Pleasure Of Kisses, Pain Of The Bite

a biology lesson

Hello everyone, welcome to lesson 1 of vampire physics and biology. Now a lot of you, after last chapter, are probably wondering: how is Jinx a half blood if both parents are vampires, since Encre was turned before she was even a concept? Well thats simple. It all starts in the venom gland located in the top jaw, just in front of where the nasal cavity and back of the throat meet. Vampire venom is a neurotoxin, and is also a lot like the venom in a bees sting.

Because of this fact, people will not always be turned, some people can have an allergic reaction to the venom. For wolves, this is especially a problem. Because the wolves consist of a whole new blood strain, it means that vampire venom essentially becomes poison. The neurotoxin features of the venom slowly shuts down the wolves body, starting with the brain. It slowly moves from the brain, down the spine, shutting off all thought process, and control over the body, paralyzing the wolf.
Symptoms include coughing up blood, the blood will turn black, and will fill the pupil, causing it to dialate unnaturally, until it becomes too swollen, and pops, leaving the wolf blind.

Once at the spine, it works its way into the tissue of muscles, and breaks into the esophagus, working down into the stomach, shutting down all digestion, causing a flux of bile to build up, because digestion has stopped, the bile has nowhere to go, and the secretions lining the stomach, kidney, liver and intestines, all dries, and the bile and stomach acid will burn through, burning the body from the inside out. After it has shut down the digestive system, it fills the lungs, hence coughing up black blood, the black is actually the venom, melting the blood and alveoli within the lungs, choking the wolf.

Then finally, once all systems are shut down, and the wolf is on the brink of death, the heart is attacked. And its not quick, or painless. With a mixture of bile, venom and other digestive enzymes, it enters the heart through arteries and capilleries. It slowly corodes the veins, causing vessels to burst, leaving large, red irritated bloches of blood blisters beneath the skin, the anti-coagulent that makes it possible for a vampire to feed without the bite clotting up and blocking passage, the heart is over working itself, in a state of panic to get the body working again, blood is rushed in, but its all infected and corosive, acidic. The rush is too much, and the host begins to choke on its own blood, the blood is caught in its throat as the fast heartbeat causes a downwards pull, preventing the blood from causing a gag reflex. The downwards pull then causes convulsions in the chest, the lack of oxygen begins to crush the lungs, and the convulsing, with the damaged lungs causes ribs to break and crack, collpasing on the heart slowly, but its not over yet.

The now over worked heart is trying to pump stuff out of itself, and now is swelling too much, blood and venom blocks all ways in and out of the heart, and eventually, the heart explodes. The wolf is finally dead. The result is similar with humans who are allergic to the venom.

However, for those that can be turned safely, its still a world of pain.

As I said before, the venom is a neurotoxin, this is important.

When bitten, the venom will travel through the blood vessels, up into the brain, but it doesn't shut the brain down, oh no, it instead puts it into a dream like state, making the brain think the body is asleep, and so will be working harder to sort the body out, as the body is most active when a person is asleep.

Now that the brain is in full swing, the venom travels more easily throughout the body, the enzymes in the venom shaping itself to match and look like other enzymes so as to not be rejected by the body and attacked. This transformation of shape also allows it to attack cells easier, like white blood cells.

The venom begins to attack white blood cells, which then become cancerous black cells, eating the red blood cells, filling the veins quickly. Because of this, a common symptom of vampirism, is black veins. As the black cells eat away at the red blood cells, it surrounds the heart, keeping it in working order. The enzymes now being the carrier of oxygen. The heart must stay alive for the most part, as it is what allows all else to travel the body. If the heart dies too soon, the venom cannot spread. This will include 'grey cells'. What are grey cells? Grey cells are white blood cells that were overrun, not infected, by the venom, this acts as a shield for the heart, keeping the venom away a little longer, allowing smaller, less harmful enzymes to pass through and grow in the blood stream, into proper, harmful enzymes.

Once the heart is secured, and venom is pumped throughout the body, bones become brittle, as the black cells are eating up all necessary nutrients and enzymes that keeps it all strong. Because all the enzymes are attacked, and other cells are destroyed, it essentially 'stops time' in the body, stunting all growth and repair in the body, rendering it ageless. The time it takes for venom to spread and turn a person, is all dependant on the one being turned.

For some, it takes as little as a day, for others, it can take months! But people like Encre, suffer such a traumatic event, it switches the brain into a more wary, secure mode. Blood travels much more slowly, analyzed more carefully by white blood cells to ensure no other damage ensues. For Encre, she is still not total vampire. She is in fact, still part mortal. Continuing on, with the cells all eaten, and reproduction and growth is stopped, the black cells begin attaching to all vital organs, shutting it down, poisoning the system. The lungs and heart are still left untouched. However, because the organs have been shut down, they are basically dead.

This renders the host dead. The cells attach to bones, strengthening them all, reinforcing weak points. Once the damage is done and fixed, the heart is targetted. The black cells and venom attacks it, paralyzing it altogether, stopping total production of all blood cells. It is then that the heart is started up again, however, it is no longer producing blood, it is producing these black cells, that carries oxygen, and venom. Because of this, when a vampire is injured, the blood will first appear black, but will turn bright red within seconds after introduced to the environment, in an oxidising process. The blood thickens into a thick stringy consistancy.

That is how venom works. But for people like Encre, with a strong resistance to the venom, it takes much longer, so when she gets pregnant, Jinx is passed on the 'red effect', meaning, her heart operates 10 times as fast as the average heart rate, working as fast as a hummingbirds heart. Because of this, she is developing red blood cells, vampires do not produce blood cells, making them anaemic, and so this makes her half mortal. However, she still also develops black cells, and it is because black cells eat red blood cells, vampires feed on people and creatures, to keep feeding these cells, or they'd starve. Jinx needs blood, but because her whole body is still functioning, she also needs proper food, and due to the fast working heart, it gives the black cells little to no time to spread or attach to the internal body.

And that class is how Jinx is classified as a half blood!