Chapter 6: The Bite

“Wow, I’m flattered, even if you are a little forward.” Noah giggled before taking another long sip from this blood bag. Lucy instantly felt flushed as she realized the miscommunication.

“No! I mean, you’re handsome, but that’s not what I mean… I sort of had someone else… in mind.” Lucy had started out strong and loud but let her words fade into a mumble. If it weren’t for impressive vampire hearing, Noah might have struggled to understand her at all.

“It’s okay. I understand. I mean I don’t know much about the rules of dating outside of one's vampire class when you’re out of school, but I know while you’re here at least it’s forbidden.”

“That’s kind of strong, forbidden?”

“Yeah, I guess it used to be allowed, but there were some serious problems in the past. I don’t know much more than that.” Noah leaned against the wall and drank up the last of his blood bag. “So are you ready for tomorrow? Practicing on humans?”

The panic of learning how to drink from people came rushing back, and Lucy felt a bit like she was going to faint.

“Whoa, are you okay? Maybe you should sit down for a minute. Actually, it’s almost five AM; the sun will be rising soon. I’m going to find your friend, see if she’ll take you home.” After helping Lucy sit down on the nearest chair, Noah walked quickly off in search of Veronika. Lucy tried to stabilize herself and shake off the embarrassment.

“Hey, hey are you okay? Noah said you almost fainted? Let’s get going, okay?” Veronika blurted out as she rushed to pick Lucy up in her arms. Lucy tried to cover her face as if that could take away the moment and keep anyone from seeing her in such a distressed state.

Lucy started to feel better as they made it outside in the fresh air but kept her arm linked with Veronika’s as they made their way across campus.

“So what happened? Are you just not drinking enough? I can heat you up a blood bag when we get back to our room,” Veronika offered. Lucy shook her head.

“No, it wasn’t that. Noah brought up drinking from humans. We are learning to do that in class tomorrow. I just got so nervous about it. I’m a d*mn vampire for goodness sake! How different from a blood bag can it really be?” Lucy screamed, mostly out of anger towards herself.

“Hey, it’s okay. This is a hard transition even for those of us who are prepared for it. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you. But you’re right, it’s not that different. You’ll see when you meet your humans tomorrow. It’s not like some monster horror film where they are running away screaming, and you’re chasing them down screaming, ‘I want to suck your blood!’ They’ll give you their veins willingly. Let’s just get home and get some sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Veronika held tightly to Lucy’s arm until they made it to the dorm.

Veronika kept spouting out different reassurances and comments about how easy it would be once Lucy was used to drinking from humans, but Lucy wasn’t really listening. She got herself ready for bed and tried to push the whole thing from her mind.

***

“Maybe I could just call in sick today. I don’t really need to go to class,” Lucy tried to offer as she slowly got dressed.

“Vampires don’t get sick. You’re going to class. You can’t put this off!” Veronika barked at her from inside the closet. Veronika emerged, straightening her plaid top, and started to examine herself in the mirror.

“What if I hurt someone, or worse, kill someone?” Lucy asked as she laced up her boots. Veronika sighed.

“We’ve been through this. You’re not going to do that, especially not in such a controlled setting. It’ll be fine. Millions of vampires have existed since the dawn of time. All of them learned to do this.” Veronika came over and helped pull Lucy to her feet. Veronika looked her up and down before straightening Lucy’s hair off her shoulders.

The two of them walked together down the hall to class before Veronika gave her a stronger push than necessary. Hestiently, Lucy meandered into the classroom and took her seat. She noticed six different humans sitting calmly and happily in the front of the class.

“Alright class, as promised today we are going to practice drinking from live humans. All of you must learn to do this, but not to worry. They have all volunteered, and this is a comfortable and safe environment. First, we are going to go over some things we’ve previously learned to make sure we are all prepared. Who can tell me the optimal place to bite a human?”

Lucy looked around as several hands shot up in the air. The professor’s expression remained blank as she looked around and called on a random student.

“Their wrists,” the student answered.

“That is correct, and why is that?” the professor asked, keeping her tone as blank as her face.

“To keep the risk of passing our blood on as minimal as possible.”

“Yes, exactly. You pass on your blood, you’re no longer enjoying a snack or meal, you’re violating the most important rule and creating a new vampire. Who can tell me what happens when a new vampire is created outside of the counsel orders?”

Lucy realized she had completely forgotten about that. Her blood was a toxic disease now, and passing that along to someone else meant certain death for both her and whoever she turned. If it hadn’t been for Veronika and Celeste, the counsel might have voted to terminate her when Veronika first found her and brought her to the school. The panic started to rise up in her.

The professor continued to ask questions, reviewing the process, which only caused the panic to take on a life of its own inside of her.

“Lucy, can you please tell me the appropriate amount of blood to take from a single human at one time?”

Lucy’s eyes shot forward when she heard her name. She scrambled her brain to think of the answer and forced the words out.

“No more than half a liter,” she choked out, feeling her throat run dry.

“That is correct. Now I believe we are ready to start practicing. We only have six volunteers and twenty students. This will be a simple taste practice to get a feel for it. If you drink too much, there won’t be enough left for your fellow students without risking the lives of the humans. Above our thirst,” the professor started, holding out her hand to prompt the class to finish her sentence.

“We value all life,” the students echoed at once. Lucy tried to let herself relax and adjust to this being a normal part of life now. At least, it was reassuring to know that the vampire core wanted to spare all lives as well.

She waited impatiently in her chair until the professor called her name. Lucy stood up and stumbled a bit as she walked forward, trying not to catch the eye of any of the humans up front.