A crazed laugh broke out in my head.I’m an animal. A predator. Hunters like my Aberdeen family would track me down and burn me over their firepit.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t embarrassed and hurt. I wanted to act normal around Jordyn, even Agnes. I was failing miserably.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” I asked Jordyn.
“Not at all,” Jordyn replied. “One, you’re not Rianne. Two, you would never hurt me.”
Steven, who was already beside me as if ready to intervene if I attacked Jordyn or Agnes, gave me a kiss on the cheek. “The transformation suits you, Layla.”
I had no idea what that meant, and I didn’t have a chance to find out either.
“It broke my heart when I heard you died.” Agnes finally spoke as she went over to stand on the other side of the lab bench next to Dr. Vieira. “Vampire or not, I’m beyond happy you’re here. That means you have a purpose to fulfill.” My grandmother was scrutinizing me, her brown eyes flickering from brown to orange. “I can feel your magic. You’re still a witch.”
“A vampire witch like my children,” I said, rolling that around in my head.
“It seems the Mason family is now more powerful than ever,” Steven said.
Considering five vampire witches were now part of the Mason clan, I would agree.
“Now that the introductions are out of the way,” Doc said, “let’s get started.”
Sam placed Orion in his stroller and stood beside me as I sat on the stool while Steven flanked my right, and then Jordyn stood on the other side of him.
Dr. Vieira opened his folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. “The data is quite eye-opening. What I’ve discovered is a genetic phenomenon that is one for the history books.” He pushed up the sleeves of his lab coat. “I ran test after test every which way and even reran them. In a nutshell, Orion is the key to your transformation.”
Agnes gasped. “He’s the prophecy?”
Sam and I exchanged worried looks.
Steven held up his hand. “Don’t jump the gun yet. The last thing we need is witches banging on our gates.”
Dr. Vieira gently touched Agnes’s arm. “It is the prophecy, yet it isn’t. The explanation lies in the difference between Orion’s blood type and Layla’s. To begin, Layla is Vel negative. Sam is AF negative. In humans, when two parents are Rh negative, the child will also be Rh negative. That isn’t always the case in vampires.”
“Orion is Rh positive,” Steven said as if he were the doctor.
Dr. Vieira bobbed his head. “That’s correct. In the case of the quadruplets, the girls are Vel-F negative. The F is the allele or gene passed down to them from Sam. Orion, on the other hand, is Vel-F positive, and because you’re Vel negative, Layla, this is where genetics start to change.” He glanced at the paper near his laptop. “Normally, when Vel-negative blood types such as yourself are exposed to the Vel-positive blood group that includes Vel-F—either from drinking, transfusion, or pregnancy—the Vel-negative individuals can become sensitized, thus producing an anti-Vel antibody, which in Layla’s case happened.”
Genetics weren’t my thing, but I knew that antibody meant a defense mechanism. “You’re saying that when I was pregnant, my body produced this antibody to fight off Orion’s blood?”
“Exactly,” Dr. Vieira said. “An antigen is the medical term. Now, if you’re exposed a second time to, say, Orion’s blood, for example, then the antigen can bind to the Vel-positive red blood cells. As a result, the reaction reordered or modified your DNA mapping sequence, thus turning you into a vampire.”
“And I drank Orion’s blood in the birthing suite that day,” Layla said. “That’s what you mean by second time?”
Doc nodded. “Yes. That vial with Sam’s name on it was in fact Orion’s, since the tray of blood had been mislabeled. If you hadn’t drunk it, you wouldn’t be a vampire.”
Steven cleared his throat. “Layla was exposed to Orion’s blood a second time. What if she didn’t die? How long before she would’ve turned?”
Dr. Vieira closed the folder. “Hard to say. But her death sped up the process.”
Agnes gave Doc a sidelong glance. “I followed everything you explained. But can another witch turn like Layla?”
Dr. Vieira’s Adam’s apple moved up and down. “If every witch with Vel-negative blood was exposed to Orion’s blood not once but twice, either by drinking it or a transfusion of it, then yes. That’s why I said the change is related to the prophecy, yet it isn’t. I don’t see witches lining up for Orion’s blood so they can become vampires.”
“You make a good point,” Agnes said, sounding like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “Yet, the Monroe seer had a vision of her entire coven being turned into vampires by an inhuman child born to a Monroe witch who had quadruplets.”
“Agnes,” Steven said, “that prediction was two hundred years ago. We both know that a seer only visualizes a flash of something and doesn’t have the whole picture. Not only that, events change over time. For example, you have no coven anymore. All your ancestors are dead. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Agnes said. “Except for Layla, Abbey, and me. Jordyn’s a Monroe, but she has yet to unlock her powers.”
