LIRA: Book I

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: A Vampire's Girl

Lira pulled herself together and started towards the dresser. An ornamented large mirror hung atop the dresser. She stared at her reflection and cringed at the ugly red marks on her neck. The bodice of her gown was stained with her blood. Mari would definitely kill her for ruining the gown. Stupid vampires and their stupid jealousy! And her stupid, stupid self! Oh now she had identified that brewing feeling inside of her. Now she could give it a name. Now she was definitely sure of what she felt. Great. She was in love with the vampire brute. That manipulative, scheming vampire made her fall, hard. Greeaat. Oh happy day.

She touched the fang marks and flinched when she felt a stinging pain. As she assessed the wound further and contemplate as to how to go home without drawing too much attention due to her ghastly sight, she heard the door opening. She spun around expecting Nicholas' angry face. Instead, Elisabeth strode towards her.

The vampire girl gave her a pitying look. "Oh, you poor thing! What came into Nicholas to do this to you?"

Lira eyed the vampire speculatively. Elisabeth was holding what seemed like a towel and clothes neatly folded.

Elisabeth set it atop the dresser. "You should get yourself cleaned up. I brought you a towel and set of clothes for you to wear. The bathroom is right there," she said kindly, pointing to a door behind Lira.

Lira hesitated at first. She didn't want to be naked inside a vampire bathroom. What if he came back and saw her without a stich of clothing?

Elisabeth must have seen the apprehension in her eyes and said gently, "Go on. He will not come back. I will stand guard and wait until you finish. I may not look like it, but I'm a tough vampire. I can drag Nicholas out of this room by his ears."

Lira needed to clean the blood of her, so she nodded and went to the bathroom. She quickly cleaned herself and changed into a peach, short sleeve, baby doll dress. She pulled the pins out of her hair and gave her head a shake, then ran her fingers through the tangles. She eyed the bathroom as she combed her hair with her fingers. It was just like a normal human bathroom only a lot more elegant. She spied a toothbrush set inside a glass. How cute—a toothbrush to keep those fangs sparkly clean, she thought. Oh, how tempted she was to run the head of the brush inside the toilet, just so she could extract some revenge. Lucky for Nicholas, she was able to restrain herself from executing her plan.

She went out of the bathroom and true to her word, Elisabeth patiently waited for her outside, sitting on the bed, her hands rested on her lap. When she saw Lira coming out of the bathroom, she smiled warmly and tapped the bed. "Come. Sit beside me for a while." When she saw Lira's hesitation, she added, "I won't hurt you."

Lira believed her for she went towards Elisabeth and sat a few inches away from the vampire. The vampire girl gave her another pitying look. "Nicholas didn't even heal the fang marks. What a brute."

"My sentiments exactly," she found herself saying causing Elisabeth to giggle. "Why is he doing this? I thought he was nice and all until he started acting all scary, doing stupid things like tapping my veins and saying stupid stuff like 'you're mine' and 'I'm jealous' blah-blah. Really, everything he's doing is vexing on my part."

Elisabeth smiled at her. "I know. Nicholas can sometimes make a monk lose his patience. Growing up with Nicholas made me understand him and his actions, however. Ask me anything about him, and I'll try to explain it for you."

"Why did he demand for my blood? Why did he take it straight from me? I can just give it to him via blood bank. That way he wouldn't be breaking the treaty and it'll be less painful for me."

"Your blood is... special. I don't know how it came to be like that but your blood smells very different compared to others. Nicholas grew up always having his way. He was raised to demand and he always gets what he wanted. In this case, he wanted your blood. So I surmised it was what drove him to maneuver you in to giving your blood. As for the treaty... it's a vampires' nature to—uh—look for a source to—how am I going to say this?—sink our fangs into... Let's just say that our fangs hurt and we need to ease it. I have never done that though, drinking blood straight from the humans. I drink from the supply we get from the blood bank. If I can't really help it, I hunt for animals to feed," she explained.