Blood Lust: Beneath the Shadows

Chapter VII

I woke up to Altair's face, filled with concern. I was in his room but with an IV hooked up to my arm and then a bag of blood in my other arm. I panicked when I saw this but didn't move nor say anything as I was too weak. Cornelius was in the room too with a worried expression on his face. He stood up to speak close with Cornelious. They spoke so softly to one another.  I couldn't hear a word they were saying. 

"What is all this?" I asked them both in a weak tone. I realized I was not in my gown any more but in a soft white loose dress that allowed me to breathe easily.

"You became severely anemic. You have not been eating well and it's our fault because we haven't been feeding you as we should."

" What happened to Despoina? Did she drink my blood?" I asked them. It seemed like I cared, or that I wanted her to drink my blood in the way that I was asking them this but I knew she didn't. I just wanted to know the truth. Altair looked at Cornelious in a disapproving manner.

"Despoina is fast asleep. It's been a couple of hours since you fainted." I really had become the damsel in distress I never wanted to be. 

"Okay so how did this happen?" I finally asked them.

"Kalim took you from Despoina and drank a lot of your blood but we managed to get him off you." Altair explained.

"So he almost killed me?"

"Almost would be a good way to put it, yes," Cornelious said.

" Is he dead?"

"No, he isn't" when Cornilious told me this information I sat right up. 

"He almost killed me and you kept him alive. I thought you were vampires. You don't care who lives and dies but only if it is your kind then you have a heart."

"One we cannot die and two You have to understand he is part of our family. Every family has a black sheep. I'm sorry but we cannot do that," Cornelious told me as he backed away from me and exited the room. Altair came up to the bed and sat in the chair next to me. I didn't understand why he was doing this.

"Where is Maddox?" I asked him out of the blue. His eyes perked up when I said his name. " You know something. Tell me where is he?"  I demanded. His eyes went from apologetic to upset.

"Why do you all of a sudden care? You never asked where he was before?" I turned around and gave him my back.

"Where did you get this stuff?" I asked him to change the subject of the conversation.

"We have our sources." I heard Altair clear his throat and move the chair he was sitting in away from the bed. "You want to know where Maddox is?" I turned around to face him again. "We have him in a cell, locked away. If you want to see him I'll go take you." Altair gave in. I ripped out the IV drip and my blood transfusion drip. "What are you doing? You have to stay in bed."

"There is only a little blood left and hope to God you cleaned and tested my blood before putting that into me and why should I listen to you? You were hiding this information from me the whole time."

"You never asked." He told me.

"You gave me to Desponia to suck on me as a gift?" 

"It was for one bite and that was it. She wasn't going to kill you." He explained to me as he rolled his eyes.

"And you weren't?" I asked him. He turned and cracked his neck in frustration. 

"Maybe I have given you too much freedom. I don't appreciate the way you talk to me."

"well, I don't appreciate the way you forced me to live here among you!" I yelled out at him. "I'm not afraid anymore. Here you want me. Just drink my blood. Here it is for the taking. I don't care if I die anymore." I sounded like a crazy woman but I was about to lose it with all these secrets and feelings I had gathered up in me. I exposed my neck to Altair but he back away from me. "Here Altair take it!"