Chapter 44

The night finally fell and day came. A long table had been placed in a conference room in the hotel of Eguisheim. My eyes take in the scene, Purebloods, Night Hunters, and A ranks, all looking over files. Boxes and boxes of files on all the names Nick and I had found in both the A ranks and the few in the Purebloods from what was left of the book of the Romane Wars.

Nick sat by me, his eyes scanning page after page of documented files, his pheremones and power lowered. It was a healthy dose to remind the few A rank who were loyal to him of his power.

The Night Hunters were like blank spaces in the room, I could sense no power or pheremones from them. This was something I had noticed and asked Nick about earlier. It turns out that they were trained to mask their status so as to hunt and to atest to the fact they worked together instead of seperately in the Hunter's code of honor. It was terrifying.

Night Hunter's were also trained to emite a strange aura of darkness. This is what I must have felt years ago when Furlow had explained them to me. It was also true thr only time I had truly felt their power was when Igor had interrogated me, but had disappeared just as quickly.

My knowledge of this world was so lacking, I felt like an outsider as I flipped the file open and saw the two bloody aces, besides them an analysis of the blood and markers for who's DNA they could be. This catches my eye and I read over it. Thirty fire years ago, soon after leading Ciaro, I had taken a stab at being a geneticist. What I saw here caught my eye the more I read it. Tapping Nick on the shoulder, he looks up, brow raising, as I ask, 'Nick was this taken to a geneticist?'

'I wouldn't know, Igor?'

Looking over, I see Igor is staring at me, black eyes seeming to envelope me, but it was his albino comrade that answers, 'No. We had a DNA test done on the one you found, but not the newest from here. As for a geneticist, no. We just try to match DNAs we have on record and nothing matched.'

Now I could feel every eye on me around this table, papers no longer shifting as I clear my throat and say softly, 'I am a geneticist, and from what I can see here, there is a RNA marker that is very rare, meaning if there are any family members, their's will have the same.'

'How does that help us?' Igor asks in his clipped no-nonsense voice, face as stone like as before.

'Well to the untrained eye nothing, but this marker tells me that this person isn't human, but even more than that, that it's a Pureblood.'

Now I felt the whole room practically asking the question that Igor's comrade, Ki asks with a frown, 'How do you know that?'

'Well, while training in classes about the human genome, I decided to test my own blood...'

Nick interrupts, 'But you aren't a Pureblood.'

'Yes, I know. But this genetic marker came up on my blood. In normal human blood it doesn't exist. But it turned out there was blood in the school like my own. It came up on a chart while in class and I saw this exact marker, same size, shape, and length.'

Nick asks with a deepening frown, 'You mean that you know who's blood is on that card?'

Igor was slowly leaning back, his eyes slightly widened, breathing a little more heavy as I answer with a sigh, 'No. Patient files were confidential and we were only using them at the time to see if we could tell who had blue eyes or green eyes.'

This seemed to cause a dark shadow to fall on this powerful group, but I quickly scramble, 'But I can call the college and ask for the files. They usually reuse the files over again in classes. If the same professor is there, I can bet he will use the same files.'

Pulling out my phone, Igor's sharp voice rings out, 'What can you tell us from the DNA of this vampire?'

Nick chimes in, smoky voice and power surging, 'What does it matter? We might get the answer we need in a matter of minutes.'

Igor stares at his brother, jaw lightly tightened and answers, 'Call me curious.'

I nod to him and look down at the DNA, 'You will be looking for a man, black or dark brown hair I'd say, but I can't tell because the strain is so distorted, Caucasian for sure, eyes... Well that one is hard to determine, but it is in the range of color, gray, blue, or green.'

Looking back up, Igor simply stared at me, his eyes calm, no longer soulless, a look I couldn't place was on his face. He stands up quickly, looks down at his comrade. Ki nods, looks at me and says, 'We have something we need to do. We will return shortly.'

My eyes turn to Nick, but he was staring down at me and asks slightly mystified, 'You can see all of that with just DNA?'

'Its more of an art than a science, but yes. My professor said to take any of this for a grain of salt.'

Nick nods and says with a smirk on his face, 'Then go ahead and call your old professor and see what you can find out.'

Stepping from the room myself, I start searching my old mamater, scrolling the university payes for the man I knew as a professor some forty years prior, but to no avail. I could imagine that he had long retired or died. So I looked under biochemistry majors and find the new professor on file.

Calling the college, I look down the hall leading to the midday sunlight streaming in, dangerous rays falling along the walls and floor far beyond me. They were deadly to the vampire in the hotel, but to me, they were nothing. The ringing continues for a moment until it is picked up, I step away from the glow of sun and deeper into the darkened hall saying, 'Hello, my name is Dr. Stella Collins, I was calling to speak with your professor of biochemistry.'

The woman on the other end understands and transfers me to his office. The phone rings another few times till a nasal voice of a man comes over the line, 'Hello Professor Fullerman speaking.'

'Hello Professor Fullerman, my name is Dr. Stella Collins, a retired geneticist from Biogen.'

'What can I do for you Dr. Collins?'

'I am a former student of Professor Harry Mitchell and I was calling about a specific genetic profile I remember seeing about thirty five years ago in my study cases on DNA, the case file if my memory serves is 12-B-674.'

'Yes, can I ask why you are after this genetic profile?'

'I have been doing research for a paper I hope to publish in a few years regarding mutation in the DNA stand and ehat this could mean for future biochemical manufacturing, that particilar one was of interest to me even back then. It came to mind a few months back and I thought I might be able to track it down from the University by speaking with you.'

There was a hum on the line, as Dr. Fullerman mulled it over and then fianlly says, 'I can look into it, but I have to warn you about twelve years ago there was a fire in the chemistry filing room and its unlikely Professor Mitchell would keep the same files on hand from that long ago.'

'I understand, but if you should find them, the file number again is 12-B-674, I would greatly appreciate it. However I will understand if it would be confidential.'

Professor Fullermen snorts and says with I could imagine a sardonic smile, 'Yeah it should. But law has changed regarding confidential files donated to sciences. So it won't be a problem. I'm particularly surprised that a retired geneticist would be working on a paper though.'

'Oh you know how it is, we never truly stop and this is more of a pass time for me.'

He sigh and chuckles before saying with a smile in his words, 'I completely understand. Give me a day and I'll let you know on that.'

'Thank you, goodbye.' Pressing the end button, I look down at my phone with a huff.

That's when I feel the presence behind me and turn my head. I jump when I see Igor's comrade Ki. He puts up his hand saying, 'Sorry I cleared my throat but I guess you didn't hear it.'

'No it's alright, can I help you?'

The albino man who stood a few inches taller than I shook his head and said, 'No not at all, I just wanted to let you know that Igor will not be able to stay. Business has called him away, but he has asked me to stay behind to assist you with whatever you might need.'

I nod, staring at this Night Hunter. He wore similar clothes to Igor, all black, button down suit, blach shirt, but no silk tie. He was by far more relaxed than Igoe, but still I felt nervous. He smiles, and his angled eyes disappear as he says, 'I know I'm not like most Night Hunters. E constantly berates me for being too nice.'

'E?'

Ki nods and says, his eyes turning towards the conference room door saying, 'Yeah, you know E as in Igor.'

This makes me blink in surprise as this seemingly childish vamoure turns to me and I ask, 'Are you new to the Night Hunter's?'

He snorts and shales his head as he says, 'Hardly, in fact I've been a Night Hunter longer than E.'

I frown, somewhat bewildered by this vampire. He was very open, and so unlike the other Night Hunter's I had met so far as I ask, 'Really? May I ask your age?'

'Oh I'm a little of three millennia,' He says, waving his hand in the air as if dismissing it and continues, 'But I'm not nearly as strong as E. He was given a position I'm glad not to have. He's a strict boss but a good one. So any news?'

It was strange how civil and almost human this Night Hunter was. It was as if I was in the office, shooting the breeze around the cooler with him. What was even more bewildering was the fact that he didn't seem to mind telling me about Nick's brother, as if it was no big deal. I frown for only a moment then nod saying, 'Yes, the professor for the biochemistry class I took at Oxford has retired but the new teniored professor will look onto it for me. Though I am worried.'

Ki frowns, his red eyes turning a darler shade of red asking, 'Why?'

'Well the professor let me know there had been a fire in the biochemistry lab file room twelve years ago.'

'Do you think the file was among those burned?' Ki asks, rubbing his forehead in thought.

'I won't know until he calls me back tomorrow. Until then, we need to keep looking.'

Ki nods, looking towards the darker interor as if in thought then says, looking back down at me, 'Well, back to the conference room then.'