Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (26 page)

Lilith frowned and sank down on another of the black padded stools. “It was stashed in a safe place. Why? What’s so special about it?”

“What’s so special?” The doctor’s thin mouth hung open like a wide mouth bass. His eyes were just creepy now, like staring at a mad scientist right on the edge of snapping. Lilith shifted back on the stool, suddenly not wanting to be too close. Bad things happened when brilliant minds snapped. It was pretty much the basis of every monster movie in the 50’s. “There are two strands of DNA in that blood!” He surged to his feet, over-emphazing his statement.

“Well that’s not that uncommon if
a vampire’s recently fed.” She crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at the mad doctor. “Blood from the donor sometimes mixes with the vampire and it takes time for it to acclimate to its new host.”

The sound he made was somewhere between a growl and a snort of contempt. “Would I be so excited about that?
I am not some gibbering janitor playing doctor! I know how the transfusions work!” When Lilith merely shrugged, he decided to explain. “Do I really have to explain everything? You’re a forensic examiner. Surely you’ve taken Biology classes.”

Her eyes narrowed at the infuriated look on his face. “Of course, but they were fairly rudimentary. I didn’t really study DNA structures to that extent.
I process crime scenes. I know enough about DNA to do my job. That’s it.”

With an over dramatic sigh, Dr. Fredrick
Nichols, as his badge stated, sunk his bony form back down on the chair. His back straightened, his slightly long chin tilting toward the ceiling. Very purposefully, he cleared his throat and began his lecture. "As you should know…” No one could miss the patronizing tone in his voice. “DNA’s main role is the long term storage of information, a blueprint. It contains instructions needed to construct components of cells such as RNA molecules and proteins. How the DNA is packaged in chromosomes influences the expression of genes.”

“The point?
In English?” Lilith leaned against the counter rubbing at her temple.

His beady little eyes narrowed at her and he slapped the counter so hard that she jumped in her seat, startled. “I am explaining in English. Pay attention.” The odds of her avoiding the biology lectures seemed to be slim to none. She very simply nodded and Fredrick surged on.

“With regions that have low or no gene expression that usually contain high levels of methylation of cytosine bases, modifications can be involved in the packaging.” When she simply looked blank, he grunted. “For instance, cytosine methylation produces 5-methylcytosine which is crucial for X-chromosome inactivation.”  He didn’t see the look of dawning realization that he wanted so he sighed and tried again. “It’s what allows boys to be born. It suppresses the second X chromosome?”

Lilith finally nodded. “I still don’t see what this has to do with our blood sample. I need answers not lectures.”

Apparently the mad scientist decided to ignore her protests. As he started rambling she wondered what kind of parents actually named their kid Fredrick. Probably the same ones that beat a kid for bringing home anything short of an A+. “When mutagens fit into space between base pairs, intercalation, the bases separate, distorting the DNA strands by unwinding the double helix. It inhibits both transcription and DNA replication, which causes toxicity and mutations. Now, in our species, this is similar to our structure. The watered down half-bloods appear to suffer from Thalassemia. The DNA structure is mostly human with mutations shoved into the cracks. In purebloods, such as yourself, it is more smoothly integrated into your DNA strands.”

“Fredrick. What does this have to do with the blood sample? It’s fascinating
, truly, but I really need answers.”

“I am trying to give you answers. The sample is absolutely unique, because
it contains two separate DNA strands, completely intact, spliced together. The dominant strand has fused itself to the other double helix by infiltrating the spaces between base pairs.”

Her brow furrowed and she looked up at him sharply. “How is that possible?”

A wild grin split across his face. “It isn’t! That’s the point! This is completely impossible! It’s exactly how our mutations attach to our DNA, but in this case the mutagen is an intact DNA strand of another person! It defies physics, defies everything we have known. The possibilities of this sample are simply endless.”

Lilith sighed in frustration and pushed off the stool to pace the space between lab tables. “Well it can’t be completely impossible if it’s sitting right in front of you, can it?”

Dr. Nichols scowled at her and the look made him appear twice his age. “It changes everything. There is no scientific explanation for how it could be possible. You have to tell me where you found this!”

Telling the mad scientist where she’d found the vial wouldn’t help. He didn’t know anything about her family’s history. Hell she was a member of it and didn’t know enough to even give her a clue what this could mean. It could have to do with this family secret of Gregor and Duncan’s or it could have nothing to do with it. It’s entirely possible that Duncan just crammed a bunch of valuables in one box
that were all unrelated.

“I already told you.
It was stashed someplace safe.” Lilith sunk down onto a stool and leaned heavily against the table. “Just more fucking questions and no damn answers.” She glanced up at Dr. Nichols. “So you have no theories on how this could have happened?”

The doc definitely bristled at that, sitting up straight,
sharp chin lifted once again. This time it wasn’t the stance of the aristocratic teacher, it was all defensive pride. “I’m still working the samples. Once I have DNA results and can hopefully identify the two different double helixes, then perhaps I’ll have a better idea.”

“When do you think you’ll have those results?”

“In a couple hours.”

Lilith nodded, deep in thought. Then something occurred to her. “Do they both have the vampire markers?”

“Well that is another of the oddities. One strand has extremely strong vampire markers, the one that seems to have attached itself onto the other. Now the other one…” He whipped his stool around and stared into the microscope. “It has markers, but they are the strangest I’ve ever seen. It’s almost as if the markers on the strong strand left impressions that sunk into the weaker strain. It’s not possible of course, but then this entire sample isn’t possible. It’s like looking at the mirror image of a mutagen and not the actual thing itself. Not to mention several other markers that I have never seen before.”

She just couldn’t seem to wrap her brain around that one. “So the original st
rand may be human or it could be something else entirely?”

His thin face frowned with impossibly deep lines. “I suppose it could be possible, but it’s definitely not human now. It’s not purely vampire either, it’s… well it’s simply unique. That’s the only way I can put it.”

Lilith rubbed at her face in frustration with a little groan escaping her lips. “What about the other sample? The swab that I left for you?”

“Oh that.” His tone
clearly indicated that he couldn’t be less interested. “It’s nothing of any importance, classic vampire markers, strong ones. DNA will be back on that one soon as well. I’m running it through the database right now.” He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and returned to staring into the powerful microscope.

She dragged herself off the chair since Dr.
Nichols was obviously done sharing his insights for now. “I’ve got to check on a couple things in cold storage and do some work in the lab over there. Let me know when the DNA workups are complete.”

He simply waved a
boney, dismissive hand at her, not even bothering to unglue his eyes from the microscope much less say anything.

Lilith was walking down the sterile hallway when her cell phone echoed loud enough to wake the dead. She jumped and quickly fished it out of her pocket, answering it before Dr.
Nichols could yell at her for disturbing the peace.

“Lilith?
You there?”

She jostled the phone in between her cheek and her shoulder as she opened the door to the Cold Storage Lab. “Spencer? Where the hell have you been?
Why didn’t you show up at the apartment or at least call?”

“Yes, Mom.”
His sarcastic tone held no humor at all. Chance making the same comment would have made her laugh, Spencer just pissed her off. “I was going through all of Malachi’s real estate records. I didn’t want to exactly alert every house around that someone was in there.”

“There is such a thing as silent mode and text message you know.” Something about it all just really nagged at her, but it was like trying to remember a date, the harder she thought about it, the further away it seemed.

“I was busy. Christ, Lilith. I’m trying to help. I didn’t find anything on Phipps Bend. If Malachi was looking into it, there are no records in his office about it. I was going to drive out there, but thought I’d check in with you and Chance first. If I’d known I was gonna get my damn head chewed off I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“Your father is
missing; your brother-in-law and your sister are both dead. We were starting to think that you were missing too. I’m sorry for snapping, but I can’t play babysitter.”

“You don’t think I know that? I can take care of myself. You’re the one that seems to have a problem
staying out of harm’s way. Anyway...” Totally dismissing everything as if it was completely inconsequential. “Do you guys have anything at all?”

“The police came by the apartment this morning and took us downtown for our statements. They have Chance in holding for twenty four hours or until they can confirm our stories. They’re probably looking for you, Spencer. I’m sure they’ll want to take your statement. If we play nice with the cops, maybe we can avoid some of the complications.”

“Well fuck. So you’re all alone right now?”

“Not exactly.
I’m at the lab.” During the day they seemed to run on a skeleton crew. Blood Analysis was home to half a dozen scientists last night, but today only Dr. Nichols was still working, with Coffee still guarding the front door. “I found a few blood samples I needed analyzed for DNA. I also discovered a slip of paper in Miriah’s pocket. It’s pretty soaked but I’m going to take a closer look at it.”

“So you have some blood and a scrap of paper? Dammit, we need to find my father before he ends up just like Miriah.” There was so much anger in his voice that it crackled over her phone. It wasn’t directed at her, more like venting extreme frustration.

“Well I’m hoping they will tell me something. The paper is kinda thick, reminds me of a ticket or something. I’ll need to get it under an infrared light and magnifying glass to be certain.” A thought occurred to her. “Hey have Malachi and Miriah been to New York recently? I mean besides Malachi winding up there?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“It’s just that I found a suitcase just inside the closet door with a luggage tag from Knoxville to New York on the handle. I couldn’t read the date on it.”

“Well I don’t know. Miriah did lots of things for my dad,
Malachi too. Maybe they did. I don’t really…didn’t really talk to them much.” Spencer rephrasing that sentence to past tense made her chest tighten. They were both dead. Sometimes she had a hard time remembering that and sometimes she really wished she could just forget.

“It was just a thought. You should head over to the Police Station. The Detectives in charge are Cohen and Whitmore. Be careful around Cohen. He knows something.” She’d have to remember to ask Coffee if he knew anything about the almost handsome Detective.

“Yeah I’ll head there now.” Spencer didn’t waste any time on pleasantries, he simply hung up. She shoved the phone back in her pocket and looked around.

The cold storage lab was thankfully empty of the dozen or so silent workers that had been
there the night before. There were four long black lab tables, like you’d see in a science room, complete with oversized sinks. Utility shelves in the back of the room held a wide range of chemicals in various forms and another set on the adjoining wall held an array of equipment. She should have everything she needed right here.

Lilith pulled open the giant walk-in freezer and pulled out her cooler as well as the bags of clothes. What to do first? She stared at the contents of the cooler and realized her growing headache was getting worse. She’d popped a couple of the pills first thing in the morning, but the stress of the day was wearing on her. When in doubt, take care of yourself first.

She filled one of the huge sinks with steaming hot water and lowered one of the blood packs into it. When you didn’t have a microwave, it was a nice safe way to warm it. In some ways it was actually better. Unlike a microwave, it didn’t damage any of the cells because it gradually brought it up to a decent temperature, rather than frying it.

While she was waiting on that, she pulled all their clothes out of the large plastic bags. Chance’s uniquely rich scent filled his clothes and brought a smile to her lips which quickly disappeared. He was probably still sitting in that interrogation room. Detective Cohen probably hadn’t even told him that she’d been released.
Part her hoped that he hadn’t told him. Lilith just knew he’d be driving himself nuts, his nerves twisting up like a top, ready to spin out of control, if he knew she was out here, alone. She pushed the thought away and took the clothes over to another large sink to soak in hot water. Once the blood on them was weakened, she could throw them into a sanitizing solution and run them through a washing machine. Good as new.