"Well that was weird." Howard jokes trying to ease the tension in the room after Sheldon and Amy retreated back to his room.
"To say the least." Leonard agrees staring down the hall stunned. Raj whispers something into Howard's ear and he shrugs.
"I think we would all like to know if they are doing it." Howard agrees.
"I am going to go." Penny says getting up. "Sheldon and his girlfriend give me the heebie jeebies."
"I know it is weird thinking about him dating but I guess we just have to accept it." Leonard says
"It is not just that he is dating... He looked different somehow... I don't know... scary." Penny says recalling with a shudder his black eyes and the stony expression on his face. His girlfriend had not been any better. In fact seeing the two of them together made her realize how odd his movements were. Slow and deliberate they moved in eerie synchronization like they were mirroring each other.
"Do you want me to come over?" Leonard asks hopefully not looking forward to his first night sleeping behind the thin walls of Sheldon and his lover.
"No, I have an early shift tomorrow. I need to turn in early. Maybe tomorrow night okay?" She says slipping out the door. Penny wants to be alone to think about all that has gone on. There was something fishy about Sheldon's sudden departure and the equally sudden arrival of his new girlfriend. Something just was not adding up in her mind. She did not need Leonard there to calmly rationalize everything. If she told him her fears he would laugh at her and tell her she was being crazy. That he had live with him for a long time and he would notice if there was something odd.
Once in her apartment Penny sits on her couch and tries to process everything that has happened. If his story was true though Penny can not figure out why this is the first they are hearing of it. You would think if someone you saw every single days was embroiled in a long distance love affair that was tearing them apart. That they would mention something about it. That he might have mentioned the name Amy before at least in passing.
Penny had never even seen him on the phone with her yet he had risked everything. His job his research that he had worked so hard for. His friends and family. His precious collection of comic books and action heroes. It seemed out of character that he would leave all of that behind for some girl he had never even mentioned before?
It just did not add up in her mind. How did Kurt factor into all this? You would at least think Sheldon would have mentioned the weird sixty degrees of separation that tied him to Kurt. He knew Penny had been involved with him. Would he not of at least told her about that? Kurt had called Sheldon Master... It just did not make sense.
Why would you call anyone master? Penny googles it and tries to come up with some logical answers. Master was used in England for men of some rank of a trade guild and by any manual worker or servant employee addressing his employer. Could Kurt be working for Sheldon ? But who and why and why would he refer to him in such an old fashioned term. Master is also used by some submissives to address their dominate in S&M play. Definitely not that she thinks almost laughing out loud. She can not picture Kurt being tied up and whipped by Sheldon. That image makes her want to throw up in her mouth. Neither of those scenarios seem right to her. It was more like in old horror movies where Igor says "Yes Master." to the Frankenstein or Dracula or whatever it was. Suddenly her blood runs cold. Dracula... vampire... could he be... no there was no such thing! Penny would chide herself for drinking too much but her wine is still sitting unopened beside her.
Next Penny types vampire into the search engine. Undead mythical creatures that feed on blood and the life essence of humans. Penny reads about them and it is the usually stuff you see in movies. Pale, can't go in sunlight, fangs... Nothing she has not heard before
Penny racks her brain and tries to remember if she notice Sheldon acting funny before he left so abruptly. Sure he was always a tad odd, eccentric. His skin had always been chalky white like he rarely ventured outdoors. Though he looks healthier after coming back. Like his skin had some color and vibrancy to it. Maybe his new lover was the reason? Sheldon's face was mostly expressionless a smooth mask ,rarely letting his true feelings be known.
Sheldon could go out doors though, she had seen him out in the sunlight. He ate pizza with garlic. Penny could not remember if she had seen his reflection in the mirror or if she had ver taken a photo of him. Maybe that is why he was an atheist? Because he could not go near crucifixes or holy he ate normal food... but he also was so picky about it maybe his condition had dietary restrictions. Like blood only restrictions...No! She tell herself he is not a vampire because vampires do not exist.
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Amy walks around the small room of Master Cooper examining everything with a critical eye. Very neat and clean but not exactly how she pictured his room looking. It was filled with comic books and more human comforts than she expected.
"You have a love for these men in brightly colored tights." she comments thumbing through his collection disinterested.
"Yes, when the first wave of comics came out I was tasked with finding out if their authors had vampire contacts. Throughout history the pets and minions of vampires have been known to put their experiences to pen. Most notably Dracula but that was by no means the first time it happened. As you are probably aware some of the greatest novels in history have been penned by former pets about their experiences with us under the guise of fiction." Sheldon tells her thumbing through the comics searching for something.
"Of course, my most favorite being Jane Eyre. That was really about a human woman Charlotte Bronte who fell in love with a vampire. Her real Rochester kept his insane vampire wife locked up so she would not go around draining villages. I met the Bronte sisters on several occasions, all brilliant. Pity we had to make her forget all about her experience once she wrote the book." Amy says sadly.
"So you understand. Once these super heros kept popping up we had to nip it in the bud. Figure out whose pet they were and erase the memory. Alas by the time we had tracked it down they became so popular with humans there was no slowing the growth."
"That part, I understand by why keep them? That task was over fifty years ago why keep them around."
"Like the humans I grew quite fond of these superheroes. All my vampire life I have longed to walk amongst the humans again. Not to be in hiding, not to have to drink their blood like a filthy animal. Their love for these superheros makes me think that one day they will be able to accept us." He tells her handing her a comic and she looks at it.
"Blade?"
"That little comic is what gave me my first idea for the day walking serum that allows us to be out in sunlight." he says raising his eyebrows and she looks confused as she takes it out of its wrapping and thumbs through it.
"I don't get it. This man appears to be a killer of our kind."
"Yes, but he is half vampire half human and he can walk in the daylight."
"Because he is a comic book character and the author can make him do whatever they want. Both you and I know that a vampire hybrid is an impossibility. All genetic material that tied is to humans is wiped out during the change. It would be like a cat and a dog having a baby"
"Correct. But it got me to thinking what if there were a way to artificially mix our DNA? What if there were a way to splice the two strands together? It took me years but I was able to do it , Then I was able to artificially replicate the strand and that is what is in the serum. I am using the same process to perfect what I am working on now. Artificial blood that would only have to be infused into us monthly."
"Infused, you mean we would no longer drink the blood at all?" Amy says disappointed. A monthly infusion will not sway people to the cause. She had been picturing blood that could be drank the normal way.
"No, it takes out that whole messy step. Prior to your summoning it I was on a trial run of it. I infused myself about two months ago and was just starting to feel weak. I must say though it does not replace the satisfaction of drinking. Taking my first sip of blood after was almost euphoric."
"I'll bet... I can not imagine many of our kind will want to go from drinking blood from the source to getting a blood infusion. Is there no way that the blood can be ingested?" Amy asks voicing her concern and he looks away.
"No, I tried that first naturally. However the taste is... well... let's just say... it does not go down easy." He tells her plucking the comic from her hands and placing it back in the mylar bag. The taste of the blood was so offensive that you could not keep it down. The walls in lab were stained crimson from the many spit takes he had taken when initially testing it. That is when he came up with the idea for the infusions. He knew that the idea was flawed but to have the queen point it out was embarrassing.
"As you said drinking the blood is part of the satisfaction." she says winking at him and the impish action makes something deep in him shift. The queen was alluring there was no doubt about it. Whenever he looked at her he could not help but think of the way it had felt to bite her neck. The taste of her blood. He wondered if some of these stirrings were not just the side effects of syncing with her.
"Yes, and I can't imagine that vampires used to drinking from the source would want to switch at all." he sighs. Before he had never understood the allure. Now he would do anything to be able to do it again.
"I will come with you to the lab tomorrow. Perhaps I can offer some insights." she tells him.
"Of course." he tells her and he goes to sit on the bed and begins to remove his shoes.
"I have been thinking we are going to have to pretend to have sex tonight."
"What?" he says dropping his shoe with large clatter. "Why do we have to pretend to have coitus?"
"Would you rather actually have it?" she asks her voice low and seductive as she sits down next to him.
"I thought that you had never..." he says gulping
"I haven't! I was just teasing you." Amy amends quickly. Sensing the fear that emanated from him after her statement. Fear laced with desire.
"Oh! of course I knew that. You old trickster you." he says punching her playfully in the shoulder.
"However I do think we should give your roommate the illusion that we are hot and heavy in here."
"Why?"
"Think about it. You left suddenly to retrieve me from the arms of another man. To make the story believable as you said we would have to do. We will need to make them think we are indeed lovers. I mean I wanted to glamour them and make them believe us. It was you who insisted we construct an elaborate story." she tells him and he looks like he is considering her words.
"You may have a point. But how do we make it appear like that is what we are doing without doing it."
"To be as old as you are you certainly have not done much." she tells him trying to make a joke but it goes over his head
"Excuse me but I have been far too busy unraveling the mysteries of our kind and advancing science through the ages to be bothered with tasks as plebian as pretending to have coitus." he says affronted and she can feel his anger. There is not much that he has not mastered in lid time on earth. To not be proficient in something was bothersome to him.
"I was making another joke."
"Do you do that often?" he asks and she shrugs her shoulders.
"I will not tease you anymore tonight I promise." she tells him looking into his eyes. She can feel him calming down after his initial jolt of anger. He looks back into her eyes and the sensation is odd. It is like she can feel the connection between them like a tangible thing. As if there was a rope tying them together. In all her years on the earth no one had ever looked at her like that. Without thinking she leans in close to him and presses her lips against his. It is like a reflex an action that cannot be helped. He does not pull away but instead presses his lips against hers. In that brief moment of connection it feels like the world is falling apart around her. The overwhelming sensations that she had been bottling up so long burst. Then the door to the room opens.
"Hey you guys I was going..." Leonard begins but stops short when he sees them kissing. "Oh sorry, I should have knocked." He says hastily shutting the door .Sheldon pulls away and stands up.
"Caught in the act! There now that solves our problem now doesn't it." He says moving to the door with super speed leaving Amy dazed on the bed. "Now if you will excuse me I must go talk to my roommate make yourself comfortable." He says as he exits the room and leaves her alone.