Blood and Beasts

by L. M. Miller

  Now that she could study him more, the Asian guy, dressed kind of grungy, had several tattoos. On his right upper arm, slightly exposed by his black T-shirt, was an elaborate, very colorful, geisha decorating his light golden skin. When he reached to pull up his black, baggy pants in order to scratch his leg, she saw a yin yang symbol embellishing his right calf. She was fairly certain under the rest of his clothing he had plenty more tattoos, but she was not about to see them anytime soon. He also had his ears pierced, both of them, with steel-blue hoops hooked through them. He seemed like a very dark person, living up to the vampire name superfluously.

  His friend, who had an absolutely perfect face with high cheekbones, winged brows, and a strong jaw, turned to stare at her impertinently. She had been gawking at them. She, of course, looked away, her eyes falling on the other vampires in the room.

  She recognized the fair-skinned guy leaning across a couple of desks to invade on the personal spaces of two girls. It was Alistair, the vampire she had fought that night. He looked much the same, as though he had been sculpted by a Roman artist or something. He was attractive but scary. She remembered his reaction that night, throwing her into the shed. She also remembered his reaction the night after, when he and Phin had gotten into that silent argument that she had overheard. He had a lot of rage building up inside him.

  Right now though, he was turning on the charm. He was leaning lecherously over the desks towards the two girls. One girl was tall and willowy with coffee skin and light-brown curls, cropped short around her stark, heart-shaped face. The other girl was laughing hilariously at Alistair’s advances. She was Asian, small and petite with a gymnast’s build, as well as short-cut, punk, plum-tinted hair. She winked at Seph broadly when she caught her eye before continuing to giggle over Alistair’s antics.

  No one commenced class. No one talked to her. So, she moved forward and sat down in the desk in the very center of the classroom. Slowly, as she concentrated intently on her black-painted nails, she listened as the chatter gradually died down, and she realized that absolutely everybody in the room was staring at her with their variety of grey-shaded eyes. She resolutely stared at her nails, hoping that she was not blushing with all this attention.

  “Ahem,” Phin cleared his throat, and everybody looked to the front, Sarabi still lingering beside him while studying Seph carefully. “I think it’s time we commenced class,” he said regally, and a few of the vampires looked confused, not sure what he meant.

  Eventually, all the vampires found one of their many unused seats. They looked uncomfortable, as though they were not accustomed at all to actually sitting in the desks strewn about the room. They all looked forward again, waiting for Phin to continue.

  “Today, we obviously have a new vampire fledgling amongst us,” he gestured his hand towards Seph unnecessarily. “Persephone Black, age sixteen, known as Seph, is our new sister,” he said with a brilliant, white smile.

  They all stared at her, once again. They sure did stare a lot. She, again, studied her nails. After a moment of silence elapsed, Phin decided to speak again when it was obvious that she was not about to say anything.

  “Why don’t we introduce ourselves?” He suggested, and a few of them sent him very patronizing looks.

  Phin returned them scathingly. One of those few was Alistair. He simply emitted hostility towards her.

  “I’ll start,” Sarabi announced, still lounging beside Phin up front. “I’m Sarabi Umbra. I specialize in flying,” and with that, she suddenly started to rise from the floor, hovering all the way up to the very ceiling.

  Seph knew her eyes had to be huge. The petite Asian girl, much smaller than both Linda and Abernathy, suddenly cleared her throat, asking for the room’s attention without words. In her peripheral, Seph watched as Sarabi slowly settled herself back down on the ground.

  “I’m Masoko Li,” she said with a bright, full-lipped smile. “I’m best at transmogrification,” Seph gave her a weird look before there was a sudden pop!, and where the small girl had been, there was now a flapping bat.

  Her eyes had to look like they were going to pop out now.

  “Alistair,” the hostile vampire said curtly. “Just Alistair. I’m best at mind control,” he said, but with a pointed glare sent his direction by Phin, he did not exemplify this little talent of his.

  “Capri Stone,” said the longish-haired brunette guy, the close friend of the grungy Asian. “I teleport best,” he explained and blinked.

  Seph nearly jumped a foot when there was an outburst of air beside her, where he suddenly appeared. He blinked again, the air sucked back into his empty space, and she watched in awe as he appeared back in his seat, twiddling his fingers at her. He was obviously very satisfied with her astonished look. How could this all be real?

  “Kenji Nguyen,” said the grungy Asian. “I turn into mist,” he explained, and she watched as his body at first began to shimmer and then slowly wavered out of sight.

  She felt the cool mist brush by her face and watched as the sparkling pearls slowly traveled around the room before returning to their original place. He slowly materialized back into his seat. Was this real? She had sucked the blood out of one of her best friends just two nights ago. Yes… this had to be real.

  “Trey Woods,” announced the dark guy with the mohawk. “I heal the best,” and she raised a winged brow to him, not sure what he meant. “We all heal at exceptionally fast rates, as you may have noticed. It is also very hard to harm us. I, however, can hardly be harmed, and even when I am, I heal the fastest. Also, I understand how the healing processes work…” he petered off as Masoko suddenly interjected.

  “He’s saved about three humans’ lives because of what he knows and can do. He knows just what they need, and he’s even given some of them his blood,” Seph’s eyes widened. “Not enough to change them or anything, just enough to heal them. His blood is just real strong in the whole healing department,” she finished, all upbeat, similar to Abernathy in that way.

  “Ya,” he added, and then there was silence.

  “I’m Roberta Frost,” announced the willowy girl sitting next to Masoko. “I’m the fastest of us all. We can all run and travel at amazing speeds, but I’ve been clocked as the fastest,” she smirked smugly, and she saw quite a few unhappy glances pass around the vampiric group, the most disgruntled being Trey’s and Kenji’s.

  “Stefan?” Phin prompted, and the guy looked up sharply.

  “Oh ya,” he started. “I’m Stefan Ross, but you already know that. I’m best at hypnosis,” he said, and she began to open her mouth when he cut her off. “No, I don’t. She likes me for just being me. I only hypnotize people that I need to get somethin’ from,” she gave him a puzzled glance, and he glowered back, daring her to allude to him doing something disrespectful with his girlfriend.

  “And me,” Phin said, grinning broadly. “I am Phineas Dragonfly, but everyone calls me Phin. I specialize in telepathy,” he said, looking at her pointedly.

  But you already know that too, he finished in her mind, and she tried not to shudder.

  “You drink a lot of blood,” Sarabi suddenly said, and everybody looked over at the built, dark woman.

  “Ya, I guess…” Seph admitted with a slight shrug.

  “You’re… what, five feet, three inches in height? Around 120 pounds, I’m guessing?” Seph nodded. “And drinkin’ a pint of blood each meal wasn’t enough? You gotta drink two pints a meal? That’s six pints a day,” she pointed out, and Seph just shrugged again.

  “To each his own,” she replied, guard up in case Sarabi tried to ostracize her as being different, even more different than being a vampire already made her.

  “I propose the drinking game,” Sarabi announced, and immediately everyone sprang to their feet excitedly, except for Phin, who instantly began to voice his disapproval.

  What was the drinking game?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “The drinking game? Sarabi! C’mon!” Phin exclaimed
as the other vampires proceeded to push all the desks out of the way, lining them up against the walls.

  Capri had already helped Seph out of her seat and sat her on the ground. Masoko shoved a plush pillow under her so that she was luxuriating on the black marble floor. She was sitting in a circle with all the other vampires. That was when she noticed a large fridge sitting in a corner of the room this entire time. The blackness of the fridge had merged with the darkness of the walls perfectly, effectively obscuring it. Kenji was seated by it, and after punching in a code on the dial lock, he proceeded to open the fridge. The open door revealed rows upon rows of gallons filled with blood, a waft of cold air sneaking its way over to Seph. Her skin prickled at the prospect of all that blood. There were eight rows for each type of blood. The fridge had not looked that big from the outside, and she suspected magical intervention was involved. One of the vampires had to be particularly skilled in the art, or a witch or wizard had helped them out. Maybe they got along with the other species at least a little better than she had originally suspected… Maybe.

  Suddenly, Kenji set two gallons of blood in front of her, one labeled B- and one labeled A-. They looked absolutely scrumptious to her. She imagined that her eyes were becoming darker by the minute, if not simply because dinnertime was approaching. Also, the prospect of all this free food before her was always tempting, her fangs elongating in her mouth.

  “Drink,” Kenji said, and she just stared at him.

  What exactly was the object of this game? Was the blood spiked? Did they want to drug her or something? It felt like a trap…

  “I’ll explain, even if I don’t agree with the game,” Phin muttered unhappily as he paced around the group, refusing to sit down with the others out of sheer stubbornness at being overruled. “Drink the blood. Drink as much of the blood as you possibly can. Don’t throw up. After we see how much it takes for you to be fully revitalized, which shows how many powers and strengths you can or will have, we can then test your abilities. They’ll be at your fullest potential with all that blood in you, and we’ll be able to see what skills you could ever excel in, and what skills we should probably not even bother honing in with you,” he explained, still surly about the whole situation.

  “Oh, cheer up, PhinPhin. We do this to every new fledgling,” Masoko said perkily, and he scowled at her and the nickname.

  “So, start,” Sarabi commanded, staring at Seph pointedly.

  She sighed. She supposed there were worse things to be forced to do her first day… night… of Vamp Class. Picking up the gallon by the handle, she flipped off the top with her thumb. She stared down into the thick depths of the blood. It was cold… Cold blood was fine with her, but she preferred warm blood. She was expected to be a glutton with all this blood, but if it was going to be chilled…

  “Drink this one first. We’re heating a few gallons up on the burner,” Kenji passed a steaming gallon of A- to her, and she handed him the B- back.

  “Here goes,” she murmured to herself, exhaling slowly, before downing the gallon without pause.

  It was so good! She had not realized how hungry she was! It was getting closer and closer to dinnertime, and two pints of blood each meal really was not that much to her. This was so good. She made sure not to make a mess of herself. She would not allow any blood to dribble down her chin. That was just sloppy. However, her lips never parted from the rim of that gallon as she downed the entire thing with gusto.

  Someone passed her another steaming gallon, and she downed that one much the same as the first. This one was B-, and she liked B-flavored blood. It had a certain tang to it. A-flavored blood was sharper, stronger. B blood had something else to it, softening the edges. It could almost be considered sweet.

  Another gallon was handed to her, and she never stopped. This was B+ blood, and it was just as good as B-. The difference between a positive and negative was the aftertaste. She could not quite define them. She much preferred positive blood for some reason.

  The next gallon was O-, which was all right. O-flavored blood had a common taste to it. Not a common taste, just a taste that one could easily become tired of. A-flavored blood was sharp. B-flavored blood was sweet. O-flavored blood was relatively plain. Positive bloods left a pleasant aftertaste in her mouth while negative bloods left an almost sour aftertaste in her mouth. Sour was not necessarily bad, just different.

  After the fourth gallon of blood, she started to notice the stares she was receiving, considering the fact that she had not paused to take a breath since that first gallon of blood. She slowed just a little then. She drank the fifth gallon, some AB+, at a moderate clip. Her lips never left the rim, but she did not down it as though she had been starving for the past four days. She really liked AB blood. It was delicious. A mix of sweet and sharp, it could become too sweet if one drank too much of it. It was not helped by the positive aftertaste with the sweet tinge to it. She wondered how AB- blood would taste. She wanted to try that.

  The next gallon was AB-, and it was really good. It was sweet and sharp, but it could still be considered too sweet, even with its slightly sour aftertaste. It was good though, and she drank it at the same moderate clip. They were all gawking at her, and she wished they wouldn’t. She noticed Roberta immediately looked away, and Capri did as well, but nobody else seemed to do anything but stare at her, open-mouthed and wide-eyed. Even Phin had stopped his pacing to stare at her. Apparently, she was drinking a lot. After she finished the gallon of AB-, she set the empty gallon done satisfactorily, smacking her lips together pleasantly.

  “Are you finished?” Sarabi asked her, astonished by the six gallons she had drank.

  “I could be,” she offered with a small smile, feeling completely invigorated and confident with all that blood in her.

  “Do you mean you could drink more?” Kenji asked, unable to keep the awe from his voice.

  “I guess…” she answered sheepishly.

  “Drink until you’re full,” Alistair commanded, not nicely at all, as he passed her another gallon.

  It was, disappointingly, only lukewarm. There was something about the tepid temperature that just did not sit well with Seph. She disliked it with any beverage.

  Where’s does she put it all? Roberta wondered rudely.

  She’s not exploding… Capri noted, studying her quizzically.

  Six gallons… There are eighteen pints of blood in the human body… Eight pints to one gallon… She just drank forty-eight pints of blood… That’s… and then all she felt was a shudder from Masoko’s mind.

  She tried to glare at them all over her gallon of O+ that she was currently drinking. Instead, when that was not working too well, she decided to concentrate on her drink. She was starting to feel a little full, to be honest. O+ was not that bad. It did have that common, plain taste to it, but the positive aftertaste was nice. It was pleasant enough. She just did not like O- blood at all. It would be her last choice of the various blood types.

  After that, Alistair passed her a gallon of A+, the last type of blood. They were all looking at her expectantly. A few of them were wondering if she was going to puke or not. A few of the guys were thinking she was looking really attractive right about now, especially with that rosy flush on her cheeks from all the blood. A lot of them were feeling disgusted. They were feeling disgusted not at all the blood because they liked blood, but from the fact that she could drink so much. Maybe disgusted was the wrong word. Scared was more like it.

  She finished the last gallon of the A+ blood and admitted that it was not bad at all. She set the empty gallon down and wanted to burp. She was so full and completely satisfied right about now. That was good. She wondered if they could play these drinking games every class because she liked this. However, it was also very wasteful. She didn’t need all that blood. She hoped that they did not have a limited supply of blood. According to Phin, they didn’t.

  How did she know that? She had not asked Phin before. She had just been looking at him and had easily o
btained the information from his mind as though it had been in her own thoughts. That was… weird.

  She drank sixty-four pints! Roberta exclaimed.

  She could drain three whole people and half of another every single night. She would kill four people a night if she were wild. Or she could just partially drain sixty-four people, a pint per person, Phin noted optimistically.

  This new fledgling’s a little scary, Kenji murmured.

  Kali would love to meet this girl, Alistair said, eyes wide with the notion.

  That was one hungry vampire, Masoko chirped with her usual cheerfulness.

  This girl could become a problem if we’re not careful. She could challenge me once she’s trained, and then… she could win… Sarabi was not too happy about that fact.

  That’s not normal! No vampire should ever be able to drink that much blood in one sitting! What is she?! How powerful is she?! Capri was aghast, somewhat terrified of her, but his face was impassive, hiding his thoughts perfectly.

  I’m happy I’m friends with her and not enemies. Linda better be careful around her though. She better learn to control her hunger because if she attacks Linda ever… Stefan did not finish his own thought. He did not want to because he liked Seph reasonably enough. He found her to be an interesting person… vampire.

  I wanna see what she can do, Trey thought happily, eagerness and curiosity flooding his thoughts.

  Roberta was running, and her foot got caught in a rabbit hole. Her friends were coming to help her. They didn’t know what she was. She would attack them as soon as they freed her. She was so hungry!

  Masoko’s father backhanded her as she hissed at him, fangs exposed. She needed to learn more discipline. She had killed the cat, Fifi, and drained it of all its blood. That was foolish of her. No one could know what she was or what she could do. He was screaming this at her as he kicked her and beat her with anything and everything that he could get his hands on. She was a monster, and a monster wild would have to be put down if she could not learn to control herself.