The Living Game

(13) Respect The Dead

On Sunday morning, I called Kiera. She wasn't supposed to work today but I needed to go out. I had a little bit of spare money I'd managed to save up for my college fund but I was going to have to dip into it to buy a few things.

Jace needed a pair of shoes, I need a few new pairs of jeans. Jace needed a new winter coat, I needed a pair of ski pants, a thicker jacket, a hat, gloves and a scarf. We also needed a few more groceries. I wasn't eating so we weren't running out as fast as usual, but I still had to replenish all of Jace's favourites.

Jace hadn't noticed that I wasn't eating yet. I was getting pretty good at pretending to eat. I'd pop a bite into my mouth, chew it, and then spit it out as fast as I could when Jace was preoccupied. I moved a small trash bin to the side of the table for just this purpose, telling Jace it was just so we could keep the kitchen cleaner when he asked.

I felt bad for lying to him but it was necessary. I wasn't exactly about to blurt out that I was a vampire and couldn't eat human food.

What exactly would happen if I ate human food, anyway? I didn't think it was possible for me to be physically sick, though I'd already experienced that discomfort in my stomach that soon led to a full-blown stomach ache, perhaps made worse by the fact that I couldn't just get rid of the waste in my stomach like any normal person. However, blood seemed to work as a fairly quick form of medicine so I usually didn't hold my resolve long before drinking some to feel better.

I had decided that I had broken my Vegan diet, but that I was going to have to just call it quits on that all together. I was going to have to hunt animals until I could gain some sort of control over myself. Alekzander had fully explained — after I had yelled at him and threatened to kick him in the balls — that I could drink a human's blood without killing them.

However, it was hard to do. According to Alekzander, it was only ever accomplished by a handful of vampires and they all had over five centuries on me. He had told me that it was hard to stop drinking once you'd started, and even harder to know when 'enough' turned into 'too much'.

He could personally atone to that. He had told me that he planned on 'teaching me a lesson' the day he turned me, but he hadn't been able to control himself enough. He'd been able to control himself to the point that he knew he was taking too much, but not enough to stop. Instead, he'd simply switched points in order to prolongue it and stop me from losing too much blood all at once. And look how that had ended for him, he'd bitten me one too many times and accidentally turned me.

I figured that must have been why he was so hesitant to tell me that I could actually drink human blood without killing them. He obviously knew by now that I wasn't about to play the good little girl and listen to whatever he said, even if he had established a command over me, and figured that I'd give it a shot. Then, he had have to deal with two newborns.

When Kiera arrived, I gave her an apologetic smile. Jace had gotten out of bed a half an hour earlier, and was now eating breakfast at the table.

"You didn't have to come over." I said quietly, smiling gratefully that she had come over. I could have taken Jace with me, but then I wouldn't get a chance to hunt and he got tired after only a little shopping, anyway.

She shrugged, smiling. "I don't mind."

I gave her instructions on lunch and told her where anything she'd need was. She knew where a lot of stuff was by now, but not everything. I didn't really have to tell her, since Jace could, but I could tell she appreciated it.

Before I left, I grabbed my coat and scribbled my cell phone number on a small piece of paper before putting on the fridge. "My number's on the fridge if you need to call." I yelled to Kiera, who had gone into the living room with Jace.