I was running on the treadmill upstairs when I heard Max's knock on the door. I was lost in my own thoughts, panting and sweaty when I was jarred back to reality—it was dinner time. He gave me a funny look when I opened the door and handed me a duffel bag, "Working out?"
I followed him as he strolled in nonchalantly, this time to the living room instead of the kitchen, "Not much else to do," I admitted.
He dumped the chick onto the couch and I was finally able to get a good look at her—she was beautiful; not the supernatural kind of beautiful that embodied every aspect of Lily, but the kind of beautiful that the airbrushed ads in magazines sell us. Under all of that caked on make-up, all of that hairspray and what I assumed was a paid-for nose, was most likely a plain and dull insecure twenty something that wanted to be a fictitious, computer altered version of a woman. Her heavily green shadowed eyes were closed; black fake lashes made her seem like a cartoon character that was squinting. She was dressed in a short plaid skirt and a white button up shirt, trying to play to every man's dark fantasies. The perfect pile of manufactured brown curls on her head were tied back with a red bow. I knew her kind--remembered them from high school--so desperate to grow up, so desperate to look like a desirable sex object. Well, she succeeded in her intent and caught the eye of an older man. Unfortunately for her, however, it wasn't sex he was after.
I looked in the duffel bag and found new clothes for both Lily and I, as well as a bag that appeared to have been stolen directly from a hospital; he shrugged at me before walking off for his smoke.
I wrapped her arm with the tourniquet before I assembled the needle, tube and bag. It took a while but when her vein finally popped out, I slid the needle through her skin. I held my breath, almost praying that I remembered how to do this correctly so that I didn't have to kill her; when the red liquid started to ooze into the tube, I untied her tourniquet and watched it flow into the bag with a sigh of relief. It took a few minutes to fill up but then I put pressure on her vein with a cotton ball and slid the needle out before slapping a band aid on.
As I twisted the needle off and threw it into the portable sharps container in the medical bag, my hands started to shake. I wasn't sure why, at first, until I realized that I had managed to spare this woman's life. It was adrenaline coursing through my veins—it was my choice to either end her or let her live. I was playing god. To have that much power in my hands was almost frightening—it gave me an insight into Lily's world. The people around her were alive, because she had allowed it.
It was a lot easier to pour the blood down her throat using the bag instead of a glass; I clipped a corner off and it slowly trickled down, not spilling a drop. When I put her back to bed, I decided to roll her to the other side, thinking that it would be good to move her throughout the day so that she wouldn't get stiff.
Max was sitting on the couch when I made it back upstairs, "I have to say, I didn't expect you to do that so well. You're full of surprises, Matthew."
I sat down on a chair, starting to feel a little bit more at ease around him, "Back when I first started college I volunteered at a clinic--it was just something to boost my resume for when I applied to grad school. There were a few hot nurses, though one in particular flirted with me relentlessly--she was a cougar but I wasn't going to turn her down. I was working the closing shift one night; it was slow, thankfully and there wasn't much to clean up after hours. I found her in the small lab, restocking supplies; that is when she asked me if I wanted to learn how to draw blood. I have to admit, it was a little bit of curiosity and a lot of male hormones--she was hot and I wanted a piece of ass. She showed me how to assemble the bag, how to tie her arm off, walked me through finding a vein and made me slide the needle into her arm; it was pretty weird to begin with, but the fact that she enjoyed it way too much took it to a whole other level. Watching her blood seep into that bag got her excited and as soon as it was full, she pulled the needle out of her arm and we had sex right there on the floor. Not exactly the most sterile practice but it was bizarrely satisfying, until I found out that she used the blood that I drew to make a love potion, which she dumped into my coffee, so...I quit."
"Huh," he said, "well, good thing you did. She was probably a witch. Love potions are nasty things—they never end up working quite right."
Not the answer I was expecting, I shuddered. Changing the subject, "How long is this going to take? For Lily to wake up?"
Max shrugged, "Hard to say, really. I'll continue coming nightly for the rest of the week—if she moves at all, or wakes up, or her color improves then we can cut it down to every other day. The last time that she was exposed to sun it took her about a month to heal, but she was unconscious for most of it."
"What happened?"
"Her and Lucas. They never told me the details, but to my understanding she saved him from a horrific death. I know they still go after each other all the time, but deep down they share a bond. I've always gotten the feeling that if one of them goes, the other one will follow shortly after."
His words gave me a chill, "How long have you known them?"
"It's been several centuries now, I lost count but I was with them when they were still on the same side. I'd follow Lily any day but she has made it clear that she works alone so I stick with Lucas."
"Who changed you?" I wondered.
"Ian was my benefactor."
