Mengliad (The Mengliad Series Book 1) Read online

  “About?” Josiah asked.

  “Lilith is not the only Mengliad down there.” Bibi took a healthy drink of water before asking Jessica, “How well do you know Marcy?”

  “Not real well. I know her boyfriend, Jeramey, is a private eye, and that she’s waitressing to put herself through one of those vocational nursing programs.”

  “Do you know last names?” Bibi pressed further. “Do you know the name of the school she attends?”

  “Her last name is Hampton,” Jessica answered. “I don’t know his last name. Not sure on the school, either. Does it really matter what school she attends?”

  “Yes.” She glanced up at Craddock to see if he was following her line of thought.

  “Why?” Jessica asked, catching the look between them.

  “Well, for starters,” Craddock answered when Bibi didn’t, “she would have more knowledge than, say, the average person, when it comes to Human versus Mengliad variation.”

  “Different schools offer different programs,” Bibi elaborated. “Some schools offer studies of Mengliad biology, which covers Human to Mengliad conversion, and the effects of the BTR.”

  “Was Marcy working when you started feeling the flu-like symptoms?” Craddock asked.

  Jessica nodded. “She told me I needed to go home and rest. But, I mean, come on! What are the chances that she’s even a Purist?”

  “We don’t have the luxury of being optimistic, Jessica,” Bibi somewhat scolded. “We have to be realistic here, almost pessimistic. We have to plan for every contingency.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry,” Jessica grumbled. Realizing how she sounded, she took a second, curbing her outward manner. “I don’t know about any of this, so I of course trust your judgment.”

  Craddock placed a hand on her shoulder, his thumb scarcely caressing her. “We’re just trying to protect you.”

  Catching his subtle display of affection, Bibi sighed deeply and turned away, which Jessica mistook as anger towards her.

  “Exactly what have I done for you to hate me so much?” Jessica asked challengingly. When she started to shake, Craddock assumed it was because of the impending confrontation.

  “No one hates you,” he insisted, continuing to brush his thumb against her, consoling her.

  “Is that what you think?” Bibi asked. “Do you have any idea, the kind of danger you’re in? That we’re in, because of our association with you? If I hated you, would I be risking my life for you?”

  “Baby steps, Bibi,” Craddock reprimanded, his eyes intense when they locked with hers.

  “We don’t have time for baby steps, Doc!” Bibi snatched her purse and coat off the table. “I have to go research this Marcy woman!”

  “Bibi, don’t.” Craddock’s tone implored her to stop and listen to him. “Don’t leave like this.”

  She spun around to retort, but her gaze moved past him before a word ever left her mouth. When Craddock turned to follow it, his eyes grew wide in response to what he saw.

  Jessica’s eyes looked almost glazed over, her second lenses fluttering at half-mast, and she was swaying slightly, looking completely unstable on her feet.

  Craddock rushed to her, and when Josiah caught on to what the problem was, he did too.

  Both men put their arms around her, guiding her towards the couch.

  “You need to lie down,” Craddock instructed, helping her to do so.

  “I don’t feel right,” Jessica whispered.

  In response, as he placed his hand on her forehead, Craddock looked back at Bibi pleadingly.

  “We need to test the clarity of the conversion.” Bibi dropped her stuff on the back of the couch as she approached. “It looks like a muddy conversion.”

  Craddock shook his head. “We don’t have the equipment to test it. We should just do it again. The BTR.”

  “With?” Bibi asked, already knowing what his answer would be.

  “I’m 99.9 percent pure,” Craddock reminded, his tone warning her not to start an argument, which she picked up on.

  “It should be in the vein, to be safe.” She kneeled down next to the couch, removing Jessica’s glasses carefully. Lifting her eyelids, she gently moved her second lens out of the way, checking the dilation of her pupils. “And it should be soon.”

  “How do we get the supplies?” Josiah asked, hovering over the scene with concern.

  “My neighbor is a diabetic,” Bibi answered, grabbing her belongings again and heading for the door. “It’ll be tricky, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get what we need.”

  “Please hurry!” Craddock exclaimed, his worry escalating.

  “Doc,” Bibi was remarkably calm under the circumstances, “she’s going to be okay.”

  “Her body is fighting with itself, Bibi! You know as well as I do what that means!”

  “It’s been minutes, Doc.” Her tone was docile, contrasting against his harsher one. “I’ll be back in a half hour, okay?”

  Nodding, his eyes shifted back onto Jessica. “Just, please, hurry.”

  When he heard the door shut, Craddock dropped his head and sighed deeply.

  “Bibi knows what she’s talking about,” Josiah said to him, his hand on his friend’s shoulder supportively. “If she says she’s gonna be alright, then, she’s gonna be alright.”

  Craddock glanced up at him, but only out of his peripheral vision. “If she’s not back in thirty minutes, will you help me do the BTR?”

  Josiah scowled down at him. “How? We don’t have the supplies.”

  “The old fashioned way,” he answered, staring up at him fully.

  By the expression he wore, Josiah could tell that Craddock already knew what he was going to say, but he said it anyway. “That’s dangerous.”

  “So is this.” Craddock returned his attention to Jessica. “I know you can hear me,” he whispered to her, brushing her wispy red bangs back away from her face. “You’re okay, okay? It’s just. . . the conversion was done with weak blood. We’re going to fix this, alright? Just, try not to panic.”

  Feeling awkward just standing there, not sure of what else to do, Josiah dropped down to his knees beside Craddock. “I don’t think she can answer you anymore.”

  “I know she can’t, but I know she can hear me. She’s in there, she’s just, like, comatose.”

  “She’s probably freaking out,” Josiah guessed.

  Craddock was certain that she was. He could feel it. Sense it. “It’s called muddy conversion, Jessica,” he explained to her, knowing she could understand him, even though she couldn’t respond. “The Human side of you is treating the attempt at conversion like a virus. It’s trying to fight it off. The Mengliad side of you, since Mengliads can’t catch viruses, is confused. It’s fixable, okay? We’re going to do the BTR, to ensure a complete conversion.

  “It’s not at all painful,” he continued, stroking her cheek and forehead with the pad of his thumb. “It’s like getting blood drawn.” He then glared at Josiah, silently communicating that he shouldn’t contradict him.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Josiah pushed up off the floor, inching away in encouragement for him to follow.

  “I’m not leaving her alone.” His eyes never left Jessica.

  “I’m not talking about leaving the apartment.” He clenched his jaw when Craddock ignored him. “In the kitchen,” he ordered, and then he spun around and walked towards it.

  “I’m not leaving,” Craddock promised, whispering as he kissed her forehead. He wouldn’t have left her side, but he knew Josiah wasn’t going to let up until he’d had his say. It was better to just get it over with.

  Marching into the kitchen, he glanced back to be sure of the distance between himself and Jessica before glaring at Josiah. “What?”

  “You know if you do it the old fashioned way—”

  Craddock waved his hands to stop him from finishing the sentence, whispering harshly, “She can still hear!”

  “And feel!” he whispered back.
“If you’re gonna do it that way, you owe it to her to be honest!”

  “I will, if it comes to that! I’m trying to keep her calm!”

  “If we do this, we’re gonna need—”

  “I know,” Craddock interrupted him, lowering his voice to an even quieter whisper. “Dissect one of the clean disposables from the bathroom, and use the hotdog tongs to hold it over the stove. Fire sterilizes.”

  Not waiting for a response, Craddock walked back over to Jessica and dropped again to his knees once beside her. “I’m here.” He took her hand in his, threading his fingers through hers.

  Not at all comfortable with what Craddock was planning to do, Josiah reluctantly headed for the bathroom, to follow the instructions he had been given. He just hoped and prayed, silently to himself, that it wouldn’t come to that.

  Chapter Nine

  “She’ll be here,” Josiah assured him, knowing he wouldn’t take that excuse for much longer. It seemed that Craddock was set to climb the walls.

  “She’s late.” Craddock’s hand still clutched Jessica’s as his worried eyes watched over her.

  “Five more minutes,” Josiah begged, startling when Craddock shouted back at him.

  “She said thirty minutes, Joe! It’s been forty-five!”

  “She’ll be here,” he repeated, his tone remaining quiet and calm in spite of Craddock’s outburst. “Five more minutes.”

  Craddock sighed, exasperated. “At least sterilize the thing! So that if she’s not, we don’t waste any more time!”

  “Fine!” Josiah stood hastily and moved towards the kitchen, leaving Craddock and Jessica alone.

  “Jessica,” Craddock whispered to her, “Bibi isn’t back yet. Which means we have to do the BTR another way. A way that is, unfortunately, painful. I wish there was another way,” he hurried on remorsefully, “but I’m afraid if we wait much longer, the damage will be severe.

  “I’m going to make a small incision in your arm, just above your wrist,” he explained. “Then, I’m going to cut my finger, and get it bleeding, then. . . Then,” he continued after faltering, “I’m going to, insert it, into your wound.”

  “Now what?”

  Craddock turned to see him holding up the razor blade by the hotdog tongs, the reddish color fading as the cool air hit it. “Douse it with rubbing alcohol to cool it down, then bring it to me, along with the alcohol.”

  As Josiah did as directed, Craddock pushed off the floor to grab a clean towel from the linen cupboard in the bathroom. Both men returned to the couch at virtually the same time.

  “What do you need me to do?” Josiah asked, holding the blade by the tongs as Craddock poured alcohol into his own hands and rubbed them together vigorously.

  “I’m going to cut myself first.” He waved his hands to speed the drying process along. “I want to make this as quick for her as possible. But, cutting myself first means I’ll only have one hand to work with.”

  “I can’t cut her, Doc,” Josiah whined, begging him not to ask him to.

  “You don’t have to.” He touched the razor blade carefully at first, to see if it was still hot. When he could tell that it wasn’t, he plucked it from the tongs, gesturing for Josiah to join him at Jessica’s side. “I just need you to hold her arm steady for me.” He pointed back towards the alcohol bottle. “You should sterilize your hands first.”

  Nodding, Josiah snatched it up off the floor and repeated Craddock’s earlier actions, pouring the cold liquid into his hands and rubbing briskly. When he saw that Josiah was ready, Craddock put the blade to his left index finger, took a deep breath, and slashed it across, wincing immediately from the pain it caused.

  “Are you alright?” Josiah asked, fidgeting as he watched Craddock’s face contort.

  “Fine,” Craddock grunted, his teeth clenched. “Hold her arm up for me.”

  Josiah hesitated at first, but when he heard Craddock take a breath, like he was about to yell, he quickly reached out for Jessica’s arm, turning it so the underside was facing up. As Craddock readied the blade, touching it to her skin about three inches above her wrist, Josiah squinted his eyes closed and turned his head away.

  The abrupt sound of the door opening startled both of them, Josiah’s eyes popping open and Craddock jerking the razor away from Jessica as they looked over at the irate woman entering.

  “Oh my God,” Bibi groused, stepping with purpose towards the couch. “What are you, barbarians?” She gestured with a wave of her hand for them both to stand up.

  “You were late,” Craddock offered in explanation, but she just scoffed in response.

  “I stopped real quick at the store, to get alcohol and sterile gauze.” She produced a sterile-wrapped needle and syringe from her coat pocket. “Joe, get a gauze pad out for Craddock’s finger, and another one for Jessica.” As he did so, Bibi asked Craddock, “Did you tell her that’s what you were going to do?” So that she wouldn’t be touching it directly, she removed the diabetic needle from its packaging by the safety plastic around it.

  “Yes.” Craddock’s tone dripped with guilt.

  “You probably scared her half to death! Roll up your sleeve!” As Craddock complied, she hooked the needle onto the syringe. “How long has she been unresponsive?”

  “Since about two minutes after you left.” He took the gauze from Josiah when he held it out to him, pressing his left index finger into it.

  “Shit,” Bibi cursed. “She’s gotta be at least a quarter, for this to have happened.”

  “We think her mom’s mom was Mengliad. She remembers her being addicted to saccharin.” Their eyes caught for a moment in silent understanding before Bibi looked away.

  “Joe,” she asked of him, “I need you to wrap your hands around Doc’s bicep and squeeze. Doc, I need you to make a fist.” Tapping Craddock’s skin just below the crook of his elbow, she said, “This isn’t a phlebotomy needle, so it’s gonna hurt. Just so you know.”

  “I don’t care.” Craddock turned away as she readied the needle against him. The sharp intake of air through his teeth was the only sign of any pain caused, when the needle entered his flesh and vein.

  “I’m in. Joe, let go. Doc, relax your fist.”

  Craddock glanced over at what she was doing for only a second before closing his eyes and turning away again. “Fill the vial.”

  “It only takes a drop,” she reminded him, pulling the plunger slowly, attempting to avoid making him woozy.

  “I don’t care. I don’t want any mistakes this time. I just want to be sure.”

  Sighing in resignation, she said to Josiah, “Let me have that gauze, then get two more, and wet one of them with alcohol.”

  As soon as she pulled the needle from his arm, she placed the white square of cotton over the tiny bleeding puncture mark, and then bent his arm at the elbow. “Keep it like this. And sit down, before you fall down.”

  Dropping in slow motion to his knees, he crawled towards the couch as Bibi moved briskly in the same direction, kneeling once there.

  “This isn’t going to hurt,” Bibi said to Jessica in a consoling tone of voice, taking the alcohol-wetted gauze from Josiah and wiping her arm with it.

  Craddock placed his hand on her knee in a comforting manner. “Just like a blood test.”

  “Joe, squeeze her arm, her bicep, so I can find the vein,” Bibi asked of him, and when he did, she started tapping below her elbow like she had with Craddock.

  Without hesitating, Bibi pushed the needle into her flesh, then pulled back on the plunger just enough to ensure she had gotten into the vein. When she saw blood enter the syringe, she gave Josiah an upnod. “Got it, Joe. Let go.” After he did so, she started pushing Craddock’s blood into her.

  “How long till she regains consciousness?” Craddock was still averting his eyes from what she was doing.

  “Twenty minutes,” Bibi answered. “Maybe thirty.” She glanced over at him as she continued on task. “You should eat something.”

  “Fine
,” he agreed, but his thoughts were far elsewhere. “What if we didn’t catch it in time?”

  “We did, Doc,” she assured him. “It’s been less than an hour since the start of it.”

  “What if?” he asked again, to which Bibi released a long sigh.

  “You know the answer to that question.” She removed the needle from Jessica when the last of the blood was inside her. Grabbing the dry gauze from Josiah’s outstretched hand, she set it in place, then bent her arm at the elbow. “Hold her arm like this,” she said to Craddock. “Josiah and I will get you something to eat.”

  “What will happen?” Josiah whispered to Bibi as they both entered the kitchen.

  “It attacks the brain first,” she told him, whispering as well, “pretty much causing you to become a vegetable. Then it usually attacks the liver or kidneys. Or both. Then it attacks the heart.”

  “How will we know if—? If—?” He was not able to fully ask the question, so Bibi answered what she knew it to be.

  “If she has all her faculties when she wakes up, then all is fine. It’s a waiting game now.” She grabbed the plastic container from off the shelf, dropping the subject as she dished up Mealies for Craddock.

  “He’s falling for her, isn’t he?” Josiah asked hesitantly.

  Bibi paused before answering. “Yeah, he is. Big time.”

  “What do we do?” He glanced back at his friend, to see if he showed any sign of being able to hear them.

  “Nothing.” She snapped the lid on the container before placing it back on the shelf. “He’s a big boy. He knows the dangers. It’s his decision.”

  ****

  They all sat on the floor near the couch, trying not to but inevitably keeping one eye on the clock. A few attempts at starting a topic of conversation was made, but knowing Jessica could still hear them, they were reluctant to say much of anything. Ultimately, they opted for silence, which just seemed to make the time tick by that much slower.

  The room was so deathly quiet that, when Craddock gasped, Bibi and Josiah jumped at the sound.

  “She’s crying,” Craddock whispered, when his friends looked over at him questioningly. All eyes then moved to Jessica.