Diary of a Vampeen (28 page)

“How often do you have to feed?” I
asked near the end of the credits.

“That depends on how much energy I
exert. On average it’s about once a week if I drink blood and once
a day if I sustain on human food.”

“I know you’re mainly vampire, but do
you know how often I need to eat?”

“Do you feel a watering within your
throat?”

“Yea. I mean my stomach isn’t growling
but I feel something like juice in my throat and have the urge to
bite something,” I explained slightly embarrassed by the situation.
Since when does anyone have to ask a stranger if they themselves
are hungry?!

“It’s showtime!” Kellan slid on his
shoes by the bed.

“
Showtime? What are you
talking about?”

“Your first feeding will decide your
taste.”

“English please.”

“Put on your shoes just in case,” he
said opening the door. At the bottom of the stairs my mother and
aunt grabbed my hands and led me into the kitchen.

“Can someone please tell me what’s
going on?”

“It’s simple,” Aunt Claire began. “If
eating this steak quenches your hunger, meaning the serum in your
throat goes away, then you’ll survive mainly on human food or
animals. If it doesn’t go away, then you’ll need to feed on humans
to sustain good health.”

“But I’m mainly human. I’ll eat their
food, right?!”

“Not always. Your mom eats the rare
meat and occasionally drinks animal blood, but I am the same as her
and feed off human blood. It depends on your body’s needs. No two
vampires or vampeens are alike, the same as humans,” she
explained.

“I thought both could sustain
us?”

“Sustaining and maintaining are
different. Eight glasses of water a day will sustain a human
without food, but he won’t maintain his strength or function. He
would need food for that. It’s the same for us.”

“Oh,” was all I could muster. I heard
my dad rustling out of bed in his room. It sent me into a brief
panic. Just thinking about my dad and the idea of feeding off him
or my friends repulsed me. I couldn’t consciously do
that.

“Come on sweetie. You won’t know until
you try it,” my mother coaxed.

“Good morning,” my dad called grabbing
the milk from the fridge. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” I answered. Seeing my dad
innocent and unaware of the danger he could be in drove my
determination. Regardless of whether the steak rid the liquid in my
throat, I would not and could not feed on humans. Morally, I just
couldn’t condone such behavior let alone partake of it.

“See you later sweetie. You’re still
gorgeous,” my dad said, kissing my forehead on his way back to the
room.

I moved towards the island slowly
staring at the oozing red steak on a plate. I chanced a glance at
my aunt, mom, and Kellan. All three of them were carrying the same
anticipatory expression.

I picked up the fork and knife,
positioned them correctly and sliced a piece to taste. Lifting the
piece inch by inch, I opened my mouth and placed the food inside.
Chewing the steak was like eating a piece of bread. The new
strength I possessed made it easy to process. In swallowing, a new
feeling of relief projected through me. It worked. The liquid in my
throat seemed to fade down slightly. “It worked,” I announced with
a smile.

“Thank God,” my mother sighed clearly
relieved by my normal palate.

I was about to place a second bite in
my mouth when, like acid reflux, the liquid surged in my throat,
more lifted than the time before. Placing my fork down abruptly, I
tried swallowing several times. It was useless. It felt like trying
to breathe with a mouth full of water; you can through your nose,
but it doesn’t generate the same relief.

This couldn’t be happening. I wouldn’t
let it happen. I was not drinking human blood.

Pull yourself together
Lexi!
I couldn’t let them know any
different. I didn’t doubt that Kellan would happily force me to
drink a human. So I had to finish some of what was in front of me
at least.

I was able to stomach four more bites
before dropping my fork indefinitely. Like an angry volcano ready
to erupt, the liquid in my throat was verging entry in my mouth.
How could I ever sustain on human food like this? I was about to
choke right now!

Chapter 18

“Go change and we’ll leave early,” my
aunt squealed excitedly. “And you should probably put your shirt
back on Kellan,” she said with a wink.

I should have been weirded out by the
wink, but wasn’t. That’s just Aunt Claire. And in all fairness,
Kellan’s upper body is magnificent. But my aunt was very open in
that essence; she was the opposite of my reserved, well-organized
mother. She’s carefree, fun and flirts with every man, young and
old, she comes across.

I returned to my room to change.
Kellan beat me there, of course. I headed straight to my bathroom
and took off his shirt. I slightly opened the door and threw it at
him.

“Thanks,” he chuckled, not missing a
beat.

“Yup,” I started to close the door,
but realized my clothes weren’t in the bathroom.

“Hand me my clothes, will you?” I
prompted pointing to the neatly folded clothes on my dresser
through the tiny opening of my door.

He swallowed hard. “You’re lucky I’m a
gentleman. Most guys would have tried to sneak a peek
already.”

“Ah. Well, you’d have to get through
the bathroom door first,” I smiled.

“That wouldn’t be so hard.”

“Don’t push it mister. Just hand me my
clothes.” I shook my extended hand once more. He finally
obliged.

I slid into my pants and pulled my
shirt over my head. I stepped out to put on my tennis shoes and
matching velour jacket without looking at Kellan. The liquid in my
throat was bubbling a bit, heating up in temperature. I tried to
distract myself with the tiny details of getting dressed, but
didn’t succeed.

I went to open my bedroom door and
stopped short as he planted himself in front of me.

“Lexi,” he said pulling my chin up,
forcing me to look at him.

“Yea?” I was caught off guard by his
blockade. I was missing more than I should have due to my
concentration.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I
know,” he smiled, dimple present, sincerely delivering the lines
and melting my heart.

I felt a huge grin spread across my
face as I rolled onto my tip toes, wrapped my arms around his neck
and kissed him. It was nothing fancy. It was soft, simple in touch
yet sent chills through every part of my body. More impressive than
the sparks that flew was the liquid in my throat seemed to
disappear while our lips were in contact with each
other.

I pulled back and it refilled quickly.
I pressed my lips to his again testing this new theory, and
instantly, as if the plug was pulled on a drain, my throat emptied
concurrently. “Interesting,” I noted aloud.

“What is?” Kellan prompted.

“Nothing,” I said moving past him down
the stairs.

Aunt Claire literally squealed with
delight once we were in the car. “Are you sure you don’t mind
driving Kellan?” she pressed for the millionth time.

“I’m sure,” he said speeding off down
the road.

We had to take Kellan’s car since my
aunt, being a single woman with no man, kids or pets drove a red,
two-seat convertible of some sort. I’d never looked to see what
kind of car it was only surveying its expensive European
design.

Like my mom, my aunt sold real estate,
but was exclusive with million dollar properties primarily in
California. From what I heard she had multiple celebrity
clients.

“So, I don’t mean to drill you Aunt
Claire, but I feel more comfortable asking you than
mom.”

“Sure honey, anything,” she
offered.

“Ok. When I turn twenty-five, my body
will no longer change so does that mean I have until then to get
pregnant? Is that how it works?”

“Yes. To get technical with you, you
shouldn’t be able to have a child past your transformation because
you don’t get a period at all. Our systems are so healthy, and like
the blood we drink and food we eat, our bodies, every vampiric cell
within us breaks down everything and utilizes it. Nothing is waste
and nothing is wasted – no potty breaks, no period, no cold/flu –
none of it. But back to your question, yes, you only have until
you’re twenty-five,” she explained.

“Detailed,” I commented. “And… can you
tune us out for a minute Kellan?”

“I’ll try,” he said placing earphones
attached to his iPod nano in his ears.

I waited to hear the music blasting
before I asked my embarrassing question. “And sex. Once you do it
with one human, you can do it with any other human after but no
vampires or are you limited to that one human?”

“Again, I’m going to be technical with
you,” she stated. “You can be with unlimited men of the race you
lost your virginity to. The tricky one is a vampeen. If it’s a boy
who’s fifty-fifty, well only a vamp doctor can decipher which kind
you’ll be restricted to. If he’s seventy-five percent human and
twenty-five percent vampire, then it’s humans for you and vice
versa.”

“We have vamp doctors?” I guess I
shouldn’t have been surprised. We have a vamp army for crying out
loud.

“But of course. Who do you think
delivers your baby? Certainly not a regular doctor; he would have a
heart attack at the results of your blood tests,” she
laughed.

“O. Okay. So you’ll never have kids
then, huh?”

“No. But I’m not cut out for it. I get
my fill from you and the stories your mom tells me,” she smiled.
“Anything else you want to know?”

“Since I’m mostly human, umm… What
happens if I bite another human or drink their blood?”

“The same thing that happens when a
vampire bites them.”

“But when you bite, do you paralyze
them with venom?”

She broke into laughter and Kellan
began to snicker up front.

“Hey! I thought you weren’t
listening,” I said over the music still blaring in his
ears.

“You said to try and zone you out. And
I’m trying. I’m just not being successful at it,” he
smirked.

“Ugh. Fine. You can tune in and laugh
some more just as long as someone answers my question.”

“I’ll take it if you don’t mind,” he
sounded distinguished yet in a mocking way.

“Be my guest,” she agreed.

“When we attack a human, we over power
them with our strength. When we bite them, they feel it. We suck
their blood so quickly that they lose consciousness, that’s how
they’re paralyzed, as you say,” he chuckled on the last
line.

“Then what’s the liquid stuff in my
throat?” I pressed, confused by it all.

“It’s the healing serum. It’s like a
gluey substance that seeps into the bloodstream replenishing it
quicker and forces a human’s skin back together to heal over within
seconds at the withdrawal site. It’s the same medicine that flows
through your body and keeps your system from getting sick,” my aunt
explained.

“But why would you want to heal them
when you just drained their blood?”

“To cover your tracks. We would have
been exposed long ago if the police found bite marks on the necks
of ninety percent of their murder victims. Also in the event of an
emergency, this allows for a donor. You can simply take a little
bit of blood from the arm or a less vital flow line and heal the
wound after as if nothing took place,” Kellan added.

“Wait, the human gets their blood
supply back quickly when the serum is passed into their
bloodstream, so why would ninety percent of the murders be because
of us?” I was trying to make sense of everything I was being
told.

“Because, in most cases, we drain the
human entirely of blood. You can’t manifest something out of
nothing. The healing liquid simply replicates what is already
there. Place it in a hole and the hole will be filled with the
substance surrounding it. Within your body, it is constantly
reproducing the healthy bacteria and maintaining balance in your
red versus white blood cell counts. It replicates the good, meaning
the bad germs or illnesses are easily destroyed within seconds of
entry,” he thoroughly reviewed for me.

“O, ok. So the human could live then
if we didn’t get greedy?”

“Yes.”

“Then why don’t we do that? Or give
the humans the option to be a donor? You know, give them a way to
live,” I asked.

“Lexi, did you hear what you just
said? You would have to tell a human in order to give them a
choice,” Kellan answered.

“Oh. Right,” I stated fidgeting with
my hands. “So then if the serum is for healing, then, well, how is
someone changed into a vampire?”

“Vampeens can’t transform a human.
Only one-hundred percent vampires can create their own kind and
that’s due to their mixture of serum with their own blood. When
they’re thirsty and their mouth waters, it is their serum that
swarms their tongues and coats their teeth. When their serum of
ninety percent blood enters the bite wound initially out of thirst,
it quickly contaminates the human’s blood like HIV. As he feeds, he
literally sucks his own blood back out with the human’s. Between
each sip, a small volume of the serum is passed. Should he take
less than half the human’s blood, then the bit of healing serum
induced will reproduce the vampiric blood cells since they’re
always dominant unless completely eliminated. The transformation is
complete when the victims heart stops beating over fifty times per
minutes, which is usually about twenty-four hours later,” Aunt
Claire explained.