16. The Secrets of Forever #2
Nicolette let go of my hand and tapped her finger against her perfectly pouty lip, forgetting the movie and popcorn altogether.
“Does he know which receptor? What protein activates it? And why does my mother’s plasma therapy work better than blood?
Is the mutation dominant, recessive, viral, or epigenetic? ”
She didn’t give me time to answer. She seemed to be in her own world, theories firing faster than she could voice them.
“If the receptor is binding to something human specific, it’s probably one of the heme-related plasma proteins.
Hemopexin, haptoglobin, maybe even a transferrin variant.
My mom studied all of them for her porphyria work.
If I can compare your plasma to ours, I might be able to pinpoint the exact mutation. ”
Nicolette let out a huge breath and rested her head on my shoulder as if all her thoughts had exhausted her. I doubted she even realized what she’d done. But I enjoyed it all the same. I wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head.
“This is exciting, Julian. Now tell me how you believe vampires came into existence. What are the real legends and myths? None of this ‘cursed corpses’ or ‘died by suicide’ nonsense. Or have you heard the one where they think the first vampire was Judas from the Bible? And tell me the oldest vampire you know. Can I interview them?”
Her enthusiasm made me chuckle, and for a moment, she quelled the monster in me that had been on the verge of surfacing. “To be honest, no one in my world knows for certain how we came to exist. But there is a story among our kind that is very similar to Adam and Eve’s in the Bible.”
“Really?” She snuggled closer, showing none of her usual I can’t control myself around you tendencies.
“Yes. It’s an ancient story. Some among us believe that Adam and Eve took seeds from the fruit of the Tree of Life when they were cast out of the Garden and planted them in the world.
But their seeds bore only one tree, and its fruit was so disfigured that they forbade any of their children to eat it.
Yet a son named Elezear partook of the fruit, granting him immortality like his parents once had. ”
“But the fruit was corrupt, and he began to lust for blood. Ashamed, he hid himself for centuries, feeding only at night. Until he fell in love with a beautiful woman, Jael. She was kind enough to share her blood freely with him. As the story goes, one night his bloodlust overwhelmed him, and he nearly took her life. But he realized the bite marks on her had begun to heal. When she awoke, she was like him—frozen in the state in which she’d died, but perfected. Unnaturally beautiful.”
Nicolette gasped. “He made her a vampire. But how?”
She’d asked me this before, and I’d always hesitated. But in this intimate moment, I couldn’t hold the truth from her. I didn’t want to. I wanted her to know all of me, just as I longed to know all of her.
“Our fangs—since that is what you insist on calling them—secrete, shall we say, different compounds depending on our intent. One induces the turning process. The other . . . is lethal.”
Her head snapped up, eyes wide with fascination rather than fear. “You’re saying you can choose? How does that work? And can I get a sample of both secretions?”
Oh, hell. I should have anticipated that.
My family would be apoplectic if I gave her access to the one substance that could unquestionably kill us.
It wasn’t that humans couldn’t kill us; they simply weren’t fast enough or strong enough to manage it.
Even a bullet was more nuisance than threat—we could dodge it or survive it.
The only certain way to end one of my kind was to sever the head, which was impossible for a human to do considering our advanced reflexes, or to receive a kill bite from another vampire.
“Is giving you my blood not enough?” I asked dryly.
“But your secretions obviously have some kind of healing property given your story. Assuming there is some truth to it. Do you know what that could mean to the medical community?”
“Yes, the secretions can heal in small doses. But, Nicolette, no one in my world—myself included save for what you and I are doing—wishes to become a scientific experiment. Do you realize how that would expose us? And how dangerous that would be for you? Look at the danger you’re already in.”
“You’re right. It was callous of me to ask. It’s just . . . my mother’s and my life’s work have been to help people. To heal them.”
I traced a finger down her cheek, now warm with embarrassment. “That is a noble calling. Truly. But I cannot expose my family like that. And that includes you. I already fear the danger I’m placing you in simply by giving you my blood.”
“Okay, fine. No fang juice.” She laughed.
“You’re ridiculous and wonderful.”
She bit her lip. “Julian, do you believe the story about Elezear and Jael?”
“I believe there are many things in this world that cannot be explained by reason and science alone. And there are some among my kind, including my parents, who claim Elezear and Jael still live.”
Her mouth fell open.
I gently tipped it closed with my finger. “Please don’t ask to interview them,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes and settled back against me. “Tell me more stories about your life. All the interesting times you lived through and all the fascinating people you’ve met.”
I drew her closer, letting my fingers drift down her arm as I considered her request. In truth, I wasn’t sure I had ever met anyone more fascinating than the woman in my arms.
My wife.