Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Thirty-Two

I must have fallen asleep at one point, but I jolted from sleep very aggressively when I felt something grab the front of my shirt. I screamed and reacted on pure instinct, I drew back my hand and punched the unknown in the face and pain ran up my arm like fire. The bones in my right hand cracked and I thought I heard the wet tearing of skin. The assailant threw me to the ground, my head slammed into the floor and I heard ringing in my ears. I tried to get a look at them, but it was too dark. i couldn't make out many features just the shadow of a chin and outline of a knife. Not again! I thought desperately. I wanted this so much to be a nightmare, to wake up and escape this terror, but the pain running through my body told me I was very awake. I screamed, the sound sure to alter someone, but they might not get here in time... The attacker drew back the knife. I tried to kick and move away, but my legs were pinned underneath theirs

My instincts kicked in, I grabbed the first thing I could-something thin and hard, not ideal but I'd take anything. I swung it with all the force I could at my attackers head. I hoped a hit to the temple would at least stun him long enough for me to do something. I didn't even make contact, their free hand gripped my wrist like shackles. I cried out as the bones cracked and popped under the pressure. I couldn't see their face, but I had a feeling they might have been smiling at me. They had me trapped good and they knew it, my legs were stuck, my free had was in their iron grip and the other was broken. Fighting back would be next to impossible and even if someone heard me it would be too late by then.

They readjusted the knife in their hand and drew their arm back once more. I braced myself for pain, for death and I felt a hopeless tear slide down my cheek. This was it.

I heard a shout then, one that wasn't mine, the pressure on my legs and arm were released and I was forced to my feet and knocked into the wall. My eyes adjusted to the darkness now I saw two people struggling over the knife. Damon! I remembered. Damon was here with me last night! I wanted to run, wanted to get the hell out of here and find help but I was frozen, watching as Damon threw the attacker against the wall, the knife skidded across the floor and I grabbed the weapon. I knew this guy, whoever he was, was a vampire and had plenty of weapons to use other than this, but it wouldn't hurt if he was down one either.

Damon growled and I heard his fangs unsheathe. The attacker looked from me to him and I thought I saw a smile again. They jumped through the window, the dark glass shattering with a sound like a wind-chime into a thousand pieces. Sunlight poured through the broken frame into the room, yellow, bright, and warm. At first I was relieved, happy even to see it, it had been about a month since I'd seen the sun, but those warm feels turned stone cold when I heard screams. Damon fell to the ground, howling, smoke rising off his skin and then I remembered the rule about vampires and sunlight.

I ran over to him, the smell of burning flesh and the smoke in the room making my eyes water. "Get up," I shouted at him, "move!" I grabbed his arm, which was a dark, vivid shade of red and I saw blisters starting to form. I yanked him backwards, away from the window but the sun was covering every inch of the room. I looked around frantically, looking for some cover and then spotted my closet which was still open. I dragged him towards it, hoping that if I shut the doors it would be enough. I shoved Damon inside, watching as the burns on the his body grow steadily worse with each passing second. I got him inside, slammed the doors shut and the space went from bright and warm to a dark grey. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was safe, Damon was safe. That knowledge made my adrenaline ebb away and I became aware of the heart in my throat and pain piercing every nerve in my body. My right hand especially. I lowered myself to the floor of the closet, I'd been told by my mother many times, if you feel like you're about to pass out, that's the best thing to do it helped to avoid head trauma.

"Ember?" Damon croaked and I tried to answer but I'd lost my voice. My body was shaking. I was supposed to be safe here! How had this guy gotten into the manor? How had he known I was in this room exactly? "Ember," Damon said again, usually silky voice raw and slightly louder than before. "Are you going into shock?"

I licked my dry lips, and tasted blood. "No, no," I whispered and I forced myself upright. This was not the time to panic right now. I could still smell burning flesh, Damon was hurt, badly. I had to do something. I could freak later. I forced my fear and anguish down and peered at Damon and I swallowed a scream. He looked terrible, his face and arms were burnt badly. It varied across patches, some were just a little red like he'd just touched a hot pan. Other parts had white blisters the size of small marbles, some patches didn't even have skin left.

"Oh god," I muttered looking between him and the door. I knew very little about treating burns, but I knew the most basic things-cold water helped. Could I risk running to the bathroom and getting a washcloth? Right now the sun was blocked out, if I opened the door I ran the risk of letting it in at Damon again and making him worse. I knew burning like this required more than that, required specialized doctors but Lockwood Manor only had one doctor and while I assumed he knew a thing or two, he wouldn't be able to reach his patient until night fell or he'd wind up just like him.

"I'm fine," Damon lied and his lips, usually soft and pink were cracked and bleeding.

"Liar," I growled and I looked at the closed doors again. I couldn't risk opening them. I wracked my brain trying to think of something I could do without risking him getting exposed again. I knew vampires didn't get hurt or heal the way I did, maybe I could use that to my advantage. "Damon," I said suddenly, recalling the first night I'd been here. "Can your spit help you? You said it has healing properties."

"In humans," he gasped. "It won't effect us the same way."

"Shit!" I exclaimed. "Is there anything that does?"

"Yeah," he said and I saw him try to move, only to draw in a sharp breath and his strong jaw tightened-a response to pain. "Fresh human blood does amazing things for us."

Finally! A break! I crawled over to Damon, my body aching, hand burning with pins and needles through it. "Damon, I gasped. "Bite me."

"You loose anymore blood and you're going to be in worse shape than me!" he growled. "You're banged up."

"And you belong in the Burn Unit at a hospital!" I retorted. "I won't pass out, I've donated blood before." I scooted closer to Damon and jerked the sleeve of my now ruined PJ's up my arm. "I'll be fine, quit being stubborn and act like the intelligent man I know you are!"

I saw Damon open his mouth to argue and then it closed again. I moved closer to him and bared my exposed wrist to him. "Come on," I urged. "You're not going to be able to do anything like this if that guy had a buddy with him." I highly doubted he did, whoever sent him would have thought for certain I'd be alone now. This was a time that people were sleeping and the idea of giving a human a vampire roommate sounded as crazy to them as it did to me. But Damon, hopefully, didn't see this at this moment.

I heard his fangs come free and then his dry, cool lips pressing against my arm. Then four sharp pin-pricks of pain. I heard Damon growl as he tasted my blood and soon he was gone, focused entirely on feeding. I watched him and was amazed to see the change was instantaneous. The burns began to slowly heal, the blisters healing over, new skin growing over the damaged parts. It was working!

I shivered, feeling cold as the blood was being drawn out of my veins. I had a sudden flashback having my blood drawn at a doctors appointment. It felt something like this. My head began to spin and I felt weak. Some part of me knew I should voice that, but I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth and speak. I didn't want him to stop on my account and still be worse off like he was. Damon drew back about half a second after that thought crossed my mind. His chest was heaving as he gasped for air. Blood ran in crimson rivers down the side of this mouth. He looked infinitely better, the more serve burns still remained, but looked well healed, little webbings of white marked his arms and parts of his face now. I recalled the same marking on his left hand and wondered how he'd gotten burned that time.

"Thank you," he said wiping at the corners of his mouth.

"Don't mention it," I said leaning back carefully. I'd donated blood before at a blood drive in Sunview. I'd fainted right after, something about my blood sugar dropping. I didn't remember, but I didn't want that to happen here. Damon would freak. I was sure of it. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now," he said, reaching into the pocket of his sweat pants and pulling out his iPhone. "We make some phone calls, the others need to know what happened."

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