Veins of Desire

CHAPTER 10

“What do you mean?” Haliya asked in confusion. She woke up wondering what had happened to Sally and Ella; now, her life was on the line. Growing up, she just had a simple life with her mother. All these years, she was a reserved girl, helping her mother to pay their expenses. Gladly, they had a house, which lessened their burden of paying bills for rent.

Years have gone by, and the only thing that Haliya could remember was the tough times she and her mother had when they needed a man in the family. But when Haliya realized that her reality was a life without a father, she made sure to help her mother in every possible way and stand as a son to her, not just a daughter. Not in her imagination reach the fact that she will be someone beyond a human. ‘Wow! So I didn’t just turn into a vampire; I am something else,’ she scoffed in her mind.

“Look, you should have died, but you didn’t. Your body responded differently to the venom that was inserted in you,” the serious voice of Martin, which was a different tone from what Haliya had heard before, made her brows align.

Martin and Wendy discussed what possibly happened to Haliya. Martin was especially obscenely curious about Haliya’s case, as there were only two known vampire venoms. One of which they use to kill their prey and one that was normally used to quickly draw blood from their prey without killing them. He hadn’t seen someone with venom that could transform a human into a vampire by biting them with their venom. He thought of two things. One, a vampire adapted and developed the ability to transform a human into a vampire. And two, Haliya’s body reacted differently to the venom, so instead of getting her killed, it transformed her into a vampire. A half-blood. Martin was uncertain, which was why he wanted to help Haliya, as he had a gut feeling that Haliya would be of great use or their greatest downfall. Either way, she had to stay alive and be brought to Xavier.

“I don’t know what you are yet. We’re not sure. But Xavier will know; he has to,” Martin said. By that time, Wendy had come out of the room. She was leaning towards the door frame, her hands crossed, and her eyes darted at Martin.

“You’re mentioning Xavier to her now. Why not tell her the whole plan instead, so she would probably try her best not to become a nuisance,” her voice was as sharp as her visible fangs. Xavier was precious to her, and she didn’t expect Martin to just mention his name to Haliya.

“I see nothing wrong with that,” Martin stated, crossing his arms and flashing his smirk. “Is there something wrong with that? Sooner or later, they will meet. I am sure you would want to tell Haliya who he is, so she won’t be a ‘nuisance.’”

The heated tension between Martin and Wendy just ignited. They were far from the sweet couple that Haliya met at Johnsen Hospital. They were like cats and dogs quarreling with one another, and yet later on, they would make out… literally.

“What?” Martin raised a brow. “Do the honor of introducing Xavier to her. We already mentioned him; she’s so curious right now.”

‘Why does it always have to be a mysterious guy with a name I don’t even know but is important!’ Haliya shouted inwardly. She drank the glassful of water and looked back and forth between Wendy and Martin.

“Fine!” Wendy sat down in front of Haliya, still with a creased forehead, as if she didn’t really want to share any information about Xavier.

“Xavier will come here and save us because that’s what he always does. Save our asses,” she began telling and quickly glanced towards Martin, who was just sitting to her right. “You could tell that he is our leader. We’re not at Johnsen Hospital because we are immunohematologists; that’s just our pastime. We are there because that hospital is actually a sanctuary of the vampire elites,” she revealed.

The more they dig deeper, the more lost Haliya become. She woke up lost and disoriented because of what she witnessed. Now, she is underground with Martin and Wendy, who revealed that her dream workplace was a vampire’s nest!

“I am a bit lost. So you are a vampire, and Johnsen’s Hospital is like a den of vampires; why aren’t we staying there?”

“Consider them as bad vampires, and we’re the good ones,” Wendy stated to simply put things, but Martin chuckled at the idea, remembering how Wendy disdained simply putting things like that.

“What is she, a kid?” Martin sarcastically remarked and pulled his seat near Haliya’s left. “They are the ones that ran the government system of the vampire community while we are the ones that want to overthrow their shitty policies,” he explained. He stopped for a while, flicking his tongue, and then continued, “Xavier’s our leader. Now, we are at Johnsen Hospital as undercovers. We wanted to know what is happening there. All the rumors that you heard are true,” he breathed in and out, reading Haliya’s reaction.

“There are irregularities with the current Vampire policies; it affects our relationships with humans. We don’t want that. Xavier did not want that, so we wanted to fight against them in secret. We’re doing legal vampire actions, and nothing’s happening about it so far. Until Sally’s death and your incident,” Martin paused for a while, making sure Haliya would process every piece of information that he had given.

Vampire community.

Vampire policies

Vampire government system.

Vampire laws.

Everything was questionable for Haliya! The fact that even a vampire community blended with humans was already mind-blowing information for her. In addition, this vampire community was led by a vampire government, and their haven was a hospital!

What could possibly be weirder than those?

“This is not some sort of a gag show, right? There are no hidden cameras?”

Martin and Wendy’s jaws both fell. They shook their heads and stood from their seat. Martin turned off the light to make Haliya believe it was all real.

Haliya’s heart pounded the moment the light was off. It was dark. So dark and quiet that she could even hear her own heartbeat. It was a deafening silence. “Okay… I believe you now; there’s no need for a show and tell,” she said nervously.

Later, the darkness faded when she saw a pair of red eyes just before her. The pair of red eyes were gone in a blink of an eye, and she was already standing. Her seat was taken from her, and someone just pushed her to stand up. The hands were cold, yet it happened so fast that she had no time to react.

“Stop this… Okay, I get it. You’re all real,” Haliya said, her voice starting to rise from slowly getting upset. After a few seconds, she heard Wendy and Martin’s chuckles. Martin turned on the lights again and gestured a high five with Wendy, which she immediately slapped down.

“We are real. This is all real.”

The chuckling was halted immediately the moment Martin heard a loud thud. It was a sound directly above them. A loud and heavy footstep was approaching. “Go to the bedroom!” Wendy pushed Haliya towards the bedroom and locked the door. Meanwhile, Martin readied himself to greet the intruder at the main door.