Desire of the Soul

by Alana Topakian

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  Apparently Luke hadn’t gotten the notice that I was sleeping all day, because in he walked at ten in the morning to wake me up. I had to hold in my rage to strangle him, since I mean, a girl needs her beauty sleep.

  “Wake up Tammy!” he shouted, and I shot out of bed. It took all of my strength not to let my fangs slide out, and not to attack. Luke looked different, and I knew it was probably because of me. He was thinner, as though he hadn’t truly eaten in days, and he looked tired. My anger at him for waking me up evaporated as quickly as it had come, and I took a step toward him. 

  “Luke... you look terrible! What happened to you?” I asked, pushing the hair that had fallen in his face away. He shivered at my touch, his body moving closer to mine. 

  “I don’t know, I just want to be with you. I need to be with you.” Luke’s voice was husky, and his eyes looked wild. I turned away from him, afraid of whom he was becoming. What had I done?

  There was a rustling as Luke got something from his pocket, and I turned around to watch as he pressed a knife against his warm, tan neck and blood started to flow out. Luke then closed and locked my bedroom door, and put down the knife.

  My eyes watched his neck the whole time, as the scent of his sweet blood filled me with a burning hunger. “No, Luke, please don’t,” I begged, my voice weak. My canines grew, and Luke walked towards me.

  “I want you to do this Tammy. I need you to do this,” he said, but my ears were tuned into the sound of his blood rushing through his veins. I couldn’t hold back anymore, and bit where the line of blood was.

  The reaction was immediate, both our bodies pressing together and his hands sliding up my shirt. The world was a kaleidoscope of colors, spinning around Luke and I as we slid to the floor. Heat was spreading throughout my body as Luke’s hands explored, and I groaned. 

  My hands played with the waistband of his jeans before sliding in, and he pulled us closer. The voice in my head was telling me to stop, that I was taking too much blood and things were getting too heated. I didn’t want to listen to the voice, I wanted to continue until there was nothing left, until I was fully sated, but I wasn’t a killer and Luke didn’t deserve to die.

  I extracted my fangs from Luke’s neck, not surprised when the heat was replaced by coldness. Luke sighed; his eyes glazed, and passed out on my bed. I waited until he was fully asleep before leaving my bedroom. My parents were nowhere to be seen, the only reason Luke had gotten into my bedroom while I was sleeping. My parents weren’t stupid as to what a guy wanted at this age, and would have gone to wake me themselves before letting him near me.

  I felt strong again, the blood of Luke and Kallisto having stopped my thirst for now. I went into the laundry room, glad to see my clean clothes sitting on the dryer. I grabbed the dark denim shorts, light pink spaghetti top, and a towel then left for the bathroom.

  My shower was short, only ten minutes, but it felt like heaven. The water washed away all the dirt and grime from the past couple days, and it felt good to put on clean clothes. When I got out of the shower and put on the clothes, Luke wasn’t in my bedroom anymore. I closed my eyes tightly, taking a deep breath, trying to think of which room in my house he was in. 

  “Tammy!” he yelled, his voice light and woozy sounding, “Tammy, I made breakfast!”

  The smell of burnt waffles wafted into my nose, and I sighed and ran downstairs. Luke had made almost ten waffles; all burnt, and piled them on a thin white coffee plate. The smell was thick, and I had to force myself to stop breathing so I wouldn’t choke on the scent.

  Whoever taught Luke to cook hadn’t done the best job. Poor kid didn’t even know when a waffle was burning, well that and his judgment was slightly screwed up right now, thanks to me.

  Luke kept piling more and more waffles on the plate, until the smoke was spreading throughout my house, and I had to forcefully pull him away from the stove. I threw out all the waffles, and then opened the windows and doors to air out the smell. 

  “What the hell?” I asked, my voice sharp enough to cut glass. Luke hugged his arms around himself, as if I was physically hurting him, and looked at me with wide eyes.

  “I was making you food.” he whispered, his voice weak. “I thought-I thought you would be hungry. After... you know.” 

  I closed my eyes, and then slowly opened them again. “Luke, I’m not even sure if I can eat real food. I mean I haven’t really tried to, and you are the one who needs to eat. Not me.”

  Luke’s smiled at me, and my heart softened. For so long I’d thought of him as only an ass, as only someone who could bring up my rankings in popularity. He didn’t deserve that though, he didn’t deserve to be judged like that. I should have tried to get to know him, tried to love him, before thinking that about him. “I’m fine. Why don’t you try to eat though? I’ll make you something better, something that I can’t screw up. How about a bowl of strawberries?” he asked.

  I couldn’t deny him, he just looked so sweet, standing there with his eyes all lit up and that adorable smile. I nodded, and watched as he pulled strawberries out of my fridge and put them into a glass bowl. They didn’t smell all that appetizing, but I chalked that up to my body not needing to eat food anymore. Blood was definitely enough to support my system.

  After just one strawberry and a long stint in the bathroom, most of which was spent throwing up, I learned the hard way. Human food and my system did not go together. At all.

  “I’m so sorry Tammy, I should never have even suggested giving you food. That was so stupid of me, so stupid,” Luke said, rubbing at the scruff on his chin.

  “It’s okay, at least I figured out what would happen should I eat food in front of other humans,” answered back, shrugging my shoulders. “I mean I’ve seen Duke eat, and he seemed to tolerate it, but I guess that’s since he’s a lot older than I am. Sorry you had to see that, Luke.”

  “Duke…isn’t that the guy who I made you call? The one who-” Lukes’ mouth dropped, and he stepped away from me. “I-oh God, I am so sorry Tammy. It was my fault; you’re like this because of me. I did this to you!” he exclaimed, hands pulling at his hair.

  I felt the world start to spin, my heart dropping as I felt myself start to pull away from my body.

  “Tammy? Tammy are you okay?” Luke asked, and I felt him grab onto my arms. 

  “Go, leave now and get Duke. Hurry!” I managed to whisper, before I felt myself fall to the ground and separate from my broken body.

  I looked down and watched as Luke scrambled to his feet, running out of the house as if he knew what was about to happen should he stay. That was impossible though, he was just a human, human’s didn’t know about us. Right?