Owning the Vampire King

Buying Blood

As we rode to the store, I decided to start up a conversation. We would be spending a lot of time together now, so we should get to know each other. At least, that's the way I see it.

"Can I call you Will?"

He doesn't speak but instead smiles at me and nods. I rack my brain for something to ask about but come up short, so I go basic.

"So. What are some things you like?"

Good Lord, stop being so awkward, Lillian. You are seventeen.

He chuckles before answering, "Beaches... swimming, reading, water, blood, your house, your hair, your smile..." He trailed off, clearing his throat and looking out the window.

I smiled, "dislikes?"

"Hunters," he whispered. I thought he wouldn't say anymore but a few seconds later he was talking again.

"Fire, weapons, being sold, your mother-"

"Why don't you like my mother," I asked, watching the driver park the car in the lot of the store.

He gave a subtle shrug, "She made you unhappy the minute you walked in the house. Not a very good way to live."

I smiled a half-hearted smile before getting out of the car. We walked into the store together.

Once inside I called over the first worker I saw, "Um, excuse me. Do you know where I can find blood bags?"

The older gentleman showed me a warm smile before leading William and I to the back corner of the store. There, connected to the entire back corner wall, was a fridge full of blood bags.

I turned to Wil, who was eyeing the freezer. "What type do you prefer?"

"O negative..." he trailed off, "is expensive. I like O positive."

I laughed and playfully rolled my eyes. "Twenty bags of O negative, please. Can you store them until I come back in a few minutes?"

The man nodded, so I grabbed Will's hand and drug him towards 'Men Clothing.' When we stopped walking, he pulled away.

I don't know why, but I felt a small pang of sadness. I shook it off and looked through the shelf of shirts.

"Why'd you do that?"

I held a white tee up to his frame before draping it over my arm. I did the same with a couple of other tees with different designs. I picked out one polo shirt, and two dress shirts, draping them over my arm as well.

"Do what?"

"Purchase the o negative..."

I shrugged, walking over to the wife beaters and gesturing for him to follow. Once I found his size, I got two white ones and two black ones.

"These do not cover very much," he glanced at the shirts I was picking out.

"They aren't supposed to. They're meant to be an undershirt. Or for when it's really hot."

"Oh."

I waved him over to the pants, holding in a laugh at his confused expression. Finding his size in pants was easy. Once I did so, I grabbed several pairs of jeans, shorts, sweats, and a pair of slacks. Satisfied with the clothes I had picked, I walked him over to the shoes.

I grabbed him several pairs before we went back towards the blood 'spot.' We grabbed the blood I had asked for and went to the cash register.

The cashier looked at me as if I'd lost my mind, but I paid for it all in cash and told her to have a nice day. I had Will carry half of the items to the car while I carried the other half.

It was more like 60/40. He kept taking bags from my hands like I couldn't carry them.

We put everything in the trunk and started the trip back home. On the way back, he decided to ask me the same questions I asked about him.

"So what are your likes and dislikes?"

I thought for a second before replying, "My likes? The sunset, reading, food, sleep, books, the library down the road from my house, the park down the road from the library, and my room.

"My dislikes? Anything loud, fake people, annoying people, liars, school, and my mom."

"Why do you dislike your mother?"

Deja vu.

"She has this mindset of pleasing everyone around her instead of just going with the flow and just loving herself the way she is. She yelled at me for the first time ever this morning and I'm not even sure what I did. It's pretty disheartening."

He frowned, and it was a deep frown. "Oh. I apologize."

"Don't. You didn't do anything," I smiled at him as the driver parked the car in the driveway and opened the trunk. Once again, William took most of the stuff I bought as we went back to my room.

Once there, I began taking everything out of the bags. I put most of the blood in my mini fridge and hung his clothes in my closet, placing his new shoes next to mine on the floor. The blood that didn't fit in my mini fridge, I took downstairs to put in the kitchen fridge.

"I, uh, figure we'll be clearing a bedroom for you soon, but until then you'll have to sleep on my floor. Mom doesn't trust you being outside my room."

Will just nods.

"Oh crap. Will?"

He looks up now.

"You still hungry?"

He smiled and nodded again. I went to my mini fridge and bent down to get him a bag of blood, but jumped heard a growl behind me. When I turned, he was sitting on my bed with his elbows on his knees, his eyes closed, and his head in his hands. I furrowed my brows but handed him the blood.

He thanked me quietly, and I saw his fangs elongate before he bit into the bag, eyes closed as he drank. Within a minute the bag was empty.

He pulled his teeth from the empty bag and licked his lips, sighing in content. He opened his eyes and I saw that a deep red replaced the normal brown.

Beautiful.

He smirked and licked his lips once more. "May I have another, please?"