rubbed his jaw. “She started giving me tiny amounts of processed garlic extract. It made me sick at first, causing rashes, singed skin, and break-outs. When the discomfort let up, she pumped the dosage up a notch.
Eventually my body didn’t reject the garlic’s venom anymore. It took quite some time for my body to accept the poison, and it hurt like hell.”
Poe cleared her head, thinking about Westley, a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts, from the movie The 211
Rono/That Which Bites
Princess Bride. He drank poison until he became immune to it.
“What about the sun? Were you able to walk during the day the moment you were turned, or did you sunbathe in increments too?”
“No on both counts. A couple of scientists believed that most vampires developed a combination of HPS or Hermansky-Pudlak-Syndrome, also known as Albino syndrome, and red cell depletion a day or two after crossing over. However, the one percent who could stand a little ultraviolet rays tended to be from warmer weather places like California or desert countries.” A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Again, I volunteered to be experimented on even though I didn’t know much about science and such. They injected me with an extremely high dosage of Vitamin C, beta carotene, melatonin extract, and other serums they concocted in the lab.” He chuckled,
“they even made me drink a pint of fresh orange juice for a week straight, making me so ill that I was laid up for a month.”
Poe didn’t see the humor. Vampires drinking orange juice and getting shots to be able to walk during the day was a freaky and sick idea. Not only would they suck the blood out of the crumbs of the human population, they would also pluck all the citrus in the state. Fuck that.
“You’re a regular lab rat, Sainvire,” she said, her voice hard. “If I didn’t know you were from Chicago, I’d a thought you came from Beverly Hills, the body altering capital of the world.” Her nostrils flared,
“However did you convince your plastic surgeons to implant those insane extending talons of yours?”
Sainvire’s smile didn’t falter. “Those came with the original package, Julia.”
212
Rono/That Which Bites
“Bet they did,” she sneered. “You’re like that Michael Jackson I saw at the Hotel Otani a couple years ago, but instead of getting your skin bleached, you go to the tanning salon.”
His face sobered, gripping the back of the chair.
“You’re wrong, Poe.” Had she succeeded in irking his macho pride? “I get color from being out in the sun like most people. I travel a lot. Secondly, I’m not Michael Jackson, whoever he is.”
“Oh, c’mon. Everybody knows who Michael Jackson is, you faker,” said Poe, smacking the side of her head for emphasis. “What do you want then?” Poe gave a very derisive smile and asked, “To be human?”
Sainvire lowered his chin onto his arms resting on the back of the chair. “Why, yes,” he answered coolly.
“I wanted to fight a fascist government, not be dinner for some rancid Spanish whore who fed on me while I was dying from shrapnel wounds in the shoulder and belly. She left me to turn into one of her kind, spitting her black blood into the hole she punched into my head. That was out of my hands.” His tone hardened. “I prefer a steak and rhubarb pie over drinking blood to live, Poe, even though blood’s a very easy thing to get.” To belabor his point, he stared at the throbbing vein on her neck and was on her in a blink of an eye, his fangs extending inches from her face.
“With our strength, our speed, and near indestructible ways, we can achieve almost anything.”
He tapped the pounding vein on her neck, causing an involuntary whimper in Poe. “We can easily drink from you humans after hunting you down for sport like Quillon Trench and his followers had imagined. So damn easy.”
Poe tried to push the heavy body away from her own, but it was like nudging a car that was still in park position. “Get off me!”
213
Rono/That Which Bites
“What’s the matter, Poe? Don’t you want me to be the vampire that you envisioned? A beast? A lecher? A killer?” He lowered his face even closer until Poe could feel his arctic eyes and his cold breath on her cheek.
He pushed her head aside for better access to the throbbing artery in her fine pale neck. Poe felt the tip of the fangs make contact with her skin, and