Chapter 14 – Blood(y) Work

Dorian insisted on being untied while he offered his explanation of recent events to the group. At first, Victor was hesitant to agree, but with Vlad present it was unlikely that Dorian would make an escape attempt. And if what Dorian had told them could be believed, any attempt to escape would be unsuccessful. Y had forsaken his captured servant.

Vlad leaned against the dining table, unconcerned about the mummy's corpse lying close behind him. He was tossing the scalpel in the air and catching it expertly in one hand. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Victor wondered if his confidence came from the knowledge that any accidental wound would heal in an instant.

Watching Vlad made him think about what Dorian had said. Y's intention might have been to use the others as tests subjects. If he had a sample of Vlad's blood, could he really use that to reanimate the mummy?

He shuddered at the thought, and tried to put it from his mind. With effort, he brought himself back to what Dorian was attempting to explain to them all.

"It began with a letter," Dorian was saying. "It came by regular post. You can guess who it was from. I'll admit that I was surprised to see it addressed to Dorian Grey. Like most of you, I've been living under an alias since the name gained such notoriety. But the letter amused me, since it childishly asked me how I had become immortal.

"I assumed that whoever sent the letter merely came across my real name, recognized it from the book, and thought to write to me as a sort of practical joke. So I wrote back. I only provided the same information that is in the book. I told the writer about my portrait and that so long as it exists I cannot die. I also explained that the artist who had painted the portrait had died years ago, so he'd have to take my word on the magic of the painting.

"I sent the letter to the return address, a P.O. box in a town outside of London. For weeks after that, I heard nothing. By the time the second letter came, I had already nearly forgotten about the first. The second was calculated to frighten me. It was much shorter in length, and I found it lying on my bedside table when I woke one morning. There was no postmark, but I recognized the handwriting. It said only 'check the painting.'

Thus far in his narrative, Dorian had spoken with a smooth, unbroken tempo. His diction was so perfect as to sound rehearsed, but here he abruptly broke off. Victor noted his knitted brow and a fleeting look of pain that crossed his face. He seemed to be gathering himself for the second half of his story, or perhaps deciding if he trusted the knowledge of his painting with his hostile fellow prisoners.

When he did speak again, his resumed the calm, measured tone he had displayed from the first. "For years now I've kept the painting locked away in a vault I had specially made for the purpose. There it is kept safe from prying eyes, as well as any damage from damp or exposure of any sort. I never look in on it, myself. To tell the truth, I don't care to see how I could have aged over the years. I'm sure the image is distorted beyond recognition at this point. But the letter, and the manner in which I received it, chilled me. I immediately grabbed the keys and left for the vault."

"You left?" interrupted Jekyll. "Do you mean to say the vault isn't in your own home?"

"No, of course not. I have another location for it altogether."

"Does anyone else have access to it?"

"None but me. I have the only set of keys, and the vault is entirely secure. The men who installed it have long since died. The picture has rested safely in there for decades. Or at least it had, until it was stolen by Mr. Y."

"How was it stolen?" Victor asked.

Here Dorian's mask of calm displayed cracks once again. His features contorted in outrage. "I don't know how the hell he did it! I have the only key, and I'm supposed to be the only person who knows the damned location! I mean, fuck it all, I'm supposed to be the only person who knows that a stupid story by Oscar Wilde was anything but fiction!"

Dorian heaved a heavy sigh that Victor thought was more of a groan. His head fell down to his chest as he seemed to calm himself again. When he lifted his chin, he was all business again. Victor couldn't help but marvel at these bipolar shifts in mood. Was this Dorian's natural personality or the magic of the picture at work?

"I don't know how it was done," Dorian said, "But the picture is gone, that's a fact. And I've been working for Y ever since."

"The conditions?" asked Vlad, flicking the knife in the air again and catching it between his index and middle finger.

"Can't you guess? In exchange for my picture, Y made me track down all of you. I sent out the letters, just like a letter had been sent to me. The goal was to lure you all to a location where I could bring the mummy, and where Dr. Frankenstein could perform his work."

Dorian smiled wryly at Vlad, "You were the toughest to track down, Dracula." Vlad offered him a slight bow in acknowledgement of his struggle. "When I finally found you, I realized that it would be difficult for you to travel in your condition. Plus, there didn't seem to be much I could coax you with to convince you to leave your castle. We picked the location out of deference to you."

"You are too kind," Vlad said, though his tone of voice implied, "Go to hell."

"You still haven't told us why Y is asking us to reanimate the mummy in the first place."

"Mr. Y does not ask, he orders." Dorian replied to Jekyll's question. "And as for why, I don't have the slightest idea."

Dracula took a threatening step toward him, but Dorian held up his hands in a pleading sign for patience. "I'm not kidding! I really don't know! Do you think Y would have trusted me with that information? He keeps me on a need to know basis. I know what he wants done with the mummy, because I'm the one who had to move it to the cellar. I'm the one who had to go digging around for fresh organs for the damn thing. But as to why he wants it done, I really couldn't say."

Dracula observed him closely, then he nodded his head. He seemed satisfied that Dorian was telling the truth. Victor idly wondered if Dracula's powers allowed him to act as a sort of living lie detector, but then he had questions for Dorian of his own.

"You collected the organs and the supplies," he stated plainly. Dorian smirked at him. Victor was starting to hate that smirk. "Where did the brain come from?"

Dorian shrugged, "Medical college not far from here. Plenty of brains available for stealing. The sort of thing they keep around to study. No one will miss it."

"There wasn't any information about the person this brain once belonged to?"

Dorian sighed, "Does it even really matter? Did your monster remember who his brain had once belonged to, Frankenstein?"

Victor had to admit that he hadn't. Whoever that brain might have belonged to in its former body, it retained none of its memories when placed into the body he had created. That fact in itself was what made his creation truly monstrous. He had created life without history, without memory, without soul.

And now he was being asked to do it again.

"I can't do it," he whispered, not realizing that he had spoken aloud. But then the others were speaking to him, and he was called upon to defend himself.

"You must!" Dorian shouted, "If any of us want to get out of here, then you don't have a choice!"

"Our survival seems to depend upon your cooperation, Frankenstein," said Jekyll.

William had gone pale. He said nothing, but Victor could see the silent panic in his eyes. Vinny too, was oddly silent on this occasion. But it was William's expression that tore at Victor's conscience. What had this boy done to be dragged into all of this? Merely been at the wrong place at the wrong time, and now he was to use him as what? Experimental materials?

"Don't any of you realize what you are asking me to do?" Victor asked desperately. "It's not just me that will suffer from this. I don't know what I would need to do to make this work, and you're all here to be experimented on! By me!"

"And me," Beth added suddenly. "Victor, darling, no one said you were being asked to do this alone."

"Yes, she's right Frankenstein," said Jekyll. "I will help you in any way that I can."

"It isn't right…" Frankenstein muttered, but even he could tell that he was fighting a losing battle. Everyone was against him, including his wife. They all wanted to be free of this prison more desperately than they cared for the consequences of what Y wanted him to do.

"Say, I've got a question," Vinny said, cutting through the little side conversations that had cropped up while Frankenstein battled his internal demons. "What if Frankie tries to do what Y wants, and he fails? I mean, it's going to be a bit different than it was before, right? So what if it doesn't work? What if we try to bring the mummy back, but he stays mostly-dead?"

"It will work," Victor heard himself saying. The terrifying fact of the matter was that he knew what he said was true. His imagination, unbidden by him, was already working through the changes he could make to the original operation, given the circumstances. He thought about the materials available and the unusual properties of the mummy's body. And yes, he even considered how samples from the others could be useful for the experiment. Yes, it could be done. It could succeed. And he would be the one to do it.

"Let's get started right away," he said, jumping up from his seat and striding toward the mummy. He allowed the fervor of scientific discovery to pull him along, and tried not to think of the rest. There was no way he could complete this work if he allowed himself to be dragged down by his conscience.

"Beth, I'll need your help, as I don't think I can do much of this work alone. Dr. Jekyll, your services are also greatly appreciated. We'll start with you."

"Start with me?" Jekyll asked as Frankenstein drew nearer toward Dracula. Victor plucked the scalpel from Dracula's hand and returned it to the tray of other surgical instruments. He observed these tools, and sure enough, found a needle and syringe among them.

"Yes. I'll need a sample of your blood."

"Mine? Whatever for?"

"Don't be too alarmed, doctor. I intend to take some of my own for study as well. Are we not both immortal men?"

"Well, I suppose so. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure."

Victor had been busy searching for means of ensuring that the instruments were sterile. He paused when Jekyll gave this confession, and looked up at him curiously.

"Not sure?"

He could see the hesitation in Jekyll's face. Jekyll turned and glanced at Dorian over his shoulder, obviously uncertain if he should speak in front of Y's spy. In truth Victor wasn't sure he liked the expression of keen interest in Grey's face.

Dracula was the one who suddenly spoke, following the path of their eyes, "You needn't worry about him. He won't be going anywhere, now that we have him. Yes, I think he'll remain tied up during the day, with at least one of you awake to watch him. Let him roam at night if he wishes, and I will keep an eye on him."

"Is that all you'll do, Vlad?" Dorian asked, his face and voice full of mock child-like innocence. Dracula merely observed him with upturned brows, clearly not understanding what he meant to imply. Victor wasn't sure he understood either, but he didn't want to consider the possible insinuations. He knew he had to keep his mind focused on the task at hand only, and right now that meant focusing on what Jekyll had to say.

"Go ahead, Jekyll. So long as Dorian is with us, I'm sure that whatever you have to say will not get back to Y."

Dorian gave a short laugh, but Victor ignored him. Jekyll, apparently, also decided it was best to do the same.

"The thing is, I don't understand how I got this way," he began, "The potion I made was only meant to suppress my conscience, what some might call the 'superego.' Call it a fanciful experiment if you will. Mostly, I just wanted to see if it could be done. And, well. Obviously, I succeeded. But the potion I made had its flaws, the most notable being that I began to transform without the aid of the potion at all. And when I tried to recreate the draught in order to develop a cure, I discovered that my original solution had been corrupted. I had no idea what the impurity was that was in my potion, and without it, I could not successfully redo what I had made before."

"So you were stuck with Hyde."

"Yes, exactly. For years I was obsessed with trying to recreate the potion, or to develop some other way of suppressing him. I even faked my death in order to move away and focus on my research. When I wasn't drowning in that, I was busy picking up the pieces left after another of Hyde's transformations. The more I fought to suppress him, the angrier and more cruel he seemed to become during his time in the body. Eventually, I began to forget what it was he had done while in control, and the thought that he might harm someone without my knowledge was frightening. I secluded myself even more.

"I was so preoccupied with this that years had passed before I knew it. A whole decade in fact. Look at me."

Jekyll paused and spread his arms wide. He even turned to spare a glance at Vinny and William, allowing them to take in his entire appearance before turning back to Victor again.

"I was not a young man when Hyde first arrived. In fact, I had just turned fifty years old. A passage of ten years should have aged me considerably. But when I looked in the mirror, I might as well have brewed the potion yesterday.

"The only thing I could surmise is that whatever imperfection existed in the original draught must have stopped my aging process, the same as it created Hyde. I haven't put my immortality to the test, as Vlad just did for Mr. Grey, but I've never caught so much as a cold over the years, and I certainly haven't aged, let alone developed any of the diseases one would expect in an aged person."

"So then, you are immortal." Vinny concluded for him. "Why did you act like you weren't sure before?"

"Because there's no reason why I should be." Jekyll said with a sigh. He removed his glasses and began to clean them patiently on his shirt. Victor didn't see why. His glasses didn't appear dirty to him. "I'm saying that I don't know why I developed immortality. There's no reason for it. A side effect of the potion, that's obvious. But why a potion that was only meant to suppress one portion of my psyche should also render me immortal is beyond me."

"Well, doctor," Victor said as he lifted the syringe, "When are you going to get a better opportunity to find answers?"

Jekyll sighed again, replaced his glasses, and began to roll up his sleeves. "Alright, if you must. We can't expect you to be the only one making sacrifices."

Victor smiled, thankful for his cooperation. This was going to be hard enough for him without having to deal with any resistance. Of course, things should be easy now that he was complying with Y's wishes, right?

Wrong. Victor finished taking a sample of blood from Jekyll, and passed it on to Beth for safe storage in one of the vials courteously supplied by Dorian. He had just reached for another syringe, prepared to gather the next sample, when Vlad spoke up.

"Do what you need to do, but don't expect me to offer up any of my blood."

Victor paused. He hadn't planned on asking for Dracula's blood yet, but he would no doubt need it before the experiment was complete.

"Vlad? I'm confused. I thought you also wanted this experiment to go off as soon as possible?"

"I do, but I never agreed to be a test subject."

William jumped up from where he'd been seated next to Vinny. "Hold on! This doesn't work like that. You can't just be a dick to Victor about resurrecting the mummy and then decide not to be a team player. We're all giving a sample, and that includes you."

Vlad eyed the wolf-boy coldly. Victor almost thought hungrily. "And who's going to be taking the blood from me?" he asked. "You?"

William balked slightly, but then he puffed out his chest in the age-old make-self-bigger protection strategy seen in wild animals. "Maybe I will," he said, his voice dropping an octave. Victor was touched at his willingness to stand up to the vampire on his account, but it wouldn't do to argue now.

"Leave him, William. I can make do with what I have for now. Starting with myself," Victor plunged the needle into his own forearm, provoking a wince from William. Victor couldn't help but smile. Will was going to have a hard time extracting any blood unwillingly from Dracula if he was that squeamish.

Vlad gave a single nod, and then turned on his heel to leave. "See that you finish the work without needing anything from me."

Victor allowed him to go without a word. He suspected why Vlad was reluctant to offer up a sample. A vampire's power lies in his blood after all. Using his blood as research material might not have the best results. They didn't know what sort of man the mummy would be when he was resurrected, but making him a vampire on top of whatever he already was probably wasn't the best idea.

"Need anything from me, doc?" Vinny asked, already rolling up the sleeves of his baggy sweater.

Victor considered him only for a moment, "Thanks, but I don't see what good it would do to turn the mummy invisible if I'm expected to cut into him. William's transformative capabilities may be helpful, however."

"Wouldn't you risk turning him into a werewolf like me?" William asked. He was looking at the body he once feared, lying inert as it was under a clean white sheet, with a look of pity.

"I don't plan on just injecting all of this into him," Victor said, tapping the plastic syringe full of his own blood. "I just need to study the properties in our blood first. Of course, given the fact that this body has gone through the mummification process, he probably will need a blood transfusion at some point. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, I'm just going to need a few ideas about how we can partner the mummy's regenerative capabilities with the qualities each of us possess. Then I'll have Beth assist with the actual operation."

William held his arm out without further argument, only pausing to warn Victor against getting any of Will's blood on his hands, lest he become contaminated by the werewolf curse.

Vinny ended up pitching such a fit about being the only person not sampled, though Vlad had certainly not complied, that Victor eventually agreed to taking some of his fingernails, since it was impossible to safely locate a vein on Vinny's invisible body. Vinny had to clip the nails himself, and deposited them safely in a glass vile, capped with a small cork – or so he said. Impossible to tell if he had really done what he claimed. He had definitely grabbed the vile from Victor. And he definitely made motions as if he was placing something inside. So perhaps the sample was in there.

Victor held it to his ear and shook the glass. Fascinatingly, he could hear the sounds of the nail fragments rattling around inside.

He looked at the vial again, and nearly dropped the glass. Inside the container, faint at first, and gradually darkening, he was starting to see the nail clippings themselves.

Vinny must have seen the look of surprise on his face, because he said, "Yeah, that always happens whenever something's separated from the source."

"The source?"

"My body, man."

"Interesting." Victor looked at the vile again. The nails were now completely visible. "But I'm not sure how useful they'll be in this state."

He said that, but for the first time in a long while he was looking forward to researching human anatomy again. He couldn't wait to get these under a microscope.

"It's the same with hair," Vinny said. He reached up to pluck a hair from his head, and handed it to Victor. Within only a few seconds, it darkened to black.

"Why does it do that?" Victor asked.

"Dunno."

Victor stared at him. "Do you mean to tell me that you managed to turn yourself invisible, and you don't understand how that works?"

"Not at all!" answered Vinny cheerfully, "I understand exactly how I turned myself invisible. What I don't understand is why the color comes back once something comes off of me. I mean, why doesn't it just stay invisible? It's weird, right?"

"Vinny, everything about you is weird. I suppose we will just have to accept it."

He said that, but Victor pocketed the vial of Vinny's nails for later study all the same. For the purpose of resurrecting the mummy, they were completely useless. But curiosity had been awakened in Victor again. If he was being forced to create another monster, shouldn't he at least have a little compensation? And what better compensation could there be than fresh research material? Maybe this time, he had a chance to actually do some good…

"Gentlemen," Beth said as she lightly rested her hand on Victor's arm, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Grey wishes to be dismissed."

The four glanced over at Dorian, who for the past ten minutes had been trying silently to inch his was toward the open dining room door. He stopped as soon as Beth said his name and glared at her.

"Ah yes," said Victor, "Well, suppose we just do as Vlad suggested and let him roam free for now? One of us should be able to keep an eye on him."

"Leave it to me!" cheered Vinny, eager to help, though Victor wasn't sure why. In his book, Vinny was still a suspicious character, and he didn't like the idea of the two of them being alone together.

Thankfully, William seemed to be in agreement. "I'd better go with them," he said as Vinny dragged Dorian out of the room by his arm, already in cheerful one-sided conversation with him.

Victor was thankful for William's willingness to play chaperone, but the temptation he'd had to research Vinny's condition joined with a new resolution regarding the werewolf.

"William," Victor stopped him as the boy was about to leave the room. "About the sample, I'm not really sure it will do much good with the mummy. But I was thinking, maybe during my research, I'll find some way of helping you with your… situation."

William considered Victor with an unreadable expression, then reached out and shook Victor's hand. "Thanks, Dr. Frankenstein. But you don't have to do that. I know now that there's probably nothing anyone can do. You just focus on getting us out of here. Preferably before the next full moon."

Victor squeezed William's hand in friendship, then let him go. He was glad that he had never suspected William of any involvement in this affair. True, although they had apprehended Dorian, they had not discovered Y's identity. But Victor was convinced of William's innocence. He wasn't Y. He was sure of it.

William left to ensure that Vinny wasn't subjugating Dorian to some new and unusual from of torture. After watching him go, Victor turned to face Beth and Jekyll. His wife had uncovered one of the mummy's arms and was taking samples from it. Jekyll was busy preparing slides from the samples they had already collected. A microscope had also been courteously provided by Y and Dorian. No expense spared for the successful completion of this experiment.

Swallowing the ever-present feeling of panic he had whenever entering a laboratory, Frankenstein sighed.

"Well then, let the nightmare begin."