitten, Stan. A life without you would be no life. I wasn’t sure if you could make it without me,” he shrugged. “I chose.”

Stan’s sigh was because that intense desire had been met. The hunger was gone for now. Looking at Mark he smiled at his husband, “I couldn’t live without you, either.”

Other than their appearance, they sounded perfectly normal. Blood drinker normal, that is. It was my turn to sigh as I relaxed. I explained about the neurotoxin used on them and what would happen if we hadn’t had them bitten. I finished saying, “It was purely for selfish reasons. We didn’t want to lose you. I won’t lose you.”

Mark looked angrily at Kuyvashev, “But we DID lose Chuck! I remember THAT.”

Colin nodded, “Yes, he died. He’s being sent home tomorrow. This isn’t a quick decision to make. If you don’t want this, George has a way to end this. You must decide.”

Mark took a moment and looked at Stan, “I would hate leaving my parents and brother.” He looked at me. “Marvin’s getting married!”

“Is he?” I grinned.

Mark’s head waggled a little and he grinned, “I don’t want to miss THAT wedding!”

“I couldn’t leave Mark,” Stan admitted. “If I leave my mother and sister…it will kill mom.”

George smiled, “You know the serum hurts.”

Stan nodded, “We have been told.”

Mark shrugged, but he was a bit worried. “Now, we’ll know.”

“Once it starts,” George said quietly. “We can’t stop it.”

Mark smirked and pointed at George, “We really need to work on your sales pitch, Doc.”

 

We waited for the other vampires to arrive and took the time to introduce Mark and Stan to them. Summer nights weren’t as long as the Winter nights. We didn’t waste much time as they needed at least eight to ten hours of night for this to work. The reason for what we did was explained, about restarting the hearts. That was why it started with the serum in the heart first.

“Okay!” George said with an uneasy reluctance. His smile was tight. “I’m sorry to hurt you.”

The syringes were prepared and laid out. Each vampire was sterilized and as I got to Sergey, he stopped me and looked at Colin. “I spoke with Alexandria just before coming to the lab. She isn’t the one sending Kuyvashev the reports. She’ll look into it and try to find out who did it.” He smiled, “She’ll be here in a week to see the results when this is finished.”

Colin smiled back, “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

The trick now was none of them could get the injection and we just casually go to the next one as the pain would come so rapidly. We needed to be very quick. George gave a countdown. Really.

“On one,” George instructed us. “Ready?” We all nodded, and George said. “Three,” we held a syringe over the area of the hearts, “two,” the syringes ready, “ONE!”

I had Stan and Mark. I brought the syringe down, plunging the needle into Mark’s heart and pushed the plunger to get the serum in, quickly picked up the other and did it to Stan.

We moved quickly and there was no real pause as all began reacting to the serum. Or rather the VENOM was reacting to the serum. The venom would fight the serum, but it would lose! Gasps of air, grunts to the sudden pain and even two screams! It wasn’t the female vampires that screamed. No, it was Mark and Garold! Garold had been a miner from Kopeysk in life and a big Russian! The biggest men are always teddy bears and more sensitive. Humor aside, I knew it HURT!

I watched Stan and Mark become racked with pain that wouldn’t stop for quite a few hours. I also noticed Kuyvashev cross himself and mutter in Russian, “Boze moi!” My God in Russian. The previous government tried to take religion out of Russia. That hadn’t worked. Before the Soviets threw God out, some citizens obviously had taken their children to church. Russian Orthodox was what I saw. A fact I would have enjoyed if my friends weren’t hurting so much and the loss of another dear friend. “How long will this level of pain last?” Kuyvashev asked in a near whisper.

“Most all of the night,” George answered. “About eight to ten hours.”

“They have to go through a week of this!?” Kuyvashev balked.

George explained about the less time needed each night as we bring the serum level to a point where it would remain. He told how the disks were placed to make sure the level was stable.

“There’s nothing you can give for the pain?” Kuyvashev asked.

George shook his head, “The venom will keep us alive and stops any poison, germ, virus, or drug from working. I can give a sedative to a vampire if I mix it with blood and they consume it. Otherwise, no. In order for the serum to work, the venom must be active when the sun goes down. It took me fifty years to create an effective serum.”

“He’s still perfecting it,” Colin added. “We used to have several hours a night of this. Then he got it down to five minutes.” He raised his arm. “Now, this disk handles it for a month.”

“However,” I added. “If we stop the serum, we have to start over.”

Colin looked at Kuyvashev, “Do you still think it’s a trick?”

I touched Colin gently, “The fabulous life of a vampire. A person will do anything to get rid of it. No matter how much it hurts.”

“It was just so…” Kuyvashev began and stopped.

“Unbelievable?” I supplied.

“Yes!” Kuyvashev stated incredibly. “No one in their right mind would believe it!” He glanced around and asked, “So, that man…Vlad is really Dracula!?”

“He will deny it,” I said sadly. “He was Vlad Tepes. He was Voivode of Wallachia in the mid fifteenth century. He will tell you he is NOT Dracula.”

Kuyvashev found a chair and sat down hard as his mind worked on what we told him. “And that Amasis was a Pharoah!?”

I nodded, “One of the last pharaohs, but yes.” I sighed, “I will love to discuss this more with you, Yevgeny. Right now, I’m worried about them.” I pointed at Stan, Mark, and the others here. “We can talk about it tomorrow.”

Kuyvashev nodded, “Oh, yes.” He looked at those suffering now. “Sure.”

 

It did take a few hours before Stan was the first to have the pulse in his neck. We could see it. Then Mark. I didn’t know why, but each vampire’s body reactivated differently. Perhaps because Stan’s and Mark’s transformation was more recent, the serum didn’t have to work as hard. I don’t know. It was hard for each one and it was hard on Colin, George, and me. Perhaps because we’d done it so often now we handled it better. Kuyvashev didn’t move the whole night. He didn’t talk and never went away.

I let out a sigh of relief when Stan stopped writhing and went to sleep. Mark did, too. The last one was Sergey. All of them had weathered the first night.

I smiled at Kuyvashev, “They’ll sleep now, and the sunrise will put them to sleep again. We do this again tomorrow at sunset. Get some rest, Yevgeny.”

“Are you hungry?” Colin asked and I saw a trace of a smile on his face.

I hugged Colin to me, “I know you are. Let’s get something before we go to bed.”

Kuyvashev nodded, “Sure.”

 

It was morning in Asbest and the first meal of the day for most people. Kuyvashev sat with us and laughed as Colin brought a large plate again with only a single steak. He also had a plate of some potato pancakes called draniki. He slid the pancakes in front of me and a bowl of porridge in front of me.

“Only a single steak?” Kuyvashev asked.

Colin shrugged, “I’ll be going to bed. I won’t need that much to eat.”

“Another drawback is we don’t store fat,” I explained. “Our systems work, and we need energy to move. The venom takes a kind of snapshot of what our bodies have and freezes it. We can use what we eat but can’t store anything for later.”

“Before you turn in,” Colin began. “Why not come with us to visit Dan-D and Pechenye. There are a few dogs that are trained to track down vampires. You can see Devon do his thing. It’s magical.”

I rolled my eyes, “It’s not magic.” I corrected. “They are sensitive to emotions, and they read mine. Other people can do it. Mark does it, Anton does it…”

“Anton sort of has to,” Colin looked at Kuyvashev. “Dr. Anton Masaitis is the veterinarian here for the dogs, reindeer, and any other critter in Asbest.”

“Especially, the dogs,” I added. I shrugged a nod, “They’re a little important because of what they can do. There are some vampires that can do it better than any dog, but that ability stems from a talent they had before being bitten, such as Gabriella or Ellis.”

“George has a vampire detector,” Colin explained. “Though he sweated on that for years. Not every vampire can do it and George wanted a detector anyone could use.”

Kuyvashev shook his head, “This is a very different world for me to operate in.” He threw his hands out in futility, “Yes, I was looking for that angle. What I’ve seen in only a day…” his head shook again. “I have to believe what I see. Vampires are real. YOU are real. The level of suffering…” He sighed and said sincerely, “I DID send Efim here to find out what was happening here. If there was something, I could take the credit. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t be held responsible.” He shrugged, “Efim is a smart young man and I saw potential in him. He’s smart,” he nodded saying, “He did a foolish thing for the right reason…” A finger was held up as he had a point, “No one should have died.” He looked at us and said so honestly, “I am very sorry your brother, friend…your comrade died. What is going to happen with Efim?”

Colin actually smiled this time at Kuyvashev. Colin knew Kuyvashev was being honest.

“Kuyvashev,” I smiled and said quietly. “He’s young. Rash and often foolish mistakes are going to happen. I don’t believe he meant to kill, just force the truth out of us…”

“Which didn’t work as no questions were asked,” Colin pointed out.

“He had a truth enticer that he knew worked that his grandfather kept at home,” I said carefully. “I also get the feeling he wanted the results but didn’t read all of the instructions or notes. He did not know it was always fatal. He just saw it was said to ALWAYS WORK. It was manslaughter,” I added. “Death wasn’t intended, but that’s what happened. He just wanted to impress you.”

“Rubin Chance is the FBI’s unit director, will want…something,” Colin said. “I’ve asked him to hold off any official investigation because right now, this is a critical time for the people in this part of Russia. A citizen from the United States died in Russia.” He nodded, “He was an agent for the FBI and what reason he was here shouldn’t matter. Was it business or pleasure? That doesn’t matter. He was a guest in Asbest. Until we get things stabilized here, unwanted attention would be extremely harmful.” Colin sat back. “We are fine with leaving what consequences happen to Yuri or whomever here. There will be a cost.”

 

Breakfast or dinner consumed, and the atmosphere now was much more relaxed. We took him to the underground tram and rode to the kennel area. Kuyvashev knew there was a lot underground but did not know how much. Entering the kennel there was the usual barks of both “glad to see you” and “stranger.”

Kuyvashev withdrew slightly but remained where he was. Colin and I went over and greeted the “happy to see you” dogs.

Colin nudged me, “Go ahead. Do it.”

I didn’t have give any command, but sent the “calm, quiet, and sit” feeling and just lowered my hands downward. Every dog in the kennel stopped barking, sat down, and became calm.

“You say there is no magic!?” Kuyvashev questioned as he pointed at the dogs.

“No,” I answered and led him over to a kennel with a large German Shepard who was calm, but his eyes were fixed on Kuyvashev. “Be nice,” I told the dog. “This is Moguchy, Dan-D’s father.”

Colin frowned and voiced his previous objection, “You guys in Russia have funny names. I would have preferred Rex or King.”

I reached in an got loving licks from Moguchy, “You’re a good boy.” There was a familiar short bark from the beagle we knew. “This is Misha the first to the canine squad we met in Asbest.” We got additional happy licks from her.

We led Kuyvashev to the door that had Pusik, Dan-D’s mother, in seclusion. You had to be careful with the door. The puppies they tried to keep contained, but the puppies were growing and becoming more mobile.

We saw Pusik sitting up and giving the puppies near her a bath as she licked the ones near her. The squirming mass a black fur was moving more, and several were wandering farther away on shaky, but stronger legs. The Rottweiler mother knew us, but not Kuyvashev. I held my hand up and felt calm again and safe toward her. She resumed her bathing her puppies.

“This is Dan-D’s mother, Pusik,” I looked at the puppies and spotted Dan-D easily. He was still the smallest but catching up. “There you are, Dan-D!” I picked him up which he was happy I did. Kissing him on the snout I asked him, “Where’s your brother Pechenye?”

“I’m calling him Cookie.” Colin said looking at the friendly mass. His face lit up, “Here’s Cookie!” He picked up Pechenye whose tail was saying he remembered us and liked us!

I pointed, “There’s Hiccup, Scout, Hefty…”

“You know each of their names,” Kuyvashev confirmed.

“We’re learning them.” I nodded.

The door opened and Anton came in holding something small and metal in his hand. “Hi!” He looked a little warily at Kuyvashev. His smile was there, but the wattage was turned down.

“Anton,” I waved at Kuyvashev. “Yevgeny Kuyvashev. Yevgeny, this is Dr. Anton Masaitis. The animal doctor! The Dog Whisperer.”

“I speak with dogs,” Anton nodded. “Mark is definitely a Dog Whisperer,” he pointed at me, “but YOU are the true dog whisperer.”

“I wonder how he’d be with other animals such as bears or wolves,” Colin thought out loud. “I know we’re going places where there will be wild animals…” he looked at me. “We often go out at night to search for vampires. Could you talk to other animals? Calm them down?”

I shrugged, “We won’t know until it happens.” I shrugged. “Wolves will not normally attack Humans. They aren’t aggressive animals in normal situations.”

“One more time,” Kuyvashev began confused again. “Why aren’t they hunting any of you?” He asked. “You are vampires. Yuri, Zoya, Sergey, Daria are vampires, but they aren’t hunted.”

“The dogs know them,” Anton answered. “These have been born from parents with a proven record and the scents are in their minds.” Anton looked at Kuyvashev. “Have you hunted with dogs? Duck hunting or some other animal?”

Kuyvashev shook his head, “I was a little busy.”

“Dogs hunting fox or something else will react having picked up a scent they recognize,” Anton reached down and picked up another puppy with a tag that said “Hiccup.” “These dogs know Yuri and some of the others. A new scent will cause a reaction.”

“Ellis is a vampire that has a very strong sense of smell,” Colin began. “He says it’s like recognizing one face rather than another. Each have eyes, ears, mouth, and nose…each has their own character. Distinguishable from the others.”

Anton nodded, “That’s right.”

I had to cover a yawn and looked up at Colin, “I’m sure we have time for more. Chuck will be transported to Yekaterinburg to fly back to the United States.” I hugged Dan-D quickly and kissed Pechenye. “We’ll be back.” I saw the flashing light on something metal in Anton’s hand. I pointed at it. “What’s that?”

Anton held it up, “Oh, this!” He dangled something from his fingers. It was copper-colored, and it was shaped like a four-leaf clover. He held it closer. In letters we’ve seen used with things like St. Patrick’s Day or things Celtic said “Dan-D.” “I heard you say you wanted something like this as a tag,” he shrugged. “I had one made.”

I took it from him and looked closer at it. The smile on my face just grew. On one side had the letters on the smooth surface. The other side was a bit more textured showing the leaves of the clover in detail. “I love it!” I showed it to Colin who grinned seeing it.

“Pechenye I thought of a chocolate chip cookie,” Anton thought. “I don’t know what symbol to use for Hiccup or Scout.”

“Those big, soft chocolate chip cookies were Chuck’s favorite,” I nodded and again I felt the wave of sadness. “I hate we’re sending him home to be buried.”

“We need a small ceremony for us here,” Colin said. “When Stan and Mark are to a point they can be up longer, we’ll plan one.” He put his arm around me. “Chuck was never alone. We won’t ever forget him.”

We put the puppies back with their family and went to get some rest. We needed to be up when our friends regained consciousness and night two would begin.