“So why don’t you take the elixir every day? To make sure the effects don’t ever wear off?”
“The most I can take is a dose every two weeks,” he answered, shaking his head. “I have to allow the effects to completely wear off before I can take more. Trust me, I’ve tried to take it more frequently, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.”
I digested that in silence. “So what about the vampire who. you know, did this to you? Do you think it was Dr. Blackwell?”
Aidan shook his head. “No, he didn’t turn me. That’s impossible.”
“How so? I mean, how many vampires are running around at any given time?”
“Far more than you realize,” he said. “But only a female vampire can make a male, and vice versa.”
“Really? I’ve never heard that one before. How. weird.” And sort of unsettling, too, though I didn’t quite know why. “So a female turned you, but you have no idea who, or why?”
“Pretty much,” he muttered.
“So, how do they do it, then? I mean, I don’t quite understand the mechanics of it.”
“Do I really have to tell you every unpleasant detail?” he asked with a groan. “It’s all so. ugly.”
I wasn’t buying that. Not entirely. I mean, I’d already seen his fangs, seen him nearly rip out someone’s throat. What could be uglier than that? And yet I still found him beautiful, my Aidan.
“Is it somehow. sexual?” I pressed, swallowing hard. “You know, since a man can only do it to a woman and, like you said, vice versa?”
“Well, that would imply that all vampires are heterosexual, wouldn’t it?” he said, and I was relieved to see a hint of a smile back on his lips. “I guess you could say it’s somehow sexual, more so from the vampire’s perspective. Though I’m told that some mortals find it enjoyable too.”
Now my curiosity was piqued. “Okay, it’s not fair to tease me with something like that. Can’t you elaborate just a tiny bit?”
For a moment he said nothing. I figured he was going to refuse to answer. The look on his face reminded me of Patsy’s when she was forced to give me the sex talk years ago — that deer-in-the-headlights look.
“One of the more unpleasant side effects is that a vampire can’t achieve. er. sexual release without simultaneous penetration of the fangs,” he said at last, obviously choosing his words carefully.
Simultaneous penetration? It took a moment for that to sink in. “On. on the neck?” I stammered.
“It can be on the neck. Or. anywhere, really.”
I could only stare wide-eyed at him, unable to believe what he was saying. Finally I found my voice. “So you have to be biting someone while you’re. ” I trailed off, unable to complete the bizarre thought, much less say it.
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”
“You have got to be kidding me” was all I could manage in reply.
He shook his head. “I wish I was.”
“That’s. I mean, in all the legends, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one. It’s just so weird.” Still, I was overcome with the desire to know more.
“You wouldn’t even be able to—”
“No,” he interrupted. “I just wouldn’t be able to fully. enjoy it.” He was blushing, I realized. Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense, considering he was the experienced one, not me.
“Anyway,” he continued, averting his eyes, “you can see how that complicates things with mortals.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I nodded, feeling a little dazed by this revelation. Especially in light of the vision I’d just had. Time to change the subject.
“Okay, you said it was sort of like an infection. Like a sexually transmitted disease, then?”
“No, it’s much more complicated than that. It’s an actual exchange of mitochondria, and then the infected mitochondria attack the host’s cells.
Almost like a parasite. The change occurs at the cellular level, though. Have you ever heard of adenosine triphosphate, ATP? Cellular energy?”
I shook my head, noticing that the science talk seemed to perk him right back up.
“Well,” he continued, “in the case of vampirism, infected proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm are targeted to the mitochondrial surface by an Nterminal signal sequence. Then they’re transported into the organelle by a large enzyme complex embedded in the mitochondrial membrane, and
—”
“Hold on, science boy.” I held up one hand. “You might as well be speaking Swahili.”
He shook his head. “Just consider it a blood-borne disease very much like malaria. And, like malaria, ultimately treatable and possibly curable.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“Pretty sure. Like I said, with the elixir I can temporarily suppress some of the effects. It’s only a matter of time before I figure out how to reverse the process entirely.”
“Say you do reverse it,” I said, my brain spinning. “What then? Do you just become mortal again? I mean, would you just go back to being a healthy seventeen-year-old?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s possible that the mitochondria will be fully repaired to their original state. Beyond that, I can’t say.”
“So it’s possible that, in curing yourself, you might”—I swallowed hard, barely able to say the words—“you might kill yourself?”
“Possible, yes. But I think the body will simply pick up where it left off. That’s my hope, at least. Either way, it’s better than this.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the look of despair I saw in his eyes. “Please don’t say that.”
“I’m sorry, Violet, but I won’t lie to you. Given the choice of an eternity damned to this fate of mine, or death — well, I’ll take a mortal’s death any day. Have you any idea just how long an eternity is?”
I buried my face in his neck. A shiver ran down my spine as he kissed the top of my head. “I’m sorry that you’ve suffered,” I said, my voice muffled against his skin. I couldn’t help but open my mouth ever so slightly, pressing the inside of my lower lip against the spot where his pulse leapt. “But I’m not sorry that it happened to you. Otherwise you’d have died a long time ago, and I never would have met you.”
“Agreed on that point,” he answered, his voice strangely tight.
“Do we really have to go back to school tomorrow?”
“We do. I’ve work to do in the lab, re-creating everything that was destroyed. I’m afraid you won’t see much of me in the days to come. At least now you’ll know why.”
“I wish we could stay here forever. By the fire.” Despite the faint chill in my bones, I’d never been more comfortable. In fact, the entire day had been pretty much perfect, even though we’d done nothing but lounge around and talk.
“Do you want to go out tonight? After dinner, I mean. I think Trevors is probably outdoing himself in the kitchen right now.”