Michael Griffo - Unafraid

Ciaran had been certain that within those cells, the cells that had only recently been transformed from human into water vampire, he would find the key to their unnatural makeup and quite possibly a kind of physiological roadmap that would lead him to The Well. That had not been the case, not yet. “I think I may have found something that could be interesting,” Ciaran confessed.

“Smashing!” David cried, tapping Ciaran’s hand with his fingers. “Tell me, what did you find?”

“I’ve isolated a gene in Michael’s blood that I’ve never found in Ronan’s. It isn’t human or one that’s found in traditional vampire blood,” Ciaran reported. “But I need to conduct further tests to find out exactly what it means.”

The news wasn’t entirely satisfying to David, but it was progress. And David had learned from years of manipulating the lower classes that progress deserved praise. “That’s amazing,” David declared. “Professor Chow was right, you really are brilliant when it comes to this scientific ... stuff.”

Ciaran felt the heat rise in his cheeks. Professor Chow and David were talking about him? Relaxing, he loosened his grip on his notebook, but kept his arm draped over the page. He was excited, but he still understood the need to keep his notes concealed from David’s prying eyes. However, he hadn’t yet learned to keep his thoughts from David’s prying mind. “So what’s this Atlantium?”

Shocked, Ciaran involuntarily glanced at his notebook. The word he had written down was being blocked by his arm, there was no way David could see it, unless he had some crazy X-ray vision.

Maybe he did; Ciaran had no idea the extent of their powers. The only other alternative was that David was reading his mind. If that was true, David must have also discovered that Ciaran didn’t think anyone other than a water vampire would ever be able to locate The Well.

“Oh that, it’s just the ... um, name I gave to the gene I found,” Ciaran explained.

Folding his arms in front of his massive chest, David nodded. “I like the sound of it.” He knew that was all the recognition Ciaran needed to make him offer a more detailed explanation. And he was right.

“It’s really an anomaly, not even natural as far as I can tell,” Ciaran said, fully aware that he was rambling, but fully unable to stop himself. “Like I said I’m doing some tests on it, but it’s not like I can create a gene on my own. I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

“Oh I wouldn’t say that at all,” David interrupted. “I wish I had a brain like yours. Genes, elements

... Atlantium, it’s all Greek to me.”

Laughing along with David, Ciaran just couldn’t keep quiet. “Plus I don’t really have the resources for an experiment that advanced and unless I can do that I don’t think I’ll be able to find The Well.”

The second the words tumbled out of his mouth, he knew they were not the words David wanted to hear. Perhaps he had said them deliberately. Ciaran knew after the incidents that had taken place during The Carnival for the Black Sun that David’s main desire was to locate The Well in order to destroy it, and if he succeeded, what would that mean for his family? Could Ciaran really help David in this endeavor that had the potential to destroy an entire race? For the longest time he had tried not to think about it, he had tried to convince himself that there could be other outcomes, but the more he thought about it the more he knew there could be only one devastating consequence. Regardless of how abandoned he sometimes felt, he couldn’t betray Ronan, his mother, and everyone else. Could he?

Staring into David’s powerful face, feeling the hypnotic pull of his eyes, he wasn’t sure. The only thing he was sure of was that being in David’s company felt right and he didn’t want to be tossed aside and ignored yet again. “There’s always Saoirse.”

“Your sister?” David asked. “What exactly do you mean?”

Like Pandora after she lifted the lid, Ciaran realized there was no turning back. “Saoirse is an untapped resource,” Ciaran began. “You know she’s the child of two water vamps and still human.”

“Yes, of course, doesn’t everyone?”

Swallowing hard, Ciaran continued. “Then you must also know that she possesses incredible strength and unrealized abilities.” Ciaran paused to keep his voice from shaking, but David nodded for him to carry on. “She might be human, but her blood isn’t, it’s scientifically impossible. Something must be preventing her from evolving into the creature she was born to be.”

Resting his chin on his clenched hands, David absorbed Ciaran’s information. “Yes, Chow was right, you’re a regular Einstein,” David commented. “Even if I could think like you can, I wouldn’t know what to do with all that knowledge.”

Luckily, Ciaran did.

“Let me compare Michael’s blood to Saoirse’s, let me conduct experiments on her as well,” Ciaran suggested. “She has got to be linked to The Well even if she isn’t aware of it.”

“Do you think she’ll go along with it?”

Ciaran didn’t blink. “If I can’t convince her, I’ll do it without her consent.”

“It looks like you have a lot of work to do.” Without another word, David rose and walked to the door, turning back to face Ciaran only when he reached the archway. “Thank you,” David said humbly.

“I only wish I could count on everyone the way I can count on you.”

Only after David was gone did Ciaran feel the sweat on his brow and his heart thump so wildly in his chest that he thought it might rip open his skin and burst through his shirt. He had no idea why he had offered his sister as a sacrifice, he had no idea why he was allowing his partnership with David to persist, but he knew it, ultimately, made him feel good. It was refreshing to have a purpose and be treated like an adult, like someone with worth and expertise. He didn’t know where any of this might lead, but he knew that now his only choice was to forge ahead.

Hiding behind an expansive oak tree a few hundred yards away, Ronan felt the same way. As he watched David leave St. Albert’s, one thought entered his mind: he had to confront his brother. Had Ciaran learned nothing from the recent events that plagued Double A? Why in the world would he be meeting secretly with David? What could they possibly have to talk about that wouldn’t end in disaster? The only thing that stopped him from racing into the lab and dealing with his brother’s duplicity head on was hearing Michael call his name.

“Ronan!” Michael cried out. “Where are you going?”

Stopping abruptly, Ronan turned around shocked to see Michael standing before him. His first instinct was to ask him why he was walking outside by himself, but he knew that would only serve to make Michael angry and was only a reaction to his just having seen David. Michael was capable of protecting himself; Ronan knew that. He also knew that Michael would understand what he had to do.

“I just saw David leave Ciaran’s lab,” Ronan explained. “I’ve got to make my brother understand he’d be insane to join his side.”

But Michael didn’t understand. “You’ll be wasting your time.”

“How can you say such a thing?” Ronan cried.

“Because it’s the truth,” Michael said, growing exasperated. “If Ciaran doesn’t get the severity of the situation by now, there’s nothing you can say or do that will change his mind.”

“So what are you saying?” Ronan shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. “That I should do nothing?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Ronan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Frustrated, he kicked a rock with such force that it flew about twenty feet above the highest tree before disappearing out of sight. His thoughts ricocheted in his mind: Doesn’t Michael know that David isn’t going to stop trying to find The Well simply because he failed the first time? Doesn’t Michael know that David’s trying to coerce Ciaran into helping him defeat our kind? Doesn’t Michael know that we could lose Ciaran forever?