Chapter 15
“I’ve never heard anything more preposterous than the idea that a vampire is haunting your city,” Dr. Gardner muttered before taking a sip of his brandy.
The four of them had returned to Dr. Murnau’s office. The two women sat in the comfortable chairs while Dr. Murnau sat behind his desk. Dr. Gardner sat on the desk for a moment before getting up to pace.
“I assure you I didn’t come to this conclusion lightly,” Dr. Murnau said carefully. “If I thought it could be anything else, I wouldn’t have had to contact you.”
“Still,” Mrs. Montgomery started. “You have to know that vampires sound…extreme. There are all kinds of illnesses we don’t have names for yet. Likely this is something that hasn’t been discovered.”
“Perhaps vampirism is that undiscovered illness.”
Mrs. Montgomery snorted. “Vampires are a fairytale. An explanation from a more primitive time when things couldn’t be explained. We have science and reason now.”
“I know you are under a lot of stress,” Dr. Gardner said, ceasing his pacing to face Dr. Murnau.
“It can’t be easy having to shepherd your people through such a violent illness, but Mrs. Montgomery and I are here now.
Between all of us, we can figure out what is affecting your village and how to cure it. ”
“How do you suggest curing that?” Dr. Murnau snapped, pointing towards the ward they left behind.
“Have you ever seen any sickness present like that? Patients smoking in sunlight? Being sick all day while somehow improving at night until they make a sharp downturn no one can explain. When the only thing you can definitely tell is happening to them is that they’re losing blood, but you don’t know how? ”
“No,” Dr. Gardner said before turning to Caroline. “What do you think about this vampire business?”
“Me?” Caroline squeaked; she had been a silent participant and didn’t expect anyone to speak to her.
“Yes,” Dr. Gardner said. His gaze wasn’t unkind, but it was intense as he stared at her with his dark brown eyes.
“I’m not a doctor or any kind of medical professional.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t have any insight,” Mrs. Montgomery said. Her voice was harsh, but she didn’t seem unkind either, only abrupt.
“I agree that the idea of vampires is preposterous,” she started, carefully choosing her words. “But it also somehow makes sense from what we know about folklore. I don’t have to imagine what this sounds like from the outside, but something deep inside me says I’m right.”
“Like it’s a primal conclusion,” Dr. Murnau said quietly.
Caroline looked at him and nodded. Their eyes met, and she could see how tired he was, but he was grateful she arrived at the same conclusion. Even if they were the only two who believed, at least they both believed in one another.
“I can’t go off of your primal feelings.” Dr. Gardner shook his head. “I will acquiesce that something is happening here, and I promise to figure out what the disease is and how to treat it.”
“And it will be an alternative to vampires,” Mrs. Montgomery added.
“In the meantime, Mrs. Montgomery and I will collect both your vitals and the vitals of your patients so we can start our diagnosis process.”
“But Dr. Murnau and I aren’t sick.” Caroline frowned. She was glad Dr. Murnau had more help, but she wasn’t sure how useful they were if they weren’t willing to believe what was happening. Though it would be easier for her life if it turned out there wasn’t a vampire after all.
“Then the data will be useful for a control group,” Mrs. Montgomery said, her face softening. “It’s best if we face this aggressively. The sooner we diagnose, the sooner we can treat.”
“And hopefully this is something that can be treated after all,” Dr. Murnau said with a fierce frown.
“Would it even be possible to treat vampirism?” Mrs. Montgomery screwed up her face before continuing. “Not that I’m really entertaining the idea that vampires are behind the illness here.”
“We’ll have to kill the vampire, of course.”
“What?” Caroline’s stomach turned, but she didn’t know why she was surprised at that logical course of action. “How will that help our patients? Shouldn’t we be looking for a cure?”
“Any cure would be for our patients, not the vampire itself. In the research I have done so far, there is no cure for the vampire. Only death.”
* * *
It was nearly sunset by the time Caroline arrived home. It was still early spring, so the days weren’t nearly as long as she would have liked, but at least this hadn’t happened at the height of winter when there were few hours of precious daylight. Every day was a little longer.
Though thinking of the vampire as evil didn’t quite feel right. Certainly murder was wrong, and she didn’t like the idea of stealing blood from someone, but she also couldn’t reconcile Valeria being evil. Even if she was killing people. Perhaps she had a good reason?
Though she couldn’t think of a justification for Nelly’s death.
As she hit the second-floor landing, she hesitated.
Valeria would still be asleep, but she itched to see her.
Last night had been transcendent, but she couldn’t afford for it to happen again.
She was still engaged to Edgar. Even if their union wasn’t born out of love, he still deserved her fidelity.
Caroline did need to speak with her, though. She had danced around her belief that Valeria was the vampire they looked for. Whenever they were apart, that fear nearly consumed her, but the moment Valeria was in her presence, those fears melted away until all that remained was her desire.
At least she still had enough of a sense of preservation to have stopped Valeria before her teeth were in her neck. At least not until she knew if Valeria was a vampire.
With a sigh, Caroline turned down the hallway to Valeria’s room.
Sunset was approaching quickly enough that it wouldn’t be long until she was awake.
She didn’t bother opening the door slowly; it didn’t matter that Valeria was asleep or that the door squeaked.
Nothing would wake Valeria up during the day.
Caroline stilled in the doorway. That was strange.
She was a heavy sleeper, but she could still be roused.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t wake up Valeria.
Part of her wanted to run away and lock herself into her room while her houseguest wasn’t a threat, but she needed to know for certain.
This was Valeria, not some hypothetical monster.
Even though it was a violation of her trust, Caroline knew what she needed to do.
The room was pitch black, without even the soft glow of a single candle.
If this hadn’t been a room Caroline had known her entire life, she wouldn’t have been able to reach the drapes.
She would have stumbled into the armoire or the corner of the bed.
Before she thought better of it, she tore open the drapes.
It wasn’t the violent reveal of the sun as it was when Dr. Murnau did it during the apex of the day. The light this close to sunset was dim as the last golden rays of sunlight had almost dipped beneath the horizon. It barely counted as sunlight.
Valeria’s skin instantly smoked, even worse than the patient who had been exposed to the full midday sun.
There were no visible flames, but there was a sizzling sound that made her stomach turn.
It sounded like when Cook had a pig roast. Unlike the patient earlier, Valeria didn’t scream or even open up her eyes.
She kept completely still as she burned.
Caroline dropped the curtain and ran to the bed. The dim light from the hallway didn’t illuminate much, but she could see Valeria’s light pink skin as she ran her hands over her, checking for burns, but not finding any. Just unblemished skin that felt cool.
“What are you doing?”
Caroline’s panic stuttered as she looked up to see Valeria blinking confusedly at her. Her skin wasn’t smoking, and her color had returned to its usual pale olive. With lightning-fast reflexes, Valeria grabbed her wrist before she could pull it away.
“You were smoking; I was checking you for injuries.”
“Smoking.” Valeria frowned, her eyebrows stitched together until the expression melted from her face and a frosty look replaced it. “Did you let sunlight into this room?”
“Yes, but only for a moment, right before sunset.”
“You could have killed me,” she hissed, her brown eyes sharp and her face contorted into a mask of anger unlike any Caroline had ever seen. “I only ever gave you one instruction: that I can never be exposed to sunlight.”
“I’m sorry.” Caroline cringed back, but Valeria’s grip on her tightened so she couldn’t escape. “I was only trying to see something. I was at Dr. Murnau’s—”
“You’re still visiting with that quack? I told you I don’t want to be seen by him. You shouldn’t even be going to see him anymore. All he does is fill your mind with nonsense.”
“He has done nothing of the sort.” Valeria’s grip on her may have been tight, but Caroline could easily wrench away her wrist. “He’s only trying to help. There’s an awful sickness going through the village right now. People are dying.”
“And how is that my problem?” Valeria snapped. “Am I to be blamed for all the ills of the world?”
“No, but you must see how I could be a little curious. You’ve been here for weeks and haven’t even told me the name of your disease.”
“I lay here every day entirely unprotected. You saw, I won’t wake up. I thought I was safe with you, but you’ve proven that I can’t trust you.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill you, or even hurt you. I’ve never wanted that.”
Hurting Valeria had never been the goal. She hadn’t even wanted her to smoke. All she wanted was proof that what Valeria had was different.
“If you didn’t want to hurt me, then you shouldn’t have done the one thing that could kill me.”
“I didn’t mean to. I was only trying to understand your sun sickness. It’s an illness unlike any I have ever seen before.”
“Are you a doctor? Have you gone to medical school in between weaving lace and building dinner menus?”
“No.” Anger built within her until the only thing she wanted was to scream. Even now, Valeria wouldn’t give her any answers, only admonishing her for trying to find the truth.
“Then don’t you think that maybe this illness is something you haven’t heard of? You or that backwoods doctor who hasn’t even seen me.”
“And you know nothing of Dr. Murnau. At least he’s trying to help. He’s called in specialists because he can’t bear to see the people of this village suffer. He’s willing to put his reputation on the line if it will help people.”
“And tell me, what is this great risk he’s taking?”
Caroline knew she should stop now. Valeria’s smoking was a good enough confirmation that whatever she had was related.
It was enough information to go to Dr. Murnau with, and they would be one step closer.
It made more sense to go back to her allies with information so they could all decide how to move forward, but her anger burned too deep.
“He thinks there’s a vampire in this town and I think it’s you.”
Caroline’s accusation hung in the air, and she had to give credit to Valeria as the woman’s face remained impassive. There was no surprise or confusion, just the same icy stare she wore since she woke up.
“This is why you nearly killed me, some fairytale delusion? I expected more from you, Caroline.”
It was the first time she had said her first name like that, and it felt like a slap.
“What am I supposed to think? I don’t hear from you for nearly a decade when you show up at my engagement party where you fall ill and have to stay here for weeks without notice or explanation waiting for a doctor who will never come, and I’m supposed to accept everything you say without question?”
“Of course that means you’re at the center of a conspiracy.”
“People are dying in my community. My household. Did you really think I would ever let that go?”
Some of the anger bled from Valeria’s expression, but her jaw was still set in a hard line. “I am not a threat to you. Stop trying to diagnose me. I don’t want to hurt you.”
To anyone else it would sound like a threat, but Caroline knew that was as close to an admission as she was going to get. “Nelly’s death hurt me. The bodies in the hospital hurt me. You must know that.”
“I can’t—” Valeria stopped before turning to face the opposite wall. “I’m not well. I haven’t been for a long time. You should leave me to rest.”
She inched closer to the bed, wanting to reach out to hold Valeria. To reassure her through touch, but her hands remained at her side.
“I can help you if you’re honest with me. Dr. Murnau is looking for a cure—”
“I told you to leave me,” Valeria interrupted. “You can’t help me. No one can.”
She could help. This was what she did best; she wouldn’t let Valeria shut her out.
“We can figure this out together if you’ll only talk to me.”
“Please, just leave me.”
Caroline’s hands balled into fists at her side.
She hated hearing that defeated tone in Valeria’s voice.
It didn’t belong to her lovely, confident girl.
If there was one thing she knew, it was that Valeria wasn’t a vampire eight years ago.
Not when they spent a whole summer eating, drinking, and frolicking beneath the sun.
Someone turned her into this, and she wouldn’t rest until she rescued Valeria from whatever she had been forced to become.