Page 3 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

Reyna tried not to think about the blood loss or needles. She needed to think about eating right, sending money to her brothers, and finally living a real life again. It wasn’t as if this was permanent. She could get out at any time. She could work for a couple of months as a blood donor and then quit if she wanted. Just to get back on her feet or to help her find something else.

At least, she hoped that she would make enough to be able to send money to her brothers. If they had known she was here, they never would have approved. No one would approve of their little sister becoming a blood escort to a vampire.

She left her sample in the restroom and waited for the doctor. At least the bed was more comfortable than the chairs in the waiting room. Honestly, it was more comfortable than everything else they had at home, too.

A knock at the door, and the doctor strode inside with a clipboard. She was a tall, wiry woman with brown skin, black groomed hair held back in a ponytail, and dark, emotionless eyes. Like everyone else who worked there, she clearly didn’t think smiling was part of bedside manners.

There was something about this woman that was other.

Vampire.

The word slithered up in Reyna’s conscious and she recoiled away from the thought. It made no sense considering her current predicament, but she couldn’t help it. Deeply ingrained fear stuck with her no matter her decision to work with them.

“Four hundred and ninety-two. Miss Reyna Carpenter. Five foot four inches. Brown eyes. Brown hair. White. O negative. Correct?”

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“Good. I have to make sure that you fit all the parameters.” She looked up at Reyna over the rim of her thick black-rimmed glasses. “Negative for pregnancy. That’s good.”

Reyna breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t thought it probable, but it had been possible. When she applied for the position at Visage, she had been in the off-again stage with her boyfriend, Steven. The problem was that Steven was charismatic as hell. Every time she walked away, somehow he would sweep her off her feet again. Which he had done a couple of weeks ago when he’d convinced her to meet him at the end of his shift. Two weeks of a whirlwind of romance and then a big “fuck you” at the end of it.

Steven had made her feel cheap and disposable. No better than the run-down trash that they lived in. When Visage had approved her for testing shortly afterward, she had felt like it made sense.

The door opened unexpectedly once again. “Excuse me. Dr. Trainer, you’ve been called to the east corridor. I was reassigned to number four hundred and ninety-two.”

“Of course, Dr. Washington,” Dr. Trainer said. “Here’s her file.”

They swapped information, and then Dr. Trainer left her alone with the new doctor. He was tall and pale with a slightly more disheveled appearance than the doctor she had been dealing with. Though what he lacked in proper grooming, he made up for with the severity of his features. He seemed excessively stern, and the haphazard state of his attire only gave off the impression of a mad scientist.

“Welcome, Miss Carpenter. I’m Dr. Roger Washington.”

He extended his hand. Reyna looked down at it skeptically. No one had addressed her or acknowledged her as anything more than a subject to be tested and questioned. What was this, bad cop, good cop?

“Hi,” she said softly. She shook his hand once. It was cold and made her shiver.

“After reviewing your profile, we’ve elected you to be a trial subject in our new program. Your blood type and specific history, build, and biology make you a great candidate for this venture. I’m the head of the team, and we’re looking for interested participants. You understand that anything we speak about here is completely classified, yes?”

“Sure.”

A new program? Classified information? She didn’t know what any of that meant, but she was willing to hear more about this. It sounded like they wanted her, and if they wanted her badly enough, then maybe she could get more money out of them.

“For some time, Visage has been considering going to a more streamlined system of employment for our human subjects,” Dr. Washington explained.

“Streamlined…how?”

The man smiled, and her skin turned ashen. Sharp canines gleamed in the high contrast lighting. She tried to swallow but felt like her mouth was stuffed with cotton balls. She knew he was a vampire. She had known that both doctors were, but suddenly it felt different. This wasn’t some person in the papers or on billboards, but a real live vampire that could reach out and touch her.

He assessed her discomfort and closed his mouth so that the stern expression was back in place. “You do realize, Miss Carpenter, that the company you wish to be employed by is run by vampires, and that if you are selected for this, you will live with vampires?”

“Yes, I’m well aware,” she said, regaining her composure.

“Good.” He nodded. “Now back to what I was saying. The current system places a subject with a Sponsor for one month. After that month, you are granted a week off to recuperate, and then you rotate to another blood match Sponsor. As an O negative subject, you would meet with a group of O negative Sponsors in your assigned region. The system then perpetually rotates. Everything is carefully monitored by Visage so that it is safe and orderly.”

Reyna had read all about this on the pamphlet when she had originally applied. When vampires drank blood from just anyone, the blood fed them only on a completely basic and primal level, but it didn’t provide anything more than that. It contaminated their systems, making them corrupt, lethal, and animalistic. When Visage came forward, they promised a new horizon for humans and vampires alike to coexist in a mutually beneficial atmosphere.

Thus came the blood type cure.

Vampires who drank blood that matched the blood type they had when they were human functioned at higher cognitive levels. Visage registered all the known vampires and offered humans money to become their blood donors.

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