Blood Lines

26. Vulnerable

The Moonbeam Hotel had an excellent minibar as it turned out. There were shooters of just about every standard alcohol and quite a few mixers. The room was pretty nice, third story with a queen sized bed and a pleasant balcony with a bench to enjoy the view from. She and Lena both prepared their preferred cocktails, gin and tonic when no absinthe was available, and headed out onto the bench. Clae was nervous and excited all in one. She had been ridiculously awkward when she had paid for the room but she had managed. Now she felt a bit unsure of what to say and so remained silent. Lena seemed oddly content but it was difficult to tell. She had gone along with this all relatively easily but Clae wasn't sure how into it she really was. She wanted to probe a bit but was currently too nervous. Too many things were swirling in her brain for much clarity.

"This is a nice view. You can see the whole campus from here," Lena remarked after they had taken a seat, just a few inches away from each other.

It felt odd to have distance after all they had already done. But Clae currently couldn't bare physical contact.

"It looks so different from here," Clae sighed. "Like it's so simple and easy to understand."

Lena laughed. Clae glanced sideways at her. "You got work covered for tonight?"

"Yup, all clear. Or at least it'll be safe enough. It's hard to leave sometimes, you know?"

"But you have good teammates?"

Lena shrugged. "They do what they can. But," she hesitated and then took a sip from her drink instead of continuing.

"But what?"

"The students, they-they're volunteers. They're just kids who think it's cool to be a guardian or whatever. And the staff are just there as backup. They haven't seen what can actually happen-if shit goes sideways."

Clae glanced at her again. Lena was looking intent. She didn't want to pry, but she was curious. Lena had referenced something the first time she had described purebloods to her. What had it meant?

"You saw some shit, huh?" she said after a moment, and then felt immediately stupid for putting it so poorly. But Lena didn't reprimand her. She took another sip of her drink and then shrugged, swirling her ice.

"When I was a kid, like ten I think, I was at this party. It was one of the equinox parties. It was the usual weird shit. My mom was ostracized in most circles because of the affair she had with my dad, so we didn't mingle with other vampires much. But there were a few I knew. There was this one guy, they called him my uncle, but we weren't blood related, just a family friend. Anyways, he had a human girlfriend. It wasn't completely unusual. There were a few human partners in the celebration. But it was weird because she was really young and he was pretty old. They were kind of this odd couple." She shivered as though the memory had given her a chill.

"It was late, well early I guess for you. My mom never kept much track of me, she let me roam around. I was exploring the house where the party was, it was this huge mansion my father owned in the city. I had gotten into the highest levels. I went up a ladder into an attic exploring and I heard a commotion. It was him, that uncle guy and his girlfriend. He was-biting her."

Her fists clenched and Clae thought to reach out to her but couldn't bring herself to do it in that moment.

"I had seen biting before, I knew what it meant normally, just affection and whatever a kid could comprehend about sex. But this was different. She was trying to fight him off and he kept going, ripping at her. He just kept drinking. It was horrible. She was screaming and crying and no one could hear it but me. I freaked out and ran to find someone. I-I ran into my dad of all people. I told him what was going on. I was sobbing and shaking I remember. He gathered up a couple of his people and headed up. I followed them. When we got there..." She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. "It was horrible. So fucked up. He had torn her to shreds. Given her his own blood. Blackblooded her. She was still alive but barely. Her screams were awful. My dad killed him, didn't take a second glance, just pulled out an assassin knife and stuck him right there. They got her to a hospital I guess. She lived for a few months before it was pretty clear she had a bad case of blood insanity from being turned. In the end, they killed her too."