On the Edge of Humanity (29 page)

Dr. Vieira was waiting outside the door. “I have the room ready. We’ll be using the one next to my office.”

“Does this mean that my blood type and all the other genetic things match up with Sam’s like my father said it should?” I asked.

“It’s a perfect match,” he replied.

“So, how did you get Sam’s blood?” I asked.

He kept walking and said, “That’s classified.”

Great. No one was going to tell me anything. “Can you at least tell me what I’m going to go through?”

Dr. Vieira stopped in front of the room and waved his hand, gesturing me to go in. “In due time.”

Unlike Ben’s room with a glass pane looking in, this room didn’t have a window, which meant I wouldn’t be on display. Relief washed over me for the moment. I didn’t want people watching whatever hell I was going to go through.

I walked into the large room and a twin bed sat on the left side surrounded by a heart monitor, an IV stand, blood pressure device and defibrillator. On the right, in-between us and another twin bed was a table with needles, syringes, a stethoscope and several empty vials. The set up was far from comforting.

“There’s sweatpants and t-shirt on the chair in the corner. Change into them, then have a seat on the bed. I’ll be back in five minutes and we’ll get started.” Dr. Vieira walked out, closing the door behind him.

My pulse quickened. I stood near the door afraid to go any farther. Was I making the right decision? Part of me said yes and the other part of me screamed no. I didn’t know which one to listen to, but I couldn’t waver anymore. I had analyzed the why’s and why not’s, had put myself in Sam’s shoes and had thought through how Sam would react to his new vampire life and what he would do for me. Each time I kept hearing Sam’s voice in my head.
You have to take care of yourself, Jo.
I didn’t know if Sam wanted a life of immortality, but he would do anything to save me. Still, to take away his humanity shouldn’t be my decision.

I leaned against the wall and grabbed the doorknob, holding on as if my life depended on it—a last chance to save my soul.

The air inside became suffocating. I looked up at the ceiling for some sort of sign. While I wanted to run, a voice inside me kept telling me,
Sam needs you
. It was the only thing keeping me here.

I mustered up all the courage I could find, let go of the doorknob and changed into the sweatpants and the t-shirt before I collapsed in the chair. The plush, oversized recliner swallowed me as I leaned back and closed my eyes. I started to drift off when Dr. Vieira walked in, clipboard in hand, followed by my dad who was holding what looked to be an opaque glass container with red liquid in it, which I imagined was his blood.

I didn’t move from the chair. Dr. Vieira and my dad exchanged looks, then my father nodded. I guessed Dr. Vieira was waiting for him to give the command.

“The first part of this is simple. I’ll prep you by inserting an IV, attach the nodes for the heart monitor, then set up the blood pressure machine. Second, you’ll be giving me twenty percent of your system’s blood. This will help with less vomiting and allow room for the blood you’ll drink and for regenerating more of the mixture between your dad’s blood and your own. Then you’ll drink the pint of blood that your father is holding.” Dr. Vieira stared at me, waiting for me to do or say something.

“Okay. But you know I’ll just puke it up like I did last time when I drank the box of blood.”

My father gave Dr. Vieira a puzzled look, but Dr. Vieira ignored him.

“I know, but that’s what the IV solution is for. It’ll help keep the fluids in you and it also has a solution to slow down the vomiting,” Dr. Vieira explained.

My heart raced. I would rather be listening to Ms. Costner tell us about Pythagoras and his three worlds then be here with some vampire doctor lecturing me on the origins of his species.

“After that, we wait. The process should take twenty-four to no more than forty-eight hours. It will all depend on how your body reacts to all this. The test results show that you and Sam match perfectly and that your father is your biological father. Are we clear?”

What does he want me to say? Yes, I can’t wait to have fangs and drink blood?

I nodded.

“Jo, I’ll be here the entire time,” my father added.

How appropriate. The man from hell was going to watch me go through hell—yippee.

“Um, physical changes?” I asked.

“Sure. Without getting technical, dizziness, stomach pain, maybe some feeling of claustrophobia, your body may feel itchy and you’ll more than likely experience head and gum pain. There are a lot of internal changes taking place and each person is different in the way they experience and feel it,” Dr. Vieira said as he adjusted the IV stand and turned on the monitor. “Are you ready?”

I laughed nervously. I was ready, but not to become part of the undead society so much as to run to the other end of the earth, away from vampires. As if by magic, my legs unfolded and I stood up and turned to look at the door.

“Don’t do it, young lady. You made your decision. I’ll be here with you every step of the way,” my father said.

I sighed and walked over to Dr. Vieira. I didn’t want to be near my father right now. Sure, I was comforted by his hug earlier, by the tears he shed, but that didn’t mean he was out of the woods just yet. Plus, I suspected he was trying everything he could to make this easy for me—and there was nothing easy about it. My humanity was about to be stripped away from me.

I reluctantly climbed into bed and laid my head back onto the pillow. Dr. Vieira started inserting needles into my hand and arm. Then he wrapped the blood pressure pad around my other arm while my dad pulled off the backing from the self-adhesive pads and pressed them on my chest. The heart monitor came to life and I was reminded of the day I woke up in the hospital over a week ago. It was the first time I had ever been in a hospital and where my life changed forever.

With all the needles, electrodes and machines working, my father poured his blood in a tall glass then set it on the table. The heart monitor chirped non-stop. Sweat peppered my forehead and the blood pressure machine beeped. The smell of blood filtered in the air and my nostrils flared, the scent making my tongue tingle. My mouth suddenly became dry.

“It’ll be okay. Breathe,” Dr. Vieira whispered. “I want you to squeeze this tube, so the blood pumps into the bag. I need two bags.”

My father looked at Dr. Vieira. “She okay?”

“Your daughter, I believe has been experiencing some early signs. You know, the normal ones that teenagers of vampire descent go through. Hers seem to be stronger than most, which may speed up the change.”

I almost laughed. There was that word again:
normal
. This wasn’t normal. Nothing about this was normal.

I lay there watching the blood flow through the tube into the bag and thought about Sam. Was this what it was like to lie in a bed and have someone drain all the blood out of him? I silently recited the Lord’s Prayer, hoping it would help not only me, but Sam as well.

Forty-five minutes later Dr. Vieira had two pints of my human blood. It was time to drink. I sat up and became dizzy, the room spinning. My pulse was in overdrive and I hadn’t even touched the blood. I was hosed.

Dr. Vieira sat beside me. “I want you to drink it slowly. If you drink it too fast, you’ll pass out.” Then he nodded to my father who placed the tall glass of blood in my hands.

I stared at it, trying to drum up the courage to bring it to my lips, the aroma prickling my senses, but my brain didn’t follow suit.

Then my father inserted a straw.

Yeah, that’s not going to help me.

I took a deep breath, covered the straw with my lips, closed my eyes and sucked. The first sip exploded in my mouth, the texture thick. The taste was sweet with a hint of salt. Dr. Vieira told me to drink it slowly, but all of sudden I wanted to drain the glass dry. I began sucking on the straw as fast I could. My cheeks caved in as I savored every mouthful. Suddenly, my father pulled it away from me.

I opened my eyes in protest.

“Slow down. Do you want to get sick?” my father asked.

Like a baby attached to her bottle, I pulled the glass back from him.

“I feel fine,” I countered.

Dr. Vieira looked at me in horror. What did I do? He told me to drink the blood, so I did, although my head hurt as if I had a brain freeze from sucking in an ice-cold milkshake.

“How are you feeling?” Dr. Vieira asked. He examined the monitor and all my vital signs were good, at least from what I could tell.

“Just a little lightheaded.” I raised the glass and sipped again through the straw, slowly this time. I had a feeling I was going to be a crazed vampire, always wanting blood. “What happens after the change? Will I always crave blood like this?”

Dr. Vieira looked at my father.

“That will depend, honey. It might be tough for you or it might be easy. It’s hard to tell. Some newborns have a constant craving, so we need to watch them closely. Take certain precautions. Others seem to moderate their intake better, not crave it as much,” my father explained.

Boy, what kind of answer was that? It sounded a bit like gibberish to me.

I sipped the rest of the glass, finishing it all as if I was slurping the last of my milkshake, and I wanted more.

My father sat on the other twin bed studying me. I couldn’t tell if he was amazed, frightened or in shock about my reaction to the blood. I imagined he was probably determining what kind of vampire I would be. I had the same question, but I wasn’t ready for the true answer.

I handed the glass to Dr. Vieira and asked, “Now what?”

“We wait. Do you feel the need to throw-up?”

The dizziness had slowed, almost stopped. My stomach wasn’t upset, which I imagined was a good sign. Maybe whatever Dr. Vieira put in my IV was helping the queasiness.

“I do feel a little tired.”

Dr. Vieira scribbled on his clipboard. He checked the monitor, then the blood pressure machine. He set down his clipboard, inserted the stethoscope’s earpieces in his ears, lifted up my t-shirt and placed the chest piece on my stomach. He stood over me, listening as he moved the scope around my navel. When he finished, he pulled out the earpieces, then jotted on his clipboard.

“Did you hear anything?” I asked.

“No. Everything seems normal.” He looked at his watch. “I need to step out. Why don’t you try and sleep? Your father will be here with you in case you need something. I’ll return in a couple of hours,” he said.

“When I wake up, will I have changed?” I asked.

“We’ll see. It’s hard to tell.” Then he turned to my father. “Commander, may I speak to you outside?”

My father followed Dr. Vieira out into the lab.

It had been a long day. I stared at the ceiling. How long would this take? Would it even work? Maybe when I woke up I would still be human.

My eyes popped opened. I grabbed my stomach and curled myself into a ball. My insides burned with every organ inside me screaming to get out. My whole body cramped and tightened from my sternum down to my legs. Sweat ran down my back and the sides of my face. What was happening to me? I closed my eyes, then opened them again. A noise beeped beside me, a loud noise that had me cringing in pain. I moved my hands from my stomach to my ears, trying to quell the loud sound that was driving me insane. Then another intense cramp wracked my insides. My stomach lurched and I heaved, but nothing came out. Something cold touched my forehead. I looked up, but my blurred vision didn’t allow me to see who was next to me. I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Please make the sound stop—please,” I called out as I pressed my hands against my ears.

“Jo? This is Dr. Vieira. Do you know where you are?”

I craned my neck to look at the man standing over me. I knew his voice, the name, but I couldn’t see him. I blinked a few more times, trying to clear the haze that covered my eyes. When I opened them, Dr. Vieira was peering down at me.

The pain ramped up again, grabbing hold of my stomach, this time more intensely. I shifted my hands from my head to my abdomen. A fire rushed through my veins and, suddenly, my throat burned.

“What’s happening to me?” I screamed.

“Jo, you’re going through the change,” Dr. Vieira said as he wiped my face with a cold compress.

“Make the pain go away. Please!” I cried out.

The burning intensified, snaking through every organ and vein inside me, itching for release. I closed and opened my eyes, then closed them again, the light above me burning down like I was touching the sun.

“The light, make it go away.”

“Jo, can you hear me? Honey, it’s me, your dad. Only a little while longer, then the pain will subside,” he said as he rubbed my sweat-soaked back.

The pain diminished and I took in a breath. The sweet smell of cinnamon hit me. The aroma intensified as a familiar female voice filled the room.

“How is she?” Kate asked.

“Not now. You shouldn’t be in here,” Dr. Vieira said.

“We’re twelve hours into it. She just woke up. She should fall back to sleep soon,” my father explained.