Page 61 of Thicker than Blood

Meredith closes her flip phone. “This is happening all over. Something’s wrong. Like, is something in the air? Or the water supply? What’s making people act like this?”

Police cars show up and officers pile out trying to calm the people. The door to my office opens at that moment and Enyo leans against the frame. His hair is damp with sweat, his skin pale and clammy looking, but the pose he’s striking looks like he’s trying to be seductive.

“Hey, boo,” he purrs to no one in particular. “You should come over here.”

“Who are you talking to like that?” Meredith asks.

“Doesn’t matter.” Enyo chuckles. “Or we can go see Jagger again.” He nods and then moans. “Yeah, take me to see Jagger.”

“Who is Jagger?”

“Uh, shit.” The vaccine. But how could it be affecting other people? “Give me a minute.”

I hurry over to the mini fridge where I keep the batch I made. My jaw drops when I open it and find it empty. “How…?” I twist around to Meredith. “You left Ronald here alone?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Something is missing. It’s very important. We need to look at the security footage.”

“Okay, but he would never do anything like that.”

“Maybe someone followed him or he invited someone over. He could be in danger.”

I cross the room and unlock my computer, hitting a series of keys to pull up the security footage. Enyo slinks over to me, draping himself on my back and trying to kiss my neck while I work. I bat at him like a fly and smile awkwardly at Meredith who’s watching the interaction with a confused expression.

I rewind the tapes to start when I left and watch. About an hour after we left earlier, Meredith enters with Bernardand Ronald. She’s clearly showing Ronald around and then she hands him a stack of binders.

I fast forward a little and there it is. Ronald checks the outer door window to ensure he’s alone and then proceeds to open every cabinet and drawer, clearly looking for something as he reads labels. He ignores the many blood and saliva samples taken from vampires. After a few minutes he stands in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips, and then he sees it—the mini fridge I keep at my station.

We watch in horrified silence as he opens it, reads the container, smiles, and tucks the whole container into his backpack. He grabs a box of syringes and shoves them in his bag too. After taking a few minutes to rifle through the papers on my desk, he seems to give up, looks around once more, then slips out of the lab.

“He stole my vaccine.”

Meredith pokes my arm. “What?”

Suddenly everything starts to slot into place. The way Enyo is acting, the people outside doing bizarre things.

“Oh gods.” I rub my forehead.

“Geordi,” Meredith says, gripping my shoulders as Enyo attempts to dry hump me from behind. “Do I have a serious problem on my hands?”

I nod. “I’m afraid so.”

CHAPTER 18

Elias

Something is off.

The air, perhaps. The vibe, as my younger brethren would say. Since shortly after Geordi left I’ve not felt like myself. As if I’m missing an appendage. The urge to retrieve him from wherever he is and bring him back is strong. Almost beyond my control.

“Excuse me, sir?”

I turn to Benicio standing in the doorway of my study. He appears agitated, shifting his weight from foot to foot with his brow furrowed.

“Yes.”

“You should see this.” He approaches, handing me a tablet. He presses the play button and before me chaos abounds.

---