Negative Space Ch. 12

"So you understand, then, that when she finally did put the necklace on, and she embraced the Khrusos that flew immediately through her body. She had a lot of rage, and a lot of determination behind her. Freyja became a priestess, in fact she became the goddess of love, sex, war, death, and witchcraft in the eyes of the Norsemen. And her power, her beauty, and her grim determination made it necessary to try to take it from her, and made it necessary to build up stories to desecrate her name. So after years and years of thievery of her necklace, her cloak, her various powers or powerful possessions, she finally flew into a rage and cursed each and every one of her belongings. Not a soul can touch them unless they are directly related to her by blood. She had given birth to two daughters, you see. Both of them dedicated their lives to their mother and the witchcraft she wielded. They became the first two Vala or Völva, or Huldra, or Spakona—shamanic priestesses, prophets, seers. A tribe of strong, just, and unrelenting women that took back some of the power that had been used against them for so many years.

"And again, you can understand why they were picked off. Not quickly, but thoroughly. Christianity didn't quite see eye to eye with the Vala, who reveled in their sexuality, carrying wands crafted to look like phalluses. This is why I waited until I had ruled out every other option for you. We were certain all of Freyja's descendents had been destroyed, but I cannot think of anything you could be BUT a Vala."

My head was spinning. This was a lot of information, a lot of fairy tale, to be loading onto me at once. Flo was pulling out an ebony box, not much larger than a cigar box. She set it in front of me and handed me a small key.

"Open it."

The key screeched against the lock as if it had not been used in many years, but it worked, and I felt the bolt fall away. It was easy to open the lid then, and there lay the most beautiful golden necklace I had every seen. Flo had been right—it hummed with energy, with the promise of beauty, of magic. It was more than magic, though, and now I began to understand what Flo was always talking about, how the word magic, or witchcraft, meant nothing in the face of true Khrusos. It was promise, the feeling of pure joy in the simple existence of a loved one, the delight of the creation of life. It was so much more than I could even begin to explain.

"Go on, try it on."

"I thought you said there was a curse?" I couldn't say more, because I knew, even beyond my weak protestations, I knew it couldn't touch me.

"Yes, for me, or almost any other being on the planet. But I'm quite certain it won't affect you. Besides, I could always turn you into a vampire before all your skin falls off."

I wasn't paying attention to her anymore, and gently lifted the necklace from the box. It buzzed in my fingers, tingling them, but I didn't begin to feel any ill effects. I opened the latch and draped it over my clavicle and closed it behind my neck. Just like in the story, I felt a huge jolt of raw power flush through my body. This is it, I knew. THIS is my life source, my calling, my power. When I opened my eyes Flo gasped. I'd never known her be startled, but she merely grabbed my hand and pulled me to the hallway mirror. I startled even myself then—my eyes were gold. Not a startling amber like Theo's, or a soft yellow like the eyes of some humans I had known, these were true gold. An irrational image of someone grabbing my eyeball and biting on it to see if it were real gold flashed into my mind and I began laughing. I think it unnerved Flo even more though, so I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them again they were as before.

"So I am what? A succubus slash Norse god?"

"Not a god. Just a descendent. It means that somewhere along the line a strain of the family of Freyja managed to hide their powers by mixing with others. Succubae, in this instance, and maybe something else in others. This explains a lot."

I returned to the couch, eyeing the box the necklace came out of. I didn't know whether I was supposed to replace it now, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to. The weight of it made me feel so alive, so complete. I didn't want to give it up for anything. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Flo excitedly dialing something into her telephone. Whomever was on the other line picked up after a few rings and jumped immediately into conversation.

"Yes! I know!" Flo responded, grinning almost maniacally. "I don't think I could take it off her if I tried. She's practically glowing."

I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was going, so I walked over to the window to peer over the dark city with its veins of light spreading throughout. So many little humans rushing around, going to school, going to work, trying to make money, trying to take money, trying to do a myriad of things. How little their lives seemed to me right now. And yet, Freyja was a goddess. She was in charge of love and sex and fertility, but also war and death. She chose the valiant soldiers from their bodies, strewn across the battlefields, to take them to Folkvangr, her half of the afterlife. A heavenly retreat for slain warriors. I looked down upon the surging, broiling beast of the city and thought again about what it meant to offer comfort and peace to those who've died by another's hand. I closed my eyes for a moment and allowed myself to spread out over the block, falling through apartments and elevator shafts, bedrooms and bathrooms, and slipping out into the street. Then I let myself feel for the presence of the people I knew to be there. What were they doing? Who were they? I was overwhelmed by the amount of information I received—personalities, desires, pasts, hopes, potential futures. I tried to look for victims, for people who could do nothing to save themselves, and I was pummeled by the endlessness of the numbers. They were everywhere. It seemed everyone I encountered was at another's mercy in some way, shape or fashion.

I heard some noises behind me, a shriek perhaps, and I finally opened my eyes to see that the room had been completely rearranged. I couldn't find my bearings. After a moment of trying to focus on Flo's face, which seemed to be floating in a strange way, I realized that the room hadn't been rearranged, I had merely fallen back to the floor. I was the one who had been rearranged.

"What'd you do, Freyjlet, little Lady?" Flo asked, her voice surprisingly soft and kind.

"I was just trying to do a little something. I was trying to feel out the people around us." Flo just sighed as if she knew what I had been doing, and knew that it was simply the stupidest thing in the world. I shook my head. "There are a lot of sad people, Flo, even just in this building. I need to do something about them. I need to help them."

"Oh little healer, I know you want to. But first we have a lot to work on. First we have to do something about the people showing up at your clinic with a terrible plague. And then we can do something about the humans. You have responsibilities though. Let's get you back to the clinic before the night's out, and maybe you can check in with Elliott in the lab, see if you can help out."

Flo helped me back upright and we gathered our things.

"Flo—" I started, as she picked up the box the necklace had come in, but she put up her hand and just shook her head.

"I won't make you take it off. I know how hard that would be right now. But soon we'll need to start you learning how to properly use it. And we need to make sure that you thank the person who it used to belong to. It clearly can't belong to him any more, as you have claimed it, but he put a lot of money into locating it, so your thanks would be appreciated, I'm sure."

"Who is it?"

"Prometheus, of course. Now let's get downstairs—the car is waiting."

***

A very nervous young woman sat before me, twisting her fingers together. I had told her she didn't need to put on the paper gown, so she sat in her street clothes still, ragged, dirty, oversized clothing that smelled like the gutter. I pulled my chair up close to hers, and put my notebook on the desk behind me.

"Alma, there are a few check ups I want to do today, but I notice that you seem really nervous. Do you think you would be okay with me using my hands to touch your body when I give you an exam?"

Alma's eyes widened and flashed away to the ground. She was silent, and absentmindedly moved her hands to her large, taught belly. I could hear her swallowing, and she turned back to me. "What do you need to do?"

"Well, why don't you tell me? Was there any specific reason you came in today?"

"They said you would take care of me. That you'd make sure my baby is safe, and you don't mind that, that I'm not a human."

"That's true. I don't mind at all. And I do want to make sure that both you and your baby are safe. Have you had any check ups yet?"

"Not since before I became, um, a wolf."

"Did you become pregnant before or after that change happened?"

"After."

"Technically I have to ask you a whole list of questions about your medical history, but before I bring up specific things, could you tell me about your body? I want to know anything you think is important, whether it's health related or not."

Alma was quiet again, nibbling on her fingernails. She closed her eyes for a moment and then began. "I used to be pretty healthy, and I went to the doctor for all my check ups and shots and everything, but then I got bitten by some jackass rogue wolf in an alleyway. And my parents threw me out of the house when they thought I was doing drugs. But really, I was just trying to keep the shifting a secret. So it was then that I actually did start doing drugs. I lived with this guy and we had a lot of fun together. He was also a wolf. I bought some meth from him once and he told me I smelled like him and of course I didn't know what he was talking about, but when he explained, he showed me the really awesome ways to get high as a wolf. But when I got pregnant, he kicked me out. He told me he didn't want anything to do with me, so I've been living off the street, but I just thought, you know, maybe you could help me out? Cause I remember from health class that you're really not supposed to do drugs or drink or shit when you're pregnant and I've been trying really hard not to. But maybe you could check my baby out? Make sure its okay?"

"Of course, Alma. Checking your baby out will be easy and quick. There are a couple of tests I can do right away that will tell me if we need to do more tests. Let me call my nurse in to take some blood from you and while he's doing that we can get all the facts out of the way about the last time you had your period, what drugs you've been doing and when, all that kind of stuff. I think you made a really good decision to come in, because it is clear to me that you have been trying really hard to be a good mother. Now that you're here I can do whatever else you need to help you keep doing that."

Alma flashed me the first smile of the night. I sighed. I had been really worried that she would be more reluctant to open up, but it was clear to me that she really wanted someone to know all the difficult things that were going on in her life. I was happy to be her witness. Elliott took some blood samples and I got all the other more specific info down and we sent her to the bathroom to give us a urine test. I had closed the clinic early that night to work with Elliott on the plague—we were feeling certain that we were very very close to SOME sort of break through—when there had been a knocking at the door. Alma just seemed so desperate, I let her right in and took a break from using an eye dropper to test chemicals on petri dish cultures.

She handed the warm urine container to Elliott and sat back down on the exam table. As he went off to test her blood and urine for various signifiers of fetal distress or anomaly I talked with her, gave her an ultrasound, and took her vitals. I was in the middle of palpating her abdomen when Elliott came back in.

"I'm so sorry Alma, but I had a small accident in the lab and need to take a little more blood."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing serious. I just spilled the sample—it is getting particularly crowded back there. I promise I'll be careful with this one, though," Elliott said with a smile and charmed Alma into happily stretching out her arm again.

I confirmed for Alma that her baby was a little girl, and gave her a little lesson in nutrition and general health.

"It makes sense when you think about it. If you were planting a garden you wouldn't fill it with garbage. Instead you'd do your best to make sure that all the dirt was the best you could find, the water was clear and pure, the plants were fed with rich compost and so on. Right?"

Alma nodded. "Of course."

"So when you're trying to grow a little baby you want to do the same. Think about filling your body, the garden, with the best food you can find, and watering it well. Avoid anything that you think your baby wouldn't want, like drugs, tobacco, etc. If it's hard to do, I can absolutely help you work out a plan for you to try to plant the best possible garden."

"It sounds so easy when you put it like that!" Alma said, smiling. It was lovely to see her smile. I didn't want to give her this pep talk and then send her back out to the streets though—I wouldn't really be changing anything for her. I stepped outside while she tidied up and went to my office to see if I could find some resources for her. Do shelters accept werewolves? How could I get her off the street?

Elliott came rushing around the corner then, this time his eyes wide and almost frantic. "Lana!! Come, come! Quick!"

I jumped up immediately and ran after him. "What? What's happened?"

"Look!" Elliott shouted, leading me into the lab and pointing to a section of petri dishes.

I leaned over and slipped one of the dishes under the microscope. Like every other one I had looked at that day, this dish had a section of infected vampire tissue in it, but unlike any of the others, the bacteria in this one lay still. Unmoving.

"Are they—are those bacteria dead?" I asked, not wanting to hear anything but a resounding YES.

Elliott grinned. "Those are the dishes that I accidentally spilled Alma's blood on! I finished running the tests for her and came back over to clean this stuff up and noticed that they seemed sort of unusual."

"Oh my god. Quick, give me some of your blood." Elliott bit into his wrist and I held a fresh sample under the dripping blood. I watched the sample, but nothing changed.

"I guess that makes sense. Vampire blood does nothing but feed this infection. So its not just blood cells or serum or something like that. It must have to do with the actual composition of Alma's blood. Let me try mine." I held out my wrist to Elliott now and he gently slid his fangs into my vein, letting a slow dribble of my blood fall onto the same dish. We watched in silence, but again, nothing happened.

"So, were blood?" Elliott asked, and I realized that Alma must have been waiting for me in the exam room still. I rushed back over to the room.

"Oh phew, I thought you had forgotten me!" She laughed.

"Well, something huge came up, and I almost did. I was in the middle of trying to find a place for you to stay when Elliott noticed that the blood of yours he spilled had done something amazing." I explained the whole situation to her, and she was baffled. I brought her back to the lab to try again. I held her wrist out to Elliott like I had done with my own, but this time he shook his head and stepped back.

"Sorry Lana. It's nothing about you, Alma. But werewolf blood makes vampires incredibly sick, and my vampire venom can kill werewolves. I'll just have to take her blood by traditional means."

"So do you think that maybe these bugs could be enhanced versions of yourself? Vampires who feed on vampires?" I asked, taking the Alma's blood from a pin prick and squeezing it onto the same sample that had not reacted to either Elliott's or my blood.

"What do you mean by that?" Elliott asked, setting up the microscope.

"I mean, these bugs can only be killed by things that kill vampires: fire and werewolf blood. And they can't be killed by vampire venom or anything like that, because that's what they run off of. Not only that, but they feed off the victim, leeching him or her until they can no longer support themselves. Again, just like a vampire."

"Well, that's not exactly what vampires are like—" Elliott began, but I cut him off. I was on a role now, finally seeing this disease clearly.

"But it IS what vampires could be seen as, to someone who hates them. And that someone would think it was just the perfect revenge to give vampires a taste of their own medicine. That's it! I'm going to call Theo. Alma, can you just wait for me in the lobby? I want to talk about a few more things before you leave."

Alma nodded, so I headed back to my office and called Theo, telling him everything. He was thrilled to hear what we knew, even if we couldn't be sure how we could use the information in the long run. Something he said during the conversation gave me an idea, though, so when I hung up the phone, I pulled out my wallet. There was a business card in there somewhere, and it had Elke, the local were pack's alpha's private phone number on it.

"Hello?" came a groggy voice on the other end of the line. I glanced at the clock, realizing that I had completely forgotten that it was 4:30 am.

"Oh goodness, Elke, I'm so sorry to call you this late. Or, early. I'm just, well, you told me to call if I ever needed anything."

"Who is this?"

"Oh, jeez. It's me, Lana Crane, the doctor who came to see Nora."

"Hi Dr. Crane. It's no problem at all. What's up?"

"Well, I have two favors to ask of you." I quickly explained the plague to her and what we had just discovered. "So, what I wanted to ask you was if we could come to some sort of agreement in which you would allow us the use of some of your pack member's blood to attempt to fight this disease. I know that sounds super sketchy, but I promise that I would only ask for volunteers, I would compensate anyone who volunteered generously, and I would sign all manner of contracts to promise that the blood would only be used in this research, and it would never be used to affect the donor in any way."

Elke was quiet for a moment, but then she sighed. "Yes, I definitely think we can work something out for you. It would be not so much for the vampires, but for you and your research. Maybe in creating these contracts we can work in a little of a peace negotiation, of sorts, between us and the vampires. Something political so that our aide isn't forgotten about after this time of need is over."

"I think that's a great idea! I'll get talking to Theo about it, and see what we can come up with as soon as possible."

"Theodore Wagner? The Prince?"

"Yeah, he and I work pretty closely together these days. I think he would be well disposed to listening to my requests about a peace agreement."

"Well that sounds pretty great. Thank you for understanding my hesitations to give aide."

"Absolutely, Elke. Honestly, I understand quite well. But there was another favor I have to ask of you too, before I let you go back to sleep. Remember the young lady I mentioned whose blood it was that was spilled? Well, she is a were without a pack, turned by a rogue and left to fend for herself. She has been kicked out of her parent's home, kicked out of the home she created with her baby daddy, and now she is completely alone and in definite need of some support. I can't take her back to live with the vampires since it would be awful for everyone involved, and I don't have an apartment of my own right now. Do you think she could stay with you a little while, at least until we find something more permanent for her?"