Blood of The Serpent

Chapter 5

Yoru was sitting at a large table, eating breakfast with this family he suddenly belonged to. They were the Tominori family, which made him Yoru Tominori. Not really, but you know what I mean.

"Come ooon Yoruu," said the girl sitting next to him. She was Reiko Tominori, his 'sister' for all intents and purposes. "Share the misooo."

He stuck his tongue out at her, then took another bite. While she wasn't really his sister, she did remind him of Emi. They had shared similar banters at the breakfast table over the same exact food.

Being a monster that drank human blood, he was pleasantly surprised to find he could still enjoy food. It did absolutely nothing to nourish him, but it still tasted just as good as ever. He had been pretty convinced he'd never enjoy breakfast like this again.

"Now Yoru," said Takeshi, his 'father.' "You should be nicer to your sister."

"Oh it's fine, dear. There will be more miso ready soon." It was Saki, his 'mother'.

Yoru will readily admit this situation was strange, but it certainly beat living in that cave. The house was big and had a nice atmosphere. There were video games to play and books to read. The family even had a cat to play with, though he didn't know where it was right then.

Takeshi was the director of one of Ebetsu's hospital's. Amara had explained earlier that day that not only was this family rich, but Takeshi could easily supply them with all the blood they could drink. No-one would notice if a few bags of blood went missing, after all. Not if Takeshi covered it up.

Yoru placed his bowl of miso back on the table, then stood. He could hear the hearts of every person in this room beating, pumping liquid life through their veins. His mouth was beginning to water.

"Where's Amara?" he asked. He needed to feed. Now.

"Aunt Amara?" asked Reiko. "Umm... I think I saw her out in the garden."

The garden? Isn't it daylight out? Confused, he stood and walked out of the room.

Sure enough, Amara was standing in the garden. The sun was bathing her in light, yet she was running her hand over the leaves of a bush, not a care in the world. She hadn't seemed to notice the young vampire.

He tried to walk over to her, but the moment he entered the sunlight the painful burning forced him to retreat back into the house. How the hell was she standing out there?

"Well hello there," she said, noticing him. She briskly walked towards him at a humans pace, perhaps worried that the neighbor's might see her. "You need to stop walking into sunlight."

"How are you..."

"Standing in the sun?" she finished. She stretched out her arms, smiling as though enjoying the hot rays. "Mmm, yeah. Sunlight really is the best."

He glared at her, patiently waiting for an answer.

"Oh you're no fun," she pouted. Then she pulled up on the chain around her neck, pulling her necklace out of her shirt. It was a cross, much like Lucas's in many ways, only this one was made of cold steel and had a black jewel in the center.

"This is a special necklace. One that allows vampires to walk in the sun."

He stared at the necklace, confused. "Aren't crosses harmful to vampires?"

"The cross itself does absolutely nothing to us," she chuckled. "You must be thinking of Lucas's necklace. His is magical like mine, but instead of being beneficial to vampires it's harmful to us."

"Does that mean I can enter churches?"

"Of course," she said. She walked out of the sun, into the shade where he was standing. "Your biggest weaknesses are sunlight and silver. The poison from a vampire can also hurt us, although that is hard to come by. Holy water, churches, crosses - none of that stuff actually hurts unless the object itself is magical in nature."