Shadows

Thirst

It was the day after the ball. The Istrati’s had gone out to hunt which left me alone with the servants… oh the joys of not thirsting for blood. I remembered that my doppelganger had stated that I should start feeling that my abilities were awakening soon, but there was nothing… not even a tingle. Even my senses were still dull.  I knew I should have tried to change it the moment I knew what I was. The thought of blood still churned my stomach but not as much anymore and I knew that it was time to try and face that fear. The servant’s always knew how to get their hands on the donor stuff. It was for when they were far too hungry to go hunt. They weren’t and would never be as strong as the Maser’s and Ladies of households.

   I made my way into the kitchen and walked out into the back room. There was another freezer here that was meant for one thing and one thing only, the blood.  Opening it up I grabbed one of the blood packs nestled in it and just stared. I stared at it for a moment or two… the blood flowed back and forth, staining the packet it was contained in. My stomach didn’t churn but I eyed it cautiously… if one drop was spilled down here the servants would indeed go into a frenzy. Shoving the packet under my clothes and shivering from the sudden touch of the icey cold packet, I made my way back up to my room. All the way I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I had stolen from friends… which is exactly what they were to me.

  Once in my room, I sat down on one of the chairs and pulled the packet out from under my clothes. Taking a deep breath I bit open the top. A few drops leaked through and touched my tongue. The metallic flavour erupted along it and I… I actually liked it. Placing the ripped end to my mouth I slurped and gulped down a mouthful. It was cool, fresh and left me hungry for more.

‘Don’t overdo it child’ a voice echoed in my head, ignoring it I continued to chug the rest of its contents til there would be nothing else. After a moment or two I stood up and my head throbbed I also realised I couldn’t see straight, I needed to throw up or be sick, reaching my hand out the room began to whirl, my eye sight blurred even more so and little black dots began to spread across my vision… what was happening? Feeling more than sick I fell to floor with a crack.

   I felt hands raise me off the ground, with a grunt they lifted me up onto a soft and plush mattress.

“Vicki?” he breathed, my eyes rolled around under their lids “Jesus Christ, what did you do?”

“Drank… blood” I moaned, he grunted and placed a cold hand to the back of my head “S-Sorry” a waft of cold air swarmed around me and I sighed out of relief. I was sweating and felt extremely hot.

“Open your eyes” slowly I did as he asked, looking up at him I slowly smiled “Why did you drink the blood?”

“Needed to wake up one side” his brow slowly creased as I slurred my statement “Dhampir… member?”

“Yes I know, but from the looks of what you drank… you raided the servants stash did you not?”

“Yeah”

“Well it’s the servants for a reason” he laughed “It weakens them so that they have no chance of standing up to us if they wanted to go on strike or something”

“How?”

“It’s drugged” I turned my head to the side, totally embarrassed at what I had done. He walked around and crawled on the bed, so that he was lying next to me “Vicki, if you wanted to explore then you should have just asked” he shifted closer so that our foreheads met, I stared into his jade like eyes feeling a little more than foolish and slightly dazed.

  Until I felt like my normal self we remained like that, once or twice he reached over to brush a strand of hair from my eyes. But other than that we were both happy with just lying there ‘You are so perfect’ I thought.