Blood Legacy: The House of Alexander (7 page)

Susan smiled to herself. She knew enough of Ryan to know that although her Kind shared superficial similarities with the fantasy creatures, their reality was far more fantastic. They did not Share blood with humans, other than to reproduce as needed. Their desire was to Share with one another. And they possessed none of the weaknesses of the vampire creature while possessing strengths that Dracula could only dream about.

Susan knew all of these things—she just liked to tease Ryan, which Ryan realized. “Please continue,” she said dryly.

“If the second theory is correct, that aging is due to cumulative damage to DNA, then your immune system, which is like nothing I’ve ever seen, may be healing that damage constantly. Therefore you do not age.”

Susan was thoughtful. “There are a few other findings that may be appropriate as well. Certain studies have shown that extreme reduced caloric intake increases longevity. Your Kind exist on little more than the exchange of blood and an occasional glass of wine. I’ve never known you to consume anything else. I’m not even certain how you generate energy, which I will get to another time.”

Susan paused to take a drink of water, then continued. “The other, peripheral finding has to do with cell division. Cells are thought to have a limited reproduction cycle, perhaps as a safety mechanism against uncontrolled cell growth such as cancer. Each time normal cells divide, the DNA at the end of them, telomeres, gets shorter. When it runs out, the cells die.”

Victor considered her words. “And ours?”

Susan shook her head. “I haven’t really had the opportunity to test your cell replication,” she said apologetically. Susan glanced through her paperwork. “Again, this is all speculative, because your anatomy is so different from a human’s.” She glanced up at Ryan, then over at Victor. “And things are further complicated by the fact that both of your anatomies are significantly different from the others of your Kind that I have examined.”

This piqued Victor’s curiosity. “Really? In what ways?”

“Well,” Susan stopped, almost at a lost for words. “I’m not even sure where to start.”

Ryan and Victor were both curious now.

“I have had the opportunity to compare samples that the two of you have graciously provided with samples obtained from Others of your Kind.”

Susan paused, thoughtful. “Not all of which were given voluntarily.” She resumed, ignoring the ethical implications. “I randomized my collection process so that I could get samples from all age groups, ensuring that I was not identifying something that was age-related as opposed to specific to you.”

Susan shuffled some papers. “One of the most fascinating things about the two of you is your genetic makeup. Obviously I have not had time to map your entire sequence. That would take years, even with the advanced computing power I have access to. But I have had time to map the areas of most frequent variation, at least in human beings.” She then stopped, at a loss. “To really make you understand how different you two really are, I need to explain what I’m comparing you to.”

Susan illuminated another chart. “In a normal human body there are about 50 trillion cells. Every one of those cells has 46 chromosomes, 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. These chromosomes are made up of DNA molecules, which are made up of genes, which are made up of nucleotides.”

Ryan turned her head sideways, looking at the illustrations of the chromosomal maps. “I don’t think these visual aids are very helpful.”

Susan ignored her. “DNA is made of just four nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.”

“Hmmm, hence the ‘A’, ‘C’, ‘G’, and ‘T’ on your chart,” Ryan said.

“Um, yes,” Susan said. Lecturing Ryan was worse than teaching a roomful of graduate students.

“These nucleotides arrange themselves in very particular orders. ‘A’ pairs with ‘T’, and ‘C’ pairs with ‘G’. There are about six billion of these pairs that make up about 30,000 genes, which vary in length from a few thousand pairs to two million pairs.” Susan paused, “Although with the recent mapping of the human genome, it appears there may be far fewer genes than thought, closer to 20,000.”

Susan changed the chart again. “Anyway, genes make proteins, albeit indirectly through a transcription process with messenger RNA. And proteins do all of the heavy lifting in the body. They make organs, handle digestion, circulation, respiration, immune function, etc. Roughly 50% of the dry weight of a cell is made up of these proteins, which number about 100,000 in the human body.”

“Okay,” Ryan said slowly. “Thank you for the primer. This isn’t going to be on the exam, is it?”

Susan rolled her eyes in exasperation. “There isn’t going to be an exam.” She quickly changed the overhead illustration. “This is a quick mapping of your chromosomal structure.”

Both Ryan and Victor perused the diagram silently. “There appear to be a few too many,” Victor said finally.

“Exactly,” Susan said. “The Others that I tested all have 46 chromosomes, just like humans. You and Ryan have 92.”

“And I’m guessing this is a bad thing?” Ryan asked slowly.

“Well,” Susan said, her exasperation boiling over, “It’s perfectly fine if you’re a whitefish or a potato hybrid. But nothing remotely human has that many chromosomes. This type of chromosomal variation, polyploidy, usually occurs only in plants. It is extremely rare in animals, occurring only in certain reptiles and amphibians. It is lethal in mammals, and there is only one known case, which occurred in a rat in Argentina.”

Susan glanced at her own diagram, baffled. “In most cases, the addition of a single extra chromosome in humans results in significant birth defects if not stillbirth or neonatal death. I don’t know even know what to think of an entire extra set.”

“Well,” Ryan began, “As I don’t believe that I am a whitefish or a potato, nor a Red Vizcacha rat, I’m guessing there’s some other explanation.”

Susan glanced over at her sharply. “I didn’t say what type of rat it was.”

Ryan smiled an enigmatic smile. “Lucky guess.”

Susan stared at her suspiciously. That information had been in her notes, but there was no way that Ryan could have absorbed it by casually thumbing through the papers.

But then again, Susan thought, nothing about Ryan surprised her anymore.

Susan’s manner became brisk once more. “That’s not even the strangest part about it.”

“There’s more?” Victor asked mildly.

“I’m not certain about you,” Susan said, nodding at Victor, “But Ryan shows significant paternal uniparental disomy.”

Ryan looked at Victor. “Okay, I impressed her with the rat. It’s your turn.”

Victor smiled and waited for Susan to continue.

“Uniparental disomy occurs when an individual inherits two copies of a chromosome pair from one parent and none from the other parent. Either Ryan’s mother was genetically identical to you,” she turned to look at the diagram, “Or most of Ryan’s genes come from you. Again, when this condition occurs in normal humans, it causes significant physical problems, skeletal, lung, thyroid defects, dwarfism, and of course, death.”

Susan shuffled through some paperwork, talking to herself. “But of course, once again, when it comes to you two, it does nothing of the kind.” She held up another chart. “Ah, here it is.” She put the transparency on the projector so Ryan and Victor could see it. It was another picture of nucleotides, similar to the “A-T, C-G” pairs previously shown. But this one had an occasional “I” sprinkled in amongst the pairs.

“What does the ‘I’ stand for?” Ryan asked.

Susan gazed up at the drawing, shaking her head. “It stands for ‘I have no idea’,” she said slowly. She was silent for a long moment, then shook her head again. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

She turned back to the Ryan and Victor. “If it is a nucleotide, it has a biochemical structure that is completely unknown to me. I can’t even break it down into its constituent parts. It appears to bind with any of the four existing nucleotides, as well as with uracil on RNA. Because I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what the resulting proteins are that it is creating, or even if they can be considered proteins. I do know this,” she said with emphasis, “That the introduction of a single additional nucleotide increases your genetic options on an unimaginable scale.”

Susan shrugged, her excitement and frustration both evident. “We don’t even know what most of our own DNA does. I can’t imagine what yours is doing.”

Susan put away her charts and graphs, much to Ryan’s relief. Susan’s next words did not put her at ease, however.

“I destroyed most of Ryan’s medical records, so I will have to do new tests.”

“Oh, how awful for you,” Ryan said dryly. “I know what an inconvenience that must be.”

Susan did not even appear embarrassed. Yes, she was being offered the holy grail of research, but Ryan had asked her this time. “If you would like me to do a less than thorough job...”.

“Of course not,” Ryan said, sighing, “By all means, feel free to poke and prod my father all you wish.”

Victor turned a baleful eye to his offspring. “Yes, of course, right after she does you.”

Susan interjected before she lost control of the conversation. “I have a feeling neither one of you is very good in the role of patient.”

“Neither one of us has ever been a patient,” Victor replied.

“Well, then let us consider this more of a research role.”

“Ah yes,” Ryan said, “From patient to lab rat.”

“Red Vizcacha lab rat,” Victor clarified.

Susan was exasperated. “I thought one of you was bad. Two is quite impossible.”

Ryan addressed Victor. “She is rather feisty for a human.”

Susan was out of patience. “Get on the table.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow, but complied, and Susan moved to Victor. She started to put her stethoscope to his chest once more, then stopped, uncertainly. She took a deep breath, started toward him, then stopped again. She stepped back, knocking a metal tray full of instruments onto the floor.

Ryan looked at her curiously. Susan was obviously irritated with herself, as well as a bit ruffled. “Is something wrong?” Ryan asked.

“No, nothing,” Susan said brusquely.

Susan glanced up at Victor, who merely smiled knowingly. Both Ryan and Victor heard Susan’s heartbeat increase, as did Edward, who cleared his throat. Ryan turned to her manservant.

“Am I missing something?”

Edward made an uncomfortable noise, although he was obviously amused. “Ah,” he stopped, then continued. “Many humans, especially female humans, find your father very attractive.”

Susan was mortified but did not deny the accuracy of his assessment. Ryan turned to Victor, gazing at him in a sidelong manner, as if trying to process this fact. “Hmmm,” she said doubtfully, “I guess so.”

It was Victor’s turn to look sidelong at his mischievous offspring. “Ryan, stop torturing Dr. Ryerson and allow her to finish her examination.”

Ryan shifted on the table. “I could say the same to you,” she said under her breath. She glanced at Susan. “Perhaps you should start with me.”

Susan took one step toward Ryan, then stopped. Ryan’s magnetism was as distracting as that of her devilishly handsome father.

Susan sighed. “I don’t think that’s going to help,” she said.

Many hours later, Ryan revisited Susan in the laboratory. Susan glanced up from her desk, the dim glow of a lamp highlighting her auburn hair.

Ryan raised her hands in mock surrender. “I promise I will behave.” She settled into a chair near Susan, her demeanor far more restrained than earlier.

Susan smiled. Ryan was both incorrigible and irresistible. It was difficult for the scientist in Susan to deal with the sensual world in which these people lived. And she was afraid to let the woman in her anywhere near it. She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

“I don’t think you’re going to unravel the complexities of my Kind in a single evening,” Ryan said quietly, noting her fatigue.

“Oh, I know,” Susan said. “There are just a few things I wanted to wrap up.”

Ryan’s tone grew serious. “I appreciate your willingness to help my father.”

Susan turned to her. “It would never occur to me to do otherwise.”

Ryan settled into silence, a contemplative look on her face.

Susan wasn’t completely certain how to ask the question she needed to ask. “Is Victor the oldest of your Kind?”