Give Me Blood

Chapter 13: Uninvited

After getting dressed in warm clothing fit for the chilly weather I had planned on going outside to get a survey in and around the cabin. In the wise words of yesterday's escort, I seem to obviously display "paranoid hunter tendencies". Tendencies that saved my life. I wanted to gloat but knew that it wouldn't be doing me any favors. Especially because I could tell Jack (or was it Jake?) loathed hunters. Maybe he just loathed me. I didn't care either way as long as I didn't have to pretend to like his company.

Exiting the room and following the short hallway down led me into the foyer which I had first walked into yesterday. Across the way was the hallway where Crowley's office was and where he had bandaged my hand. Recalling how after he boorishly grabbed my wrist and closed the door in my face the maid had stared intensely at that door for a solid twenty seconds before ushering me to my room.

"They were also acting on instinct" was what Crowley told me when he found the need to grab my wrist. Instinct, sure it was an Instinct. An Instinct to suck the life out of people. What point was he trying to make?

Every bloodsucker I've met so far in this strange place felt slightly off. In what way it is difficult to describe. Not the usual heavy, animalistic energy I was used to feeling in my hunts.

Vampires are virtually impossible to tell apart from humans in terms of looks. Other than the fact that they aren't susceptible to ailing skin conditions or really any other flaws that stress and aging naturally do to the human body. Also, of course, the solid black eyes and fangs which they reveal when they lose control of their hunger. Though you need to be lucky enough to survive to witness it yourself.

Infected humans who are turned at an old age change into the healthiest version of themselves they could be at that point in time. The most beautiful and enticing to best lure their prey to them. Revolting creatures.

Only when you have gained valuable field experience as a hunter do you learn the ability to recognize their freakish attempts at imitation. Something about the energy these monsters leak is distorted. You can feel it in the air when they pass. Smell the electricity and change in pressure. All subtle tales that a bloodsucker was in your midst. I followed these subtle feelings through the corridor. The hunter in me could not resist.

There were two dark wooden staircases on either side of foyer converging into an upstairs floor. On the lower level, straight in front the entrance was an archway leading into what looked to be a living-room area. Contrary to the intricate wooden frames and trimmings around the entire cabin the furniture was more modern in style. Simple and solid blush blue shades were the couch and resting chairs and a large flat screen TV and gaming system on the left side of the lime accented wall.

I continue past the living area into the kitchen. Or what I thought was the kitchen after smelling the scent of batter and breakfast wafting in the air.

In front of the stove stood the maid from yesterday. Her raven hair braided into one instead of two strands wearing the same neat apron and frilly dress uniform.

"Have a seat dear. I just finished making breakfast. Priscilla's famous fluffy pancakes, family favorite. Grab a plate before the boys raid the kitchen!" She tells me even though I had not yet made myself known.

This wound will hinder any and all of my attempts at stealth until it closes shut. I mentally cursed myself for overdoing it with that bread knife. A little shallower and the cut may have already started patching itself.

I pick a seat at the table which, much like her clothing, was covered in a frilly cloth. The kitchen was bright due to the fact that the table stood right next to large floor to ceiling windows that opened to the outside garden filled with various remnants of bushes and pots once planted. At the moment the scenery was two-toned and bare as we were still in the midst of winter.