Slowly, I became aware of a faint pulsing that illuminated my eyelids. I finally opened my eyes to the red strobe light from the tower at the top of Lambs Knoll. That light—that crimson light, that now reminded me of Izzy's blood stained clothes, and her eyes—eyes that now said she would do anything for my blood. The same eyes I'd seen in my father—eyes that Izzy said could not be changed. Were we over? Was there no hope? The drapes glowed red with another pulse of light.
"That's it!" I sat up and before I could get out of bed, the Faulkners, including Hayley, followed Benjamin into Izzy's room where I'd been sleeping. "I have an idea—I'm not sure you're going to like it, but if you'll hear me out, I think you will agree it's our best shot."
"Please continue." Benjamin said as they pressed closer.
"See that?" I said as the drapes turned crimson with another pulse of light. "That's the answer."
"I don't get it?" Hayley said. The others nodded.
I held out my arm. "The red blood that pulses though my veins is the answer and the problem."
They exchanged glances, still obviously confused.
"First, Izzy is crazed by my blood and it's doubtful she will be able to control her thirst if freed, but what if she didn't have to? Second, what happens if one of you takes the blood out of me—changes me? I'll tell you, I'll be as strong or stronger than the historian and with me as one of you, we can put an end to this and save Izzy."
They eased back to a more erect posture as if considering.
"You'd do that?" Hayley said.
"In a heart beat."
"Your last." Hayley restated the obvious.
"What about your mother?" Melanie said. "Have you forgotten about her?"
"What you all have forgotten," Benjamin said, "is our vow to Izzy to never change Jason."
"She made you do that? When?" I asked.
"Benjamin is correct." Elizabeth said, wrapping her arm around his waist. "Hayley, I know you weren't with us then, but very early on in her relationship with Jason she made us promise to never change him."
"But what other choice do we have?" I said. I won't leave her like that."
Hayley eased forward. "There is another choice—Jason's blood."
Once again the expressions showed confusion as I'm sure mine did.
"Do you have a medical kit—from the war or something?" Hayley said.
"I believe I do." Benjamin said.
"If we draw several bottles of Jason's blood, we can use them to distract our adversary—he won't be able to resist. If we make this happen when he's normal size, we should be able to defeat him."
"Thoughts?" Benjamin asked the group.
"What about Izzy?" I objected. "If you go launching blood bombs into the cave it could drive her mad."
Benjamin stoked the whiskers on his chin and glanced toward Tink and Nathan. "Perhaps we could sedate her."
"Sedate her?" I questioned. "Isn't that impossible?"
Tink looked to Benjamin for approval before he answered. "We have been to the laboratory you discovered and destroyed it, but not before removing a few items."
"Items? Like what?" I questioned.
"There were several vials of liquid one of which seems to be a sedative."
"To your kind." I doubted.
"Yes, we tested it." Benjamin said.
Melanie waived her hand slightly.
"You let them inject something that guy made into your body? How is that even possible, you're like granite."
Elizabeth frowned. "Only to your kind."
"I didn't know that." I turned to Benjamin. "So if you can inject Izzy with the sedative, maybe you can do the same thing to the historian."
"Perhaps, but I doubt we have a sufficient volume to have much affect on him."
"Still, anything would help, right?" I said.
"Yes." Benjamin agreed.
"How dangerous is this?" I asked.
No one answered.
"Not to me—I don't care about that—how dangerous is the plan to all of you?"
Still no answer.
"I can't let you risk yourselves like that, it's easier if we do this my way."
"Not an option—"
"It is more than just our word." Elizabeth said, cutting Benjamin off uncharacteristically. "You are not the only one who loves her."
"You're sure about this?"
They all nodded.
"Okay, lets do it." I started to roll up my sleeve and in the blink of an eye, Elizabeth left and then returned with a Civil War vintage medical bag. Unfortunately, the rubber was too dry rotted to be useful.
"We can't cut him." Elizabeth said.
"Not with me around," Hayley said, "that's for sure."
"Tell you what," I said, pulling my arm back from Elizabeth. "I can look up the procedure on the Internet and do this at home—no need to put you all through anymore stress than necessary."
"Can you get the supplies you need?" Elizabeth asked as she stood.
"I know they have some similar stuff like that in the trainer's office at school. They use it to add fluid if a player gets dehydrated, but I figure it's the same principal either in or out."
"Yes." Elizabeth said. "But you must be very careful not to get any air into your blood stream it would be fatal."
"That would be bad." I tried to make light of it. "How many bags?"
"Bags?"
"Yeah, they use plastic bags now." I pointed to the bottle in the medical kit. "They hold the same amount I think—a pint."
Elizabeth looked to Benjamin for an answer.
"Four or five I should think." Benjamin said.
"That much?" Elizabeth said. "Very well." She turned her attention back to me. "You cannot do this all at once. If you eat well and drink plenty of fluid you should be able to fill two bottles—bags per day, one in the morning and one at night. Mind you, this will make you very weak."
"Okay." I said. "Tomorrow is Monday so I should have what we need by Wednesday after school, assuming I can get the medical stuff out of the trainer's office."
"I can get it tonight if you tell me where to look." Tink said.
"Perfect. I'll draw you a picture." I looked around at all the concerned faces. "I'll be okay, I can do this. Tink, if you bring the stuff over to my house I'll draw the first bag tonight. That would move things up to Tuesday night. The sooner, the better."
Elizabeth patted my arm. "Be careful, be very careful if you were to slip into unconsciousness while doing this, you could quite literally bleed to death. And Jason, I'm afraid you will have to refrain from any strenuous physical exertion, and for a few days afterwards."
"I kind of figured that."
"I'm sorry, I know you have your football practices after school."
"Football, Izzy, a no brainer."
Elizabeth shrugged, puzzled.
"It means he would do anything for her." Hayley said.