I stare blankly at Nadie, her question completely out of context and mood with what I had just witnessed.
“Who the hell is this ‘Sharo’ guy?”
“His name is Pitalesharo, he’s what’s thought to be the beginnings of the vampire species amongst many… He’s extremely old and also very strong; most vampires fear him…Now, you must tell me, Mina, how do you do it?”
“I don’t know…I…it’s like being drunk for me…” Nadie’s curiosity deepens in her expression. “I feel their ‘power’ over me, but I’m conscious of its falseness…like I somehow know what I’m feeling isn’t my feelings….if that makes any sense.”
“So how do you resist it?” I feel terrible, both girls look at me desperately for answers and I have nothing to give them.
“I…just…do…” I desperately wrack my brain to bring up a memory of how I’d been doing it; nothing resurfaces but my defiant satisfied smile at having done it. Both of the girls are looking at me like I’d just eaten a sweet I’d been dangling in front of them for some time. “I’m so sorry…” But suddenly Nadie’s face loses its hopeless and replaces it with determination.
“Right, next time compulsion is used on you, remember how you resist it.” I nod, but I realise it takes all the concentration I have to actually resist it; but I say nothing.
“Mina says she’s going to get us out of here!” Lottie looks up at me with absolute awe as I choke on my own saliva.
“What?! Do you think you can?!” Nadie’s gazing at me with excitement, hope glowing behind her eyes.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I said I’d…I said…” I glare at Lottie and her face turns red. Suddenly Nadie’s hand is on my shoulder.
“Do you have a plan, Mina? I mean this is no walk in the park, you’re gonna need a plan, and people to rely on…” She looks back and smiles at Lottie.
“Okay, wait! I don’t have a plan yet but I figured if we have allies in each block then we may be able to pull something off…wait, do they have these rooms bugged?” Nadie rolls her eyes at me.
“Don’t worry, the vampires think they have this place under tight control so they don’t bother with recording conversations and the like; waste of valuable space and time and they’d probably need to go to the effort of hiring another few electricians who they’d need to compel to forget afterwards. Mina, if you can resist compulsion then we have one thing on our side they don’t know about; the best kind of attack is a surprise attack!” Anxiety springs its ugly head into my consciousness and I take in a sharp breath.
“I don’t want to attack them! I just want to escape this place…and besides, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, the other donors in my Block say that there’s an annual ‘higher-ups’ meeting coming up in the next couple of weeks that my Block and maybe yours too need to prepare for…maybe Sharo will come for you; they’ll all important vampires coming…”
“Pitalisharo won’t come so soon.” I look at her quizzically.
“How do you know?”
“Timing for him is crucial; everything must correspond with the legends of my people…”
“Oh, so when will he be arriving?”
“When the Bloodchain begins…” I look over to Lottie to see if she has made any more sense of Nadie’s words than I had; by her expression, I’d say she was no longer in this room.
“What’s the Bloodchain?”
“I don’t know, it’s just a legend, but he probably knows and that’s when he’ll come.”
“Ok, well, that aside, what’s our plan?”
“To be honest, I agree we should probably leave planning until after this big meeting, could be dangerous otherwise…” I suddenly think of something. “Oh my god, I’m a genius…” Nadie smirks at me.
“Probably, what have you just thought of?”
“We could totally go Oceans eleven on this shit!”
“What? What even is that?!”
“Haven’t you seen the movie, Ocean’s Eleven?”
“Oo I have!” And Lottie’s finally resurfaced, weirdly cheerfully.
“Good, at least one of you has…epic movie, must watch.” Nadie’s getting frustrated, evident in her Dumbledore-style pacing.
“What the hell is this movie about?!”
“Sorry, Nadie… it’s basically this amazing casino heist pulled off by these eleven guys with unique skills; they all trust each other and end up getting loads of money which they split evenly between them; they’re like morally sound crooks.”
“How is a heist relevant?”
“Well, at the beginning of the movie, they start by observing the daily routines and habits and backgrounds of every relevant casino worker. Then, once they have that information, they use it for their own means to break into the casino…and break out again.”
“That is a good idea! So we can do observations here, and you in Block Four! This is a great start! Plus you’ll have loads to observe at the meeting!” I suddenly think of the Donor Manual and the fact that I’ve supposed to be collecting information for that too; I have a surprising amount of work on my hands…
“Mina?”
“Ye?” I zone in the room again and find Nadie and Lottie giving me concerned looks.
“Do you do that a lot?” Nadie pats me on the back jokingly; I’ve been doing it more than I should’ve really allowed myself recently…
“From time to time…”
“Right, Mina, you should probably go and prepare; be in touch though.” The girls smile and bring me in for a hug, which I’m going to need when I find the furious Liam again…
“Okay, it’s lovely to meet you Nadie, thanks so much for being there for Lottie.” It kills me to look at her now, she’s exactly the kind of girl I want to be, and should have been so that Annie didn’t have to die. But this is a fresh start for me; she’d have wanted me to grow a pair of ovaries and fight back, for her.
“Take care, Mina, I mean it.” I nod and open the door to the dimly lit corridor, no sooner had the door closed behind me, when Liam appears in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning nonchalantly against the wall as if he’d been waiting for me.
“You ready to go, cupcake?” His tone drips with false kindness and I feel like whipping my hand back in a swing connecting with his face, with force. My hand twitches at my side but I simply put on my own false smile though I quickly warp it into a realistic one as I remember I’m supposed to be under his compulsion.
“Yes, Sir.” It kills me to be in any way polite to him but I do it for my own good. Let the games begin.
YOU ARE READING
The Blood Bank
吸血鬼~ He leans down and brings his lips to my ear, his breath brushing against my skin, causing havoc to my heartbeat. My eyes close of their own accord... ~ Mina lives like any other person with a messed up family, she just gets on with her life...
