The Liverly

XVI

Several days pass before I'm able to move around easily. My left arm is still bandaged to my side, but it hurts less. Joffrey applies a poultice multiple times a day and rewraps it. I don't know what he puts on my shoulder each day, but it's magic. The pain is basically gone. He says the bone is still healing, hence the bandages.

Joffrey has pieces of metal, electronics, books, and papers spread out all around him while he sits on the floor. I'm sitting cross-legged on the bed watching him. We spend our days in this one room as the only other rooms in the house include the bathroom, laundry, kitchen, and a closet. Each individual room has a glass ceiling and windows plus the insanely bright lights around the windows and the metal bars.

I've slept well the last few nights, but I'm noticing that there are always lights on in the house no matter what time of day. I've spent these last few days recounting every single tidbit of information I can remember about the vampires that abducted me, and Joffrey has been teaching me about vampires.

"So, vampires can't go into sunlight?" I ask, fiddling with a loose string on my shirt. Joffrey let me borrow a pair of his clothes while mine washed, so everything is super baggy and comfortable.

"Yes and no. The newer the vampire, the more they're able to withstand sunlight and any other toxic substance to vampires, but as they grow older, they become unable to handle sunlight. They begin to burn easily, then their bodies disintegrate as they touch the sun. The older vampires grow so used to living in the dark that even fire light is too much for their eyes to handle. They become like the fish living in caves. They're blind, but their sense of smell and hearing is more acute. They're predators. Don't let the fact that they look human fool you."

"So, is that why you have all if the windows? So a vampire can't get to us?"

"Yes."

I look around, unsure of the safety in having glass walls and ceilings. "What happens at night? They could just break through it."

He doesn't bother looking up when he holds up a panel of electronics in his hand. "That's why I use UV light."

"UV? Like ultraviolet?"

"Precisely. It's the same type of light the sun produces. It's almost as dangerous to them as sunlight, and it's the best protection to have if a vampire may want to surprise you in the night."

"Too bad you can't bottle sunshine," I murmur, ripping the loose string out of the shirt and causing more to unravel. I put my hands in my lap to avoid ripping it more.

Joffrey triumphantly holds up a flashlight. "Or can you?" He flicks the switch, and it turns on. I stare, waiting for something amazing to happen, like it's a light saber about to spring to life, but nothing remotely that spectacular occurs. It's a regular old flashlight.

"Nice," I say. "You can blind them with your fancy high powered flashlight. I'm sure that will keep you from getting eaten right away."

He frowns at me and turns it off. "This is a new weapon that will change the course of hunting forever. Or it will, when I'm done tweaking it." He unscrews the bottom of it and takes pieces out and begins reassembling them with new items.

"What is it?" I ask, bored.

"A UV flashlight. The idea is using this with a concentrated beam like a sword or incinerator, but so far, I've been unable to solidify the beam using different lenses so it's less wide." He sets the pieces down and shoves them aside with his foot. "You've rested long enough. Let's see what you can do to fight," he says, getting up.