Harsh Light of Day

by Jaye A. Jones

  **

  I realized I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be moments before I regained consciousness. Strange sounds and smells forced themselves into my thoughts and made me want to wake up.

  Though I knew what had happened, the events in the park were clear, I had no memory of leaving the park. And I was definitely not in the park now.

  Not a good sign.

  Someone, some human must have touched me, carried me, maybe even gotten my blood on them.

  That couldn’t be good.

  I didn’t know how the whole vampire sire thing worked. That was a secret kept by the Master of the family, and I was most definitely the last person Colin would ever tell secrets to. I may have asked Declan once, but he never told me. And really, why would I need to know? I’d never be male, so I’d never be a sire.

  Misogynists.

  But I was sure blood had something to do with it. All the books said so. And why else would we drink it? But did biting sire a human? Was that why we weren’t allowed to be around them? Or did contact with vampire blood do it? Drinking our blood? Sharing human blood with a vampire’s?

  Since I was covered in my blood and in close proximity to a human, perhaps I should have been a bit more interested in the process.

  There was a thumping in the room. A heartbeat. I felt its vibrations, so I braced myself and squeezed the life out of the nearest object my grasp could find. It was thick and kind of scratchy, something I would never feel in the lap of luxury of Colin’s ridiculous monstrosity of a Castle.

  He called it a Castle. It was essentially a big house on a few private acres of land. But the inside was made to look like a medieval fortress with torches and stone and tapestries. Colin was so pretentious. He clearly had a hard time adjusting with the times.

  Thump thump. Thump thump. Like a dinner bell.

  “Are you awake?” the same male voice as before whispered tentatively.

  I opened my eyes slowly, and finally looked at the young man who was looking at me. He wasn’t impressive. He looked kind of skinny and not very tall, his body lost in oversized clothes. There were smears of coffee stained on his shirt. He had dark-circled, bloodshot eyes that made my stomach tighten. I tried to pull back my focus and see his face. Light skin, dark stubble, messy, brown hair, light brown eyes. Like chocolate, with specks of green.

  Stop staring at his eyes, Lena!

  I blinked, and refocused. He was smiling. The human was smiling at me.

  It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. A primeval part of me knew he should have been afraid. Why wasn’t he? I was a predator and he is meant to be my food. Not that I had any intention of eating him…even though I lost tons of blood before and really needed to eat something soon…

  Food. It was funny. When I thought of it I only pictured those plastic bags filled with the bland, red stuff.

  “Where?” I was surprised my vocal cords functioned with the vibrations of his thumping heart going through me. “Who are…?”

  “Will. My name is Will. Shepherd. Will Shepherd. Sorry, I know you don’t know me, and I don’t know what happened back there. But you were bleeding and—and uh—and then suddenly you were…um… I didn’t know what to do. I…I just…”

  Was there an answer in there somewhere? I wondered as I tested my body. Everything worked, and I seemed to be getting back my control. This human, this Will, was far on the other side of the room. Sure, I could grab him if I couldn’t help myself. If I could still hear the thumping of his heart, the squishing of his blood, he was near enough for me to kill him.

  But the frantic urgency I had in the park was gone.

  As if to mock my false confidence, my empty stomach growled.

  Okay, no, not gone. Better. There was only one human now, and he was all the way across the room. It was manageable. For now.

  At least I couldn’t feel any pointy fangs as I discretely touched the tip of my tongue to each blunt canine.

  Wonder where they keep those plastic bags of blood.

  “What happened?” I said, sitting up at what I thought was normal speed.

  The human flinched, putting his arms up to stop me and cried, “you should take it easy.”

  My head felt fine. I must have looked pretty terrible though. There was blood on my face and arms, on my shirt, in my hair, but the wounds were closed. Nothing a shower and new clothes wouldn’t fix. I could have been nice. Part of me understood his reaction, but I hated being told what to do.

  “I don’t need to be protected,” I snapped, harsher than I meant it.

  Will put his arms down and tilted his head slightly giving me a curious look, but didn’t recoil like I expected and instead asked, “Do you feel okay?”

  He stepped slightly forward but didn’t make a sound as I threw my legs over the side of the small bed. He was concerned. How very strange.

  I put up my hand just as he had, telling him not to come any closer, and he got the message and backed up a few steps.

  “I’m…okay. What happened?”

  “You hit your head. Or, really, you smashed your head into the side of an oak tree. On purpose.”

  I could almost see the thoughts occur to him. Why did he bring this crazy person here? She is probably an escaped mental patient who needed her medication. Who self-inflicts a major head injury? Who had the strength to bash their own head into a tree with that much force? Why does she look and act so weird?

  I could still see my blood on him. He thought he washed it off, but it was still there, beneath his nails, on his jeans, a spot on the under part of his elbow. It didn’t seem to hurt him.

  Good to know.

  He was staring at me again.

  He’s staring at me because I’m staring at him. Look away, Lena. Blink or something. Act human.

  As if I had any clue what that meant anymore.

  “I’m…sorry for…for the blood.”

  You’re awesome, Lena. Truly.

  “Hey, it’s all right. I’m all clean, see?” he raised his hands and waved them at me. The spot of my blood on his elbow caught the light, and I felt a weird tingle inside and the tension in my body loosen. “And the pillow can be cleaned.”

  I looked down. A perfect head print of dark, drying blood was on the pillow. Even if contact with blood alone didn’t sire a human, being around it couldn’t be a good thing.

  “So, like, what happened?” Will asked, taking a step forward.

  I jumped off the bed, too quickly probably, and flashed him a warning. He took another step back and looked away. But his heart rate didn’t quicken. Interesting.

  What do I do? What am I supposed to say?

  I played with the dry blood on my fingers and wondered if he noticed the cuts were already healed. Probably not.

  “Oh, right. You want to clean up? Here,” he said, zipping around the room, sniffing and tossing items, then gathering things into his arms along the way. When he stopped again he held out a t-shirt and a towel and said, “There are bandages and alcohol under the sink.”

  When I showered, he’d see my wounds were healed. But I couldn’t go outside again covered in blood. Putting bandages around my arms and head to keep up appearances would be wise.

  I really had to drink some blood soon.

  As he watched me, again I could practically see the thoughts go through his head. He had such a telling face, so honest. He wondered again why he was doing this, why he was helping a stranger who was so obviously abnormal. He set the shirt and towel on the bed and stepped away.

  I made myself walk slowly over to the bed and picked up the clothes. He watched but tried not to gawk. I wondered what I looked like to him. Colin said from far away, we blended into the crowd. Humans would never know a vampire was different and impossibly attractive until it was too close to escape.

  But we didn’t hunt, so this ability was useless.

 
If that was even the truth. I suspected most of what Colin said was a lie.

  But I was pretty close to Will now and there was a look in his eyes reminding me of Declan for some reason. It freaked me out.

  Walking toward the door I guessed was the bathroom, I turned around to face him. I should say something. That was what people did, right?

  “I…” I started but was not sure what to say. He smiled at me again and suddenly I knew what to say. “My name is Lena.”

  His smile grew, revealing his white, human teeth, and he nodded.

  Unsure of what to do, I flitted to the bathroom and slammed the door much harder than I meant to. Getting clean would be good. I’d be able to focus, to figure out what to do next.

  Food. I had to eat. I felt a little weak and I had no idea what feeling hungry would do to me. What happened when we didn’t eat? Did we eventually die? Wouldn’t that be funny, if we lived forever and could only be really hurt by other vampires but being very hungry killed us?

  Actually, it wasn’t so funny.

  Where could I get blood? I couldn’t exactly go around asking people.

  Excuse me, where do you keep the blood?

  Yeah, that wouldn’t cause any suspicion.

  The bathroom was small and smelled like mildew and cleaning supplies, but the shower worked and I could lock the door. Locks were a luxury I wasn’t allowed at Colin’s Castle. I doubted people realized how comforting the option of privacy was until they lived two decades without it.

  Stripping off my bloody clothes and folding them into a neat pile, I stared at myself in the mirror. My blood had dried so dark it almost appeared black. I needed to wash it off and make sure there weren’t any traces left behind when I left.

  In the shower, I made the water near scalding. It felt good, burned and stung with each drop hitting my cold skin. With my eyes closed, I could almost enjoy the feeling.

  Apparently I liked showers. Colin’s Castle, his ridiculously ostentatious Castle only had baths. Ornate, marble baths where the water would always be too cool because it took forever to fill.

  I heard a door slam and felt two new thumping hearts beyond the locked door. Even with the shower running I could hear everything they said.

  “What is up?” a male voice said.

  There was a boy and a girl. I could tell by their scents.

  The boy fidgeted and shuffled his feet in the middle of the room as he said, “I’m still excessively caffeinated. Pulled an all-nighter with my good friends Red Bull and Starbucks for my 8am final. Now I can’t wind down.”

  “I told him it wasn’t worth it,” the girl said dryly. I heard her sit in the chair at Will’s desk and hardly move at all.

  I could feel where Will was in the room, by the bed covered in my blood. Was he trying to hide it? Smart.

  “Are you done yet?” the boy asked.

  I had no idea what they were talking about so I quickly washed myself with the strong smelling soap and wrung out my hair until the water falling from it was clear again.

  “I’ve got one at 2:00 today, and then I’ll be done.”

  Out of the room, I was able to really hear Will’s voice. It was pleasant and smooth, soft and with a tone that did not irritate my ears. The other boy’s voice was more frantic, louder, higher, faster. It was not all together unpleasant, just less appealing.

  “I’m gonna try to get some sleep this afternoon. But, party tonight? Our place?”

  “That’s the plan,” the smoothness of Will’s voice tingled my ears this time, and a quick ache twisted in my stomach, then disappeared.

  I must be hungrier than I thought.

  Inspecting my body, there was no longer any trace of blood, except what was on my clothes and what went down the drain. I shut off the shower and dripped water onto the linoleum as I spanned the length of the steamy bathroom to where I left the towel and shirt Will gave me. They both smelled like soap and honeysuckle.

  There was a few seconds of silence, then quick footsteps.

  “Who’s in the shower?” the boy whispered excitedly.

  Wrapping the towel around myself, I stayed very still, waiting to hear Will’s voice again and wondering how he would explain me to his friends.

  “Is it a girl? When did you have time to get a girl? It’s exams week!” the boy laughed, but something about his tone sounded like reverence.

  “Yes, there’s a girl in there,” he whispered. “But it’s not what you think.”

  I heard more footsteps, lighter ones now. The girl’s.

  She did not bother whispering. She screamed, “Will, oh my God! Is that blood?”

  More quick footsteps and all three heartbeats quickened.

  “Is that your blood? Are you hurt?” the girl asked frantically.

  “No, it’s not my blood.” He trailed off and even without seeing his telling face I knew what he was thinking. There was no way to explain this situation.

  Not thinking it through, because if I had I would have changed my mind, I opened the bathroom door and immediately got the attention of the room as steam wafted out around me.

  “It’s mine.”

  The girl froze, her mouth hanging open at the sight of me. Did I look scary? Water dripped from my hair onto the hardwood floor, but the towel around me was covering anything that would attract this much attention.

  “Are…are you okay?” the girl finally asked.

  “I hit my head. I’m fine.”

  It was surprising how easy it was to be in the room with the three of them. Shouldn’t I want to eat them? I was aware I was hungry and needed to eat as soon as possible, but the frantic desire I had in the park wasn’t there.

  I almost didn’t even consider spanning the room and sinking my teeth into the girl’s pulsating throat.

  There was an awkward smile on Will’s face as he took in the sight of me, as if I did not look like he anticipated. There was an unexpected lightness to Will’s voice when he spoke, breaking a silence that was starting to get uncomfortable.

  “This is Spencer and Julia. Guys, this is Lena.”

  Yes, he thought it was funny. There was laughter in his tone. I felt another strange twinge and my body relaxed again.

  The boy, Spencer, was tall with broad shoulders and muscular arms. His very pale skin flushed easily, so his ears and cheeks were bright pink. The rim of lashes framing his dark blue eyes matched the flaming red mess of hair on top of his head. It was long and unbrushed, a lot like Will’s. Messy. Planted on his full lips was a half smile as he gawked at me.

  The girl, Julia, looked pretty plain. With straight brown hair falling to her shoulders and a shy but inquisitive glimmer in her brown eyes, she looked very young. But, then again, they all did. There was no makeup on her soft, bronze face and no perfume on her skin. Dark circles framed her eyes, making it clear she was exhausted. She did not smile.

  I wondered what I looked like to them. From their expressions, they weren’t afraid. It was unexpected, to say the least.

  My gaze rested on Will, and his chocolate eyes dilated slightly. I could see he was confused about something. He looked at my arms, realizing there were no cuts there anymore. My arms, my fingers, and my temple are smooth and healed completely.

  He wanted to ask me about it. Not now. Not in front of more people. I had to at least keep a cap on the amount of people who witnessed this stuff.

  Please don’t say anything. Ask me later. Please.

  Amazingly, Will closed his mouth and didn’t say a word. Acknowledging my good luck, or Will’s accurate intuition, I decided this was a good time to get the hell out of there.

  Without a word, I forced myself to walk slowly back to the bathroom and shut the door, softer this time. I dropped the towel, shimmied into my black pants which only had a few spots of blood on them, and pulled Will’s t-shirt over my head. The sleeves almost reached my elbows and the hem rested at my knee
s. As I moved toward the door again, I nimbly rolled each sleeve up my arms and tied a knot in the back of the shirt. Much more comfortable.

  One more sniff and I was certain the only traces of my blood left in the room were going to be leaving with me.

  I exited the bathroom and found the three humans in exactly the same places I left them. They hadn’t said anything yet. Their expressions hadn’t even changed.

  Oh…was I too quick?

  Oops.

  Man was I terrible at this.

  Julia and Spencer continued to stare as I walked to the bed, took the pillow with my blood covering it, and quickly scanned the room for any more blood. There was a little, still on the bed. Under Will’s nails. Some dried flakes on the floor. It was already bizarre enough I was stealing his pillow. I didn’t think I could reasonably take care of the rest without freaking the humans out.

  I had to let it go.

  Forcing my body to go slowly, I crossed the room towards the front door and turned the knob. I glanced back at Will, hoping he knew I was grateful for what he had done for me. I wasn’t able to make myself say it out loud, not with such an audience, so I turned and left the room, pulling the door closed behind me.

  As I walked down the hall, I heard Spencer slap something and squawk, “What are you doing? Go after her!”

  “I…I’m not sure I should,” he replied.

  “If nothing else,” Julia said in a voice much less filled with admiration than Spencer’s, “she probably needs some help.”

  “I think she can take care of herself,” Will commented easily.

  The same twinge ran through me and something about my face changed. I felt my lips spread and my cheeks rise. I put my hand on my mouth and felt around, unsure of what was happening.

  I was smiling. Kind of. I thought.

  It was nice someone in the world didn’t think I needed to be coddled and protected all the time. Knowing someone thought I can accomplish things on my own, no matter how little that person knew of me, reassured me. Maybe I really could take care of myself.

  Until that moment I hadn’t realized I was questioning my escape. An empty stomach and seeing myself covered in my own blood apparently had the power to provoke doubt.

  Maybe, just maybe I’d actually be able to pull this off.