The Blood Countess Novels & Stories

She pulled up data on a portable display. "Your preliminary blood work shows some concerning results," Vasquez continued. "Your red blood cell count is significantly depleted. Your hemoglobin levels are very low. Your platelet count is slightly elevated, which suggests your body is trying to compensate for the blood loss. Your Strain concentration is at 99.98% purity." She looked directly at Melina. "The extraction process has accelerated your Strain expression beyond even our most pessimistic projections," Vasquez said. "Your blood is now lethal at trace exposure levels. Even a single drop of your blood in an open wound could cause system failure in a supernatural being."

I answer on the first ring. "Hello?" "Mrs. Wolfe, it's Dr. Morrison. I have your blood work results. Do you have a few minutes to talk?" My heart hammers. "Yes. I'm sitting down." "Good." She takes a breath. "Your results show some abnormalities I want to discuss. Your complete blood count shows lower than normal white blood cells, particularly neutrophils. Your red blood cells are slightly enlarged. And your platelet count is borderline low."

At the hospital, they drew more blood. More questions. More waiting. This time, the doctor didn’t smile as much. “We’re seeing some abnormalities,” she said. “What kind,” Daniel asked. “White blood cell count is elevated.” “And that means?” “It could mean several things.” “Such as.” “Infection. Autoimmune response. Or something more serious.” The room went silent. “Like what,” Daniel pressed. The doctor looked at Clara directly. “We need to rule out hematological conditions.” “Speak normally,” Clara said.

The problem was that she had no idea what that might be. “OK. In a nutshell, here it is: acute myeloid leukemia pushes out normal blood-making cells in bone marrow and replaces them with leukemia cells. Pretty much everything I’ve been experiencing lately – exhaustion, weight-loss, those weird fevers, all my bruising – is because the cancer has crowded out my healthy blood cells and taken over.” “Red cells? White ones?” Jenny asked. “Both. And my blood platelets too, so I’m at risk for excessive bleeding if I cut myself. A small nick with a knife can bleed for ages, for example, since my clotting abilities have been compromised.”

“Mr. Hart. Thank you for coming in.” Celeste sat. I didn’t. I stayed by the door, arms folded, every muscle locked. Dr. Chen opened the chart. “We have the latest labs.” I watched Celeste’s spine straighten, the only outward sign she was bracing herself. “The numbers are worse than last month,” Dr. Chen said quietly. “White count is dropping faster than we projected. Platelets are critically low. The fatigue, bruising, and recurrent infections are all consistent with disease acceleration.”

"And the blood suppliment drip?" "In place doctor" she replied. "Then let us begin, Scalpel" I said and Andrew quickly gave me a Scalpel and I began to make an incision on the skin covering the skull. Tony helped me cleaned the blood and Andrew gave me a cranial drill for cutting the skull open. I was drilling into the skull and the monitors started beeping. "What's wrong Susan?" I asked "The red blood cells count is getting too low even though I've decreased the heartbeat rate" she said.

The rest of the afternoon was less stressful, the minute Drew and the rest of them went out of the pack. The next morning was even busier than when Kevin got there. “Good morning, Bethanie. I need you to help with the six new patients. Bonnie and I are starting our rounds, when we are done can you take blood samples from each one. Test them to see what their blood count is. We need to know how bad the cancer is in each of them.” “Mind link me when you are done, I will start drawing their blood.” Melody is glad to be doing her last patient for the day. “Alpha Kevin, how are you today?”

He just dropped a freaking bomb! “Critical?” Sabrina squeaks, her eyes red and puffy. “What do you mean?” I stare at her. Does she really care about Lucas that much or is she only putting on an act? The doctor replies, “We ran various tests on him and discovered that his blood counts are alarmingly low. He has severe aplastic anaemia and his bone marrow has stopped functioning. As a matter of fact, it's almost completely shut down, leaving him with barely any healthy blood cells.”

Felix didn't waste time on pleasantries and immediately approached the gathered bodies. After examining them for over ten minutes, Felix walked back to Xena. "It doesn't appear to be the work of Necrobound, but I can't rule it out entirely. All these people are missing their lifeblood." Lifeblood—also known as vital essence—was the deep red blood that flowed directly from the heart's main artery. In traditional medicine, it was considered the essence of life, derived from the transformation of nutrients by the spleen and stomach, and crucial to a person's health.

Natasha gritted her teeth in anger. Beatrice adjusted her sitting posture, "But is the situation that serious? The news described the illness as a mere seizure, how come it's so dire now?" Natasha could feel a headache coming on, "Yes it was a serious seizure but what worsened the patient's illness is different. He needs steady blood transfusion too but his blood type isn't available anywhere in the country or out. He has a blood type so rare that it's called golden blood. Only fifty people are known to possess it in the whole world!"