Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Eight

I was too stunned to even protest, I sat back onto a chair and started at the people in front of me. One face was familiar and fixed in a neutral expression, I couldn't gauge anything from it. The grey-haired man looked concerned, brows drawn together and the woman at his side worn a similar expression.

"There's a lot we owe you, but I think an introduction is the best place to get started. You've met my son Damon already," he gestured to the man standing behind him. "I'm Johnathan Lockwood, and this is my wife, Caiyun." He took a deep breath and shifted slightly in his seat, he seemed to be uncomfortable. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at me again. "There's no good way to start this-."

"Actually there is," Damon said from behind him and the woman-Caiyun jumped a little. "Ember," he said, making eye contact. "What's that on your wrist?"

"Dried blood," I said dryly. I hadn't let Doc clean me up past a few things when we were in his office. I was too wary of him and everyone else here. If there was some kind of crime committed here I didn't want to be erasing evidence of it.

Damon smirked. "The other one," he said and I looked down at my left arm. That one was clean, I could even seen my birthmark. It was just a thick white dot with a curved line underneath it, the shape reminded me of a coma.

"A birthmark," I answered with the same dry tone of voice. And here I thought I was going to get an explanation. I added in my mind, there was a time and place to be a smartass, but this was not one of those times or places. I was in a room full of vampires-creatures that were just supposed to be stories, and had narrowly escaped one an hour before. According to Doc I'd been lucky to survive, I didn't want to see if I'd get lucky twice.

"No it's not," Damon said matter-of-factly. He glanced away from me then, over at the window which I noticed now was tinted. That explained why I hadn't been able to see any light inside when I'd first arrived. He pulled back the sleeve of his button-down shirt, enough to expose his own wrist.

I heard the sound of his fangs coming free and watched, horrified and unable to look away as he bit his wrist. A thin like of bright red blood bubbled up from the bite and I watched as he jerked his head away, creating an off-center line down his skin. Half a moment later I saw the same familiar coma shape and half a second later it vanished as his vivid white skin sealed back together, all that was left of evidence was the blood dripping down his arm and mouth.

"You had a hole in your heart Ember." He said, "Every doctor you saw said you weren't going to live, and had I not come along, they would have been right. That's not a birthmark, it's a bitemark."

"Not true," I said instantly, mind flying back to the vampire lore I knew. "I'd have turned into a vampire."

"Myth," Caiyun said gently, voice timid as she looked at me. "A bite alone can't turn a human, but it can heal them. Vampire salvia has healing properties for humans it would have to get in the bloodstream quickly for it to work, but when it does."

"Miracles can happen," Damon interjected as he returned his sleeve back into place. He walked around the couch his parents (I assumed they were, Johnathan had already called him "son") and sat down, hands folded in front of him, posture tense. "It's why you're heart just mended itself with no explanation by the doctors. They don't have equipment that could have detected what I did."

My hands clenched into fists. "So what? You think because you bit me eighteen years ago you have the right to knock me and out move me to some place God-knows where? This is a kidnapping!"

"You're still in Florida," Johnathan told me, his voice had an edge to it now. "And please, don't talk to my son that way. He saved your life, twice now."