Chapter 4 #2
The younger doctor returns with a clear bag full of red liquid with a tube I can use like a straw. I push myself up to a better sitting position in the bed and snatch the bag out of his hand before sucking it down within seconds.
Mmm. . . it tastes sweet. A mixture of stardust, berries, and a hint of floral. Faerie blood. A female faerie too, guys always have an earthier bitterness.
The one bag is nowhere near enough, but I’ll eat more at lunch and at least now I can feel the wounds on my face fully healing. There will probably still be some marks left that’ll take a day or so to fade, but at least they didn’t scar. I wasn’t out long enough for them to scar.
Handing the empty bag to the young doctor, he takes it and dips away. Finally placing my focus on the Dean who looks like he’s about to burst a blood vessel, I give him the answer he wants.
“Unfortunately, I do tend to be a bit clumsy.” The words sound hollower than I intended them to be, but they echo in my mind alongside a memory from a long time ago. It makes me feel almost numb. “I’ll try to be more careful next time.”
I can see out of the corner of my eye Jullia gaping at me, as well as her sister and Asher staring with shocked eyes.
The Dean doesn’t hesitate and nods before storming off.
Behind him still stands Professor Asier who’s peering at me with probing eyes, Callahan and Thorne with matching blank expressions, and the last one I don’t have a name for with curiosity in his icy blue gaze.
He’s the one who has the silver embroidered wings. And if we’re following the theme, he’s either going to be a demigod or an angel. Since his symbol is a pair of wings I’m going to guess angel. I wonder if he has actual wings.
Deciding to now ignore them, I turn back towards Jullia who looks like she’s frozen in shock. Glancing at Asher, I ask, “So what happened after? And how long was I out?”
“Only ten minutes,” an unfortunately familiar sounding voice answers.
Callahan steps around Professor Asier to stand on the left side of the bed. His hands are in his pants pockets and he has a smirk on again.
“Bit impressive, if you ask me. Even Thorne felt a bit surprised with how fast you opened your eyes.” He licks his lips as his grin quirks.
“As far as what happened? Well Ruleten picked you up to bring you here and you had been begging for his blood. Tell me though, why was it you were begging for another taste?”
I don’t know if it’s anger or suspicion or maybe even jealousy, but he says those last few words differently. His tone got a bit darker and I can sense tendrils of his magic.
Now that my face is more or less fully healed I take my hands and rub at them. The headache also subsided a bit, but the action causes a pulse to make me flinch. That doesn’t stop me though because I rub it again and a third time for good measure. I’m still hungry. And now I’m exhausted.
Still. . . I raise an eyebrow at the devil. “I didn’t know you were the owner of Asher’s blood. As far as I was aware blood sharing was allowed as long as both parties were consenting.”
Professor Asier’s eyes widen and Thorne ‘whatever his last name was’ drops his mouth open before snapping it shut. Callahan, however, goes extremely still as he watches me.
Asher, for some reason being nervous, steps in. “It was most definitely not blood sharing.” Agitated and almost afraid. “She made a blood oath to not harm Jullia, that was it.”
Exhausted with all of this and wanting my shitty bed, I throw the blanket over my legs off and swing my feet to the right.
Jullia has her mouth screwed shut with Hanna, both standing behind Asher and both with their eyes on the floor.
Though as I begin to stand up Jullia looks up at me with both hurt and anger.
My vision goes in and out for a second but I stay conscious and simply keep a tight grip on the bed so I don’t sway.
“Same difference,” I mumble.
“The fuck it is,” a drawling voice responds, though it’s now threatening instead of lazy.
When my vision clears I look over at the celestials. Callahan looks much more relaxed and has a smirk on his face again. Professor Asier has his stoic scowl back on, the possible angel still looks curious, and the possible demon is glaring at me now.
I rub at my face again. It makes the headache worse but I don’t care.
Ten minutes. That’s what Callahan said, meaning I have fifteen left to get to my next class. Then lunch is after that. I’ll have one more class and depending on how I feel after maybe I’ll do a rest day and go look for a job tomorrow.
“Whatever. I don’t care.” Looking up to Asher I sigh. “I’m sorry for that, I hope I didn’t hurt you. It had just been a while since I drank and after getting burned it just heightened the hunger. Not that you have to worry about it anyways, I would have been otherwise fine.”
Someone hums but I don’t bother turning around.
“I thought I made it clear that when I’m speaking to you, you look at me, Ms. Tsuki.”
Oh not this shit again.
Now fully on my feet, I turn to face the professor. Focusing solely on him and waiting for him to say whatever he’s going to say.
“How is it you do have such a control over your bloodlust? Especially for being turned not even two months ago?”
He sounds cold and detached. It could be simply curiosity because it is an anomaly. Ms. Elaycia had said it normally takes vampires multiple years to get a handle on it. And even then they still wouldn’t turn down blood if it was right in front of their face.
But there’s a strain in the professor’s body. His words were open for me to answer but his body is demanding that I do so. It’s made more apparent by a subtle shift in the air and a tickle in my nose. All of a sudden I have a wish to tell him everything. To blurt it all out.
What a clever devil.
The corner of my lips slightly curl. His nostrils flair at it.
“A devil,” I answer. “One I’d say is nearly exactly like you. He taught me all about control.”
“I’ve never heard of a devil wanting to adopt a human,” Callahan says, though I know what he’s trying to ask.
“Oh, his generosity knew no bounds.” And that’s not a fucking lie.
“The nonmortals on Earth are a lot different. His wife was a mage, they were fated, but she couldn’t have kids.
Nonmortal children are rare and I just so happened to have similar features as her and being a toddler I was the next best thing. Any more questions?”
I point that question to Professor Asier since he so needed to know how I have such control over bloodlust. My answer to that also wasn’t technically a lie.
Callahan chuckles and asks another fucking question. I had meant mine to be rhetorical.
“What are your natural features, firecracker?”
Not this again with that stupid nickname.
I scoff at it but shrug my shoulders. Brushing my hands around my neck I flip my hair.
Then I gesture to myself. “Basically this. Black hair, I just dye it blue and pink at the ends, but my eyes used to be brown. Very boring, very original. Can I go now? I have a class to get to.”
Callahan shrugs and turns towards the others. Professor Asier spins around and leaves without a second thought and not caring about the other two I grab my blazer that had been draped across a side chair and start making my way out.
Asher pulls Jullia and Hanna along and eventually begins to lead because I don’t actually know where I’m going. My internal map of this place began and ended with where my dorm building was, where I needed to go to eat, and where my classes were.
Eventually he leads us down a hall the opens up into another courtyard. Stopping, Asher turns towards me and offers my sunglasses and umbrella. I really fucking hate this umbrella.
Taking them, I slide the glasses on and open the umbrella, but now that I’m ready no one wants to move. Finally, after thirty-ish seconds, Jullia moves to stand in front of me and looks directly at me.
“Why did you do that?”
This is the first time I’m hearing her speak like this.
Cold and detached and all that does is hide how hurt she is. I can’t blame her. She tried to stand up for me and I basically shut her down. The only person in this school who has given me any grace.
God I’m a bitch.
Letting the umbrella fall to my side I remove my sunglasses so I can properly look at her. Her lavender eyes watering behind her glasses and her jaw clenching.
“Thorne, the one who exposed me to the sun, he’s a demon, right?” She blinks, registering my words and then barely dips her head. “And Callahan is a devil. The last one in the back, is he an angel?”
She nods again and I’m sure there’s some sort of understanding happening in her mind because her lips start to purse and her brows begin to lower.
“So they’re all celestials and at least one of them is closely related to someone on the Mage Board.
I, a lowly being of moral, who is hated by all the races, would have pleaded my case, won because there were too many witnesses, and then eventually ended up accidentally dead because I decided to mess with people who are in a position of power I am nowhere near. ”
Jullia squeezes her eyes shut and sighs. A look of dejection but understanding replacing the hurt and anger.
“If I want to be stamped as a legal vampire I need to graduate this stupid university. If I have to bow my head and beg and grovel and submit a bit before some assholes, so be it. And trust me, Jullia. . . “ I wait for her to open her eyes and look back at me. “I’ve had it a hell of a lot worse. Not in recent years, but still. They now know I burn in the sun, and hopefully my responses answered their questions. Let’s just. . . move on.”
Jullia sighs again before fisting her hands and stomping her foot. “Okay. Fine. I will. But it’s still not fair. Just because Callahan and Thorne’s fathers sit on the Mage Board doesn’t mean they get to do whatever they want. But I will agree, we can move on.”
She nods her head and then gives me a smile. Content with that I put my sunglasses back on and pick up my umbrella. Jullia comes to stand at my side and threads her arm through mine. Looking over at Asher and Hanna I realize I forgot they were there.
“Let’s go to class then,” Jullia announces, “even though I’m already late.”
Neither Hanna nor Asher objects so we exit the hall and walk under the rays of the sun. Jullia tenses beside me but it doesn’t affect her walk. Asher moves to stand on the other side of her and while Hanna stays on my side she still keeps space between us.
“It makes you wonder though,” Hanna says after we’ve walked to the next building where my and Jullia’s next classes are, “why did Thorne, and it seemed the rest of them too, want to see if you did burn in the sun? Did they think you couldn’t?
Were they questioning if you were a vampire or something? ”
When I turn to Hanna she meets my stare head on and no longer looks like she wants to put a stake through my heart. Jullia hums and Asher looks like he’s curious too but he pulls Jullia away saying we’ll talk about this after class.
Perfect timing too, because the old sounding bell rings and Hanna dips to her class while I go to walk through the door of mine. Even though I’m early and no one is here yet, I can relax in one of the chairs.
She does have a point though. It wasn’t just Thorne either, because Callahan, Professor Asier, and the angel were also there.
Were they all questioning whether I was a vampire or not?
I could understand my control over bloodlust after so soon from my apparent turning, me being hungry for regular food, and me actually being able to sleep could be curious, but there shouldn’t be suspicion unless there’s already something else to be worried about.
Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding and they simply have too strong of a hatred for vampires and just wanted me dead. That would be a more rational answer, but even I remember someone – I’m pretty sure it was Thorne’s voice – saying they could deduct that I am in fact a vampire.
I would be more curious, but I just hope their suspicion is doused and they’ll leave me alone. I really hope everyone just leaves me alone for the next five years, actually.
Fuck, and it’s only the first day. If I can get through the rest of this week it will be a literal miracle. One can freakin hope.