Chapter 44Where Blood is Offered

We hurried over into the store, looking at her torn body. Wounds that were still open enough to see but no longer bleeding were everywhere. It all looked as if she had just been thrown in there, not minutes ago. I looked around to Isabel who just stood there patiently. Not interested or bored. Just standing. I guess this was even more annoying. She didn't care, it was all just there as it should be.

As I bent over Khuna I had a feeling she wasn't breathing. Her head looked hurt even more then the rest of her body. Was she thrown in here head-first? Who'd do such a terrible thing? Then I noticed something else. The glass and her must have bounced off the wall. I noticed more shards near the wall, which was strange, and a fair few under her. Something was wrong.

On the wall there was a red spot and cracks in the plaster where her head probably hit it. My eyes just kept looking around, hoping to piece everything together. But I knew I just missed a really important part of it all. Was this an accident or on purpose. Nothing here betrayed that one way or the other. I looked down at Khuna who seemed completely out of it. It was hard to tell if she was dead...

I hoped she wasn't dead.

It was something I couldn't even really get into my head. It was just so weird. I'd only known here for so short but she felt like a sister. It just couldn't be the end already.

"She's not dead." Valerie had put her head on her back carefully, listening to her heartbeat. "But she needs blood. Fast!"

I looked around to the street. We were fairly lucky this wasn't a busy street. I didn't expect she's been here long but at least no one else saw her. I mean, for the rest of the world she still looks like a seventeen year old girl, despite her paler skin. She wasn't in a state to feed properly, she wouldn't even be able to get into a club without everyone asking why she wasn't in a hospital. Ironically enough it made me think of the first time I tasted blood. When Khuna had brought a boy outside to flirt with me. A way to repay her, to do for her what she did for me.

Okay, I knew what to do, but we needed to cover her somehow. Isabel was still wearing her backpack and though the shirts in there were probably too small, it was at least something.

"Make her sit, I have a plan." Valerie looked at me with surprise as she looked very much in shock. That surprised me but I had little time to think on that. She helped Khuna up, rolling her on her back first and then helping her up to sit. I walked to Isabel and around her, she didn't even move, and retrieved a shirt from the backpack. It didn't occur to me that it was strange that there was a shirt right at the top, very convenient.

I walked back to Khuna and noticed her jeans were mostly fine, good enough to walk around at least. It probably even looked fashionable with those few cuts. I pulled off her shirt and noticed the many cuts along her chest, shoulders and upper arms. Confirming more and more that she landed here head-first. I left her bra on, mostly because it wasn't torn really but also because I didn't want to see her breasts or expose them to the world. A strange warm thought.

Raising her arms I managed to pull the clean shirt over her head properly and made her look proper again. In a way. I noticed once more how our skin doesn't seem to hold any dirt or blood. The dried blood just fell off as soon as I moved her and if you didn't notice the many cuts on her arms she'd look very pretty and normal, despite being in a too tight shirt.

Though some guys would probably like that, a lot.

We just had to wake her somehow.

Valerie smiled, almost reading my thoughts. "A bit of your blood."

I looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"I wanted to do it, but as you kind of made her look good again I thought it was fair to have you give her some blood." She looked up at me expectantly while she held Khuna up. "It's kind of intimate... and I've only let one person drink mine."

I smiled, kind of understanding. "Okay."

My body moved sort of automatically, biting my wrist gently at the artery feeling a strange sensation as my tongue tasted a drop of my own blood. Almost electric. It didn't feel as welcome or as good as drinking the blood from someone else, but... it was like I was tasting my inner self in some strange way.

I got a grip and knelt, moving my open wrist to Khuna's mouth. Her body slowly wrapped around it, her mouth drinking even before her arms or anything else moved. It was pure instinct, pure reflex. There was blood. Drink.

It had to stop though. As soon as her eyes opened I pulled back. It drained me almost as much as it made me smile.

She gasped, it looked like a silent scream. She looked around noticing me and Valerie around her. She gazed at her hands, her eyes noticing the cuts in her palms and arms. She looked at her shirt, still not saying a thing and looked at the floor, the wall. She raised her hand up to her head, feeling the sensitive skin, the place the wall had violently met with her skull.

Again she looked to the ground, following the shards of glass, as if she was piecing them together to piece her memory together. From shard to shard her gaze went, her head turning to look at the window and finally noticing Isabel. Her eyes went wide.

"You!" She screamed to Isabel, crawling back against Valerie, the glass shards on the ground making more cuts in her palm of her hands.

"You were here!"