To Be...

Chapter 12

I felt terrible when I rose from bed Sunday morning. My bones ached from being tossed onto the floor the previous night. I'm sure I had a mad bruise ready to scream in agony somewhere on my side.

Despite Dillon's command, I had many terrible nightmares. One involved Palmer making the door separating me and Leon disappear, leaving me in a window-less, door-less room. Then, out of nowhere, Palmer is beside me laughing. In his hands I see the jackrabbit's blood dripping on the floor. The jackrabbit isn't what is in his hand, though, and there is too much blood to be from that small a creature, anyways. So where then? I feel something crawling down my stomach, and I shake it out of my shirt. My heart thuds to the ground, and rolls to his feet. He leans to pick it up, and Leon is behind him. He will protect me, save me. No, something isn't right. Palmer tosses the heart in the air like a child with a water balloon. Leon catches it in midair and glares at me.

"Get out!"

I'm sure that he must have devoured my heart after that, and I almost believed the dream to be true. Where my heart had once been felt magnificently barren and painful. But, no. There was no blood or cut to prove a truth to the dream.

Dillon was there when I woke- folding colorful squares of paper into precise origami swans. He looked to see if I was still asleep, and realized by the look on my face, or perhaps the screams I may or may not have exerted in the night, that it had been a rough night. He clicked his tongue awkwardly to pass off a few second of silence. So it wasn't the look on my face, apparently.

"Want me to teach you?"

I nodded. It looked fun- and strangely normal. I folded the paper just as he told me the first time and ended up with a very sloppy swan.

"The ugly duckling of origami swans."

He laughed and tried to re-teach me. All we made were swans, although he had a whole guide to origami.

"Why swans?" I asked.

"You've never studied about vampires?"

I shook my head. Is that essential?

"Swans are- well, they're humans, first off. Different color swans mean different ways of interacting with us- vampires."

"What colors?"

"Crimson is for humans who donate blood. Crystal or silver donates energy. Amber-"

"Wait, wait. Two things. First, explain 'donates'."

"As in they know we are vampires and offer up a contract that allows us to take portions of their blood, leaving them entirely healthy. Before you ask, the reason we don't do this is because drawing up legal documents would call attention to what we are, and that is one of the few rules that we vampires must abide by. Do not attract attention to the vampire race."

Documents? Isn't that a bit humane for blood sucking parasites? No, Leon had already said they document their prey before. They had set guidelines, apparently, and I was never meant to be part of it.

"Like," he continued ", you could write up a document saying Leon could have a certain amount of your blood a month. We'd use syringes since we wouldn't be in a hurry to hid evidence."

Why is he telling me this? What is he expecting me to do?

"Why are you telling me that?"

He smiled, hiding any intentions away.

"Just explaining the process."

I grimaced. "Why?"

He put up a mask of pure innocence. He wouldn't tell me the truth.