Scarlet Desires: Last High Blood

Ch.14: Losing Humanity

EDITED

   Afterwards, we somehow established a so-called "comrade" relationship. Whatever that means. We left the riverbank with haste and made our way back to Lincoln and others. Fortunately, they didn't seem to notice our absence – Lincoln and his sister had been exchanging flirty looks while the maids busied themselves with the almost dried animal corpses.

   How did I know that? Easy - I asked Gwen. "Hey," I greeted. "Had they been like this the whole time?"

   "Who, princess?" Gwen asked between mouthfuls.

   Pointing at the love birds, I said,"Them. Obviously."

   "Oh!" she replied after gulping down the blood. "Yes, my princess."

   I gave her my thanks before joining them. Desmond already went to the twins before I did. My skin nearly got sizzled by the sunlight when I accidentally exposed myself to it. Surprised, I retreated back to the shade of the trees. There, the small group was planning our next move – excluding Liliane of course. She just remained mute and stared at the flock of birds which happened to pass by.

   "But I thought we have to build a campsite now and call it a day?" I interrupted, wiping a drop of sweat on my eyebrows.

   Instead of Desmond answering, the male twin did. "There's still light. We can do more things."

   "That's the whole point!" I snapped, spreading my arms wide open. "We can't do anything much with this god forsaken –"

   He cleared his throat and corrected me, "Not 'we'. The maids can withstand the sunlight since they are ghouls, Desmond is an elf and I'm quite.... an ancient vampire."

   Swallowing up my irritation, I released a heavy sigh and said, "Right. What am I supposed to do then?"

   "You can hunt or rest." 

    "Fine." I tried to remove the bitterness in my voice but I don't think it worked. 

   Just as they were about to gather the maids and leave, I stopped Lincoln and asked, "One last question. What are ghouls and what do they do?"

   "Ghouls are damned creatures who are slaves to their vampire owners. They feed on their owner's blood," he answered, impatience is getting on his voice.

   "But Margaret and Gwen... do they have owners?"

   "Yes. Lord Marcus."

    I had several more questions in mind but judging from his curt replies, another verbal argument between us would be formed and it might last longer than the earlier one. Releasing my grip around his arm, I watched them as they quickly made up their decisions on where to go next. A second barely passed but the mini group sped off to the opposite direction.

   At least I get some time to think, I grumbled to myself. My gaze eventually left the fast disappearing figures and focused on the depths of the forest. My hunger was filled by Desmond but it wouldn't hurt to have another refreshing taste of blood. Savoring the thought of hunting a lion, I found myself walking deeper and deeper into the dense woods. 

   The towering pine trees gave a sense of claustrophobia. That feeling unnerved me – as if I actually experienced something like this before. I pushed that thought away with hurry and tried to look at things in a different perspective. Other than the noise of crunching leaves under my boots, the forest was deadly silent and as much as it sounded stupid, it seemed like every living thing in this place held its breath and anticipating something.

   Bad things.

   "This isn't going to work if you continue imagining stuff," I mumbled, looking behind my back every few seconds.