Cold Blood is Thicker

The next night was not as violent as the last - at least not by Orri or Charlie’s doing. They had drove another good hour and a half down the empty highway when Charlie had instinctively pulled into a small town and stopped in front of the tavern. They had gotten out and walked into the place to discover Cain, Foks and Gage already sitting at the bar conversing quietly. The place was void of any other people, but there were traces of blood on the floor and walls.

“Seems like you cleaned up pretty good,” Charlie said curtly as he joined the three at the bar. “Did you leave any for me?”

Cain snickered and motioned over to a glass half-full with dark blood. “It’s still warm. We only get here ten minutes ago.”

Charlie grinned and hopped up onto the bar and landed on the other side. Orri had silently taken a seat beside Cain who had set aside a second glass of blood for him. He stared at it, taking it with shaking hands and drank it down without hesitation. The feeling of killing the waitress from the night before was still not sinking in. Orri felt as though he should be completely overcome with guilt and self-hatred, but he wasn’t. So far the only guilt he felt was feeling guilty about not feeling guilty. Orri stared at the bottom of his glass as the remaining blood collected around the edge. Why didn’t he feel anything? It was as if he were completely numb.

“Here, this’ll numb ya up a bit.” Charlie was standing in front of Orri with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bottle of red wine in the other. “S’wrong? You still worked up about that broad?”

“No,” Orri said quickly.

Charlie gave him a disbelieving look. He put the bottle of vodka down and opened the wine. He sloppily poured the dark wine into Orri’s bloody glass, spilling around it and put the bottle down. “Personally I prefer the Bloody Caesar.” Charlie was pouring vodka into his own glass, only he hadn’t taken a sip of the blood. Orri cringed in disgust.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to play with your food,” he said indignantly.

Charlie let out a loud laugh. “Right. I’ve been doing this for over a hundred years, you know how boring ‘don’t play with your food’ gets?”

“So far, you mostly just lay with your food,” Foks said snidely.

“True, but not always.” Charlie took a gulp of his “Bloody Caesar” and licked his lips. He didn’t say anything for a moment, as he seemed to be lost in thought. “Is Julia around?”

“No,” Cain said quietly. “She’s gone off with Allison, she doesn’t know when she’ll be back.”

Charlie nodded slowly, understanding. For a split second, a look of sorrow washed over his face, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared.

“Where did she go?” Orri piped up.

“Julia does this sometimes.” Charlie’s normal expression came back and his eyes met Orri’s. “She leaves for a while just to clear her head. I never know where she goes, and I never know how long, but she’s always back at some point. Unless she dies or something, she always comes back.”

“I don’t really blame her for leaving,” Cain mused.

Charlie rolled his eyes. He drank the rest of his glass and walked around to the other side of the bar. He sat down next to Orri and pulled out a package of cigarettes. “Now, Orri, don’t drink too much like I probably just did. Allow me to introduce the vampire anatomy.” Charlie drew out four cigarettes, passing one to everyone and then taking out a yellow lighter. Once everyone’s cigarette had been lit, Charlie started talking.

“First thing’s first, you are about to get three times as drunk as you normally would as a human,” he began. “In your body right now, you only have about a third the amount of blood a human does. Your organs work three times slower than a human’s – save for your brain – and…”

“Charlie’s brain has always worked three times slower than normal,” Foks cut in.

“Fuck off. Now your liver cleans your blood three times slower than it would. Mix that with having less blood and you’ve got a pretty long time of being drunk. I mean, this three times slower thing goes for everything. Cell growth, hair and nail growth, heart rate… Here, feel your pulse.”

Orri squeezed his wrist, trying to feel his pulse.

“Your heart beats about twenty-four times a minute. It’s all you need. You function perfectly fine this way, though I really don’t know how. It’s on my list of things to learn before I die – which is whenever I chose.”

“When you chose?”

“Would you really want to live forever? I plan on dying at some point – when, I don’t know. Maybe when I’ve figured out everything about vampires. It’s all I’ve been doing as long as I can remember.”

“Waste of time,” Cain whispered.

Charlie didn’t seem to notice. He was staring into space with a small smile on his face. He looked back at Orri and shrugged. “That was lesson one. Any questions?”

“How can you just chose when you die?” Orri said immediately. “What if you can’t? What if you die completely against your will?”

Charlie frowned. “What’re you talking about? Fate?”

“No. Natural death.”

“Don’t be stupid. We’re vampires, we’re immortal.”

“What if you aren’t? Do you know it for sure?” Orri looked away from Charlie, taking a puff on his cigarette. “You can die from many other ways, why not naturally? As I do recall you telling me, you aren’t the undead, you’re just another species of animal.”

Charlie was silent, but soon a look of anger came across his face. “No, I’m pretty damn sure we’re immortal. I’m a hundred and sixty years old and I’m still in pretty good condition.”

Orri held up his hands defensively not wanting to get into a fight. “Okay, fine, you are. Another question, where did all my blood go?”

“It was burned up and used up as energy to help you turn.” Charlie put out his cigarette on the bar counter and stood up from his chair only to stumble across the floor. It seemed he was already getting drunk. Orri sipped his wine cautiously; it still tasted like wine. He had remembered from countless vampire novels and movies that normal food tasted terrible in comparison to blood. Time passed by after a few more drinks and soon everyone was well past slightly drunk. Whatever preconceived ideas Orri had about vampires being seductive, sneaky creatures of the night didn’t ring true. So far, the real vampires were nothing but unwise teenagers forever young and reckless. It didn’t seem to be such a bad life.

“I have seen every vampire movie,” Charlie stated plainly as he drank from a Stella Artois beer bottle. “Every one from Nosferatu to fuckin’ Twilight.”

“Every single vampire movie?” Orri challenged.

“Yeah. I was around before movies were even invented, of course I’ve seen every one.” Charlie huffed and put his beer down. “Of course, recent vampire movies suck. I mean, Twilight, really? Vampires burn for Chrissake! Though I suppose I’d take sparkling over burning. It’s probably less painful. And not to mention all the girls that go crazy over it. All I have to do is say I’m a vampire and they believe it and try to get into my pants. It’s a pretty good way to feed if you ask me.”

“Aren’t they like, thirteen-year-olds?”

“I don’t know. Think I care?”

Orri’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Ew.”

“Nothing I do is legal, Orri, what is sleeping with underage girls to me? Nothing, that’s what.” Charlie shook his head, scoffing. “To be honest with you, Margaret, I really don’t care about much.”

Orri didn’t take notice to being called Margaret as he started to feel sleepy. He wondered where the vampires would sleep that night. The windows in the bar were open and would let sunlight in. His thoughts seemed to drift away as his vision blurred. He was experiencing the same sensation alcohol brought on when he got drunk as a human. Charlie wasn’t lying when he said vampires got drunk easily. Orri started feeling dizzy and started to slowly move down towards the floor – was he moving? He couldn’t tell. All he knew was that things started to feel very peaceful.

In about three minutes, Orri was out cold on the floor, Charlie and Cain not far behind. Foks had managed to get up, somewhat sober, and tried to cover the windows. There were black garbage bags and black paint stashed in the bar’s closets. Foks and the mostly silent Gage had covered up the windows as well as they could and found somewhat comfortable places to sleep. Hopefully nobody would come by the next day, and hopefully the Sorry, we’re closed sign would get the message across.