Inject Me Sweetly / Dusk Until Dawn

:Inject Me Sweetly: Chapter Five

“Not exactly.”  When I tried to retract my wrist she held it tighter, laughing quietly. “Calm down, I’m kidding.”

            I turned my head away as she began taking out the needle. “What blood type did you give me?”

            “O.”

“How did you know I was O?”

“Well Vince knew since he drank from you.”

I winced at the memory. “Oh.”

“You’re pretty lucky to have an O blood type. Have you ever gotten a blood transfusion before?” the brunette asked, putting a square band-aid over the puncture in my skin.

            “About every two weeks.”

            “What? Really?”

            I glanced at her, wondering why she sounded so surprised. “What?”

            She shook her head, trying to mask her surprise. “Um, nothing. I’ve just never heard of a human needing to receive blood transfusions so often. It’s really weird…” She trailed off, looking thoughtful.

            Crossing my arms defensively, I frowned at her. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”

            She held up her hands defensively. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just so weird. Never in my life— and I’ve lived a long time — have I heard of that…Well that’s a lie. Actually, I have but…” She paused, shaking her head. “No. That’s not possible.”

            “What isn’t?”

            “Never mind. Do you have sickle cell or something?”

            Now it was my turn to shake my head. “No, I’m just anemic.”

            “Do your hands get cold?”

            “Yeah.”

            “What about your feet?”

            “Yeah, that too.”

            “Obviously you’re pale,” she commented, her eyes running down my exposed neck and face. “Do you ever have the urge to eat ice?”

            “Um, yeah,” I responded, cocking an eyebrow. “How did you know all that?”

            “I was studying to become a doctor when I was still alive,” she informed me with a small smile. “Anemia was one of the things we had to learn about. I remember chewing ice was a symptom I thought was particularly funny.”

            My heart skipped a beat. When I was still alive. It sounded incredibly creepy. I almost forgot she was a vampire too. I really needed to stop letting down my guard. But it was so different with female vampires. They were so calm and soothing— I wasn’t that scared by them.

            “Here, um, I went out and got you some iron supplements,” the brunette told me, holding out a thin, pale, fragile looking hand. “Do you usually take them?”

            I was a bit taken aback by her thoughtfulness. “You went out to get them for me?”

            She nodded. “Well, Vincent told me to, but I was the one who went out.”

            That surprised me even more. “Vincent did?”

            “You are his responsibility,” she responded with a laugh. “Not mine. But here, take these. There’s a glass of water on your night stand too.”