Toy Wolf

Chapter 33: long dark morning

I didn't call Ralph that evening, but instead slept the whole night on the mattress in Stefa's room. The next morning, I woke up to the door bursting open. Grant looked wild. Stefa was nowhere to be seen.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"I didn't do anything," I yawned, blinking myself awake and sitting up. "What are you talking about?"

"All the vials of your blood, every damn one of them is empty," he snarled.

His eyes flashed red, and I wondered when his last dose had been. I rolled off the bed, and stretched my shoulders.

"I still have blood in my veins," I pointed out. "We can draw more. Calm down, Grant."

He took a couple deep breaths. "Sorry, just watching Stefa yesterday. I don't... I don't want to become that."

"Well, not screaming at a person in the early morning hours is a good step," I pointed out. "Come on."

I didn't grab my shoes, but instead headed out immediately with Grant toward the medical room.

"Is Dr. Terry here?" I asked.

"Probably not, he doesn't arrive until the afternoon," Grant replied. "What are we going to do?"

"Do what we can," I replied, climbing the stairs and opening the door. To my surprise, Stefa was in the room, sitting on the bench and swinging her legs. She looked odd, like she had color in her cheeks. She grinned as us and took a sip of a dark red liquid in a wine glass.

"Hello boys," she said. "I was wondering when you'd get here."

The fridge was empty, I saw. Grant was trembling next to me and I wondered if Stefa had used all of my blood. Was that what was in the glass?

"What are you doing?" Grant asked in a low tone.

"I'm getting a tiny bit of overdue revenge, and then I'm getting the hell out of Dodge," she told him with a giggle. "It's a brand new day."

"Stefa," I managed, trying to keep my face from looking as worried as I felt. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm making up for yesterday, pretty boy," she told me, hopping down from the bench to sidle over to us. "The only way I know how. I'm going to get you home."

She moved suddenly, and at first I thought she was going to attack Grant, but I realized she had just pressed her lips against his. When she pulled away, his lips were dark red with blood. It made his pale skin look even paler.

"What have you done?" he whispered, touching his mouth.

"That was human blood, dear," she said. "You haven't had any of Conor's in nearly twenty hours. And that was your first taste of human."

She held out the wine glass to him. His hand twitched and he slowly reached for it, as if he was fighting himself. She waited for him to grasp the glass, bringing it up to his lips and gulping down the rest of it. His eyes lost their hazel color as he drank and he set the glass down on the counter with a bang.

Stefa smiled. "Let's go." she said.

"Stefa," I said again.

She shook her head, pushing me towards the bench. "Stay here. I don't want you to get hurt again. Grant, you have the keys, right?"

He nodded, handing them to her without a word. She jangled them, and they left me in the room, I rushed to get the door before Stefa could lock it, but I wasn't faster than a vampire.

"Stefa!" I shouted. "Don't do this!"

I pulled against the handle, but the door was locked tightly. I backed up to the other wall and hurtled myself at the door, but that did nothing but jar my shoulder and throw me to the ground. I got up, trying to find some weakness in the room. The floor and walls were tiled. I might have a chance breaking through the ceiling. I spotted the phone and dialed for Ralph instead.