The Donor House: Morgan: Wearing White (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

“It was the right thing to do,” Morgan said, as they got closer to the cafeteria. “He needed to feed before he got any further into the donor house and actually hurt someone. I’m an experience donor, so I knew what to expect.”

Alice squeezed Morgan. “I know.” She sighed. “I just wish you hadn’t needed to do something like that.”

“Alice, you can’t control all the vampires in the world, no matter how much you want to. Even if the auctions didn’t exist there would still be vampires around who didn’t care about the humans they used as fodder or the children they created.” Morgan shrugged, thinking of the vampire she’d just helped. “If it wasn’t for you, and the donor house, there wouldn’t be anyone out there to help the addicts, or the newly created vampires, or even the humans who are running from scary stalking vampires. People are lucky that you put the effort into creating the house.”

“Nick came up with the idea.”

Morgan looked at Alice. “Do you honestly think that he would have been able to do this without you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. It seemed important to him that we created the house, because he knew that there were vampires and humans who needed our help, and I know if we hadn’t decided that the plan had merit he would have done this all himself.”

“He couldn’t have done something like this without you.” Morgan smiled. “You’re young enough to remember what being human was like and you were a donor. If it wasn’t for you the house wouldn’t work.”

“If you say so,” Alice muttered, shaking her head. “I think you’re making me more important than I actually am.”

“Do you think Nick and Issac would have taken Caleb in if you hadn’t been here?”

“I hope they would have done, but I don’t think they would. Coping with an addict isn’t easy, even when they want to change, and they would have found it too hard to deal with. They’re too old.” Alice shrugged. “Blake might have been able to convince them.”

“If he’d even existed.”

“The problem with being a vampire is always looking back and wondering how the choices you’ve made have affected the people around you. Blake… making the decision to ask him if he wanted to be a vampire was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, because I wanted to help him and I couldn’t think of a better way. Without somewhere like this, where there are plenty of people who can help the addicts, there was so little I could do.”

“No one else would have thought to ask.”

Smiling, Alice shook her head. “I’m sure there are other vampires who would react the same way I did when they were asked for help by an addict.” The table full of food was suddenly in front of them. “Now, what are you going to eat?”

Nothing really looked at all appetising, Morgan knew that she needed to eat something eventually, if only so she could stop Alice from worrying. Sighing, Morgan filled a glass with orange juice. Like every other donor she’d drunk more orange juice in the time she’d been at the house than she ever had before. It was something they all used for a quick boost, but the vampires always urged them to eat after a feed, because it helped them to start replenishing the blood they’d lost.

“How about I drink this orange juice and then come back for something to eat when I actually feel hungry?”

“As long as you promise me you’re going to eat something.”

“Of course I am.” Morgan smiled at Alice. “It’s just that sometimes nothing looks appealing, no matter how much you want to eat, and the chefs won’t be on duty for another hour.”

“The days when you open the fridge, looking for something tasty, and everything in there is something you quite like eating, but there was nothing in there that you actually wanted.” Alice sounded wistful. “Now I just wish I could taste food. Everything on this table is something I would have enjoyed eating when I was human and now it all tastes like dust.”

Alice used the arm that was still around Morgan to guide her away from the table, which was a relief for Morgan and, she guessed, Alice herself. “I do appreciate the effort you’ve put in to making certain we have a good selection of food to chose from at times when the chefs aren’t open for orders, because there have been times when I’ve been so grateful to come downstairs and be able to get something from the buffet table that I actually enjoyed eating.”

“When I was putting together the menu all I could do was hope that things were going to work, because I’d never done something like this before, but as I was the youngest of the vampires it was up to me.” Alice shook her head. “Every time Nick and Issac needed to work on something related to the humans who’d be living here they turned to me. Being the youngest vampire in the group just meant I had more to do than anyone else.”

“You loved it.”

“I did. Helping to create the donor house is something I’m always going to be proud of, no matter how long it exists, because we’re given the ‘lesser’ vampires a chance to live their lives and given some humans a chance to get to know that we aren’t all like the vampires that are written about in the newspapers.”

“The longer I live here the more I think about the person I was before. It was so easy to believe those stories, because that’s what vampires should be like.” Morgan shook her head, certain she wasn’t explaining herself properly. “Vampires are above us on the food chain, so you should be hunters, and it was much harder to accept you as a vampire.”

Laughing, Alice squeezed Morgan again. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever been given.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

Comments

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

This is charming. I like seeing more about how the Donor House works.

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