The Blood Contract

Chapter 1

Hunched in the rain, Gem blended into the shadows as she disappeared into the throng of people. She was almost late for her appointment and in her business, punctuality was important. It did no one any good if precious time was lapsed.

She pushed open the doors of a cafe and she cautiously surveyed the throng of people. The person whom she had made the appointment with gave her no photo or name but she knew who it was immediately. The desperation in the eyes was easy to read after years of practice. No one would sell their blood voluntarily for no reason.

She went up to a young man in his T-shirt in jeans. In other settins, he would have looked perfectly normal but his eyes darted left to right as if he was afraid someone would catch him out.

"Red roses," Gem whisper under her breath. That was the code for the meeting and recognition lighted up in the man's eyes.

"Black Thorns," the man replied. "How did you know it was me? I never told you who I was. It could have been anyone else in the crowd."

"I've my ways." Gem smiled mysteriously. "Shall we get started?"

"Okay..." He squirmed in his seat.

Gem took out a form and asked, "Any medical history, Mr Glavin Moore?"

"How...how did you know my name?" Galvin stuttered. He looked absolutely pale and frightened.

"I repeat, Mr Galvin Moore, any medical history?" She ignored him.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, this is so creepy. I'm not doing this anymore." He pushed back his chairs and Gem stood up.

"If you leave now, Mr Moore, I gurantee you won't find a more lucrative deal in the entire of Britain," she said coolly. It irritated her that some people just didn't know what was good for them. People like Galvin Moore liked to act high-handed but the truth was, they would actually sell their soul to the devils just for a bit of cash.

"How do you know?" He challenged, baring his fists. He was a burly man and he could have easily cracked her bones but Gem's piercing stare made him sit down again. He didn't know what power she had but she intimidated him.

"I repeat, do you've any medical history?" Gem said slowly, her blue eyes cold and assessing. 

"No..no...not that I know of," he stammered.

"What's your blood type?" Gem enquired. Some vampires liked certain blood types, claiming that they were far sweeter than other but it was just personal preference.

"O+," he replied nervously.

"How regularly can you commit?" she continued, noting everydown in elegant swirls and letters.

"Every month, I mean, obviously I've my own big business to take care of," Galvin said nonchalantly. "I probably don't have a lot of time walking around and donating blood."

Gem stared back at him. "You don't have a big business, Mr Moore. You're just a small-time truck driver."

"Jeez." His eyes widened in shock. "How....do you know all these? Are you a vampire?"

Gem laughed. It was so funny. All her vampire clients could immediately distinguish that she was only a mere mortal with their heightened senses but the mortal ones held her in high regard, assuming she was one of the supernatural beings. She supposed she looked like it to them. Her extremely pale face contrasted starkly with her formal black dress and she looked gothic and from another era. But real vampires don't dress like that. Most of them kept up with the times to blend in with the humans.

Then again, she wasn't entirely human either. If she was, she wouldn't have had the stomach for this business and the contacts to keep it going. She never told anyone her secret, that she had a mixed heritage. Her father was a vampire and her mother was human. The vampire nature usually dominated but in her strange case, she displayed no vampire traits and her father was deeply disappointed. Not that she cared actually.

"You don't need to know all that. I know all your secrets so you don't have to bother hiding anything from me," she answered.

Galvin Moore seemed to have given up. "Okay, fine, I can committ every second and every day. I just quit my job and I need the money, desperately. Just take as much of my blood as possible but give me the damn cash."

"Rest assured you will be rewarded for your efforts." She smiled. She handed him the contract form. "These are the deals I promised you over the phone. Sign it and I'll tell you what to do next."

Without any hesitation, Galvin Moore hastily penned down his signature. Desperation could drive Men to disastrous things and here was the typical case.

"Written here is the address of a vampire. Report there and he will tell you what to do." She pushed a piece of paper to him. 

"How do I know he won't drink me dry or kill me?" he stuttered. Good, show me your fears.  

"Rest assured. This man is a long-time client and we've had successfully cooperated many times. He's very civilized," she reassured. Not an entire lie. Fedrick only killed a person once and it was just an accident.

"Ok. Fine. But if anything goes wrong, I hold you accountable," he warned. An empty threat. The most he could do was call the police but nobody would believe his atrocious tale.

"If you dare pull off any stunts or tricks, you'll be heavily punished." Gem smiled. On a rare occasion, some humans decide to pull out and tell the police about the illegal blood donation business. In all these cases, they all ended up dead. She didn't kill them of course. But she did enlist the help of some people to do it.

"Ok...fine...."

"That's all." Both of them stood up.

Galvin held out his hand. "May we've a good liason," he grunted.

Gem didn't shake it. She detested touch, especially with a filthy being like Galvin Moore.

"Welcome to the supernatural world," Gem smiled tightly. "Remember to report for your 1st assignment in 2 days time."