Page 5 of Heathens

I raise the vial to my lips. This is boring, and there’s no time like the present.

“Dom!” Mateo’s eyes go wide as they meet mine. “What are you–”

Theo whips around, a pad of paper clutched in his fist, as I drain the mystery liquid. The second it hits my tongue, I can’t help but let out a groan. Exquisite. It’s hard to imagine it was brewed in a lab. It tastes almost exactly the same as the real thing.

“Dom, stop!” Theo shouts.

I toss the vial on the ground, savoring the appealing sound of shattered glass as I drop to my knees. I want more. There has to be more in the bag. Sure enough, it’s full of them. But no, these are different: clear liquids labeled with names I could never hope to pronounce. I lick my lips as I rifle through the rest of the bag’s contents for more finished vials.

“It’s blood, Theo, like I said.”

“No, it’s not, you idiot!” I can practically feel Matteo and Luke tense up as he berates me. They rarely see me let things slide, but Theo’s a special case. “It’s some sort of synthetic concoction. There’s something else in there. It’s not pure!”

He thrusts out a pad of paper covered with calculations into my chest.

“The fuck am I supposed to do with this?”

Theo points at an equation, holding my gaze with his icy stare.

“It’salmostvampire blood, but not quite. They’ve either done something to a real batch, or somehow made it themselves from scratch.“ He glances at the boys and back at me, lowering his voice. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here. There’s no talk about this anywhere right now, so what do you think Rene’s gonna do when he finds out we know about this shit?”

Vampire blood is extremely valuable, but obviously in relatively short supply. For humans it’s an inoculant against almost any disease, but it also has some… side effects. They experience euphoria and temporarily heightened senses. It’s like ecstasy, except it doesn’t fuck with your brain chemistry. At least not long term. For us, it’s usually just a great vintage. Obviously a little frowned upon, but mostly fine if you don’t get hooked.

“So what’s this?” I ask, shaking the pad of paper. “The recipe?”

Theo sighs, rubbing his eyes.

“It’s called a formula, genius.”

He paces around the room, taking quick glances at some of the scrawled equations and other haphazardly placed notes.

“It looks like this is the one they’ve been using, maybe the final version.”

“How do you know?” Mateo pipes in. Poor fool looks like he has even less of a clue than the rest of us.

“Because the other papers only have half of this. Whatever Rene is trying to make, whatever this is supposed to be, it’s some sort of mix. The base is clearly blood‌, either vampire or human, but it gets combined with some other stuff. Probably those other vials,” Theo explains.

“The clear shit? So what is it, and what’s he making all this for? He owns the goddamn city. What, he wants a drug racket on the side?” I chime in.

Theo pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Does it look like ‘my secret plan’ is written anywhere on the page?”

I frown, ready to retort, but Theo moves in close, lowering his voice again.

“If Deschamps is making this, he’s doing it for a reason. It can’t just be to sell to humans, can it?”

“Maybe he just wants to make some really tasty blood?” Luke offers.

Theo’s barely holding himself together, and I can’t help but grin whenever Luke riles him up. I may just have to thank Rene personally for this stupid lab after all.

“You know what? I’ve decided. Everyone’s got a vice, and why not help them out by providing the best possible experience? More importantly, we get to screw Deschamps out of whatever he’s got planned, andIget fucking rich in the process. Boys, grab what’s left of the bag and let’s get the fuck out of here. And don’t forget the gas, we’re torching the place along the–”

“Not so fast!” A voice barks from the door.

Shit.

I quickly stow my gun in my coat, ensuring it’s hidden before turning to face our new guest.

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