Chapter Five: Revealing a Secret

Darius and Christopher were still shocked at what had happened with Daniel. They couldn't explain how he was still alive after the attack of the vampire's venom, and especially after they inoculated him with the antiserum that would have allowed that venom to act freely in his body. But their surprise at his situation was nothing compared to the impression they had caused seeing him transformed into something they had never seen before, although Amira seemed not to be so affected, since at no time did she leave his side.

In order to better understand what was happening to his nephew, Christopher took a sample of his blood and proceeded to run full tests on it. It took him at least an hour to finish, coming to the startling conclusion that Daniel's genes had been modified, or perhaps adapted to the effects that the serum, the vampire venom, and later the antiserum, were having on him.  He noticed that Daniel was no longer the same; he had mutated into something else that was neither fully wolf, nor fully vampire. It was something he had never seen, and he seemed to gradually overcome what was affecting him.

“Has he mutated? What do you mean?” Darius asked, when Christopher explained what was going on with his son.

“I still can't explain it well; I need to do some more tests. What’s certain is that Daniel is no longer the same, he has become something more, and I need to know what. I have to keep testing him. In the meantime you have to prepare yourself for what you're going to tell the police.

“Okay. The disappearance of the girl will cause them to come here asking questions.”

“Everything will point to Dan,” Christopher said ruefully. “You must have a reasonable explanation for all this.”

“Yes, I'll think of something. I'll be in my home studio. Please take care of Dan, as soon as you have anything more about his condition let me know immediately.”

“Sure.”

Darius left the room, leaving his brother's house and going to his own to take a shower, change and go to the study, from where he would call his secretary to let her know he would not be going to the office that day, since it was Monday morning, and he would invent a good story so the police would not suspect his son for the disappearance of his girlfriend, and more importantly: that they would not suspect his condition as a werewolf.

He knew the police still wouldn't come to his house that day, and he had at least twenty-four more hours before Brooke's family started looking for her and reported her missing.

He called Brandon to come quickly to his house and gave him the mission of cleaning and ordering the cabin very well to eliminate all traces of fighting. He would tell the police that on that Monday Daniel and Brooke left the cabin early in the morning and after they said goodbye, his family never heard from the girl again. He hoped that Daniel would recover in time to explain the solution he had thought of and hoped he would support him when he declared to the police. He didn't know how he would react to the fact that his girlfriend was kidnapped by vampires and she might be dead right now. He had to convince him not to report his situation or that of his family to the police. That they wouldn't find out they were werewolves.

For many years he had lost many members of his pack in the war against the vampires and had somehow managed to cover their lack before the humans, but his current situation was different, it was a human missing among his pack, and that generated a problem he hoped to know how to handle.

It was different with a non-wolf girl.

Late in the afternoon, and after having received the report from Brandon that he had cleaned and left the cabin tidy, he went to Christopher's house to check on Dan, surprised that he had not heard from him all day.

“I was about to call you,” Christopher told him when he received him at the entrance of his house. “Daniel has about ten minutes since he regained consciousness.”

“How is he?”

“Apparently he’s lucid and well. You’ll see.”

They went to the lab and Darius found his son still lying on the bed but talking to Amira. He looked good despite everything he had been through.

“The wound on his neck was healing normally as it usually does for us, but slowly,” Christopher told him as they entered. “Once I injected him with the antiserum the wound healed in a matter of seconds and while what we saw happened to him. He no longer has the wound.”

“Have you heard from Brooke?” Daniel asked Darius, real concern for his girlfriend showing on his face.

“I've already sent Brandon and Jerome to investigate,” Darius replied. “I also asked them to clean and tidy the cabin, for when the police intervene.”

“So you think we won't find her?” Daniel was going from worry to anguish.

“As I told you, you were attacked by a vampire,” Christopher intervened, “they don't leave the women they attack, they take them to their leader and kill the men when they don't want them to be part of them.”

“Then I'll go look for her.” Daniel made an attempt to get up from the bed and suddenly felt dizzy, lying down again.

“You can see that you're not in a position to get up yet,” Amira told him. “You must rest a little.”

“Brandon and Jerome will take care of it, Dan,” Darius told him. “In the meantime we must prepare for what we will tell the police if her family reports her missing. Okay?”

“We can't tell the police she was taken by a vampire,” Christopher added. “That could expose us all and generate panic in the population.”

“Obviously.” Amira commented. “Or maybe they call us crazy. You never know how people will react. The important thing is they don't discover there are vampires and werewolves living among them.”

“And what shall we tell them then?” Dan asked.

“We'll tell them that you guys got back from the cabin early, she went home and you went to yours,” Darius said.

“But she didn't go home,” Dan observed.

“Of course not, but we didn't know that until the police came,” Darius said. “You haven't spoken to her since this morning. Okay? You will say that you were surprised she hadn’t warned you when she arrived at her house, but you didn’t give it importance.”

Dan nodded, and immediately started feeling bad for her again, saying he should have done more to defend her. Christopher pointed out that he couldn't have done much anyway, being his first encounter with a mortal enemy as a vampire and without the proper training for it.

After several minutes of discussing the situation, Dan began to feel pains in his body again, asking his uncle to do something. His eyes turned red again and he jumped out of bed, screaming in pain and about to transform back into the unknown creature. Christopher went to one of the shelves in his lab and pulled out a vial, took a syringe and filled it with the liquid inside, then walked over to Dan.

“Calm down, Dan,” he told him, the boy pacing back and forth, desperate from the pain. “This is a tranquilizer; it will put you to sleep while I look for a solution to what is happening to you. Okay?”

Daniel nodded and Christopher injected him with the tranquilizer. A few seconds later he faded and with the help of Darius and Amira they put him back on the bed. Despite being asleep, Daniel stirred because of the discomfort he felt.

“You must help him,” Amira told Christopher. “It looks like he’s suffering.”

“I'm on it, Amira, but I'm afraid I'll need help.”

“Whatever you need,” Darius said. “Just ask for it.”

“It's a different kind of help, brother. One that you cannot provide.”

“What are you talking about?”

Christopher let out a sigh before answering his brother, resigned to what he was going to reveal to him and his wife.

“Since some years I have been secretly communicating with a guy named Dansk, who is a researcher and scientist just like me…”

“And do you think he can help you?” Amira asked.

“Wait a minute,” Darius interjected, “you haven't revealed who we are to that guy, have you?”

“Yes, he knows,” Christopher said, “but he will never say anything about it.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because he… he's a vampire.”

Darius couldn't believe what he was hearing. His brother is a friend of a vampire? Seeing his reaction, Christopher clarified that his friendship with him was solely for scientific interest and neither of them ever used the information they shared to affect each other or take advantage of each other.

“So, have we been vulnerable to them all this time? How much do they know about us?” Darius asked, a little concerned.

“They don't know anything, only Dansk. If he had told Zander about the gene control serum, for example, they would have attacked the children or adolescents of the pack because they would be very vulnerable. I also know some things about them, but I have never told you because he and I have an honor agreement, and we have respected it.”

Dairus had no choice but to accept his brother's position. The important thing at that time was to help his son.

“Do you think he can help us?” He asked, somewhat overwhelmed.

“I thought of him because Dan was bitten by a vampire,” Christopher answered with a shrug.

“Well, do what you have to do.”