Blood is Always Thicker

I felt his lingering presence even as I slept and even when he wasn’t there I knew that he was watching me. Against the hardness of those metal walls I seemed too vulnerable, lying there in my own mess, bloodied and bruised. He had left me there like the animal I was, like the animal he thought I was.

I was a half so I didn’t have the thirst of a pure bred, but I did still require the sustenance blood provided. It had been nearly a month since my last feeding and I believed I was due, but he kept me confined to that jail cell, that bare room with no way out. I questioned his true purpose.

The familiar sound of heavy metal being dragged across the floor sounded throughout the room once again. I dreaded that sound even though I had only heard it once since I had been here. I dreaded his presence because it was an intimidating presence, one that I wished to avoid at all cost like some sort of venomous creature that wasn’t to be touched.

“I sense you are ready to feed.” I heard him say through my disorientation. I hadn’t even picked myself from the floor, from within that puddle of sweat and blood.

“I don’t want your blood.”

“It is your only choice.”

I knew that he had expected me to feed from him.

“I’ll do without.”

“Will you?”

He dragged a chair across the floor and placed it in the far right corner. He sat in it, his eyes piercing into me. I turned away.

“I don’t need blood and I need yours even less than that.” I said, lifting myself from the floor. My hair was plastered to my forehead from the caked blood leaving my once blond hair with an eerie red hue.  “To leave me here in this condition is inhumane even from a filthy vampire such as yourself.”

I stood. He watched me still and he didn’t part his lips, not even in the slightest.

“What is your purpose?” I yelled. The frustration had been building up in me because I knew deep down that there was nothing I could do in the shape and state I was in.

“You need me Josiah. I am your only hope for survival.”

“Such a statement is truly conceited on your part. “

“I only speak the truth. “

“The truth is not what I seek! I seek freedom from this wretched room, from this place!”

“When you learn to behave you’ll have all the freedom you need.”

“I am no child! I’m no dog that needs to be taught to release his bows outside! I don’t need to be trained!”

“Here you have no say in anything, even those things that may apply to you. Here you belong to me and I am the one who determines your fate.”

“You are the one who’s ruined my life!”

“I am the one who offered you salvation.”

“You’ve confined me to this room, to my own filth!”

“As inhumane as it may seem, there is a purpose to all of this.”

“Well tell me that purpose!”

“It is not for you to understand.”

“You will release me now!”

“Learn your place.”

“That is all you say! My place is not to be learned! I am human!”

“That you are not.”

“I wouldn’t dare claim to be something that you embrace like a child. Being a vampire is nothing to be proud of. It is only to be feared, to be understood…betrayed…”

“Your views are misconstrued by personal experience. Don’t let your past deny your future.”

“My future is condemned to being here with you!”

“Your future with me is one that will teach you what you need to know to survive, to love, to be strong.”

“I want none of that.”

“Your wants are not your needs.”

I could feel the anger building within me.

“Let me out!”

“No.”

“Let me go!”

“Be quiet.”

“No!”

Just as soon as I uttered that word I regretted it. I regretted having made him angry and he stalked toward me predatory. I backed away. I couldn’t deny that I was wholly afraid of him, though I wanted to believe I could easily defeat him. I couldn’t deny that right now he was a very threatening entity in my life. In my condition I had no choice but to be afraid.

"Will you continue to blame your weakness on your current condition.”?

"What?" I asked confused.

"I can sense your thoughts, and though I cannot hear them in their fullness I am able to interpret them."

"Stay out of my head!"

"You leave your mind wide open."

"Stop it! My thoughts are meant to be private!"

"Lower your voice when speaking to me. I won't ask again."

"Don't treat me this way."

"Is that a command?"

As much as I wanted to say yes, I couldn't. Admittedly I was afraid to. Admittedly I was weak…

“Why are you doing this to me? Why?”

“I only wish to keep you safe.”

“From what?”

“Yourself, the outside world.”

He wiped a stray tear from my cheek, but such an estranged hand was like poison to my flesh. I turned away.

“You need to drink.” He said.

“I refuse.”

“So be it.”

He went back and took his place in that chair. I tried to stomach the pressure building in my throat. My skin grew hot and wet.

I watched him and he watched me, but my eyes held more spite than his nonchalant stare. He was enjoying watching me suffer, watching me struggle to hold back the vampire in me, but such a thing couldn’t be assumed for his eyes held no emotion, no feeling. That daunting stare haunted me when I slept and even now it sent shivers down my spine. He was waiting for me to beg for it, to go crawling on my knees for him to offer me his wrist.

“I don’t need you or anyone else.”

My voice was raspy and broken. I could hear his pulse and mine beating heavily. I covered my ears to rid myself of the noise, all the noises. I could hear breathing, I could hear footsteps, I could hear the blood flowing through my veins.

“The noises will only grow louder.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

He chuckled.

“I won’t play your games.”

I wasn’t looking, but I could hear his footsteps coming closer to me until he was standing above me. His shadow encompassed me in a darkness that was so black, so deep and consuming.

“Stay away from me!” I yelled, scooting back onto my bottom. Everything he did was loud, so loud that I couldn’t hear myself think. I needed to think.

“You are a vampire.” He said pulling out a small golden blade. “Whether you wish to deny this or not, it is what you are.” He pulled back his sleeve. “ I do not have all day.” He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and laid me on my back across his legs.

“No please! I do not want to feed!”

I tried to struggle but he was strong, stronger than I could have ever imagined. He held me still with the palm of his white gloved hand and nothing more. How could I have allowed myself to get so weak, so vulnerable.

“As much as I’d like to entertain your foolishness I will not.”

He dragged the small blade against his flesh until a thin line of blood was provoked to the surface. I watched it abnormally amazed at its consistency. Rats and deer from which I had fed from before were much different. They never willingly offered me their blood and I regretting having to take their lives so that I may live a life I didn't deserve.

“Drink.” he said, placing his wrist onto my lips. The smell, the feel. It all drove me crazy. I needed it. I needed it bad!

I grabbed his wrist like a hungry animal, wrapping my lips around his pale flesh and feeding from those wonderful veins. I didn’t notice when he grabbed a fist full of my hair and brought my head back. My head was spinning, but I could feel some of my strength return. I could feel my wounds closing and my vision became clearer. I realized what I was doing.

"No more... No more."

I pushed his arm away.

"Keep going."

"I'm finished."

"Keep going."

He held me still.

"NO!"

He pressed his wrist to my lips smearing the blood there. He pressed the back of my head so that my lips were parted and my cries were muffled.

"I want my blood to flow completely through your veins and you through mine."

He lifted me up.

"Its my turn."