Leticia (34 page)

“Can I come in?” he asked
.

I didn't respond, I motioned for him to enter
and
then went and sat on the end of the bed.
He
hesitated for a moment before sitting on one of the chairs opposite. He looked pale, his eyes were dark and puffy
.
He
looked like he hadn’t slept for a while.

“I want to help you
,
” he finally spoke
.

“Help me?”

“I’ve spent the
few
days looking for scientists. The best money can buy. I’ve found two...”

“
Why
?”

“
Let
me finish...
they have agreed to come over to England to help me find a cure...”

“WHAT!” I screamed
.
“You’ve told two other men what I am?”

“No, no I haven’t
,
” he assured me
.
“I said I had a relative who was extremely poorly and that I needed someone to help me find a cure. I told them
all sorts
of rubbish, like, the hospitals couldn’t diagnose it, all treatment was failing, that my relation was getting worse each week that passed... I told them I would fund it all, pay them more than generously and provide them with anything and everything they needed...”

“I don’t need curing Luke! There is nothing wrong with me, I like who and
how
I
am
.
I don’t want to change
.
”

“How are you supposed to live a normal life with
anyone?
You’ll never age, but they will.
You can’t have a family can you?
So no children, grandchildren...”

“I accepted that a long time ago
.
”

“You will spend the rest of your life alone unable to commit to a serious
relationship. Leticia
, sweet, nobody should be alone. What you are, it’s not normal... it’s wrong...”

“How dare you...”

“
But
who
you are, the way your mind works...
you’re amazing... smart, beautiful and I
love you more than anything. I want to spend the rest of my life with you
.
I want us to grow old and grey together
. Don’t
you want that?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then let me try and do this please,” he practica
lly begged. “If it doesn’t work
we can work something else ou
t
.”

“I doubt that, you couldn’t get away from me fast enough and...”

“I’m sorry, I really am, but look at it from my point of view, I’d just found out that something I thought could only exist in horror films did
in fact
exist. They were real. That was a shock
.
”

“I know
,
” I
sighed.

“
Please
Leticia;
please let me do this... I don’t want to be without you.”

“OK... OK... But even if you
do
find a cure, I
won’t
have it
forced
on
me;
I need to think about this seriously
.
”

“I understand
.
”

“So... what do I have to do?”

“They will need to take a sample of your blood, just enough to run tests, that’s all
.
”

“When?”

“They will be arriving in the next twenty-four hours. So...”

“That soon?”

“One of these guys is intrigued, so he wants to start straight away, he should arrive tonight. I’ve arranged for him to stay at a hotel and I have a lab being set up as we speak
.
”

“How have you done all this so quickly?”

“When you offer people money, a lot of it, then the ball starts rolling immediately. Plus I claimed a few
favor
s.”

“Oh,
OK
... I think
.
”

“I have to go, I’ve got things to
get
read
y;
but I’ll call you later, if that’s ok?” he said standing and making his way over to me.

“Yeah
OK
,
” I muttered
.
He kissed my cheek then quickly left.

It was strange when he’d left
, I felt... weird, numb I think.
M
y mind went completely empty for a few minutes before suddenly racing around. Why should I change? I loved being me, I loved being so fast, having heightened senses, being strong. Plus there was the whole
living forever
thing as well. I would be able to watch the world and the people in it change, witness all the technological breakthroughs, maybe even get to see world peace. Who
wouldn’t
want to be able to do that? I didn’t see what I was as an infection or a curse. I thought it was amazing, a miracle if you like. I know Luke was thinking of me,
and
him
, he wanted us to stay together and
of
course I c
ould
understand that... but at what cost to me? Why couldn’t I change him? I’ll tell you why... because he would see it as un-natural, there’s no way I would be able to convince him to join
me
and my kind.
Luke was a strong believer in nature, morality...
normality
. But who in this world actually knows what normal
is
? Who
gets
to dictate that? As far as I’m concerned,
I
am normal. If you take ten different people and ask them all the same question. What is normal? Each one of them would give you a different answer. The truth is, there is no such thing as
normal
. Only
people’s
routines, opinions and beliefs,
that
is what
they
personally
think
is normality. 

After having that deep
thought
I
decided I needed to clear my head. Before he
came around I was going to go shopping. I didn’t like ordering room service all the time, one it was over-priced and two, I was sick of
eating
the same thing.
I didn’t stay out too long, but the fresh air did me good and my head calmed down a lot.
When I arrived back at the hotel I put my things away and lay back on the bed. All I could do now was wait.

Luke called me around 10p.m. to let me know the first of his scientists had arrived safely. He was going to show him around the soon-to-be lab tomorrow morning; then asked if it would be possible for him to get a blood sample from me in the afternoon. I sighed and agreed. This was the start of it now
.
I wasn’t impressed as you can imagine, but I
was
intrigued. It would be interesting to see if they
could
actually find a
cure
.

“I’ve got to interrupt you,” Tristan thundered
.
“How can you be stupid enough to give a human your blood? Are you out of your mind?”

“He loved me, how the hell was I to know he would do this. All he wanted was for us to be together...” I tried to explain
.

“You were stupid! Completely! We can’t let our blood be tested and played with, we’ve lived in secret for
millennia.
Its
how we’ve survived so long. If the human world was to find out we existed it would cause war. Even if every supernatural being pulled together we’d still be outnumbered by the humans.”

“Yes Tristan I know, but you seem to forget that there
are
humans that know of our existence
.
I do believe some
vampires
have humans who they feed on regularly
. They could tell anyone and how do they hide the teeth marks,
that’s rather stupid isn’t it!
You also have people working in the blood-banks who know all about you.
So
don’t start lecturing me!”

He didn't respond, how could he
?
He
knew what I was saying was true. He grunted a little and walked to the window.

“Leticia
,
” Jackson said calmly, sitting beside me. “What happened next?”

“I met with the scientist, Mr
Roger Mayfair,
the following day and he took a single vial of blood.
Obviously
I had
to act poorly
and to be honest
I pulled it off quite well. He didn't want to spend too much time around me in case what I had was contagious. So I was only with him about ten minutes. I didn't see Luke for a few days then, but he called me two, somet
imes
three times a day to let me know what was going on. He said the other scientist had now arrived and was working closely
with Mayfair. Apparently both the men were
baffled;
they’d never seen blood work like it before. Obviously.

“Anyway, I waited and waited,
I
met up with Luke a few times over the coming weeks but he was very nervous around me
.
Then
all of a sudden he turned silent. I tried calling him, I messaged him, emailed him, even called at the lab; I just had the door slammed in my face by
the other scientist, Charles Mansbridge
.
It wasn’t long after that
I started being attacked
.
”

“It seems to me that they didn’t find a cure, but they did find a money maker. That guy in the basement, he said your blood was sold as a drug. I think Luke saw a shady business franchise
,
” Nancy commented
.

“It would seem that way,” Jackson agreed
.
“What started off being done
out of
love ended
up
being done out of greed
.
”

“Why have me attacked though
?
O
ne of those guys, he tried... forcing himself on me. Luke couldn’t stand anything like that...”

“Leticia money can change
people;
it can alter their views on things
.
It
makes people do things they wouldn’t normally do
.
”

“But he had a massive amount of money
anyway;
his business was
going through the roof. He was
a
millionaire
...
”

“Obviously it wasn’t enough
,
” Tristan joined in again
.
“Look, what’s done is done, it can’t be changed. Nobody can change their past but they have some control over the
ir
future. So we need to find him and kill him... simple.”

Jackson and Nancy agreed with him, and now, so did I. None of us could carry on like this, we couldn’t move
away;
these people would find us eventually. So we had to stand our ground and fight.

“Here’s what I propose
,
” Jackson began
.
“
Nancy and I
turn into
those
two downstairs. We find out where they were supposed to be next and take their place. That gives us a way in.
We keep close mobile contact with you and Tristan. We will do what we can to arrange a meeting with Luke. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll think of something. Once we know when and where we’re meeting him, we’ll let you know. Then you need to be ready, you must be close enough but not be seen. We don’t know if he will risk coming alone of if he’ll have people with him, that’s something we will have to deal with at the time
.
”

“Hang on... where was the lab?” Nancy asked me
.

“
Just outside Milton Keynes
.
”

“Well, it might be worth taking a trip
, don’t you think?”

“You’re right
,
” Jackson agreed
.
“But we can
’
t
all
go
.
”