Chapter Five Remy vs. Rena, and All the Problems in Between
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Thirteen paced back and forth in the main diagnostic office, her sneakers sinking into the carpet with every step. Things were bad. Things were really bad, worse than she would have imagined possible. Since when did witches work in hospitals? And how had she not noticed before? That scent, tinged with moonbeams and starlight, darkness and fresh, green leaves… it clung to Doctor Cameron, a second skin that sent Remy's nose to itching. She was a doctor, yes, and so was the blonde ER doc, but at the same time.…
Witch and vampire.
Vampire and witch.
It just wasn't a good combination. Things could go seriously wrong right now with a combination like that. It had the potential for deadliness.
She stopped her pacing, thinking now to Foreman. She hadn't spoken to Foreman since the incident at the Rampling Estate, when her twin brother had attacked the black doctor and the young diagnostician, Dr. Kutner. She hadn't known what to say to the man she'd been sleeping with for four months, the man who was helping her through dealing with her Huntington's disease. Her twin brother, who looked like a shambling, water-bloated corpse with worm fingers and Shadow of the Vampire style fangs, had tried to rip Foreman's throat out.
The idea made her pause. She imagined it for just a moment, and it didn't sicken her as much as it should have. Again, she cursed Radu for what he'd done to her. His thick, sluggish, viscous blood was still suffusing with her cells, warping her back from what she had been for so long – a day walker, they were called, one foot in the world of her people and their preternatural kin, the other foot in the world of the non-endowed, non-gifted humans. She had managed to survive this way, clinging desperately to her façade of human life, until Foreman's life had been the price for her continued existence as a mortal. She couldn't do that, couldn't sacrifice him just because she wanted to escape her hunger for blood. It wasn't the curse the movies and books portrayed it as, so what right did she have to trade someone's life for freedom from what eventually added up to a not-so-major inconvenience?
You think too much, Rena, a soft, sibilant voice whispered in her mind like a sere wind. She shivered, but not from revulsion. No, never that. Despite the differences between them – despite what Radu was – she had missed his voice in her mind once she had gone off to college, and then onto med school. Radu's voice continued,
He is only a human, pretty one. Do not be disturbed by his acceptance, or lack of it. He does not know what he lacks.
Unable to help herself, the doctor snorted, fighting her lips' urge to curl upward into a smile. Yes, her twin told his wife often that her humanity was a waste of time, and to let it go, that it was nothing but fodder for future memories, not to worry about it. So far, Michelle was more human than any of them had ever been, except Remy herself… and Amber.
Biting her lip, she turned her thoughts away from her sister, from her twin brother, and instead focused on the present problem. Allison Cameron was a witch. What Remy was supposed to do about that, she wasn't sure. The witches and the blood sucking legions of the undead – Radu, monitoring her thoughts, snorted at her mental description – had no special quarrel. They were not legendary enemies, as some authors (including Remy's younger foster sister, Amelia, who made her living as a fiction author) would have the mortal world believe. But witches were tricky. They were different, ruled by moonlight and stars, not by the darkness of the night and the crimson song of human blood. Would Cameron go out of her way to cause problems for the newly-reawakened vampire?
Fear not the witching woman, Rena, Radu murmured softly.
If she vexes you overmuch, I will remove the problem for you.
No, you won't. That's not how I do things, remember? I'm not like you. I want to live like a human. I enjoy it. I like my life. I live as a human, follow human customs, human laws. I have found human love. Don't take that away from me, Radu.
Human laws, the absent vampire scoffed. They cause more problems than they cure.
The words in her head faded away like smoke on the wind, and she turned her mind firmly back to her two (three, a nagging voice hissed) biggest problems: Doctor Cameron and Foreman.
And Sasha, her brother reminded her with irritating alacrity.
She bared her teeth in a grimace, hating the fact that he was right. But Remy didn't want to think about Sasha right now. Her foster-sister had her own issues, issues that involved a certain handsome, blue-eyed diagnostician with a mind like Sherlock Holmes and the maturity level of a fourteen-year-old boy. The vampire warrior had last been seen being dragged down the hall by Dr. Gregory House, in search of the hospital's blood bank. Radu's job had been to make sure the black-haired vampire hadn't hurt anyone before getting the opportunity to soothe her hunger with some of the prepackaged blood.
You did do that, right, Radu?
Would I let you down, Rena?
Sometimes I wonder, she thought, acknowledging the irony behind Radu's words. Would he let her down? It would depend on whether he thought it was for her own good or not. He still thought her far too attached to her human lifestyle, despite the fact that in the last four hours, she had rediscovered powers she'd almost forgotten about, and despite the thirst beginning to build in her throat. She hadn't felt the full impact of the thirst in over a full decade – since she'd graduated at age 17 from high school and gone straight onto getting a Bachelor's Degree in medicine in three short years. Her rigorous diet and training regimen in college and med school after that had conditioned her body so that she didn't need blood, and in fact was nearly human. Her DNA had twisted to the point that only the most detailed tests could pick out the discrepancies. Her teeth had receded back into her gums, and her gums had descended to cover a larger portion of her teeth. Her eyes had lost their animal shine, and her skin had darkened. Even her bones had softened, losing their diamond hardness.
She'd made the transition to solamia, the Sanguinyte word for the day walker, before remembering that her biological mother had been a dhampir who had died of Huntington's. The odds of her having it were high. The odds of it affecting her, of it killing her, now that she was a day walker… were almost certain. And by then, she had grown to love the luxuries her status had afforded her – lack of light sensitivity, lack nausea from inhaling anything like plant mold, wood chips, saw dust, or dried leaf debris, and most of all, lack of anything resembling the thirst. She hadn't wanted to give up any of it. So she was no longer immortal. Many vampires chose to allow themselves to age and die like humans. She had loved being human….
Until the Huntington's test had come back positive. That had been the reason she hadn't wanted the blasted test in the first place. She had known, deep in the furthest corners of her mind, that the confirmation of her illness would radically change the way she viewed being solamia… and she had been right. Then, only one person's blood could save her, and the idea of drinking from him had revolted her. She couldn't force herself to use her brother that way.
In the end, she'd been forced to drink from Radu anyway. And now… now Foreman was a problem. Now, Foreman was an emotional weakness, a vulnerability she could not afford in the war that her sisters, both Sasha and Eustacia, had nearly lost their lives fighting. Foreman, poor and confused, harmless, oh so human Foreman was in danger. And the stupid man didn't know the difference between Remy being dangerous and Remy being the danger that her dangerousness – the bloodsucking variety – would protect him from.
A knock at the door distracted her, and she turned to see the man featured prominently in her thoughts poking his head in through the glass doorway.
"Can I come in?" He asked.
She nodded, slowly. Her heart was pounding, so hard it hurt. She sucked in a breath, trying to calm herself, and felt suddenly sickeningly dizzy and disoriented. She'd forgotten that now the change had been reversed, and she was no longer solamia, her need for oxygen was much less. Too much air was not a good thing to a vampire. It was like too much carbon dioxide or monoxide for a human – potentially lethal.
Like Foreman, she thought wildly.
Foreman was potentially lethal to her. The conversation she sensed coming soon would have devastating consequences if it didn't go right. But she couldn't think about that right now. If she thought about Foreman leaving, she'd cry, and that would just freak him out more. Vampire tears weren't the most comforting things in the world.
"So, uh…." She began, fiddling with the layered waves of reddish brown hair falling around her shoulders – a definitely human gesture. As a vampire before her change, she had never fidgeted, never squirmed or fiddled with her hair or rubbed her nose or whatever. Now, she was practically a bundle of nerves, and it had only gotten worse since Radu had begun speaking to her in her mind again, and gotten nearly unbearable since drinking her twin's powerful blood. So much energy, and no longer the discipline to contain it to necessary movements. Anxious, she shoved her hands through her hair, and added, "What's up?"
"We need to talk."
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Okay, peoples, I finally updated my House fic. I've been way busy with my mom retiring and the family reunion and my nanny job and my computer dying. So I've finally updated this fic. I want to really flesh out Thirteen's character – she's unique anyway, and the modifications made to her character have to continually be readjusted when new information comes up from the show. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this brief, mellow look into Dr. Remy (Rena) Hadley. Reviews make my soul shine like a light bulb.
