Tracing Lines of Red

Tracing Lines of Red (chapter 7)

"Arthur!" Raven suddenly screamed and he grabbed me by the throat, squeezing.

"R-raven! You're choking me!" I grabbed his hands, trying to loosen them.

His eyes were that hypnotizing red. His fangs were big, sharp, and scary. I saw nothing even close to the person he was. All I saw was a monster.

Shadow and I had carried him to his room and put him in bed. We stuck around, knowing he'd be hungry when he woke up. We just didn't know he would try to kill me.

Shadow got behind him, pulling him away from me. He struggled in his grasp, growling and roaring for blood.

"No, let him go. He needs to drink or else he won't calm down. It's not helping that I smell like his brother since I drank so much of his blood."

Shadow reluctantly let go and watched carefully as he drank my blood. Making sure I wasn't killed. When he finally had his fill, I was feeling weak and tired. Raven pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry.... You smelled like him...." He pulled back, looking into my eyes. His were still red. He was still hungry.

"I drank his blood." I explained. "He stabbed me like this." I pressed the tip of my fingers to his chest, as if about to stab him. "Pushed his arm right through. I was so thirsty, I just attacked him. He left because he lost too much blood."

"Well done." he said, ruffling my hair. I grabbed his hand, resting it on my neck. I could hear his heart race from feeling my blood pump underneath his fingers.

"You aren't done yet, Raven."

He shook his head. "I took too much from you already."

"I'll live. Go ahead. You won't completely recover unless you do. I didn't do a great job healing you. And I hate the thought of that man's blood running through my veins. You take it."

He drank from me until all of Arthur's blood was gone, leaving only traces of it. My blood was now all my own. He pulled back and this time, his eyes were his original green color.

"Thank you. Now both of you, go get some rest."

Shadow and I left the room. When we were down the hall, hopefully out of earshot range, Shadow grabbed my arm, glaring at me.

"What was that?" he demanded. "Now you're all weak again. He could have drank a bit of my blood too. You can barely walk in a straight line!"

That was true. I was a bit wobbly. And weak.

"Because I know you hate it, Shadow. I won't let your blood be taken unless absolutely necessary."

"You don't need to do that. We're both his servants. We both have to give blood to him."

"Yeah. I'll just give more than you do."

"He'll want human blood eventually. Arthur was right. You do still have traces of humanity in you. But when your vampire blood overpowers it, he'll want my blood too. Because you should know it best. Human blood tastes a lot better than vampire blood."

I gritted my teeth. Of course human blood is better. "Why? I'm trying to help you. You're a vampire hunter. You were trained to kill us. You hate us. You hate giving your blood to us. So let me help you!"

"Stop!" he yelled. "You're.... ruining my image. Of vampires. You're all monsters. I saw that monster in you earlier. You're close to becoming that again. Because you just had a lot of your blood drained. But you act like a human. Raven was born a vampire. He's a true monster. He just hides it. Why? Why do you care so much?"

"I wasn't born a vampire, Shadow. I was turned into one, just a few days ago too! Of course I still act human. Becoming a monster doesn't mean I instantly throw away everything I used to be. But Raven, he's human too. He acts like one. Talks like one. The only time he isn't is when he's drinking blood. The same as me. We're all human. Except for when we let the monster take over."

I left him there to wrap his head around that. I don't even know how the argument became about the humanity of vampires. We were supposed to be talking about how I would try to prevent his blood from being taken as long as possible.

That promise still holds. I won't let anyone drink his blood for as long as I can.