Bathory Blood

Bathory Blood

After a search that seemed to take days, Glen found the bathroom and then struggled with the bolt to secure the door behind her. The last thing she wanted was Anna walking in on her. The bathroom was opulent, to say the least. Tiled from floor to ceiling in marble with matching furniture, it was the kind of bathroom Glen had only seen on TV before.

She sat on the toilet and examined the test tube. It was as long as her hand and as thick as her thumb with a rubber stopper. Inside was a red liquid that looked like blood. Could it actually be blood, thought Glen? Despite being high, Glen could still think relatively straight – at least, most of the time. Everything Erzsebet had said to her came back to her, and she remembered that she would only need a drop or two. What harm could there be in a drop or two?

Hepatitis, AIDS, who knows what else, Glen thought? Anna was right; she just didn't know what was in it. Lucius was a dark character, and the blood could have come from anywhere. Glen decided not to take any of it. It was just too risky. She was going to sneak it back into Anna's drawer and forget about it.

Glen left the bathroom and strode towards Anna's room. Along the way, something made her slow and eventually stop. It was a male voice. He was angry, and it was coming from Anna's room. Noticing that Anna's door was slightly ajar, Glen crept closer to get a better look at what was going on in there.

"I know you've had it, Anna." Lucius, dressed in a full-length leather jacket, open, revealing his bare, toned chest and his upper abdominal muscles, searched Anna's cabinets, tossing her Scrabble set disdainfully aside. "Ah, ha." Lucius held the bag of pills up triumphantly. "This proves it. Where is it? It's worth a lot of money."

"It's not my fault you're always mislaying things." Anna was a nervous wreck as she always was in Lucius' presence, leaning against the wall, hoping it would swallow her up.

"I don't mislay things; I lay things, and then somebody, you Anna, comes along and takes them." Lucius turned his look of superiority onto Anna. "So, where is it?"

"I never had it. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Literally nobody else lives here, Anna. What the f**k?" Lucius loomed over her, tall, beautiful, athletic. While she was short, fat, and pathetic. Anna had no chance against him and never had. As she saw it, he'd been the lucky one, getting all the best genes, and there wasn't anything left over for her. "So where is it? I can tell you haven't touched it because you're still a useless gimp. So hand it over, b***h. Or, should that be butch?"

"Says the guy who would f**k anything. Even a dog." Anna stopped at that; she knew she'd gone too far. Lucius grinned maliciously.

"OK, enough of the playground stuff. Tell me where it is, or I'm going to rip your f*****g head off. How about that?" Lucius searched Anna's fearful eyes. "Are you protecting someone?" Lucius paused to think. "Why would you take MDMA on your own?" Lucius stalked through the sitting area and then into the white room where the lights had been left dancing. "It seems clear, dear sister," Lucius continued as he strode back to her. "That you're either far more of a retard than I gave you credit for, or you're a little bit smarter and now have a friend. I'll tell you this, though, Anna, whoever this friend is, they're using you." Lucius stared at her for a while, searching her face for the truth. When he didn't find it, he retrieved a test tube filled with blood from inside his jacket and pulled out the stopper.

"What are you going to do?" Anna screeched, expecting him to pour it all over her.

"You're so f*****g pitiable, Anna." Lucius imparted before taking a sip from the test tube. "I can't really afford this, but this is what you've brought me to as you will not tell me the truth." As Anna watched, Lucius's irises went wholly black, and the whites turned a pale yellow.

"What's wrong with you, Lucius?" Anna asked worriedly.

"That's not how this stuff works, dear sister. There's nothing wrong. Indeed, everything is so, so right." Lucius rubbed both hands down his face as he got a handle on the feeling of power surging through his body. "I can smell her, you know?" Lucius didn't wait for Anna to respond before continuing. "And yes, it's a female." Lucius breathed deeply. "A sweet, sweet female. Where is she, Anna?" Afraid of Lucius even before he was intoxicated with vampire blood, Anna melted before his stare.

"I don't know. She was here, and then she left."

"Did you call her a cab?"

"No... she just left."

"Just left?"

"You're scaring me, Lucius. I can't think straight." Anna complained. With speed akin to a healthy wildcat, Lucius grabbed Anna around the throat and lifted her into the air.

"What about now? How do you feel now? Feel like talking now, you fat b***h?" Lucius's voice sounded almost demonic, terrifying Anna so much she was too afraid to be scared.

"She went to the bathroom, and then she never came back. She just went home."

"Without saying goodbye?" Lucius dropped her as she confirmed that Glen had left without saying a word. "I'll deal with you later." Lucius strode to the bedroom door and thrust it open.

Having the presence of mind to get away a minute or so prior to Lucius picking Anna up by her throat, Glen crept down the stairs and into the living room.

"Anna's friend," Lucius called down the stairs. "Would you mind joining us for a moment?" The front door was up ahead, but Glen couldn't be sure if it was locked and if she would have enough time to get to it before Lucius stopped her. Glen pulled the test tube of blood out of her pocket and eyed it doubtfully. She had watched Lucius swallow some through the c***k in the bedroom door and hung around just long enough to see him change. Glen heard movement and knew Lucius was on his way down to her.

Unsure of how much time she had before Lucius found her, Glen pulled the stopper and drank a quarter of the blood from the test tube. Almost instantly, the high from the MDMA disappeared, and Glen was utterly sober. Not just sober but also, somehow, more awake. The living room door flew open, and Glen shrunk into the shadows near the piano.

One of the abilities of a vampire is to become one with shadows. To meld amid them and use them as camouflage. Unbeknownst to her, Glen did this very thing as Lucius scanned the room. If Lucius were a real vampire, then he would have recognized the presence of another in the form of a black mass near the piano. As vampires can penetrate darkness, seeing through it as well as in daylight, then any dark spots would arouse suspicion. Lucius, however, was a mere human, and he glanced past Glen's shadow, seeing only a shadow.

Lucius moved to the front door and thrust it open, peering into the darkness before running out, leaving the door wide open. Thinking that it may be a trap, Glen stayed where she was, but she could hear him moving further from the house.

"Come to me," Erzsebet whispered. Glen shot around, expecting to see Erzsebet standing right next to her, such was the realism of her voice. I don't know where you are, Glen replied mentally, hoping that it would work. "The clinic." Came the response.