Chapter 46

Soft, leading questions helped to form a more or less complete picture. The reason Michael had wanted to become a scientist from a young age was because, as a young boy, he desperately wanted to find a cure for the rare blood disease that had claimed his mother's life right before his eyes.

He spent almost his entire life on this, but still, he was far from solving the problem. For the last few years, he had been studying bats, and things were going well until, one day, by chance, a sample of Spider-Woman's blood came into his hands.

The sample was so unique and mind-blowing that Michael spent several days trying to study and understand what he was seeing.

"At some point, I simply fell asleep from exhaustion right at my desk and woke up to excruciating pain in my neck. The bats somehow escaped their cage and seemed to go wild. I don't remember how it happened, but I woke up looking like this. There were dead bats around, and the test tube with the Spider-Woman's blood had shattered."

"You attacked female students from Columbia University," Blade suddenly spoke up.

"Y-yes," Michael paled even more and swallowed hard. "At first, and even now, to be honest, I still have a lot of trouble controlling myself. My body has changed a lot, and now I can do things I never even imagined, but at the same time, it has developed some new needs. It seems that now, not only am I forced to feed on other people's blood, but I also feel a strong craving for it."

"Thirst," Erica muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"You're suffering from thirst, kid. Marius, give me control over the body."

During the procedure, I temporarily immobilized the girl. None of us can stay in one position for too long, and for me, that was crucial in the early stages. It's a pity I can't immobilize my opponents like this in battle. It takes time, and it's easier to rely on my own abilities.

"Done," I said.

Erica nodded gratefully and fished around in the inner pocket of her coat. After a few seconds, a syringe tube with some suspiciously luminescent substance appeared. I had seen her inject something like that before, but she always tried to do it out of my sight.

"This serum helps me relieve the thirst and partially satisfies the need for blood. I don't know if it'll work for you, but it's worth trying."

"Thanks," Morbius accepted the syringe carefully and tucked it into his coat pocket. "Sorry, I feel like we're somewhat alike, though much less so than with those girls, but still. Can you explain what this means? Did crazy bats bite you too?"

Blade stared at the guy for about ten seconds, then turned her gaze toward me. Damn, I feel like she won't stop until she gets an answer. Fine, since I've started talking, I might as well continue, heh.

"Her name is Blade, and she's a half-vampire. The girls you met on the street were full vampires."

"Vampires?" he asked, looking lost. "I mean… I understand what I look like now, but admitting it to myself isn't easy. Vampires were just a story to me. And now... you mean to say there are others like me?"

"There are plenty of them, actually. And most of them have succumbed to the thirst for blood, so Blade acts as an antidote to this plague. We thought you were one of them, but since you can more or less control yourself, I think Blade would like to help you. So don't do anything stupid, and she won't come after you in the middle of the day with a katana in hand."

"M-middle of the day?" he stammered.

"Vampires are night creatures," I shrugged.

"R-right," Morbius gulped.

Yeah, I thought he'd be a braver young man, but it turns out he's pretty easy to scare. Though, what am I saying? For a simple scientist, he's holding up pretty well.

"Alright," the quiet Storm finally spoke up. "But I still don't understand where these vampires came from. Is it some kind of genetic mutation?"

Shrugging, I turned my gaze toward Blade. She just mirrored my gesture.

"No idea," I admitted honestly. "Maybe the first vampire appeared as accidentally and spontaneously as Michael did, and all the others came from him. Maybe it's a virus, maybe magic, or maybe some deity. I can't say for sure."

For a while, everyone remained silent, contemplating what they had heard. That was enough for me to finish the "treatment." Now Jubilee was practically fully healed. What I couldn't fix, the half-vampire's regeneration would take care of.

And our gracious donor was also almost fully healed. Though it had cost her quite a bit of her internal resources. Erica looked slightly pale, and her eyes had taken on a red hue. As soon as I allowed her to get back on her feet, she immediately pulled out another syringe tube and, without trying to hide it, injected its contents directly into her neck. When she exhaled in relief, I too relaxed slightly and promptly woke Li from her deep artificial sleep.

"Hey, little one," I said as soon as she opened her eyes. "How do you feel?"

"Marius?" she blinked. "I… I think I'm fine?"

Li looked surprised, apparently still processing what had happened. She was amazed that everything was back to normal.

"Can you try to stand?"

The girl obediently got up and carefully stepped out of the van. Following my request, she walked back and forth, squatted a few times, and jumped in place.

"I feel better than ever!" she exclaimed in surprise. Then she frowned and asked, "What happened? I remember the explosion and pain, and then… everything disappeared."

"A chunk of the wall pinned you down. You were badly hurt, but I took advantage of Blade's kind offer of help," I nodded toward the huntress. "So now you can consider her your blood sister."

"You mean I lost a lot of blood?" the girl deduced.

"And so did she. We'll talk about this later, okay? Right now, we need to decide what to do next," I turned toward Storm and asked, "Shall we talk?"

Morbius and Blade understood the hint without words and moved away a bit. Michael tried to start a conversation but kept encountering cold silence from Erica, and her one-word responses probably hurt him even more.

Storm's face noticeably softened, but she quickly gathered her courage and addressed Li:

"I'm sorry, it's my fault you got hurt! If only I'd thought more about the consequences of my actions!"

"Miss Monroe?" Li looked confused.

Ororo lost some of her collected courage but began explaining why she thought it was her fault and not anyone else's. I didn't interfere; I was actually curious to see how my friend would react.

"I see," Li stretched the word out.

"Do you hate me now?" the blonde asked, gritting her teeth and looking down.

"Oh, no!" Li even seemed offended. "It all turned out fine, and that's the most important thing! I actually wanted to throw my sparks at that bitch, but I was afraid of hitting Marius. So I could've messed everything up too!"

Well, probably not. I doubt the gas could have spread that quickly from the kitchen into that hallway where we were fighting, but there was some truth to what the girl said. In this situation, we all had some blame, and no one could be singled out.

I'm glad I wasn't wrong about Jubilee's character. She's a pretty bright person, and I think she would have fit in perfectly in the disco era. It's a shame she was born too late.

"Young lady, kindly watch your language!" Now, Monroe's voice carried the familiar teacher-like tone.

"Alright, alright," Li flashed a radiant smile. "But you owe me a pack of gum!"

Storm muttered something about the harm of excessive sugar to teeth, but agreed to such a, let's say, symbolic payment for her actions.

"Alright," I clapped my hands when I saw Monroe was clearly eager to continue pouring self-blame and regretting everything. "Since you've worked things out, I'd like to officially notify the school administration, through you, Ororo, that for the next few days, Jubilee Li will miss her classes for medical reasons."

"Hooray!" the rebellious nature of the little girl exclaimed.

"What? But our school is equipped with the latest technology! The principal pays very close attention to the students' health!"

"I believe you, I truly do," I didn't argue. "But you probably haven't dealt with cases like this before, and I, on the other hand, can help no matter what."

"But…"

"No discussion," I said, and Monroe immediately backed off. Hmm, could it be that I can still pressure people with my Ki, even without actually having Ki? No, it must be the experience of the years lived. "But don't worry, since you want to ensure the safety of the student, I'm not opposed. If you're interested, you're welcome to visit."