Sitting together, her in the luxuriant leather office chair behind her desk and me in one of the stylish guest chairs in front of the desk, Iris gave me another subtle smile. “As I mentioned, your captain has ‘released’ you to my use. As luck would have it, I have need of an investigator. You displayed a solid talent for detective work over the years.” Looking me dead in the eyes, she continued, “You also have a history of never giving up on a case, even when it is best for your own safety."

“That has gotten me into quite a few tough situations. Just call me a stupid cop who can’t seem to listen to orders,” I replied.

The left side of her smile lifted farther as the right dropped a bit. “I especially need that kind of diligent nature. I suspect there may be people in power who will not like your investigation.”

“I am flattered, but what you said before sounds like I am not considered very useful. Besides, I just got my ass handed to me by a 100 lb. girl in lace. What help could I be?”

Her intent look was all business now as her smile completely faded. “That ‘girl’ has been killing grown men brutally for the last twenty years. She may weigh very little, but she is a ruthless beast when the mood strikes.

“I intend for her to be your partner in this investigation. She will be responsible for your safety. She has already been advised of this fact.”

Just then, a loud knock on the office door made me jump a little in my seat. The knock was quickly followed by a voice that I heard only too recently, right before I was knocked out cold. “Iris! Why am I supposed to work with that waste of flesh?!?!? He is helpless and clumsy! That loser will be dead in hours working with me!”

“So nice to hear you have gotten my instructions. Do please come in, Sally. We were just talking about your investigation,” Iris responded. She must have pressed a hidden switch to open the office door. It swung silently open to reveal the young waif who had knocked me out cold. Her pale and delicate features were less charming when her blood red lips twisted into a sneer.

“Oh, good. He’s here! Look, useless old men like you should let some of us with the experience deal with things!”

“Constance! As always, your lack of subtlety comes to the forefront. This man has more investigative experience than anyone but me. You are to be the ‘muscle’ in this little team,” She scolded.

“If we could, maybe, talk about what needs to be investigated…” I interrupted as Sally fumed.

“Indeed. Sally, pull up a chair, and we can talk about it. Please, restrain your outbursts. Now, sit down and be quiet.” Iris’s steady gaze fell on the girl as she gritted her teeth.

“We have had rumors of an artifact that is being sought in our fine city,” she began. This object has an important legend tied to it. This item is the key. We don’t know what it looks like. The Lycans have been hiding it.”

“What are lycans? Also, can you explain this legend?” said.

“How can this idiot be useful if he hasn’t even learned about lycans?”

Iris’s knowing smile made me nervous with its tight lipped subtlety. She seemed to press another hidden button on the desk and said, “Rachel, are you ready to explain things to our little team?”

Stepping through the door we had not heard open, Rachel cleared her throat, “Ahem! Nice to see you again James!” She moved a chair over to sit with us in front of the desk, placing it between Sally and me. “You asked about lycans. They are similar in some ways to the vampires.” She produced a high resolution tablet and tapped a few things. “Here are some images of the blood of each of them, with normal human blood for comparison.” We could see what looked like small hexagonal particles in two of the samples. The third sample, labeled as ‘Human’ had no such hexagonal particles. When Rachel tapped a button on the screen, the samples were shown in full motion video. The hexagonal particles would touch the red and white blood cells every once in a while. Each time a blood cell was touched, it connected, and there was a mild color shift. “Now, watch as a mild silver solution is introduced to the samples.” On screen, the sample was labeled with a capital ‘V’. As soon as a dark liquid was introduced to the sample, the odd particles were drawn to it. As soon as the particles reached the liquid, they began to vibrate at high speed and then small sparks went from them into the blood cells. The cells began to blacken and break into small, jagged pieces. Soon, I could tell that all of the cells were dead. The same procedure was repeated on the sample labeled with a capitol ‘L’. The particles were, once again, drawn to the liquid, but the change was different. The particles migrated away from the cells, but there were no other effects. The final sample, marked ‘Human’ had the liquid introduced, it slowly began mixing slowly into the sample. The cells did nothing unusual.

“The part that is interesting is that the particles are physically the same in the vampire and lycan samples. It looks, to me, like the difference is a ‘software’ issue. The particles harvest elements from anything they encounter. When the vampire blood encounters human blood, the particles break it down somehow and feed the resources to the blood cells. When there is physical damage, the particles stimulate a flood of stem cells designed to repair the damage. They maintain a constant flow of stem cells as well. When it encounters silver, it seems to cause a short circuit in the particle that causes the cells to self destruct. If UV light touches the particles, they try to use it to infuse the cells with energy, and it is like a low voltage circuit hit with high voltage electricity. It burns out everything so fast that a subject exposed to it will burn up too quickly for any hope to save them. Vampires age at approximately one year for every ten they live.

“In the lycan sample, human blood does almost the resources are absorbed. When silver is introduced to the lycan blood, the particles stop interacting with the cells. When silver is not present, the particles move resources to the cells of the body and stimulate the cells into repair activity. They also seem to stimulate increased stem cells to be created for the specific areas of damage in the body. Their constant level of stem cells is a little lower than the vampires. The lycans have an effect on their hexagonal particles. The particles, when hit with a wave of adrenaline, produce an energy envelope around the entire person. This field repels almost anything that tries to reach the person. The one thing that can pass through? Silver. Lycans also age at a different rate, but that rate is dependent on how often they use their energy field. The field is controlled by their emotions and mind. If they use the energy field too much, they age much faster than those who restrain themselves.”

My mind was racing as I contemplated what all of this meant. “What happens when the different blood types are exposed to each other?” I asked.

“If the human blood is exposed to either of these other two, it is overtaken and absorbed. If the vampire and lycan blood encounter each other, you have mutual assured destruction,” as Rachel said this last bit, I saw the two samples in question mix. The particles started discharging sparks into the cells of the other sample. The sparks blackened and broke the cells apart. The view was suddenly jolted, and the video froze on a view of static.

Placing the tablet face down on Iris’s desk, Rachel turned to me first. “I hope you enjoyed the demonstration. That last part destroyed a very nice microscope and an expensive camera. Still, I think it demonstrated an important point. The blood of the two types of people are mutually exclusive. They can’t exist in any organism without destroying it energetically.”

“Energetically?” I asked.

Rachel made a bursting gesture with her hands and said one word, “Boom!”

Iris looked calmly at Sally and me. “What, you ask, has this got to do with the investigation? Everything. There are legends about The Key. Legend says that vampires and lycans were once very different. Lycans used to be able to use their energy field at will without fear of shortening their life expectancy. Vampires used to be able to tolerate sunlight and the touch of things like silver. If we take this at face value, it sounds like the ‘software’ in the hexagonal particles became damaged somehow. Some legends say that a third group was responsible for changing us. We have few contacts with that, much smaller group. The story tells us that the group known as ‘Mystics’ wanted to expand their power and used The Key to do it.

“I know this is very vague. The Lycans are the only ones we could trust to protect The Key. If we touch it, we die in a flash of flame and ash. I need you to get it and use it to undo some of the damage.”

My mind was racing with questions. “Why do you suddenly need this ‘Key’ now?”

Rachel took over then,“The legend also tells a story of The Key healing vampires who have been drained to the point of no return. The effect of the draining creates a creature that you might describe as a ‘Zombie’. They are desiccated and mindless wretches. Such creatures will eat any living thing they meet. The reason for us needing to address it now is that there has been an explosion of drained vampires in our area. For them to be drained, the vampire has to either be fed on or starved for a long time.”

“How long do they have to be starved?” I asked.

“If they have been exerting themselves, a vampire of at least 500 years can go one to two months without feeding. Without exerting themselves, a year or two is a safe time frame for not feeding. If said vampire is hibernating, they can safely abstain for twenty or thirty years. Younger vampires would have less of a safety margin. A newly turned vampire often needs to feed at least every few days.”

I considered for a few moments. “Where do we start?”