Serum

-Six-

Lying back down, I soon acknowledged that sleep was out of the question, so I got up and began walking the house. I peered into several open rooms without entering. The house was mostly normal, except the bedrooms, they all had dark curtains over the windows. Lana must either work at night, or else it’s a vampire’s bane to sleep during the day, I thought grimly. Most of the rooms were relatively bare, almost no nick-knacks or anything put up. The house looked like something out of a catalog, 'minimalist'. One room had complex set of chemistry paraphernalia in it and a small refrigerator. All of the chemistry items were clean and set up on a rack to dry, so I snuck a look in the fridge. Packets of blood, test-tubes and syringes without the needles were lined up neatly inside. Trembling, I withdrew my head, knowing that the vampiric serum was somewhere inside one or more of those tubes and/or syringes. I briefly thought of smashing them all, but then remembered Lana stated her original aim had been to “cure” vampirism. With the serum being possibly permanent, I would be afraid of smashing my only chance of being human again should one small tube contain an antidote. Quietly I closed the door, grimly amused at the change of events in my life. I sauntered my way towards the kitchen, noticing that my footsteps were incredibly light and almost impossible to hear. I somewhat missed hearing my loud obnoxious stomping around the house. As with most of the other rooms, there wasn’t much in the kitchen. A few food items that looked more like a cover-up for Lana’s vampirism, snack foods mainly, party favors. Inside the fridge there were a few juice bottles, one contained actual juice. All the juice bottles were kinds that would have contained dark juices, somewhat resembling blood. By smell, I could tell which bottles contained blood, and which contained the real thing, without even touching them.

“Boy, this vampire thing is not going to be easy to get used to.” I slurrily stated. “GRRR, I hate how I can’t even speak right!!” I decided right then it might be nice if I sat down and practiced saying things with my new teeth, especially the words that I tended to slur, like slur for instance. Repeating words over and over again to myself, I occasionally accidentally bit my lip or tongue, which would frustrate me to no end. I realized the taste of blood was so potent now, I could almost tell the difference between red blood cells and plasma. The red cells were more of a soft subtle metallic taste, the plasma somewhat salty. Shuddering slightly, I went back to practicing my speech. I practiced for nearly an hour until the words came with just a slightly rolling slur in the background of my speech that wasn’t too very noticeable, and at the very least didn’t annoy the life out of me.

Instantly bored, I floated around the house looking for something to do next. The living room contained nothing but a large double front window looking out on the street, and a few pieces of furniture in a soft circle. I pulled the shades aside and hung over the back of the couch, looking outside. The windows were tinted as Conner had mentioned, but my night vision was very good and I could clearly see the street and the houses surrounding it. I began to stare into space, having nothing better to do. My mind was wandering when I once again became aware of the whooshing noise. It was very faint at first, until I noticed a man walking his dog down the street towards me. As he approached and walked directly in front of the house, the noise became unbelievably loud, two noises inter-twining and mixing with completely different rhythms, the dog’s quick and fast, the human’s also raised, but not matching the dog’s. Overlapping it all was the rough sounds of the dog’s paw pads and harsh panting, and the man’s quick footsteps and even quicker breathing. The sound of the blood stimulated a slight flutter in my stomach. Like the smell of cooked bacon could make my mouth water before, it appeared that the sound of blood-flow stimulated a hunger response in my body now. Dimly, the vampiric part of me recognized that hunger, but having fed earlier did not feel the need to do so again. The human part, which seemed to be smaller and further away, merely shivered a bit at the thought. Soon the man and dog disappeared down the street, the sounds fading with them. I began to experience an unsettled feeling. How long had Conner and Lana been gone? When would they be back? I disliked being here all by myself, alone with my alien body and senses. To keep myself occupied, I tried moving so fast I “blurred” out of view as I had seen Conner and Lana do. I swung my arm through the air, feeling somewhat foolish; then did it again, faster. Nothing much was happening, so I tried again, and again. Finally I got frustrated and snapped my arm down as quickly as possible. Though my vampiric eyes were adjusted to seeing the quick movement, I was still baffled at how my arm seemed to have cut from eye level to my side in a split second. I gave a nervous giggle, things had definitely changed.

A sudden noise at the door interrupted my thoughts. With my senses all alert I heard slow steady heartbeats and shallow breathing. These noises weren’t human. Moving faster than I ever had before, I blurred into a crouch, ducking to hide myself. In the shadows behind the couch I noticed how my skin and hair seemed to absorb the darkness and refract it making me nearly invisible. A key scratched at the lock, the doorknob twisting, and smoothly the door swung open. In the faint light from the street, I could see two familiar forms standing there, and my heart jumped at the sight.

“Conner!” I practically squealed while running quickly towards him as he stepped inside the door. I blurred into his arms and gave a soft squeeze. He laughed a bit nervously at the response, gently hugging me back. He then softly pushed away, joking that I needed to let him go if he was going to come in. He seemed full of strength and energy, a complete change from when he had left. The human part shrank at how many people he might have killed to be this way, but the rest of me was just too glad to have him back to care.

After settling in the living room, I noticed that no one had bothered to turn on the lights. It wasn’t really needed, I could see as well as if it was daytime, but I was surprised at just how well-adjusted vampires were to hunting in the dark.

“Now, since we’re all sated and in good spirits, Adrian, there’s some very important things you need to learn, and you need to start learning now. It’s imperative to your survival. Like it was said earlier, you’ll have to be taught in a few days what most of us have grown up knowing, basically: how to survive.” Lana said. “The very first thing is the rule not to kill. Most vampires follow by this rule, but as with humans there will be rule-breakers. We simply try to stun our victims, take what we need and leave before they come to. Some outlaws kill and drain for the fun of it, causing us to clean up after them, but in such a small area that is extremely dangerous, and most of us realize this.”

“You see, in a small place like this, people are bound to notice if someone ends up dead with two puncture marks in their throat or other vital blood area. We usually run others out of this place, or kill those who can’t control themselves or don’t care about the first rule. Our intent is not necessarily to kill our prey, but rather just borrow a bit from them, if you’ll excuse me from putting it like that.” Conner cuts in.

“Feeding like this can take several long hours, and many, many “victims” but in the long run, we feel it is best.” Lana continues. “We’ll teach you everything we can possibly think of to help you survive on your own, how to stun your prey without further harm, how to feed without killing, how to use your abilities to hunt, and a bit about your new physique.” With that Lana began to show me the pressure points for stunning a victim, and had me practice on Conner. Lana began to get frustrated with me, as I was too afraid of hurting Conner to cause any real damage, and with a sudden movement caught me at the base of my skull. Again the world faded.

“Why did you do that?!?” I shouted as I sat up. Lana looked at me expressionless.

“How long do you think you were out?” She asked simply. I looked around, Conner and Lana were in the same positions as when I had fallen. Stunned, I looked up at her in confusion. “A vampire’s body is made to heal much more quickly than a human’s. What would have had you out for hours took merely two minutes of your time now. You are not able to hurt Conner simply by stunning him, and if you are not willing to do this simple thing to help your body survive, then you might as well be dead. What happens when you refuse to stun your first victim? Are you willing to let your prey struggle, possibly causing their own death, while you remain feeding? A cruel and vicious vampire may do this, but I thought you were still partly human, or are you only a coward?”

Quickly I hurled myself at her, blurring into a frenzied move, trying every trick she had just taught me, trying just to shut her up. Suddenly Lana started laughing, the reaction startled me into a stop.

“Good! I think you’ll make it after all.” She said with a grin.

“You did all that just to provoke me into trying that stuff out on you!” I exclaimed angrily. Lana nodded, amused.

“If nothing else you must understand that many vampires will kill any competition they come upon, you just experienced a taste of that. It’s instinct. Not only do the pressure points help in keeping your victim safe, it also helps in keeping you safe. It may be a while yet, but with the strength you just showed me, I believe that you could beat even me in a duel. Now, will you please try the pressure point to knock out a potential donor.” Lana continues. This time I threw myself into it, apologizing to Conner each time I unintentionally harmed him. I began to actually enjoy myself and the energy it took to quickly disable a potential “donor”. Conner, I learned was incredibly strong and fast, and would many times fight back just to teach me how to react if a real victim struggled.

“Of course, none of your prey will be as strong as me” Conner apologetically said as he knocked me backwards into a wall, somewhat winding me. In response I savagely attacked him back and we tussled across the floor, each trying to knock each other out first. I had a fleeting thought that the fight reminded me of a pair of kittens, playing roughly but not really intending harm, just practice for life.

 “OK!” Lana bellowed “You’re ruining my furniture!!” Conner and I broke apart, teeth bared in mock-anger. I caught my face reflected in the window and the grin slid from my face, the new-fangs glinting back at me. I slid down onto the couch. What was I going to do? Lana continued talking again in the background. “…and second you must understand that blood-lust is an instinct, the sounds of blood-rush will often trigger hunger, but vampires are unique in that they do not need to feed every night unless they have physically exerted themselves or something similar…” As Lana’s voice faded once again into the background, I quietly began to cry.