Cutthroat Carmine (Book 1)(COMPLETE) (Wattpad Featured Novel)

6. [feest]

"Is the stupid test done yet? I'm starrvving."

Carmine pinches her little brother's arm. "Blake! Will you stop being so rude? We are all hungry. We've all waited a whole month for this so I'm certain you can wait five more minutes." 

"It's okay Carmine, let him go," Kardinal Redoza murmurs, pouring the fresh blood from the pitcher into four crystal champagne flutes. The thick plasma is so warm it briefly fogs up the inside of the glasses. 

When she sets down the emptied pitcher, everyone eyes the leftover stain oozing down the sides of the vessel like edible paint. 

Red picks up two glasses by the stem, one in each hand, and walks over to her husband and son. "Salut," she whispers, handing them each the intoxicatingly sweet nectar.

Fresh human blood is a drug, Red once explained to Carmine. If you imbibe too much, you will become addicted to it. Just as regular humans sometimes have uncontrollable drug or alcohol habits, so half-blood vampires can get addicted to human blood, despite not needing that much of it to survive. It's a precious and prized commodity. Yes, it is available everywhere you look. But you shouldn't take anyone's blood unless they are sinners or the scum of the Earth. Otherwise there would be nothing to differentiate us from savage animals. We also shouldn't be greedy, Red warned, for as Gandhi once said, "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed." Human blood is a monthly indulgence that should be relished and savoured down to the last drop, but not gorged upon.

The blood emanates an irresistibly sweet smell that hypnotizes the whole family. There are endless sweet nothings that can be said about this drink- its cloying scent, velvety smooth consistency and occasional piquant, savoury aftertaste. Sometimes, the shot of blood packs a real punch, sending a zesty zing through their bodies akin to the effects of inhaling vapour rub. Other times it is soft and mellow, like taking in a spoonful of hot honey.

Ah, sanguis is a viscous liquid that has inspired centuries of feuding, betrayals, greed and bloodlust. A beverage that enslaves Carmine. A life necessity that forces her to hunt, so that her and her kin will never want for a fresh body. But she does not mind.

She lives for the thrill of the hunt.

++++

Carmine still vaguely remembers her first proper blood ritual at the tender age of two. Of course, she asked her mother to supply most of the details. Carmine had just finished playing with her toys and was looking for her mother when she found her tapping the arm of an unconscious man. She was looking for a vein from which to draw blood.

Carmine recalls asking her mother, "What you doin'?" as she pointed to the filthy, bruised man on their living room table. 

Red often compliments Carmine on her maturity and keenness to learn, even as a toddler. "Instead of being scared or running away, you helped me bring my jars and set them down in front of the plastic tubing that was dripping out the man's blood. That's when I knew you were ready to stop breastfeeding and move on to something more substantial. That night, you feasted with the rest of us." 

After the ritual, Carmine's stomach purred with content. Her first blood meal. She did not realize until much later that she would become sick from drinking the contaminated blood. Of course, her symptoms were not fatal; only resembling that of food poisoning, but it worried her parents greatly- enough to add a new procedure to the ritual - pre-dinner testing.

Two days after the ritual, Carmine was fully healed from her horrible bout of vomiting and diarrhea.

While human doctors would need to run a full panel of tests that took days, if not weeks to obtain results, Mason Redoza was able to purchase a single Dravidian pin from the local underground Vamp Pharmacy for ten gold pieces (the equivalent of $10,000 USD). A Dravidian pin was a reusable dip test that would instantly reveal whether or not the blood was contaminated. Of course it could not indicate what exactly the blood was contaminated with, but it served its purpose well enough.