Ordained by Devon Ashley Page B

bed. Her face was expressionless and her skin paler than normal, almost gray. A needle was placed inside her arm, blood flowing inward from a sterile, plastic pouch. Across the room Emily was sitting, staring in disbelief. Her body swayed back and forth, as if she lost her sense of balance. She pulled the cotton ball away from her arm. A tiny prick of blood surfaced.
    Noel emerged from the bathroom wiping his dampened hands with a towel, now stained light pink.
    Emily was tired; really tired – and dizzy. She lifted her head to face him and slowly formed the question, “Have you ever had to do this before?”
    “Yeah. Long time ago.”
    “So it works?”
    “To an extent.”
    Confused, Emily asked, “You guys are the same. Why can’t you just transfer your own blood into her?”
    “We need fresh cells. Our bodies no longer make them.”
    He squeezed the pouch of blood and forced it to flow through faster.
    “And O-negative? What type of blood does Abby have?”
    “We don’t know. Either of us. The whole blood group system thing didn’t get created until long after we had turned. We choose O-negative blood because it’s the only blood type lacking antigens. It doesn’t seem to cause any problems when it comes into contact with our tainted blood.”
    He picked up a jar with a home-made remedy in it, unwrapped Abby’s bandages and spread it across her wounds.
    “I thought your cells were immortal,” Emily said.
    “They are, but they don’t have the ability to make more. She has to be given fresh cells to make up for what she’s lost. What blood she has left will transfect your live cells and make them immortal too. When the process is complete, she’ll be back to normal.”
    The information seemed to go right over her head. It literally went in one ear and out the other without allowing her to process it. Emily tried to shake the dizziness away.
    “How long will that take?”
    “This much blood loss? A few days.”
    Noel replaced the cap on the jar and wiped his hands with the towel again.
    “Abby said you can’t bleed to death.” She said it mostly to herself. Abby looked pretty much on death’s doorstep.
    “She’s right. Should we lose all our blood, we would lay dormant, but not dead. I would imagine we would just be too weak to move.
    “God help us if we ever get that far. Once our bodies reach that point, it would be really hard physically to come back from. Months at least. Then there’s also the risk we’ll never gain back the same amount of strength we had to begin with.”
    The smell of the cream circulated around her and made her extremely nauseous. Her hand covered her scrunched-up face and moaned, “God! That’s awful! What is that?” A rising feeling of queasiness traveled from her stomach up through her throat. She gagged, but nothing but air was released.
    Noel tried not to laugh, but he was amused by her sensory overload. “The smell will go away when it dries. Our bodies can’t make fresh white blood cells either. The cream will fight infection.”
    She leaned forward and buried her head into her legs. Muffled, she asked, “How can you stand that smell? I’m way over here and I’m gonna be sick!”
    “You get used to it.”
    Emily slowly lifted her head back up. The burning in her stomach returned and she groaned. “I’ve gotta get outta here.”
    “Freeze!” Noel cried. He actually pointed at her. “I found some blood in their clinic but I had to take more from you than you realize. If you stand up now you’ll hit the floor.”
    Ignoring his command, Emily dropped heavily to the floor. “I’m fine,” she said stubbornly. Her yearning for fresh air far outweighed her vertigo. Oh, maybe not! Her legs jiggled like jelly and gave way. She smacked the floor hard, knees first, then palms and chest. She moaned in pain.
    “What the hell did I just tell you?” Noel berated as he picked her up off the floor and helped her toward the bed.
    “Head rush,” she said