The White Blood Trilogy - Complete Box Set Books 1-3 Page 2

  “More than you care to know. There are vampires who aren’t evil or violent, of course. Men and women who were turned by another vampire and who were forced into a life of feeding off the blood of others, but even the kindest of souls can become a different person when they feel the hunger pull at them. I’d say half the prisoners here are unfortunate victims of more malicious vampires still out there somewhere, but there’s not one of them you’d want to be alone in a room with when they’re hungry.”

  “It’s sad to think about it that way,” said Linda.

  She seemed to be riding the roller coaster of emotions that came from trying to understand everything about this place, and I couldn’t blame her. I’d gone through the same thing during my first days on the job.

  “Let’s get to work,” I said. “We have forty injections to process today. The inmates get their maintenance doses in shifts, and as much as they hate the whiteblood, they need it to survive. After a week of not feeding, they’re just hungry enough to play nice to get it.”

  Chapter2

  As I predicted, Linda was a quick study. She followed my instructions exactly, and it was a quick matter of training her up to work with the inmates. I would continue to do the new intake injections, but after a week of watching and assisting me in performing the maintenance doses, I felt she was ready to begin doing them herself. It wasn’t so much that she needed to learn how to give someone a needle, but that she needed to grow accustomed to being around the vampires on a regular basis.

  “You ready to handle your first session?” I asked her at the beginning of our shift.

  “I think so, yeah. Most of the vampires seem pretty okay when they come in here, so it’s going to be just like the thousands of injections I had to give during nursing school and my training shifts at the hospital. Only, with vampires.”

  “Exactly,” I squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll be fine. You’ve been in the room with me all week, and it won’t be much different. They may try to test you because you’re new, but don’t let them get away with anything. Remember that even though they’re dropped off by the guard and left alone, you can hit the panic button and someone will be in here to help you immediately.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Why don’t we have guards in here all the time? It seems like it would be safer that way.”

  “Budget issues,” I explained. “There are only so many guards on shift at any given time, and most of the whiteblood detail stays out in the hallway with the inmates so they don’t cause any problems. They’re always right out that door though.”

  Linda nodded her understanding and set about preparing the day’s supplies. In order to move quickly and efficiently through the forty vampires we’d need to inject that morning, we’d prep syringes in batches of ten so we could tackle each block as it was brought through. With ten down, we’d get a short break before the guards would bring the next group through.

  Whatever fears she might have had about being so close to the vampire prisoners, Linda was a consummate professional when it came time for her to get down to work. I hung back and stayed out of the way to let her work, impressed with how at ease she was with them. One of the younger vampires, a kid they called Janky because of a disfigured leg that his vampire blood hadn’t been able to correct after he was turned, tried to palm one of the extra syringes when he thought Linda wasn’t working, but she slammed her hand down over his wrist and twisted it away, chastising him like she would a small child. I smiled at that, and thought she’d do just fine, but that’s when I remembered what day it was.

  Fridays were when we saw Trevor King. Always in the second block of the day, and always first to get his whiteblood, Trevor King lived up to his namesake in Facility 47. The other inmates treated him like royalty since he was the oldest and most powerful vampire in the place.

  “That was a good start to your day, but it’s about to get serious,” I told her after the last of the first block had been processed. “The next vampire up is most likely over a thousand years old. He might not look it, but he is far and away the most dangerous man here. Don’t take any chances with him, and don’t let him get the upper hand over you. He likes to play mind games, so do your job and have the guards escort him out.”

  “Is it safe for us to be alone with him?”

  “We won’t be alone.” I nodded towards the door to where the guards were already escorting him in.

  His long scraggly hair had grown well past his shoulders and hung over his face as he walked in with head bowed. He was handcuffed like the other inmates, but unlike them, his wrist cuffs were linked by another chain to a set of ankle cuffs that forced him to shuffle forward one small step after another. A guard held on to each of his biceps and guided him to the chair where the inmates received their injections.

  “Well aren’t you a pretty young thing,” said King, lifting his head and smiling at Linda. The pink tip of his tongue slipped out of his mouth and ran across his lips. “I could just eat you up.”

  “Extend your arm please,” said Linda, focusing on her task as I’d trained her to do.

  “Sure thing, darlin’. Say, I’ve had me enough of this here whiteblood. Any chance I’ve earned a taste of the good stuff? I’ve been on my best behavior lately.”

  “I’m sure that’s true, Mr. King, but all I’ve got is more of the same thing every other inmate is getting. Whiteblood will have to do.”

  “Mmm, I can see that carotid artery pulsing in your neck.” King’s voice was low and seductive.

  I thought about stepping in, but Linda would have to learn how to deal with this. If she could handle Trevor King, she could handle anything any of the other prisoners that the facility could possibly throw at her.

  “I’ve always been partial to the dark ones myself,” he continued, as Linda sunk the needle into his arm, “and your skin looks like the kind of milk chocolate I could really sink my teeth into.”

  Linda’s head began to turn, but thankfully I was there to call out. “Hold it, Linda. Do not look into his eyes. Keep your attention on the needle, and don’t react to anything he says.”

  In the whisper quiet stillness of the room, I could hear Linda’s slow exhalation of breath as she fought to control herself and avoid responding to King’s antagonism. I cursed myself inwardly for not telling her about the power of his gaze. The whiteblood muted vampire abilities to a point, but it was impossible to tell how much power someone like King still had in him. He might not be able to affect those of us who’d worked around him day and night for several years, but a new face in the staff was a likely target for whatever power he still had access to.

  “You’ll feel a little dizzy for a few minutes while that takes hold,” said Linda, the barest quaver of anger in her voice, “so you can rest here for five minutes before the guards escort you back to your cell. But I’m sure you already know that, seeing as you’ve probably been in here longer than anyone else.”

  “Feisty. I like that.” King’s head swiveled in my direction. I stared him down and looked at the spot between this eyes. I had enough experience around him to know what he needed in order to capture my gaze and exert his influence over me. Under normal circumstances he’d have me doing anything he wanted if I so much as glanced in his direction, but under the suppression of the whiteblood, anything short of direct and sustained eye contact would keep me safe.

  “One of these days, sweetheart,” continued King, “you or your new pet here are going to slip up and I’m going to be right here to take advantage of it. Don’t think old Trevor King is going to spend the rest of his life locked up in a glass box, oh no. I’ll be getting out of here sooner than you think, and you can bet I’ll be coming to find you when I do.”

  “That’s enough, asshole,” said one of the guards, yanking him to his feet. King laughed as they hauled him out of the room.

  “How are you doing?” I asked Linda when were were alone again.

  “A little shaken, to be honest. That guy cre
eped me right out. Just being near him made me feel weird. It was like I was…”

  “Drawn to him?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know why. He’s so repulsive, but a part of me liked the way he was talking to me.”

  “I’m really sorry,” I said. “I should have done a better job of warning you about him. In the future, I’ll ensure he’s assigned to my group when we split the injection duties. After some time around here you’ll have a better idea of how to deal with his influence, but for now I think it’s best if you stick to the baby vamps.”

  “Okay, last one of the day,” I said after the guards had taken away another inmate. “Who’s on the list?”

  “Looks like the highlight of our day,” she said with an exaggerated raising of her eyebrow. “It’s that hunky vampire, Ben Gold. You should come up with some reason to get his shirt off. I bet he has perfect six pack abs under there.”

  The suggestion made me laugh, but I knew I couldn’t let Linda think it was okay to feel so comfortable around any of the inmates. “In all seriousness, Linda, you really need to be wary around these vampires. Some of them seem charming or innocent, but they can turn on you in a heartbeat. You remember Janky from this morning?”

  “Yeah, cute kid, kinda dumb.”

  “He tried to rip a guard’s throat out last month. It took four men to haul him off the guard, and they hit him with the stun gun nine times before he finally went down. We still don’t know what triggered the attack, but even with the whiteblood hampering his abilities, he snapped and turned into a monster.”

  “Fuck,” said Linda, surprise showing on her face. “That kid really did all that?”

  “And he’s not the first to lose it.” It was hard not to feel like her mother, but the reality of the situation was too heavy to mess with. “Just be careful around them, okay?”

  “Yeah, I will.” A small rebellious grin formed on her lips. “I still think Ben is hot though. He might be a monster, but until I see evidence of it, I’m going to keep picturing him with his shirt off.”

  Turning away from her to hide my smile, I shook my head and pretended to be unimpressed by what she’d just said. The girl was stubborn, that was for sure. And it’s not like I could blame her for it. A younger me probably would have said exactly the same thing. The truth was that Ben was hot, only I had a better idea of how little the surface actions of a vampire really meant.

  “Hello ladies,” said Ben when the door opened and he was ushered in. Unlike King, he was allowed to enter on his own.

  “So Mr. Gold,” I said, gesturing for him to sit in the injection chair. “This will be your last acclimatization dose of the whiteblood. Next week you’ll start on the spaced out injections.”

  “I’ll be upset to lose out on the conversation with you two,” he said with a sigh. “Sadly, my fellow inmates aren’t too keen on discussing anything but how much they miss human blood and how much they want to be out of here.”

  “You don’t want to get out?” asked Linda.

  “I didn’t say that.” He grinned and looked me in the eyes. “Although there are certain things about this place I’d miss if I were ever to be so lucky as to get out.”

  Although I normally stood when administering injections, I pulled over a wheeled stool and sat on it while I prepped Ben’s arm. It was easy to pretend that I was just tired from a long day on my feet, but it was less easy to convince myself that my legs didn’t feel a little shaky when he looked at me like that.

  “Well you’ll still be able to see one of us every week,” I told him.

  “I’m happy to see that you’re going to be able to hand off some of your duties to your colleague there.” He smiled at Linda, and I swear I heard her suppress a giggle in response. “I can’t help but notice how overworked you are here. It can’t be easy having to deal with all of these prisoners every day.”

  “The job gets bigger every month,” I admitted. “And yeah, I am glad for the help. I’m also happy to have inmates like you coming through here. My job would be a lot easier if everyone was as polite as you, Ben.”

  “Becoming a vampire is something that happened to me,” he said. “It wasn’t a choice. I have little of my humanity left to hold on to, and common decency around a beautiful hard working woman like you is the only way I know how to act.”

  I blushed a little at that, and had to pretend to write something on his chart in order to hide it from both him and Linda. It was so easy to be around him, and I caught myself not wanting his time to be up. There was nothing I could do though, and a guard reappeared soon to take him back to his cell.

  “Until next time Jenny,” he nodded politely and then turned to wave goodbye to Linda.

  “Oh my god,” said Linda after he’d gone. “You’re into him.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, trying to keep a straight face but worried I was failing. “He’s a vampire, and a prisoner. I am not ‘into him’.”

  “Whatever, boss lady,” she teased. “You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. I saw you blushing and flirting with him.”

  “I was not flirting.” I dumped the used syringe into the sharps disposal with a little more force than was probably necessary. Leaning back on the edge of the table I crossed my arms and sighed in resignation. “He’s obviously ridiculously attractive, it’s not like I’m going to deny that.”

  “Oh, come on. You know it’s more than that.”

  “It’s hard to explain. I’ve been around a lot of vampires over the last couple of years. Hell, I spend more time around them than I do actual humans. There’s something different about Ben, and I’m curious about it, that’s all. I would never risk my job for a fling with a vampire, and that’s all it ever could be even if I did think of him that way… which I don’t”

  “I know,” said Linda. “I’m just teasing you. It doesn’t hurt to daydream a little though, does it?”

  Chapter3

  It took another few days for them to set Linda up in an office all her own. Fully trained and prepared to handle regular inmate injections on her own, I signed off on her paperwork and was happy that I’d be able to get back to somewhat normal workload levels now that I had another person working alongside me. Between the two of us, we could process the prison’s inmates in half the time, meaning I could actually do my proper job as a doctor and still get out of work on time. Today would be the first day in months that I’d actually be able to leave at four o’clock instead of being stuck in the office until seven or eight tending to inmates who’d suffered an accident or had a health complication their suppressed vampire immune systems couldn’t handle.

  “Doctor Hastings tells me you’re ready to work on your own,” said General Edwards, the Facility 47 warden.

  “Yes, sir,” replied Linda. “I’m confident in my ability to process the weekly whiteblood doses. Jenny trained me well.”

  “I’m sure she did.” He turned to face me. “We’re very lucky to have you here doctor, and I’m hoping this means we’ll have time to move on to some of those research projects I mentioned at our last meeting.”

  “Yes, about those,” I asked. “I was unclear on the details of what sort of research you had in mind.”

  “Your predecessor was doing some work that helped us better understand the vampires and how they think. It was his research that led to the discovery of whiteblood and the allium hexaflouride gas. Basically we’d like you to pick up where he left off. I’ll explain more later; I think it’s time I showed Linda here to her new office before she goes home for the night.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Oh, one more thing Jenny?” he said, stopping halfway out the door. “I was informed of an incident on the floor just before I came in here. I’m told one of our inmates is being brought to you for stitches.”

  Great, I thought to myself as the door swung closed behind the General and Linda. So much for leaving on time for once. Some idiot vampire probably got himself stabbed in a fight, and it w
as up to me to patch him up again. It was too bad we weren’t able to give them a quick shot of regular blood so they could heal themselves. It seemed like such a waste of time to stitch up a creature that could do the same job in mere seconds.

  I prepped a suture kit and looked at the clock on the wall. Nearly five o’clock and the patient wasn’t even ready yet. I knew it took time for them to process inmates after an incident, but that didn’t make me feel better about the overtime.

  “Got a present for you,” said a thick-necked guard as he hauled the inmate into the room. I was surprised to see none other than Ben Gold being shoved forward, hands clasped in cuffs. “You want me to stick around?”

  “Thanks, Vince, but I’ve got it from here.”

  The guard grunted and left them alone in the room. I knew he wouldn’t be that far away, ready to act if I hit the panic button, but there was something about being alone with Ben for the first time that made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him, not at all. It was more difficult to put my finger on, or rather, it was something I didn’t want to admit to myself.

  “Mr. Gold,” I said, gesturing for him to sit on my examination table. “Not even a month into your stay here and you’re already showing up in the infirmary needing stitches.”

  “Please, call me Ben. And it’s not my fault. I had a little accident, and damn my luck if I didn’t somehow scratch my back on something.”

  “Why don’t you go ahead and remove your shirt so I can get a look at it.”

  His muscles flexed when he lifted the shirt over his head, and I was glad Linda wasn’t there to see it and tease me about it later. Sitting there shirtless with that polite smile he always seemed to have on his face, I knew I was in trouble with this one.

  “This is considerably more than a scratch.” I dabbed gauze on the area to wipe away the coagulating blood. Vampires under the influence of whiteblood didn’t bleed out the way a normal person would. The blood resisted leaving the body and oozed out in a molasses-like trickle instead of gushing out. A human would have been in shock from blood loss with a stab wound like one I saw on Ben’s back.