Boundaries

Grant: other blood

{Grant}

I stomped into my mother's office with my usual scowl. She tossed me another vial, and I popped out the old one, a little surprised that it was empty. I felt fine, less hungry than I had felt in days at least. Perhaps she was adjusting the settings.

"What are we going to do when Conor is gone?" I inquired. "I won't be able to go outside, will I?"

"You're not supposed to be outside in the first place," my mother observed.

"Anything else?" I inquired.

Sasha seemed to be staring at me in a very intense fashion. I just stood there, wondering what would happen if I ran out of blood. My mother couldn't babysit me for the rest of time, and everyone seemed violently opposed to my drinking blood, even in a glass, as if how I consumed blood changed what I was.

"Sasha?" I questioned. "Yes?"

She finally stopped inspecting me and pulled out a water bottle to toss at me. "Well, go on now. And drink more water!"

She shifted her gaze to her work. I downed the water bottle, tossed it into the trash and stomped back out the door, hurrying down the stairs to make to Gayle's door just as Conor and Ralph had knocked.

"That was fast," Conor remarked.

"I am a vampire," I told him with a smile. "Hello, Gayle."

"When you three are in my office, I know nothing good has occurred," Gayle observed, taking her hands from her keyboard. "What happened this time?"

She didn't look harassed. She seemed to smile a bit when Ralph rolled in. I wondered if my mother wasn't wrong about Gayle's crush. Ralph was attractive and calm, the latter being rare in this building.

"A group of hunters attacked Boyd and me at breakfast," Conor said. "I'm fine. Boyd is probably fine. But it was rude, and I'm sure they have been told not to. I just thought you should know."

"Yes, I should, thank you," Gayle sighed. "Hunters, I swear. Anything else or are you three here on the buddy system?"

"What?" Conor asked, confused.

"Both," Ralph answered for him. "We haven't seen Tish since yesterday. Where is she?"

Gayle frowned at us and then turned back to her computer, perhaps looking through emails or some other correspondence. I didn't like that she didn't answer immediately. That meant no one had seen Tish for nearly twenty-four hours.

"I don't know," Gayle said finally. "She's been with you nearly the whole time. When was the last time you saw her?"

My head felt a little strange, almost as if I was lightheaded. Was my mother messing with the vials again?

"She went to see Sasha yesterday and never came back," Ralph said. "And now you see our concern."

"I was just with my mother," I said.

The three of them stared at me.

"What?"

"Sasha? I was just there," I replied.

Gayle rose from her seat and walked over to me

"Grant, you're just mumbling," she said.

"I can hear me just fine," I told her.

She looked over at Conor and Ralph as if confirming that I wasn't making any sense to them either. I folded my arms over my chest, somehow miscalculated and ended up nearly punching myself in the face. Even I could tell that wasn't normal behavior for me.