The Blood Bank

Chapter 25 - Out of Mind

Gabi’s POV:

I enter Tristan’s room first as is custom for women, but when I see nothing but polite decoration around the room, I turn back to look at him.

“Karmine!” At his call, a short, petite woman appears out of the cupboard in the corner of the room. Her looks give the deceiving appearance of good health but I sense something other about her. Her hair is abnormally long, falling to her elbows in a cascade of auburn hair that exactly matches the colour of her eyes, vacant, and closed to the world.

“Sir?”

“I’ve brought someone to taste you.” Tristan gestures for me to walk forward, I do so hesitantly but the girl doesn’t flinch; she’s been doing this for a while.

“Is she your Singer?” He smiles to himself at my question.

“Do you think I’d allow you to taste her if she were?” He chuckles again, “No, dear Gabi, she’s not my Singer, but I realise I’ve kept her around longer than most…she’s the closest I’ve come to Singer blood until…. Well…why don’t you see for yourself…” I take another few steps forward and take hold of the girl, flicking her hair over her shoulder and sweeping in to bite. Again, she doesn’t flinch, it’s kind of like holding a rag-doll. Her blood washes into my mouth, it tastes of calm, with undertones of hate and anger, undetectable by a younger tongue. The taste is so complex with fathoming depths of emotion and mind that I find myself drinking for longer than is polite, I withdraw with a gasp and look over apologetically at Tristan who’s grinning at me with his eyebrows raised. “Exquisite, isn’t she? When I found her twelve years ago, her taste was a far milder version of what it is now, she was complex even then… she seems to get better with age….” I look back at the girl, she’s gazing past me, her eyes are vacant, almost bored looking, you would never guess what depths lurked beneath.

“Was she always this placid?”

“Well I watched her for some time before I caught her and never observed this behaviour from her. When I came for her on her eighteenth birthday, she was…”

“What?”

“She was furious.”

“She was angry? Wasn’t she scared of you?” I look up in amazement at him, some of it put on so as to feed his giant ego.

“Nope, actually, until I subdued her, she actually attacked me.” I make a gasp sound.

“What did you do?”

“Well, her outburst caused her baby to wake up so I had to silence it…” I feel the strength drain like heavy lead from my limbs, he killed it, he killed it! “Gabi, are you alright?” His vile hands come out to support my suddenly shaken form, I want to be sick… I look over at the girl, I still taste her blood in my mouth, all of its rage and loss, every cell of love, and the waiting, the calm and patient waiting that so much softens the taste of her pain. I know that pain, I’ve known it what as long as I remember and it turns everything I am into a monstrous thing. “Covas? It’s me. If you don’t get here right now, I will have to kill your sister.” A few seconds later I hear the door slam open as my brother grabs my shoulders.

“Gabi?! Wake up!” He shakes me more violently, “Tris, what happened?!”

“Everything was fine, she tasted Karmine and suddenly everything started to go a bit mad.” The rage within me rises to an unbearable point. “You feel that, Covas? If she doesn’t stop then I will have to have her killed as a matter of defence.”

“Ye, I feel it, I will make it stop, Sir, I promise.”

“You disgusting animal!” I rush forward with the intension of ripping his head off but my brother grabs me and holds my back. “Get off me! Get off me!” I barely recognise the monstrous sound that escapes my lips, but I don’t care, I want him dead; he’s the one, he’s the one!