Blood and Beasts (32 page)

She had to speak to Phin. As soon
as possible, she made up some excuse and left the table swiftly. Rodney gave
her a questioning look, and Francesca sent her a quizzical look as well. She
just shook them off. She needed to speak to Phin. She couldn
’
t be left with her own thoughts for
much longer. They were all swirling around her head, round and round as though
they were on some awful merry-go-round from hell.

“Phin,” she knocked briskly on the
door she knew was his, sensing his troubled feelings within. “Phin,” she
knocked a little more earnestly, hoping nobody saw her there.

It would look… odd.

“Seph?” A questioning voice called,
and then the door opened.

She hurried in, and he slowly shut
the door behind her. He looked at her, clearly bewildered. She was just as
flustered.

“I needed to talk with you,” she
said urgently, and he nodded, still staring at her as though she were crazy.

“Okay…” he said slowly, beginning
to stroll around his room.

Suddenly, she noticed her
surroundings. They were very different from her dorm room. His room was large
and spacious. He also had no roommate, it seemed. It was all very dark and
wooden, plenty of bookshelves, a few steps, and a railing leading to his dark
bed in the corner, cold floor beneath her feet. He idled by the bathroom, where
there was a table beside the bathroom and bookshelves and a proper reading
place. A few books were scattered there, and she was slightly tempted to see
what he was reading. Why was that? Did she want to assess her opponent? Was she
interested in him? Another food source? What was wrong with her?!

“What
’
s wrong with me?” She asked him, standing by his bed in
the corner absently.

He casually strolled around his
room. He glanced at the knickknacks randomly bedecking his ebony bookshelves.
He held a glass orb momentarily.

“Do you think that there
’
s something wrong with you,
Persephone?” He asked seriously, never lifting his gaze to meet her eyes as he
studied the glass sphere.

“Yes,” she answered quickly, and
then sighed, sitting down on the edge of his bed, forgetting all pretense. “
I dunno
… Maybe it
’
s normal for a vampire…
I dunno
…” she groaned, collapsing her
befuddled head in her hands.

“You don
’
t know?” He repeated, continuing his trek around his
large room.

“No… Maybe all vampires assess
absolutely everything. Maybe they view everything as a threat, every being as a
threat, and sum them up, deciding on what is dangerous and what isn
’
t about them. They find their weak
spots. They want to search their minds to see what they are plotting, what they
can do. Maybe they sometimes think that they
’
re animals, considering people they like only because
they want a constant food source,” she babbled, talking to the floor, but his
sensitive ears picked up each and every word.

Silence passed, and she dared a
glance up. Was he glaring at her like she was crazy? Did he consider her a
monster? She was not a monster. Francesca had drilled that into her mind. She
had to believe it. She grimaced. He wasn
’
t
looking at her though. He was studying a different glass globe now, a smooth
spherical ball of glass with black and gold lightning dancing in its depths, a
magical trinket.
Abernathy probably has one
, she thought to herself.

“That thought was not analytical.
You were not considering using this globe as a weapon, were you? You were just
musing that maybe your friend had one of these, a common trait between me and
your friend. Not everything is analytical in your mind, is it, Seph? You think
normal things plenty. You
’
ve just been thinking more and more
like a vampire recently. One, you
’
re not used to it. Two, you
’
re growing in your powers, and with
that, your internal instinct grows, that primitive self-” she cut him off.

“That monster within?” She asked,
holding his eyes steadily with her own.

He shook his head.

“Everybody can be a monster, Seph,
but that is not a monster. That is just what you are, and you are not a
monster. You analyze everything because you are vampire, and you were made to
survive. Just as a human would pick up anything and everything, testing to see
if they could eat it, when they are starving. They do that to survive. You do
this to survive. You are in a place filled with vampires, werewolves, witches,
and wizards. Your inner self should sense this as a danger. I know mine does. I
have learned to tone it down over the years but never completely suppress it.
You want to keep that killer instinct, Persephone, to keep yourself alive in
your years away from here. Not everybody is as open and caring as those at
Zephyr Hall. Don
’
t forget that,” he advised her
warily, taking a few, cautionary steps towards her.

“And the food source thing?” She
finally asked after another moment
’
s unbearable silence.

“
Food source?
” He asked, raising a nearly
invisible brow to her.

“Rodney…” she looked down,
grimacing and feeling a little uncomfortable now.

She was becoming increasingly aware
that she was alone in his room, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“We
’
re kind of together, and sometimes I drink his blood,
and…” if she could turn red, she would be scarlet at this very moment. “I dunno
if I wanna be with him because I get blood from him or because I like him,” she
admitted, finally steeling herself to look up into his silvery eyes.

They were completely impassive, carefully
emotionless. He was revealing nothing to her. Was he hiding something or just
trying to keep the situation less than extremely awkward?

Without warning, Phin began to
stride resolutely towards her. She was completely confused. What was going on?
She opened her mouth to voice as much, and he kissed her. She slipped off the
bed and hit the cold ground, breaking their embrace, and he knelt down beside
her, moving hurriedly so that she didn
’
t
have time to think or react. He cut the side of his neck and pulled her towards
him. She wasn
’
t one to oppose a free meal and
immediately began to drink from him. A few moments passed before her real mind
processed everything, and she suddenly shoved away from him violently. Rodney…

“What… What was that?! What are you
doing?! What
’
s going on, Phin?!” She exclaimed
excitedly, wiping his blood from her mouth and scrambling to her feet.

She stumbled backwards and nearly
knocked over one of his many bookshelves.

“Well? What did you feel?” He
asked, licking his fingertips and then pressing them to his neck wound, sealing
the cut with his saliva. “Your reaction clearly proves your theory wrong, Seph.
You do not view Rodney as just a food source or else you would have viewed me
as such just now. You care for him. Every vampire stumbles across this problem.
I remember Stefan with Linda…” He trailed off as Seph firmly folded her arms
across her chest, arching a brow to him.

“Did you go about ‘explaining
’
it to him the way you just did with
me?” She asked, and he grinned at her mischievously.

“No, not quite,” he smiled at her,
and she rolled her eyes.

“That is not happening again,
Phin,” she stated, and his grin broadened, white teeth shining in his dark
face.

“You say that-” There was a timely
knock at the door, cutting him off acutely.

“Phin?” They instantly recognized
Rodney
’
s voice before he began to slide the
door open, clearly feeling welcome in Phin
’
s room, which meant that he had been there before.

Seph
’
s mind processed all these thoughts before she quickly
misted away, gliding out the door as Phin hurried towards it. He ushered Rodney
in. He wiped away all excess blood from his neck before the werewolf would
notice. Outside the door, she materialized back into her solid form in time to
hear Rodney speak briefly to Phin before the door was completely shut.

“I need to speak to you about me
and Seph…” the door shut harshly with a
snap!

Doesn
’
t mean I can
’
t listen in their minds
, she thought happily to herself,
immediately hooking herself in both the vampire and werewolf
’
s minds. Rodney was asking Phin
about between-species relationships and how they worked out. Apparently, Phin
had been in a pretty serious relationship with an older werewolf girl once, and
most of Zephyr Hall knew this, even though Rodney was a freshman student. How
had she missed on this important information when she was so linked to Phin
’
s mind? She thought this vehemently
to herself before swiftly banishing that thought. She was being analytical and
vampiric once again.

Rodney was also asking about the
whole blood thing. Great, they were both debating about it, and yet they had
never actually talked to each other about it. She had been pretty secretive
though recently… worried about all this… Maybe he felt like he couldn
’
t be that open with her right now.
That was probably it. She listened acutely to their thoughts as Phin answered
Rodney
’
s question. Phin was reassuring him,
saying it was a perfectly normal thing and happened with most vampire
relationships, including the ones between two vampires.

Seph could also sense Phin
’
s tumultuous feelings. Normally, he
would be blocking her right now, but he knew she wanted to know about Rodney
dearly. They could sense each other very well, with their advanced mind skills
and their blood sharing. She could especially sense his feelings and thoughts
after just tasting his blood. He was… confused… about her? She shuddered,
pulling away from their minds.

She didn
’
t want to know this much about everybody. Minds
belonged to people, not to her. If a person was not safe within their own mind,
then where were they safe? She frowned as she made her way down the hall, feet
skimming across the marble. It would seem that nobody was safe around her…

Late that night, or more to the point,
early that morning, she crept out of bed, not wanting to disturb Francesca. She
had a note already written. Francesca had barraged her with questions for half
the morning, trying to get everything out of her, but Seph had remained like a
vault. Lucky for her, Francesca couldn
’
t
read minds. She was at least safe in her own from others, just not vice versa.

Easily enough, the young vampire
skimmed through the hole in the school
’
s
wall that Silo had made earlier, a break in the school
’
s defenses that alerted the teachers whenever a student
left. Apparently, Silo was magical enough to create a hole without disturbing
these defenses, and they could now all use it to leave in and out of the school
grounds without trouble. They just all sorely hoped none of the caretakers
would find it, although Abernathy had cast a wonderful illusion charm over it.
She made it look like just another piece of wall, and Linda had planted a rose
bush in front of it too, causing the bush to flower and bloom with the growing
spell from their recent Basic class. She was very good at that spell in
particular. Her parents would never complain again about her lack of a green
thumb.

Exiting the school
’
s perimeter, Seph allowed herself to
melt into the darkness of the surrounding forest. She was looking for one
creature in particular. She let out a high-keening sound, a sound only this
particular animal could hear. Without warning, a raccoon jumped at her head.
They toppled to the ground, rolling on it for a moment before springing apart,
both breathing fiercely.

“Creature, I need your assistance,”
she said calmly before it could dart away.

It paused, surveying her
critically. An unspoken understanding seemed to pass between their eyes. Its
black eyes were oily pools of knowledge, of thought, and of comprehension.
Raccoons were ancient creatures, one with nature. She passed over her note,
which the creature took with its small, black hand. It nodded to her once. She
nodded as well and watched it disappear into the woods. It knew what to do to
get her paper into the right hands.

Finally, she made it back to her
own bed, sun smarting her sensitive skin. She relaxed under the covers,
listening cautiously to make sure that Francesca
’
s breaths were steady and constant, indicating that the
young werewolf was still asleep. She lay there a moment, thinking. She had sent
that raccoon off to Nate, with a note asking him to send back (via raccoon) a
time when Janette and Bill would be away at night, and she could sneak in and
see him, and the boys, and her brother, and her sister. She didn
’
t expect a response anytime soon,
and even if she did receive a response, she didn
’
t expect to be able to see them anytime soon.

However… when she awoke that
evening and opened the door, just in case the raccoon had returned, there was a
note awaiting her, written in Nate
’
s widely spaced handwriting.
Grinning broadly, she grabbed it and hurried into the bedroom, jumping into her
bed and pulling the sheer curtains tightly around her. Francesca was just
getting up and trudging for the bathroom and a hot shower.

Seph,

Janette and Bill are going out to a
movie tonight. You remember their late-night movies on Saturdays. They leave at
seven, and they told me to put everybody to bed. They won
’
t be back until one, two at the
latest. I know you don
’
t have classes Saturday. Come by. We
all miss you! Yours,

Nate

She stared at the note a moment, hand trembling.
Saturday… It was Saturday! He meant tonight! She nearly jumped for joy! She had
never imagined that she would get to see them so soon! She checked her watch
hurriedly to see that it was already eight ‘o
’
clock. They had slept in! Gasping, she ran in a flurry,
pulling on her clothes, running a brush through her hair, and applying a little
make-up. She did all this in the ten minutes that Francesca was in the shower
and then left a hurried note, explaining about where she was going and why. She
also begged that Francesca not say anything. She darted out the door before the
werewolf could emerge and stop her.

She made her way to her old house
without even thinking about it. She had memorized the path to the place by
heart now. She had often circled her old home, missing the people within and
the general environment surrounding it. Now, she easily crept to where Nate
’
s window was, and she hopped up the
building easily, scaling the two stories and letting herself in through his
window fluidly.

She heard a gasp, and Nate sat up
from lounging on the bed. They just stared at each other for a moment. It had
been so long, over a month, since they had last seen each other. She still
remembered him as she had last seen him, unconscious, on the ground, bleeding
from her bite. Since then, he had healed, she noted.

Immediately, Nate got up, strode to
her, and pressed his lips to her own. This lasted a few moments before Seph
suddenly realized what was going on and shoved him away. He gasped, shocked by
her strength, as she just stood there, half-crouched and frozen-still.

“Nate! What… What was that?!” She
exclaimed for what felt like the umpteenth time that week.

“
Look, I
’
ve read books on vampires since what happened, Seph. I
know that the blood-drinking can be addictive, on both sides, but it
’
s not necessarily,” he was taking
slow steps towards her now as she was taking slow steps away from him. “I
’
m not addicted to it. You could say…
I
’
m addicted to you? Before I even
knew you were a vampire, I liked you. That hasn
’
t changed. I accept you for who and what you are no
matter what,” his dark eyes were pleading with hers now, nearly desperate.

“Are my pheromones raging or
something? What is it with men this week?” She exclaimed exasperatedly, resting
her head in her hands.

“Humans and humanoid creatures don
’
t have pheromones, Seph,” Nate
replied matter-of-factly, and she just glared up at him through her masses of
fire engine-red strands.

“Thanks ever so much,” she
responded coolly before brushing past him and hurrying out the door just as he
reached for her arm.

She bolted down the stairs and into
the living room, Nate right behind her. She paused as she entered the room, and
everybody stared at her. Terrence was at the kitchen table, reading a book.
Lawrence sat across from him, sulking and listening to music. Bobby and Manny
were sitting on the ground beside the TV, Bobby watching some adventure cartoon
while Manny played with their shared Hot wheels. Pearl and Pearce both rested
on the couch, watching the cartoon with Bobby. Pearl had a new doll in her lap,
and Pearce had a collection of rocks in his, a cleaning cloth there as well.
Pearce and his rocks…

“Seph…” Pearl murmured first, and
she nodded, tears biting at her eyes.

She could not shed them though. All
she needed was for one bloody tear to course down her face to ruin this moment.
They would remember all too well that she was vampire and not the same human
Seph as before.

“Seph!” Lawrence exclaimed, the
loudest any of them had ever heard him speak before.

He wrenched the headphones from his
ears, sped across the room, and flung his arms around her. She heard him as he
breathed in her scent longingly. She had forgotten how close she and Lawrence
had been. Not many of the others accepted him with his constant depression. She
had always listened. She hadn
’
t realized how hard her sudden move
must have been on him.

“Hey, Lawrence. I
’
ve missed you so much,” she hugged
him tightly, breathing in his scent as well.

She felt someone quickly wipe their
thumbs under her eyes. She opened them to see Nate there, red smears on his
fingers. He nodded at her solemnly. He understood and did accept her for what
she was, truly. She gave him a grateful nod in return.

The others soon swarmed around her.
Pearl and Pearce were a little reluctant, having seen her in her true vampiric
state, but she hadn
’
t bitten Lawrence or Nate and that
emboldened them. She kissed the tops of each of their heads. They all wanted to
see her by themselves, but they had to take turns. Nate helped her corral the
crowd. First, she and Pearl played with her new dolls. They went up to their
old room and played with them in silence for a little while.

“Is it different… being a vampire
now, Seph?” The little girl asked once the silence had grown stagnant.

“A little,” she admitted, wanting
to be completely honest with her younger sister. “I do have to drink blood,”
she stated and noticed the young girl shudder a little. “I can control it
though, and we drink bottled blood, not from others,” Rodney
’
s face flashed through her mind, but
she pushed that away. “I also have some really cool new powers,” she said, and
Pearl
’
s eyes snapped up, eager.

“Like what?” She asked, and Seph
grinned.

For the next half hour or so, they
spent their time playing with the dolls mid-air as Seph caused them to levitate
with her telekinesis. They were having such a good time that they didn
’
t notice when Pearce came in for his
turn. He saw the floating dolls, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed, and Seph
’
s face split into an even bigger
grin.

The next hour with Pearce they
spent with her showing him the different things she could do. She shifted into
that weird half-bat, half-human form. Next, she floated, but she could only do
that a little. She turned to mist too, and Pearce had fun running through her,
back and forth, back and forth.

Her time with Lawrence they spent
talking. He just had so many things to tell her about school and friends and
everything. She always had an open ear and good, sound advice. That was
something everybody liked about her. She gave good advice, didn
’
t sugarcoat many things, and yet,
she somehow managed to say it all in a nice way that didn
’
t offend anybody. It was a gift, a human gift, which
she had managed to keep through her transformation. She parted from Lawrence
with another strong hug.

Next was her time with the rest of
the boys, Terrence, Dean, Bobby, and Manny. They played the board game,
Candyland. It was a rambunctious game, and Manny even tried to eat one of the
pieces before they stopped him. She poked the little boy and cuddled with him.
They all eventually ended up on the couch, watching some late night family TV
show, and they were a family. Her arms were wrapped around Pearl and Pearce on
her left, Bobby and Dean on her right. Manny was in her lap, and Lawrence
rested at her feet, his back pressed against her legs. Terrence was lying out
beside him, his feet occasionally tapping Seph
’
s leg. Nate was lounging on the back of the couch,
playing with a piece of her red hair idly.