A Shade of Vampire 31: A Twist of Fates by Bella Forrest Read Free Book Online Page A

spluttered. “You mean, they grew into—”
    “Babies,” Dr. Finnegan finished dryly. “Vampire-Hawk babies.”
    My jaw dropped to the floor just trying to imagine what the heck they would even look like. How would they function?
    I could hardly even draw a picture in my head.
    “Frans,” the scientist ploughed on, “being one of the IBSI’s leading scientists, heard of this success, naturally, and it got him thinking.” She paused, frowning. “Now you’d better not ask me how that man’s mind worked—he was a bloody genius. Hasn’t been a scientist like him since, and there likely never will be… But anyway, he heard of the successful specimens. He traveled to Canada and managed to gain sole access to them for a long enough period to withdraw some blood without anybody knowing. He took the blood back to his lab in Bermuda, and he began to experiment even more vigorously. At the time he had full access to the Bermuda base’s lab—he was the head scientist of Bermuda. I believe he even had some Bloodless in cages. All the time that he was supposed to be working on other things, he poured into finally discovering a cure. It was he who discovered the antidote. The first four ingredients—plant-based, as you deduced—contain chemicals to help to speed up the effect of the Hawk blood… Likewise, the plant combination can work in the other direction too, as you witnessed with your daughter—speeding up the influence of Bloodless venom.”
    We stared at the doctor in stunned silence.
    Then I remembered something that didn’t make a lot of sense. I recounted Orlando’s short-lived “experiment” back in Aviary to the scientist, where he’d ingested a chunk of poisonous leaf. We all could have sworn that he’d looked better afterward; his complexion brighter, less pale… although admittedly the cosmetic difference seemed to have faded from him by now. Still, the leaf alone had made some positive improvement, and there had been no Hawk blood involved there. “How do you explain that?” I concluded. “If the plant ingredients only serve to assist the Hawk blood in penetrating a Bloodless’ system, why should one of the plants have a powerful impact in its own right?”
    The scientist paused, then shrugged. “I’m not sure. Perhaps the plants themselves do have some capability to ward off the virus.”
    As if nature makes Aviary toxic to Elders in all aspects—from its plant life to its residents . I supposed it would be fitting. It was just a shame Aviary hadn’t come out stronger from the war. Though at least they’d managed to reduce the Elders to shadows of their former selves, no longer requiring much concern. That was an inestimable boon to all supernaturals and mankind.
    “But all I know,” Dr. Finnegan went on, “is that the combination of the five ingredients I mentioned is what has been proven to work and have the Bloodless—or rather, human—survive the cure… Maybe someone with a brilliant mind like Frans’ could work out another concoction based on Aviary-derived substances. God knows.”
    I sighed. “Okay. Please continue.”
    She nodded, obliging. “So… according to notes that were retrieved from Frans’ lab after his death,” she said, “the idea of Hawk blood had occurred to him before he got hold of the mutated specimens’ blood. Blood is, after all, the life force of every being. But pure Hawk blood failed him. It was only the diluted half-blood specimens that eventually did it—as the blood was partly vampire, the Bloodless’ system was tricked into accepting and absorbing it. Kind of like a Trojan horse.”
    “You know all this, and yet you’re still alive?” my mother couldn’t help but ask.
    Dr. Finnegan nodded. “There are a few scientists like me who were let in on the secret… But as you’ve seen,” she added shakily as she looked at Ben, “my life is on a very short leash.”
    “Go on,” I urged.
    “So when Frans announced his find to Atticus, he