The moment his sweet blood touched my tongue, it was like pure euphoria. All of my tastebuds were buzzing, I could see stars behind my eyelids and every muscle in my body tightened. I squeezed his body tighter to me and basked in the bloodlust I was feeling.
I was so focused on pulling as much of the dark liquid into my mouth that I could, I hadn't even noticed when he stopped struggling. When I had noticed how abnormally still he was, I pulled away worried that instead of just quenching my thirst, I was in fact killing him.
Pulling back, I held his face in between my hands so that I could examine him. His eyes were open but his pupils were displayed. His skin was slightly ashen but not completely pale. That horrified look was gone, replaced by one that said he was not completely aware of his surroundings.
I slapped his cheeks a few times to see if he would come to his senses, but nothing happened.
"Levi?" I called to him, shaking him slightly. "Levi, answer me." Still nothing. What has I done? I was away from my family for less than a week and I'd pretty much made every mistake I possibly could. This was not the way to go about staying hidden. At this rate they were going to find me in no time.
I wiped the remaining blood from my mouth and gently laid him down on the couch. I had to think, what do I do? Water. Maybe he needed water. Getting up from the couch, I filled the direction I saw him come from in hopes of finding the kitchen. When I did, I found a clean cup on the counter and filled it with water from the sink.
When I made it back to the sitting room, he hadn't moved from the couch but this time his eyes were closed. I kneeled in front of the couch and tried to hold his head up slightly with my arm. I used my other hand to hold the glass to his lips. There were a few horrifying seconds where nothing happened, the water just poured into his mouth but eventually I saw his throat flex and his lips clamp around the edge of the glass.
The amount of relief I felt was almost overwhelming. I had almost killed a human. A short time after getting off of the boat to this new land and already I had almost taken the life of an innocent. Had I succeed, I don't think I would ever forgive myself.
After letting him drink a few gulps of water, I laid his head back down on the couch and used the corner of my sleeve to dip into the remaining water. Turning his head slightly, I went to work dabbing at the remaining blood on the side of his neck. Once the blood was gone, my eyes zeroed in on the mark that remained.
A very distinctive swirl stood out on the side of his neck where my fangs had once been. This wasn't one of those things I heard humans like to get called tattoos. It couldn't even be considered a cut or carving. This mark was much different, yet very familiar to me. It resembled more of a burn or I guess the better term would be a brand.
I'd seen that mark somewhere before. I couldn't for the life of me remember where. I couldn't think about that right now, right now all I could do was wait and hoped this human woke up completely fine. How I was going to explain what I did to him, I also couldn't think of.
**
I had to have been sitting there for hours waiting for him to awaken, but I couldn't be completely sure considering I had fallen asleep. Even sleeping sitting up next to that couch on the floor was much more comfortable then sleeping on that ship. It wasn't until I felt something nudge my shoulder that I had woken up.
Opening my eyes, I looked around taking in my surroundings and trying to remember where I was. When it finally came back to me, I looked around for Levi to find him sitting at the other end of the couch staring at me.
Slowly I made it to my feet. I realized it was much less of a struggle then it was before. My body felt a lot better. My ankle no longer hurt, my head didn't throb any more, my stomach wasn't aching anymore and I bet if I reached up and touched my head, my wound would be completely healed. I guess nearly killing him just to get blood paid off.
Levi stares at me almost unblinkingly the whole time. I was very cautious with my movements, unsure how he was going to react but judging by the way he was already acting, I knew it wasn't going to be good.
"Are you in any pain?" I asked. He continued to stare at me without saying anything but now he looked slightly confused, like he wasn't expecting a monster like me to be at least a little concerned about him.
"Do you feel light headed?" Still no response. He just sat stiffly on the couch watching for any sudden movements from me. "I know you probably have a lot of questions." I took a step toward him which caused him to scramble off of the couch and across the room.
I couldn't pretend like his reaction didn't hurt. Vampires all over talked about how humans react when they find out that the scary stories told around campfires about the things that go bump in the night are in fact all too real. Innocent vampire families who do not resort to feeding from humans run out of their homes and even killed all because of their nature. This is something that has been going on for thousands of years, but for me it was never something I had to experience.
My family sheltered me my entire existence and because of that I was never exposed to humans on their persecution of my kind. Now that I was experiencing it first hand, the stories of how it felt to receive this behavior did not do it justice.
"I'm sorry for what I did." I said trying to swallow the lump that was forming in my throat. Crying wasn't going to solve anything right now. I had to figure out how to make him not frightened of me anymore.
"I won't do it again, I swear." I held up my hands and took another step towards him. He watched my feet as I got closer, but this time he didn't attempt to run.
"Ask me anything you want and I'll tell you." The saying goes curiosity killed the cat, but in this case it might actually help. Maybe if he knew more about me he would understand that my kind isn't like all the horrible stories he had grown up hearing.
His face softened a little and he no lingered looked like he was on the verge of making a run for it. With my sensitive hearing, I could hear his heartbeat begin to slow. This was good, it seems we've moved from fear to cautious curiosity.
It was a while before he spoke, I almost feared that he wouldn't.
"What are you?" He asked. He tried to sound confident but we both could hear that slight quiver in his voice. "No," he said shaking his head. "I know what you are." I was expecting him to throw out that one word I'm sure my kind was very use to hearing. Monster.
"Ask me what you want to ask me." I said taking another step towards him.
"Why are you here?" Was the question he finally settled in asking me.
"I don't know," I shrugged my shoulders. "You brought me here." He seemed to contemplate my response before giving me a look that said my answer wasn't a sufficient one. I sighed. "All I remember is walking down a long, dark walkway, running into you and waking up here."
"What were you doing there? And who was chasing you?" His questions made me uncomfortable. Questions about my vampire nature I was expecting. Questions about my life, not so much. Talking about my family, and my home was too dangerous not only for me but I knew my parents would do whatever it took to get me back, which means it would be dangerous for Levi as well.
I had to choose the words I would respond with very carefully. I told him I would answer his questions and that's exactly what I planned to do, however he didn't need to know everything. "Let's just say I got mixed up with some very bad people. I managed to escape, but those people want me back."
It was obvious he was very hesitant to accept my explanation, but instead of pushing for more details, he decided to move on. "Where did you come from?"
"I can't tell you that." He looked ready to object but before he could, I continued. "I can't tell you where I can't from, but I can tell you that I stowed away on one of the exporting ships and that's how I got here. Honestly, I'm not quite sure where here is."
Levi gave me a slight nod before taking a step away from the wall. "Next question," he said and I nodded for him to continue. "Why did you bite me?" His question was expected, yet it was one I was not prepared to answer.
I did think the answer was quite obvious, but if he needed to hear me say it, then he would. "I was hungry." That was the short and sweet version but I knew that wasn't good enough.
"You did that to me," he gestured toward the couch. "because you were feeling a little snackish." His voice began to raise. "I had just given you food, so why would you do that to me?" He was angry, that was to be expected.
"The hunger I felt is different from the hunger a human feels for food. The food you gave me helped and was definately appreciated, but it didn't nothing to assuage my true hunger. The only way to get rid of that is with blood. Normally I would never let my hunger get to the point of me loosing control and attacking someone. I'm sorry for that I did to you." His body language told me he was a lot calmer not. Humid shoulders weren't as still, he had moved completely away from the wall and even came a littler closer to me. The look of fear was also competent gone from his face which made me feel overwhelming relief.
"Who are you really?" He asked. I didn't understand his question. We had already introduced ourselves. He knew what I was and that I wasn't from anywhere near here what more did he want to know. He seemed to sense my confusion. "My understanding is you're a young vampire who somehow got herself involved in something she couldn't handle but somehow managed to escape. You made your way here, but now what?"
I shrugged, I hadn't thought about what I was going to do once I got free, my main concern was just getting free. "I wanted to be free, now that I have that, I don't know."
"What about family? Do vampires have family?" I flinched a little at his question, but thankfully I don't think he noticed.
"Unfortunately, I don't have family. I'm alone in this world. I hope he couldn't hear the uncertainty and the slight tremor in my voice. He could never find out about my family, ever. "How does one go about starting their life over from scratch? I have no money, no place to stay, and no idea what I'm doing."
There was king moment of silence before he said anything, almost like he was contemplating something. Hopefully he wasn't trying to figure out the quickest way to kill me. That would be a rally harsh way to end my few days of freedom. "This is probably going to sound really strange considering what you did to me, but I'll give you tonight. You can stay here tonight as long as you promise not to bite me again. Tomorrow we can figure out what your going to do with your new freedom."
I couldn't understand it. It was shocking enough that he gave me the opportunity to explain myself after what I did, but now he was even giving me shelter for the night. Had I been wrong about all humans being heartless and only looking out for themselves or was it just this human? He alone stood in his own category.
"Why would you do this for me after what I've done to you?" I asked.
He ran his hand though his golden blonde hair beige answering me. "I don't know. This probably makes me the dumbest guy alive, but I want to believe you when you say you won't hurt me. I want to help you. It's like a feeling I can't shake." Just like I thought, this human was not like the rest, I almost feel like I can trust him. We both stood in awkward silence for a while not really sure what to do next.
Levi fidgeted a lot, rubbing his neck nervously. His hand brushed the scar on the side of his neck and at the same time he flinched so did I. It was like a jolt of electricity that shot through my entire body. It was almost indescribable and definitely intense.
Levi looked at me, seeming to notice my reaction as well.
"What the hell was that?" He asked. I was at a loss for an answer. I had no idea what that was, I had never felt anything like it.
"I have no idea."