Blood Isn't Always Thicker Than Water

I was a jittering mess. Sandy and I were going to leave for college tomorrow. Classes were going to actually start in a week, but everyone was supposed to get to the school beforehand so we could get settled in and break the ice with our classmates. I was so freaking scared it was ridiculous.

“Dude, stop being such a fucking drama queen,” Fallen said, making me feel oh so much better. “You’ll survive, no damn doubt about that.”

I twiddled the hem of my cape, muttering, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die,” under my breath. “Okay, I need blood.”

“Oo, I want some,” Sandy said sharply into my ear.

“Dude, you’re on my back. I can hear you fine.” I opened the cooler. “Fallen?”

“I’m damn thirsty. I want two, fucking Prince.”

I tossed him two of the packets, then pulled out a bunch for me and Sandy. The latter grabbed two and left me with four. We seemed to have a lot of these packets…

“Drink up, me fuckin’ hearties,” Fallen said cheekily, then downed the liquid.

“Wow,” Lancaster said in a depressed manner, staring at Fallen. “Not the first thing I wanna see in the morning. Ick…” He rubbed a hand through his disheveled hair. “’Sup, Cas?”

I nodded in his direction, then tore open a very tiny bit of the packet. Then I held it up and let it drip into my mouth.

Sandy said, “You gonna have four like that? You’ll be here forever.” He pulled himself off me and sat on my lap—we were on a couch. He soon repositioned so that his head was on my thigh and the rest of his body extended over the rest of the cushions. Lancaster and his glass of orange juice stopped in their tracks and left Sandy alone, instead sitting on a nearby bench. It really didn’t look that comfortable. But anything to stay away from Fallen, I guess.

I shrugged in response to Sandy’s comment. “I feel like it. I wanna savor it. Leave me alone.”

He shrugged and tore into his, managing to lap it all up without spilling a single bit. Then he took his last one and scurried toward the hallway. “Nobody follow me or try to unlock the bathroom door. You probably don’t want to see this.”

I nodded. “Thanks for the heads up.”

Fallen chuckled. “He’s so gonna fuckin’ masturbate.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.” Then I got back to letting the blood drip steadily down my tongue and then my throat. My eyes closed and after a while my tongue began to tentatively lick the small opening in the corner of the packet. It just made the blood come out a little tiny bit faster.

“Um, Cas…”

I opened my eyes, very slightly pissed off, and looked at Fallen.

He pointed with his eyes toward where Lancaster was sitting. I snuck a glance toward the human and noticed that he seemed to be staring transfixed at me. That really wasn’t that uncommon. Then I noticed how seriously wide his eyes were, and the rosy tint to his cheeks. I sat up, holding the packet so it wouldn’t leak, and frowned an infinitesimal bit as I looked the guy over.

His pants looked a wee bit tighter than normal… Oh no.

My face burned up. Aw crap… I swallowed. “I think I’ll go finish this somewhere else.” Without another word, I exited the room, blinking and blushing up a storm—and not to mention a tsunami. I almost crashed into Hannah.

“Gee, couldn’t you keep your vampire stench in your room or the kitchen and not waft it all over the house?” she asked in agitation.

“S-sorry,” I fumbled. Did the blood really smell that bad to non-vampires?

“Oh, hey, do you mind if I get us some real heating? I’ll need a bit of a donation from you, but it won’t even put a hint of a dent in your cash mound.”

I nodded to her. “Sure.” I went to walk on, but paused. “What’s gonna happen to the furnace?”

She shrugged. “God willing, it’ll get to go to Furnace Heaven. But I doubt it’ll pass the ‘Did You Do You Job on Earth At Least Decently?’ test.”

I shrugged. “It worked fine back in the day when Logan was here.”

“You were all vampires!”

I bit my lip. “Touché.”

She smirked, petting Freaky McHorrific who was on her shoulder. “If the thing’s so special to you, why don’t you bring it up to your little sanctuary up in the attic?”

I let out a short laugh. “Do you really think any of us could pick that thing up? Well, maybe if I asked Alvin…”

“Who’s Alvin?” she asked innocently.

Oh yeah. She didn’t know about Ass Squared. "No one,” I chirped then scampered off to my “little sanctuary” to figure out why on Earth Lancaster would react…like that…to my licking a packet of blood. I felt so innocent.

Pete, Sam, George and Jon had all e-mailed to say goodbye—as said before, phone reception is lousy up here—and wish me and Sandy luck with our education. Hannah and McHorrific had made us a farewell breakfast. Hannah asked us what we wanted and then gave us both huge helpings. So we both ended up eating about half an uncooked cow.

Lancaster told me that his new job was secretary of this place. He was to keep track of our little group’s finances and all other manner of interactions. Turns out he loves cartography and absolutely adores working with maps. I don’t really get how that’ll help with being secretary/treasurer, but, hey, whatever floats his boat.

Monty and Balto were not happy to see that all of my things were packed away into one black suitcase while their stuff (meaning two combs, food, and a heavily gnawed stick) was still strewn around the house. Hannah promised to take good care of them. I really hoped she would. They were my connection to the past—to Jeremy. I didn’t want to let go of that any time soon.

Dyrren just nodded when I saw him the hall as a farewell and said, “Don’t forget your cape.” Um, how could I? It was impossible to forget about something that follows you around. Geez.

Lancaster was waiting for me at the door Sandy, Ivy and I were going to exit out of. Speaking of Ivy, the handcuffs were now off. Fallen jumped in and yelled, “Fucking go already! I wanna be regent! The hell?!” then left the scene to go do who-knows-what. I twisted my shirt a little awkwardly. I had on a gun holster with Jeremy’s gun holstered in it. The school website—or should I say Vein-site?—didn’t have anything prohibiting the use of firearms, so I’d deal with any crap about it when we got there.

“See you later, Cas,” Lancaster said.

I smiled and nodded. “Later.” Then Sandy, Lady Ivy and I walked outside. Monty came out too, barking at me. I stuffed my suitcase into the trunk of Marietta’s old small car. It was tan and outright old. But it was all we had to get to the Sierra Nevada mountain range other than a jacked Batmobile that no one was allowed to use, so the old thing would have to do.

I kneeled down in front of Monty. He stared at me with his big pleading brown eyes, whining softly. I tangled my fingers into the hair that fluffed out below his ears by his cheeks and jaw. He whined a little louder and placed a gentle paw on my chest in a weirdly human gesture. It reminded me of Samantha, who did the exact same thing. But this was different. My dog, despite all of his moodiness and dissatisfaction with so many things that happened just wanted, above all, to stay with me, and I was taking that away from him. I buried my nose in the soft strands of fur underneath his jaw on the side of his neck. I didn’t want to leave him, either.

…Stay…brother…

My heart went cold, and I pulled away from Monty in alarm. I backed away from him, then, ignoring his sad brown eyes and returned whines, I opened the passenger side door and hauled myself in, heart rate sped up to quite a fast pace.

What was that?

Sandy sprawled out on the backseat as Lady Ivy and I made our way to the front. Ivy was driving, and I don’t know what I was doing. All I had with me was my laptop and iPod and a very, very, very strange memory that I just obtained. I pulled out the iPod and turned on some Jimmy Eat World. I was in the mood for that right now.

As Ivy drove into the woods, I turned around for a last look at my manor. Fallen and Hannah were laughing at some joke and waving. Lancaster was also waving from the doorway. And Monty was racing after the rundown old car. Once we started trundling down the unpaved road, he admitted defeat and howled after me, nose turned to the sky. I could hear the sound through the windows of the car. It was the single most heartbroken and tortured cry my ears had received.