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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

MADS

Claude has said nothing since we left Orin’s.

Ender is being forced to give the cat kisses, and even though he told Rylee that he would absolutely never kiss the cat, he ends up kissing it.

Rylee is extremely pleased.

“So… say we… end up in a situation with Abel again…” Finn starts. “If we have the drug to kill him… would that be so bad?”

“You think we should have Mads make it?” Marcus asks. “Your antidote works with the drug… is it a drug? What exactly is it?”

“It’s a powder that kills instantly when inhaled or ingested by a vampire.

The antidote works best for the ammunition since it’s slow acting.

The powder is basically the raw form, whereas the bullets use a diluted version which Grady knows how to make.

The diluted kind is only lethal when injected into the body because it’s not as potent.

But with the powder I created, vampires end up breathing it in, getting it in their mouth or nose; even though they don’t have to breathe, it’s an automatic response.

It’s extremely toxic to vampires and leaves no time for an antidote unless someone is with them who administers it, but even that isn’t a guarantee.

The only guarantee is if the antidote is given beforehand. ”

“You said that it can mess with the healing abilities of a vampire? If the powder is toxic enough to kill instantly, why does that part matter?”

“If they can heal, they can survive it. That’s what the antidote does.

It doesn’t counteract the toxins, but instead the inability to heal,” I explain.

“What I’m saying is that I can create the powder to kill them, but if it gets out in a roomful of vampires, pretty much everyone dies.

The only one who’d be safe from it would be Finn.

We could give the drug to Finn in case he’s ever in a situation to use it on a vampire, but any of the rest of us using it would either have to inject ourselves with the antidote and then immediately use the powder to kill the vampires or make sure there’s no way we’d possibly inhale or ingest it. ”

“What does the antidote do to humans?” Marcus asks.

“I have no idea. I’ve never tested it. I don’t think it’d be good for them, but they wouldn’t need it since they wouldn’t be harmed,” I say. “Finn would be safe.”

Marcus’s hands tighten on the steering wheel as I think about his reaction.

“Is there a reason Finn might not be safe?” I ask curiously. “Oh wait. Is this because of the traces of vampire blood the council found out about?”

“It is. I guess we’re just… uncertain how my body would react to something like this poison and antidote.”

“But you don’t need to consume blood?”

“No.”

“You’re no faster or stronger?”

“Not really… I can… judge things quite quickly. Like I can pinpoint where to shoot a moving vampire, that type of thing. But I wouldn’t consider myself any faster. If you see me run, you’ll understand that I’m definitely not faster.”

I think about it for a long moment. “That’s fascinating. I would love to dissect you.”

“Stop trying to dissect people,” Ender chides.

“I would very much rather not be dissected, thank you,” Finn says.

Why does everyone want to ruin my fun? “I wouldn’t like murder you to do it. Just a mild dissection. Take some hair, blood, flesh, that kind of thing. Ender already let me cut him open and dig around and he didn’t whine too much.”

“I was half dead. I didn’t have the energy to whine.”

“See? He loved it.”

“Sounds like it,” Finn says as Marcus pulls up to the university. “I sure hope we’re not being followed so they figure out what we’re doing.”

“It’s hard to tell,” Marcus responds. “But I wouldn’t be surprised. I hope they have what you need.”

“Me too,” I say as I follow him inside.

He marches up to the office and flashes his badge. “We need your chemistry lab.”

“What for?” the older lady asks as she eyes his badge. She even puts her reading glasses on to check it over.

“Does it matter?” Marcus growls, and I can guarantee the growl gets him what he wants ninety-nine percent of the time. I have the odd idea that the only one it doesn’t scare off is Finn… and this woman sitting right here.

“Sure does,” she says as she gives him a “fight me” look. Like Marcus is going to have to brawl this elderly lady to get what he wants.

Before Marcus has to defend himself or beat her up, the door opens and a middle-aged woman comes out.

“Oh! You’re from the VRC, correct? I’m the university president; I just got off the phone with your superior. He filled me in on what’s going on, and I told him I would be happy to help. Right this way, right this way.”

The secretary tsks, like she was looking forward to kicking Marcus back into place. The president seems a bit confused about the child and the cat, but the expression on Marcus’s face sure works on her.

She hurries into a lab that’s full of students who look very confused by us. “Professor, can we have a minute?” she asks.

He gets up and walks out to speak with her as I rush over and begin scrutinizing what supplies he has.

“You going to blow this place up like you blew the last one up?” Ender asks.

The students’ attention snaps over to him.

“I’m not blowing anything up. Ha ha ha…” I say as the president comes in right at that moment. She looks concerned, but Finn just smiles like his smile will fix it all.

“We are with the VRC,” Finn announces loud enough to hopefully appease everyone and reassure them that nothing will be blown up.

The professor enters then claps his hands to get attention back on him. “Class is dismissed. Please clean up your materials and put everything back. We will see you on Monday.”

“Professor, did you start a meth lab? Is that why the police are here?” one of the students asks.

“I did not start a meth lab.”

“I heard you can get rich that way,” a young woman says.

“You heard it? Or you just watched Breaking Bad ?”

“They’re with the vampire police. What would vampires need with meth?” a guy asks.

“Can vampires do drugs?”

“No, but we can eat humans who waste our time,” Ender says. “It’s a rule that we’re allowed to.”

“We’re not allowed to,” Finn assures them.

“You’re human, what do you know? What are you going to do? Just suck the marrow out of their bones?” Ender asks.

Rylee tugs on his shirt. “En, what’s marrow?”

“It’s the stuff inside the bones.”

“Why would Finn eat that? That sounds gross, Finn,” Rylee announces as the students reluctantly leave the classroom. It’s apparent that being nosy would be significantly better than leaving.

“I don’t?—”

Rylee cuts him off before he can assure her that he’s never done such a thing. “I bet Marcus eats WHOLE skeletons! Like chomp chomp the whole thing. He looks like he does. He also looks evil.”

“He does look evil,” I say as Marcus glowers at me even though I was just agreeing. I lean down a bit so I’m more eye-to-eye with Rylee. “Did you see the way he almost had to brawl the secretary?”

“I DID!” Rylee responds.

Finn waves at us. “Guys, come on. Let’s be nice to Marcus. He’s only had to take three classes on how to interact with people to get to this level of social skills.”

“It was one , Finn. And I told you that in secrecy,” Marcus snarls as Claude and Alexei snicker.

Before the professor can leave, I catch him. “One second,” I say as I jot down the two things I didn’t see while perusing. “Would you happen to have these items?”

His eyebrows quirk. “Uhh… yeah. You…” He looks at the president and then over at Marcus. “I’ll get them.”

“Thank you,” I say as I hurry over to the protective gear and grab some safety glasses for everyone.

“I’m a vampire, why would I wear this?” Alexei asks.

“So you’ll keep two eyeballs.”

Alexei scrutinizes me. “I’m not making anything, so why would I need them? I’m just here to make sure you stay alive.”

Claude takes a pair from me. “Honey, put them on. Do you remember what happened to my eyebrow? You never know what might happen,” he says as he smiles at Alexei before sliding them on the unimpressed man. “Aww, you look so cute.”

Alexei is scowling quite hard about this whole thing.

I hand Claude his but he shakes his head.

“Sorry, it clashes with my outfit,” he says.

I stare at the plastic safety glasses, then at his lime green outfit with a pink floral design, and question how exactly the safety glasses could make that clash any harder. And are his shoes orange?

I glance at the safety glasses. “You know what would clash even more? An eyepatch. Put them on.”

“Honey, he’s being mean to me,” Claude whines as Alexei grabs the glasses and puts them on with enough force that I’m surprised Claude didn’t lose an eye from it.

“Thank you!” Finn says. And when I hand some to Ender, he takes a pair and fits them on Rylee. Then Rylee insists on a pair for Senor Fluffybottom, which Ender gives up his for.

I cock my head and raise an eyebrow as I walk up and slide a spare pair of glasses onto his face. “You need to protect those pretty eyes of yours.”

“My eyes are going to be closed as I sleep in the corner. You shouldn’t have to fear for them at all,” Ender assures me.

“I thought you were going to watch so he makes the right thing!” Finn says.

“The man is over here trying to protect vampires’ eyeballs, and you think he’s going to murder you all?” Ender asks.

“Let’s go through our safety steps!” I announce. “This device here is to flush out your eyes if something gets in them.”

“Can I use it to drown a man?” Alexei asks. “If not, I’m not interested in hearing more.”

“Good question but no. And if you pull this little handle here, water will drop down on you from above. Cool, huh?”

“That’s super cool,” Rylee says.

“Thank you. Now do you want to see a flame?”

“I DO!” she exclaims as she rushes over.