Forbidden Tragedies

Chapter 11

-Lucien-

I swirled my last remaining vial of her blood beneath the table, hiding it from my sisters who sat here with me.

All day... All day I'd been going through them, testing them. Having Derryk store them for me to come and retrieve throughout the day to make sure that my first taste of it wasn't just something I was imagining, and testing to see if the effects lasted to some degree even if it wasn't fresh.

My eyes stared down at the liquid as it moved from my leaned-back position in this chair.

I'd never tasted anything like it- never ingested anything like it.

Blood has always helped to a degree. Fresh blood especially.

It'd draw a slight focus to my instincts, enough to make the imbalance shift to something less noticeable.

It'd warm my body a small amount, and fill me with a varying amount of energy depending on where I'm at.

But this...

The moment her warm blood hit my tongue it was like a switch had been flipped.

It was all the effects I was expecting, just so much faster and with much more power that it led me to stagger as I felt it all at once.

I'd never tasted blood that could do all of that and also taste so... fulfilling.

Was it just a side effect of her condition? Something about the pressure of her blood, or the concentration of cells?

If that were so, surely Erik would have noticed that in one way or another.

I cursed myself for not mentioning it to him while I had the chance. The way it enlivened my being just immediately caused me to be protective of it. For a moment I reached that feeling of normalcy, and I wanted to hold onto it.

Not complete normalcy. that wasn't something I think I'll ever be able to achieve, but a few things got me close. Now one more got added to that list.

Even after it was considered fresh, even hours later, its effects still surpassed any other blood by a substantial amount.

It made me think that I may have indeed gotten my money's worth, but this also raised some concerns along with it.

Her blood could very easily become a drug. With drugs come addictions and with addictions come withdrawals.

Her blood was great and all, but it couldn't offer me any sort of permanent relief.

Humans only lived so long, and pets especially. She dies and all that blood gets lost with her.

My body was already struggling with its own shit, I didn't need to get addicted to this kind of constant relief and then suffer the consequences when it was no longer attainable.

So I had to be careful with it.

I rubbed my thumb against the glass, lifting my attention at the sound of familiar approaching footsteps.

Evelyn approached me with her new drink in hand, staring at me with narrow eyes.

The rest of my sisters at the table stayed quiet as she did, pausing the meals they ate.

It was a moderately rare occasion when the four of us happened to be eating at the same time. I guess it was more of a rare occasion that Layla and I ate dinner outside of our rooms, and Adi and Evie didn't eat with dad.

It wasn't in my plans today, but Kira had decided that my room was the place to be ever since this morning, so I left instead.

I kept my eye on Evie during her approach, watching her close the distance, stare a little harder, and then pinch a lock of my hair between her fingers.