The First Evil Ch. 03

If Juliet hadn't offered her theory I would probably be panicked right now instead of just confused. Except for some hazy memories that must have occurred more than seventy years ago I'm sure I never did anything with a vampire that would result in my becoming one. If the level of personal contact that I've maintained for thirty years is all that's needed, everyone would be vampires just from handing money to a sales clerk.

"Juliet," her eyes turned to me, staring at me from the comfort of Rachel's embrace and I'd never felt like more of an outsider, "what can I say to convince you that, not only have I not killed anyone in the last decade or so, but I have never done anything, that I can remember, that might result in my becoming a vampire? I'd never even considered that they were real until you started talking since I 'woke up'," suspicion clouded her eyes but also hope which kindled an answering hope in me. Maybe it hadn't all been bullshit and playacting even if it had started that way. Maybe she did actually care some.

"Please, I need to know the rules here and you seem to have some knowledge of what might be happening to me. I swear, on my house, that I have never, knowingly, met a vampire in my entire adult life." she couldn't hide her small smile. My house was my most prized possession and both Rachel and Jules know that I baby it like a pet. She'd never quite understood my attachment to property but she had to acknowledge it. I didn't have anything else to swear on that I cared about unless it was either of their lives. Something told me that wouldn't strike the proper cord with her right now.

"Is that crazy story you told me before really true?" the tiny flicker of hope in her eyes was growing along with confusion.

"May my floors buckle and my roof leak if I'm lying," I might have said more but apparently Rachel was done being talked around.

"This is flipping insane, are you two really trying to convince me that vampires are real? That Rory is one of them. That your mother was one of them. You two better start talking fast or I'm arresting you both on ..." her face was red with anger, "trust me I'll find or figure something out. And what the hell is wrong with your eyes!" I blinked the offending orbs, I guess I had forgotten that my eyes would be a surprise to Rachel in all the rest of what was happening.

V"Umm, nothing that I know of, I see just fine, better than fine actually but this is what my eyes look like, I usually were contacts to hide it," I looked at Jules, "Is this normal, do all vampires," points for me not hesitating over that, "have eyes like mine?"

V v"Not that I've ever seen. Most vamp eyes look normal, like they did when the person was human. Unless they're using power, then they glow some but even then they still have a pupil and an iris a normal color," she glanced over at Rachel to see how she was taking all this non-theoretical talk of the supernatural. Not so good but what could we do?

V"How do you feel? Are you feeling hungry, thirsty, angry, anything?" she was slipping into doctor mode, which was her way of coping with difficulties. I guess she'd had quite a few shocks today too and needed a brain cool down.

I really thought about it, I still wanted that steak but I didn't need it. I'm not particularly parched. However, we both know that that's not the real question she's asking. Am I going to attack her if she comes close to me? Or Rachel? I concentrated on considering it without being insulted. I sniffed the air and drew their scent in through my nose, rolled it around my tongue and tasted it there. They did smell good, there was a scent just beneath the surface of them, sweet and tangy, like unripe strawberries. The kind you have to bite just a little harder but still taste amazing. It did smell tempting, but not anymore than the steak or even a good salad might.

"Yes to the hungry, neutral to the thirsty, no to the angry and a fuck-you-for-thinking-it-of-me for the unasked question. Even if I am some sort of vampire I won't attack you guys. Remember friends don't eat friends," me and Jules smiled at the old joke about me being the only non-lesbian of the group. Our good moment was ruined when I heard footsteps approaching from the opposite direction than where Jules and Rachel had come from.

"There's someone coming, we have maybe ten minutes before we have to be gone from here," both of them turned mildly confused faces to me. Yup I'm sure I'd spoken English, "Hey I'm supposed to be dead. Better a missing body than a resurrected one. I can hear footsteps coming from around the corner. How the hell am I supposed to get out of here inconspicuously in a sheet and no shoes?"

"Sorry, with everything else I just forgot," Jules grabbed the bundle of cloth she'd dropped earlier and shook out two sets of scrubs, which had been wrapped around two pairs of crocs, two bags of blood and an IV kit. I couldn't stop staring at the blood after it slid almost to my feet. I knew just how it would taste from the smell wafting to me through the plastic packaging. Jules' warm hand touched my shoulder making me flinch back and hiss at her from between my new fangs. I don't like unexpected touch, and Jules knows that, but usually my flight is turned up higher than my fight. Just more shit to get used to, I guess.

"Do you want them? They're already gone, it would actually look more suspicious to try and put them back." Her face was as careful as I'd ever seen it and I looked down again at the frosted plastic filled with that red sweetness calling to me. The soft click of dress shoes on linoleum was getting closer.

"Just bring them we don't have time for any additional weirdness right now," I stepped into the utility closet that Juliet had checked for a body earlier, and slipped the scrubs on without any under garments. I felt awkward and exposed. Like everyone could see my body through the thin cotton. I stepped out of the closet and slipped on the comfy plastic shoes while Juliet changed right there in the hall way. I must have looked uncomfortable with my arms crossed high over my breasts because Rachel's sweatshirt was suddenly thrust into my hands. I looked up at her in gratitude.

"Don't mention it. I want answers and we'll never get out of here so I can get them if everybody keeps staring at your tits," she grumbled a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

"Tits? Really babe I'd think you'd be more PC being an officer of the law and all," Juliet's voice was muffled by her dress which she was pulling out of the neck of the scrub shirt but we could both understand her. The last little bit of tension I hadn't realized I'd been holding drifted away. If we could joke this soon there was something to save. Something worth saving.

"Besides we're all invisible next to you anyway," a faint blush stained her cheeks and I smiled wider. I don't know if it's because she's a cop or just not a girly girl but Rachel is the only one I know who's more uptight about her looks than I am. Or, at least as uptight. I couldn't resist poking at it hoping to find out why one of these days, but except for the occasional blush she never minded the ribbing.

I started folding the sheets on the gurney to make it look like an empty bed that had just been moved down here to the morgue area to be out of the way. I pocketed all the paper work from my chart and tossed the clipboard in the trash. Jules tossed her bloody dress on top of it along with the IV kit, the bags of blood were in the pockets of the hoodie I was now wearing.

"Hey! I saw the receipt for that, you better try to get it dry cleaned or something. We don't have money to burn." Rachel grumbled.

"Maybe you don't. Just tell me how I'm supposed to get out of here carrying it covered in blood so that no one sees it. We're trying to be incognito here and I've already raised enough red flags tonight," she was leading us away from the approaching footsteps and back the way they'd come.

I helped us avoid coming into contact with anyone by telling Jules which direction footsteps or voices were coming from. I could probably have closed my eyes and navigated my way out of the corridors with out ever running into another person or a wall. My new hearing was a marvel that I couldn't wait to explore later in less noisy circumstances. The enhanced eyesight, not so much. The harsh greenish tinted fluorescents lining the halls were murder on eyes that I suspect are meant for little or no light. Vampires are nothing if not nocturnal, right?

Hell, maybe I just really don't want better eyesight here. I hate hospitals in the best circumstances, which these aren't. They always make me feel trapped, like one day I'll check into one and never be able to leave. I was born in the days of rampant involuntary commitments especially if the doctors could find a reason to keep you for their own gain.

We had made it outside, exiting near the ambulance bay but from a side entrance so Jules wouldn't get the third degree from the people who see her, and usually Rachel, just about everyday. The scent of fresh air reached me and I felt elation fill me, the same welcoming feeling from before I'd died came back to me and I could again leap tall buildings in a single bound. Who knows maybe I really will be faster than a speeding bullet and all that, couldn't hurt.

The shrill sound of sirens reached out to me from the night hammering at my ear drums. For a moment all I could experience was pain. I pressed my hands to my ears and squinted against the red blue glare surrounding me. The ambulance came to a rocking halt. Doors were thrown open and if I wasn't already squinting for my life I'd have been blinded permanently by the flood of light from inside the cabin. I was turning away when something caught my eye. Jules was trying to pull me away, tugging ineffectively on my arm but I was frozen. I opened my eyes wider despite the pulsing agony burrowing into my brain. I couldn't even see the face of the man on the gurney, but what was left of his leather jacket was now hanging halfway to the ground. The distinctive design on the sleeve was unmistakable.

I strained to see his face and sure enough when the EMT's got the gurney onto the street I saw him. The same too young face now ashen from blood loss that I'd last seen stumble to the ground in front of a convenience store in the club district. He was alive. Sort of.

I felt a lightness fill me as he was wheeled into the hospital. I finally let Juliet begin to lead me away. I could feel the smile stretching my face against the unfamiliar sharpness of my teeth. I sent a prayer to whoever or whatever had saved him. The tiny kernel of darkness I'd unknowingly secreted away was obliterated by the light of my relief. He was alive. His good deed hadn't cost him everything unfairly. I just didn't know what to do with all this pure happiness. I laughed out loud. I need more. I look over at Juliet still gripping my fingers in hers as if I need help crossing wide streets and just have to share the feeling with her. I wrapped my arms around her and spun us both around in a wide circle.

I stopped not even slightly short of breath with the huge smile still splitting my face. Rachel looked confused but with a smile hovering just out of sight as if she'd missed the punch-line but knew the joke would be funny when she heard it. Juliet was looking at me with openmouthed astonishment. I could feel my face fall.

"God what now? I've hugged you before, I've even spun you around before. You laughed and said it was one of the perks of being short. So what? I can't touch you now?" I couldn't help the hurt that sprinkled my voice like acid. Juliet just kept staring at my chest then she grabbed handfuls of the sweatshirt and mashed her face into my boobs. I was too confused to have any of my normal reactions to any even mildly intimate touch.

"Umm Jules, what the hell do you think you're doing molesting our straight best friend on the street right near the hospital we all just barely escaped from?" Rachel looked almost as shocked as me but she was heading toward pissed-off. Juliet just waved at her in the universal hand signal for shut-the-fuck-up-I'm-busy and waggled her head till her ear was pressed against my sternum. Her concentration was so intense that neither Rachel or I realized that we were just watching her in silence till she stood up straight and put two fingers against the thick vein at the side of my neck. I blinked away the spell she'd unwittingly cast.

"Boots, since you're done feeling me up you mind buying me a drink or maybe at least telling me what it is you're looking for."

"You," she swallowed and started again, "you have a pulse," she sounded so astonished by that I started to raise my fingers to my own neck before I caught myself.

"Yes, we've established I'm alive, aren't I supposed to have a beating heart," I said it with a sneer. I couldn't help it, sarcasm is my weakness. I don't always even intend it but my sense of humor tends to laugh at more than with. Guess Jules didn't get the joke because she was shaking her head.

"No. Not if you're a vampire you're not. Vampires have no pulse, their hearts don't beat," she looked like she wanted to say more but had finally remembered our surroundings. I was confused again. It's becoming an uncomfortably familiar feeling.

"I don't understand. I came back from the dead, I have fangs and I'm healed. Brand new," I let out an exasperated breath to disguise how upset I am, "Are you saying I'm not a vampire now because my heart is beating?" I tried not to let panic overwhelm me. I hate not understanding even more than not knowing. Yes there is a great deal of difference between understanding and simply knowing.

"Aurora, I'm saying I don't know what you are. You're already so far outside the parameters of what I keep expecting I'm just going to stop assuming I know the answers here. You know what I want to do is go run some tests," she interrupted herself at my not-a-chance-in-hell face, "but I know we won't be doing that. Without the lab work it's all just guess work."

I stared down at her face with it's sprinkling of cinnamon freckles across the bridge of her nose and tried to focus on that, on her. On now. I won't look into the yawning abyss of uncertainty beneath my feet. I won't question what the hell I'm doing here. I concentrated on the face of that man getting wheeled into the hospital and on my memory of the beacons standing sentinel against the encroaching dark. I trusted in the presence I'd felt earlier. A faint sense of warmth and encouragement filled me. I guess that was the right choice.

That was my last coherent thought before a giant snarling ball of fur and teeth rolled me away into the darkness.