The Donor House: Advent Story (part 11)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Caleb stood with his back to the wall, staring around the reception, unable to believe he had been lucky enough to become part of such a community. When he first stepped in the door he was certain they were going to ask him to leave and found himself being ushered into a room so someone could help him instead. He hadn’t thought, even for a moment, that the vampires of the House would simply accept him as he was, accept that he wanted to try to become himself again, and do everything they could to help him. The vampire next to him had quickly become a friend, although, if there weren’t rules against relationships between vampires and donors, they would have become something more. Blake knew how Caleb felt, had told him it was mutual, but they were going to have to wait until the rules were changed or Caleb found himself at a point where he really thought he could live life without needing so many vampires.

Sighing, Caleb pushed the thought away. He’d accepted the rules of the House when Alice asked him to sign a newly created contract, because they’d wanted that safety and thought it would help him out too, because it meant he could be paid the way the other donors could. Some of the money he’d earned he’d already used, to make a start at having a life again, but the rest he was saving, hoping that the time would come when he’d be fixed, even though none of them knew if it was possible. Blake hadn’t had the same choice and that was why he’d become a vampire, but it meant that Caleb had someone there that he could talk to.

“Do you think your sister will come?” Blake asked, dragging Caleb’s attention away from his thoughts.

“No, I don’t, but I had to give her the option. I want to try to rebuild our relationship, even if she doesn’t.” Caleb shrugged. “She’s still not comfortable with the decision I made when I saved her life and I do understand why she feels so guilty. I just wish she didn’t. Nothing that happened to me was anything to do with her – the vampires who wanted me used her because they knew that I’d do anything I could to protect her.”

“I would never have believed his promise.”

“Even though I didn’t believe it I had to hope that I was giving her a chance, Blake, because she was my sister and I wanted her to have a normal life.” Caleb shook his head. “I don’t know how I thought it was ever going to be normal, after what had happened to her, but she was the most important thing in my life, and if I could save her from the same fate that I was going to have then I was going to try. Mum told me she’s thinking of applying to become a donor at one of the Houses. She remembers what it’s like to be fed from, she remembers believing she was going to be sold at auction, and she remembers what it was like when she was returned home, because they had what they wanted. Every moment she’d spent scared that she was going to end up an addict or dead was for nothing, because they hadn’t wanted her in the first place. They’d wanted me, but she didn’t know that. She didn’t know if I was alive or dead, neither did my mums, and until I came here I didn’t have a chance to contact them, to try to help them understand what had happened.”

“Going through the auction process was hard enough for me. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you.”

“For a long time I didn’t dare mention that I’d let them take me. The others were fighting so hard to try to get free and I’d been given a choice, although, to me, it wasn’t much of one. Having a stake in my hand didn’t do me any good when I came face to face with a vampire, especially when I found out that I could free my sister if I didn’t fight. When I did finally tell them they did, thankfully, understand why I’d done what I did. During the time we were waiting for our auction we become friends, which was a stupid thing to do, but because of that I’ll never stop looking for them, never stop hoping that they’ll find the House the same way I did, and we can try to help them too.”

“Addicts aren’t the easiest people to convince that the House is the place for them.” Blake sighed, and Caleb knew he was remembering all the other addicts that they’d tried to help. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and I’ll come across one of your friends when I’m out searching for others like us, even though they’ll probably react the same way the others have, because this is a House full of vampires.”

“I honestly think that Nick’s right, Blake. Now they know the House exists and that we’re willing to help them they’ll come back when they’re ready to accept it.”

“How long will that take, though?”

“Longer than you’re willing to wait probably.” Caleb reached out and squeezed Blake’s shoulder. “I know you want to help them all right now, love, but they need time. From the moment I was first bought all I heard about was the House, because she thought the best way to deal with it was to destroy it, but her creator wouldn’t let her. He wanted to see how things played out before he made a decision that would hurt a lot of his children, especially the vampire who runs the auctions…”

“Because he’s the one who changed Nick and keeps trying to convince him that he should be a part of their family, rather than a part of ours.”

Caleb nodded. “Exactly, but she’s never been one to see the bigger picture. All she can see is a gathering of weak vampires, vampires who shouldn’t be permitted to exists, that she wants to destroy to make her worlds, as she sees it, a better place. It doesn’t matter to her that the House is something that a couple of the auction vampires, not Nick’s creator, was hoping would come to exists in the future. Not because of what’ll happen to the humans if it ever falls apart, but for how it’s helping the vampires who never wanted to be change. Instead of wandering alone they have a chance of becoming a part of the greater vampire family, even if it isn’t the one they originally hoped they’d accept. This place is going to keep a lot of vampires who would have made a different choice alive.”

“Nick wants to close the auctions down.”

“He’s said, but I don’t think we’ll ever rid the world of the auctions. We may be able to change them, opening the House has already made a lot of vampires stop and think, but I personally think that they’ll always exist in one form or another.”

“I hate to say this, but I agree.” Blake bit his lip. “They’ve existed for too long to simply fade away entirely, because the world is changing around them, and there are too many vampires who are happy to accept what they’ve become to be happy in a place like this. We have too many rules about who they can feed from when. I just wish they didn’t – every time they sell another human they’re likely to be creating another addict, because vampires don’t care enough about humans to be able to feed from them carefully and I don’t think many of them know that it’s possible for them to get addicted too.”

“Have you ever seen an addicted vampire?”

“Twice, and both were rather scary. It was when I was wandering, after Nick had changed me, because I was trying to work out if I had made the right choice, even though, back then, we had even less options. All I’d wanted when Alice had asked me if I wanted their help, if I wanted to become a vampire so I didn’t have to deal with being addicted any longer, was to feel normal again. Becoming a vampire was easy for the first few hours, because I did, but then I realised that I was going to have to feed from a human and once that happened I didn’t know what I felt. I knew, even then, it was possible for a vampire to become addicted to a human’s blood, because Nick told me everything I needed to know about being a vampire before he accepted my answer. He wanted it to be an informed decision that I was making, instead of simply making the choice because I thought it was better than being an addict.” Blake sighed. “In the end I was informed, but I made the decision because it was a better option that being an addict and I think that was part of the problem. As much as I hated being addicted to the chemicals within a vampire’s saliva becoming a vampire wasn’t the best choice I could have made, even though it really was the only one I had at the time. So I left them both behind, I broke Alice’s heart because I couldn’t say goodbye and she always thought it was her fault that I walked away, and tried to come to terms with what I’d done alone. To be honest that was also a mistake – I should have stayed, but I thought I’d be better off alone, to try dealing with my problems without adding them to the ones they already had, and I ended up coming across some rather scary things that I’d have been better off not seeing.

“One of those things was addicted vampires – one had lost the girl he’d been addicted to, while the other was still feeding from the man he’d found himself craving. Unfortunately with every feed he was one step closer to death and there was nothing I could do to help him. He knew what was going to happen to him, because he didn’t have a chance to replenish much of the blood he’d lost from the previous feeding, and he’d come to accept it, even though he kept hoping that something might happen to make it less certain. When I found them I saw, just for a moment, the hope shine in his eyes, but it faded moments later, as though he was sure there was nothing I could do to help him, because he knew from my teeth that I was a very young vampire. Eventually I made the decision that I couldn’t just leave him there, so I broke into their house one day and took him. We were on a train before the vampire woke.

“By making that one choice I saved a life. The human, who never gave me his name, wasn’t certain about what his future would be, but I found him a place with a group of vampires Nick had told me I could go to if I decided to leave, who fed from willing donor. That was before we knew that feeding from someone regularly, as long as it wasn’t the same vampire, would make a donor immune to the chemicals within a vampire’s blood, so I was doing what I could to keep him safe from becoming an addict himself. I have no idea how he didn’t, because the vampire was feeding from him at least once a night, sometimes more, and, to be honest, I have no idea how he survived either. Although there are days when I don’t know how I survived my owner’s parties. Many of the my fellow humans didn’t, but somehow I managed to, and the only thing he managed to do to me was make me an addict.”

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.

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No typos found.

It makes sense that the addiction can go both ways.