Innocent Blood

Innocent Blood (Chapter 27)

Chapter 27

      I gasped before opening my eyes, to find a man leaning over me. He was old, at least sixty, and he was smiling down at me, wide-eyed. "Gave me a wee fright there. You're okay, you're okay", reassuring himself more than me by the sound of it. I was still on the sofa, but the man must have lay me down. I looked around the room feeling disorientated, "who are you?"  
"I'm the concierge, my office is just on the ground floor. Do you need an ambulance?" He asked, still shaken.
"No, no. I'm fine. How did you get in here?" Pulling my strength together to get up.  
"Well, through the door... You're sister called the office, said you'd had an accident and needed me to check on you." He shuffled about a bit, looking uncomfortable, "so, you're sure you're alright?"
"Yes." I answered impatiently, "just had too much to drink."
"Oh aye. Well then, I'm going back downstairs. Buzz down to the office if you need... Anything." I thanked him, walked him to the door and made sure I locked it this time. My head still hurt, my muscles felt tight and my stomach turned. I made it to the bathroom just on time to throw up over the toilet.
      When that horrible ordeal was over, I sat back, thinking only of my mother. She had spoke to me, called me to her somehow, that was strange enough, but that didn't matter right now, all that mattered was that she was there. Somewhere, she still existed, that was enough. One worrying thing that came to light was after hearing her though, was that I must be losing my memories of my parents. I should have known my own mother's voice as soon as I heard that sweet soothing whisper. Yet, I didn't, what did that say for me? They brought me into this world, loved me, protected me... died because of me. And I couldn't even remember the sound of my own mother's voice, so what else was I forgetting?
      It was hours before I finally got to sleep, my dream was no less tormenting than my waking thoughts. My parents were there, in front of me, but they were joined by hundreds of other people, strange faces, all merging into one flesh-coloured line, making it impossible to distinguish my parents. Different voices called my name and I wondered through the crowd aimlessly. Suddenly, the scene began to fall away, like a melting watercolour, the colours falling, running and merging as it disappeared. It was disturbingly grotesque. "Accalia." Said a voice in my ear just as a hand tightly gripped my arm. My head whipped round to look into eyes, as grey as a storm. I screamed and yanked back as hard as I could but it was no use against his vice grip. So I screamed. He shook me violently until I stopped, he looked furious. "What has happened to you?" Marius demanded. A loud bang stopped me from answering, I looked around to locate the source, then it happened again and my eyes shot open.
It took me a moment to get my bearings, the room was bright, it looked different, until I realised I had somehow ended up at the wrong end of the bed, my feet at the headboard. Another bang, it was the front door. I wrapped my dressing gown around me and sluggishly went to answer. On passing the living room, I caught sight of the clock and groaned, already 7.50am. After about 6 hours sleep, I felt like I'd gone days without any! The door banged again, prompting me to call out, "hang on!" Before I opened the door, I looked through the peep-hole, I wasn't expecting anyone and living alone you can't be too careful. I imagined finding those storm grey eyes of Marius' looking back at me through the glass, and my hand shook a little. The distorted image of a woman with her back to me was there, "hello?" She spun round and I squinted through the hole to make sure I was seeing right.
      The door clicked as I flicked open the snib lock. Yes, she stood there, true as day, "Michelle!" I squealed in excitement, forgetting that I was in my dressing gown, I rushed into the hall and threw my arms around her. I felt her laugh and I pulled back to look at her. She looked different out of her uniform, almost like a regular human, almost. "Its nice to know I've been missed." Her eyes flicked over to the man in a black suit, that stood waiting a few yards from us. They communicated in some silent way, that concluded with him giving a nod and disappearing into the elevator. "Of course you have!" I nodded, "come in."
"What are you doing here? I mean, I'm glad obviously, but why did you come?" I asked as I took a seat beside her. "Well after your little phone call to Alastor last night, I was sent to check on you."
"What! Why? I mean, they called the concierge to check me out so, why did they send you?"
"That was all they could do from where they were, but still, we were all very worried about you, Asteria especially, its under her orders that I came."
"Everybody is worried are they?" I asked sceptical, "then why didn't they come to check on me for themselves?"
"I think sometimes that you forget, that the Vladimir's are a royal family, it wouldn't be proper for the young prince or princess to come searching for you, that's what they have staff for", she winked. "Especially when their parents are around, they don't get much freedom. As for Asteria, she is far to busy with her duties to the council to come. But I assure you, the family care a great deal about you." Her little speech was a comfort to me, even if I didn't entirely believe it, it was nice to know that Michelle cared enough to reassure me.
      "So how is everyone anyway? I feel like I haven't seen anyone in months." True it had been only almost a week, how time drags when your miserable...  
"Everyone is well." Her answer was dry and simple, and I didn't miss the way her eyes couldn't meet mine.
"But...?" I prompted.
"But nothing." Michelle wasn't convincing me and I eyed her suspiciously, "Achlys is finding her transition difficult."
"What do you mean?"
"Her need for blood." I froze, memories of having Marius and co drink from me, the hideous way the eyes and face changed, the almost bestial form they sometimes took on, and I of course the unbearable pain it caused me. I couldn't think of Achlys like that, it was the one thing I desperately pushed to the back of my mind when I thought of any of them. Even tiny, little Calli had to drink, the need apparently increased around the age of eighteen. The blood drained from my face. "What's wrong?" I felt I had to ask.
"She is starving." Michelle answered quietly.
"How can she be starving?" I didn't understand that.  
"She is refusing to drink. She's always taken just enough to get by but... Well obviously her need is increasing and she thought she could control it, which believe me, at her age is near impossible..." She trailed off, unwilling to go on.
"So, what happened?"
"She bit someone. An accident, of course, almost killed him. The boy is fine now, but Achlys was so horrified by what she had done that she now denies herself blood." She looked at me, a cross between pity and pleading for understanding in her eyes. "You need to understand, blood is like water for us, without it, we can go a bit crazy." I gulped hard, my mouth dry. "I can't imagine what that would be like", I mused aloud. Obviously I couldn't imagine what it would be like! I'd only ever experienced bloodlust from the victim's side and it was vulgar, but I still felt sorry for Achlys. "That's like a... Well I can't think of a comparison. But its not her fault."
"She has been told that by everyone, but there was really no consoling her. I think she was quite close to the boy. She's riddled with guilt and she's distanced herself from almost everyone."
      Thankfully, everyone else apparently were fine. Asteria was busy doing her 'High Priestess' stuff with the council, Alastor was doing great and she mentioned Thalia and Aristiaos briefly. But I couldn't keep from worrying about Achlys. "But how are you? Is everything here good?" I filled Michelle in on the events of the past week, exaggerating on the closeness of my friendships with Mark and Stacey to save her from worrying about me. Even though seeing her made my loneliness seem worse than ever. "How long are you staying?"
"I should actually get going now, my duty was to ensure you were alright, which you are. And the driver has been waiting downstairs quite a while."  
"Ah, okay." I sighed, it's been good to see you anyway, even if it was a fleeting visit."
Michelle didn't stay long after that. She did take my number and promised to keep in touch and I watched from the window as she climbed into the waiting car and drove off. Even after the car was out of sight, I still looked longingly out of the window in the direction of which it had disappeared. Her departure left me lonelier than before.
      It was a rush for me to get dressed for work and I had to jog most of the way to make it in time. At first I didn't notice the tension between Mark and Stacey, I was to wrapped up in my own thoughts. But as the day progressed, it was hard to miss the way they avoided eye contact and I found myself being cast as a go between person for them. When I got a moment, I pulled Mark aside and asked what was going on, at first he denied there being a problem, but knowing I wouldn't buy that he explained, "she got in a fight with Jo last night.". His eyes flicked over to where Stacey stood, her back to us making coffee, oblivious of our conversation. "She was way out of line." He stopped and I thought he was done with the explanation, then said, "you're observant."
"Well Mark, the tension in here this morning is almost palpable", I laughed.  
"I mean last night, you were right," his brows lifted, waiting for me to realise he meant, "oh right", I said.
"Yeah, choose last night to make her feelings known... Then took it out on Jo when I told her she was just a friend..."
      Finishing time seemed to take forever to come, I had had all day to mull things over in my head, Michelle's visit, the information she had unloaded on me of Achlys and things I should have asked. I wondered how much she knew about my situation and wished I had told her of the encounter of my mother, just to share it with another person. But she would have probably thought I had gone insane! However, it was my mother I had thought of most of the day and wondered how to get the experience again. Each time I had got no warning of it coming and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to an episode beginning. The past two times I noted, I had drank alcohol and that could be of no consequence at all when the first ever time I had taken nothing. But I needed to hear her again, I was desperate to hear even a single word of hers, and if there was a way to induce the state I needed to be in to hear it, then I would try it.

      Plans had been made earlier for a night out, Mark had promised to take me to the proper clubs in town. This time I made an effort with my appearance, I put on the new red dress I'd bought after work along with my only pair of heels. Still I wasn't experienced in make up artistry, but I done my best and overall I made a pretty good job. Again Mark had come to pick me up in his friend, Sean's car. There was no Jo this time, instead there were two giggly blondes in the back seat with me. Sean had parked up, but we still had to walk for a bit before we reached the bar where we were meeting some others. I didn't delay in starting on the drinks, however the alcohol content was probably less than the previous night because it tasted just like juice. We didn't stay there too long. All eight of us walked down the street to the only open door, where two men counted in people that waited in a queue for club, Rendezvous. The night was cool but thankfully, we didn't have to wait in line for long.
      Inside the club was dark with coloured lights flashing about, it reminded me of the after party at the castle, with few notable differences. The dance floor took up a bigger proportion of the space here, the people were in two's or three's rather than cliques and the third difference were the people themselves. As good as they looked, they couldn't match the impeccable beauty or the general air of the young vampire elite. It didn't take long for me to be dragged up on to the dance floor and unlike at the castle, I didn't feel like everyone here was watching me. I was just another face in the crowd. And if I were honest with myself, I didn't know if that was actually what I wanted. However, I did know that I was having fun, I even found myself laughing a lot. Nobody noticed when I sneaked off to the bar alone so when I was the first to show signs of being tipsy, they all laughed at how I couldn't handle my drink. Mark took me to a seat and went for a glass of water.
      I swayed about in my seat to the music. The club was considerably more busy now and the dance floor was like a pulsing movement of colour. I wasn't intoxicated enough to get into the state to hear my mother, by I was on my way and my stomach tingled in excitement. It wouldn't even have to happen in private, people would just assume I was drunk. My stomach flipped at the thought and then something else... I was going to throw up. I jumped up to fast, and stumbled right down to the floor. Two arms wrapped around me, helping me up into the seat. "You alright there?" I just groaned and put my head against the table, saving face from the embarrassment. "Where's all your mates?" He continued. I looked up, scanning for Mark and his friends, "I dunno. I'm going to be sick." I moaned.  
"Accalia?" I looked up at him, his face shrouded in shadow, the lights hitting off mine. "Who's that?" I asked the silhouette.
"It's me", he said, kneeling down to my face level, "David Ross. I can't believe I'm seeing this! Oh my god! Am I seeing a ghost? Accalia Pariter!" David Ross, I thought. My child hood best friend? Oh dear, this was bad. Very bad.

*** side note ***

chapter 28 is finished and just needs typed up so will be up within the next few days, hang tight.

i know i know the story needs proof read and checked blah blah blah, i really havnt had time but after the next upload i will make sure i get round to doing the editing

Love u all!!! <3