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

he was before, yet she felt nervous. After a few moments, she finally decided to slowly head towards him. Once she got to his side, she looked him over. One of the gauze patches covering his gun wounds, she noticed, was starting to be bled through. It needed replacing. She took a deep breath as she reached forward, slightly touching the patch so as to remove it. She moved slowly, watching his chest move up and down.

Suddenly she gasped loudly as the vampire’s arm jerked, grabbing her own arm tightly. She turned to look at his face and noticed he was staring right back at her. His eyes were a deep red, and looked angry.

“What the hell are you doing?!” the vampire demanded.

“I….” was all Nora could get out. She looked down at his grip on her arm. It was tight and was beginning to hurt her.

“What the hell are you doing?!!!” he shouted again.

“I…I’m…” Nora tried to speak but she was too afraid. She then struggled to get the vampire to let go of her arm, “Please let go of me!” she then desperately asked.

“Not until you tell me what you’re doing to me and who the hell you are!” the vampire tightened his grip.

“Let me go!” Nora now shouted.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!!!” he screamed.

Nora shut her eyes in terror. The vampire’s shouting was like a lion roar in her ear. She continued to struggle to release herself from his grasp. She was trying as best as she could not to show just how afraid she was even though she felt like she wanted to cry.

“LET GO AND I WILL!” she then shouted back as loud as she could, continuing to keep her eyes shut. It was then that she suddenly felt the release of the vampire’s grip on her arm. She opened her eyes and quickly jumped back, trying to get out of reach. She looked at the vampire as she rubbed her arm in pain.
He still looked angry as he then spoke, this time without yelling, “Tell me what you’re doing and who you are. And why I’m here.”

“I…I’m…just helping you,” Nora cautiously answered, not looking away from him.

“And who the hell asked you to do that?!” he angrily asked.

“N-no one did,” Nora responded.

“So why the fuck are you doing it?”

“I…” Nora stuttered, “You were outside…you were hurt so I…brought you into my basement and dressed your wounds.”

The vampire now sat up on the table and looked down at his chest, noticing the work Nora had done. He then looked up at her curiously, “What a minute,” he then spoke, “You’re the one I tried to eat up in the attic aren’t you?”

Nora didn’t respond. She was still holding her arm in pain, but decided to look away from the vampire. She didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt ashamed.

“Hello?!” the vampire repeated, “Just who do you think you are, bitch?! You think I need help from a fuckin’ stupid ass human like you ? Especially one that I wanted as my food?!!”

“Stop it!” Nora suddenly yelled, now looking back at the vampire, “Stop talking to me like that!”

“I’ll talk to you any goddamn way I want to! Cause you’re a human! You’re a fucking weak human!”

“I helped you!!” she screamed again. Her stance had changed now. She stood more steadfast on the ground now, as opposed to her timid and frightened position only moments ago. Suddenly she felt less afraid and angrier. Her hands were clenched in fists as she continued to shout, “I helped you and this is how you treat me?! I don’t care if I’m a human or not! You should be grateful goddamn it!!”

The vampire looked suddenly wide eyed at her. He also seemed speechless and didn’t say anything. He and Nora stared at each other for a couple seconds more before she then turned around, facing another table.

She sighed before she spoke again, this time more calmly, “Look, I guess…I can’t make you be grateful, but I did what I did so…just accept it,” She then proceeded to pick up a small glass of red liquid she had sitting in a bowl of warm water. She then turned around with the glass in her hand. She and the vampire stared at one another again for a moment before she then held out her hand with the glass in it.

“Here,” she said, motioning for him to take it, “Drink this. It’ll help you’re wounds heal a bit. It’s only pig blood, but at least…you’ll be well enough to walk out of here by morning.”

It was then that the vampire suddenly burst into loud laughter. It made Nora jump slightly in astonishment. She pulled back her hand quickly, now holding the cup close to her body.

“You are a piece of work!” he continued to laugh as he spoke, “I try to kill you, and you try to help me! Just who the fuck are you?! Really?! Do you have a death wish?! You do realize I’ll just kill you and all of your family once I’m healed, don’t you?”

Nora did not respond; she just stared back at him. She wasn’t sure if she just didn’t have anything else to say, or if she was just too scared to speak.

“Hello?!!!” the vampire yelled again, ‘Talk to me, you goddamn bitch!”

“Stop it!” Nora screamed again, “Shut up! I refuse to have you talk to me that way!” she then angrily set the glass of blood she was holding on the table, “I don’t care what you do! Have you maybe considered that I’m just doing this because it’s the right thing to do? That it’s the right thing to help someone in need?!” she then turned and took a few steps to the door that lead back into the house. Suddenly, however, she stopped, and made a slight turn to look back at the vampire, “Sometimes…doing what is right isn’t always what benefits you the most.”

She then continued to walk towards the door, until a loud thud made her stop in her tracks and turn back around. The vampire was now on his feet, standing next to the table. Nora noticed he was slightly taller than her, which was unnerving, and he was looking at her with extreme hatred. He reached out his hand toward the other small table and grabbed the glass cup full of blood that Nora had set there.

“I DON’T NEED YOUR FUCKIN’ CHARITY, YOU FUCKIN’ SHIT!!” he loudly roared as he then forcefully threw the cup at Nora, making it crash at her feet. She screamed, putting her hands up to block the shards of glass from getting to her face.

“I HATE YOU! YOU HAVE NO GODDAMN RIGHT TO FEEL SORRY FOR ME!!” the vampire then seemed as if he was going to lunge at her, but in that same instant, the door behind Nora that led into the house flung open, and there stood Will, at the top of the stairs, pointing his shot gun right at the vampire.

“Don’t you take one more goddamn step!!” Will yelled, looking through the sight on his gun.

Nora turned to look at Will behind her, “Will, don’t!” she pleaded.

“Nora, get in the house!” Will demanded.

“Will...”

“Get in the damn house, Nora!”

Nora stared at him. He stood perfectly still and tensed, still aiming his gun and not taking his eye off of the vampire on the other side of her. Nora took one quick look back at the vampire who now had his hands partially in the air, glaring at her. She then decided to climb the stairs and stand behind Will.

“I called the N.F.C.U.” Will then stated.

Nora wasn’t sure if he was speaking to her or the vampire but she responded anyway, “What?!”

Will ignored her, but the vampire answered instead with laughter, “Ah! The N.F.C.U.; The Night Flyer Containment Unit….you know…if you knew anything about me, you’d know that doesn’t scare me. I’ve escaped from the N.F.C.U. more times than you’d like to know, you asshole.”

Will didn’t respond, but just cocked his gun.

“Will, come on, let’s just go inside,” Nora suggested, touching him on the shoulder.

“You go inside,” Will said blankly, also shrugging off her hand, “I want to see the look on this bastard’s face when they come to take him away. You don’t deserve the way he treated you.”

The vampire then chuckled, “Well, I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I eat her and make you watch!” he then walked slowly, getting closer to the two of them. Will tried to steady himself, continuing to point his gun. He was shaking but he didn’t want the vampire to see.

“You’re little girlfriend behind you is a fuckin’ idiot! She’s dead! If not by me, then by some other vampire she thinks she can save. She’s nothing but fuckin’ food!” that was the last thing the vampire had time to say, because suddenly two shots were fired from Will’s gun, hitting the vampire right in the chest, causing him to fall backward, hitting the table first and then the floor. The table then fell over on top of him with a loud thud.

“WILL!!” Nora screamed painfully as she then pushed him aside and started rushing down the steps.

Suddenly, Will grabbed her arm, “Nora, don’t! He’s dangerous! The N.F.C.U. is coming! You can’t want to help him after what he said to you!”

“Let go of me, Will! You didn’t have to do that! You didn’t’ have to shoot him!” she struggled to leave his grip.

“Nora, if you go down there, I’m not following you! You’re on your own!”

Nora just glared at him, not saying a word and then forcefully pulled her arm from his grip and ran down the rest of the stairs.

She didn’t see Will leave, but heard him yell, and stomp up the stairs and slam the door behind him. Nora then reached the vampire on the floor and after moving the table off of him she kneeled down beside him. He was writhing slightly on the ground, groaning in pain. Lots of black blood was pouring from his chest where Will had shot him twice. She knew she had no more gauze at her disposal, but after thinking for a couple more seconds, jumped up at ran to a corner of the room where there sat a large freezer, and a small fridge next to it. She opened the fridge quickly, and pulled out another small glass container of pig blood and brought it back to the vampire.

“Drink this!” she demanded as she held it in front of his face.

The vampire glared at her, “Get away from me!”

“Just drink it, goddamn you! You’ll never make it if you don’t!”

“I don’t want help from some shitty human being!”

“I don’t care!” Nora screamed, “Jesus, you’d rather die or have the N.F.C.U. capture you than have a human help you?! Just save yourself, please! They’ll be here any minute!”

The vampire sat up slightly and stared at her. Nora stared back. He was panting heavily, clearly in pain. It took several awkward seconds between them before he finally grabbed the glass from Nora’s hands and drank it all in one gulp.

Nora looked down at his chest. The bleeding didn’t stop, but had definitely receded considerably. The vampire had looked down at his chest and, noticing it too, suddenly decided to stand up quickly. Nora rose too and swiftly ran over to the cellar doors that led outside and began to unlock them. Suddenly, a small scream escaped her lips as she felt something grab at her shoulders from behind her. It was, of course, the vampire. He began to dig his fingers into her shoulder blades, as he then leaned over from behind her so that his mouth was close to her neck. Nora tensed up, deathly afraid of what was going to happen next.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you now and steal your blood.”

Nora stood paralyzed with fear before finally getting the courage to answer,