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Hunting with Alek was weird. I’d never done any sort of ‘hunting’ before in my life, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.
When I was younger, I’d seen my grandfather get ready to go hunting. He’d gotten all wrapped up in warm clothes and orange things, like hats or mittens. He’d worn big, heavy boots and acted like he was going to get all dirty. He never came home all that dirty, although he did look cold, even with the many articles of clothing he wore. I could clearly remember the camoflauge jacket he had that had a bright orange liner inside it. Once, he'd lost the jacket and hadn't gone hunting all hunting season. The next year, he hunted twice as much to make up for it.
I had momentarily considered changing my own clothes, before I remembered that vampires didn’t generally get cold. Except for me, because that was just my luck. And the fact that I was starving myself. But whatever.
Before we actually did any hunting, Alek made me hop around in trees. He made me jump from one to another for no purpose, other than to make sure I could catch a bird if I wanted too. Like I would ever, ever actually try to catch and kill a bird.
Alek told me that catching a bird was kind of an emergency thing. If you were absolutely starving and had very little time, you had to be able to jump up to a tree and catch a bird. Birds didn't have a lot of blood in them, and their blood was certainly not good but it would give a vampire enough energy to hunt something with more appealing blood.
After that, he decided that I needed to practice sneaking around in the woods while also running as fast as I could. It wasn’t difficult, as I made virtually no sound when I ran, thanks to my speed and grace.
Not that I looked graceful when I ran, because I somehow still managed to look uncoordinated. Maybe it was just because I was new.
After about an hour of messing around and Alek making me do things that weren’t pertinent to me finding some food, I stopped and walked over to him. “I’m hungry.” I stated. And tired, but I could keep that to myself.
He raised his eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to kill an animal?”
I shrugged. I didn’t. Inside I was freaking out. But I wasn’t about to risk dying or whatever vampires did. I couldn’t do that to Jace. Besides...killing an animal was better than killing a human, right? I could live with an animal death on my concious, even if I didn't like it. I couldn't live with the thought that I had killed an innocent person.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I muttered.
Funny, how I should be hunting for animals. It was ironic really. I, the Vegan who wrote a science essay about the logic of vampires being mythical, had been turned into a blood-thirsty vampire and was abount to kill a poor little deer.
A thought occurred to me and I voiced it before I could stop myself. “Did you turn me because you read my essay?” I asked Alekzander, coming up behind him.
He turned to look at me. His expression was weird, it was a mix between confusion and surprise. Like he expected me to know why he had turned me. How could I?
He shook his head, his expression apologetic. “I didn’t mean to turn you.” He sounded so sincere — almost sad. He paused and then his expression hardened and a smirk found its way onto his face. “We only meant to teach you a lesson, but now I’m stuck with you.”
I wasn’t sure why it bothered me that he hadn’t wanted to turn me, but it felt a little like being punched in the gut. I felt my own expression harden in response.
“Karma’s a bitch.”
With that, I took off running ahead, aware that I wasn’t going to be able to get much farther before he caught up. He didn’t try to. Because of my extra-special, awesome hearing — which was probably fairly impaired from starvation but still better than a humans — I could hear him running along behind me. He trailed behind me, making no attempt to get near me at all. This bothered me.
Another punch to the gut and I veered off sideways, making getting away from him my only goal for the moment. Screw hunting with him, I could figure out how to do it on my own. It couldn’t be that hard. In the books, wasn’t it always instinct anyway? The books all told how vampires were completely ruled by their bloodlust. There was no thinking necessary for hunting — they just did it. I was relatively independent, anyway, I could manage. My grandfather and his father and his father before him had all hunted. It was in blood or whatever.
He still didn’t try to catch me. Actually, I didn’t even think he’d bothered turning after me.
I wasn’t paying any attention to my surroundings so I didn’t notice at all when I had passed the heard of deer to my left. I also didn’t notice that Alekzander was right beside me until it was too late.
He slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. I gasped for air, winded. How was I winded? I was a vampire! Wasn’t I supposed to be invincible and never hurt and whatever?
Besides, I thought vampires were dead. Why did I need to breathe? Weren't vampires supposed to be able to hold their breathe for ages or whatever.
I tried holding my breath and I didn't get dizzy or lightheaded. Actually, it wasn't very hard to hold my breath, I just stopped breathing. Cool.
He chuckled. “Oops, I forgot you haven’t eaten. Guess I should wait until you’re stronger before I try to inflict damage. Normally, you could have just gotten up and walked away.” He laughed again.
“Much like I’m going to do now.” I gave a tiny, curt smile before taking off again, this time slower, trying to find an animal.
I could hear one walking not far away. They were just walking along in a tiny clearing ahead of me. I could hear them, but they couldn’t hear me. It would be an uneven match.
I dove through the last bit of trees, reaching out and lashing onto the lone Buck that was wandering the forest. I could tell that Alekzander was watching me from a few paces away but I didn’t really care. I just tried not to think, to shut my mind off.
It was easier than I’d expected. There wasn’t really a whole lot of time for logically thought, between fighting to kill the deer, keeping it’s antlers away from my face and the burning desire to suck the poor thing dry.
It was quick. I wasted no time bending my head over the animal and latching onto his neck — right where I could hear the warm blood circulating the fastest. It was like a mother placing a warm chocolate brownie in front of a two year old, only to tell them not to eat it. My self-control was so beyond gone that I didn’t think about what I was doing. I just grabbed the brownie and took a bite.
Once the deer had gone still the blood became thicker, harder to drink, I lifted my head up. I wasn’t cold anymore. Or exhausted. It felt a little like a sugar rush, only tainted with the desire to find more of this intoxicating substance. I imagine it’s how an alcoholic would feel. One bottle wouldn’t be enough, surely they could just have one more?
I was completely unaware of what I was doing, in a nice, ignorant bliss. I was fully aware that Alekzander was walking toward me but I didn’t care. I sat on the ground with the bloody, dead deer across my lap, just looking around.
The closer Alekzander got, the more I could smell and feel his blood. His heat hit me in heavy waves and I closed my eyes.
It didn’t matter that it was Alekzander, it didn’t matter that I hated him. It didn’t matter that I was half-crazy with blood-lust or that I didn’t even want to drink blood. Well, the rational part of me didn’t. The vampire part was all for sucking some innocent people’s blood.
Who cares if I kill a few, there’s plenty more.
I lunged at Alekzander, taking him by surprise. He was still for a moment but he grabbed hold of me before I could reach his neck. “Stop it, Genesis.” He commanded.
I didn’t listen. Why should I? He was just one person, and a person I didn’t even like. And I wanted blood. Sweet, delicious blood. I could remember how it had tasted. The animals had tasted better than his, but it was all the same to me. It was all just as good as the other.
I struggled, fangs bared, hands reaching for him.
His hold slipped and I managed to bite down on his neck. His knees gave out and he kneeled in the grass as I sat on his lap and wrapped my arm around his neck, tipping his head subtly to the side. To an outsider, it probably would have looked like I was kissing his neck. Even more so when he moaned.
I wasn’t really sure why he did that — probably out of pain — but I wasn’t hung up on it. Who cared? He could scream and I wouldn’t stop. He was a vampire, he didn’t need blood anyway.
His hand moved down my side, to my hips and then across to my stomach. My head seemed to slowly come down from the clouds and I stopped drinking, opening my eyes.
His hand pushed a little on my lower abdomen and I realized he was sitting on the ground and I was on his lap, grinding on him. He pushed me away again and I snapped my mouth away from his neck, pulling back completely and shooting into a standing position.
What was I doing?
I stared wide-eyed at him, waiting for some sort of explanation. He stared back at me, then sighed.
“Sorry.” He said.
“Why are you apologizing?” I asked, bewildered. Wasn’t I the one that had just been draining him like there was no tomorrow?
“I let you get out of control.” He paused. “I’m supposed to have some sort of command over you, since I turned you, so I thought I could keep everything calm. I guess I wasn't being careful enough.” He scratched the back of his head and I noticed that his neck was bleeding.
He caught me staring and covered it with his hand. “It’ll heal on it’s own in a minute.”
I shook my head to clear my mind, looking up at the canopy of trees above me. “Command over me?” I asked, more to change the subject than out of curiosity.
He nodded. “When I command you to do something, like stop, you’re supposed to have to do it. That’s why I had to come hunting with you, instead of Theo.”
“Oh.” Why didn’t he "command" me then? Not that I minded, I certainly didn't want him telling me what to do.
There was a long, pregnant silence. “Why did I want blood so badly?”
He shrugged. “You’re a vampire, it’s natural. You’ll be able to control yourself better once you’re more used to it. Besides, you’d been starving yourself since you turned, it’s not surprising you went a little crazy when did finally get blood.”
I sank down into the grass in front of him, eyeing him warily.
"When you drink from a human, is it more...filling?" I asked.
He shrugged, knowing exactly what I meant. "Animals will help with your thirst but their blood isn't very satisifying. You won't starve from eating them but you'll need to have more blood from an animal to match what you take from a human."
I nodded, thinking about that. I would never kill a human, but maybe I could drink from a human without killing them? That would be better, right? And hadn't Alek 'commanded' that boy not to remmeber or whatever?
I was about to ask when Alek's expression became thoughtful. “I wonder...” He mused quietly. Before he could say anything else, he was suddenly right in front of me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and kept me still, and then — before I could do anything — he bit me.
He bit the bottom of my neck, near my collarbones. This made me curious, since it wasn’t an ideal spot to drink from. Why was he even drinking from me at all?
I squirmed but he pushed me down and sat on my stomach, successfully cutting off my air supply — not that I desperately needed any — and kept me there. God, he was heavy.
He sucked harder and pain shot through my shoulder before a tingling sensation. It started to burn, but it was a good burn.
He pulled away a second later, standing and looking down at me. He stood up and smirked down at me. “Stand.”
My feet shot out and I stood, without meaning to. I gaped at him, feeling the blood trickle down my shoulder. His smirk grew more pronounced.
“Get on your knees.” His voice was husky with implications and I would have scoffed if I had been able.
“You can talk, by the way.” He added, almost as an after thought.
I growled at him. “Let me up!” I demanded, fury thick in my voice. He couldn’t just order me around! Who did he think he was?
He shook his head. “Not yet, let me explain it to you first.” He paused, running his hand through his hair. “It seems it’s a two way thing. Our connection stems from me turning you, but it needs to be more intimate from that. Drinking from each other.” He explained.
He waved his hand through the air. “You can get up, now.”
I stood slowly, glaring at him with all the hate I could muster. How dare he order me around. He couldn’t just drink from me and then establish some ‘connection’ without my permission.
Afraid that I might snap his neck, I just turned and started running through the woods, back the way we’d come.