The upper floor was way different from the floor where the blood donation center was settled. There was no sign on the door as on the previous floor, so it was hard to understand what was going on there. When Markus opened the door for me, I noticed a lot of people in white medical gowns with some glass flasks and bulbs with red liquid inside. Markus looked at me and then, as if remembering what happened on the previous floor when I smelled human blood, closed the door.
"Here they are filtrating all that blood that people donate, and putting them in plastic bags, marking and sending to the third floor, where the bloody dank is settled. Want to see how they're doing that?" he asked me, still holding a hand on the handle. I shook my head negatively, and Markus removed his hand from the handle.
"That's not because of my reaction to the smell of human blood. I'm just bad at medicine," I shrugged and took his hand. Markus stepped closer and kissed my forehead.
"Neither does me. I just learned some processes to be sure they are doing everything as planned and as needed to keep the blood in those plastic bags." He pressed me to himself and led me to the upper floor where the blood bank was, as he said before.
I always wondered how the blood bank should look itself and if it will be looking like a human bank where they keep their money or is it something completely different.
"Also, there's a blood bank on each third floor of this building. There are four blood bank floors in this building, and each bank has its own type of blood that is kept only in that bank and only on that floor." Markus said while we were going upstairs. He was squeezing my hand and pressing me to himself as if to be I won't faint or run away.
I like his attention.
"So each floor after the blood bank is a blood donation center for each type of blood?" I asked trying to figure out the system but saw him shaking his head negatively.
"There's only one donation center, on the first floor. They are identifying the first type of blood and keep it there until the second floor won't take it for packing. All other blood types are going to the fourth floor," he explained, and opened for me a door leading to the blood bank itself. However, it was actually leading to a not very big room with a lot of scanners, machines, and guards. They looked over us, but haven't moved even for an inch to let us in.
Suddenly, Markus let go of my hand and straightened his arm in the direction of one of the guards. He took some kind of scanner into his hands, and then pressed the scanner to Markus's ring, and in a second we saw his ring with onyx stone on the screen. The ring was twisting here and there on the screen on the wall, as if some kind of program was checking if it was the original one or not.
{I wonder, does it have somewhere saved original Markus's ring, so it can compare and say it's Markus's ring or not? Moreover, how can it identify if Markus is really one or not? The ring can be easily copied or stolen?}
The pining sound of the screen made me jump in my place. The program showed that the ring is real, so the guards let Markus in. I arched an eyebrow when they looked at me, as if waiting for me to give them something that can identify me.
"The necklace," one of the guards said as I saw the door right behind him closed after Markus stepped inside. I stepped closer, remembering Markus hasn't taken the ring out of his finger, so I didn't take the necklace too. The guard showed me to get closer to him, then scanned the pendant of the Malone Clan with the scanner, then scanned the back of it while I was looking at Markus's ring. I couldn't get rid of the thought that it should be something special in that ring and necklace if they are checking only them.
And then… I saw it.
It was some small words put on the dragons on both sides of the ring I noticed before. It was too hard to read the words, but when in a second my pendant appeared on the screen I understood I caught the key to the mystery. The same-looking small words were on the bat wings.
"Welcome to the bloody bank, Miss Malone."
I got through the door and immediately took Markus's hand. He smiled, looking at me.
"What do those words mean?" I asked, giving him a hint I understood everything. He grinned.
He got closer to me, tucked my maroon curl behind my ear, and whispered so silently that no one could hear us even if we were alone here.
"Natura non constristatur," he whispered then kissed the top of my ear, then translated the words from Latin, "Nature does not grieve."
He bit my earlobe then straightened up and smiled, enjoying my reaction. It brought me to Heaven immediately, and I even moaned, but silently to not let anyone expose us. Again, there was no one on the floor except us, but we better keep ourselves in control.
"What's so unique in those words?" I asked, taking his elbow and stepping closer to him again.
"They were made by a unique master on all Malone Clan jewelry, and can't be copied. The technic is so unique no one can repeat it, and the scanners are made to identify that technic. It can prove the identity better than anything else," Markus turned around and led me across a white corridor with a marble floor and golden fretwork on the walls to the only door in the end. Before opening it, he stopped, then looked back at me, and grabbed some white medical gowns, gloves, and even masks from the small closet. He helped me to get dressed, then I helped him, and he opened the door.
"Everything should be kept here clean and safe to not affect the blood condition," he said as we came to the big class, behind which I could see dozens of plastic bags on the shelves. The window was slightly frozen, so I understood why we haven't come inside.
"It's a fridge?" I asked Markus, still looking at the plastic bags with blood. There were so many of them that I wondered how many humans a day donate their blood.
"Yeah, however, the temperature is not too low for blood to stay fresh and retain its taste and still be useful to vampires as a main source of food." He said, then put a hand on my waist and smiled, "We also produce synthetic blood for lower classes of vampires, and it's a good one for vegetarian vampires too."
"For which vampires?" I asked arching my eyebrow.
"Vegetarians," he smiled, "For those vampires, who refused to drink human blood we produce synthetic one. It has the same abilities as the human blood, just a little less, so you need to drink it more often than the human one. It also gives less power."
"I won't even ask how you make it, as I'm a noob in medicine, as I said before. I'll just ask how much does the synthetic blood cost?" I looked at Markus, seeing his concerned look.
"It's cheaper than the human blood," he said, then looked at his watch, "Time to go see other floors."
"One more question. Why did you start to produce synthetic blood?"
As we went out of the room where the blood was kept, we threw our medical clothes and went back to the same guarded room, where guards quickly checked us and let us free. Markus answered my question when we happened on the stairs.
"I've seen a lot on the centuries of living to understand vampires need some other sources of food to live among humans. There were times when no one could guarantee that some newly-turned vampire won't attack a human seeking food, and then a whole Clan wouldn't be chased by hunters. I decided to look for some alternatives and found some qualified doctors who were happy to help me. You won't believe that some of them were humans," he pointed at the door leading to the fourth floor.
"Wait, humans?" I arched an eyebrow.
"Indeed. They were eager to create something to stop clanless vampires from attacking humans. It's better to feed your enemy if you can't get rid of him," he put a hand on the handle when the door opened from another side.
"Mr. Malone, we're happy to greet you back! Do you want to check out everything?" a young-looking man in his late thirties jumped out of the door and smiled at Markus, then bowed, and then his eyes met me. His reaction was way different from what I expected, "Ah, a dhampir! That's what we always wanted to work at!"
"Hold on, Harry. I'm not here for an expectation and Aurora isn't a lab bunny," Markus pulled me to himself so hard that my forehead bumped into his chest, "I'm here to help my fiancée understand the vampire world better."
"Fiancée? Oh, I didn't mean what you thought! Lady Aurora is just such a unique creature," a young man said, then bowed at me, "Harry Russel, the head of the blood mixing department."
"What are you doing here?" Markus suddenly asked, pressing me to himself protectively.
"Was going to ask for some more B+ blood for mixing!" he reported, and immediately added as if predicting the next question, "Promised to deliver in an hour!"
"We'll come to yours in some time," Markus said, then saw how Harry ran to the upper floor and led me to enter the fourth one finally. "Here all the types of blood except A+ and A- are kept. They are cleaning it, filtrating, and either sending to the other three banks for each type of blood or giving to the needs in other departments."
"Harry said he's from the mixing department. They mix blood?" I asked with interest, looking over the busy floor.
"They do. Mixing blood types with each, studying their reaction and possible types of cooperation in order to produce more synthetic blood types. That's the newest department, only work for a few months."
"What else do you do in your bloody banks? And all the other bloody banks that belong to you and other mafia bosses are the same?" I asked, and he grinned, showing his sharp fangs.