Blood Work Ch 05

Thralls

Chapter 3-1

Persephone's POV

"So there was no blood at the scene, but you haven't done an autopsy to see if she still has any in her veins?" I asked from the little table they'd 'generously' given me. Looking at the notes they had both made, it was obvious they'd made very little headway into the case.

"She had fang marks on her neck when we got there, fresh ones, obviously a vampire drained her." Rami added from his desk, the look he gave me seemed almost accusatory.

I rolled my eyes at him in response."If she's been drained, why are you waiting to do an autopsy?"

Georgia looked up for the folder she was reading, looking between us. "We have to leave bodies a week from finding them if a vampire is suspected, to make sure they don't rise."

"But she's been down there twenty four hours already, you'd know if she was being turned. We don't just lie still until it's done." I dropped the notes I was reading on the table. "Come on let's go have a look, you're not going to find anything if you leave her another week."

Rami continued to stare at me with a contemptuous look. "It's policy, it's not safe if she rises while we're doing something she could kill us."

I laughed heading for the door. "Well she's hardly gonna be able to kill me." Seeing neither had made a move I turned to them from the doorway. "When a vampire is turned they..." I paused to find the right words. "Come alive more than once, now you're barely there, it's mindless behaviour, reacting to the pain of the transition and instinctually trying to get more blood. Usually the vampire making us would provide more but keep us contained, think of it like a human incubation period, although reduced down to about three days. All that is to say, if she's been down there twenty four hours and you don't think she was killed where she was found, if she's not moved she's dead."

Georgia looked to Detective Khatri in an almost pleading look, adding. "If she's the only one in there she'll be fine."

I saw him rubbing his face and sighing. "You're signing off on this if anything goes wrong."

Georgia smiled at me which was easy to return as both got up to follow me out and lead me to the hospital's morgue.

----

The lighting in the hospital was worse, they've always been vile places I'd avoided in life and death, but something about this one just really sucked. The stench of death and citrus scented chemicals flooded the hallways, the people, nowhere was spared. A doctor was leading us to the morgue, apparently needing to be present for viewing the body, and while the detectives made small talk I just tried to avoid breathing at all, even if I had wanted to make an effort to appear human.

"It's just down here, I'll take you to the viewing window." The large doctor opened the door to the morgue heading down and as we followed a sense of relief hit me. While the acrid stench was down here too, the lights were thankfully dimmer, and the temperature drop made me feel slightly more at home. As we where guided into the room I could see at the back a wall that looked significantly sturdier than the other three, on it sat a single window and a large metal door.

"You can look through that window, not sure what you can find out from that distance though. Regardless you'll be safe, the glass is reinforced and bullet proof, not even a vampire could punch through that." The doctor added pointing to the small window.

"Has she moved at all since she got here?" I asked before he could turn.

"No, she won't unless she's been turned into one of them, then it's just waiting for when she does jump up ready to, you know."

I rolled my eyes. "No I don't know, and you're wrong, if she had been turned she'd have moved by now, she wouldn't have got up and done a dance but that blanket wouldn't be laying over her still, I need you to unlock the door."

He scoffed in response. "One, I don't know who made you the expert on vamps-"

Cutting him off I made sure to make full eye contact as I felt my eyes turn crimson "My sire did, now unlock the door."

His eyes went wide and glassy in response and with a stunted nod headed to the door. Both detectives turned on me, Georgia looking concerned and Khatri outraged.

"What the hell did you just do?" Detective Khatri all but shouted in my face.

"He was going to stop us from entering, so I enthralled him. He'll be fine just unlock the door and head on his way." I replied with a shrug.

Detective Khatri's face dropped as Georgia responded looking almost concerned.

"You can't just hypnotise people to do things for us, this has to be an official investigation."

"My job is to get you into places, this is me getting you in." I said walking to the now open door the doctor stood quietly beside it. Georgia had nothing else to add but I did here Khatris mumbled voice.

"They can actually do that?"

Walking into the cold room I could see all the walls in here were reinforced. The floor and ceiling seemed to be sturdier too, I wasn't sure if it would actually hold a newborn though, and judging by the lack of marks it hadn't been tested. As assumed the sheet sat covering the body head to toe and clearly remained undisturbed. With both detectives behind me I grasped the rough sheet pulling it from the bare corpse in one go. The body was definitely dead, I reached forward pulling back the upper lip revealing a row of plain albeit slightly yellowed teeth.

"You can't just touch the body, put some gloves on, you'll leave your own fingerprints on it." Detective Khatri said from behind me.

Shrugging I noticed a bin for blue gloves below the stretcher and put on a pair as I responded.

"Vampires don't leave fingerprints, our bodies don't have any natural oils to leave any evidence, something that is going to make your jobs a lot harder I'm afraid."

Snapping the gloves on Georgia had come to stand beside me while Khatri remained by the door.

"You're sure she's dead then?" She asked from beside me.

Opening the mouth again I pushed two fingers back into the throat and pulled them out revealing no trace of scent of blood.

"To be turned she would have to have been fed a vampire's blood before she was turned, and a lot of it. There would be some trace or smell of it in her throat but there's nothing, she's dead."

Khatri tentatively stepped forward now still keeping back slightly from the table as Georgia put on gloves of her own.

"How do you explain her blood having weird red blood cells?"

My brow furrowed as I turned to him. "Weird red blood cells?"

"It's like a mutation, some verified vampire victims seem to have traces of it in their blood." He added.

Shrugging I turned back to the body.

"If it's found in all victims it's not going to be related to turning is it. I can't say I know all the science behind what we are, but if it's a shared link between some victims, it could be traces of our venom when we bite a human, although with it acting as more of a narcotic substance I'm not sure how that would mutate blood cells. Perhaps they're thralls."

"What are thralls?" Georgia asked.

"Without going needlessly in-depth, think of it as an in between state for humans and vampires, although much closer to a human. When a human has our venom in their veins and feeds on our blood it negates the ability to become a vampire, something in the venom changes how the blood works. After repeated feedings like this a human will be classed as thrall and as long as they continue to partake in their patrons blood, they'll be slightly stronger, slightly faster, be immune to other vampires powers, conveniently recover blood and heal quicker and finally be almost immortal. Should they stop drinking vampire blood this will all fade and they will enter a process of rapid ageing until they reach their natural age."

"What so, you can be immortal and human?"

I shrugged at Georgia's question

"In a sense but if you're killed you'd still die, and if you stop drinking the vampire's blood you'll age like I said, if your natural age is hundred and you started at twenty, the process is probably going to kill you anyway."

Khatri joined us at the bench now as Georgia seemed to consider what I said.

"Do you think she could be a thrall, would she age quickly in death?" He asked, looking over the body which still resembled that of someone barely twenty.

"I don't know honestly. I'll ask my Sire and message you both this evening if I can grab your numbers."

After that we all went about looking over the body, the most notable thing being a litany of healed and old fang marks on the girls inner thigh.

"Do you think these could have been done by the killer? Georgia asked, and looking at them the answer was obvious.

"No, one if she was a thrall these would have had to have been before she became a thrall otherwise they'd heal unblemished. Two they're much neater than the killing wound." Pointing to the scar on her neck I continued. "This is jagged and intent on killing, it's more a tear than a bite, the wounds on her thigh are neat, like you'd do to someone in the throes of passion, especially given the location."

I hear Khatri mutter under his breath. "Nothing I'd do."

After about ten more minutes we found nothing else except for similar traces of rust on her skin and so we decided to call it there. Detective Khatri left first with the doctor to get the autopsy cleared and scheduled for the day so we could have the results the following night and me and Georgia headed back to her car. A slight tension hung in the air around us and I could practically hear Georgia's thoughts as we went, eventually she stopped turning to me with a determined look.

"I want to say thank you for getting my friend home, I'm not quite sure why I trusted you, but I'm glad I did." I went to speak but she cut me off. "That said I want to be clear, since we're now colleagues, nothing can happen between us."

I nodded slowly. "Were you expecting anything in particular or?"

She took a deep breath. "With us almost, you know. I just want to be clear that we're just colleagues now."

"If you're taking about biting don't worry, you're off limits, no vampire can now thanks to your role." I went to step around her to the car but she continued going.

"I just, I've seen your looks, and your comments. There can't be anything between us."

"Georgia I have a partner."

She blinked "oh, but."

"The vampire you saw me at the club with, I've been with her longer than I've been a vampire, and we don't look elsewhere for romance. Sorry to disappoint, but we flirt with our food."

Her shoulders visibly slumped.

"Oh, I just thought..."

I just looked at her and shrugged

"Regardless, let's forget about it, like you said, we're colleagues."

She responded slowly.

"Yeah, sure sorry."

Getting the car the silence was awkward now, checking my phone I saw a new email from Jehan to add to the pile, before I clicked off though I saw the urgent tag. Opening the email the first thing I saw was a picture of a young woman and below.

"Oh, well turns out she was a thrall." Georgia shook her head looking into the rear view mirror and seeing the faded image of me. Before she could comment on the reflection I added. "A vampire has just reported their thrall as missing, saying they haven't felt the connection in days." Turning the phone so Georgia could see the picture her eyes widened. Khatri had made it back to the car and saw Georgia's excited look.

"What's changed, passing him the phone as he got in he sat reading the email as Georgia looked back to me.

"Can we question the vampire who reported her missing?"

I shrugged, time to see if this job actually meant anything to other vampires.