Lessons of the Heart and the Liquid it Pumps ||

70: Embrace the Unexpected

I looked out towards the street, feeling as though on the brink of sleep. It was all so familiar, yet something wasn’t right. My eyes danced down the houses before landing on a duplex down the block. We were already at my house. “I shouldn’t be there right now,” I managed to get out. Only after I said it did I remember I had technically been kicked out. The knowledge was just with me. 

I looked up to the vampire that held me, confused slightly by his appearance. No longer was I being held by the long foreheaded creature I’d seen during the games. The man who looked down at me was blatantly unremarkable. He had plain blue eyes, which sat on a face you’d pass a million times a day without a second thought. When he spoke again his voice was different too, less surreal and more monotone than before. “You are not welcome there at the moment,” he seemed to acknowledge as though he had already known. “Is there someplace else you would be more comfortable?”

The few choices I had came to my mind in a single file line, waiting patiently for me to consider them in turn. Whatever this vampire blood had done to me, I knew one thing for sure. I appreciated my thoughts not constantly running wild. So I lingered on the first name for a moment; Collin. Though I would rather be with him than anybody else the option was ultimately not a good one. Seeing me in this state would only make him that much more upset when I told him the days events. I needed to be healthy and sound when I informed him of what had happened. And, although the man holding me now looked different, I was sure it was Claudette who held me now. I had no clue what would happen if he recognized Collin. 

Castin was the next obvious choice, but there was a problem there as well. I didn’t know where he lived. When I’d been there last I’d been insane. Not how I was now, with my thoughts cool and collective. “I don’t remember addresses,” I admitted upon realizing I was of little help. 

He gave a gentle nod before closing his eyes, the air around us growing dense. I wondered if it was my cue to close my eyes again, but my body told me it wasn’t. Trying to keep my eyes open and fight of the weariness in my bones I waited for him to speak again. “Tedur has given me another address. One for a Kelson?” 

He must have memorized the name from the report he had to do. Unless he used a power on his fellow officer, or that man was a vampire as well, they would have had to do some sort of form with our information. It was the best I was going to get at the moment and I nodded. “Yes, thank you.” 

My eyes closed and the air seemed to tingle against my skin. It almost felt as though it were a million little threads being traced over my entire body. When the sensation lift colors bled, zooming towards me in a long drag before blending together to form a glowing white. Just as the world went blank around me, the colors switched back on and I was greeted with a different scene. This time, we were surrounded by trees. 

“It is not my wish to leave you so weak when it was one of my rules which was broken.” I tilted my head back the slightest bit to look up at the same mundane face I’d seen earlier. But it was not the right face for the vampire I knew him to be, and it troubled me at the core. “If you would partake from me once more, you should be able to regain the strength to stand.”

In a fluid movement he shifted to hold me with only one arm as though I were weightless, raising the other to bite at his wrist. As Matthew had done for me earlier, he presented his wrist to me. My eyes rose from the droplets of blood on his wrist, up to the face he wore. I gazed into his eyes, picturing them for the little slits I knew them to be and blinked slowly to let it sink in. Once more it was the true Claudette who held me, his pale almost translucent skin shining eerily against the dim light of the moon. Pleased, I turned my mouth to his wrist and lowered my lips to the liquid that bubbled from it.