Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📖

Lands before and always wondered what it was like. It looked much like she imagined any other city would from the outside. She set her box of blood down for a second to tie the laces on one of her brown ankle boots that had come untied. After doing so, she noticed she had some stray leaves that had stuck to her jeans and she brushed them off. She then stood all the way up and nervously straightened her flannel shirt. She sighed confidently and then picked her box back up and entered the city. It was very active and there was so much going on her eyes couldn’t concentrate on it all. Almost every car that drove along the many roads was an expensive kind, and the few vampires that were walking instead of driving, were very put together in their fashion. Only handfuls, however, that she spotted were more unkempt as they hid amongst the shadows in different alley ways; however she tried her hardest not to make much eye contact with them. As she continued her journey, so many of the buildings around her sparked her curiosity as they were different than what she would imagine would be in a human city. One in particular, an extremely tall building, caught her eye as she walked by. The sign on the front read “The Fang”. The place seemed closed but that didn’t keep her from straining her neck to observe just how tall it was. She couldn’t help but wonder exactly why it was so tall; especially considering that there were no windows to indicate different floors.

Soon, after about ten minutes of walking, despite all her indirect sight-seeing, Nora finally made it to the Mart on the corner. As she entered, the familiar DING of the bell that’s usually above all market doors rang. Nora walked right over to the counter and stood in the line that led to the cashier. She tried her hardest not to look nervous amongst all of the vampires around her. The ones in front of her just seemed to be buying their daily blood supply and going on with their routines. Finally it was her turn to approach the cashier and she set her box on the counter. Nervously she pushed her sleeves up to her elbows and rubbed her hand across the top of her head, trying to wipe away the wisps of hair that were too short to make it into her pony tail.

“Can I help you?” the cashier asked as he looked down at her.

She looked up nervously, “Um, yes, I’d like to sell some blood.”

The cashier then looked at the box on the counter and opened it in order to look inside, “No, no we can’t buy this.”

“What? Why not?” Nora asked surprised.

“Because it’s frozen. We don’t take frozen blood. We don’t know how long it’s been this way or how old it is.”

“But…but it’s not bad. Freezing it keeps it good, doesn’t it?”

The cashier suddenly gave her a smug look, “Well, you must be an expert on blood I guess, since you know so much more than I do,” he spoke condescendingly.

Nora quickly looked down, slightly embarrassed and belittled. She only looked up when the cashier abruptly spoke again.

“Look,” he said, looking down at her, this time in a slightly less demeaning tone, “We pride ourselves in this store for providing fresh blood. This isn’t fresh. So we’re not taking it. Sorry,” he then pushed the box toward Nora to the edge of the counter.

Nora just sighed in defeat. She knew better than to argue with any vampire, “O.k.” she said as she then picked up the box and walked out.

She walked down the sidewalk with a little less pep in her step than she had entering the city. She felt slightly defeated as she tried to think about what she was going to do with all this blood she had. All of the sudden she heard a voice, “Hey there girly!” She turned to look to her left and saw a dark figure in a small alley.

“Yeah, you! Whatcha got there?” the figure asked. Nora could only assume at this point that she was being referred to so she slightly approached.

“Um…some frozen pig’s blood.”

The figure then came out of the dark shadows and it was a very thin pale man in a trench coat that seemed much too big for him, “Now what’s a pretty girl like you carrying around that much blood for?” he smoothly asked her. She looked up into his eyes. They were deep red and he had very dark circles around his eyes.

“I…I was trying to sell it,” she nervously stated. All she really wanted to do was get away from him but she continued, “But the market wouldn’t’ take it.”

“Oh of course, honey, they don’t take it frozen! Didn’t you know that?” the man smiled up at her with a mouth full of yellow teeth. Nora definitely noticed two fangs sticking out from his grin and she became even more nervous than she was before.

“No, I didn’t,” Nora answered, “Now…I’ve really got to go…” she said politely and tried to continue on her way, but the man lightly grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

“I tell you what,” he began, “I’ll take that blood off your hands for you.” He used his other free hand to run his long pale fingers through his, what appeared to be, very oiled and slicked back black hair

Nora then turned back to look at him, “Really?” she surprisingly asked him.

“Of course!” he smiled showing those yellow fangs again, “However, if I do this favor for you, I’ll need you to do one for me.”

Nora instantly felt threatened and hesitated before she asked, “W—what?”

“Just come with me darlin’” he then said and tightened his grip on her arm and tried to pull her into the alley with him.

“Wait…wait…” Nora tried to protest.

“You come with me now,” the man now sternly commanded.

“No…no wait I don’t want to!” Nora struggled to get her arm from his grip.

“You are coming with me now!” he shouted. Nora screamed as she jerked and struggled to get away from him. He grabbed her other arm with his hand and was pulling her into the alley.

“No!” Nora screamed as she kicked the man forcefully in the leg.

“Ah! You little bitch!” The man yelled, tightening his grip even further. He then looked up at her and opened his mouth in a predatory fashion, hissing and staring at her with those deep red eyes. He pulled her close to him, causing her to drop her box of blood. Nora heard several of the jars break inside as it hit the pavement. She squirmed as much as she could to try to keep him from doing whatever it was he was going to do to her.

“JIMMY!” a shout was then heard from almost out of nowhere. The man stopped his advance on Nora and looked around. Nora did as well, however, still trying to remove herself from the man’s grip on her.

“Jimmy, let go of the girl,” finally the one who had spoken appeared next to them. Nora looked up at the newcomer and her jaw dropped in utter shock. She felt as if she might have a heart attack from surprise as she was now looking into the face of Rogan.

“I…I…” the man who Nora assumed was Jimmy stuttered, looking at Rogan also.

“I said let her go! What part of that do you not get?” Rogan commanded in a booming tone.

Jimmy then finally released Nora and backed up a bit.

“What are you doing around here anyway, Jimmy?” Rogan then asked, “You aren’t supposed to be over here, remember? Are you blood trafficking again?”

“No! No! You know I stopped that Mr. Rogan,” he stammered with a slight bit of a chuckle at the end.

“Really?” Rogan inquired, “Then if I opened that jacket of yours I wouldn’t find any illegal human blood in there would I?”

“No! No of course not!” as Jimmy answered he crossed his arms across his chest, hugging his jacket, trying to make it hard for anyone to open it.

Rogan spent a second glaring at him before then speaking up again, “O.k. because you know I wouldn’t want to have to tell Dagon about you again. You’ve already been in too much trouble for this stuff.”

Jimmy got an angry look on his face at this statement from Rogan, “You? Tell Dagon? Please, I heard you weren’t even working for him anymore, you can’t lie to me. I’ve heard everyone talking. You don’t even have seniority over this area anymore.”

Rogan then chuckled as he answered, “You’re a sneaky one, Jim. You’re right I’m not working for Dagon anymore, but that doesn’t mean he won’t listen to me. I can still tell him about your little illegal dealings and I don’t think that would stop him from taking a peak over at your place. Maybe he’d even find some human farms there?”

Jimmy almost went paler than he already was, “O.k. o.k. I’m sorry, never mind!”

“Get out of here, Jimmy,” Rogan then ordered and Jimmy ran down the alley way like a mouse scurrying from a cat. It was then that Rogan turned to Nora for only a split second before he then, without a word, quickly turned around and began to walk in the opposite direction. Nora only stood in bewilderment for an instance until she suddenly began to hasten after him and soon, shortly approaching him, shouted, “Hey wait a minute!”

Rogan, however, pretended not to hear her and kept up his quick pace, so she spoke up again, “You—you’re alive?!”

Again, Rogan ignored her so, swiftly, in an act of impulse, Nora hastened just enough to grab his arm and exclaim again, “Hey! Did you hear me?!”

Finally, Rogan stopped. He turned to look at her with utter disgust as he then also looked down at her hand that was gripping his arm. Nora quickly noticed this and instantly let go, almost fearfully. She looked up at him and he was now looking her dead in the eyes.

“You—you’re alive…” she softly spoke for a second time.

Rogan sighed heavily and looked away from her. He was clearly trying to figure out what his next move should be. Nora was sure he was just going to disregard her once more and walk away again; however, she was surprised to see that he finally spoke back to her.

“I guess there’s no fooling you,” he said, still looking away from her.

Nora opened her mouth to speak but Rogan cut her off as he now looked down at her, “Look, let’s just pretend this encounter didn’t happen. You go your way and I go mine. Deal? You never saw me.”

Rogan turned to try to leave again, but Nora wouldn’t have it, “No! Stop!!” she abruptly shouted, causing him to actually obey her and cease his departure. He turned around to look at her, impatiently waiting for her to continue.

“You’re alive! How?! I want to know! You don’t just help me and walk away and expect me to pretend like I never saw you! Not after what happened days ago!” she could feel tears starting to well up in her eyes but she tried her hardest to force them away. The last thing she wanted to do right now was cry.

Rogan then quickly approached her and lightly grabbed her arm to turn her around and hastened with her back in the other direction that they had come from.

“Hush!” he commanded as he looked around him, trying to notice if any vampires around were observing them. He then stopped his haste and turned her towards him, “Look, just forget about seeing me and what happened days ago. It was nothing so stop making a scene!” he looked around them once more and after confirming that no one was paying attention to them he stood up straight and smoothed down his jacket a bit. Then in a more collected tone, continued, “Besides, it isn’t