CHAPTER 5
It was far too easy to find where they kept the blood.
Freakishly easy.
But it was like I knew exactly where the medical school was. There was a clinic in the building staffed by students, interns, and hospital residents moonlighting to earn a little extra money. After only a few minutes of searching inside the clinic, and quite awhile hiding in a supply closet, I found a familiar biohazard sign on a door to a room that was filled with refrigerators.
Seriously, how I knew all of this, I had no idea.
I liked not using my ability to stay hidden. After meeting Will and his friends, and knowing the humans weren’t going to run screaming, terrified by the sight of me, I decided to stop using it. It felt unnatural.
Declan and I seemed to be the only members of our family with any special abilities. I knew vampires could have more extraordinary skills if their family had a knack for it. Like flying, shape-shifting, hypnotism, all of those vampire myths in books. But my family didn’t have the knack for it. Colin had no special abilities, so none of us should have. That was how it worked. Families shared similar traits, both in looks and abilities.
But, then again, that was only what I’d heard.
I heard those old abilities died out and there were no more vampires that could fly or change into a bat.
Who knew. Colin made it a point, I was sure, to keep me in the dark.
I shook my head, trying to force my thoughts away from Colin and his prison of a Castle. Eating would help.
None of the bags of blood back home had labels like these had. The plastic bags I was used to were clear. I sank my long teeth into the first bag and read the part of the label I could see as I drank greedily.
Volunteer Donor.
This product may transmit infectious agents.
That made me laugh. As if a dead thing could get infected with anything.
I licked the two fang marks on the empty bag, finally tasting the liquid. I drank so fast I hardly registered anything about it. Cold and medicinal, in the familiar manner I was used to. But it also smelled differently. Older maybe. And was weaker, like it had been watered down.
Who cares, I thought as I reached for another and sank my pointy canines deep into the plastic and let the metallic, cold liquid cure my hunger.
Usually, I only needed one bag when I felt thirsty. But since I didn’t know when I’d eat again, and I’d been much more active today than any other day in my twenty vampire years, I figured it was probably best to have a little on reserve.
Fill ‘er up.
After all, I can’t take it with me, I thought as I tossed the second empty bag into the biohazard bin. At least I knew that much. Blood had to be kept cold. I may not be able to get back as soon as I needed to.
One more bag then, and I’d go.
The last bag took me longer to drink since I was completely full. But I managed to force it down and, after throwing the emptied bag in the biohazard bin along with the others, I walked out of the clinic, grateful no one wandered in during my feast. If anyone noticed I didn’t belong there, I didn’t detect it.
I took only a few steps before realizing I was uneasy on my feet. Slow and feeling heavy, I fell into a daze and allowed my body to go as it pleased as my brain considered the day in a hazy fog of gluttony.
As soon as I left Will’s apartment, getting rid of the bloody pillow I was carrying became essential. I buried it deep inside the first dumpster I could find and covered it with garbage. Would have been better to burn it, but that would have attracted more attention.
I walked aimlessly along concrete paths after that, thankful no one paid me any attention. There hadn’t been a lot of people around anyway, but I kept my eyes on the ground to be extra careful. I was quite easily able to drown out the sounds of nearby heartbeats by focusing on my thoughts.
And then I was at the medical clinic. Like I’d walked these paths before. Like I knew exactly where to go.
Hey, maybe I had known. Though, I felt like if I’d been on this campus before, I’d be able to tell. I could remember cheeseburgers. Why not places?
So, maybe there was a simpler explanation. Not that I could think of what it could be.
Now that my thirst was satisfied and my brain was able to think about other things, Declan was on my mind. Ever since the look Will had on his face reminded me of Declan, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Wavy, dark brown hair cut shorter than what would have been common when he was human, though I didn’t know for sure when that would have been. In Ireland, I knew. Both Declan and Colin spoke English impeccably without any noticeable accent, but a different lilt could be heard when they talked only to each other. And they were too formal, like someone who learned the words of a language but never quite got comfortable enough with it to talk casually.
That was how Henry and Mary were too. And Viola, of course. But not Annabelle and Lennox. I never did know why the three of us spoke normally while the others sounded like robots.
Declan was always so unhappy, all of the twenty years I’d known him. When I was first turned, he was different. Angrier. Maybe Declan was disappointed with me, I didn’t know. Part of me thought he didn’t want a partner in the first place, and suspected Colin made him do it.
Colin was always making Declan do things, and Declan always did as he was told. Such a suck up. And he acted like he idolized my least favorite person in the world.
All right, yes, until today I only knew seven people, but still.
Declan’s unhappiness, or disappointment if that was what it was, dissolved into depression as the years passed. He detached further from everyone in the family, talked less and less. After I heard Colin suggest Declan get rid of me and find a new partner, and Declan refused, there was another change. He acted as though he’d been defeated somehow.
Even though I tried to be a better partner, nothing I did was enough to make things work. Declan really seemed to resent my efforts. Sometimes he would leave our room and wouldn’t look at me for days at a time.
So moody.
And he was way overprotective, never letting me do anything. I did not need to be looked after all the time like some little kid.
But Declan always brought me things he knew I liked, books mostly. On rare occasions, a newspaper. Where he got them, I never knew. But I appreciated the link to the outside world. I was able to escape the Castle in a way.
He never touched me. He knew I didn’t want him to. It never seemed difficult for him. It was as if he preferred not having that kind of relationship with me.
And no matter how frustrated he might have been with me, he waited for me in our room every morning so I didn’t have to face Colin alone.
Yes, Declan would have been a good partner.
For someone else.
Too full of blood and feeling excessive, I was lost in my thoughts and letting my body wander. My instincts led me wherever they wanted.
I was surprised when I realized I’d walked straight into a building. Classrooms lined the hall every twenty feet or so. I passed four of them before I decided to sit down while I gathered my thoughts.
My head and limbs felt heavy and as I collapsed on the wood bench and inhaled deeply, a girl sitting on another bench at the far end of the hall looked up startled. Luckily it was only momentary, and she turned back to her books, but not before giving me an over exaggerated glare.
If I were human, my reaction would have been to laugh.
The halls smelled of dust, fake lemons and human sweat. The lighting was low and sort of blue, and the long lights on the ceiling buzzed.
Sinking back into the bench, I let my head rest against the wall and closed my eyes, feeling dizzy.
I have no idea how to function in this world, I thought as the hallway spun. If Will hadn’t come along, what would I have done? Hugged that tree until it, or I, snapped?
The reassura
nce I’d gotten from Will earlier that I would be able to pull this off obviously hadn’t lasted long.
I’d been so irresponsible. The humans probably suspected I was not like them. Will’s apartment had traces of my blood, which I knew was dangerous, though I wasn’t sure why I was so sure of that. Not to mention all of the time I’d wasted. Colin would know I ran away by now. He was coming to get me, I was sure of it.
Ranting made me feel better, and thinking about Colin’s reaction at seeing I’d evaded his Castle right under his stuck-up nose made me feel even better.
To my credit, I did find blood all by myself.
And I didn’t eat anyone.
And I kept the amount of humans that witnessed me to a minimum. Sure, Will and his friends. But Will, I thought, would keep what he saw secret.
All in all, I hadn’t done that badly for myself.
And maybe, with some practice…
…if I could just…
Harsh Light of Day Page 8