Quick Study

by Katherine Kim

  Darien groaned and tried to open his eyes. She crouched down and put her ear close to hear what he was trying to say.

  “You… you’re hurt.” He managed. Welp, that’s it for control. She started laughing as tears rolled down her face.

  “I’m not sure I’m the one we need to worry about here, D.” She ran to the cot and pulled off the sheet. It was clean enough, and once she ran some water over it she started wiping the blood off Darien’s face. Underneath it was a patchwork of bruises, all in some stage of turning black.

  “Jeez. I leave you alone for one hour and look what a mess you make.” She sniffled.

  “Don’t… don’t laugh.” He wheezed. “Ow.”

  “When I woke up this morning I didn’t think I’d spend my evening cleaning up after a vampire bleeding out in a dungeon bathroom. Today definitely tops out my weird-o-meter.” Caroline huffed a laugh as she carefully swiped the cloth down his shoulder. Then she froze, replaying her own words back in her mind.

  “Darien,” her voice came out quietly, just above a whisper, but stronger. “Darien you said a while ago that if you got some real food you could heal quickly. Did you mean blood?”

  He groaned and tried to move. Caroline put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him easily. That actually made them both pause.

  “Won’t.” He said.

  “I’m already bleeding anyway, and I’ve got a real feeling that we’re both going to die if we don’t get out of here. And it sounds like you’ve been hung out to dry, buddy.” Caroline was surprised at the firmness of her own voice, and when she checked in with herself, she was shocked to find that she meant every word.

  “But…” Darien looked at her. He could only open his eyes to tiny slits but she still connected with his gaze and gave him her best glower.

  “Are you a vampire or aren’t you? If the answer’s yes then you’re my best chance to get out of here alive. And I don’t know about you, but that is my big, driving goal right now.”

  4

  Caroline waited a moment, watching him watch her through his slitted windows of vision. He made no sound, didn’t try to move. The fact that Caroline, a beaten, exhausted, untrained high school senior more at home at a desk than in gym class could keep him down disturbed both of them, but she thought that the look on his face was more frightened than surprised. She had the feeling that he was not used to feeling helpless.

  “I’m going to be a ton of trouble.” His voice was raspy, but determined. And his words were probably as close to an agreement as she was going to get from him. She nodded and then, suddenly shy, she looked down to the floor. Gritting her teeth together she pinched the part of her arm where the tile had cut her. The wound was almost more of a puncture, but was long enough to gape when she squeezed the ends together and so produced a stream of fresh, red blood. She glanced up and saw that Darien’s eyes had shut again.

  “Don’t pass out on me now, D.” She said, forcing a smile because she knew it would come though into her voice. She held the wound open for a few moments, hoping that it would be enough, and then held it over his mouth. She was shaking now, so badly that the drops of blood falling from her arm hit his cheek and his chin. There was no hope for it, she was going to have to pull on her Big Girl Pants and just do it. She let her arm touch his face so that the blood slid directly from her arm to his mouth.

  She wasn’t sure what she expected when she watched the blood flow into his mouth, but nothing sure wasn’t it.

  “Um, D? Is this okay?” She asked. He didn’t answer. “Darien?” She glanced down and watched his chest rise for a shallow breath. He wasn’t dead yet, at least. That was good. What was it Miracle Max said? ‘Mostly dead I can work with.’

  She pinched and rubbed her arm, stimulating the flow, and waited until his face twitched and the glimmer of his eyes appeared again under the swollen lids. She saw his jaw move, and his throat as he swallowed. He licked his lips and took a deep, ragged breath and she grinned.

  She almost jumped, though, when his fingers wrapped around her wrist. His hold was careful, almost delicate, and she thought that it was as much a deliberate gentleness as it was weakness from being beaten. Especially when he brought her arm all the way to his mouth and he opened wide. She didn’t see his teeth, but she felt them slide into her arm, two deep punctures to let the blood flow easily into his waiting throat. She couldn’t help it. She yelped.

  “Sorry.” She said, quickly once she’d taken a breath. The sheet clutched in her other hand was like a security blanket and she drew it up to feel it wrap around her torso while he fed. He really was a vampire. Which meant that he was telling the truth earlier and the people who’d kidnapped her really were some sort of elf terrorists. So what else was real? Werewolves? Trolls? Mermaids and unicorns? Man, she hated to even think of the terrifying possibilities from around the world. Caroline could tell that she was starting to terrify herself.

  Wait, no. She really wasn’t terrifying herself. She was feeling… sort of numb, actually. Kind of woozy and light-headed. Oh shit.

  “Um, Darien? I think… I think I’m going to pass out.”

  “I’ve got you.” His voice seemed to come from just miles away as she folded over towards the floor.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey yourself.” Caroline grumbled and rolled over. The blanket that covered her was scratchy but warm and she just wanted a few more minutes before dragging herself out of bed to get ready for school. God what a god awful mess school was. If she could just survive the next few months…

  Survive.

  “Holy shit.” Caroline sat bolt upright on the cot and stared wildly around the room.

  “Good morning, Sunshine.” Darien said. He was sitting on the floor, one arm propped on the cot by her hip, looking up at her. He still looked like a victim of a brutal assault, but his eyes were just bruisey now, and not swollen shut. He’d taken off his shirt and cleaned himself up, apparently using the rest of the sheet as a towel, and instead of bleeding wounds, there were only blue and purple bruises.

  “How did…” she blinked. No, that was the wrong question, obviously. “How long was I out?”

  “A little over an hour. I am guessing a little bit, but definitely not more than two.” He said. “I…” he shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what to say now. How do you feel?”

  “Sore and bruised. Not a shock considering. But…” she looked down at her arm and saw nothing. Not even where she’d cut herself on the tile. “Woah.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t know about that either. But that bruise on your cheek looks better too.” He said.

  “Well that’s pretty handy. How are you feeling? You look a lot better. Almost like you did when I first got here.” Caroline squinted at his face and at his shoulder where a particularly nasty looking gash had been.

  “Yeah. The healing will go from most pressing injury to least. So I stopped bleeding out first, then the concussion and the pain in my ribs started to fade. My wrist is already feeling a lot better too. I don’t think I’ll get all the way back to perfectly well again in the next day or so, but I’m sure as hell going to be able to get us out.” He grinned at her.

  “Great. Then what do we do?” Caroline blinked at him. She felt very shy again. “I mean, how do we explain all this to… jeez. Anyone? My parents for one? Or your boss? You said you were going to get in a ton of trouble for this.”

  “Yeah, well. There were extenuating circumstances. I’m willing to bet that a lawyer can get me off pretty light.”

  “A vampire lawyer?” Caroline cocked an eyebrow at him. “There’s a lawyer joke in there, but it’s too obvious for me to tell it.” Darien laughed, and she was honestly relieved by the sound. It felt comfortable and hopeful, and after the past few hours hopeful was the best feeling in the world.

  “Not necessarily a vampire, no. But you are underage, and there are rules about this sort of thing. I wasn’t kidding about that.” He shifted and looked a bit embarrassed. “I mean, n
othing happened. You offered outright and you were already wounded and bleeding freely, and I was probably dying. But it’s still a pretty intimate thing, so yeah. There’s rules and stuff.”

  “Wow.” Caroline blinked, then started to giggle. Darien looked up, startled. “Well I’m glad we got to have a dinner date first, at least. If you’re going to get into trouble for it and all.” He blinked at her then started to grin himself.

  “Well, next time I get kidnapped and need to feed to escape, I’ll make sure to bring some wine for beforehand. Seems only fair.” He said.

  “I can’t drink wine.” Caroline laughed harder now. “I’m underage! You’re so busted!”

  “Oh man. I really am.” He shook his head, but was still smiling.

  “Hey, how old are you, anyway? Do you have some kind of super long life? Do you stop aging or something?” Caroline asked when she wound down.

  “I’m twenty three years old, and no. Assuming a natural death of old age, I might have a few more years than the average human male, but definitely not forever or anything.” Darien said. He stood then, and started stretching. “And I’m not sure why you fainted. Like I said, I don’t exactly have a lot of experience with this.”

  “Well, if I was going to guess, I’d say it was a combination of stress from the whole day and my brain refusing to process what was happening. Unless you have some sort of super bloodsucking magic skills or something, there’s no way it was from blood loss. Although now that I’ve said that you probably do, don’t you?”

  “Um. Huh.” Darien stopped moving and cocked his head in thought. “Never thought about it, but I suppose I do. But no. If you’ve ever donated blood before and been fine, there’s no reason you shouldn’t have been okay in this situation, too. It’s about the same, volume-wise.”

  “Just once. My school has a blood drive for seniors. Does that mean I get vending machine cookies now?” Caroline grinned.

  “Tell you what, I’ll get you cookies once we’re out of here. How’s that sound?” Darien ran his hands over the door, investigating.

  “That sounds acceptable. It’s a deal.”

  “Okay then, let’s work on the first problem. Getting out of here without getting us killed.” Darien glared at the door. “I don’t know if I can just punch through this door. I could get through the wall though. I think it’s just drywall, which seems like a really dumb mistake.” He said. He ran his hands over the wall all the way to the corner.

  “Are there guards outside or something? Can you tell with your super hearing?”

  “I can hear one guy, yeah. Sounds like he’s watching TV or something.” Darien looked over his shoulder. “We’re going to have to deal with him, too, once we’re out, at the very least. How big is this place, did you see much?”

  “Not really, no, but it’s not huge. It seems like just a big, abandoned house. I’m betting that we’re in one of the old spa mansions up the west hills. About half of them got abandoned when the spring dried up, since old rich folks couldn’t pretend that spring water would cure all their diseases anymore.” Caroline stared at the door.

  “That would make sense. Lots of land around those old places to be able to work undisturbed.” Darien ran his hands over the wall again like he was looking for something.

  “Hey.” Caroline said. “I have an idea. It might be dumb, but it might work, and if it does it’ll be less trouble than punching through the wall.”

  “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  Caroline gave a quick outline of her idea and Darien started to grin.

  5

  Caroline’s scream was short and shrill. She backed away from the body on the cot and spun to pound on the door.

  “Help! You have to help! He’s dead!” She had to trust that they could hear her because she had no idea what was going on outside the room. She glanced back at the cot, taking in the bloody sheet and the crumpled body, hoping that the guard outside would hurry.

  The sound of metal banging and shifting thudded through the door, and she stepped to the side to allow it to swing open before launching herself at her guard, regardless of the gun he held in front of him, ready to shoot.

  “Oh thank god you heard me.” She sobbed into his arm, clutching it almost like a stuffed animal. He snarled and shoved her away, and she only managed to stay on her feet by grabbing the doorframe.

  “What do you want, human?” Caroline cowered against the wall and held a trembling hand out to point at the cot. The guard growled and stepped over to poke at the twisted pile of sheet and blanket and battered body with the barrel of his gun. He jabbed hard into Darien’s side, right into one of the still black bruises, and managed to open a new wound which oozed sluggishly.

  “Eh, not totally dead yet. Won’t be long though, you human loving piece of shit.” The guard spit at Darien and turned back to Caroline who cringed in the doorway. “We’ll drag his corpse out eventually. Might want to dump him on the floor though, if you want the bed.” He sneered at her and started to take a step. He didn’t get very far, though, since there was a hand clamped like steel around the barrel of the gun.

  “Thanks for getting close enough.” Darien growled. He yanked the weapon out of the hands of the elf, the strap pulling the guard down after it, spinning him right into Darien’s fist.

  “I’m honestly surprised that worked,” Darien said. He pulled the gun off the unconscious guard and rolled the man onto the cot to replace his own body there. She watched him reach over and wrestle the guard’s shirt off to replace his own, then threw the blanket over the elf to mask his face. “Eh, that’ll do for the time being. You’re a pretty good actress.” He grinned at Caroline who was still shivering by the door.

  “Wasn’t really acting much. Once that guy came in I really was pretty terrified.” She said.

  “Hey, you did great.” Darien ushered her out of the room and swung the door shut behind him, securing the lock. “And your movie-inspired idea worked like a charm.”

  “Yeah, well.” Caroline grumbled. “When in a crazy fantasy movie, might as well go all in.” Darien just chuckled and checked the gun over.

  “Scribed ammo. Interesting. These aren’t cheap. Odd that they’d waste these on guarding me, especially since they know elf shot can knock me down.” Darien said. He frowned at the weapon he still held.

  “Okay, so pretend like I don’t know anything.” Caroline said.

  “Scribed ammunition is like… like armor piercing rounds, but for magic. And it’s not cheap because each bullet has to be individually etched. You can’t just machine produce these, it takes a trained scribe with some power to do it. So they’re usually reserved for major stuff like storming a stronghold when you’re not completely sure what’s inside. Or holding a powerful prisoner.”

  “Like you?” Caroline asked.

  “No. Well, maybe if they knew what I am, but they can’t have known. It’s not even common knowledge in my team. The guys know that I’m born to magic, but that’s about it. If it’s not obvious, it’s usually not considered polite to ask, and since I can blend into human society easily I’m considered a pretty good asset. Not all of us can.” Caroline heard the truth in his voice. He was distracted and puzzled, but he wasn’t lying.

  “So… why would they bring out the big guns? Not for me, for sure.” Caroline asked.

  “I don’t know.” Darien frowned at the weapon in his hand. “Well, I’ll hang on to it anyway. You never know. Have you ever fired a gun?” He glanced up suddenly. Caroline shook her head.

  “Never even been in the same room as one, unless you count the patrol cops around town.” She said. He nodded and turned down the hallway. They checked the other rooms in the basement and found nothing useful. There was a storage closet full of cleaning supplies and rotting cardboard boxes. The furnace room with a giant water heater and some ancient and dusty beer bottles rolled into the corner. And a room by the stairs that the guard had been sitting in. It held a couple of chairs, a short, metal cabinet, and
a TV on a makeshift desk. The TV was showing a news program, currently discussing the weather for the next week. Break out your swimsuits early, folks, it’s going to get hot! Darien turned it off and leaned towards the stairs.

  “There’s a couple of guys in the room at the top,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Do you remember the layout of the place at all?”

  “It’s the kitchen. That door there opens next to the fridge, and there’s an island workspace between that and the door to the rest of the house that they dragged me through. I don’t remember if there’s, like, a back door or anything. I think there were windows, so maybe?” She whispered. He nodded, then moved to dig through the cabinet.

  “More scribed ammo. I don’t like this.” He muttered, but shoved the box in his pocket anyway. “Okay, let’s go. Stay behind me when I open the door, and if there’s a door to outside in that room, just go to it. Clear?” His face had gone hard again, and Caroline could see the capability for violence held in his expression, but his voice was worried. Nervous, she thought.

  “Loud and,” Caroline said. Darien reached out and gripped her shoulder for a moment, squeezing it gently. Then he nodded and turned, sliding the gun so it lay mostly flat down his back, out of the way. They crept quietly up the stairs. Caroline had done her fair share of sneaking past her parents, so she was pretty quiet, but Darien moved like he was part of the air around them. Not even a whisper of sound marked his passage towards the door. Caroline felt the gooseflesh creep over her arms and her mind finally accepted the fact of this new reality. Vampires were real, and one of them was trying to save her life right now. Because he was the good guy. And the bad guys were elves. Elf Supremacists? Apparently that was a thing. A real thing that really existed in real life.

  Darien held out his hand, forcing her to crowd towards the wall a bit. She swallowed and forced her hands not to grab his shirt for comfort. He leaned forward to listen at the door for a moment. Even Caroline with her perfectly normal human ears could hear movement and voices on the other side of the door. Darien, however, grinned and shooed her another step back down the stairs. She looked up just as the door started to open and Darien kicked it hard to swing wide and fast. Then, everything was a blur for just long enough for her to gasp and take one single step towards the kitchen.