him over Daryl, and later, when he was stronger, taught him all she knew. She brought Goss over for sparring lessons with Joseph.” He gave the barest hint of a grin. “He’d taken Aikido in college and proved to be an apt student.”
“A month or two after Goss threw you against his wall, and Penny,” he looked over at the sleeping dog,
“bit you on the ankle, our researchers made a breakthrough.” He forced himself not to laugh at Poe’s reaction. She shivered at the things he knew.
“They found that by putting together particular synthetic materials mixed with plasma, a few drops of human blood, and a few other not-so-hard-to-find minerals, the perfect vampire food was created. After a few trials, about eighty-five percent of our test subjects preferred the Plasmacore, as it’s now called, to blood.
Results vary from vampire to vampire. It gave some vampires better night vision, staved off hunger longer than blood, and it actually enabled quite a number of undead to withstand some sunlight.”
Poe looked at Sainvire a little differently. He had found an alternative source of food for vampires.
Farms and cattle would no longer be needed.
“But when I took my trial results over to the Council, I was quickly censured.”
“But why?” cried Poe, tucking her dirty feet in a cross-legged position and sitting straight back. “How could they want this, this…crazy thing to continue?”
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“Damned if I know. They didn’t even favor me with an explanation. I was threatened that if a single Plasmacore bottle is seen on the streets, then my charges and I would face the Council for treason.”
“Treason? What the hell does that mean?” a seething Poe asked, digging her nails into her uninjured thigh to keep from letting out a string of curses.
“It means that my people and I will be hunted and executed by the Council’s minions, and possibly by the Council itself.”
Poe shook her head. “I don’t get it. Wouldn’t they want to feel a little bit of sun, or –”
“It’s not as easy as that, Poe. The Council and some remarkably old vampires are shaken by this whole development. The councilmembers are ancient immortals who are strong beyond belief. The vampires that created them and the brood they have spawned all over the world have always enjoyed prestige and royal treatment. I’m not only talking about the Council in Los Angeles, either. I’m referring to all the councilmembers and Ancients who have profited from fear and reverence for hundreds of years around the world.”
“I still don’t get it.” Poe scratched her head in frustration. “Can’t their system take the Plasmacore or something?”
“They can drink the Plasmacore. That’s the problem.” With his hand, Sainvire stopped Poe from asking another question. “Put it this way, Poe. Imagine you are the Queen of England, set apart by blood, riches, and circumstance. You are told that if you drink a can of root beer, a soda that would take away all the perks and bring you on even footing with street cleaners, prostitutes, coal miners, and such, would you drink it?”
“Sure,” Poe answered quickly. “I love root beer.”
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“Yes, you would. But you haven’t tasted the birthright of a queen. Gold, crown jewels, palaces, maze gardens with peacocks, the rights of condescension.” Sainvire stretched his long legs clad in black slacks, nearly touching Poe’s foot which unwound at the same time.
“Our ancient, closed-minded vampires want the mystique of vampirism to stay. They want glory, awe, and fear from fellow vampires and humans alike.
Strength used to lie in the strain of vampire blood where one was created from, as well as the vintage of the vampires themselves. But even supernatural beings can’t compete with nature, science, and genetics.”
Poe nearly catapulted out of her seat as Sainvire’s extremely sharp and intimidating nails shot up fourteen inches, turning into deadly black talons.
“During the past hundred years or so,” Sainvire continued as if nothing untoward had happened,
“fledgling vampires springing from no discernible ancient bloodlines showed promise of power far stronger than many Ancients. Some could even walk in daylight, only needing to protect their eyes. Some could fly and some could unearth entire buildings with their bare hands. Some exhibited strengths far more advanced and complex than any ancient immortals from the earlier bloodlines.”
He stared at Poe for quite some time before continuing. His gaze lingered upon her long, lustrous hair parted on the side and held with bobby pins, her naturally arched eyebrows, serious dark eyes, small perspiring nose tip, and down to her