Tides

CHAPTER 4--Valeno

For two days Valeno worked tirelessly on the vampire, cleansing his wounds with cold water, removing the projectiles, and applying bandages to the gashes. But when the bleeding began to seep through the wrappings, Valeno knew what needed to be done.

The vampire needed blood. Fresh blood.

The proteins in the blood boosted vampire immune systems by fifty percent, and would have Valeno's vampire healed in no time. The only problem: Valeno would need to leave the vampire to round up some fresh kill. It was not the best experience.

"Fuck," growled Valeno, scuffing his heels on the cave's floor. "Dammit, vampire." 

  Valeno didn't want a vampire–even a severely wounded one–in his cave alone. He didn't trust them. Honestly, who would? They were vampires for the Pack's sake! You learned early on never to trust them. As far as the Packs knew, they were bloodthirsty backstabbers who had no empathy for any creature. But the being passed out on Valeno's floor seemed different...more humane.

Valeno furrowed his brow, frowning. Why had he thought this to be a good idea. He was going soft already!

The vampire stirred with a pained moan and Valeno snapped to attention, eyes fixed on the growing red stain on the vampire's shoulder. He hadn't dragged this vampire all the way up to his caves only for the dumb brute to bleed out and die on him. That was not okay.

Steeling himself, Valeno prepared to hunt.          

When Valeno returned with a young white-tailed buck, the vamp was lying in the same spot, a pool of blood beneath him. Enough blood that any other creature would be dead by now. Cursing, Valeno began to de-hide the deer so that he could drain the blood from the carcass–He could eat dry meat.

As he worked, Valeno reminded himself of why he was doing this over and over. The vampire had lost his family; an assassin had killed them; Valeno didn't tolerate assassins–that was all. It was only because Valenio was empathetic to the situation. But if it was true...then why did Valeno feel as if he was hiding something from himself?

Valeno drained a fair amount of blood into his stone carved bowl and set it aside for the vampire. Next, he stared at his patient, trying to figure out how to get anything into him. Finally he settled for propping his vampire against the far wall and prying open his mouth. Using a woolen spunge, Valeno dipped and squeezed drop by drop deerblood, into the vampire's mouth.   

The reaction was immediate. The wounds folded in on themselves, becoming raw weeping puncture wounds instead of bloody holes. The vampire tensed, back arched, then went limp.

After fifteen minutes of dripping blood into the vampire's mouth, Valeno's stomach rumbled. He needed to eat. Seeing that his patient was still safely unconscious, Valeno moved back to the deer carcass and tore off a strip of meat. It was a bit dry and chewy due to the lack of blood, but it was edible. Prodding at the dead body, Valeno summed up a plan to save as much of the meat as he could. It would be made into jerky. A low moan interrupted his train of thought. Looking over, Valeno saw the vampire beginning to stir. With a snarl of alarm, Valeno rushed to the vampire's side.

"Can you hear me?" he asked the other boy. He did this every time the vampire woke up–panicking and such. But what if this was all a game and the vamp was biding his time to kill Valeno? Valeno shook the thoughts away. With blood-stunned eyesight and two major wounds, the vamp wasn't going anywhere.

"Make a sound if you can hear me," Valeno suggested. If the vampire was responsive this time, that could change everything. Valeno was almost ready to relax when the vampire grunted quietly.