How to Recover
Yumi opened her eyes to find someone standing over her. At first she was confused, and she put her hand over her face to rub her eyes. That was a mistake. Her skin ached, her touch making it burn as badly as it had at first. She sat up, and found herself in a bed in the infirmary.
Everything came back to her in a rush. She ripped the bandages off her hand and stared dumbfounded at the cross shaped welt on the back of her hand. Her breath quickened. She wasn't dead; she was sitting in a bed inside, and covered in bandages.
"Oh, good, you're awake."
Delmas, the headmaster was standing on the other side of the room, his hands in his pockets. "Miss Ishiyama, we need to talk about what happened yesterday during the fire drill."
Her mouth went dry.
"Don't tell me about your psoriasis please." He air quoted psoriasis. "I took this job for a reason, I wanted a challenge. Running a school that plays host to werewolves and vampires and wizards, certainly supplies that challenge." He sat down on a chair next to her bed.
"There is one problem though. In all the years of this schools history, we have never had a student attack another, and certainly not with such vehemence as has occurred here. I need you to tell me who it was, I will be expelling them immediately."
Yumi was silent for a moment, thinking hard. She remembered just how badly it hurt, she didn't think that pain would ever leave her. The look on her attackers face when she looked up at her, and begged for it to end. That too would stay with her forever.
"I can't. I think she realizes what she did how terrible it was, that pain is going to live with her forever."
Delmas shook his head. "That doesn't matter, Miss Ishiyama, we have rules here for a reason."
"Then put her in detention. Put her there for the rest of the school year, I don't care."
Delmas opened his mouth to argue with her, but she rolled over and pulled the sheets over her head, blocking him out. He sighed in frustration and left.
About an hour later she was bored and restless. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and texted Ulrich. She always felt happier when he was around. Someone knocked on the door, it couldn't have been Ulrich, he hadn't even texted her back yet.
"Come in?" she wasn't sure who would be knocking to come in, she was the only person in the infirmary.
The door swung open and a boy walked in. Only he wasn't a boy, at least not any more than she was a girl.
"Who are you?" she demanded with a lot more fury than she felt. She felt tired and drained and exhausted. Like she had been stretched too thin and was going to snap.
He smiled at her, with a smile that didn't really meet his eyes. "I'm William Dunbar." He bowed his head to her. She felt a little flattered.
"I heard about what happened. When the gardener found you against a tree outside his tool shed it caused quite a stir."
He must have read the look of panic on her face.
"No one knows your secret. Though there are a few of them that aren't buying the story of you getting lost out beyond the walls."
"And you? Are you like me then? A vampire?"
He nodded. "I am, I'm sorry to say."
"What do you mean?"
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said. I didn't choose this life. Forgive me. No, I came because I wanted t meet you. I wanted to get to know you, if you are willing. And I came to offer you some advice. This is the first time you have been burned so badly is it not?"
Yumi nodded. Her phone buzzed.
"Is that your boyfriend?"
She felt her cheeks flush. "No, just, my friend."
He smiled and nodded. "It's usually better that way. Easier."
Yumi wasn't really certain what to make of him; this vampire was very different from the other precious few of her kind she had known. He was far more melancholy. Like he was interested in her, but saddened at the same time.
"I'm sorry that I'm bothering you, but I brought you some advice. It'll do you some good, I promise. You need to feed. You feel worn down and stretched? Food will fix that."
Yumi gave him a blank stare. "I already ate lunch. I don't follow."
He shook his head. "Our food." He tapped his neck. "Blood."
Yumi made a face.
"You have to, at least every once and a while. It's a fact of our lives."
"It's disgusting!
Ulrich stepped into the room, looking from Yumi to William.
"Uh, hi?" clearly he wasn't sure what to do.
William nodded to him politely. "I should go. Best of luck recovering, Yumi."
He let himself out of the infirmary.
Ulrich pulled a seat closer to the bed Yumi was in.
"So, who was that?"
"He said his name was William. He wanted to meet me."
"Oh." She wasn't certain, but she thought he sounded a little put out.
"What was supposed to be disgusting?"
She was silent for a moment.
"Ulrich. I'm a vampire."
"I… Oh. The whole, uhm… Blood thing?"
She nodded. He wasn't sure, but it looked to him like she was blushing.
"would it help? I mean, you really look terrible."
Yumi was silent.
"Sorry. Usually you look so pretty. Now you just look like you hurt."
Instantly her whole day was brighter. He thought she was pretty? That wasn't a sentiment anyone had expressed to her in a very long time.
"It doesn't hurt anything like as bad as when it happened."
"It was that bad? Yumi who did this to you?"
She gripped his hand, squeezing tight.
She shuddered as she remembered what it was like. "I was ready for everything to end. I actually begged her to do it."
Ulrich recognized that little hitch in her breath, she was going to cry. He couldn't really blame her if it was that bad. And a look at her face, the skin still bright red with dead skin peeling away. It could be weeks before she was even mostly back to normal.
"You can have mine."
She looked at him, uncomprehendingly.
"My blood, you don't need a lot do you?"
"Absolutely not!"
Even as repulsed by the idea as she was, now that he had offered she could hear his blood rushing through his veins. Despite herself she licked her dry and cracking lips.
He offered her his wrist. "Yumi, I can't see you like this, I want to give this to you. Is it really that bad?"
She wrapped her slim fingers around his wrist, but didn't push it away.
"I've only done this once before. I can't tell you that its safe."
He smiled at her, brushing her hair away from her face, careful not to touch her skin. She caught his hand.
"Pull your hand away."
"I like when we hold hands though."
She was certain her heart skipped a beat at that. She shook her head, more to make herself clear her thoughts than anything else.
"Just, try."
Ulrich sighed. He wasn't out of shape. Years of working to train dragons had made him far stronger than a normal boy his age. He really was in incredibly good shape. And after what had happened to her, Yumi had to be very weak.
He tugged his hand from her grip, only it didn't budge. So he pulled harder. A lot harder. He get her arm to move, dragging it closer to him, but he couldn't get free. Now he understood what she meant. He wouldn't be able to get away if she got carried away, or lost control. He swallowed.
"No, I trust you." He winced; her claws were digging into his wrist and palm.
Her eyes widened. Her nostrils flaring wide. She'd smelled blood before, people cut themselves all the time. With her enhanced senses it had always made her stomach churn. But as drained as she was, something was drastically different. A single drop of his blood welled from the cut in his palm, and like a starving man offered a buffet she dragged his hand to her mouth, pulling him from his chair, not hearing his startled yelp.
Now he understood why she wanted nothing to do with this foolishness. It hurt, it hurt a lot, her fangs were digging into his palm, and he already felt woozy. She bit down harder, and moaned while he tried to grit his teeth and ignore how much it hurt.
Blood was running down her cheeks, his blood he realized, and even as distracted as he was, he saw that her skin was beginning to knit back together. Where it was flaked and dry it was regaining the luster it had just yesterday possessed.
His wooziness was worse and panic began to set in. what was he doing? Why on earth did he think that this had been a good idea? She was a vampire, he offered her blood, and even if she didn't seem to need it all the time, it was still food to her.
"Yumi stop!" he tried to pull away, knowing in the back of his head that she was far stronger than he would ever be. Her hand clenched down tighter, holding his hand steady in her mouth. Just when he thought that everything was going ot be over and that she was going to drain him she pulled away with a gasp, sighing and growling at the same time. It was almost the same sound dragons made when they were devouring a goat.
The moment her grip on his hand slacked he pulled it away, and she stared at him with eyes that looked past him. She swallowed slowly; like she was savoring it and her gaze came back into focus.
Her eyes flitted from his face and what he was sure was an expression of fear or panic or something to the bloody mess she had made of his hand. The burned skin of her face had practically disappeared, and it was still healing away before his eyes.
She wiped her lips on the back of her hand and starred at the mess of red that contrasted sharply with her skin.
"I'm sorry Ulrich." The words came out a little distorted, since she was talking around her fangs. "Give me your hand."
Dumbly he held it out to her, he knew that it was a ragged mess, but he still hadn't looked at it, so he couldn't really tell how bad it was. She brought it up to her mouth and he cringed a little, thinking she was going to bite in again. Instead she licked it. It felt all kinds of weird. He had no idea why she would do something like that, but it all became apparent when his hand started tingling and itching fiercely.
He looked on in wonder as the damage she had done began to undo itself. He marveled at the change that had taken place, turning his hand back and forth. Yumi smiled at him sheepishly.
"Did it work?"
He nodded. She smiled wider.
"How's your hand."
He showed her, it was good as new.
She grabbed a tissue from the side of the bed and dragged it across her tongue. "I'm never doing that again."
"It worked though didn't it?"
"Yes, but still." She pulled a face. "Ugh, it tastes disgusting."
"You seemed to be enjoying it."
She glared at him.
"No, really. How'd you know how to fix my hand though?"
She shrugged. "I just knew, though I guess we have to find William and thank him. It was his idea after all."
Ulrich nodded and stood up slowly, still a little dizzy from the blood loss. He didn't miss the pout that crossed her features.
"It's getting late. I have to get back to my dorm or Odd will get suspicious."
She sighed. "Okay." The silence between them started to grow uncomfortable. He turned and made his way to the infirmary door. His hand was on the knob when she spoke again.
"Thank you."