Page 44 of Blood Illusions

I tore my gaze from Tim and the small laboratory. Instead, I opened the botany book and flipped through the pages, looking for the plants from that rock garden. I tried to concentrate, but I kept thinking of a handsome vampire who was getting underneath my skin. God, maybe I really was going down my mother’s path.

I sat taller in the chair and concentrated on the book.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Tim stepped away from a microscope.

Damon and I glanced up from our botany books and gave each other bewildered looks.

“I can’t believe this,” Tim grumbled as he dragged his fingers through his thick white hair.

Damon threw up his arms. “Are you going to keep hemming and hawing in there, or can you share with the class?”

Tim turned. “You said you mentioned finding a peculiar scent where the vampires vanished?”

My heart stilled. “Yes, why?”

“Because of these remains.” Tim gestured at the microscope. “They’re emitting a strange, almost electric aroma, mixed with a faint floral note, not unlike jasmine. And they’re cold. Colder than anything I’ve seen.”

“You’re kidding.” Damon dropped his feet from the table.

Tim stepped back from the microscope. “See for yourself.”

I scooted away from the table as Damon hurried to the microscope. He peered into the objective lens. “You mean this blue stuff? Is that it?”

“Yeah,” Tim responded. “I think this blue stuff carries the electric, frosty scent.”

I came up beside Damon. “Can I see?”

“Sure,” Damon agreed as he stepped away. “But what is it?”

Tim shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never come across something like this material. I’ve never heard of this type of element being in a vampire’s ashes.”

I stared at the blue particles scattered with the ashes. “This is really bizarre.” I looked up from the microscope. “Could it be something in their biology?”

“It’s a new one to me.” He shrugged. “Maybe, but it’s unheard of in vampires. They’re usually indistinguishable from humans, aside from their fangs and thirst for blood.”

“But we’ve never seen vampires with that kind of DNA,” Damon stated. “They’re practically human except for their fangs and blood.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tim returned. “But you’ve seen it for yourself. Microscopes don’t lie.”

I pulled away from the microscope and folded my arms. “Like I said earlier, we step away from the possible and look at the impossible.”

“You convinced me.” Tim gave me a you’re-the-bomb glance. “Before we get back to our research, I want to do a few more tests.”

“Which ones?” Damon asked.

Tim scratched his temple. “I want to do a solubility test and a heat test. Maybe we can discover something else with these ashes.”

I looked around the laboratory. “Which one do you want to do first?”

“I’m going to do the solubility test,” he decided as he headed to a sink.

Tim filled a glass beaker with water and set it on the counter.

Damon leaned against the counter and folded his arms. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What are you expecting it to do, Mr. Wizard?”

“I want to see if these ashes react the same way as the vamps we’ve hunted before.”

I cocked my eyebrow. “And if they’re the same?”

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