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

stared down at her with his red eyes.

“I mean….after I passed out,” Nora then said, a little more calmly.

“I’ll be getting to that,” Rogan answered as he then straightened back up, “But you need to eat first.”

“Why?!” Nora was angry again, “I don’t want this stupid food, I told you!”

“Because,” Rogan now spoke very sternly to her, “You need the food.  And we have a lot to talk about and you’re hysterical right now.  After you’ve calmed down and eaten, we can talk.”

“I’m hysterical am I?!” Nora now shouted, “Maybe because I had the worst night of my entire life last night?!  Maybe because there’s a vampire in my kitchen who’s trying to boss me around?!  Maybe because I just…..” Nora now paused.  She looked away from Rogan as her voice tightened up and she continued a little more subdued, “I just…lost someone….”

Rogan sighed at her speech and looked over at her sympathetically.  Nora looked back up at him with a great deal of sadness in her eyes. “And maybe I don’t want to eat this food because….because….” She then sighed as she couldn’t bring herself to say what she was suddenly thinking.

“Because you’re hungry for something else?”

Nora instantly looked up as Rogan had made his statement, “How did you know?”

Rogan gave slight smirk as he then said, “What is it you want?”

Nora then rested her head in her hand as she leaned on the counter and thought, “I…” she tried to start, “You won’t believe me….”

Rogan then turned around and reached for something on the counter by the stove.  He brought it over and Nora noticed he was holding a glass in his hand as he set it in front of her.  She looked at it.  It had a dark red liquid in it with a very unique smell.

“I….how…how did you know I wanted…”

“Blood?” Rogan then interrupted.

Nora shifted her gaze between the glass filled with blood and Rogan.  She wasn’t sure what to say.  She sat for a few seconds thinking before then speaking, “Why…do I want this?  Did…did you…?”

“I didn’t turn you if that’s what you’re getting at,” Rogan answered for her, “But there’s a reason you want to drink that.  And it’s o.k.  Go ahead.  And after you do, eat your food.  You’ll feel a lot better and then we can talk.”

Nora reluctantly looked down at the glass in front of her.  She could smell the metallic aroma coming from it but instead of it making her feel sick she felt thirsty; even hungry.  She slowly picked up the glass and brought it close to her face all the while not believing what she was about to do.  She then touched her lips to the rim of the glass and took a sip.  It was amazing!  Delicious!  Did she really just think that?  It was exactly what her body was craving!  She then began to gulp the rest of it down as if she’d been in the desert for days and it had been only water.  When she finished she set the glass down and took a few deep breathes.  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and then looked down at the plate of food in front of her.  All of a sudden her stomach growled and she was hungrier than she’d ever been.  The meal in front of her had never looked or smelled so appetizing!  She suddenly began to scarf the eggs and bacon down until there was nothing left on her plate.

When she had finally finished, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and looked up to see Rogan was still watching her from behind the counter.  He had his all too familiar smug look on his face. “I told you that you needed to eat,” he said.

Nora relaxed her posture a bit on the stool as she sighed. “Yeah, o.k.,” she submitted, “So are you going to tell me what’s going on now?  What happened to me after I passed out last night?”

Rogan then nodded without saying anything and rested his elbows on the counter, leaning in slightly. “O.k. well to explain anything I need to ask you a question first,” he started, “Since you seem to know a bit about vampires…”

“Yeah?” Nora said.

“Have you ever heard of something called The Vinculum?”

Nora shook her head, “No, what is it?”

“Well, it’s like this,” Rogan kept his elbows on the counter but he gestured with his hands as he explained, “You know how vampires can heal themselves right? Well, did you know vampires can heal humans too?”

Nora’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, “No, I didn’t know that.  Do they do that?”

Rogan chuckled a bit, “Not usually.  It’s actually illegal, but I’ll get to that in a minute,” he then put his hands together as he continued, “See, if a human is hurt, a vampire can cut him/herself, and put his/her blood into said human, allowing that human to temporarily heal themselves; for just a moment.”

Nora looked down, furrowing her brow and trying to piece things together in her mind.  As she glanced down, her eyes fell onto one of Rogan’s arms that rested on the counter.  His sleeves of his black button up shirt that he wore were rolled to his elbows and she noticed that on his right forearm, there was a large scar that ran vertically.  She was puzzled because she’d never seen that scar before.  How could he have gotten it?

“O.k.” she responded as she had noticed he had paused to see if she had understood.  She wanted to ask him more about the scar on his arm but she decided to just wait.

“So see, the reason I wanted to tell you about this is because, when a vampire does this to a human, something else happens,” Rogan dropped his head for a second and sighed before going on, “You see, once The Vinculum is made, a bond is formed between the human and the vampire.”

“A…bond?”

“Yeah.  One that, well, if the human involved were to ever…die, the vampire who shared The Vinculum with said human, would have the cut they had used to heal that human re-open and never heal back.  So the vampire would essentially bleed to death and die.  And this would even happen vice versa.  If the vampire were to die, the human would also suffer a similar situation with the wound that had been healed.”

Nora remained silent and when Rogan realized she wasn’t going to say anything he kept going, “So you see, the reason it’s illegal is because not only does The Vinculum cause a vampire to basically become mortal, it keeps vampires from being able to….well….hunt human beings.  If a vampire were to attack a human and that human just so happened to share The Vinculum with another vampire, that vampire would die as well.  So it’s kind of….counterintuitive to our species.”

Nora’s eyes fell back on the large scar that now graced Rogan’s arm.  Rogan had noticed this and looked directly at Nora. “So, Nora, do you understand why I told you this?”

Nora couldn’t seem to remove her gaze so instead she ended up blurting out, “Where did you get that scar?”

Rogan just continued staring right into Nora’s eyes and eventually she looked back up at him.

“I think you can answer that question given all the information I just gave you.  You know the different reasons why vampires have scars don’t you?”

“If they had the scar before they had turned,” Nora began to answer, “Or if it’s the scar from where they were bitten…”

“Or if it’s from the cut they made to perform The Vinculum on a human,” Rogan finished for her.

Nora just stared back at him in a slightly confused way.  Although, she wasn’t so much confused as she was shocked.

“So, that’s why I wanted the blood earlier then?”

“Yeah it is.  Because you basically have vampire blood inside you, but as far as I know that craving will go away.”

Nora hung her head as she sat in thought for a couple of seconds.  She had both of her arms on the counter in front of her, palms face down.  Soon, however her hands formed into fists and she looked up angrily at Rogan.

“Why?” was all that she asked, quite sternly.

“Why, what?”

“Why the hell would you do this to me?!” Nora now yelled, standing up so quickly that she knocked the stool she was sitting on to the ground, “Why would you even do this at all?! What was in it for you that you needed to do this to me?!”

“Are you serious?!  Maybe I fucking did it because you had giant gashes in your back from a night-flyer and you were bleeding to death!  Besides, I can’t believe you’re questioning me when I basically saved your life!” Rogan shouted back.

“Yes, I’m questioning you!  Because I know how you are!  You expect me to believe that you did this out of the kindness of your heart?!  Bull shit!”

“Look, I have my reasons!  You don’t need to know them!  But you definitely need to stop being such a bitch about this!  I gave up a shit ton to save your stupid ass!  I don’t know why you’re so fucking mad!”

“You don’t know why I’m so fucking mad?!  Really?!” Nora kept yelling as she stomped around the counter to now face Rogan.  Her hands were clenched into fists by her side as she screamed up at him, “Could it be the fact that I had tried to save someone that I loved deeply only to have failed and had to watch him die in front of me?  Or maybe it’s that when that had happened, all I wanted was to just die too, because I knew my life with him was over but, oh no, I couldn’t because I’m now stuck here in this room with a vampire that’s the biggest asshole I’ve ever met and only cares about himself because he decided to, for some reason, heal me and now I’m stuck to him by some stupid bond that binds our fates together!  So I can’t even die to be with Will even if I really want to because that would mean you would die!  And….and I couldn’t do that!!!” Nora then stopped her yelling temporarily to let out a huge sigh.  She then began again, more calmly this time, “I can’t do that because I’m stupid idiot and I couldn’t hurt another person even if that person is a jackass vampire who’s guts I hate right now,” she then began to cry as she said her last sentence, “All because I’m such a stupid weak human being who can’t separate herself from her feelings.  Happy now?!”

Rogan looked down at her with sympathy in his eyes, but Nora didn’t notice it because she was busy wiping the tears from her own that were blurring her vision.

“I…I can’t even be here right now,” Nora then blurted out as she then rushed past Rogan and began walking toward the hallway that led to her room.

“Where are you going?” Rogan strictly asked.

“I have to be alone!” Nora shouted through tears.

“You better not do anything reckless!” Rogan commanded her.

Nora just looked at the almost cold expression he wore on his face now as she tried to gather up her emotions long enough to answer him without crying, “I already told you, I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to,” she then turned around and walked away from him and down the hall into her room, slamming the door as she did so.