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k_a_webbCate smiled. “I know that, Alice. That’s why I fought for the council to allow it, because we need somewhere humans and vampires can learn to live together, but I also know vampires need blood to survive, so one of the main draws of the house is willing donors.”
“You’re right.” Alice smiled back, before glancing at Nick, who seemed to be coping better than she’d been expecting with talking about a past he’d tried to forget. “At first it was something I was worried about too, but Lewis worked out that we have more than enough donors for our current visitors, so if we reach fifty before we have any new arrivals we’d still be fine. We’re getting more applications every day, though, and I’m pretty sure that by the time we have a hundred vampire visitors we’ll have enough donors for double that number. Nick is very picky about who he accepts, which is something we’re all happier about that I thought we’d be, because it means we have the right donors.”
“How did Nick end up with the job of picking the donors?”
“It’s something he’s done before, although not in the same way. When I was a young vampire I had to drink human blood, because otherwise I would have died. We’re trying to understand as much about vampire biology as we can, but it’s a slow process, so I’m not certain why a young vampire needs to have human blood. Lewis thinks it probably has something to do with the process the body needs to go through. This meant that Nick had to find people who were willing to help me.” Alice remembered those days like they were yesterday, because she’d still been angry with him for changing her, but he’d been so caring that she’d felt really guilty for the emotions she had very little control over. “We had four donors, to stop them from becoming addicted to being fed from and me from becoming addicted to one of them.”
“What happens when a vampire gets addicted to a human?”
“Nothing good,” Sam said, walking up to the two of them. “I’ve hunted a couple of addicted vampires and they’re vicious.”
Alice realised she hadn’t been paying as much attention to her surroundings as she should have been, getting lost in the conversation she was having with Cate instead of focusing on Nick. It would have been easy enough for Sam to attack Nick while Alice was distracted, so she was grateful his decision was to eavesdrop on the conversation she was having with Cate. To Sam it probably made the most sense, because Alice was the one brainwashing his sister, and that, to any brother, always came first. When she’d started getting close to Nick her brother had done exactly the same thing.
“He’s right about that.” Alice shuddered as she thought about the two vampires she’d come across who’d been addicted to humans. “The problem with an addicted vampire is that there’s very little that can be done to rehabilitate them. With human addicts you can slowly wean them off the bite, because it’s to do with the chemicals within a vampires’ saliva, but when a vampire is addicted a human it’s entirely different.” She bit her lip as she tried to work out how to explain it to a human. “Every human’s blood tastes different and what I may find enjoyable another vampire won’t. Some humans I have liked so much it would be nice to have it every day, but I don’t, because I know that it’s possible that I may get addicted to them. However there are some vampires who either don’t know that it’s possible or don’t care and they chose to have that blood they like again, probably the very next day, and they might well have it again the next day. By then it’s becoming more than they simply like the blood.
“I don’t know why it happens. Lewis has never had the chance to study an addicted vampire and he probably never will, because they normally don’t care that what they’re doing is really hurting the human that they’re addicted to. Not by then, anyway. There are some who might before they get truly addicted to the human, but even then it’s hard for them to walk away, and often they chose not to, because it’s easier.” She sighed. “We try to remove them before they end up killing the human they’re addicted to. It’s one of the few things that we agree with the auction vampires on, although it’s for different reasons. They often take the weakened human to be auctioned off while we do our best to help them deal with what’s happened to them.”
“Do you think it would be possible to rehabilitate an addicted vampire?” Cate asked.
“Of course it isn’t.” Sam smiled. “I’m certain that the vampire here will have a different opinion to me though.”
“The vampire would need to realise what’s happened to them, which is difficult once you’ve got to the point of true addiction, but if they did it might be possible. We’re beginning to see some improvement with Caleb even though we were told it wasn’t possible and I think that everyone, if they accept what they were previously doing was wrong, deserves a second chance.”
“Even auction vampires?” Sam voice was full of disgust. “The vampires who kidnap people to be sold as food for bloodsuckers who can’t be bothered to go out hunting.” He shook his head. “You’re all the same.”
“Yes, even auction vampires, but then I know a few who have walked away and we even have a couple of them who visit the house, because they’ve realised that being one of us doesn’t mean you have to hunt humans. One fell in love with a human he’d bought at the auction.” Alice tried not to go too further into that story, because it didn’t have an happy ending. “Everyone can change.”
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.