2007 Chicago, IL, USA
Nick sat at the dining table staring at the half-filled wine glass of blood. He felt the stirring vampire waiting, the beast knowing it would eventually get the blood. Nick shifted his gaze to the left, landing on the ancient jade cup which promised a different future for him than darkness and eternally drinking blood. Under the bright light from the ceiling, the cup's golden repairs sparkled like the sun. Nick blinked a few times at their brightness as he reached for the wine glass. He quickly drained the remaining animal blood, finally satisfying his hunger. Not that his hunger ever got too demanding or more than he could control, he reflected. Ever since that night in Toronto when Natalie had offered her blood to him, his beast had calmed. The vampire's need for blood was far from gone, but he was more able to resist the temptation for human blood. This effect seemed like an undeserved gift after what he had put Natalie through, almost killing her. Nick placed the empty glass back down on the table. He would never do that to her again; he would never again let the vampire hurt her.
Nick reached out and snagged the Maya cup as he got up from the chair. Heading over to the living room, he finally flopped into the large leather armchair that was next to a small table. Not that it was really needed, but he clicked on the table lamp to provide more illumination. Nick ran his fingers across the cup's carved surface, so similar to the cup he had unearthed at Altun Kinal, which was currently with Ioan's lab. Nick rolled the cup in his hand, fingers still tracing over the cool, hard surface. He felt each of the five bumps along the side of the cup's face, then followed the scalloped design under the eye. Reaching the large eye, he traced along the multiple deep cuts that indicated the pupil, so close to the nose to show the eyes were cross-eyed. His fingertips lingered on the glyph at the top of the nose, then slid down the large beaked nose to the mouth. Nick skimmed over the grin of teeth, ending at the corner of the mouth where a long curved fang-like structure extended.
The telephone rang and, without looking, Nick reached over to the table to grab the receiver. After clicking the power button, he placed the phone on his shoulder and tilted his head to hold it in position. "Hello," Nick said, while his free hand resumed gliding over the cup.
"Hey, Nick."
He smiled hearing Natalie's voice. "Hey, Nat. Enjoying your night off?"
"Oh, yes. I've been sitting here doing as much research as I can on Maya culture."
"You're supposed to be relaxing and getting errands done and such."
"I've already done that. Plus, this is important."
Nick placed the cup gently on the table and grabbed the phone to hold against his other ear. "Nat, I appreciate that, but-"
"I want to do this, Nick. Don't worry."
"You sound tired." He listened to her muffled sigh.
"Alright, I didn't get much sleep. I had the weirdest dream. There was this huge yellow and green snake with feathers and a large mouth. For what seemed like hours he kept circling around me as if waiting for me to do or say something. Then he lunged at me and, as his fangs struck, I woke up. Maybe I am spending just a bit too much time on this. It can't be good if I'm having dreams of the Maya Vision Serpent."
Guilt surged and crashed within Nick. Natalie had never said, but he was sure a part of her remembered the sensation of his fangs piercing into her. And now she was getting so immersed into this vampirism cure that she was dreaming about another fanged creature biting her. Nick didn't want any part of her to re-live that particular attempt at a cure. "Nat, I know how focused you can get. Promise me you'll at least take a break every now and then, spend some time enjoying life."
"I will."
"So," Nick began in an attempt to shift Natalie away from remembering her dream, "what are you learning about now?"
"Chocolate."
Nick's lips curled into a lopsided grin. "A subject I know you enjoy."
"Very much. Actually, I've been looking up cacoa. Did you know that, for the Maya, the cacoa drink was sacred and used in various ceremonies and rituals? After being poured from cup to cup multiple times to make lots of frothy foam, it was drunk by the elite and given as an offering to the gods."
"I know people seem to really enjoy consuming anything chocolate, no matter its final form. Perhaps that drink should be the first food I try once I'm mortal again, since I'll be using their ritual cure." Nick listened to Natalie's positive reply, almost seeing the smile he knew she had.
"Oh … wait. Just scrolled down to the bottom of the web page. Seems like, in imitation of an action the gods had once performed, sometimes the Maya added their own blood into the drink."
"Well, we're trying to get me off a diet with blood, so let's avoid that one." Nick shifted in the chair so he could lean against the other armrest. "Why are you looking up chocolate anyway?"
"Did you read Ioan's email?"
Nick scrunched his eyes closed and gritted his teeth. "I was going to wait for you to explain it to me," he finally admitted.
"Uh huh. Well, his analysis identified many organic compounds like theobromine that led him to conclude cacoa was used in the cups and I wanted to know why. His message also said that he translated some more of the glyphs of the ritual and Ioan thinks it says that after the ritual was completed, the cups were to be returned to their temples for either cleansing or rededication, something like that. He also says, for the ritual itself, that the solution in the cup from Altun Kinal is poured into the cup from Luumtun Ka'anmul, then poured back. So only one round of passing between the cups. And then, as the image showed, the Altun Kinal cup would be the one given to the sick individual to drink."
"Given to the vampire," Nick corrected.
"But remember, Nick, Ioan doesn't believe in vampires, though he does believe human blood was drunk from the cup."
Nick leaned back into the chair and stared up at the ceiling in contemplation. Originally, so long ago, he had been told the high priest would drink the victim's sacrificed blood, but that had made no logical sense. The vampire was the one who needed to be cured, not the mortal; it was a vampire that drank blood, not a mortal. So he reasoned there actually was no priest involved, it was supposed to be the vampire who received the blood. And now, the role of the priest was back and vital, not for drinking the blood, but as the donor of the required blood. "The shaman is giving his blood to the vampire. He is the source of the sacrificed blood, not a separate victim. But why? What's so special about his blood?"
"Well, Ioan thinks this is a medicinal treatment with a small amount of the shaman's blood added to it. He doesn't think the blood would have had any healing properties itself, just a psychosomatic one on the patient, who might have viewed the blood as blessed or holy in some way."
Nick shuddered reflexively as a few painful memories surfaced; he knew how he reacted to holy objects.
"Nick … what if this ritual isn't actually a cure for vampirism?"
Nick immediately righted himself and shook his head, rejecting both her idea and trying to suppress the faint echo of similar phrases so often spoken by LaCroix. "No, I don't believe that. Is that what you're really thinking?"
"I don't see much here in the analysis that would produce any kind of effect on your body. Ioan found some extracts that were identified as various local herbs, chili pepper, cacoa, and blood residue. If these cups were the ones used in this ritual, most of these ingredients don't make logical sense. I've had you drink various teas before and they didn't do anything to you."
"They made me sick," Nick reminded her. He grimaced at the memories of the multiple times she had made him drink all sorts of different vile liquids. "But I know this, Nat: this ritual isn't for a sick mortal, it's for a vampire. I have absolutely no doubt about that."
"Okay, just tossing the idea out there. The blood though; of everything, you would react to that. I know Ioan thinks it would be a small amount, and the text doesn't state exactly how much, but I keep thinking about what happened with Janette and what we did. I think it would take much more than a few drops of blood."
"So totally giving up on any medical treatments for this one? Going to trust that it is the cups themselves, and the blood, nothing else?"
"Cups aside, the only thing that makes sense for your physiology is the blood. If you want, you can go get some hot cocoa with spices from Buckstars, drink it, and let me know if it does anything for you. Since I doubt it will, that means the blood has to be the most important part, the only part you really need. As much as I wish otherwise, the other ingredients found were probably added simply because the shaman was used to using those compounds and they weren't really even needed."
A thought occurred to Nick and he leaned back against the chair and stared at the ceiling again. "Nat, do you think the shaman might have added those other components because they were considered holy and it was needed to finally drive the vampire out?" He had always assumed it would be a struggle to fight off the vampire, he didn't want to think about doing that while also being hurt and weakened by holy material.
"Nick, even if that was true, which I don't believe, I'm not going to perform this ritual with you drinking holy water. You'll get hurt too much and I don't think having you weakened will be beneficial."
"Thank you for that." Nick let out a long sigh and switched the phone to his other ear; the muscles in his neck were getting strained. "So what do we do about the blood? Does this mean I have to get a priest? That could be a bit awkward."
"Let me handle that part, Nick. I can get the donated blood we'll need. On the subject of blood, that seems to be the only thing he found in your cup."
"Well, I had been using and washing that cup for about a century; I'm sure any other trace substances were gone long ago. And it's not like I could give Ioan the reconstructed cup for analysis - how would I explain having that one?"
"Speaking of LaCroix - have you talked to him about what we're doing?"
"No. You know how he is," Nick huffed as he slumped lower in the chair. "LaCroix would just say it's nonsense and won't work, just like the last time. And if this time the ritual doesn't work, no reason for him to know we had even tried."
"So what now? Ioan's completed his analysis."
"He's going to send both cups to you. I gave him your address at the Coroners Building."
"And what am I supposedly doing with them, in case he calls asking for an update."
"Measuring and weighing them. My stipulation was we would get the cups for complete documentation along with creating a very high-quality replica of the cup from Luumtun Ka'anmul. Ioan's current budget didn't allow him to get a replica made."
"So they should be arriving soon?"
"Yes," Nick confirmed as glanced over to the corner where his travel bag was partially packed. "And I'll be coming over soon as well."