The Healer’s face got even grimmer.
“Human blood,” she said shortly. “Hang on—I have a stock of it in the cooler in case of injuries.”
She went and got another big glass of chilled blood and handed it to me.
By that time I had gotten shakily to my feet with Avery’s help and rinsed out my mouth at the sink. The glass filled with crimson liquid didn’t look very appealing to me and the fact that it was cold was even less so, but I took it from her anyway and took a tentative sip.
The chilled human blood went down smoothly enough…but then it came right back up again. I barely had time to get back to the toilet before my body rejected it—violently.
“Oh dear!” Megan was wringing her hands in agitation. “This is bad, isn’t it? What does it mean that she can’t drink human blood either?”
“It means,” Griffin said smoothly, “That her system is still upset. We need to take her back to the Norm Dorm where she can rest and relax before she tries to drink again.”
“If you think I’m letting a sick student out of my office—” the Healer began but Griffin cut her off.
“Excuse me, Healer, but while we value your knowledge and healing ability, I think I am a better judge of Nocturne constitution than you. I can tell you right now that Kaitlyn’s system is simply overloaded.” He gestured towards me. “Her body has only just adapted to process blood as its main source of nourishment and it was forced to get rid of the wrong kind of blood only a moment ago. Before she can try again with the right kind of blood, she will need to rest and let her body settle for some time. The best place to do that is somewhere she feels comfortable and safe. Which is why we need to bring her back to her dormitory.”
“Well…” The Healer frowned deeply. Clearly she was considering what Griffin had said.
“Please,” I whispered, pleading with her. “I just…I just want to go home.” Then I realized that the home I meant—the home where little Allegra was—was now closed to me. Bloody tears started leaking down my cheeks again and I brushed them away with trembling fingers. “Please,” I repeated.
At least I still had the Norm Dorm. At least I still had my friends.
The Healer sighed deeply. Putting her hands on her hips, she studied me for a long moment, then nodded.
“All right,” she said reluctantly. “You can go back to your dorm but only if you all promise to come get me if her condition changes or worsens in any way.” She pointed at Megan and Griffin and Avery who all nodded solemnly.
“We promise,” Megan said earnestly. “We’ll stick to Kaitlyn like glue—won’t let her out of our sight.”
“All right then. Go.” The Healer made a shooing gesture. “And don’t forget to take the blood,” she added, speaking to Griffin. “She’ll need it when she starts to feel better.” She shook her head. “What a mess. I don’t know what the Headmistress is going to say about all this when she gets back from her conference. I wish she hadn’t chosen this week to be gone!”
I didn’t know either but at the moment, I was too gutted by despair to even think of it. With Avery supporting me on one side and Megan on the other, I made my way out of the Healer’s office and back to what was now the only place I could call home.
32
Kaitlyn
“I could feel how eager you were to get Kaitlyn out of the Healer’s office and back down here where it’s private,” Megan said to Griffin, as soon as they had arranged me on one of the old blue sofas in the Norm Dorm common area. “Why was that?”
He sat the chilled glass of blood down on the coffee table, ran a hand through his thick black hair and sighed.
“Because,” he said at last, “If we are to keep Kaitlyn here with us at Nocturne Academy, it must not be known that she cannot drink bagged human blood.”
“But I thought you said her system just needed some time to adjust,” Avery protested.
He had been fussing around me like a mother hen, tucking a faded quilt around my shoulders and making sure I had plenty of pillows. He had also managed to find a box of tissues which I used to blot my still-leaking eyes. The bloody stains my tears left on the white Kleenex were mute evidence of my new condition.
“I lied,” Griffin said grimly. “If she was able to digest bagged blood, her system would have welcomed it immediately. Her body’s rejection of the small amount she drank makes it clear she can’t take it.”
“I still don’t understand,” Megan said blankly. “What’s going on with her?”
“Yes…” I cleared my throat, trying to pull myself out of the depths of despair. “What’s wrong with me?”
Griffin sighed. “I’m afraid you’re one of the rare Made Vamps who can’t drink anything but fresh blood. Which means we have to find you a donor.”
“A donor?” I stared at him blankly. “You mean I have to bite someone and drink their blood? I can’t do that!”
“If you cannot then you will die,” Griffin said bluntly. “I’m sorry, Kaitlyn, but there’s no other way for you to survive now.”
“There must be a way. I really think I could drink the bagged stuff if I just tried.” I reached out a hand for the glass. “Let me try again.”
“Here you go, Katydid.” Avery handed me the glass, but he had a doubtful look on his face. “Emma, maybe you’d better run out and tell Megan’s aunt that we’re all staying here for the weekend. She’s probably out in the parking area wondering what in the world is going on.”
“That’s a good idea,” Megan said, nodding.
“Okay, well…all right.” Emma nodded uncertainly.
I suddenly understood that my Coven-mates were trying to get Emma out of the Norm Dorm in case I puked again. If I started vomiting blood and she started heaving too, there would be a double mess to clean up.
Their obvious concern that I might not be able to hold down the blood made me doubtful myself. But I told myself I had to try. After all, I couldn’t go around biting people like a monster in a B horror movie! I had to get control of this situation—control of myself. And the only way to do that was to go ahead and drink the blood.
My hand trembled as I brought the glass to my lips. It was weird that the animal blood Griffin had given me before had smelled and tasted so good—so right—and this stuff in the glass smelled wrong, I thought. Maybe my body had still been in transition and the large amount of blood I’d ingested had tipped it over the edge into full-fledged vampirism. Maybe that was why I hadn’t been able to hold the animal blood down once my body changed completely…
I realized that I was stalling—just staring at the glass full of crimson liquid instead of drinking it.
Stop putting it off, I told myself. Drink it—prove you can do it. Otherwise, how can you live?
Holding my nose, as I used to when I was a kid and had to take a dose of particularly nasty medicine, I took a big mouthful of the blood.
I nearly spit it back out again. It tasted so wrong—cold and flat and metallic. It was like trying to drink a cup of liquid mercury or some other substance that wasn’t supposed to be food. My body knew it wasn’t for me, and it wanted to reject it. But I forced myself to swallow anyway even though my gut clenched like a fist.
“Avery,” I heard Megan whisper. “Avery, grab the trashcan. I don’t think she’s going to hold it down.”
“Of course I’ll hold it down,” I said in a low, choked voice. “I feel perfectly f…f…”
I was trying to say fine but suddenly I couldn’t talk. My stomach was twisting and knotting, rejecting what I had forced it to take. Avery barely got the trashcan in front of me before it all came out in a bright red gout.
I closed my eyes and pressed the stained and blotched tissue to my lips as I sank back against the pillows Avery had so carefully arranged.
“Oh God,” I whispered in a low voice. “Oh God, I’m going to die. I wish I was already dead.”
33
Kaitlyn
“Don’t say that—don’t ever say you wi
sh you were dead!” Megan said fiercely. She knelt beside the couch and grabbed my hand. “I mean it, Kaitlyn—don’t talk like that!”
“Why not?” I said tonelessly. “I might as well be dead. I lost my parents and now I’ve lost Allegra too.” I looked at Megan, my vision washed with red, which meant I was crying the awful blood tears again. “I’ve been watching her since she was a baby,” I told her. “She’s like my own little girl. And Mrs. Breedlove just gets irritated with her—she’ll never play dolls with her or have tea parties or do Hooked on Phonics with her. And I…I’ll never see her again!”
I started to sob and Megan put an arm around me. Avery came to the back of the couch and put an arm around me from the other side.
“I know how awful you must be feeling right now, Katydid,” he said gently. “But you’ve still got us—you’ve got your friends and Coven-mates. And we’re never going to leave you.”
They let me cry again for a while and I went through nearly a whole box of tissues before Griffin said sternly, “This has to stop.”
“What—Kaitlyn crying?” Megan demanded. “She’s just experienced a big loss, Griffin. Let the poor girl cry!”
“I’m not saying she ought to stop crying because I dislike her display of emotion,” Griffin said patiently. “I’m saying that she is wasting blood and she already has precious little of that in her system. She needs to conserve her strength and her blood until we can find her a donor.”
“You keep talking about finding me a donor,” I said dully, swiping at my eyes. “But who’s going to want to let me bite them all the time, Griffin?”
“I will,” Megan said immediately. “I don’t mind being bitten a bit, honestly, Kaitlyn,” she told me.
Griffin’s face was like a thunderstorm but his voice was cool and smooth when he spoke.
“Sweetheart,” he said to Megan, “I understand that you are trying to help your friend but you are Blood-Bonded to me.”
Megan put a hand on her hip.
“So?”
“So, that makes you allowing any other Nocturne other than Griffin to bite you tantamount to cheating,” Avery said flatly. “Even I know that.”
“Avery is correct,” Griffin said quietly. “But even if he wasn’t, I don’t believe Kaitlyn would want to drink from your vein, sweetheart.”
“What? Why not?” Megan demanded. “You always tell me my blood is delicious—you said it tastes like strawberries.”
“So it does—to me,” he said, nodding. “But the fact that you are Blood-Bonded to another Nocturne will make your blood taste noxious to her. Besides…” he cleared his throat. “There is the…sexual component to think about.”
“What sexual component?” I demanded. “There was nothing like that when Allegra bit me! It was just warm and comforting—just a way to get her to go back to sleep after a nightmare.”
Just thinking of that made me want to cry again but I forced myself not to, remembering that I needed to conserve what little blood I had left in my system.
“That was because Allegra isn’t mature yet,” Griffin said patiently. “But when biting occurs between a Nocturne and another mature human or Other, it always brings intense feelings with it.”
Megan’s cheeks got pink. “Well, that, uh, intense feelings part is certainly true, but I still don’t understand why she wouldn’t be able to drink from me if you and I weren’t bonded.”
“Neither do I,” I said. “What are you trying to say, Griffin?”
He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair again.
“There is no way to be delicate about this. Kaitlyn, are you gay?”
“What?” I demanded.
“Why does that make a difference?” Avery asked, bristling. “Can’t there be gay Nocturnes?”
Griffin blew out a breath.
“There can and there are. But my point is, unless Kaitlyn is gay, she won’t want a donor of the same sex to feed her. And before you offer your own vein, Avery,” he went on when Avery opened his mouth. “Consider that the intense feelings generated during a Nocturne’s bite go both ways. You have no interest in females, therefore letting Kaitlyn bite you and drink from you would feel very wrong for both of you.”
“Oh, come on now—how bad can it be?” Avery scoffed. “Here, Katydid—try some.” He rolled up one of his sleeves and offered me his right wrist.
I looked at it for a moment, noticing the blue bracelet of veins pulsing beneath his golden tan skin. As I watched, one of the veins grew even larger and more prominent. It seemed to be calling to me, almost begging me to bite it.
At the same time, I felt a prickling in my upper teeth. The feeling grew to an ache so intense I felt like I had to bite something. What was happening to me?
“God, Kaitlyn—your mouth! You’ve grown fangs!” Megan exclaimed, staring at me with amazement.
“I have?” I put up my fingers to feel and sure enough, I had two needle-sharp points just where my upper incisors used to be.
“Well, at least your fangs are responding normally.” Griffin sounded relieved, as though he hadn’t been certain I would or could grow fangs like a Nocturne was supposed to.
I guessed I couldn’t blame him—after all, I was already defective, being unable to drink bagged blood. Why would it be surprising if I also couldn’t bite properly?
Which was what I was longing to do right now as I stared at the pulsing blue vein in the underside of Avery’s wrist.
“Well, you might as well go on and bite him,” Griffin said, sounding resigned. “You will both see what I was talking about in a moment.”
“Go on, Katydid,” Avery urged me. “I’m not afraid.”
“Thanks, Avery,” I murmured, looking up at him. And, baring my new fangs, I sank their needle-sharp points into his arm.
34
Kaitlyn
Avery’s blood tasted good and my body didn’t reject it, but from the very first suck I took, the feeling I got was just wrong.
The sensation was incredibly intimate—like a French kiss but more so. And while I considered Avery very handsome and sweet and kind and the best friend a girl could have, I didn’t have any desire to kiss him or do anything else with him either.
Avery must have been feeling the same way I was but he didn’t say a thing. He just set his jaw tight as though he was enduring something distasteful but was prepared to keep it up as long as necessary.
I pulled away first. I couldn’t stand it anymore—I was getting a squirmy, uncomfortably feeling inside and a creeping sensation outside, almost like ants crawling all over my skin.
“Ugh!” Avery and I exclaimed at the same time and Avery clamped a hand to his still-bleeding wrist.
“Katydid, you know I love you but that was weird.”
“It was really uncomfortable,” I acknowledged. I could barely look at him as I spoke. I felt like I’d walked in on him naked in the shower or something even worse.
“I don’t like to say I told you so,” Griffin murmured. “But, well…” He shrugged expressively.
“Okay—we get it. You were right,” Avery said, frowning at the tall Nocturne. “I can’t be Kaitlyn’s donor because neither one of us can stand it when she bites me.”
“But then who’s going to feed her?” Megan exclaimed, dismayed. “If I can’t and Avery can’t and I suppose Emma can’t either because she’s straight, then who in the world is going to be Kaitlyn’s donor?”
“I will,” a deep voice behind me said.
I twisted to look around, but the speaker had already come to stand beside me.
“I heard everything,” Ari Reyes said, looking down at me with those pale, burning amber eyes of his. “I will be Kaitlyn’s donor.”
35
Ari
“Who let him in here?” Megan Latimer demanded, frowning at me. From the look on Kaitlyn’s face, she was wondering the same thing, though she kept quiet and simply watched me.
“I did.” Emma, their friend and Coven-mat
e, came to stand beside me in a show of solidarity, which I appreciated. “He saved Kaitlyn’s life just now in the lake,” she reminded the rest of their coven, who were staring at me uncertainly. “The Guardian would have eaten her if he and his, uh, Drake hadn’t come along in time. And I believe he really wants to help.”
“Well, I don’t believe it.” Kaitlyn spoke up at last. She looked up at me defiantly, a frown on her lush mouth. “I don’t,” she said to me. “I heard what you and Nancy were saying about me in the Dining Hall the other day.”
“You heard what Nancy said—I said nothing,” I protested. “I had nothing to do with what she said.”
Kaitlyn put a hand on her hip and looked up at me mistrustfully.
“Then why was she saying something like that to you in the first place?”
“Mierda! Because she was being malicious—trying to hurt you.” I raked a hand through my hair, trying to control my frustration. “It’s clear she succeeded,” I told her in a low voice. “For which, I am so sorry. But I have nothing to do with Nancy Rattcliff, and I don’t want to either. She is nothing but a vrota.”
“Vrota? Is that Spanish?” Avery Connor frowned.
I shook my head.
“It comes from my mother tongue—the language of the Drakes even before we made our way into the human world in the region of Espana. It means a low or evil person who wishes to do harm to others.”
“Well, that certainly describes Nancy to a T,” Emma muttered.
“It does, indeed.” Griffin Darkheart took a step towards me, frowning and I felt my Drake rumble within me at his approach. He wasn’t exactly threatening me though—more just assessing, I thought. I sent a calming thought to the beast inside me. He had already come out once today and there were sure to be consequences for his escape—consequences I would have to deal with later.
Fang and Claw: Nocturne Academy, Book 2 Page 14