In My Blood

It is late, and I am at the music store waiting for the band, We Met the Night, to pack up. I have to wait for them to get their instruments to close the place for the night. The boss says that we have to wait for the band to leave before closing up the whole place.

“We are just about done,” the guitarist called out to me. “Why don’t you just go?”

“Not trying to sound rude, but I have to wait for you guys to leave,” I answer. I give him a weak smile while I turn off the computer.

“Well, what do we have here?” the drummer says, walking up to me. He had this intent stare that gave me shivers down my back. He has been giving me this look since he first saw me. It almost makes me run away.

I look away, getting scared. I don’t know what is going on, and I hate that. I look back to see that he is right in front of me now. I notice another guy, the bass player I believe, walking up to me. Or rather to the guy in front of me.

“Leave her alone, Dillon,” he demands, grabbing Dillon’s arm and pulling him back a little. “Don’t force her.”

“Cain, don’t you feel her pulling at you? Can you of all people ignore that?” Dillon asks kind of harshly. Dillon looks directly at Cain trying to read his face.

“I can feel her, but you can’t force her,” Cain answers behind closed teeth. He glares at Dillon. He looks dangerous and a bit scary. I back up a bit to try to find a way of escape.

“Cain is right. Nichole has to be willing to be able to do this. If we force her, she will run,” Alexander says calmly. He is the singer. I only know his name because I talked to him earlier.

“What are you guys talking about?” I ask rather loudly. I was almost yelling. I take a few calming breathes. “What are you guys?” I say quieter. I don’t want to sound vulnerable. I hate being weak in front of others.

“We are clan vampires. Well, that’s just slang from the lone vampires,” Cain says, looking at me with his chocolate brown eyes. He gives me an almost-there smile.

“Clan vampires? You guys look nothing like vampires,” I answer.

Vampires have gone public a few years back. I found out that I lived next to one and worked with three now. Vampires have pale skin that is nearly invisible with oddly colored eyes. They seem to try for everything Dracula. I even saw one walking around with a cape. Most don’t look any different from when they were human. I didn’t care to be honest, but not everyone was indifferent like me. Some people have tried to kill them all and trying to find ways to put them below us. There was the whole prejudice against them.

“We aren’t like lone vampires. The correct term for us is Upyrs. We have to be in a clan with a female leader, or queen is the correct term,” Alex explains. “The whole clan will be attracted to her and will listen and do anything for her even when she is human. We can only drink her blood, and she can drink our blood in return. We are a nomad clan which is a clan without a queen to lead us. We are a bit edgy, but some of us can control ourselves unlike Dillon here.”

“So what do I have to do with this?” I ask even though it is probably really obvious. I can never read between the lines very well. Never have and probably never will. It pretty much has to be spelled out for me.

“You are our queen. You can control us. Will you please be our queen?” Dillon asks nicely which surprises me. He looks at me with his soft blue eyes. He is almost begging me to say yes.

“Can I have until the end of the week to think this over?” I ask politely. I want time to think about this. Isn’t that reasonable? This is going to change my life forever, isn’t it?

Cain and Alexander nod. “Where can we meet you for your answer?” they ask.

I give them the address of the park near my house. They get their gear out of the place and into their van. I turn off the lights in the building and lock up. I walk out to my car with them still standing out of the van. I notice that Cain is watching me closely. I look away quickly. I don’t want to feel like a creep, but I can still feel his eyes on me.

I get into my old car and start it. I leave the parking lot with them behind me. I turn down a street and see that they head straight down the street. I feel like an idiot for thinking that they were following me. They have to be staying at one of the hotels on that street. I mean there aren’t any hotels the way that I am going. All of the hotels are in the busier places of this city. Not in neighborhoods. It doesn’t sound weird that they chose a hotel near most of the music stores where bands play all the time. It actually makes sense. I’m pretty sure that they wouldn’t want to follow me all the way home anyways.

***

I got myself home without them following me luckily because I don’t want to explain five guys to my parents. I enter my house to hear my parents arguing for the millionth time today. I head up to my room. I hide there like I always do. I hate listening to them argue constantly about everything. I especially hate it when they try to drag me into the argument. I just can’t deal with this mess. One of the reasons I work at a music store is that I have to get there early and stay late to help the bands that show up.

I hear my sister talking to someone on the phone in the room next to mine. She laughs loudly. I roll my eyes and ignore her loud voice. She is always on the phone talking to some person around this time even though I would get in trouble for doing the same thing. Our parents always seem to favor her for some reason.

I fall down on my bed. I’m getting out of here and if Cain can do that for me, then I will be his clan’s queen. I mean it can’t be worse than this place. I don’t think that I will have to listen to two people who are obviously unhappy with each other argue about something that is useless.

***

The people who say that I’m their ‘friend’ gather around me when I get to school on Monday. They have decided to be nice to me because I work at a place where bands play all the time. They think that if they are friends with me then they will get to meet band members. They want to know who the band members were and what they were like the other night. It is the same thing every Monday, and then on Friday they run up to me asking for me to tell them what bands are going to be there and what time to show up. I tell them because if they come they will buy something from the shop like a drink or two. More business and more people means I might get to stay at work later.

“I don’t even remember the name of the band. And, also, I didn’t really talk to them so back off,” I say quickly. I know that I am not supposed to tell anyone about them being clan vampires. No one knows about clan vampires. “You were there. You should have talked to them.”

“Well, I heard that the bass player was attractive, so I went there to see if the rumors are right. And they are. I mean the rumors were right, not all the band members were attractive. I wanted to talk to him, but he was in the back for the most part,” Ashleen says. She is always hearing about the bands that come to Oklahoma City. She tries to stay on top of the gossip.
I look at her. I never have liked her, but Cain only went to the back once, and that was when they arrived. He must have gone somewhere else and hid from her. I don’t blame him to be honest. I have seen other guys hide in their cars whenever she was around. I always laughed at the fact.

I walk up to my first class of the day, leaving the girls to their gossip. I stand in front of the door with one of my actual friends, Mike. I dig in my purse to find his book that he left in my car over the weekend. “You left this in my car,” I say, handing it to him. “You always leave it in my car. You know you have a bag, right?”

“Oh, thanks. Yeah, I know, but I don’t want to use it. What are you doing this weekend?” he asks me. I have a feeling that he wants to use me for something. He always seems to do that with me. He always acts like he has a secret that he won’t seem to tell me.

“I have to see family the whole weekend. Why?” I ask him. I feel scared about what he is going to say. I mean I should be scared, shouldn’t I? His secrets are usually very terrifying. I look at him closely. I try to read his face like Dillon did with Cain, but I can’t understand his expression on his face.

“Oh, no reason really. I was just curious about what you are doing, and I also need some help studying for that test coming up,” he answers me. He always worries about not passing a test even though he doesn’t need any sort of help for some test. He is just that smart according to me and his test scores on every test he has ever taken.

We get in the classroom when the bell rings. I head straight to my seat behind Mike’s seat and next to the wall in the back corner. He sits in front of me and turns around most of the time during class to talk to me. He is almost always talking to me in this class because it is the only class that we have together. I don’t get to see him that much either. He always seems to help me with the homework as well, which I am used to. Without him I wouldn’t be able to understand anything in this class.

***

I think about why Mike wanted to know about the weekend. Mike has always been like an older brother to me in a way. He has always been there for me. He always has some girlfriend that is almost always way too nice to me. He eventually decided that he is going to be single awhile back.

I walk down the hall and head towards the gas station that is down the street a little ways. I look over my shoulder to see if anyone is following me. I get off campus and go on my way. I don’t want those so-called friends following me to check my phone and to get some candy. I don’t want them to read over my shoulder and find another thing to tell everyone at school. I don’t need that happening again. I open the doors and head towards the back of the store.
I pull out my phone to see that my parents want me to go straight home after school which I normally do every day that I have off anyways. But today I am most definitely not going to do that because of the fact that I feel like being rebellious now. And besides why would I want to listen to them? I mean they are really hateful at times.

I will probably just go to the music store to avoid them. They want me to choose between the two of them which is kind of stupid. They have major problems obviously. It is the same thing like always. I either ignore it or just begin to stop caring about what is going on between those two at home. It is about the only way to deal with it.

I notice nothing else that is important. I put my phone back in my pocket. I look around and leave the store with my candy. I hear the lunch bell ring. I get back on campus. I figure that I would get a message from my cousin Kayla or something. She had been letting me stay at her place whenever I hear my parents arguing way too much or when I couldn’t stand to be around anyone else. She is going through some problems at the moment. I want to be able to help her, seeing how she always helped me when she could. I need to do the same for her.

***

The week passed quickly. I am surprised to have to get ready for meeting up with the boys at the park. I brush my hair. I look at myself in the mirror for a long time. My parents left for the weekend like they usually do.

What have I gotten myself into? I look down to see that my clothes are just pajamas. I go into my room change my clothes. I don’t know what will happen. I am nervous and a little scared, but isn’t that normal? I sit on the bed pulling on my shoes. I just remember how I said that I am willing to do this, and I still am. I just don’t know what to expect. It is useless to just sit here and freak out over something that might end up being better than I thought. I guess I’m getting nervous over the unknown again.

I grab my keys and stuff my phone in my pocket along with the keys. I go out the front door after locking it. I make my way to the park quickly. I turn down the street and see their van in the parking lot. I look for them for a little bit until I see them standing over near the tables. I look to see that there are six of them instead of five. They didn’t tell me that there was another person, but oh well. What does it matter?

Dillon looks my way and smiles. I walk up to them with as much confidence that I can get. I stand there for a little bit while they look at me. I look back at all of them nervously. I watch how Cain scans my body starting at my face and ending at my feet.
“Last time there was five of you,” I point out. “Who is this?” I wave my hand towards the new person. He looks like a total sweetheart in a way, but he also looks like he can hurt someone if given the chance and the best situation that is given to him. He gave me a soft smile before looking over at Cain.

“His name is Jett. He isn’t in the band,” Dillon answers quickly. He looks like an obedient dog who wants to please its owner. It is almost like he wants a treat or a pat on the head.

“I can answer for myself, Dillon. I am just a clan member, but I do help with the money and the merchandise for the band for the most part,” Jett answers. He has soft brown eyes and hair. He gives me a sweet smile. He almost makes me blush. I look away back at Cain.

“Well? What do you say about being our queen?” Cain asks, getting to the point. He looks anxious. He wants my answer sooner rather than later apparently. He looks straight at me with his brown eyes shining in the dim light. He doesn’t look patient either.

“I’ll do it, but you have to get me out of this place,” I answer. I look at him in the face. I wait for someone else to talk, but I stare at him. I look at his beautiful brown eyes that I seem to love.

“We can do that,” Alex says, laughing quietly. “I mean that is the plan. We can’t have you staying around this place. People will notice you are different.”

“I mean no stalling it. Get me out of this place and away from my parents.” I look at him in the eyes. “Now, how will this work?” I almost shake from my nerves.

“We will all drink your blood until you are drained of blood and give you even amounts of our blood. Simple. You won’t feel a thing,” the other guitar player says.

“Danny, that is rude.” Jett looks at him. He looks ready to fight Danny for just saying that.

“Well, she will be unconscious by the time we drain her. We will end up filling her body back with blood. She will eventually come back if we do it right,” Danny answers. He looks like he is completely innocent of all wrongdoing while everyone else just stares at him as if he has some sort of bug on him that he doesn’t notice.

“Stop arguing. Just get it over with,” I demand. I uncross my arms, waiting for them to do something other than stand around. “I just want to get past this part and move on.”

Cain comes up to me too fast for any human to do. He then picks me up and carries me to the van. I look at him for a little bit, but I relax in his arms. “We will have to change her in the hotel. We can’t be in the public like this. People will see,” Cain says to everyone. He opens the side door and climbs with him still carrying me. He sits on the front row of seats with me sitting on top of him.

Alex sits in the driver’s seat with Dillon next to him. Danny, the other guitarist, and Jett sit in the two other seats behind Cain and me. I don’t bother getting off of Cain. I become much too comfortable sitting the way I am. I like the way I fit into his body. I lean into him. I feel him hold me tighter to him.

Once we get to the hotel, we all get out. Cain is ready to carry me again. I get up before he could do that. I don’t want to have to depend on him to get me everywhere. He looks a little disappointed until I hold my hand out to him. He grabs my hand quickly.

“Why does he get to hold your hand?” Dillon asks with sad eyes.

“Because he might carry me again,” I answer jokingly. I look over at Cain to see him give me a small smile that seems to be only for me.

“And you don’t like that?” Dillon asks. He looks at me curiously.

“Oh, I do, but I don’t want to be dependent on someone to carry me everywhere when I have two legs that work perfectly fine,” I answer truthfully.

“Yeah, Dillon,” the guitarist says, laughing a bit. I still don’t know his name. I feel like asking, but I don’t want to sound stupid so I keep my mouth shut.

“Gabriel, you can be so rude,” Cain says, pulling me along. He leads us to what appears to be his hotel room. He then picks me up again and lays me down on the bed. “You will feel better if you lay down. Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you.”

“So where do we belong?” Dillon asks. “I know that we all have to do it all at once.” He looks hopeful for something.

“Cain gets the neck. Dillon and Gabe will get a wrist. Danny, get the ankle. Jett and I will get the hips,” Alex says.

“Why do I get the foot?” Danny asks. He looks at Alexander.

“Does it really matter? I doubt she will let you get the neck. She is already comfortable with Cain. I also won’t trust you with the hips. The hands are sensitive, and you can really hurt her. And Cain promised her that we won’t do that. Dillon and Gabriel have the softest bite, and you have the roughest out of all of us. The foot will be less sensitive to your bite,” Alex clarifies.

“We are going to have to lift your shirt up a little. He will have to remove your shoes and socks,” Jett assures me. “Don’t freak out on us, okay?”

I nod my head. I can’t bring myself to talk. I have no clue why. Maybe because I’m nervous about this whole situation. Or it might be because I have six guys that are going to drink my blood. Before I realize it, they are all in position, hovering around my body.

Cain looks at me and smiles slightly. He puts his hand on the back of my head to get enough room to drink my blood and bends over me. He bites down on a vein in my neck. I feel a sharp pinch and then a sort of pleasure that is calming and relaxing. I feel another sharp pinch on my wrists, then on my hips, and lastly on my foot. Then those fade into that relaxing pleasure.

I eventually begin to become numb. I close my eyes for a little bit and open once in a while. I can feel Cain on my neck with his hand under my head holding in a firm but comfortable grasp. I focus on that. I focus on how soft his hands are, how much pressure he is using, and how hard he is biting my neck. I want to touch him, but I know that I can’t move my arms. I fall asleep rather quickly after calming my urge to touch Cain.