Just Blood by authorof fantasy (suggested reading txt) 📖

the rhyme a personal joke. I just try to overlook it as much as possible.”

She then turned to Triscon, who for the past few minutes was gazing at me as if I was a wonder of the world, and shooed him out of the room. My thoughts and questions landed on “why was everyone staring?” or “what makes me so different?” but they subsided as I concentrated on Ashes and all the men around me.

“Blood, do you know what exactly you are?”

“Half vampire, half human, half insane…yes I know.”

Ashes took on a hearty laugh then she quickly pounced on me, her nails extending like real vampire’s nails, her fingers arched to tear the flesh from my body. All I could think of, as I threw her against the wall and blocked her attacks that were coming at me, was what the hell just happened? Finally Ashes stood up, calmly, and then sat back down in her seat as if nothing took place.

“What the hell was that for?”

“You don’t know what you ARE do you?”

“Yes, I told you, half vamp and half human. I’m not some dumbfounded fool.”

“Do you know how many hybrids such as yourself make it to eighteen without dying?”

“I didn’t even know that people die because of being…”

“Almost 99% die at age eighteen. There is only twenty that I know of, that live on earth. Can you believe that?”

“No…not really…”

“And out of that, oh I don’t twenty, there’s a fifty percent chance that they will die at age nineteen.”

“Oh…”

“You will turn nineteen in about a month…that means you have little time.”

“Can’t I make it though? What the heck!”

“I have been training these other nineteen hybrids to be at their very top but you however know nothing. When the time comes and you turn nineteen, you’ll be completely unprepared, unlike the others…and wither away.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Because, the facts are facts, my dear, and I’m simply just helping a fellow vampire out.”

“I hate you. You think, just because you started this government for vampires, that nothing can stand in your way. That you know all there is about vampires, but you have no idea. You have no idea who is going to die at nineteen because face it…your completely guessing right now. This is off of pure presumption. You don’t know anything.”

“Oh and I suppose you do?”

“I know enough to keep me alive.”

“But what if you knew enough to keep yourself dead? Like I do.”

“Yeah, because vampires aren’t alive. They’re weak and pathetic, never can see the light of day, never taste another drop of any liquid that doesn’t have blood written all over it. You can’t even begin to feel the feelings of a real heart; you’re empty, empty and worthless.”

“At least, in the future, my body will be full of blood. Then to counteract your claim, I’ll be full. Full of power.”

“If I have not said it before, I’ll say it again, I hate vampires.”

“Trust me when I say this, we know.”

She headed out of the room, trailing her was Orin, Hector, Victor, and Damien. I sat into one of the chairs and sighed as I started to sob. If this was my life, why couldn’t I die now? If they were to teach me darkness, why could I just have one last glimpse of the sun? If they were not to provide equal rights as everyone else, why couldn’t I be a runaway slave? These were all questions that made the crying last longer as I stared off into space, wondering if I would ever be home, if I would ever see my mother and Laurin again.

“Excuse me, miss, are you alright?”

Eyes filled with tears, I just couldn’t turn to the vampire who had walked in, and so I just kept my head hidden in my arms that were lying on the black marble table. The feeling of being cold and alone was so foreign to me, to think I had actually thought I knew what this felt like but all these years I knew nothing about. As I steadied my breathing and slightly turned under my arms to see the woman, I noticed something familiar about her that made me blink twice. Here this young, perhaps twenty-five year old, woman was and I didn’t know a thing about her or ever seen her in my life but she was…familiar. Even my senses weren’t on alert now, for they asked my brain who urged them “why?”

“Miss, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Who might you be? The new girl, right?”

“Yes, my name is Blood. Who are you?”

“Name is Lora. I’m the top Sister, I’m the head fighter.”

“It’s nice to meet you Lora.”

“Nice to meet you as well. Anyhow I was sent here to retrieve you and send you to your room, you must get rest for tomorrow we will start your training.”

“How fun.”

“Yes, Ashes can be strict but you haven’t seen her soft side yet. She tries so hard for us, even risked her life once in front of a vampire hunter in order to protect the secret. We all respect her cause of it.”

“Don’t you not see that she only does for her benefit? As of what I have seen, her heart must not be beating and must be stone cold.”

“No, trust me; you have to know her better. She breaks for people, all in time.”

I just made a humph sound while I watched Lora laugh, her body strong and thin with muscle, her voice as though you could play in the forest all day but know its dangers without one word.

“Lora, do I know you?”

“You know of my brother, Crisanius.”

“I do?”

“Yes, bearing in mind he’s your father.”

“He…is…but that means…you’re my…aunt.”

“Yes. Now come, you should be sleeping like everyone else.”

“One more thing, Lora, are you…half?”

“No, I am full blood. As you should be if your father would’ve turned your mother and stuck with her throughout their life. But your father was idiotic and he had his problems, therefore that night…he ran claiming your name as Blood for that was the very thing he hated.”

“He told my mother that I was to know only of blood and that’s why.”

“He lied, he hates blood but he never hated you.”

“Is he still alive?”

“No, he died that night when your mother was checked for pregnancy. Crisanius was a good man but like I said…the man had problems.”

Lora closed my room’s door behind her and I strained my ears to hear anything and all around me. If someone was watching or close I would awake to it but most of the night I was perfectly fine and I only once woke up to hear a vampire fight in the other room beside me. The room was black, black walls black floor, black in all. Even the small bed that looked as if to shatter into a million pieces every time I lay down was cloaked in black. Apparently we were to have no feelings but to remain neutral, the exact place where the leaders want us. And, even though Lora my aunt says otherwise, Ashes could be part of this plan to keep us from being rebels. As I began to close my eyes I dreamt of Ashes and Laurin out in the ocean, both of them smiling for it was a sun shining day and beautiful with all sorts of colors dashing by in the water, then they both turned to me and pointed with mouths gaped. One word they said “chose” and it woke me up instantaneously.

“You should be more careful what you dream about, Ashes has special friends who can peek.”

The man resting against the wall was half no single thought about it. He smiled as he watched me realize this. To be accurate, it almost seemed that he was trying to make me sniff him. He wanted me to smell what it was like to be a hybrid and totally trained to where sweat wasn’t a factor in his life anymore. He was used to fighting nonstop.

“Blood…blood…where have you been Blood?”

“Chicken shit to you.”

“Oh come now, I’m just trying to get to know you. We don’t have to be enemies...how about friends?”

“Screw you. I’m not falling for anymore tricks.”

“Ah then you caught me, truth is I’m here to make you wish you were dead. To teach you what they have taught me and that is pain is a sign of weakness.”

“I didn’t know there were assholes on board of the U.S. Hybrid.”

“How dare you!”

That’s when the door swung open and Ashes stood smiling. Lora was on her right, head down, seeming to be a servant but more of an acquaintance if necessary.
“Calm down, Hannibal, she is a rookie…she doesn’t know a thing about respect in the vampire order.”

“Damn fool needs to learn quickly if she wishes to live.”

I glared at the man as he got up and walked over to Ashes, placing his hand on her cheek while she kept her eyes on me without a hint of feeling. Then, as hard as Hannibal could, he bit down into her neck…blood flowing down the side of Ashes and soaking her pale skin with its nutrients.

“Now, if you please Blood, Ashes wants you to drink her blood but I warn you…no one who has been hybrid except for me have been able to withstand the pain it releases into your body.”

“I’m not going to drink from you, ever, so leave me be.”

Ashes stepped out of Hannibal’s firm hold and with graceful movements she steadily walked over to the bed and sat down beside me, her face blank as she looked off to the doorway, letting the blood pour down her neck on the left side which was turned to me. I couldn’t help myself, the smell was too strong and tasty that thinking about it was hard to do without watering. My hand was placed on her shoulder, my other placed on her right hip, and I bit down into the sweet blood and pale neck. It was amazing at first, then the pain began to urge into my body and I didn’t fight at all, I kept drinking thinking maybe if I would let it have control for a moment I would be alright. That’s when the pain subsided and I drank more and more till I thought Ashes was going to push me or maybe someone else was going to pull me off, the red fluid running out of her body and into mine as I kept eating without effort.
“Ok, that’s enough Blood.”

Lora came up beside me as I tore through the neck of Ashes; now eyes closed but still breathing just fine, and picked me off of her. While she was doing so, I could see Hannibal’s eyes popping out of his head because I felt no pain he had always felt probably when drinking from his master. Perhaps this was to have all vampires under Ashes rule to become one of her's so she could at least use the “you have my blood in you” ruling on them. It didn’t matter to me, for now I was just vacant.

“I’m sorry, Lora, I couldn’t stop.”