Read American Blood: A Vampire's Story for Free Online Page B

received a dozen healthy rabbits this morning from a local farm,” Siri said. “We’re lucky Easter is only two weeks away. And our Director also arranged to have some dogs spared from being euthanized due to over-crowding at a local shelter.”
    “Yeah? He’s a real humanitarian. PETA will probably nominate him for an award.” Ryan didn’t hide his disgust. “It’s definitely a government operation . . . we’ll try a rabbit first.”
    Siri took another glance at the feeding station and walked out of the observation cell. She returned a minute later with a plump, fuzzy, brown and white rabbit that had a dark patch of fur surrounding its right eye. She went over to the pass through compartment, unbolted the door, placed the rabbit inside, and calmly closed the door and slid the large bolt in place.
    For a tense moment the two scientists watched for any reaction from the female. The rabbit just sat in its enclosure innocent of its new predicament.
    Ryan looked around for a clock—all the rooms had them, except this one.
    “Why don’t you go get some rest?” he asked Siri. “I’m going to finish up with the pump calibrations and run another control. I should be done in another hour.”
    Siri smiled and sat down next to Ryan, she began rubbing her scalp with her fingers. Her features were a pleasant mix of Asian and something else he couldn’t quite nail down. When she smiled she appeared Chinese he thought, but at other times when in a more serious mood her face appeared Scandinavian. Whatever her ethnicity, Ryan liked her.
    “Have you given any thoughts to her origins?” Siri asked.
    “Yeah, thought about it, but that’s all.”
    “Have you seen anything in the genome studies that suggests a cause?”
    “We need to see her mapping,” Ryan replied. “
Mycobacterium leprae
has some odd quirks about it as you know. It’s impossible to culture in the laboratory since it has a strange habit of dropping genes as it divides.”
    “But you still managed to map its genome.”
    “Only after trying for three years.” Ryan pulled up a chair. “The problem is it needs a living host to replicate. You’re the expert on the history of infectious diseases. Tell me how a leper with a cold can become that?” Ryan pointed toward the female. “And how do you know this leper was her? How do you know anything about her? Unless she kept a two thousand year old diary that you haven’t told me about.”
    Siri thoughtfully looked at the ceiling for a moment. “Her name is Calida Villena and she was born in 101 A.D. in the Valencia province of Spain along the Mediterranean coast.”
    “It all started in Spain?” Ryan asked as he sat down.
    Siri nodded. “She was the oldest daughter in her family. She had a Greek mother and an Iberian father. At the age of twenty-two she was banished and sent to an adult leper colony in central Valencia.”
    “So how did she come in contact with the disease?”
    “The Roman’s established a series of military posts in this region,” Siri replied. “And just like any invading army of the time they brought with them slaves and disease. How Calida became infected is unknown.”
    “I look at her and it just seems impossible that she had leprosy, or that she was born in 101 A.D.”
    “We know this is her because of the leper mark on the bottom of her right foot. This province had a strange practice where they would tattoo lepers with a unique mark that identified both the individual and the colony.”
    “It’s depressing,” Ryan said.
    “The practice was peculiar only to this province,” Siri said. “The mark was how the colony leaders made sure that each member received the donations of food and clothes from their family. Women were usually marked on the bottom of the right foot, men on the left.”
    “Why the bottom of the foot?”
    “The Romans thought the human form possessed a certain purity. Only criminals and the condemned were branded. The bottom of the foot was a kind