Created by blood

Chapter 10

 Earlier that night, back at Pembroke, an unamused Doctor Reid sits, eyes glued to the back of Razvan's mock patient file, quickly sketching down everything he saw on the smear slide. Mutated ekon bacterium specific to skals... Extreme thrombocytopenia... Explains the off-putting texture. He hums, lazily scratching at his chin, before moving back to the microscope.

Despite the leukocytosis, Mister Vasile has no lymphocytes to speak of... Which would explain the traces of baccilus influenza despite having recovered from it once before ... Reid mumbles as he leans back in the chair, fingers lacing tightly behind his head, eyes fixating on the ceiling, mentally recounting all Dorothea had told him about the patient.

"He survived the Spanish flu, only to return a week later, complaining of fever and dizziness. Took a turn for the worse at some point, convulsions followed" . Reid remembers the bloke smelled sick, but the scent was and wasn't flu at the same time; he did, however, moments before his death, start to stink of skal...

Jonathan lets out a deep sigh as he rubs his face, elbows finding the desk before his head hangs limply in his hands, skull feeling as if it is physically throbbing from the massive headache that has formed throughout the night. He had wished it would go away. Wished he could still drink liquor as he desperately needed a shot of whiskey, and, quite frankly, he wished his pet was there to relax and distract.

As a Doctor, he was used to the headaches that were usually brought on by a new challenge, as most of the time, they were manageable. But between that, the blood sample, and the constant nagging from his symbiotic fiend about their pet's absence... Well, the vampire was being driven up a wall from all sides.

Will you shut up? He growls as his beast once again mentions wanting to go find her. I am just as aggravated as you; you know that. But knowing her, I'm sure she hasn't disobeyed on purpose; she probably just... Got caught up at the dispensary. Jonathan persists, his body moving to stand in the balcony doorway, unsure and uncaring of when he lit a new cigarette.

The beast's nagging had started yesterday halfway through his rounds after he had checked on Mister Hampton. Who, much to his dismay had once again taken a turn for the worse, spending more time sleeping than awake.

Everything about him was alarming. His sluggish heart, the ashen skin, and the off-sickly scent rolling off his body... Jonathan had roused him as he wanted to take another sample, fearing Mister Hampton may be another Razvan. But, much to his dismay, the Saint had refused further testing.

Sure, as his Doctor and as a vampire, he could simply compel the man to do what he wanted, but Jonathan had yet to do that to a patient, and, quite honestly, it wasn't a line he was ready to cross.

Instead, he had to simply settle for speaking to the Saint, firing off the same round of questions as the bloke tried hard to assure the Doctor he would recover like last time, that all would be well... All he asked, or wanted to know, in return for being awoken, was where's "Petal." Where was the kind nurse who usually tended him?

Reid had sworn up and down that she was fine, that she would be over soon, and that all was well with the woman before taking his leave. Allowing the bloke to return to his sleep, feeling a small pang of regret knowing he had lied, but a white lie was kinder than the truth, was it not?

It was, after that, when Jonathan had to end his rounds early as the simple mention of his pet's name on another's lips roused the beast from its slumber.

Find Pet! Mušḫuššu claim! It snarled again as a puff of dense grey smoke filled the air.

Elle n'est pas notre enfant, notre propriété, ou quoi que ce soit d'autre que tu continues à l'appeler! Jonathan responds bitterly, tired of the same song and dance of the last few hours. Did he wish its words could be reality? Of course, he'd be lying if he said he didn't, but it was a mindless beast that knew nothing; hell, it barely knew how to speak, so what did it know?