Blood Pact

fingers up against the pulse point at the base of the ivory column of throat. Thirty seconds passed while she stood silently, eyes on her watch, then she wet her lips and said, "Not quite eight beats a minute.”

    "I got the same," Catherine nodded, pleased to have her figure corroborated.

    She reached to check his pupils but instead, her hand moving almost of its own volition, she peeled up a lip barely tinted with color.

    Catherine's brow furrowed. "What are you looking for?”

    Her heart beat so loudly she nearly missed the question. "Fangs," she said softly, realizing she was being one hundred sorts of an old fool. "Fangs.”

    Bending forward, Catherine peered down at the exposed line of white. "Although the canines are somewhat prominent, I wouldn't go so far as to . . .”

    "Son of a bitch! They're sharp!”

    Together, the two women watched the drop of blood roll from the puncture in Dr. Burke's finger. It splashed crimson against the barrier of the teeth, seeped into sculpted crevices, drained into the mouth beneath. So slowly that they would have missed the movement had they not been staring so hard, the young man swallowed.

    In the long moment that followed, Dr. Burke reviewed a thousand rational reasons why this creature could not be what it had to be. Finally, she said, "Catherine, do you realize what we have here?”

    "Incipient percutaneous infection. Better sterilize the puncture.”

    "No, no, no. Do know what he is? ”

    "No, Doctor." Catherine rocked back on her heels and shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her lab coat. "I realized I didn't know what he was when I saw the results of the blood work. That's why I called you.”

    "This," Dr. Burke's voice rose with an excitement she didn't bother to suppress, "is a vampire!" She whirled to face Catherine, who looked politely interested. "Good lord, girl, don't you find that amazing? That this is a vampire? And we have him?”

    "I guess.”

    "You guess?" Dr. Burke stared at the grad student in disbelief. "We have a vampire break into the lab and you guess it's amazing?”

    Catherine shrugged.

    "Catherine! Pull your head out of your test tubes and consider what this means. Up until this moment, vampires were creatures of myth and legend. We can now prove that they exist!”

    "I thought vampires disintegrated in daylight.”

    "He hasn't been in daylight, has he?" An expansive gesture indicated the wall of boarded up windows. "The scientific community will go crazy over this!”

    "If he is a vampire. So far we can only prove he has a hyperefficient bloodtype, clotting agents in his saliva, and sharp teeth.”

    "And doesn't that say vampire to you?”

    "Well, it doesn't prove it. Sunrise may have caused his metabolic rate to drop, but we can't actually prove that either." She frowned. "I suppose we could push him up against an open window and see what happens.”

    "No!" Dr. Burke took a deep breath and leaned back against number eight's isolation box, allowing the soft vibration of the machinery to soothe her jangled nerves. "This is a vampire. I'm as certain of it as I've ever been of anything in my life. You saw how he reacted to my blood.”

    "That was pretty strange.”

    "Strange? It was incredible." With her left hand supporting the vampire's hip, he was heavier than she expected, she slid her right hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a slim, black leather wallet. "Now then, let's find out who you are.”

    "Would a vampire carry identification?”

    "Why not? This is the twentieth century. Everyone carries identification of some kind. Here we are; Henry Fitzroy. I suppose they can't all be named Vladimir." Lips pursed and eyes gleaming, Dr. Burke turned over a gold patterned credit card. "Don't leave the crypt without it, as Donald would probably say. Speaking of Donald . . ." She paused and frowned. "Where is he, anyway?”

    "Well, you see . . ." Catherine laid a gentle hand on number eight's isolation box. "He . . .”

    "Has that damned tutorial this morning, doesn't he? And I expect he was long gone before our visitor showed up. It's his loss, you'll have to fill him in later. Now then, ownership, insurance, ah, driver's license. Apparently the myth that vampires show no photographic image is also false.”

    "I just can't believe we have vampires in Kingston.”

    "We don't. He's from Toronto." Gathering up the contents of the wallet, Dr. Burke tossed them onto a pile of clothes draped over a nearby chair.