Chapter Three
Running
It was amazing, being able to scale through trees, mountains, valleys, and rivers as though I had become the true energizer bunny without the ability to exhaust my energy. I thought that if I were to keep running in a certain direction, avoiding the cities and people in general, I could perhaps circle the world. It would be like being superman, flying about the Earth so fast I could turn time. The theory was a ridiculous one, being that if something like that was to actually happen the Earth would probably fall out of orbit and everyone would die, but to have an inch of that power was a miracle.
I stopped suddenly when I felt something start to numb my insides. It was actually something physical, but rather another sense. And this one was telling me the sun was rising behind me. This normally wouldn't bother me, being that obviously the sun doesn't affect me like it would other vampires, but within seconds Jove stopped next to me, also looking in the direction of the rising sun. The sky was still dark, but unmistakable rays of the coming light were beginning to shine through the atmosphere.
"I forgot about the sun," I told Jove simply, and looked to him as though he would have answers. I wasn't the one that needed to shield myself from the sun; therefore he could decide where we were going. Or I could abandon him and try to solve my problems by myself…
"We need to go into town," Jove stated, looking in another direction where no doubt a small population of people resided; people with blood racing easily through their veins; their only protection a thin layer of skin that ripped like paper under nails and teeth like mine. People who died as easily as a balloon would pop. I tried to take inventory of my physical feelings at that moment, determining if I still had that craving in my blood. There were so many different feelings that I couldn't focus on one, much less the hunger that was under it all.
"You won't let me hurt anyone, will you," I asked Jove, voicing a suddenly amazing amount of trust I was beginning to bestow upon him. He was the only being standing in front of me; something completely real. Everything before I changed felt like a blur of someone else's memories. The fact that Jove had been in those memories made me trust him more.
"I can try," Jove responded uncertainly. I assumed if the time came and I was running to rip some human's head off, he wouldn't actually be able to do anything but get in my way and get hurt himself. But it was enough to know I'd have something else to think about before I went insane with blood lust. Not that I knew exactly what that felt like; I hadn't been around humans as of yet. Jove made to move in the direction he had indicated, and I followed behind him at his pace. The sun was rising slowly, so I assumed we were moving a lot faster than I felt we were. Then suddenly the trees were cleared to the view of buildings and roads. It wasn't a large town, but it wasn't completely ghostly either. Only a few cars were moving about in the early morning, people quiet and near dead. I stayed close to Jove as he walked into the town onto a sidewalk as though he completely belonged here among the living.
I nearly ran into Jove when he finally halted in front of a larger building. He looked at me with narrowed eyes as though he were considering something dark, and then said, "I'm not skilled at controlling minds, so we'll have to do this quickly. Stay here." I recalled the fuzzy memory of Evanen telling me about Jove's power, how though he had amazing insight into people's thoughts, when it came to controlling them as other vampires can do, he was unable to do so. The closest thing to control I had seen Jove do was cause a bunch of vampires to lose their sense of sight and hearing, and he also managed to make one vampire send a message against his will. I could remember that feeling of when I would be ordered to stay silent by a vampire when I was human. No matter how hard I wanted to scream, their voice held mine captive. That is until Evanen had taught me how to battle this mind control with excruciatingly difficult anti-mind controlling lessons. Not that it mattered now that I was something far more than human.
Jove came back outside in what was literally one second, but to me felt like a few minutes. He showed me a key that probably led to a hotel room before pulling me quickly, faster than a human would be able to see, into the Hotel and up two flights of stairs. The halls were red tinged, being the theme color of the hotel. He moved down the long hall, where a woman exited her room and walked past me at such a slow pace. I breathed in her scent while she walked by without her even noticing, moving closer to the sudden scent of fruit and sweet blood… the blood that could be rushing over my tongue, coloring my teeth, and lining my throat so seductively. And the scent was interrupted by Jove blocking me from the woman, who continued by without noticing my interest. I didn't look in her direction again as I determinedly followed Jove to the room that would keep me from jumping random people in hallways.
The hotel room was small, with only a room with one bed, dresser, table, television, and a small bathroom that barely fit an extra bathtub. Everything was white and red, and smelled of the strangest things that I couldn't even identify. I made my way into the room carefully, eyeing every particle in the air that I would never have noticed before. Then I turned to look at Jove as though I needed permission to do anything like turning on the television or sitting down.
"We'll stay here for the day, and move at night," Jove told me, moving by me as he tugged at the collar of his suit. He was still dressed as a Council Interrogator. I wondered if the Council found out about me as of yet, and if they did know, I wondered if they found out Jove was helping me as well. No doubt, this would please them even less. Jove sat down on the edge of the bed, moving to grab the remote and turn on the television. The moment it turned on, the noises infiltrated my head, and I winced before covering my ears. Jove winced in response before turning off the television almost just as fast.
I moved to the bed, spreading out as though I were about to go to sleep. Honestly, I didn't know if I needed to sleep at all. Evanen used to sleep as though he were human. But Mikel and the others claimed not to sleep, or if they did it was very little sleep. I assumed it wouldn't hurt to try, though I didn't know what Jove would do all day. But after lying on my back for a while, Jove followed suit besides me as though preparing to sleep himself. I looked at him for a second curiously, but he just stared at the ceiling with his amazingly green eyes.
After a moment, I reached over and placed my fingertips over his cheek carefully. Automatically, the rush of adrenaline pulsed through me, allowing me to suddenly be in Jove's mind. He could feel so many people, many who weren't even around him. And he felt so comfortable unlike me. I let go quickly, pulling back into myself with something of a gasp. Jove only moved his eyes from the ceiling to mine with mild amusement.
"I'm not used to having someone enter my head the same time I enter theirs," He told me, "It feels… intimate." I only peered at him, not sure if I should apologize or not. Then instead of saying anything, I rolled over and closed my eyes where suddenly sleep did pass over me as if by my sheer will.
~...~
I opened my eyes quickly and sat up before I even knew I was going to. I looked around and found myself alone, Jove was nowhere to be seen or heard. After a minute, I got out of the bed to head to the bathroom. It wasn't as if I needed to use the bathroom… honestly I didn't know if vampires had urges to do things like that. I had assumed all the waste had been vaporized just as all of my other human aspects had been; my wounds and proneness to illnesses. I went into the bathroom to look in the mirror, not sure if I would see a reflection. But when I turned on the light, a reflection greeted me in the mirror.
I didn't sigh in relief like I expected I would. Instead I was startled. I looked completely different and yet still the same person. I looked gorgeous, without the flaws that used to be there. I moved differently; I moved quickly as if I weren't used to this body. There was blood on my spaghetti strapped shirt, dry but still there. It held a perfume scent of fruit and temptation, and yet there was something unappealing about it. After a minute, I realized it was my own blood from when I was human. Evanen had bitten me just before he'd gone into his change, intending to turn me before he did so. My blood must've gotten on my shirt. It would make sense that the smell of my own blood wouldn't be as appealing as others.
With hesitation, I pulled off the spaghetti strap shirt to reveal a bra. The blood had gotten on my bra strap as well. I looked at my stomach, where there was a small line unable to be seen by anyone except someone like me who was looking for it, the scar of where Evanen had dug his thumbnail purposely over my skin in attempt to teach me a lesson about dying. I pulled off my pajama shorts, followed by my underwear, and looked at myself naked in the mirror. My body looked soft and weak. I couldn't quite understand how I could look so small and human, yet be so strong and dangerous. For a minute, I just stared at myself. Then I brought my finger to my stomach, and pressed my fingernail over my skin sharply. The smallest feeling of pain, less than that of a teasing pinch, followed the deep cut I placed over my skin, so that I didn't even wince. Instead, I watched as the cut healed with only a small amount of blood left over my once again flawless skin.
I felt Jove coming closer to the room. It was a strange feeling; not so much as a physical sense as just an awareness that he was nearby. I pulled back on my clothes, and opened the bathroom door to wait for him to come into the hotel room. When he opened the door, I felt suddenly happy, as though perhaps I'd missed him already. I wondered what I'd be doing if he had left me in the woods, lost to my senses and unable to move past my being. No doubt, the Council would have caught me or I would have smelled a human and killed people. For some reason I thought I would be able to control myself automatically, but the woman in the hallway proved otherwise.
"I was feeding, something you'll have to do," Jove told me when he saw me waiting for him. "But we should get moving again." He held out a new set of clothes for me, as if he had known I was already distasteful of my current attire with old Hailence preferences and blood on it. But I only looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"What do you mean by 'something I'll have to do," I asked him.
"Eventually you'll start to feel hungry. You have yet to properly feed, though you don't quite know the feeling yet. You'll need to get blood from someone… anyone. And yes, it's inevitable," He responded, once again holding out the clothes. I grabbed them to get them out of the way.
"I won't feed on some person. What if I kill them?"
"It'll happen. You have to make mistakes to learn the process. I'll be there to help you, but you still have to learn to feed before you go on some rampage."
"I can live without feeding, can't I? I'm the key to immortality; nothing can kill me. Not even starvation, right?"
Jove hesitated, shifting where he stood. "The thirst is still there. Consider it a curse to your gift. You can ignore it and survive, but only just that. And the only way you would get away with that is if we somehow locked you away from mankind where you can never ever get out again. Ever." I considered immortality locked in a box. No, it was not tempting. But to kill someone just so I could live? I remembered the guilt in Mikel's eyes, constant in his curse. I already broke so many of my promises, I just felt like feeding on somebody would finish off any connection I had with him.
"Then lock me up, I don't care. I'm not feeding on anyone," I snapped, stepping back into the bathroom before shutting the door. I began to strip, in order to put on the clothes Jove had gotten me. They were simple; blue jeans and a T-shirt with oddly Elmo on the front. I thought it was near blasphemous being that I was some evil being and Elmo was an icon for children. After I put on my clothes, I heard a small tap on the door by Jove, and stopped moving to listen.
"How about a compromise," He said quietly, obviously not sure about what he was about to compromise.
I hesitated. "What are you suggesting?"
"Instead of feeding on humans, you could… feed on me…" There was a deathly silence as I took in his words. I remembered biting into his skin in the forest, his blood in my mouth. The pleasure in that made me think it would satisfy the thirst that I had for blood, even though Jove was vampire. But it scared me.
I moved closer to the bathroom door, thinking deeply. "What if I hurt you," I asked in a hushed voice, as though speaking about letting a vampire feed on another vampire were a sin. For all I knew, it was. If anything it was next to unheard of in the vampire world. But I could remember Evanen telling me how he fed on humans and vampires alike, not caring between the differences of the two.
"It would be a lot harder to hurt me than it would to hurt a human," Jove responded hesitantly. I realized the sacrifice he would be making on his part. He'd be made weaker by me feeding on him no doubt, and he was putting himself at risk of being hurt. But it was either to do that or to hurt some innocent person who hadn't lived a full life as Jove had. How old was he, anyway?
I bit my lip. "I'll do it," I answered slowly, "But only if you're okay with it. And don't lie, I'll know the minute I touch you if you're really up for it or not." I was only glad to have a door between us to prevent truly making this conversation more awkward than it already was. At the same time, my craving was beginning to grow, as if it already knew the blood it wanted was nearby and about to be willingly given. I tried to push it back inside of me, but this proved to be difficult. It was like telling a crack addict to stop wanting to do crack… pointless without any actual feeling behind it.
"It will be fine, you can come out now, Hailence," Jove told me through the door. I calmed myself the best I could before opening the door to see Jove waiting for me. I looked at him, normally thinking this would be a bit awkward, but something about my vampiric state seemed to numb the weaker emotions, making me feel less human than I already was. "We don't have to do it now… in fact, we probably should wait until a sunrise so that I can have the day to rest afterward. Is that okay with you?"
I nodded easily, not in a hurry to officially begin feeding from Jove. I still held a fear that I'd hurt him, or that his blood wouldn't satisfy me and if anything turn me in a crazy blood lusting demon that would result in me devouring the whole of the next town we were in. "Let's go," I told him, and without much of a hassle, we were on the run again.
There was something liberating about running so fast, being able to dodge any obstacle in my path. After the first night, I had done the nicer thing and followed behind Jove, knowing that my speed overpowered his easily, meaning that when he had spent the last night following me he had struggled to stay caught up. I felt like I was easily jogging behind him, whereas he was putting a lot of himself into bursting through the land and away from the direction of the Draele house. We did the usual thing day after day, stopping at either a hotel or an abandoned house, and leaving when the sun set. I had no idea where we were planning on going, and what we'd do if we got there. I was okay at the time just running, not feeling an ounce of exhaustion that would slow any normal person down.
Occasionally, I started to find myself drawn to the hunger inside of me, the one that was, in the lack of human presence, starting to recognize the vampire I was chasing… following… as a food source. I didn't like the feeling that was urging me to feed. Then one night, while we ran, I felt a pleasant feeling, like scratching an itch, in my gums, and absently reached my fingers to my mouth to feel the sharpness of what no doubt was my small, sharp, and feminine fangs that wouldn't be well noticed by a passing eye. I was startled into stopping mid-run, and Jove stopped as well, noticing automatically my change in pace.
"My fangs are out," I told him in confusion, feeling slightly embarrassed, not sure if it was normal or if I should be able to control this. I realized this is probably what guys felt like when they found themselves with an unwanted boner. Jove didn't move closer to me, which was probably a good thing. I could remember Evanen informing me of how when a vampire's fangs were brought out, it released some chemical that made the vampire want to feed even more. In fact, now that I thought of that, I could feel that urge even more pronounced. "Oh… wow, I'm starving…"
"We'll go ahead and stop then," Jove said, and I couldn't tell if he was uncomfortable knowing what stopping meant, "We'll just go to the next town and stay there until tomorrow." I nodded in agreement, and moved to follow him towards the next town we would pass, which wasn't too far. I wondered where exactly we were, but something told me not even Jove was sure of that.
As I followed him towards another hotel or safe place to hide in for the day, I wondered if he would resent me one day for making him run from his previous life as well. He was a Council Interrogator, and I figured being a part of the vampire Council was a high status in itself. It couldn't have been so easy to abandon that status. Plus, being that the Council was a part of what I assumed was the vampire government, it didn't seem like a good thing to run from your whole race with a silly girl; a newborn vampire.
Jove once again snuck us into a room for ourselves, and once inside I moved onto one of the beds and bent my knees to my chest, holding my hands over my ears and closing my eyes. The hunger was boiling inside, it was very demanding. I could feel my senses heightening, trying to locate a food source besides the one already in the room with me. It was strange that I recognized Jove as a food source, but still preferred to look for a human. I was reminded of how Evanen had explained vampire blood like chicken while human blood was like chocolate, except this felt different from that, which is expected with Evanen's similes being that he'd never been a human to know the difference. This was more like choosing between water and orange soda. I was damn thirsty, but I would easily pick an orange soda being that I was addicted to them. Well… I used to be, when I was human.
"I guess now's a good time to feed," Jove finally said from the end of my bed.
