Finding Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book One

Chapter 43. Irresponsible*

Chapter 43. Irresponsible by Frank Sinatra

Picture is Rafael

I was reluctant to leave Evan alone with vampires that were strangers to me. I did not trust Rafael, and I believed that Bong-Li was even more dangerous than he was, but I knew Tourneau and I needed to have it out with Nathan. I could not believe how disrespectful he was. Then again, I really did not know him at all. What had I been thinking that night? It seemed like so long ago, but it had really been less than a month. Evan had turned my entire existence around, and I had Nathan and his unfortunate events to thank for it.

Tourneau and I marched Nathan out into the woods behind our home. He fought us all the way.

"I don't want to kill anybody," he yelled at us. "I'll starve!"

"Nathan, if you'll just hear us out, we will explain some important rules for you to follow. You might actually learn something if you would stop yelling and listen," Tourneau said, grabbing Nathan by the shoulders.

Nathan looked between the two of us, and I knew when he gave up. He went limp and sagged in Tourneau's grip. A single red-tinged tear ran down his face. I had forgotten we cried blood. I had not seen a vampire cry before, it was only something I had heard stories about.

Tourneau led Nathan over to a fallen log and sat him down. Standing before him like a teacher would a classroom, Tourneau began telling Nathan all the things he had taught me nearly a century before. The sight of my patient mentor working to reassure the vampire boy made of my failure triggered a fondness for Tourneau I had buried deep. I would not have managed to keep my sanity had it not been for him.

"First, you will not die if you refuse to eat. That is tantamount to the child who holds her breath to get her way and then passes out. Her body takes control and she continues to breathe, none the worse for the wear," Tourneau was telling Nathan. "Similarly, if you do not eat, your body will demand nourishment. Unfortunately, the price for you denying your hunger is madness. Your body will control you, and you will turn into a killing fiend. Then you will have to be destroyed."

"But I don't want to drink blood and kill people. I'm just a kid. I don't understand everything that's happened to me," Nathan said in a broken whisper.

"When you were human, you ate, correct?" I said, as I stepped up next to the pair.

Nathan nodded.

"Whether you ate meat or were vegetarian, you ate something that had to die for you to eat it. I know...people have souls and can scream in terror. I know. But we want to teach you how to survive with your sanity while not hurting humans unnecessarily," I continued. This was a difficult concept for me to get starting out and Nathan was still just barely a teen. "We don't have to kill a person to be nourished. Don't you see?"

"But everyone at the Enclave made me kill the humans. The told me they were bad people or were going to die anyway, but they threatened me with all kinds of awful things if I didn't do it. They said we had to kill them or they would be a vampire, too," Nathan yelled.

Tourneau and I exchanged glances. Maybe the Brethren had not been the best place to take our young ward.

"Nathan, there are different points of view amongst the vampires, just like humans. Emil and I are, for lack of a better term, gentlemen vampires. We do our best to be civil, to protect humans and to help them. We believe our extra gifts of strength and speed should be used for good, not for evil. We don't believe like many of our kind that taking blood is our right. It is a necessity. Emil and I will do our best to show you the way we think is best, that way, hopefully, if a time comes when or if we meet God, our souls will be pardoned and we will not be damned eternally." Tourneau's sincerity was not lost on Nathan. I could see his mind turning the information over and over.