The Blood Whore

Joyous Reunion

Chapter Nineteen;;

Joyous Reunion;;

“Where have you been? I thought you guys were murdered on your vacation or something!” Cooper exclaimed, pushing the blankets off of her.

“Or something,” her aunt grinned with a shrug. The room was very nice; in fact it was far nicer than the school she’d known Cooper had been living in. That’s something, the fairer part of her acknowledged.

“Oh no, don’t try to get up just yet!” She exclaimed seeing Cooper trying to rise on shaky legs. In an instant she was by the girl’s side embracing her in a gentle hug. “I thought I might never be able to see you again.” She forced herself to pull away quickly though. Without the initial panic of what had happened earlier, she found Cooper’s blood rather enticing.

“So?” Cooper asked excitedly, staring up at her with expectant eyes.

“So?” Patricia asked with a moment of confusion. “Oh, we were still in Rome of course. We kept an eye on you after we were turned but none of us dared to come and see you. Too afraid to reveal our secret, I suppose.”

Cooper smirked and lightly touched the bloody mess that had been made of her dress. “I guess I’ve already seen enough of the danger, so that point was moot.”

“Yes; yes it was.” Patricia reached over and took Cooper’s shaking pale hand in her own, “I’m so sorry, Cooper, for all that’s happened to you.”

Cooper didn’t think to interpret that broadly, her mind told her that her aunt was talking about what had just happened in the hallway. Or happened hours ago, really. Cooper searched her aunt’s face; she wanted to say that she hated what had happened and that she wanted out of there and she just wanted to forget the past few days. But she couldn’t. Despite being witness to murder, and being scared out of her  wits, and impaled, she’d felt emotion. She had finally felt something other than rage and guilt, and that was something she’d been looking for ever since her family had died.

In fact, in that moment she was overcome with emotion. She was still engulfed by the shock that she was alive and that her extended family had not been entirely wiped out. On top of this shock she was happy that she’d finally been able to share what she’d done to someone, and that they’d been able to understand and share their story with her. She was delighted her aunt was still alive, and according to Aiden, her cousins and uncle were alive as well. There was so much emotion she truly couldn’t contain it. When her cousins burst in tears were streaming down Cooper’s face.

The three girls embraced tightly and Cooper felt her body shaking with her sobs. “I never thought I would see you again,” she exclaimed.

“This is not the reunion I imagined,” Alice laughed.

Patricia backed up to the window to watch the girls talk. She should let them have a moment while she decided what the hell they were supposed to do next. If they quickly bundled up Cooper they could probably flee right then. Patricia glanced out the window as the girls repeated over and over how happy they were to see each other.

Damn, she thought when she saw the vampire with a buzz cut strolling the yard outside the window. The vampire noticed her gaze and looked up to wave at her arrogantly. She withheld a growl of frustration as she turned quickly away from the window.

“So, who’s the vampire hunk?” Katrina was asking, the three finally pulled away from the hug.

Alice grasped Cooper’s hands at this excitedly. “Yes, who is he? He was so concerned about you when you impaled yourself! It was actually sickening!”

Cooper licked her top lip as she tried to think about how to answer. She didn’t really know what to say; he technically wasn’t anything to her. He had kissed her so he could drink her blood in peace, and the very fact he was taking advantage of her went to say he wasn’t her friend. But if that were true why was he so concerned about her, and why’d he been so nice to her just moments before. “Ugh,” she moaned. “His name’s Aiden and he’s just – ugh!”

“Ugh?” Alice teased with a smile.

“It seems like he has feelings for you in some way. You should give us more details.” Katrina added.

Cooper shifted uncomfortably, feeling another brief sensation of pain as her dress moved. The fabric had dried to her bloody chest and moving pushed the dry fabric off the wound. “I really don’t know what to say.” It’s complicated, she wanted to add.

She was spared by her cousins’ curiosity when her uncle came in through the door. He left it open as he stepped in running a hand over his bald head. He looked far more tired than Cooper had ever seen him. He sheepishly said hello, but before Cooper had a chance to respond Louis pushed through the door with a self-assured smile.

“I trust your reunion has been pleasurable?” He stood in the doorway, one hand resting on his waist as he observed the unorthodox family.

“It has,” said Cooper’s aunt distrust ringing clearly in her voice. Her husband met her gaze for the briefest of moments before sidestepping closer to her.

“I am pleased to hear it,” Louis said flatly as he gently kicked the door closed behind him. “If you don’t mind I would like a moment with Cooper.”

“We’ve only just begun speaking!” Alice protested.

“Well,” Louis said with barely concealed contempt and a tilt of his head. “I seem to be in need of some energy as one of your girls took more of my energy then I predicted.” He smiled at Katrina. It was not unpleasant, but it certainly did not express happiness or warmth.

Katrina blushed and looked away as her mother took a step forward with fury in her eyes. “She’s barely woken up from being run through with a stake.”

Something flickered in Louis’s eye at the mention of a stake, but then he waltzed further in the room. “The other human has been fed on enough today, we don’t want to drain him.” He strolled past the bureau and the wardrobe and the adult vampires until he stood before the bed. “Besides, I shan’t take too much. Just enough to freshen my spirits, I would think.”

He gestured at Alice and Katrina to move. Alice looked like she was about to argue once more when Louis said in a cool voice, “I hope I don’t need to remind you that this is my domain and you are guests in my house.”

The girls glared at him as they reluctantly got off the bed. Cooper stared at him wide eyed as he took their place at the foot of her bed. He looked out of place in his formal attire and she felt unnerved having her family standing there, bearing witness to the humiliating act of giving blood. She was unnerved at the thought of anyone drinking her blood but Aiden, she had somehow liked what he had done but she distrusted this man. I should have seen this coming, she thought angrily at herself. I was to be no more than their blood whore after all. All these nice things were just to keep me from protesting.

In the blink of an eye Louis had forced his hand over her mouth and shoved her down against the pillows. He trailed a finger along the vein in her neck as her blood pumped heavily throughout her body. She closed her eyes in terrified anticipation of the bite. When it came her eyes bulged open in pain and Louis’s hand muffled her uncomfortable groan. What she had expected to be an irritant was, in reality, a humongous shock.

She whimpered as he sucked her blood away from her. She felt her life force being drained as she had before, but where it had been a distant, almost ticklish, feeling with Aiden it was pressing and painful now.

She wanted to refuse him, wanted to push him away but she couldn’t. He would easily overpower her, kill her if he wanted. She looked to the side to watch her family stare on in morbid helplessness. She never wanted to feel this helpless ever again, and in that moment she knew she would leave Louis’s mansion. She didn’t understand her feelings about Aiden enough to risk ever being subjected to another feeding from Louis or the other vampires of his ‘family’ or ‘cult’ or whatever he wanted to call them.