"To begin with, I'll have to go back a bit," Nikola said.
"Can't you just tell me?" asked Helen.
Nikola shook his head. "Please, this is hard for me, let me tell it my own way."
"Of course."
"As I was saying, you know I was looking for others of my own kind, and not finding any. I decided to try another approach. You know that vampires and humans interbred here and there, right?"
At her nod, he continued. "I decided to do a survey of percentage of vampire DNA in humans. I thought there might be a natural approach to recreating my species. Over the course of three years I took about three thousand samples- cheek swab, blood sample, and family history."
"And you got these by . . ."
"Paying for them. What, did you think I was tackling people on the street armed with swabs and syringes?"
"Sorry, please go on."
"In any case, every one of the humans I tested had between zero and three percent vampire DNA, and most of them zero, until I tested Vera Chisolm. She tested out at a whopping twenty-one percent with absolutely no physical characteristics of a vampire. The only thing that was different about her was that I was strongly attracted to her at first sight."
"You were in love with her?" Nikola could tell Helen was trying to be calm, be fair- they weren't together then, hadn't seen each other in years, there was no reason he shouldn't love someone else. But he quickly said, "No, it wasn't love, it was more like magnetic north and south coming in contact. I have a theory that any human with vampire DNA will be attracted to someone else who also carries a significant amount of vampire in them. For her to have such a large amount I had to assume that she got it from all four of her grandparents, or at least three of them. And since significant amounts of vampire DNA are rare in the human population, perhaps those who have it do recognize it in some way in others."
"Or perhaps one of her parents actually was a vampire?"
"No, I researched her family history as far back as I could, and found no intimation that anyone on either side exhibited any vampire characteristics that would be indistinguishable from human. They might be brilliant, beautiful, and charming, but no claws, fangs, extra strength or speed or blood cravings."
"Interesting, but your science seems a bit off. DNA isn't cumulative. Someone with 10% vampire DNA marrying someone with 5% vampire DNA doesn't equate to 15% vampire DNA in the children."
"It doesn't work that way with human DNA, but vampire DNA is a little different. It's sneaky- it will sort of fill in the gaps when it meets other vampire DNA. So 10% interbreeding with 5% will often equal somewhere between 10% and 15 % in the children, although sometimes some of it doesn't take and the child can have significantly less than either parent. Don't ask me why, the sample was too small to draw any real conclusions."
"So my tiny bit of vampire DNA plus your load could equal what in Danny? Is that what you're worried about?"
"No, I tested him when he was three weeks old; I know exactly what Danny has. We'll get back to that later, now let me continue."
"Fine, but please get to something pertinent soon. And you will tell me about our son."
"I will, don't worry. Okay, here comes the pertinent part. Vera was attracted to me too. We dated. She was struggling financially, and I made an indecent proposal which she accepted. I wanted to try recreating the vampire race naturally. I . . . kept her, she had my baby."
"Oh my God, you have a son you never bothered to tell me about?"
"No . . . yes, but no. Let me continue."
"Nikola . . ."
"Helen, please this is hard enough as it is." He paused and then continued, " She named him Michael. I tested him, visited a couple of times a week, and kept a log of his development. He started out as an experiment . . ."
Nikola's voice broke and he took a moment before continuing quietly, "I made a terrible mistake. I didn't treat him like a father should. I still had the old-fashioned notion that women were responsible for raising the children. I just oversaw. And I knew better, dammit, from the moment I checked his DNA, I knew he was going to be a vampire but I still . . . I screwed up."
Helen reached out and touched his arm. "No one starts out knowing how to be a parent. We all have to learn, and we all make mistakes."
"Well the great Nikola Tesla totally blew it. Mikey loved me anyway, even though he rarely spent any time with me. And I gave him my 'superior vampire' attitude, and he picked up on it. By the time he went to school he had a pretty snobbish attitude. The other kids knocked that out of him a bit, but he never made friends with any members of the 'lower species'. I encouraged that too, not associating with the humans. Not having friends meant he wouldn't let anything slip about his rather odd father."
"But you said his mother was human."
Nikola nodded. "He did what she told him because I insisted he obey her. But he didn't respect her, really." The vampire got up and began to pace. Then he said, "Could we go inside? I know there's only the two of us up here, but it just seems as if someone could overhear us."
"Of course. Let's go to our suite and hang out the 'do not disturb' sign."
They went inside to their sitting room. Helen sat down and made herself comfortable, but Nikola wandered around, picking things up and putting them down again. She could see how agitated he was.
Finally he took up the narrative again. "When Mikey hit puberty things changed. His vampire characteristics started to show. I taught him how to control them, explained that he could never expose what he was by word or deed to the humans. They weren't as powerful as us vampires, but there were a heck of a lot more of them. I introduced him to animal blood when the time came, and everything seemed to be okay."
Helen realized something. "The photo—is that . . .?
"Yes, it's Mike. I think he was just over eighteen at the time it was taken. But it's easier to tell this if I stick to chronology." Nikola sat down.
"When he hit high school, he changed, as teenagers do. He pulled away from his parents, started being more independent, which is fine, but he made bad choices. He went to parties with drugs and alcohol, and there really wasn't any way to stop him. Normal punishments didn't have any affect. We took him out of school and I tried home schooling him, but I couldn't watch him twenty-four hours a day."
"He got into drugs?"
"Not exactly. He got into taking human blood from high school kids too drunk or high to care. They all knew him, let him into their parties. He said they thought he was cool, because he could 'do stuff'. He was showing off for them, using his strength and speed to impress a bunch of punks so he could get at their blood. I tried to warn him, I tried . . ."
"Did he harm anyone?"
"He wasn't ripping their throats out, if that's what you mean. He just took enough to satisfy his craving. And that's what it was. When I tried to tell him it was wrong, he told me he was addicted to it, he had to have it, and he would do anything to keep getting it. One day I came home and I noticed Vera acting oddly and wearing a scarf she hadn't been wearing when I left. I made her take it off." He got up and started pacing.
"Mike had taken blood from her and the stupid kid left classic vampire marks on her throat. She didn't fight him and he didn't really hurt her, but she was scared, Helen—scared of her own child. The next day when I came home Vera was gone. She'd packed her bags and fled. I let her go. I couldn't be out looking for Mike and be home to protect her at the same time, so at least she was safe, wherever she went."
"Michigan, actually."
Nikola nodded but otherwise ignored the comment. "As he got older he decided he didn't need schooling, he didn't need parents, he could just go out and take what he wanted. And he could, but he went too far, cared too little."
Helen realized Nikola was starting to change. His voice was dropping and his claws were beginning to show.
"When I read about the first murder, I convinced myself it was an animal of some sort. After the second and the report of footprints, I realized it could be Mike. I ramped up my search for him."
He stopped pacing and stood still, facing partially away from her. "I think the photo was taken just after the third murder. I found him the next day." His breathing had quickened and he was fully vampire now. Helen wisely kept silent and still.
"I tried to convince him to come home, to let me help him get off of human blood. He wouldn't go, so I tried to force him." Nikola's voice had started to shake. "We fought. I tried not to hurt him too much, I was trying to control him, but he . . . he came at me full force. He ripped me up pretty badly and escaped."
There was a long pause. "After I healed I went back out. I found him again two days after the fourth murder." Nikola's voice dropped to a whisper. "I couldn't let him kill again . . . I couldn't . . ."
Helen got up and went to him. He was trembling and she put her arms around him. He grabbed on to her, held her tight, and buried his face between her shoulder and neck.
Then he cried out, "Oh God, Helen, I killed him. I killed my own son!" And he wept, and Helen wept with him.
