Chapter 6: The Experiment

Kate realized that she hadn't stopped talking the entire elevator ride down. She looked over at the vampire, Godric was his name and noticed that he was staring at her intently. Vampires all had strange eyes; a bit mesmerizing, but the stare she was receiving made her feel more like a human than ever before.

"Sorry if I've been rambling," she apologized, not quite sure if that was the right thing to say.

"There's no need to apologize," Godric replied, still staring.

Why was he looking at her like that? Exiting the elevator, Kate heard the vampire exhale loudly. That was strange, his metabolism was completely anaerobic and required no oxygen to function. She wondered if vampire breathing patterns had been studied before.

Walking down the narrow hallway, the lights flipped on their movement. This was not the bottom research floor, but the testing facility. It was very unusual to have a vampire on the other side of the observatory walls. At midnight it was desolate, but it was peaceful for Kate. This building contained every tool she needed to explore her never-ending theories. Answers were held here, at her fingertips. Answers were the only thing that made her brain go still. Or so she hoped.

"Are we… Alone?" Godric asked, seemingly surprised.

"Yes, is that a problem? I promise this is a secure building, you have nothing to worry about–" Kate started to ramble again but then she saw his smile. It was the kind of teasing smile that you would give a friend. It was extremely charming. That smile made Kate's insides squirm but yet feel completely at ease which was highly paradoxical. She wasn't used to this. She couldn't decide if he made her nervous or comfortable.

"It is odd to find a human so devoid of fear," the vampire replied idly, still staring.

Kate may not know what she was feeling exactly but she knew it was the furthest thing from fear. And what was it with those eyes? He didn't seem to blink enough.

"I've worked with a lot of vampires. We have a paid volunteer program for the test subjects," Kate explained as she led the way down to the demonstration room. Scanning her ID and opening the door, Kate gestured the vampire forward. Very few people, let alone vampires, ever got to see the inside of the control room, but Kate remembered what her father clearly had said: Impress the clients.

And what was more impressive than science?

Kate leaned over to adjust the knobs for the demonstration process and felt her aging hair band finally snap, letting her hair clumsily unravel down the nape of her neck.

"Oh, shoot!" She exclaimed, trying to brush her crinkled hair out with her fingers. Becca would be pissed if Kate was less than presentable in front of clients. Kate's long deep brown hair tumbled over her shoulders in waves, it was long, too long, but she didn't have time to get it cut regularly. She simply did not have the stamina to keep herself perfectly manicured like her beautiful award-winning sister.

Looking over at the vampire she realized that his gaze was still laser-focused on her, predator's gaze, but now, his fangs were also showing, peaking from between his pouty lips. She had never seen fangs drop unprompted without cause.

"Uh," Kate stammered nonsensically. This vampire made less and less sense by the minute.

Kate had extensively read academic journals on vampire fangs before. They functioned similarly to rattlesnake fangs, tucked against the roofs of their mouths when not in use. They were considered quite sensitive, and they grew sharper and longer with age. Vampire fangs protruded when their flight or fight mechanism was activated, or when their predatory instinct was stimulated by blood or prey. But, to her knowledge, she had never been the reason for their appearance.

She found him fascinating. It was a whole different kind of experiment. What would happen now? What if…What if he bit her? She had never considered it before, but now, looking at this handsome stranger, Kate became even more curious. Curiosity was Kate's drug of choice and this new idea was the most dangerous line of inquiry she had ever crossed. She had never studied vampires this closely. Everything she had learned was extremely theoretical and clinical. Nothing like this.

"Your fangs…" Kate mumbled, still unsure about what was happening.

She knew she should be frightened, but she couldn't bring herself to feel anything other than intrigue. Beyond that, she needed to know. And there was nothing more addicting for Katherine Bellefleur than knowledge she hadn't tapped into yet. Theories just exploded in her head like fireworks.

Realizing his sudden faux pas, the vampire brought his hand to cover his mouth, seemingly unable to push his fangs away.

"My apologies, Doctor," he mumbled, turning away.

Kate immediately regretted saying anything. Was it rude to point it out? Was this like when people had lettuce stuck in their teeth? She never understood human etiquette either. "No, I'm sorry-"

"I haven't fed… In quite some time," he mumbled.

"Oh," Kate replied, surprised by her own disappointment. What had she hoped was the reason his fangs slipped? Did she…want to have stimulated his appetite? It was well documented that their hunger had a high correlation with sexual desire and attractiveness.

Pushing those questions away, Kate opened the mini-fridge beneath the desk area, removing one of her bags of blood. Tearing the corner of the bag, Kate poured the blood into one of her clean coffee mugs and then placed it in the small microwave that sat atop the mini-fridge. One that she had developed to heat only blood.

"Is that donated blood?" Godric asked between his fangs. He didn't lisp, which showed lingual proficiency only acquired through time. His canines were also much larger than she expected them to be, which also supported the theory that Godric was much older than he looked.

"Sort of?" Kate replied, setting the time. "It's my blood, technically speaking."

Her very, very illegal blood. Laws and licenses on handling human blood have tightened since the Hepatitis V pandemic broke out 10 years ago. And since Bonne Nuit was technically a UV light filtering research facility they lacked any requisites for biomedical licenses. It didn't matter how much she begged her father to pull some strings, or even let her use the Bellefleur Tech pharmaceutical labs after hours for her research, he was adamant she would focus on vampire tech.

But she needed it for research. It was impossible to study blood-transmitted viruses without the carrying medium. It was her life's work, and no one would stop her.

"You donate your own blood? You're…Giving me your blood?" His tone bordered on incredulous.

"It's part of the recompensation offer we give test subjects," was the first layer to cover up her lies. "We're not a medical facility, so we technically can't have donor blood here. As per Louisiana's latest backwards law, blood donations are for human facilities only. So I had to think of a workaround."

It was true Kate needed subjects to test her projects, and vampires were simply not very motivated by money in exchange for their time. So, she offered them her bagged blood instead (without ever revealing its source). Soon, one volunteer a week turned quickly into ten, and she could no longer keep up her donations.

Add her need to continue with her mother's legacy of hematology innovation, and her dirty little side project was born. She needed more blood that she could supply to sustain the test subject program and her own research. So Kate developed a method to clone her own blood. Which only broke a couple dozen more state, federal and international laws.

Kate was set on curing Hepatitis V and finishing what her mom, Dr. Abigail Bellefleur, had started. So since she couldn't get her hands on human blood to study, and hated the nuance of continuously sticking herself with needles, she learned to copy and manufacture her own in secret. Now, she had everything she needed. It was two birds, one heavily illegal stone.

"But there were pints upon pints in that fridge–" Godric stumbled over the words. Kate could understand his surprise, there was so much of her blood in that fridge – more than any one person could reasonably donate. The beeping of the microwave interrupted his impending question. No one else in the lab knew where the blood came from. And to be quite frank, no one ever gave a damn to ask.

Removing the mug from the microwave and swirling it slightly, Kate passed into Godric's ice-cold hands.

"Thank you." Godric's tone reminded her of the hushed whisper people use to pray.

Kate merely nodded, still not understanding what was passing between them. All she knew was that she couldn't tear her eyes away from his fangs and his eyes. This was an irresistible experiment… How would he react to her blood? She had given samples to test subjects before, and they had always complimented her on it. But she had never taken them seriously. However, if he asked her…What would she say? Kate imagined his lips pressing against her skin, his hands - those hands - squeezing at her waist and suddenly she felt as if it was 104 degrees in this lab. Which was ridiculous because she programmed the thermostats herself to always be at a pleasant 69.

Godric tried to muffle his groan of enjoyment, but Kate's ears cherished the sound. He liked it.

"You're… Delicious."

Heat suffused through Kate's body, a reaction she had never had before. Her knees felt weak, and her heart was about to beat right out of her chest. God! What was wrong with her?

"It's cloned," Kate blurted.

That was a secret she hadn't told anyone before. No one in this lab - nay the world - knew she had figured out how to clone her own blood and manufacture it. Itsvat was in a room only she had access to, an intricate machine she had to so carefully assemble. It took her six months to order parts from 21 different suppliers, none who had the specs for its entirety, nor knew what it would be used for. She hadn't even told Becca about this newest development. Her father and sister would go absolutely nuclear if they found out the family's pristine image was at risk of being tarnished with fines, FBI investigations, or the apocalypse of losing shareholders. Kate was very fortunate and grateful to have so much freedom with her research, and never having to worry about funding or bureaucratic red tape. And she knew she had abused that power and privilege. But her entire family's focus wasn't medical innovation or even helping people - it was all about the bottom line. People had done despicably evil things for profit and got applauded for it, and Kate wasn't hurting anyone.

"What?" Godric gasped, blood beading on his upper lip.

"I made it in the lab. From a sample of my own blood," Kate continued to ramble, unable to stop herself.

"You're extraordinary," he smiled. Fangs retracted a blushed tone on his cheeks. He was beautiful.

Kate felt like all the blood in her body was on her face, and she saw Godric hide his own face in his mug lost in the crimson liquid.

It was a strange feeling, her reaction to his compliment. Growing up Kate had been told numerous times before that she was a genius. She had become comfortable in her sphere, inside the bubble of people who knew her best. She couldn't pinpoint exactly when the marvel had worn off, or maybe it happened to everyone as they grew up, but praise for her genius was now few and far between. Greatness had been the expected standard. Or perhaps… She wasn't as great as people had hoped her to become. Often times it was hard to tell which.

But his words had a new kind of weight to them, that made her feel almost flustered. It was a wonderful type of embarrassment.

"Thank you," Kate tried to reply modestly.

She turned away from Godric and began to set up the demonstration trying to regain focus on what mattered. She needed to impress him on behalf of her father. Kate explained it great detail how the filtering pathways worked, and how she developed it, and Godric nodded, seemingly understanding all the technical jargon she was throwing at him. Then in a move that she had not expected, he dipped his finger into the mug, wiping in along the bottom to collect the very last drops of her cloned blood. He placed the fingers in his mouth, which made Kate's brain halt to a stop.

Watching him suck the ruby liquid from his fingers could only be described as hypnotizing. There was something mesmerizing about his hands and lips. He noticed her looking.

"Did you find that impolite? I didn't want any to go to waste," Godric rumbled.

The blood. His mouth. Fingers. She wanted him to touch her.

No. Not impolite.

Arousing. The voice in her head cataloged. Her reaction to him was attraction. Her energetic heartbeat, the vasodilation of her facial blood vessels, the giddiness she felt from his simple compliment.

What the hell? Now? Here? And not only with a vampire but this vampire?

Kate's forays into romance had been both limited and underwhelming. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in dating or sex per se, it was more that she had more important interests and experiments to pursue. Plus her sister seemed to date enough for the both of them. But now… A new experiment was taking place right in front of her eyes and she had no idea how to control the variables.

He was staring at her. Still expecting a response.

"No, it's fine," Kate was able to squeak out, and then return her attention to the dials in front of her.

Kate completed the demonstration of the glass on a near auto-pilot, trying, and failing, to not look back at Godric. She examined every inch of his face. How old was he when he was turned? He couldn't have been much younger than she was now. Twenty-five maybe? Certainly older than twenty. People led harder lives in the past, it made them look older than they were, but he had to be in his twenties. Godric was objectively handsome, but it was his quirks that drew her in. The shape of his jaw, the slope of his straight nose, the way his eyes lit up when he saw the way the glass worked. His skin had a healthier tone now that he had drunk.

Perhaps it was the way he smiled, but the curve of his lips seemed to dare her. To do what… She wasn't sure, but her curiosity was scratching her insides, dying to find out.

When the demonstration of the new prototype ended, Kate wanted to think of what else she could say to keep him there. Could she offer him a tour? Should they head back upstairs?

"My… Is that the time?" Godric gestured to the clock on the wall and then reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. Without meaning to, Kate saw that he had several missed calls and messages.

Checking her own device Kate read a to the point message from her sister:

At Tara's. Don't wait up for me, and don't work too late.

Godric's voice drew Kate away from her phone.

"It appears my progeny is still working to secure a deal with you sister, they have adjourned a nearby club, Tara's. Are you familiar with it?"

Suppressing her shock that Rebecca would take Eric Northman to her favourite place in the city, the one place she claimed that she would never bring clients to, Kate nodded. Would Becca break her number one rule in order to impress the founders of New Blood?

"Perhaps we can walk there together?" Godric suggested.

This was usually the time that Kate would beg off and explain that she had projects to attend to, or that she needed a good night's sleep to prepare for another long day of work, and most folks were understanding. Skipping and dodging social events was something she became very good at. Kate was an eccentric loner, and she didn't really enjoy the crowds, flashing lights and loud sounds of clubs, bars or parties.

But perhaps, just this once, Kate would make an exception. After all, it wasn't often that Kate got to do an experiment like this, one that made herself the subject. One that tested her own reactions, one that made her feel things. She would go, for the sake of her own personal scientific discovery.

"Okay…let's walk."

Kate wasn't accustomed to walking the streets of New Orleans, despite living here for most of her life. Even though the walk was almost shorter than the drive, Terry chauffeured her and her sister everywhere in the safety of their bulletproof vehicle. He would never permit them to walk the streets, especially this late at night. Kate reasoned that she had the best bodyguard available, an ancient vampire, and if he had intended to harm her he would have done so already. Plus her cousin was known to be a tad overzealous, pushing on paranoid.

They walked silently on the lively streets of New Orleans. People flooded the streets, partying to live jazz music echoing from bars. Many of them were drunk, covered in colourful bead necklaces and fancy hats. It wasn't even Mardi Gras, just simply another Saturday night in the city that actually never slept. She grew up watching these people from behind the car window, this experiment she was well acquainted with.

Kate noticed how Godric had matched his stride with hers. Unusual, considering he was several inches taller than her. Looking down, she saw how close his hand was to brushing the back of the knuckles together. She wondered what would happen if their hands touched. That would be a simple experiment. Just to test her reactions. His reactions. Intentionally, Kate leaned in closer to Godric, just allowing the back of his hand to graze her.

His hand was cold, but where they touched felt like an electric shock to Kate, straight in her heart.

Fascinating.

"Tell me more about yourself," Godric suddenly demanded. "I seem to know all about your professional capabilities, and yet nothing about you personally."

Kate, a sheltered workaholic, didn't feel like she had much to discuss outside of her passion for her work. Other than reading, sailing and hanging out with her older sister (often against her will), she didn't have time or interest for much. Kate was perhaps boring in that regard.

"What would you like to know?" Kate replied.

"Are you…married? Or being courted?"

Being courted. It was an old turn of phrase that Kate liked immediately.

"Uh, no, I'm not. To either. Married to my work, courted by science, I suppose."

That charming smile graced Godric's face again. "I know the feeling," the vampire replied.

Then, as if no time had passed at all, they had arrived at Tara's. Kate couldn't remember the last time she had been here. Perhaps it was when Rebecca had taken her out for her twenty-first birthday, the first and only time that Kate had ever had alcohol in excess. She remembered she didn't like it all that much. The suffocating crowd of people, the pounding music deafening her ears and the dizzying array of lights brought back the sensory hell of memories Kate had of this place.

Despite the long line of people waiting outside, they were waved through by the bouncer. Kate wondered if it was because they had recognized her, the sister of Tara's most loyal customer, or if they had recognized Godric. This was a very popular hangout spot for vampires as well. But Kate wasn't particularly on the 'in' as to what was popular or not.

For a moment, she and Godric stood in the entryway, both seemingly trying to process the onslaught of input. The club was packed with people, the music was far too loud, and the room had even more disco balls than she remembered.

"You don't enjoy the club?" Godric asked her, standing close so she'd hear him over the music. Maybe clubs were designed this way, to force proximity. Knowing his body was at the verge of touching her gave her goosebumps all over as if he were a magnet pulling her closer still.

Kate shrugged the feeling off and peered up at him under her lashes. Would he think she was prude or lame if she admitted she hated it? Would she lose her chance to conduct this experiment with him? But she never got the chance to find out.

"Godric?!" A woman's voice exclaimed.

Kate turned to see a woman - no, a vampire- zip right over to them. Then, after another beat, she recognized her.

Willa Burrell.

Their families had the same social circle back in the day, and Kate had been a gawky awkward pre-teen the last time she had seen the then Governor's daughter. Willa hardly looked much different from how Kate remembered her. Still beautiful, still confident, and not a day older.

And now… Kate looked older than her.

She remembered Willa discussing political reform at the dinner table and how both of their fathers mocked her, but she managed to turn their own arguments upside down, making them swallow their tongues. Kate remembered it made her mother laugh, and she praised Willa's wit and vision. Their mom did not dole out such compliments for nothing.

At that age, Kate had hoped to be able to be a bit like Willa someday - poised, charming, eloquently outspoken, witty and undeniably beautiful. But now Kate felt extremely selfware, the reality tasting bitter in her mouth. Kate now knew better, she would never become any of those things. And even if she did, her sister would probably be better at it. In a world of Willas and Rebeccas, Kates went unseen.

"Little Katie Bellefleur!" Willa exclaimed. "Aww! You're all grown up!"

"Uh..um… Hi," Kate mumbled, feeling blood rush to her face. She felt like a child at the dinner table all over again.

"Do you know each other?" Godric asked.

"We go way back, Katie and I," Willa said charmingly and looped her arm with Godric's casually. She was not only touching his hand - that hand - but embracing his whole arm with full intimacy, as if she had done it a hundred times before.

Looking at the perfectly gorgeous Willa on Godric's arm, Kate realized what a foolish idea her experiment was. What an utter idiot she had been. Of course, Godric would rather have the eternally young, beautiful, charming Willa Burrell on his arm. He was an ancient vampire, there was absolutely no way that he would have ever been interested in a dowdy little nerd who rambled on obsessively about photons and UV rays and the manufacturing of glass.

What a fool she was.

"I need to find my sister," Kate told them, trying to find any reason to not have to stay with them any longer.

But she didn't have to look for long, Becca was already pushing through the crowd towards her. She was wearing a different outfit than before, a white party dress and tall heels that made her toned legs look 6 feet long. Her hair was beautifully dishevelled and her skin glistened with sweat, but not in an unflattering way. It generally didn't bother her how beautiful her sister was, but there were times she found it annoying. Seeing women like Willa and Becca together in the same room, blatantly reminding her how much she didn't belong there made it now one of those times. The emotional trauma of growing up with an attractive sibling was definitely under-researched.

"What the fuck did you do to my baby sister?!" Rebecca looked wild and ready to fight Godric, an impulse that was laughable at best and a downright death wish at worst. An impairment in judgment so abhorrent it could only have one conclusion: Rebecca was drunk.

"Becca, stop!" Kate had to physically grab her sister before she made contact with the confused vampire.

"What makes you think I did anything, Miss Bellefleur?" Godric asked, his brows creasing in concern.

"Becca, I'm fine-" Kate reassured this tall drunk giant who was holding onto her arms way too tight.

Her sister's eyes scanned Godric and Willa, then looked intensely back at her as if her life had been in danger and she barely made it out alive. Kate then spotted the giant blonde vampire from earlier, Eric, talking to James at the bar. So he was at Tara's. If Rebecca could hang out with vampires, why couldn't Kate?

Without another word, Rebecca dragged her away from the two beautiful vampires and towards the women's bathroom, skirting around the dance floor. Kate let herself be dragged along through the flocks of people, knowing it was pointless to try to argue with her sister when she got in this sort of mood.

"God fucking dammit, Kate!" Becca snarled as she kicked open the door. "Did you forget your fucking eyedrops?!"

Her sister lunged at her neck, shoving her hair off to the side, and examining it closely. "If I can't trust you to even do something as simple as put in the eye drops–"

"I put in the drops!" Kate cut her off. "I wasn't hypnotized!"

Not satisfied, her sister looked at her arms, front and back. It oddly reminded her of the time they went hiking in the Scottish Highlands as kids, and their mom would check their skin for ticks. Except Rebecca's touch was abrasive and brute and nothing like Mom's. It was a fact everyone reminded the girls often - how much Kate was like their mother. She always politely nodded but never told them it wasn't the compliment they thought it was.

Her sister, for better or worse, was much like their father. She was also lucky that way.

"Of course you think that! That's what they do! They bite you then fuck with your head!"

"He didn't do anything!"

Their shouting echoed through the tiled ladies' room, amplifying their voices. Rebecca then abruptly hiked Kate's skirt up, exposing her pale thighs.

"Get off of me! He didn't bite me!" Kate snapped, wrestling herself from her sister's acrylic claws.

"But he's fed!" Her voice shot the truth across the room, digging into her just as sharp as her touch. How did she know? "You met the guy and thought, 'Oh gee, I guess I'll let him take a bite of me'? That is not what Dad meant when he said to impress them!"

Kate exhaled through her nose. She had no idea how she found out he had eaten, but she had enough of this nonsensical argument. "Obviously not! I gave him bagged blood."

She conveniently left out that it was her own blood that she had bagged. Or the fact that it was cloned and that she would probably face prison time if the wrong people found out. But how could she? Her sister's wrath would literally take out half the building.

"Bagged blood? What the hell is that? Like a synthetic knockoff?"

"Yes," Kate answered quickly. She had been omitting a truth or two, but she had never outright lied to her sister. "It's Canadian, like their milk. We use it to recruit test subjects."

She scrunched her nose, her big brown eyes showing every emotion. "Do we have a licence for that?"

Kate exhalled begrudgingly. "No."

"Okay, so you gotta stop that. If Dick finds out-"

"Dick doesn't spend every waking moment trying to fuck you over, you know?" Kate snapped, surprised by her own words. She wasn't one to curse."He just wants to impress Dad, like all of us."

Her sister pondered for a second, absorbing the information. God, she would actually commit murder if she knew the truth.

"Impress dad…" Becca repeated sarcastically. "These fucking vampires!" She shouted suddenly, looking ready to punch something.

"I take it that the meeting didn't go so well that you brought Eric here to celebrate?" Kate asked in a small voice.

"Of course not! I would never bring a client here, especially not Eric Northman. This place is my church, you know that."

Kate didn't think that her sister would bring him here any more than she would actually step into an actual church, but Rebecca did a lot of things Kate didn't really understand. Like wearing uncomfortable stilettos, or sleeping with emotionally unavailable men when she deeply wanted to fall in love. Sighing, Kate realized that she wanted to go home and put this whole mess behind her.

"Let's go home and binge-watch a show and just forget about this whole thing?" Kate asked.

Her sister was still on edge as if this were life or death. "I can't. We can't. They want to buy us out, do you understand? They want Bonne Nuit, we can't let them win."

Win, like it was a game. Not an experiment.

A.N:

Hello hello!

Another juicy chapter in which the plot -thickens-

And if you THOUGHT one of my OFC would get with a sexy vampire 6 chapters in... You must be new here. I write slow burns only haha

Hope everyone enjoyed it, favourite/comment/follow and see you next time!