[ratlaf]

I'm hooked and can't wait for more.  Awesome work!!!  ;D

[Robert McNay]

Part 4: Lab Work

The factory district was sparsely lit and seemingly deserted. Only widely spaced street lights and the bare bulb of a small security light created isolated pools of incandescence. Occasionally, the shadow of a homeless person was briefly visible between delivery truck parked in the open air loading docks. The heavy rain of that afternoon had done little to wash away the grime and smell.

Slowly rumbling down the center of the street, a pursuit green ’09 Mustang Bullitt cruised with its lights off. It paused as it passed a large dock door that was set back about 30 feet from the street. The reverse lights burst to life as it crept backwards a few feet, and then turned in towards the door.

As the end of the 48 hours had approached, Craig prepared to meet Lillyia, but then she texted him. She changed the time to 1AM that night. Now he carefully guided his car up the short apron and into the open area in front of the large steel door. He paused and looked around and waited for a few minutes. Lillyia’s instructions were clear, don’t honk, he would be let in.

After 5 minutes he moved to get out and look around. The door had barely popped open when a piece of one of the shadows separated itself and drifted near.

“Stay in your car.” The shadow’s voice was husky and somewhat dangerous in tone.

“I’m here for Lillyia.”

“I know. Stay in the car.”

He closed the door and the shadow glided towards the garage door, which started to roll up at its approach. Once it was high enough for his car fit through, he shifted into first and rolled forward slowly. Inside was a large open area with a truck dock on the far side. When he cleared the door, he wheeled the car into a tight left turn towards the side wall, and then backed it up against the dock face, the nose pointed towards the door.

Craig stepped from the car as the shadow resolved itself about 15 feet in front of him. It was a woman, tall, with a mane of raven hair so dark that light seemed to be sucked into it. She wore a dark maroon catsuit with no sleeves and a deep plunging V-neck line. It looked like it had been painted on her. Unlike Lillyia, she made no effort at all to hide her vampirism. Her eyes had a permanent deep red glow and when she smiled or talked, her fangs were very prominent. Her body was lithe and strong, the muscles well defined and ripped. Waves of striation coursed over her body with every move. She approached as he closed the door.

“You must be Lillyia’s pet human,” She said as he closed the door. “an exceptional specimen, too.”

Her hand reached out and caressed his large pectoral muscles and he held her eyes. She rounded him, running her hand over his shoulder and down his back. As she did, he could see the back of her suit plunged to the base of her spine. The muscles of her back were thick and deeply cut. She continued appraising him, examining his shape and muscularity. He felt like a piece of livestock at a state fair. As she came around his right side, she was looking at his car, then turned to him. She smiled in a way that sent an internal chill through him.

“Nice car, looks and sounds fast.” Her eyes leveled with his as her fingers stroked his jawline, “No need to be nervous, I won’t hurt you. At least not much…. to begin with.”

She slipped her left arm under his right and pushed the short sleeve of his polo shirt up. She grasped his bicep in an iron grip, squeezing it, testing its hardness. Craig suppressed a wince at the incredible pressure of her grip. She stroked his tricep and the side of his upper arm with her other hand and licked her lips. The sharp, claw-like nail of her index finger traced the vein over his bicep and down his forearm. Her eyes locked with his again and he felt a hypnotic pull.

“Come with me. I’ll take you to Lillyia. She’s with the doctor.”

Arm in arm, she guided him towards a set of double doors. Through them was a brightly lit, fully equipped lab area with all the latest medical equipment. In the back, he could see trailer with the logo of a CT scanner company, next to it was another with an MRI logo. It was then he saw what could only be an autopsy area with 2 tables, both occupied.

“Craig!”

He turned and saw Lillyia running towards him. She had changed into a loose fitting white blouse and form fitted jeans. She practically leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck. The kiss she gave him could’ve steamed up every window in the warehouse. When she finished, she looked into his eyes and smiled. It was then she realized that his arm was still being held.

She gazed levelly at Craig’s escort and in a deep, authoritative voice said, “Thank you Chloe.”

Chloe’s brows furrowed and she reluctantly released his arm, but not after another squeeze of his bicep. Craig could sense an unspoken “hiss” between the 2 of them as she turned and climbed a set of iron grate work stairs they had passed as they came in. Craig couldn’t help but watch her retreating figure, the powerful muscles in her back and rear clearly visible through her suit. When she reached the top and pushed through the door, he turned towards Lillyia. He recognized the slight glow in her eyes and set to her jaw. Her lips separated and exposed her sharp extended eye teeth.

“Careful, what you lust after. It can hurt you quite badly in more than one way.”

“I have no doubt about that, either way.”

She smiled a sly, seductive smile and led him to the autopsy area. A very tall man with almost totally white hair looked up from a microscope and extended his hand towards Craig. He smiled and Craig could tell he was a vampire also. His face was sharp and severe. He had the look of a professor that graded too hard.

“Craig, this is Doctor Lars Tomlinson. Doctor Tomlinson is the chief expert on vampire physiology and medical matters. He taught me most of what I know about our bodies and abilities. Upstairs is a clinic he runs for vampires in need of medical treatment. Down here is his research lab.”

The doctor’s hand was soft but the grip was like a steel press.

“I’m glad to meet you Craig, Lillyia has nothing but praise for you. Especially in taking on our friends here.” He gestured towards the 2 corpses. He stepped to the Leaper first.

“I have a contact in law enforcement and he did me the favor of running our guests through the system. I’d like both of you to meet Evelyn Corcoran. She was 42 years old and a well known felon to the Seattle Police Department. Her rap sheet covers over 20 years of theft, drug dealing, strong arm robbery and a couple of prostitution beefs. She has been in jail or prison at least a half dozen times. She disappeared from Seattle about 3 years ago, she totally dropped off their radar.”

He handed Craig and Lillyia a file folder. In it was the last known photo of her. The picture showed a woman who was obviously strong, but nowhere near what lay on the table before them. The picture was of a street tuff, a female gang member who had muscles developed from fights and beatings. The body on the table had muscles at least 4, maybe 5 times the size of the one in the picture. They knew that her strength had increased exponentially, too. The doctor moved to the other woman.

“This one is sad. This is Penelope Ann Latham. She is 17 years old and disappeared from Lubbock Texas 10 months ago. She was the stereotypical, All-American girl. Cheerleader, gymnast, lacross and soccer teams, school council member, top 5 percent of her class and was looking forward to an academic scholarship to Texas A&M. Her picture is in the other folder.”

The picture was a missing persons flyer from 6 months ago. The person it showed was a sunny, smiling high school girl. She was athletic and incredibly attractive. Craig figured she probably had her pick of any guy in the school at dances. Lillyia took the photo and held it up in comparison to the body on the table. The muscles had increased at least ten fold in size, gone was the young, strong  athletic body, replaced by something grotesque and mutated. The only remnant of the old Penelope Ann, probably Penny Ann to her friends, was the face and the blonde ponytailed hair.

“How did she get like this in only 10 months Lars?” asked Lillyia.

“Someone has been playing around with genetic and chemically induced mutation, with mood enhancements, on both. Ms. Corcoran is much farther along, possibly even a finished product, as it were. Ms. Latham was only about one-third done.”

“This is one-third?”

Craig reached down and touched her arm. The massive, bowling ball sized bicep had not grown flaccid with the absence of life, it was still hard as steel. He pressed on her abs and found them to be just as concrete like as when he had hit them in the museum. The doctor anticipated his next question.

“The continued rigidity in their muscles is part of the mutation I spoke of. Are you familiar with a comic book character called Wolverine? His bones had been coated with a metal to increase their strength. A similar thing has been done to their muscle fibers. They aren’t coated with metal but are infused with a very metal-like substance. It increases the fiber’s pulling power and resistance to tearing, at least twenty-fold. Their genetics have been tinkered with, so their bodies no longer produce myostatin, the substance that regulates muscle growth. The final component was massive doses of a steroid that I don’t recognize, but it’s incredibly powerful, in more than one way.”

He led them to a table in the back of the room. On it was a large pressure vessel and 2 cages. One held a large cat, obviously feral from its reaction to them as they approached. The other contained a small, grey, very docile rat. The doctor opened the steel pressure vessel’s door then placed the cat’s cage against it and opened that door. With a couple of prods, it ran into the vessel and he closed the door. He then picked up syringe and took the rat from its cage. He injected the rat with the syringe.

“I’ve isolated the chemical enhancement elements from their bodies over there, concentrated them and combined them with blood from this rat. I’m now injecting this cocktail into the rat.”

He placed it back in its cage and waited a minute or so, then released the rat into the pressure vessel with the cat. All was quiet for a few minutes, then there was a thud from inside of the vessel. There were several more with the last accompanied by an outward bulge appearing in the side. The doctor opened a valve on a tank and its contents hissed into the vessel. After a few minutes, he opened another valve on an oxygen tank, and opened the door.

He reached inside and pulled out the rat. Lillyia gasped at the blood covered rodent. The rat’s muscles had increased to 5 times their original size. Craig peered into the vessel’s door and gagged. The remains of the cat were splattered all over the inside, it had been ripped to shreds.

“That’s an example of the mood enhancement part. The cocktail not only increases muscle size and strength, but aggression, too.”

Craig looked back at the cheerleader and thought about the fight.

“Doc, is it possible that, in a human, the aggression may need time to become a permanent part of the person’s “being”? Or maybe, if a person who already prone to it, gets that part of their makeup enhanced, while someone who isn’t naturally violent may need time for it to “take”?”

“That could be. Why?”

“I fought Penelope. She could have easily killed me a couple times, but didn’t. Her face was flush with hate and anger, then suddenly calm and almost friendly. Also, at the very end, when she died, I thought she tried to say thank you, like she was happy I killed her.”

“It makes sense in her case. I don’t think she was mutated willingly. I think she may have been selected for her natural strength and forcibly enhanced. I found old fractures in her wrists, like she had been in restraints and tried to break them. There are also markings around her upper arms, chest, and both thighs and ankles.”

Craig walked back to her and stroked her cheek. Even in death, her face was beautiful, not yet marred by the chemical changes the other 2 freaks had experienced. Lillyia came up from behind and put her arm around his waist and rested her head against his.

“You released her from a life she didn’t want and had been forced on her.”

“I know, but it doesn’t make her death at my hands any better.”

“Ahem.” The doctor cleared his throat and they both turned towards him.

“There’s one more thing. Their hearts are 2 to 3 times normal size. The growth was induced by a massive injection of hormones. Vampire hormones. It also boosted their muscle growth.”

Lillyia’s eyes went wide as Craig looked puzzled. She explained it to him.

“Remember our first night and how I told you that your heart and muscles had been enhanced by my biting you? (see “Courting Danger, Seducing Darkness”) That is what has been done to these 2 women, probably also the one we encountered the night of our dinner out (see “A Stake Dinner”). Only it’s been done to them on a larger scale. Its Cassandra, I know it. She created these women, maybe more.”

“For what purpose?” asked Craig.

“I suspect it may be to rid the world of vampires.” Said Tomlinson.

“But she is a vampire.”

“True, but I've heard she she hates being a vampire. Her husband, the Sultan, was killed by a vampire and she lost the life she loved, a life of wealth and power. Hatred makes strange bedfellows, like a vampire and vampire hunters.”

Craig looked at the doctor, then felt Lillyia lean against him and hug him.

“Because of me, she wants to kill all of us. Craig, I need to go home. Take me home, now, please.”

They said their goodbyes to the doctor and headed to Craig’s car. Chloe was waiting for them and opened the door as Craig fired up the engine. She stared at Lillyia as they rolled by, out into the night. A couple blocks down he turned east on 12th Street, towards the lake, to catch Lake Shore Drive north and home.

At the foot of 12th, Lillyia asked if they could drive out by the planetarium first. He headed across the Drive and through the park, past the museum from 2 nights ago and out the isthmus of land towards the planetarium. He parked at the far end and Lillyia got out. She walked to the lake edge and started to cry. Craig gathered her in his arms and held her as tight he could. Sobs racked her body for several minutes, then she quieted down. They both looked across the harbor at the glowing city skyline.

“It’s a beautiful city, but I need to get away from it for awhile. I need to think.” She said.

He looked at her eyes and stroked her hair. “I own a house about 200 miles west of the city, in the middle of the farm country. We can go live there for awhile. We can move there permanently, if you want. The closest neighbor is almost 2 miles away and it’s a mile from the closest road.”

“That’s sound great. Can we leave tomorrow?”

“Sure, as soon as we are packed. I’ll get one of my assistants to gather anything we don’t need immediately and forward it to us.”

Craig led Lillyia back to the Mustang and helped her into the passenger’s seat. He closed the door, leaned down and kissed her, then came around to the driver’s side. He opened the door but before getting in, something caused him to look back towards the museum. Under a streetlight, he saw a Rolls Royce parked with a tall, slim figure standing beside it. He couldn’t tell for sure, but he felt it was looking towards them. A driver got out and opened the back door, which the tall figure got into. The Rolls then drove away.

Craig felt a chill run down his spine as he got into his own car.

Fin

[Lupus14]

Awesome! You are a genius! I really like that idea of muscle enhancement. Would be cool if the doc could ban the side effects of the aggression and make it available for the "good guys". As I am a cat-lover, needless to say I have great compassion for that slaughtered feline.  :-
I can hardly await the next chapters. Thank you so much.

[Fonk]

This is awesome! ;D

[Lingster]

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[Author]

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