Requiem for Blood

by Alexandra Hope

  Night had fallen and Olivia left a sleeping Bear on the couch as she went and zipped up a dark jacket by the door. Noah had immersed himself in food and conversation with David and she was halfway out the door when Troy stopped her.

  “Where are you going?” he tried to ask in a non-abrasive manner but couldn't help the anger that lived within every word directed at her.

  “I must feed. I haven't for three days.”

  Troy thought back to three days ago when Noah volunteered his blood up and as if reading his thoughts, she answered.

  “I cannot feed from him anymore.”

  “So better to take the blood of someone who is unwilling?” he asked in shocked irritation. He leaned in and fell deeper into a whisper, unaware that he had been whispering the whole time. “You have no control, you—”

  “I have not killed Noah.”

  “That's because you had two kitsunes there to protect him.”

  She had slipped the rest of her body through the door but he tugged on her sleeve before she could get far. Instinctively, her eyes met his and the glaciers within them had melted but not quite warmed up as they looked into her fiery ones.

  “I'll come with you then.”

  “I did not ask you to come,” she said, defiantly.

  “It's a good thing I'm not asking,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

  Olivia ran through the town with Troy just a few steps behind. He had been pressing his hands on benches and flipping over them, tumbling to the ground and picking up speed again as he ran. It was unlike anything she had ever seen, the way he bounced from rooftop to rooftop and leaped into the unknown. It felt like a stab in her heart. She kept stopping to whip her head around every time she felt that odd sensation within her body and politely asked him to stop when he came near her.

  They had finally made it to the hospital and Troy told her to wait outside. Under the blue and white lights, she sat amongst the humans shuffling in and out of the hospital; on crutches, in wheelchairs, with balloons and flowers and even babies. Her senses were overstimulated by the sight rather than the smell. Despite how weakened some had been, she had never seen so much life before, especially when her eyes fell on a baby just a few days old. She thought about the life the woman had given birth to and what that child had the potential of becoming but before she could get lost in such thoughts she finally caught the smell of blood. She saw someone being ushered in and turned away to withhold her thirst, mentally urging Troy along. He emerged with a woman dressed in scrubs and Olivia popped up in front of them in a flash. When he asked her to leave it to him, she didn't expect that he would procure a live human for her and she wondered if his conscience was still functioning properly.

  He looked in the woman's eyes and began speaking softly and when he was done, the woman willingly walked further away from the hospital with them to a dark and empty corner. Olivia's fangs elongated and her eyes remained clear as she forced her fangs through the woman's flesh. It was out of place for him and they both felt uncomfortable but Troy coached her along, keeping her out of her bloodlust and focused on taking only what she needed. His words were exactly what she needed to stay grounded and when she drew back, her eyes were full of appreciation when she looked at him. She licked the blood from her mouth and after biting into her own skin, used her blood to seal the woman's bite marks. Troy stole away the woman's memories of the feeding and they walked her back to work.

  Olivia felt a twinge in her brain as they headed toward the house and Troy tried to inquire about it but she waved it away as nothing. She didn't think that she needed to tell them about the pains she had been having because she knew they must have been a gateway to the nightmares and if she bore the pain, maybe the nightmares would come back.

  As Troy showered, he couldn't help but feel disgusted at what he allowed himself to do. There was no reasoning his actions and yet he easily agreed when she asked him to do it again the next night. Noah was at the door in dark skinny pants and a light gray vest over a white dress shirt he had picked up from a shop. He was adamant about going with them, annoyed that they had snuck off together in the first place. Erika just laughed at him and called him ridiculous among other things and when Olivia requested that he not come, he took a seat next to Erika. She called back to them before they left the house.

  “Be quick with whatever you're doing, I want to train at the lake later.”

  Troy nodded and closed the door then she turned to Noah. “You know what they're gonna do right?”

  “What?”

  “Each other,” she said with a huge grin.

  Noah shook his head and laughter spilled out of Erika's mouth. “You walked right into that one.”

  Troy suddenly felt sick after he waved a man down who was sitting on a park bench. He went in under the guise of asking for directions then gave him a calming speech before Olivia came up behind him and bit down. Troy watched as the man swayed dizzily and the blood was drained from him.

  “Olivia....” he warned.

  She still had her fangs deep within him and could barely hear what Troy was saying. He pulled her off of the man and he fell to his knees, unconscious. Troy didn't have time to give her a dirty look and instead took her pocket knife and cut his wrist. She watched in awe at how his blood was able to heal the man and bring him back to consciousness. The man took in a long and exaggerated breath and began puffing it out as he looked around, scared. Troy looked into his eyes and told him everything would be alright and when he was done, sent him on his way.

  “I'm...” she began.

  “Don't,” his voice was soft. “Just realize how little self control you have and continue to work with Erika until you've learned how to be a better vampire.”

  She wiped the blood away and nodded.

  When they arrived at the lake, Erika greeted them with fire but had been more focused on getting Troy to manipulate fire than to get Olivia to fight. No matter how close she came to threatening his existence, he couldn't seem to get a single spark going and after noticing this, she stopped. He had gotten better at evading her and for the first time, emerged from the fight without a single scar, but then he figured she may have just been going easy on him.

  “Not bad,” she said.

  He nodded as his chest heaved up and down with every heavy breath he took. “Yeah, you didn't kill me.”

  “But I was definitely trying too.”

  “I know.”

  Olivia's eyes were on Troy for a minute, making sure that he was alright and then they traveled to Noah who was sitting at the edge of the pier, splashing at the water in frustration. She started toward him but stopped when she heard Erika speaking to Troy. “Fox fire comes from our emotions. When you hear people explain passion it's always talked about as something fiery, so fox fire is simply passion...it can come from immense love or immense hate but there has to be something driving it. It can't just come from nowhere.”

  Both Olivia and Troy thought back on the fire he created as he sat in front of Alexa and then he asked, “So where does your fire come from?”

  “You'll figure it out one day...” she said optimistically.

  When Olivia sat down beside Noah, she felt a stab at her brain and her eyes fluttered several times before the pain left. He turned to her slowly, “Did whatever you needed to do?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Good,” he said in a somber voice.

  He looked back onto the calm water after he stopped thrashing his legs about. He felt for his friend and understood her plight but he couldn't help but feel out of place when she went off with Troy on whatever supernatural business they had to do. He let out the quietest of sighs but Olivia heard it clearly and wondered what could be aching him. He almost didn't hear the sound of the wooden planks as Olivia stood up but when she dropped her jacket, he turned to it. “What are you doing?” he asked when he looked up from the jacket.

  “The water looks nice. I wonder how it feels.”

  She
kicked off her sneakers and Noah grinned as he followed suit. He pulled off his shirt, vest and shoes and then jumped in the water, it's waves rippling outward and shards of liquid crashing against her skin and soaking it. The dive into the water forced Troy's eyes on them and despite his best efforts to turn away as Olivia pulled her shirt off, he couldn't. His eyes bored into her and followed every scar that traveled across her skin as they dipped beneath her bra before emerging on the other side. He knew he had seen her regenerate before and figured those were the scars too far engrained into her skin to escape. The ones she got as a human. He couldn't figure out what kind of person would make children fight to near death, but then again, he couldn't figure out what kind of human actively drank another human's blood. His brain was at a loss for understanding either of them.

  “So, are you trying to kill her with your laser death stare or are you just a gigantic pervert?”

  Troy turned away and cleared his throat but he didn't speak as he walked away. Olivia was pulled into the water by Noah and he splashed her several times in the face. He watched her sink to the bottom and remain under water, showing off her impressive skills. Troy resolved not to look in their direction but couldn't silence the sounds that came from them, as if she truly enjoyed his company even if the laughter was absent. Of course she did, he thought, because even if he wasn't in love with her, she had to be in love with him.

  He left the lake and Olivia and Noah remained in the water for a bit longer until he declared that it had gotten too cold for him. She felt nothing and stayed in as he pulled his shirt and vest back on.

  “I'd say get out so you don't freeze to death but you're already dead,” he tried to say as a joke but was hurt by his own words.

  She pulled herself onto the pier and after putting her shirt back on, spread herself onto the planks. She watched Noah put on his shoes and told him to go on without her after seeing his shivering body. All she had left to deal with was Erika who insisted she stay behind. She walked over to Olivia just as she was pulling her body upright and crouched down to be eye level with her with a wicked smile on her face.

  “Been going out on nightly blood runs with Troy? I can smell it on.” There was a twinkle in her eye as she spoke. “I'm not a blood drinker but I imagine every feed leads you down the slow descent to ecstasy...”

  “If you are relating feeding to intercourse—”

  Erika chuckled. “Actually, I'm not. But if I were relating it to something, it'd be a Requiem. There's something sad about watching humans die in your hands, isn't there?”

  Twenty One

  Olivia welcomed the day briefly, catching a small glimpse of the sun before drawing the curtains over the window to avoid it's rays. She left Bear in the living room downstairs and had sunk into the bed for a day's worth of sleep. When her eyes closed, the darkness that she saw dispersed as white filled it.

  She once again found herself in a endless white void, reminiscent of the hallway from her previous nightmare. Dressed in black, she walked down it with only the sound of water splashing beneath her feet as a reminder that she was moving. The hall did not narrow out or change course or color making it hard for Olivia to find it's end, if it had any. As she trudged along to a seemingly nowhere space she thought she heard the faintest of sounds, like silverware clattering together.

  When she took her next step she saw a small metal knob, the only hint she had that what lie before her was a door. She tugged at it and when she stumbled through, she was met with another white room but this time something had filled it. There was a long table, its top made of marble and it's legs a dark espresso that flexed outward in a curve. Ceramic plates and lavish silverware adorned the table neatly amongst the folded napkins and glassware. At the head of the table sat her mother, her dark brown hair falling over her shoulders in waves. Gaudy jewelry hung from her ears and neck and she noticed that she was wearing the black dress she wore in mourning.

  Olivia followed her mother's hand that motioned her to a chair at the opposite end of the table and she took steps toward it but hesitated and did not sit down. She heard the tug on the chair and turned to see it had been pulled out by Troy who was once again in a black suit and tie. His hair was slicked back and he had a lustful grin on his face as he awaited her to sit. When she did, he tucked her chair into the table and went to his seat. Alexa had walked in and sat down across from him, followed by Noah who sat by her. Olivia tried to speak and she knew her mouth had been moving but no words were coming out. She watched as Noah pulled a glass of scarlet liquid from his lips and grinned at her.

  She opened her mouth once again to speak, but still no words came out. She heard the chatter amongst Noah and Alexa, and heard Troy join in as well but it all came to a halt when her mother stood up from her chair with a glass in hand. Her eyes had darkened and when Olivia looked away, she saw that Troy's blueish green eyes had hollowed out to an empty blue and Alexa and Noah's had done so as well. The three wore broad grins as they focused on Olivia and listened to each word as they came out of Mar's mouth.

  “Tonight we celebrate the death of my dearest Olivia,” she said then took a sip of blood. “Her permanent death.”

  Mar's movements were fast and with the glass already back down on the table she was behind Olivia. Her hands were on Olivia's shoulder who had turned to her and she was shaking the girl. She heard her name being called but she had closed her eyes, too afraid to look. She felt her mother's hand travel to her neck and tighten as she began to constrict her airway. Olivia forced her eyes open and pulled a large, sharp knife from the table and stabbed it through her mother's heart. She ripped the knife from her heart and stabbed her once more. Blood had trickled down Mar's lips as a name left her mouth one last time.

  “Olivia....”

  Bear's barks had pulled her out of her nightmare and when she forced her eyes open she sat on the kitchen floor with Noah lying in a pool of blood beneath him.

  She had tossed the bloody knife to the side, the clanking of the metal against the tile forcing Bear away. She turned Noah onto his back and shook at the sight of the blood, her lips trembling as she screamed for help. Pulling him onto her lap, she bit her wrist and held an unsteady arm over his lips, the blood falling all over his face. She screamed out again, her voice so full of tears that she was almost incomprehensible. “Troy!”

  She was crying as she wiped the blood from his face and tried to feed him her blood again. He was unresponsive and she shook her head defiantly, unwilling to allow him to succumb to death. “No! You cannot!” she cried out. As Bear listened in on her sorrowful sobs, he went in search of Troy, running upstairs and barking frantically at the room door that was left ajar. When the dog came back down, he saw Olivia had been bleeding all over after cutting herself with the knife to pour out as much blood as possible. She lay over Noah's body, her head buried in his neck as she whimpered and the tears ran the blood off of his skin. She had yelled out one last time for Troy and knew deep down that he wouldn't come.

  She didn't move from his body and instead lay over him as hours passed, the sky now darkened and telling her it was time to wake up. She didn't have to wonder how she had gotten downstairs as it was easily apparent to her that something in her sleep had beckoned her to kitchen, that she had been sleep walking as Alexa had once told her. She heard the creak of the door and was in the foyer with pleading eyes as Troy looked at her blood stained skin and clothes.

  “What happened?” he asked, his eyes frantically searching for Bear.

  She shook her head slowly as more tears streamed down her face. “Please help Noah...”

  Troy dropped his gym bag and followed the blood trail to the kitchen where he lay in his blood. He was stunned by the sight and she heard the hasty thump as his heart revved up after it paused for a moment. He pulled Noah up and leaned his back onto the under sink cabinet doors, his hand pressing onto his chest despite the fact that all the blood had already poured out of him.

  “Please give him your
blood!” she shouted with urgency.

  He took the knife and slit his wrist then brought it to Noah's mouth. As he waited, he pulled a frantic Olivia into his arms to keep her eyes off the sight but she pulled away and fell to Noah's side crying out, “Why has it not worked? Please feed him more!”

  “I don't know if it'll help, I'm only half,” he said with regret.

  “But you must!” she cried out. “You must! Please!”

  He pulled out his cellphone and each time he dialed a number he was met with the same message. He yelled into the phone and as he did there was a knock at the door. Olivia answered the door and almost fell into the girl's arms as she begged Erika for her blood. Erika placed a palm up in an effort to stop her cries which had quickly given her a migraine. She slowly followed her into the kitchen and her eyebrows perked up at the sight.

  She sighed and spoke nonchalantly. “This is what happens when you reach out to that vampire. I told you it wasn't a good idea to search for him, in real life or your dreams.”

  Olivia couldn't hear her words as she focused on Noah and then once again asked Erika for her blood. She looked at Olivia in disbelief then took a step towards Noah, falling into a crouch as she examined him.

  “Isn't he passed his expiration date?” she asked, her face contorted.

  “Couldn't you just try?” snapped Troy.

  “I could, but why would I? He's clearly dead beyond repair.”

  Troy shook his head and tightened his fist. “Just try!”

  “Fine then,” she relented. Blood poured out of her bite marks and she yanked him forward with no sense of delicacy. She rested his body back against the cabinet and they waited for another hour or so. Troy had cleaned up most of the blood and Olivia had absolutely no thirst as she sat there awaiting his rebirth. She had grabbed a blood bag from the refrigerator and sat on the floor in front of him.