The next week passed quickly for Astyr in the same routine she had established during her first week with Grima. Astyr would get up in the morning and take the bus to school, where she would attend her classes with the sophomore honor students, eat lunch with the rest of the cheerleading squad, finish her afternoon classes with the same kids as before, and then ride home with Hakon and Gunnar after practice.
She was getting to know them better and she was getting used to both Gunnar's playful flirtations and Hakon's smoldering intensity. Gunnar was her almost constant companion, shadowing her every step except for fourth period when she went to Chorus and he went to Agriculture, and at her afternoon cheer practice. He was very friendly and loved to joke around with her and was even friendly with the rest of the cheerleaders since he always sat with Astyr at lunch and she always sat with the cheer squad. Hakon, however, even though he sat with them at lunch, still only spoke with Astyr and Gunnar and would only spare words for anyone else if pressed.
It was getting close to Homecoming week and the girls were starting to spend more of their time talking about the dance and who would make likely dates. A couple of them were already sure of their dates since they had boyfriends who were locked in already, but everyone else spent all of their time speculating.
Astyr was eating lunch on Friday and just listening in to the conversation when she heard Jenny ask Gunnar if he had asked Astyr to the dance yet. Astyr was a little amused that everyone just assumed she would be going with Gunnar but could hardly blame them considering how much time he spent with her.
"Ah, no," Gunnar started, sounding a little depressed, "I'm not actually going to be here for Homecoming." This was news to Astyr and she was glad that Jenny asked him right away why he wouldn't make it. "I have some personal issues that are going to keep me away from school for the next couple of weeks." He explained.
"Are you going to be gone, too?" Gwen butted in rudely, addressing this to Hakon.
"No," he said to her in a voice that conveyed his reluctance to being dragged into this conversation, "I'll be here." He stood up and headed for the door as the bell started to ring and everyone else followed to get to class on time.
Astyr didn't have a chance to talk to Gunnar about his impending absence until late that night after the game was finished and they were driving with Hakon to Grima's house. "Why are you not going to come to school for the next couple of weeks, Gunnar."
"Well," he said, "you know my sixteenth birthday is coming up soon. I just have to stay home for a while to get ready for it."
"What does that mean?" She asked. "Are your parents letting you skip school to plan a party or something?" She was astounded that they might let him blow off school for something like that and she sensed there was more to the story than what Gunnar was telling her.
"No! It's nothing like that." He said with a laugh. "The closer I get to starting the regeneration process, the more unstable the energy levels in my body get. It's just easier to stay away from everyone until it all gets finished."
"Why?" She asked. "What happens?" This was getting more confusing with every answer she got out of him.
Hakon took over the explanation at this point. "We can absorb energy in many different ways, Astyr." He said. "We get energy from the sunlight, from plants, from animals and other living things, and also in small, steady quantities from the earth itself. The energy we get from the sun and the earth absorbs into our bodies through our skin, but to get energy from plants and animals, we need to take them into our bodies like humans do when they eat to get calories." He paused to make sure Astyr was keeping up and then continued. "Just like with getting calories from food, some things have more energy in them than others. Plants will only give you small doses of energy and only if you eat them freshly picked. Warm-blooded animals will give you larger amounts but it depends on the size of the animal and how long they've been cooked for, the heat breaks down the energy. The best way to get energy from a living creature is from their blood because that is where you find the highest concentrations of their life force, but the animal has to still be alive when you take the blood or it will be useless, and hominids have the highest concentration of life force of any animal."
"You mean you drink blood?" She asked, even though she was horrified that she really had heard that clearly. "Human blood?"
"We only drink blood after the regeneration process has started." Hakon told her. "It's too dangerous beforehand. A young Aesir's body can't process that much energy and it could cause a lot of damage. And please try to remember, Astyr, that humans are animals just like any other. They look like us but they aren't our kind."
She was in shock. They may be used to the idea that humans are only good as a source of food, but she had only just found out that she wasn't of the species Homo sapiens and she thought that the idea of drinking another person's blood was horrific. "You guys are Vampires. That's what you're trying to tell me, isn't it?" She could barely get the words out.
"No, Astyr," Gunnar jumped in at this point because he wanted to ease her clear distress, "the word vampire is a corruption of the word Vanir. You remember we told you the Vanir are just like us? Well, humans took what they know of our kind and turned them into fairy-tales and fantasies and horror stories. Not everything they say about us is true, Astyr. We're not monsters; we're just different from them."
"But you drink their blood!" Astyr said, her voice rising in alarm.
"We do, Astyr," Hakon said to her in a calm voice, "but we don't kill them. It would do us no good because the blood is only good if it's taken while the person is alive. Plus, if you leave them alive, their body will replenish the blood in a short period of time."
Gunnar added to this saying, "We're not saying that there aren't some of our kind who go over to the dark side, even humans have that problem, but for most of us, we have a deep respect for life. We would much rather live side-by-side with the other living things on earth than to wipe them all out."
Astyr was a little reassured by this but she needed some time to process all of this.
They had arrived at Grima's house and Astyr wished them good night and went upstairs to find Grima waiting up for her.
"Hello, dear," She said to Astyr. "Did you have a good time at the game?"
"Yeah, it was great." Astyr replied, "We won again. Thanks to Hakon we might stand a chance."
"Yes, well it's nice he's putting his skills to good use helping the rest of the school." Grima said as she made to get up and go to bed. Astyr stopped her and told her of what the boys had said to her on the ride home.
"This is a lot to learn about in such a short time." Grima said to her in sympathy. "You just have to trust that we have your best interests at heart. If you have any questions, please ask me, dear." She added, "I know it's hard to take all of this in, but this is who you are. You need to try to come to terms with all of this before you turn sixteen."
"Why?" Astyr asked, "What if I just never use any energy? Could I go without drinking people's blood if I just never did anything to use up energy?"
Grima sighed sadly but gave Astyr a kind look. "It's not really that easy, dear. Sometimes you will find yourself in situations where you will need to use your energy to stay alive. If you don't replenish that energy quickly, you would be vulnerable to anyone who wanted to harm you."
Astyr gave a small laugh. "Who would want to hurt me?" She asked, "I'm just a foster kid who's never done anything to anyone."
Grima laughed as well at that. "You will most likely live for thousands of years, Astyr. It's not inconceivable that you will at some point find yourself at odds with those around you. It's much better to be prepared and to be able to protect yourself than to find yourself in harm's way with no way to save yourself."
"I see what you're saying," Astyr said. "I just can't imagine myself drinking blood from another person."
Grima laughed again. "We don't usually drink straight from the source. It's usually donated blood. It lasts for quite a while if it's stored properly."
"Oh!" Astyr exclaimed, "I was thinking of all the stories of vampires where they go around draining people."
"Well, there are reasons humans have stories like that." Grima said grimly, "There are some of our kind who will kill humans for no reason. Those are the dangerous kind and I really hope you do manage to avoid meeting any of them."
Astyr considered this and said, "But you and Hakon both said that blood is only good if it comes from a living human. Why would someone kill them?"
"There are some who think that once a human has served them, they are of no further value and that it's perfectly acceptable to dispose of them like an animal." Grima said. "Those people are dangerous and their lack of respect for life makes them have no value for anyone's life, whether they be human or our own species."
"Well I hope I never have to meet anyone like that." Astyr said.
"Me, too, Astyr, me, too." And with that they wished each other good night and went to bed.
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