The Blood Whore

Arrival

Chapter Twenty Nine;;

Arrival;;

“You never said your family was a bunch of vampires,” Ben grumbled after they’d picked up Katrina, Alice, and their parents. They walked at a slow pace to accommodate Britney and Cooper – and George once they had found the poor guy – and that whole time neither Aiden nor Ben wanted to leave Cooper’s side.

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t assume. Don’t you know that makes you look like an ass?” It was actually rather annoying how they hovered about her; she felt like a side show freak with the way everyone was concerned about her, and had to just be near her. The most estranging thing was the way Britney kept eyeing her, as though she didn’t believe Cooper was actually there.

Cooper just wanted to go to sleep at this point. Her chest was still aching from being run through by a set of stairs, and from Louis drinking from her, and all the emotional stress. It wasn’t just Britney either. She had a never ending rush of sympathy for George; he obviously hadn’t been treated as poorly as Britney had, but by no means was he treated especially nicely as she was. And Ben… she couldn’t help but be tremendously disappointed in the person he was, though she supposed she had no right to be.

Ever since she’d first seen him she’d thought for some reason he was going to be her guardian angel; that he was looking out for her. Cooper’s life hadn’t been easy since she’d met him, but the next time she was in immediate danger with Louis and all of them hunting her and then fire… she thought he’d come back to save her. But it wasn’t for her.

Looking at the other humans Cooper was aware that she needed this reality check; that she wasn’t the only special human and not everybody should be concerned about her. That didn’t stop it from hurting.

She looked over at Aiden again, and saw the tension along his jaw. She knew he must be struggling with the need to accommodate Ben and the loss of Nadeline, but she had a feeling that wasn’t all of it. She had told him her story, and she had mentioned Ben too. Aiden didn’t exude intelligence, but he was clever and she knew he’d probably pieced her story together with their current situation. She reached over and touched Aiden’s arm lightly.

When he looked down at her she tried to give a reassuring smile – she was certain it didn’t fall through though, she was now worried about what lay in store for them. The further they walked the worse Britney’s tremors got, and the more Wesley’s fingers began to tap against his leg. Even disinterested Dalia was fidgeting the remaining tatters of her lace gloves.

Aiden however gave her a weak smile in return and gently placed a hand at the small of her back. She didn’t say anything, but she could feel Ben glaring at the hand.

“Okay, when the hell are we going to be there?” Alice asked, standing as close to Cooper as Ben and Aiden would allow.

“We’ll be arriving relatively shortly,” Ben announced. “Don’t take it personally, but I’m going to have to keep the exact location of our facility secret, so you’re all going to be bagged.” With no more explanation, or room to argue, Ben pulled out a cell phone and called someone.

We only got one side of a conversation, and I could feel everyone’s anger – with me especially for actually wanting to go to this facility. What I didn’t understand was why they were all voluntarily accompanying me, or why they weren’t trying to talk me out of it. Were they just as curious as I was?

“She’s been acquired… There are some guests as well… Eight…Alright, you know where we are?... See you soon.” Ben’s conversation was over like that, and it took a moment for Cooper to realize that he’d never had to say where they were, they’d already known.

In a panic she turned to her comrades, but she barely turned her head an inch when everything went black and she felt a bag tighten around her neck. Over the sudden pounding of her heart she could hear the grumbling and griping of her companions.

“I am going to carry you there. Do not scream.” An authoritative female voice said behind Cooper, and before she could respond she was lifted into strong arms and she felt the disconnected sensation of movement. Damn these stupid inhuman abilities.

Cooper didn’t struggle, but she could hear the shrieking of Britney and the way George started with alarm. She was slightly alarmed herself, and needed to count slowly in her head. She put exceptional focus on the way the numbers would sound.

She was at fifteen when she started to hear cars honking, twenty two when she heard the metallic motions of elevators, and was at thirty one when the bag was removed from her head. She was in a common room that looked disturbingly like the waiting room of an upper class hospital.

Her companions were alongside them, all except for Brittany. None of them looked very happy about the predicament, and one of the vampresses who’d brought them there was whispering in George’s ear. The poor guy looked terrified, but he nodded and was pulled to one of the many doors lining the walls. All of the other strange vampires left with them; it surprised Cooper that they were all vampresses.

“Where are you taking him?” Cooper demanded, panic slipping into her voice. Somewhere deep inside of her she knew that she’d made a terrible mistake.

“He’s just going to get some treatment.” Ben smiled with a shrug. He raised a hand before Cooper could raise a protest. “Not anything ‘mad-science’ like. Your friends,” he paused there giving Dalia, Wes, Aiden, and her family foul looks. “They left him in an ill state, we are simply going to tend his wounds and give him some fresh clothes after a warm bath.”

“Oh…” Cooper murmured.

“I grow tired of this delay,” Dalia said brushing dirt off her shoulders with a dainty hand and giving Ben a cold stare. “We accompanied Cooper here to learn why you’ve been making human blood a poison, now begin explaining.”

Ben lifted his hands in a defensive motion. “This all seems so confrontational. How about we get settled somewhere comfortable? We have a lounge just a few rooms down…” He took a step back and gestured to a door behind him.

Aiden uncomfortably looked around the motley group. It was Wesley who said, “It doesn’t matter where we talk, we want to hear your explanations.”

“Actually,” one of Cooper’s cousins started, Aiden still couldn’t tell them apart. “I’m feeling a little tired, your lounge sounds fine so long as there’s blood for us to drink.”

From the corner of his eye Aiden saw Cooper wince, and reached out for her hand as Dalia added, “Blood that isn’t poisoned preferably.”

“Yes!” Ben said with a broad smile, playing the part of a gracious host more and more energetically as he went. “Ah, but this is a delicate matter of discussion.” His eyes settled on Cooper in a way that made Aiden burn with anger. “Perhaps while we discuss this we should allow our remaining human to enjoy the courtesy of a bath as well. And perhaps a change of clothes?”

There were a round of protests, even from Cooper herself but she paused mid refusal and looked up at Aiden. “Actually,” she murmured in a tone that told Aiden he was not going to like what she said next. “I am a little uncomfortable in this.” She gestured at the blood soaked  dress still torn from her earlier accident. “Besides, we haven’t heard George howling in protest at their innumerable cruelties.”

She said this with a little smile that didn’t quite touch her eyes. He paused before saying haltingly, “If that’s what you’d like.” He surprised them both by pulling her into a hug and holding her head to his chest. He bent down and whispered in her ear, knowing full well that the other vampires could hear all that he was saying, “If you feel even remotely uncomfortable just shout and I will come for you.”

She pulled away with a nod, and a petite vampress who popped out from one of the innumerable doors waved her over. With a final look around her friends Cooper disappeared with the female.

“Alright, Tique,” Aiden snapped sharply, “get to your explanations.”