Crimson Born - Amy Patrick Page 0,18

misery on his face.

“No. I’ll be back—soon. I’ve been sleeping in your barn. If you find you can’t tolerate staying in the house with your parents, go and wait for me there.”

He nodded woodenly and gave me a weak, “Okay,” before I left.

8

Where You Belong

Kannon answered the door before I knocked.

Either the walls of the cheap motel were so thin he heard me coming or he smelled me. I could certainly smell him.

While all the humans I’d passed on my way here had smelled mostly like blood, Kannon smelled normal—like fresh air and soap and denim.

Sure enough, when the door swung inward, he stood there in a pair of new-looking jeans and a t-shirt spotted with water droplets from his wet hair.

“Abigail.” He gave me a wide smile. “I’m so glad you changed your mind. Come in while I put on some shoes, and we’ll get going.”

“Oh. No. I’m sorry—that’s not why I’m here. I just need to ask you some questions.”

“Well, training newbies isn’t really my job. At the Bastion, they’ll—”

“I told you, I’m not going there. I’m staying in my community. There’s a boy there who’s turned too. I can’t leave him.”

“I see.” He appeared to think for a moment. “Tell you what... I’ll come meet him and contact Imogen. Maybe she’ll allow us to bring him along.”

“He won’t come. I know him. I’m just here because I need to find out about some things.”

Kannon let out a long sigh and pulled on the leather jacket he’d been wearing before. “What things?”

“Well... what do vampires eat?”

“We don’t. Vampirism causes complete liver failure—we can’t process food of any kind. It’s blood only.”

That made sense based on the way just the thought of food had sickened me.

“Where do vampires get blood? You know, to eat—drink—whatever. Does it have to be human blood because I really don’t want to drink human blood.”

What I didn’t say was how much I had enjoyed the taste of human blood. Frankly, it frightened me to even think about.

“Afraid so,” he said. “Wait—what have you been drinking? I sort of assumed that’s what you were doing at the hospital.”

I shook my head, not answering his question. I had consumed blood at the hospital but not from any sort of stockpiled supply.

“Can’t we just drink from animals?”

That didn’t seem quite so bad. My father and brothers had hunted deer and rabbit and squirrel for us all my life. At any rate, it had to be better than drinking from humans.

“Whatever you do, don’t drink animal blood,” Kannon warned. He sat in a rickety chair beside an even shabbier table and tied his boot laces. “It’s not compatible with our systems.”

“It kills vampires?”

“No, but it poisons them. The ones I’ve seen who’ve tried it wound up completely insane. They had to be destroyed.”

“Oh.” That took some of the wind out of my sails. “So then we have to drink from a human.”

“You shouldn’t do that either—not yet. For one thing, you’re brand new. You have no idea what you’re doing, and you’d probably wind up unable to stop and drain the poor soul. Blood directly from the vein is intoxicating. Besides that, the Crimson Accord expressly forbids feeding from a human unless the human has given permission. And even then, you have to make sure the person hasn’t been bitten too many times already.”

“Why?”

“I’ll let Imogen explain the rest. Just suffice it to say—no animal blood and no drinking straight from the vein. Blood bags only—for now.”

He got up and crossed the room to the bed where a large black duffel bag rested. Opening it, he pulled out a small, rectangular vinyl bag filled with dark liquid.

He tossed it to me. “Here you go.”

I fumbled it and almost dropped it but managed to hang onto the gruesome package. “It’s cold.”

He grinned. “Just took it out of the motel fridge. You can drink it that way, but naturally it tastes better warm. Just don’t microwave it—totally kills the nutritional value.”

“We don’t have those where I live anyway.”

He nodded. “If you want to heat it up, put it in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. Back at the Bastion we have warmers that bring it to a perfect ninety-eight-point-six.”

Though I cringed at the gory thought, my stomach growled again, this time more loudly. “Thank you. I’ll share this with Josiah until we figure out how to get more.”

Kannon huffed a frustrated breath. “I’ve already told you how. Come to the Bastion with me. You’ll have everything you