Reid woke when the sun descended. That wasn't unusual. His new internal clock demanded that the moment the sun was set he was awake, but he didn't appreciate that he couldn't sleep later. He'd tried. Sure he could stay up past the time that his eyes started to droop and he began to yawn but he couldn't sleep any later than the moment the sun's rays vanished from the sky. Well, perhaps he'd finally listen to folks who told him that he needed to fix his sleep schedule… The doctor took a deep breath and got to his feet, stretching the stiffness from his limbs slowly before looking at the culprit of the tired ache in his temples and bones. The notebook looked innocent enough laying on the desk where he'd left it open when his pen had slipped into incoherent scribbles for an unknownth time but the contents had had him fascinated.
He really hadn't made it much past writing out the knowns and unknowns and initial observations, and really he ought to check those again to be sure that he wasn't going to muck up any of his conclusions just because he was too tired to write anything properly. But despite that he felt fairly certain that he could, in fact, confirm that he and McCullum were of the same bloodline. The doctor had been able to compare between his own blood, McCullum's, Lady Ashbury's and his previous notes on the Skals and Vulkods that he'd run into in his travels. The differences between a vampire's and a human's blood still boggled his mind and the implications and abilities that a vampire's blood was able to impart on a person were still well outside his ability to explain but that didn't mean that there weren't real, reasonable explanations for how he was able to manipulate blood and shadows like extensions for himself.
All the same, there were some things about McCullum's blood that were completely unique to the hunter. It went beyond the normal variance that you would get between people, at least that's what he thought last night, he should prepare another slide and check again… just to be sure. It could be just how long it took the hunter to change, how old the blood was that had transformed him, or it could be something else. The doctor looked back at his notes and then over to his microscope. Another slide…
-Face your Fears-
Reid started when there was a soft knock at the door. He'd gotten so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't hear Avery come up the stairs.
"Yes?" he called, leaning away from the microscope and wincing at the stiff sensation in his neck, too bad immortality didn't alleviate that…
"Master Jonathan?" the older man's voice called out into the room before the door slid open with only the faintest creak.
"You can come in Avery." Jonathan said, rolling his shoulders back to blink at the elderly butler in the doorway.
"I wasn't certain you were awake, or home. I wanted to tell you that I was going to retire for the evening. Some of us aren't so young to stay up all night anymore." there was a soft smile on the man's face as he said it but his eyes were tired and sad.
"My apologies for not emerging earlier," the doctor said, he glanced at the notebook and then back to the butler "I got a bit carried away…" he trailed off when Avery just gave him a knowing look. It was the same one that the doctor had received since he was a child and was being chastized for staying out past dinner reading in the garden or the park or wherever he'd managed to hide away from his sister to focus. The thought of Mary had regret curling in the pit of his stomach but he did his best to push it aside. Avery could probably tell that the smile was a bit forced but didn't say anything about it when Jonathan continued.
"Goodnight Avery."
"Goodnight Master Jonathan." the older man said before closing the door again quietly. Reid stood slowly, thinking that perhaps he should be moving around some. It certainly wasn't going to hurt his thought process to move his body, perhaps find vermin outside the home, as much as that made his lip curl with distaste. But it was that or go in search of larger prey and he wanted to get back to his research tonight while he had no prior engagements to keep him away.
Mind settled, he waited until the other occupants of the house were asleep, started looking over his notes to rewrite them and when he glanced at the clock again, realized that he'd lost track of time once more and that there was no way that they were still awake. The doctor glanced around the house to be sure and then grabbed his coat and headed out the balcony door.
It was colder this time of night than it had been even in the height of the pandemic and Jonathan shivered despite himself. He wished desperately that the cold didn't affect him anymore but all that did was call to mind all the phrases about wishes that his mother would shush him with when he was a child. Instead, he shook his head and found a dark alleyway, the smell of wet slush and garbage assaulting his nose but beneath it… there was the squeak of smaller bodies as they hustled about, their hearts hammering rapidly in tiny chests. It only took a moment for him to snatch one, sinking his teeth into it with a grimace. It slaked the edge of his thirst and it was faster than trying to find a mad Skal that was in need of putting down, but that didn't mean that he had to enjoy it. The doctor had just sunk his teeth into a second when he heard the rustle of someone materializing behind him. The blood was flowing down his throat and he couldn't manage to pull away but the voice that accompanied the presence wasn't one that meant him any harm. At least he hoped not.
"If this how you take care of yourself, I'm not so certain that I should be taking instructions from you doc." The hunter called out from where he stood. He didn't get any closer, letting Jonathan finish the paltry meal in peace before tossing the grimy body to the side.
"Would you rather that I steal the blood of innocents?" the doctor said snidely, wiping his beard off to be certain there was no trace of the rodent left behind.
"It would save me the mighty headache of reflectin' on my own ideals." the Irishman scoffed, leaning back against the alley wall and glancing at the doctor.
"My apologies for having a better moral compass than some of our kin." Jonathan said, shoving his hands into his pockets and wishing that that would do any good to warm them. "What can I do for you Mister McCullum?"
"Thought I sensed a leech, honestly. Figured I'd have myself a bit of a fancier meal." the hunter said with a shrug. "Not sure I'm glad to be mistaken."
Reid paused, looking at the hunter closely, the other man wasn't starving, was he just teasing, or was it in reference to what the doctor had offered him the previous night? When he didn't respond immediately Geoffrey cleared his throat and said
"Anyway, since I've got you, any news?"
"I haven't had the time to confirm my tests and check my notes, I was just about to head back and do that, but the initial results are good." Reid said. "I'm near positive in the assessment that we'd made that you're of the same bloodline as myself. But there's something unique about your blood that I can't quite identify, the way that it reacts to…" he trailed off, realizing that he was going to lose the hunter quickly with that line of speaking, "It's different and I need to do some more tests." he said instead.
"What kind of tests?" Geoffrey asked, tilting his head curiously.
"Mostly pouring over notes and comparing them to musty books that have worn out spines and words that are too long." Jonathan said with a laugh. "But I personally find it fascinating. It'd be better if half of it weren't bogged down in things that verge on supernatural, but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation buried underneath all of it."
"Wait, are you saying that you think this," McCullum raised a hand and let shadows swirl around it unnaturally "has a reasonable explanation that isn't just 'leech magic'?"
"Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean that it's magic." the doctor said, rolling his eyes. Geoffrey for his part, looked skeptical but didn't question him on it. Reid shivered again and glanced at the other Ekon, remembering the way that he'd reacted to tasting Jonathan's blood and an idea struck him.
"McCullum, do you think you could spare some time tomorrow evening?" he asked, "Later, in the graveyard shift?"
The hunter looked perplexed but answered anyway
"I think I could make that work, what are you planning Reid?"
"I have a theory I want to test out, meet me at my home when you can, Avery can let you in if I haven't returned yet. You can bring that captain if you think you need to."
"Okay, but what is this about?" Geoffrey was standing off the wall again, a frown painted across his face as the doctor grinned. He was going to need to collect some more tools for this… without another word he vanished into the night to prepare.
-Face your Fears-
Jonathan wasn't able to focus particularly well for the rest of that evening, or even much of the next, buzzing with anticipation of what was to come. He did his best to uphold a professional face as he continued training the new doctor at the hospital and when he was stopping to talk with the usual folks out and about in the night on his way home but there were a few people that smiled knowingly and sent him on his way earlier than they might have in the past. It wasn't like that, he thought, but was grateful for the break all the same.
McCullum was already standing on the balcony when he got there, smoking and staring out at the cloudy sky.
"That doesn't bother you?" Reid asked, apparating behind the man and not bothering to announce his presence first. Geoffrey didn't even flinch. Instead he just flicked a small ember off into the streets below.
"Not as much as a leech not explaining himself a single lick." he grumbled before leaning back and giving Jonathan a hard glare. The doctor rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and then said
"My apologies about that. I… I got a bit overexcited about the whole thing. I wanted to test something and needed to get the materials to work with first."
"Yeah I got that much, what, exactly, are you wanting to test?" McCullum grouched, following inside at Jonathan opened the door to his room and gestured to the hunter to come in. It must've counted as an invitation because there was no hesitation at the doorway. Reid took off his coat and hung it on the hook and rolled up his sleeves before setting out some of the remaining tools that he'd collected on his desk to align with the others.
"So… you had mentioned that the reaction that you'd had with your captain's blood was different than what you've had with other vampires, I wanted to see if we could isolate that down to something more tangible. It might have some hints as to what's different about your blood than say, my own, or another Ekons." Jonathan explained, sitting down at his desk to look at the hunter who remained pointedly standing.
"You just want me to drink a bunch of random blood? You could've just said that." Geoffrey just raised a brow in confusion, some of the tension bled out of his frame, like he'd been expecting something much worse than what Jonathan had just said.
"Yes, um, well," Reid paused, not really sure how to explain himself in this case, "you know now." he trailed off for a moment, fidgeting with the tools on his desk. "So shall we get started?"
McCullum sighed heavily and sat down in the spare chair in the doctor's room, draping his coat casually over the back. "Why not, I'm here aren't I?"
Reid nodded, flipping to a new page in his notebook before turning back to the hunter for a moment.
"How is your hunger level now? It's best if we don't start somewhere desperate, only because it might skew some of the results." Jonathan had a hand poised over the paper, ready to write down anything that the hunter said.
"Is it ever not desperate?" Geoffrey scoffed, looking at his hands briefly and Reid could feel him pull lightly on the shadows around them.
"Well yes, but there's a line somewhere between the normal desperate and the unable to think desperation that I know that you've felt." Jonathan said gently. He didn't meet the hunter's eyes, not wanting to think of the all consuming hunger when he'd first woken that terrible night.
Geoffrey grunted and Reid could hear him moving around before he sighed and spoke up again.
"I've been better." he admitted. Jonathan didn't comment, just pulled another of his serums from his desk and passed it over wordlessly. McCullum looked at his for a few seconds before removing his ratty old scarf and administering the injection. It wasn't as smooth as when the doctor did but it didn't much matter when the small wound would close over in a matter of seconds.
"I'm glad that those are working for you." Jonathan said as he prepared some of the rest of the test and noted the administering of an injection prior to working with all of their samples.
"I shouldn't be surprised that you've come up with a bit of a solution, but…" he trailed off for a moment wrinkling his nose before sneezing once.
"Bless you, you okay?" the doctor didn't know if he'd ever sneezed since being turned, nor could he confirm if it was something that they really needed to do or if it was like breathing, a mostly leftover habit. He decided not to comment on the fact that when the commander did it it did not align with the rest of his appearance, a small, decidedly cute sound eeking the way from the back of his throat.
"Yeah…" Geoffrey sniffed once before straightening himself out, "yeah, just had something tickled the back of my throat. Sorry about that, didn't know sneezes could still get the better of ya. Granted I didn't know the cold would still bite so bad too…"
"The inability to warm up properly is certainly up there with the drawbacks." Jonathan agreed, readjusting the small vials once more so that he could hide his grin before straightening himself out. "So. Where would you like to start?" He stood to one side so Geoffrey could actually see what he'd laid out before them and the hunter frowned as he read through what his options were.
"Just so I'm clear, are you going to partake in this too? Or is it just me?" the hunter glanced up at him, stormy eyes challenging but not angry.
"I… should but I'm not sure if I… trust myself to do so and still be capable of writing down clear thoughts afterward, there's always a bit of bias when taking notes on your own perspective."
"Surely there's a benefit to it too? I like the notes from the old commanders one their own experiences just as much as I get good info from their notes on the goings on outside of themselves. If you've got the spare scraps of paper, I can jot down a few thoughts myself. I can take notes for you too, if you're not worried about my using smaller words."
Reid laughed softly at the commander and got out some extra paper and a pen for his use.
"I wouldn't sell yourself short. You've certainly got a leg up on my knowledge of the supernatural. I don't particularly like that I've got no other words for that as of now, but there's no other descriptions I have." He almost didn't catch McCullum's eyes widening before the other man schooled his expression into something more neutral.
"So you didn't know about any of this when you were just tossed in? Just like that?" McCullum took the paper wordlessly and set it where he could reach before gently taking a seat. The tension in the room changed as they were on an equal playing field now. There was something… almost caring in how the hunter asked and the doctor wasn't sure how to feel about it, he shrugged instead of truly answering, not trusting his voice not to give out on him and not wanting to feel weak in front of the Guard. Sure McCullum had given him a lot of leeway recently but that didn't mean that he wouldn't exploit this weakness in other ways. He almost jumped when a hand came in contact with his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, truly Jonathan, you didn't deserve to have the misery of this world thrust upon you." the words were so sincere that the doctor blinked, not entirely sure how to take the whole thing.
"I… thank you. That means a lot." they both stared at each other for a moment longer, the silence starting to feel awkward until Reid cleared his throat and shuffled his notes and continued. "Right. We should probably get on with this, I'm assuming you don't have all night?"
"I'd love to, but you're probably right." Geoffrey said, smoothing his hands over his pants and sitting a little straighter, looking again at the line of vials. "So is there one we should start with?"
"I was thinking that we should start with your own, unless you have objections?" Jonathan suggested, gesturing to the small vial. The hunter made a face but shrugged
"You're the scientist."
"Right." Reid took the vial and handed it over.
"And we're splitting this?" Geoffrey confirmed, the cap already in his hand. Jonathan nodded as Geoffrey took a tiny sip, mouth tilting to the side as he considered. He set the vial down and made a couple of notes, pausing and then writing down a couple more. The doctor tried to be patient as he waited for the reaction but that had never been his strong suit, Avery always reprimanded him for not slowing down in life. He took notes on McCullum's bodily reactions instead, trying to distract himself. It didn't really work when the hunter wasn't doing very much.
"So?" Jonathan asked, not able to keep it in any longer. Geoffrey ran his tongue over his teeth, fangs only minimally on view as he did so.
"I mean, it tastes like blood. Not really in the same way that it used to taste you know, but… I don't know? Boring? Kind of like lukewarm tea? Not good, not bad, just… there." he shrugged before pushing the vial over to Reid. "Your turn doc." he said with a grin.
"You want to alternate?"
"Sure, gives me time to… well to get any taste out of my mouth I guess, like a… palate cleanser? Isn't that something you toffs do when you taste wine?" he teased, but he did make a line on the paper to separate the tests. Jonathan laughed and picked up the rest of the sample, drinking out of a vial was never the same as getting it straight from the source but there were plenty of times that he genuinely preferred the more detached approach that this provided. He swallowed the blood easily, it was little more than a mouthful and was several days old at that. All the same he took the time to let it pass over his tongue, trying to take in the flavor and how it affected him. He met McCullum's eyes for a moment and swirled the vial around as though it really were just some over the top wine tasting, causing the hunter to roll them and turn to his paper, mumbling as he wrote.
"Subject is a snobby piece of shite."
Jonathan nearly coughed at that and quit joking around, instead turning to his own notebook to make observations. Unlike himself, Geoffrey waited patiently until he was done writing before raising a brow, pen at the ready.
"I would certainly say that it's better than how you described it, I think it has… a lot of depth to it, if you'll forgive me the pretension."
Geoffrey scoffed but didn't say anything, his pen still scratching at the paper so Jonathan continued
"It's… well it's very good, not the best I've ever tasted and certainly not great at room temperature but it is very good." Jonathan paused and then took a few more notes and then readied the next sample. It was a mad Skals' blood, he wasn't sure what one, he had plenty of samples from them, all he knew is that it wasn't old and that it didn't smell overly appealing but as soon as he uncapped it he noted that the hunter's gaze slid over to it. It wasn't the same as before when Jonathan had given him his own blood but he'd certainly garnered the man's attention. He made a note of that.
"This one is from a Skal, one of the mad ones that have been out recently, I'm sure you already know what they taste like but let's give this a go anyway." he slid the vial over to McCullum who paused before taking a sip of it. He set it down quickly, the liquid nearly sloshing over the side, like he was trying to keep himself from knocking the whole thing back. His lips pulled back from fangs that were in full view now and Jonathan had to resist the urge to bare his own. He made note of that too, wondered what it was that made Ekon fall back on some baser instincts from time to time instead of just working with their words. A slight tremor worked its way down the hunter's body and Jonathan watched, curious, this wasn't how he responded to Skal blood at all, nor had he heard of such a thing from Lady Ashbury. Granted he didn't think Elizabeth would necessarily stoop to feeding from a Skal but despite that it seemed a strange behavior. Geoffrey clenched his fist, swallowed again and then shook his head.
"'S harder when I'm not in the middle of a fight to shake it off…" he mumbled before seeming to remember that he needed to take notes and grabbed the pen and hastily scrawled something.
"That's… an unusual reaction to say the least, granted, I will admit that I haven't watched too many other Ekon feed on Skals to know for certain that it's completely unique but it's certainly not common, I'll say that."
"It's… well it's a lot more powerful than my own, it's… cool, calming in a way. There's a tart tinge to it that I'm not overly fond of but it almost gets the better of me…" Geoffrey unclenched his hand and Reid could see the tremors shaking through it before he clenched it again. He glanced at the vial before resolutely pushing it toward the doctor and Jonathan took it before the other man could change his mind, slugging it back quickly and barely containing a wince. It certainly beat rat blood but it wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination. He wrote down his observations and told Geoffrey what he thought.
They continued on like this for a while, and Jonathan just found himself getting more and more confused by the situation and reactions that Geoffrey had to some of the different bloods. There wasn't much of any particular one, so it wasn't as though he were flooding his system with it, but there was always a look of struggle, an intent when he put the vial down and passed it over to the doctor. As though he were always struggling to not keep it all for himself. Jonathan would have written it off as just starving prior to this but they had both made sure that they weren't too close to the edge and on top of that he hadn't had that reaction to his own blood. It was strange is what it was and Jonathan took note of it each time. They went through many different samples that the doctor had collected, some were certainly better than others, Vulkod, Beasts', some older than others and those they could both tell, both commented with vague distaste on it but still, the shaking continued. The tremors never lasted long, usually less than a minute, at least until they got to the other Ekon blood that the doctor had managed to recover from a fight with one of the Ascalon Club members.
Geoffrey tipped the vial back and before anything could happen it was gone, just like that, the glass drained and the hunter's pupils had blown wide and he shivered more violently than he had before.
"What was that?" he asked a full minute later when he no longer looked like he was going to vibrate out of his skin.
"Ekon blood. Not mine, but another's, have you not tasted one before?" Reid asked curiously, he'd taken meticulous notes on Geoffrey's reaction, in addition he'd started timing how long before the hunter seemed to come back to himself with an additional annotation to ask what he'd meant earlier about it being easier to recover in a fight.
"That was… wow. I… I'm not used to things like that." he said slowly, shaking his head and setting the vial down and then looking at it sheepishly. "I… sorry about that."
Jonathan could see his cheeks redden ever so slightly and smiled, it was a good look on the hunter, not that he would say so. Not if he wanted to keep his tongue in his mouth.
"Well, I can always do this," and Reid swiped his finger around the edge of the vial and then stuck it in his mouth much like he had as a child when Avery had made cake or cookies. It wasn't the most sanitary but it wasn't as though either of them were going to get sick from this little experiment, he kept Lady Ashbury's contaminated samples far from his other ones. Geoffrey wrinkled his nose but didn't comment and they both collected their notes.
"Perhaps I should take the next one first?" Jonathan asked as he picked up the second to last one and looked at it.
"Why, what is it?" the hunter looked up from where he'd been frowning at something that he'd written down, absently fidgeting with the pen.
"My own, and we could always gather more, but I'd rather not if I don't have to, I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll react very similarly to my own as you did to yours."
"That seems reasonable." Geoffrey nodded, drawing another line across the paper and then leaning back. Jonathan waited until he looked properly ready and then took a gentle sip, wrinkling his nose slightly. Not that the taste was bad but after so many things that he would prefer to his own blood it was hard to switch over to. He made his notes and informed the hunter that, yes, it was much like he himself had observed when drinking his own blood, not bad, not good, not the same as how blood had tasted when mortal either though. And then he pushed it over to the hunter.
Geoffrey looked at it like it was going to rear up and bite him and wasn't that a funny thought, a vampire hunter acting afraid of a little blood. His face hardened and he reached out, snagging the vial and slammed it back like it was a shot of whiskey. Similarly to before it seemed to have a rather profound effect on him as he shivered and shook and for the briefest of moments his eyes snapped over to the doctor like he wanted to take it right from the source. There was very little of the man behind those eyes in that moment and Jonathan was almost ready to pull on the hunter's blood to force him still again when McCullum took a very forced breath in and out.
"Better or worse than the last one?" Jonathan asked very quietly when it no longer looked like he was going to have to fend off the man.
"Define better." The words sounded almost as though they'd been scraped from the hunter's stomach; they were so rough.
"Taste." Reid said, if Geoffrey was able to crack a joke he was going to be okay. At least he hoped so.
"Definitely better, I don't like that it feels like I lose myself in it. It's like there's nothing else in this world." the Guard said, shaking his head. He licked over his teeth and shivered again, but only once.
"I… know the feeling. But I've only ever felt it once." Jonathan said softly. "You'll probably get to see that reaction yourself in just a moment." he glanced at the last vial apprehensively.
"When was that?" McCullum looked up from where he seemed to be trying to distract himself with writing down his observations. Reid set the last vial between them with a soft clack.
"With human blood."