Chapter 9: Chapter Eight

Stay inside, Police Chief Lopez advises. He believes that the Pier killer is preying on women who are prone to leave work late or who work alone.

Stay inside, until the security from your building is able to escort you out—only if you are working late. —The Seattle Tribune

Nikolai

Incredible… how habitual my activities had become. I felt nothing. Even when the blood dripped down her arm, I could only glance at the red pigment and wonder what type it was.

Would it be O Negative?

AB positive?

Would taking that blood bring me any closer to a cure? Or would darkness finally consume me—making it so that my habit, my life choices, ended up killing me like they killed so many that I studied?

Her face was void of emotion.

I imagined she had a few more weeks tops.

And then she would be dead like the rest of them. I had known something was wrong with me long before medical school… long before working on the cadavers or losing my first patient in the OR.

I wiped my hands on the towel and injected flumazenil back into her system. Natalia’s fingers twitched and then she came to.

“All done?”

“Yes.” I offered a smile. “The sores should disappear within a few hours, do try to be careful out there tonight.”

“Always am.” Her lower lip trembled just enough for me to notice. “Hey um doc?”

“Yes Natalia?”

“How long?”

“Well…” I leaned forward. “That's entirely up to you. You've known that since you started coming to the clinic.”

Her eyes wavered as she chewed on her lower lip. “I still haven't decided yet, what I want to do.”

“When the time comes, I'll ask you again, only you can make that choice, Natalia.”

With a quick nod, she hopped off the table and made her way to the door. “The new girl…” Her hand hovered above the doorknob. “She's pretty.”

I sighed. “All the nurses I hire are pretty.”

“Right, but she isn't a nurse, she isn't one of us.”

I was quiet for a minute. Leave it to Natalia to figure out that Maya was different. She was beautiful like the rest, just more… pure and innocent in ways Natalia would never understand.

“No.” I didn't owe her any more of an answer or explanation.

“I hope she stays that way.” Natalia's voice was hardly a whisper. “I really do.”

“Me too.” I hoped it more than I could possibly describe. It was why I put certain terms in my contract. Why she was off limits. Why I was off limits to her.

I was trying to decide her life for her, form an ironclad path for her to walk through so she made it through alive.

So, she made it to her next birthday without becoming exactly what her father would want for her.

Because regardless of Maya not remembering.

She was still a liability, one he kept around for leverage on my behalf.

“Have a good evening, Natalia.”

She left.

And the room instantly felt cold.

I wondered how long I could keep it up—before the darkness of my reality consumed me. After all, I wasn't really living for anything except trying to leave a better mark on the world. A legacy.

That’s what I wanted.

And after knowing what ran through my veins?

It was about damn time someone in our family tried for something different.

Blood had always stained our hands.

I’d still die with it on mine—but hopefully it wouldn’t be in vain.