The Blood Painted Cage

For the next week everything remained calm. My emotions settled in the wake of my home and soothing river and eventually I came out of my emotional rut. The tears and anger melted and I felt not twinge of them to return. My sleeping routine also slowly shifted, returning to sleeping during the night as there were no urgent leads to run after during the dark hours. I felt happier being awake during the day. The sun always made me smile and the soft light shimmering over the snow lifted my spirits.

I noticed Viorel became slightly happier after his moment of depression. I had spoken to him afterwards, telling him my thoughts and ensuring the while I did not doubt his abilities as a fighter, he still couldn’t force himself as much as the others. Being human prevented him from doing so. After becoming even more sombre for the next couple of days, he eventually began to perk up. I assumed from the extra shooting and blade lessons Dana had agreed to give him gave him that purpose and positive thinking he needed.

However the person that confused me currently was Vincent.

He had been quite calm at first. During the night and majority of the day, he watched over either myself or the house, just as he had promised. I sheltered at the back of his consciousness, not fully merging so I knew his thoughts but just enough to react quickly to the parasite. And as I watched these well held feelings, I noticed annoyance and possibly even rage began to glow in his mind.

I tried to work it out without confronting him but I just couldn’t. He did nothing other than read a book or watch me and I knew for certain I had done nothing to upset him. All I had been doing in my time was either research into both of the problems, reading or gardening. Surely none of those things would anger him. At least I didn’t think it was.

Maybe it was the lack of progress we were making on the research front. The vampire was a loner, just like the werewolf. Without kin and apparently without any obvious purpose to attack me, these two men were dead ends. I was used to dead ends and feeling about in the dark to find another string, I had done it for four years, but Vincent wasn’t. His patience wasn’t exactly vast so thinking that maybe he was irritated with the lack progression wasn’t illogical.

However I was to find out that my logical guess was wrong.

It was currently dusk and I was sitting quite happily in the lounge by the main hall, drinking my tea and flicking through the newspaper in case anything odd had been happening in the world when Vincent strode in not too happy.

He sat firmly in a chair opposite and said nothing, just folded his long legs and leaned his head on his fisted hand, staring at me with a firm glare. He remained like this for a while and didn’t even more when I started to squirm under his gaze. Eventually I couldn’t focus on the newspaper on my lap and sighed.

“What is it, Vincent?” I finally asked gently.

“I have not seen you feed.” He accused instantly.

I gave him a confused look. “You have. I eat dinner with Viorel every evening.”

“That is another point. Why do you eat?”

My expression grew ever more confused. “I eat because I need to. If I didn’t-”

“You do not need food. No vampire needs food. What we need to survive is in blood, human blood if you want to be specific. Animal blood does not have the nutrition we need, let alone meat and vegetables. So what I want to know is why you don’t feed?” He said bluntly.

I blinked heavily, rendered silent until my brain began to work again. “I guess it is because I am a Silver.”

“That means nothing. You have abilities that only your rank is capable of having, but you are still a vampire. You need blood to survive.”

I fell silent. Confusion filled me at Vincent’s words and also scared me. I thought I could survive without blood because I was a Silver but he said that was not true. I don’t remember ever drinking blood so how was I still alive? And if what Vincent had said was the truth then that means I wasn’t human in anyway, an ideal I still clung too.

Right on cue, Dana came rushing into the lounge in her normal fast brusque walk with duster in hand. She said a sharp good morning to Vincent and bowed to me and nearly turned to set to work but my call stopped her in her tracks. She turned back to me and a worried expression flittered over her features when she saw how distressed I was.

“What’s wrong, Lady?”

“Vincent has asked me something and I cannot answer him. Would you please answer him for me?”

Dana’s eyes flicked from my face to Vincent’s before she nodded in agreement. “Please relay your question to me, Blackburn.”

Without moving other than looking up at Dana, he repeated his question. “How is the Lady still alive?”

Her mouth twitched into a frown. “Pardon?”

“I have never seen the Lady feed and she can’t recall ever drinking blood. So I want to know why she is still alive.”

Dana’s face instantly became stiff, something that told me Vincent’s word had pushed a very sensitive button. That alarmed me. It was very rare for Dana to freeze up which made me very worried. She was hiding something from me.

“Dana?” I queried gently. “Why won’t you answer him?”

Her eyes snapped to mine, still firm before they drifted back to Vincent who was glaring, waiting as patiently as he could for an answer.

“The Lady is a Silver, Blackburn, she does not-“

“That is not true.” He snapped. “A Silver is just like any other vampire only their powers are in their mind. Blood keeps a vampire strong; without it they become physically weak and eventually die. I am sure the Silver’s are exactly the same just affected differently.”

I held up my hand when Dana opened her mouth to argue and turned to face Vincent with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. “What do you mean?”

“A vampire is powerful, Lady. The older they get, the more physical strength they gain. The Silver’s are not like that however. They are as physically strong as a small human child and remain so for their life. Their power however is in their mind. They can control the elements and their emotions can manipulate nature, Lady. I am guessing that if a Silver does not feed they lose that mental strength, virtually becoming no more of a threat than a child, before eventually dying.” He said firmly without realising that each word was like a punch in the stomach.

I never knew Silver’s had that much power. All I could do was more water about in the air aimlessly and wrench doors from their hinges but so far I never noticed a change in weather when I was happy or sad or any real control over the elements. Then I remembered that time against the werewolf. My mind failed me after the first attempt at protecting myself from its attack. I could never figure out why. Then I thought of the tea. I hadn’t had the tea my maids make me every morning and evening. I glanced down at the cup in my hand and stared at the sweet brown swirling liquid.

Slowly I looked back up at Dana who was staring firmly at the floor. “Dana?” She didn’t move. “Is what he says true?”

Dana didn’t move for a while but I waited patiently. Then, very slowly, she nodded her head. I let out a long breath in an attempt to keep calm.

“Tell me Dana, what have you been putting in my tea? What makes it so sweet?” I asked in a faltering voice.

Dana swallowed and thickly replied. “We put a small drop of blood in there Lady, enough to keep you strong for a couple of hours.”

Right then my world shattered. I had clung to the fact I could not drink blood, that I could live without it. It was what kept the idea of humanity in my head. I was human, raised in the small Russian village by my human mother and father. I wasn’t a vampire and I would never feed from my own kind.

I realised then that I had never truly accepted what I had been told all those years ago. That I would live for a very long time; worshiped by strange monsters and thought of only as a womb for the survival of the Sinclair clan. I thought heart wrenchingly that I would outlive Viorel. He would leave me one day. Not intentionally, but he would leave me. And I would be alone. Surrounded, but alone.

Very slowly I stood up, very much aware of the tears dripping down my pale cheeks and the wary stares of both Vincent and Dana, before I fled unsteadily to the door and into the sun where they could not follow.

I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be a vampire, something inhuman.

I didn't want to be their Queen.