Blood and Beasts (27 page)

It was so hard to lift anything. She
felt so weak. Her limbs felt heavy, as though they were filled with lead.

“What in heaven
’
s name happened, Leo?!
” She heard the nurse screech as
soon as Sir Sanzio kicked open the door.

“
Werewolves,
” he answered crisply, a grim
expression on his face as he set her twitching body down on a cot.

“
Werewolves
…” the nurse muttered, immediately
setting an IV in Seph
’
s arm and hooking it up to a sleeve
of blood.

It began to steadily drip into her
body. Seph looked up with bleary eyes to see the nurse shaking her head
morosely. Sir Sanzio was looking down at her as well, but she could no longer
focus on his face enough to recognize any facial expression. Everything hurt.

“You did put something that will
sedate her in there, correct?” Sir Sanzio asked as his voice began to fade in
and out.

“Of course, Leo. I
’
m not a complete dolt,” the nurse
responded impertinently.

“I know that, Molly. I was just
making sure. When will she wake up?” He asked her curiously.

“In about an hour. She
’
ll have enough blood by then to at
least not be dangerous. I heard she takes a lot of blood though…” Nurse Molly
’
s voice faded out.

About one hour later, Seph was
blinking her eyes rapidly at quite a prestigious crowd surrounding her bed.
They had their backs turned to her and were talking in hushed tones. She
started to listen intently, but immediately Sir Sanzio turned around, smiling.
Her shields had long since fallen, and he could read her thoughts word for
word. His smile broadened, and immediately, she flung the shields up.

“Very good, Miss Black. I see you
have your strength back,” he commented, nodding at her as two other familiar
persons turned around to face her, namely Phin and Sir Cosmos.

She slowly pulled herself up to a
sitting position, and the nurse, Nurse Molly Hapgood, hurried over to put a
pillow behind her, assisting her. She also patted down Seph
’
s hair. She could only imagine what
she looked like. If she looked so horrendous that the nurse was trying to
spruce her up… that was just sad. She noticed a bandage wrapped around her
forearm. She slowly unwrapped it, even though the nurse started to jump forward
and stop her. There were marks on her, pearly-white teeth marks. She grazed her
fingertips over the markings. Why had she not healed?

“Oh, sorry about that, dear. You
’
ll heal in about a week
’
s time completely. Those scars
developed in just one hour. Very decent healing powers, young lady. I know how
you vampires heal though, and those will slowly fade over time. The hardest
part was clotting the blood, healing the wound, and developing new skin, but
you vampires do that very quickly and then heal the blemishes over time. You
needed quite a bit of blood. One gallon, that
’
s eight pints mind you, to stop the bleeding, and
another gallon for the healing process. Sixteen pints of blood. You could drain
a whole human practically,” the short, frumpy nurse exclaimed, and Seph and
Phin caught each other
’
s eye.

“If I recall from her report, she
drank sixty-four pints until she was full?” Nurse Molly gasped at Sir Cosmos
’
s words.

“Sixty-four pints?! That
’
s three people completely! And nine
pints from another person! That would kill them too! Why do you-” the nurse
prattled, and Seph caught her thought before Phin could quickly cut her off.

“I suggest you do not finish that
thought, Nurse Molly, although it is already too late,” he glanced at Seph, who
had heard the entire thought.

Why do you let such a creature live…
She had been thinking that. The
nurse had classified her as a creature and had deemed her too dangerous to
live. What a relief… She sure hoped she wouldn
’
t end up in this place again, although she sincerely
doubted that. She seemed to have a knack for injuries.

“We are here today, Persephone,” Sir
Cosmos
’
s voice cut through the tension
between Phin and the nurse like a knife, and their eyes immediately broke away
from each other
’
s. “We are here today, Persephone,
because we need to know what happened earlier tonight. It
’
s about five in the morning. Dinner is in an hour, but
you can take as much time as you need. We can arrange to bring you some blood
here if you need it as well,” he continued, and she shook her head,
straightening up.

“It
’
s not too long a story. I don
’
t think… I was in the courtyard, running, and I wasn
’
t paying attention,” Phin
’
s eyes bored into her, but she was
not about to tell the whole story leading up to that point. “A werewolf
suddenly attacked me. I turned around in time. I misted and guided him to the
Werewolf Warehouse as soon as I could. The only problem was, once I was in
there, I couldn
’
t get back out. He had injured me
when he first attacked me, and I was already a little hungry. My powers weren
’
t working so well, and there
’
s some type of force field in
there,” she explained, and Sir Sanzio nodded.

Obviously, the force field was his
doing. She debated about glaring at him or not. She opted not to. It wasn
’
t his fault. This had obviously not
been his intent.

“They started attacking, so I
started fighting. Francesca helped,”
Sir Sanzio and Sir Cosmos gave her a quizzical look.
“I remembered her werewolf form from
before. She
’
s pure gold, and we have our
tattoos,” she showed the black sun on the back of her left hand. “She has a
crescent moon on the back of her left hand… or paw… Anyways, she helped out, in
complete control, but there were just too many. Luckily, Sir Sanzio got me
outta there when he did, otherwise…” she trailed off, and they all nodded
knowingly. “What was that light you used to get them away? It hurt,”
she mentioned, and Sir
Sanzio grinned.

“UV rays. I didn
’
t realize you were the one in there.
There are so few vampires in this school compared to the number of witches and
wizards. It
’
s fitting that one of the ten
vampires would be in there, and I used a werewolf deterrent that was also a
vampire deterrent,” he stated blandly, shaking his head like the adult that he
was, blue hair flying.

She caught Phin looking over at Sir
Sanzio with gratitude clearly wrought on his face. He was happy that Sir Sanzio
had saved her in time. He was also more relieved than even a worried teacher or
student should be about the safety of another student. There was something
underlying his emotions… She didn
’
t dwell on it. They could both pick
up on each other
’
s feelings and emotions too well.
That is what happens from blood drinking.

“We
’
ll have to reinforce the perimeter at the Werewolf
Warehouse,” Sir Cosmos sighed, and Seph just looked at him confusedly.

“Reinforce them? They
’
re the reason I couldn
’
t get out,” she said, and now it was
his turn to look confused.

“Yes, but isn
’
t that the reason that the werewolf escaped and
attacked you? Because the perimeter was too weak?” He questioned her, and she
just shook her head.

“Sir Cosmos, I
’
m not that weak. I
’
m actually a pretty strong vampire. Besides, I
’
m pretty sure he didn
’
t think he needed to be in the
warehouse anymore, but he lost control or something,” she explained, and now
she had their full attention.

“You know who your original attacker
was?” Phin asked, and she grimaced, realizing that she probably should have
protected her friend
’
s identity and kept that information
to herself.

“
Not necessarily,
” she started with a hopeful, little
grin, but Phin glared at her sternly. “All right, it was Rodney. I recognized
him because he had shifted into that pitch-black werewolf just a week or so ago
when I attacked Tristan,” she admitted, and she saw the look that passed
between Sir Cosmos and Sir Sanzio. “Please don
’
t punish him or anything. I know what it
’
s like to lose control…” Sir Cosmos
held up a hand for silence.

“We
’
re not going to beat him or anything, Persephone. Sir
Sanzio here is just going to have a little talk with him once he
’
s human again about going to the
Were-House from now on instead of the Were-Corral, where werewolves who think
they have at least some control, rest. We have a slight force field set up
there that they could break through if they really tried, but usually, the pain
zaps them back to their senses. I guess not for him,” Sir Cosmos sighed again,
shaking his head.

“I need to move,” Seph announced,
suddenly rising to her feet.

“
Persephone!
” Nurse Molly
’
s voice was filled with dismay.

“I
’
m fine, and I finished my little interview,” she said,
pulling out her own IV quickly and holding her bleeding wrist to her mouth in
order to seal the wound.

“
Oh fine,
” dithered Nurse Molly, bustling
away and muttering to herself.

“After you, Miss Black,” Sir Sanzio
gestured for her to move towards the door, and she did, straightening her skirt
as she left the three men, two wizards and one vampire all to their own
matters.

She walked out into the courtyard. A
few students were milling about, but not too many. No one paid her any mind.
She had tied back her hair. It had been pretty crazy-looking. The nurse had at
least cleaned all the dried blood off her when she had been unconscious, and no
one could focus enough to see the pearly-white marks on her already fair skin.
She made her way down a familiar path, heading for a particular place.

Tristan was there, leaning his back
up against the tree he had climbed the time she had tried to kill him. He
caught sight of her and nodded in her direction, just a pleasant
acknowledgement of each other. She was heading for the tree, and now there was a
companion beside it. She sat down on the ground roughly and leaned her back
against the tree as Tristan stood beside her, also leaning against the tree.
They just stayed there for a while, basking in the other
’
s quiet.

“Do you ever miss the sun?” Tristan asked
after they had both stared at the night sky for a while.

She involuntarily shuddered,
thinking about those UV rays. She thought about his question for a moment. The
sun… She stared at the back of her left hand, at the black sun etched there in
her skin.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I do miss
the sun. I miss its warmth,” she admitted, and he nodded.

She missed its ambiance too, just
being the sun, the happy-go-lucky sun… She loved the night too, but the moon
was silvery and stalwart. Sometimes, she just wanted to be happy and cheerful.
She suspected that this would change in time as she became a more hardened
vampire. She kind of hoped that it wouldn
’
t.
Who wanted to be completely cold all the time? She was cold enough already.

“I miss the sun too,” Tristan said,
and she agreed. “I miss my uncles and the farm we lived on,” Seph looked up,
listening. “We have this farmhouse. It
’
s
a bit too old, but I like it. We also have this horse. She
’
s a dapple-grey mare, sweetest horse you ever met, and
she loves apples. We called her… Apple,” Seph laughed softly. “I know.
Creativity at its finest… She
’
s getting a little old, but we aren
’
t about to salvage her,” he
grimaced, and she did too. “I miss those wheat fields we have though. When the
sun hits those fields just right, they look like pure gold waving in the wind,”
he smiled,
reminiscing.
“The
cornfields we have… You could get lost in them for hours…” He just smiled,
missing his home. “Do you miss anything?” He suddenly asked, and she thought
about it.

What did she miss? She recalled her
foster mother, Janette, flying towards her with a stake in hand. She remembered
rolling around on the ground with her, looking up to see Bill just watching,
not helping and not caring. Janette had thrown those dishes at her. Bill had
actually shot at her twice. She did not miss them. She missed the idea of them.
She missed the idea of a family. A perfect, little family… Something she had
never had.

“I miss my brother and my sister,
Pearce and Pearl. I really, really miss them,” she suddenly felt tears spring
to her eyes, but she batted them away quickly. “I miss my foster brothers too.
Little Manny and Bobby, Dean and Terrence, Lawrence, Nate…” She trailed off.

“Nate was the one you attacked,
right?” Tristan clarified, and she nodded.

“He actually has forgiven me. They
all wrote me some cards, and my foster parents gave them to me earlier. He said
he forgives me,” she smiled a little sadly up at him.

“I haven
’
t forgiven you,” Tristan remarked, and she gave him a
sharp, hardened look. “There
’
s nothing for me to forgive you of,”
he concluded, and her smile broadened at him.

They stayed there another fifteen
minutes or so until it was finally dinnertime. They stared out at the general
scenery, at the meandering students, at the night sky, at the dawn just
beginning to peek over the horizon. The sky was dove-gray at the edges, slowly
permeating the rich lavender. White puffs of clouds could be seen, like dollops
of whipped cream hanging above. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful moment.
Finally, the large clock positioned above the Main Hall struck six.

“Want some food?” Tristan offered,
helping her to her feet.

“I want some blood,” she grinned at
him, licking her chops as her eyes swirled to a stormy gray.

At their usual table, Stefan, Linda,
and Abernathy soon joined them. Nobody knew about anything that had happened
with Seph, except for Tristan, of course. He was keeping his mouth shut though.
He had watched her walk out of the infirmary. Also, he wasn
’
t blind and had noticed the marks on
her skin.

“So, how did your parents
’
day go, Seph?” Stefan asked her,
taking a large gulp of some warm, B negative blood.

She grimaced, and they all looked at
her, eyebrows raised.

“We all usually have bad experiences
with our parents, especially the first parents
’
day. They can get better sometimes,” he added to her,
wanting to give her some hope.

“It went as good as could be
expected,” she said with a vague, little shrug.

Their thoughts clamored in her head
with her fresh dose of blood. They were all wondering what on earth that meant.
She was wondering which one of them was going to ask her outright. It turned
out to be Abernathy, of course.

“What does that mean, Seph?” She
asked her, and the girl grinned, showing her fangs disconcertedly.

“Well, all the kids wrote me some
really nice cards. Nate forgave me. Pearl and Pearce said they still love me
even though they
’
re afraid of me,” now they were all
looking sad for her. “Oh, and my foster mother tried to stake me while my
foster dad just watched,” she concluded rapidly with a bright, beaming smile.

Abernathy appeared absolutely
terrified for her, her small eyes wide. Linda looked beyond angry, her round
face turning red. Stefan just shrugged. They all experienced bad things when
their parents came to visit their vampire children. His wouldn
’
t even bother to visit. They were
too lazy for their weird son. Tristan was shaking his head, disappointed with
humanity by the sound of his thoughts.

“I can
’
t believe they would do that!” Linda exclaimed, and
Stefan rested a hand on her shoulder, attempting to calm her down.

“I can. People… People can just be…
cruel…” Tristan stated, and the two Asian girls turned to stare at their fellow
wizard.

What had made him so bitter?

“Stuff like that usually happens for
us vampires. One in every five about. Whose parents also did that… Phin
’
s…” For some reason, Seph felt
herself blush a little at the mention of his name as Stefan pointed out yet
another bond between her and their vampire teacher
’
s aide of sorts.

“Didn
’
t his brothers or something try to kill him too?” She
ventured, not mentioning that she had heard those thoughts in his mind.

“Somethin
’
like that,” Stefan responded vaguely, returning to his
drink and not elaborating on the point.

They remained like that for a while,
making idle chitchat. All of them were dwelling on their thoughts. Linda was
wondering why Tristan was so cynical, and Tristan was wondering how his uncles
were doing. Abernathy was wondering how Seph could possibly go on with no
parental figures to speak of to help her out, and Seph was wondering how
awkward it was going to be with Rodney in two days. Stefan was dwelling on his
own parents, both either incarcerated or immobile at that very moment. Life
could be tough for a magical teenager. Life could be tough for a normal
teenager.

The next day was the last of the
three days in which all the werewolves were gone from the hallways. Seph looked
forward to tomorrow, when she would get to see Francesca and Rodney again. It was
definitely going to be a little bit awkward seeing Rodney after what had
happened. She had forgiven him, although, like Tristan had said, she really had
nothing to forgive him for. He was just acting according to his nature. Lucky
he had attacked her and not some wandering witch or wizard though. He might
have really hurt them. As it was, she did walk with a limp down the hallways
nowadays.

Vampires healed at amazing rates,
and she was a decent healer. However, werewolf bites and wounds took longer to
heal because they were meant to hurt vampires the most. Vampires and werewolves
had always hated each other until not but a century ago when a sort of peace
fell between them, and Zephyr Hall came into existence. Vampire bites hurt
werewolves the most, and werewolf bites hurt vampires the most.

Fourth period came, and she hurried
over to Sir Sanzio before the warning bell rang. She wanted to speak with him
before class. When he caught sight of her limping over, he nodded, obviously
expecting her. He did not help, which she appreciated. Most vampires were
particularly prideful, as she was, and they would greatly resent a helping
hand, no matter how much they may need it.

“
Sir Sanzio,
” he nodded at her once more,
waiting for her to speak. “Thank you,” she breathed out, and he batted away the
thanks as if it were nothing. “No, seriously, Sir Sanzio. You saved my life. I
was really failing there at the end, and they probably would have ripped me to
pieces if not for you,” he shook his head again and rolled his violet eyes at
her, which she didn
’
t appreciate.

“Miss Black, you have nothing to
thank me for. It is my fault that I was not watching the werewolves more
closely. If I had been, the entire incident would not have even occurred, and
you would not be in the limping state that you are in now,” he gestured at her,
and she scowled.

“It
’
s hardly a limp, Sir Sanzio. It
doesn
’
t really hurt. Anyways, I was just
thanking you all the same,” she inclined her head slightly towards him and then
turned away, hobbling into class with her backpack slung over her hunched
shoulder.

She took her usual seat and missed
the presence of Francesca
’
s warm body sitting beside her
quickly. Suddenly, she remembered something and hurried back over to Sir
Sanzio, leaving her backpack on her seat. She needed to speak with him again
quietly just as the warning bell rang.

“Yes, Miss Black?” He raised his
sky-blue eyebrows at her.

“What about Rodney, Sir Sanzio? What
are you, or did you, do about him? It really wasn
’
t his fault, Sir Sanzio. He couldn
’
t help himself. He would never attack me otherwise,”
she explained, and once more, he shook his head at her.

“Mr. Steele was in a separate
holding pen that we have to help wean werewolves so that eventually, they can
remain in their dormitories until the three days are over. It is for those
werewolves that are slowly gaining control,” harsh lines slashed across his
face as he dwelled on Rodney
’
s decision. “Mr. Steele thought he
was ready, and quite obviously, he was not. The defenses keeping the werewolves
within the separate holding pen are nowhere near as strong as the ones on the
warehouse. It is meant to give them slight temptation to try and break the
holding spells, but usually no one tries it. If they do, they do not for long
because the first few shocks draw them back to their controlled state of mind.
Mr. Steele was nowhere near ready for the holding pen. He has been in isolation
for the past two days as punishment for his loss of control. The next time we
even let him in the separate holding pen, he will remember this,” then the
commencement bell rang, and all creases of anxiety erased from his face. “Miss
Black, if you will take your seat, it is time to begin class,” he smiled
broadly at her and then at the rest of the class before striding forward to
address them all with the beginnings of their lesson.

Tristan came in late, briefly
nodding at Seph and sitting in the desk behind her. He was in their
Gobbledegook class now. He had been missing a lot of late. He was always
disappearing, usually talking with Dewdrop in the Room or Dewdrop
’
s Domain. What was he up to?

They had a test that day, which she
was not exactly ready for. She had been in the infirmary and had hardly studied
for it. However, he gave the test to her anyways, informing her that she was
more than capable to complete this test. She stared at the creamy paper before
her, reading the questions a few times before grinning broadly.

Question number one asked, “
De-gobbledegook-ookook
ook-gob-gobblegobble-ookde ookde-ble-gob-dookble-degook gobde-gobbledegook
ookde-gobbledegook-gobdook de-gob-bledeblede-ble?
” It was asking how old she was. This test was
amazingly easy for her. It asked other such questions such as, “How many
siblings do you have?” “What species are you?” She knew she had aced that test.
She didn
’
t even need to glean a single answer
from anyone else, not that Sir Sanzio would allow it, if she was so bold as to
try.