The Donor House: Ziva: Running to the House

[kajones_writing]

Running was Ziva’s only option. If her brother caught her she knew that she would never have a chance to help her humans and as she sprinted away from the vampire who wanted to kill her she kept their faces at the forefront of her mind. There had been a time, before she’d visited her first auction, that she’d dreamed of ending it all, but she didn’t have the courage. Now she had people she cared about, who cared for her in return, things were very different, so she kept running even though her lungs were burning. When she got to the train station she’d be safe, at least for a while.

The train station had never seemed so far away. With every breath Ziva felt like her lungs might stop working, even though she knew for a fact that was impossible. Being a vampire made her stronger than the average human and capable of dealing with things that they couldn’t. She knew that from experience, because she’d once tried to drown herself. It hadn’t worked, so then she knew that her creator and her siblings had been telling her the truth. There were very few ways a vampire could be killed, which was why her brother was carrying a stake that he would drive through her heart, if she didn’t manage to get to the train station.

As it came into sight Ziva managed to speed up, just a little. She was tempted to look over her shoulder and see where her brother was, but she knew that was a mistake, so she focused on her goal. Train station, train, somewhere safe, so she could plan out how she was going to rescue her humans. As long as they did what they were told, and no one found out that they were immune to the addictive chemicals within vampire saliva, they’d be safe enough until she could work out how to free them. Ethan, she hoped, would know how to keep himself and the girls safe, because she had rescued him from someone like her brother.

When Ziva ran onto the platform she would have breathed sigh of relief if she could. Instead she leapt onto the train, glad that she always kept her season ticket in her purse and her purse was in the bag that had been bashing against her side. He wouldn’t follow her, because the CCTV would record what he did to her, which would lead to him being arrested for murder because a vampire killing another vampire was murder. Technically so was a vampire killing a human and a human killing a vampire, but neither were likely to get caught. She stared out of the window at him as she waited for the train to move, trying not to show any emotion. Letting him know that his action had caused her pain wouldn’t do her any good.

Finally the train started moving and Ziva could finally let the tears fall. She knew that her creator wasn’t happy with her, but she’d never believed that he would try to hurt her or get one of her siblings to. Maybe she wasn’t the vampire he wanted her to be. That didn’t mean he had the right to rid himself of her, because it was her life. Part of her was certain that Kyle hadn’t really been trying to kill her. If he was she would have been dead. He was simply following orders, which was something she could understand, and she knew that he would be the one to take her humans, which was worrying. Their creator had always been happy with Kyle, because he was a ‘real’ vampire.

Leaning back Ziva listened out for the announcements, wiping the useless tears off her cheeks. They weren’t going to help. What she needed to do was work out where she was going to go next and, as the announcements started, she thought about the donor house. Ethan had showed her the website, thinking it would be a good place for them all, but she’d procrastinated, unsure that they would accept her with her humans. Maybe, if she’d known what was going to happen, she would have packed up and gone. Instead she’d let her fear of someone disapproving of her choices affect her decision making skills.

Biting hard on her lip, even though she knew she might end up piercing her lip with her fangs, Ziva forced herself not to think too hard about the mistakes she’d made. It wasn’t going to do her any good. How she dealt with the problems those mistakes had caused was much more important. So she kept listening to the announcements, hoping that she’d been lucky, because she really needed some luck after the night she’d had. If she’d done even one thing a little differently she could have ended up dead and that was something she’d never believed could happen to her. Vampires were immortal, but that didn’t make them invulnerable.

Sighing, Ziva tipped everything she had in her bag onto the table in front of her. The plan had been to go shopping for a few essentials, before spending the rest of the night at home. It was always nice to spend time with her humans and normally they were busy living their own lives. Ethan had been studying for a degree, but that was something Kyle wouldn’t let him continue, because Kyle didn’t treat his humans as though they were anything more than food. He went through four or five humans in a couple of months. She’d had the same humans for almost six years and they chose to stay with her. Others had come and gone, choosing to move on when she told them they were safe from the other vampires.

If it hadn’t been for the gift Ziva’s creator had given her, not long after she’d become a vampire, she would never have gone to the auctions. She thought the whole thing was wrong, but none of her siblings had felt the same way, and simply accepted the auctions as part of being a vampire. Humans were food, nothing more to them, while she… it was hard not to remember what it had been like to be a human and she clung onto her humanity because it was the right thing to do. Becoming like them was something she would never allow herself to do. When she was bought her first human she’d had no idea what to do, but she knew she couldn’t just let them walk away.

Learning how to work together had been difficult and rewarding, so Ziva had chosen to go to the auctions to rescue as many humans as she could. It wasn’t easy. A lot of the humans she’d wanted had sold for a much higher price than she could afford, but that led to her plans changing. She’d buy a couple of cheap humans, the ones who’d fought hard against what was happening to them, before going to the other auction to find out who’d bought who. It wouldn’t take long for them to want to get rid of the humans they’d purchased and that was when Ziva pounced.

That was when things were at their most difficult though. Some of the humans would have already become addicted to being bitten and it was almost impossible for her to help them alone. If she had a group of vampires to work with she believed she would have been able to help them, but a lot of the time they ended up running away because they couldn’t cope with not being bitten. Unfortunately they didn’t believe her when she’d told them they were even less likely to get bitten when they were on the streets. Vampires would view them as nothing more than vermin that should be exterminated. Occasionally groups of addicts were killed off by vampires who thought the world would be better off without them.

Ziva’s creator had been one of them.When she convinced Ethan’s owner to sell him to her they’d had a row, because he was an addict. Unlike some that she’d tried to help Ethan really had wanted to get better. Her creator wanted her to kill him. If she thought about it logically that was the beginning of the end. They’d argued before about what she was trying to do, because it was ‘stupid’, but never as badly as that. She just couldn’t work out why it had taken so long for something more to happen. Unless he was waiting for her to fail with Ethan and when he realised she’d managed to rehabilitate the addict he’d decided she was a danger to his family.

As she tried to push everything to the back of her mind Ziva started going through what she had. Purse, with bank card and season ticket. Most of the ‘family’ relied on their creator’s money, but she’d never wanted to do that, so she’d opened her own account. She didn’t have a lot, but it was better than the nothing she’d have if she had relied on him. Unlike most of the vampires she even had a job. One she’d never be able to go back to, unless she wanted her brother to try staking her again. No clothes, because she didn’t need a change of clothes to go shopping. A mint that looked like it had been at the bottom of her bag for years. Her spare glasses, that she didn’t need and yet couldn’t bear to part with.

Basically Ziva had nothing useful but her purse. Next time she’d have to plan in advance for unexpected attacks. The overwhelming feeling of loss was replaced with amusement and she couldn’t stop herself laughing. It might have been verging on hysterical, but if she didn’t laugh then she’d have no choice but to cry more. She thought she’d had bad days before. They’d been nothing compared to what had just happened and she still didn’t know what she was going to do, even though the donor house did seem to be her best option. At least there she’d meet other vampires she might be able to talk into helping her, preferably before Kyle realised what she’d done to her humans, and maybe she could get them to be more proactive when it came to helping the addicts.

“I couldn’t help noticing what happened,” a quiet female voice said, as a girl who might have been a vampire slipped into the seat opposite Ziva.

“How bad did it look?”

“A vampire was trying to kill you. How bad do you think it looked?” There was no sting in her words, but Ziva winced. “Until you got on the train I had no idea if you were another vampire or human and now that I know you’re a vampire it makes things worse. Why was he after you?”

“My creator hates me.” Ziva shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant even though just saying the words hurt. “The vampire chasing me was my older brother, who was following orders, and now he’ll be going back to my house to pick up my humans.”

“You own humans…” The girl shook her head, looking uncomfortable, and Ziva knew that she should have picked better words, but calling them her humans had stuck. “I thought you were a good vampire.”

As the girl started to get up Ziva sighed. “I’ll admit I own humans,” she said. “In a drawer at home I have their ownership documents. I rescued them, because I wanted to help them, and the easiest way to do that was to buy them from the vampires that didn’t want them. All three of my humans were addicts, although they weren’t as bad as some I’ve come across, and we’ve worked together to get them to a point where they’ll never become addicted again.” She shrugged. “I’ve done what I could and maybe owning humans makes me a bad person, but they chose to stay with me even when I offered to let them go.” A single tear trickled down her cheek. “Now they’re going to belong to my brother and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Still somewhere between sitting and standing the girl stared at Ziva as though she was trying to work out if the story had been true. Eventually she sat back down, smiling. “I have no way of knowing if what you just told me is true. You could be a wonderful actor and I have come across plenty of vampires who’ve been able to turn on the tears when they needed to. The only reason I’m choosing to believe you is because I saw you running for your life and the terror on your face was real.”

“Thank you… I think.”

“What are you doing next?”

“I don’t know.” Ziva still had no idea where the train was going because she hadn’t been paying enough attention to the announcements. “Part of me just wants to curl up in a ball and cry. The rest of me wants to fight for what’s mine but I know if I d something stupid it’s not just going to be me that ends up dead.”

“You could join me. I’m heading to the donor house, because my sister lives in the town and I like to visit occasionally. She’s been trying to convince to stay permanently, because she worries about me, but I like travelling around the country. I meet vampires who need the donor house, so I send them there where they can learn to work with their vampirism instead of fighting it all the time.” She smiled. “I like being able to help people.”

“How long have you been a vampire?”

“A couple of centuries. You?”

“Just over four hundred years.” Ziva looked at the girl, unable to believe that she really was a two-hundred-year old vampire, but there were other vampires who didn’t look at all like the predators they were. “I’m Ziva.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ziva. I’m Charmion.”

Ziva thought for a moment, recognising the name, and then shook her head. “Did you chose the name or were you given it?”

“My creator gave it to me. I think you already know that.”

“You recognised Kyle.”

“That’s his name now. Well, Auntie, you got lucky. If Kyle really had been trying to kill you you’d be dead. I think he liked you too much to follow the orders he was given and makes me wonder if I made the right choice.”

“We were changed around the same time. He’s three weeks older than me and we learnt how to be vampires together, even though we eventually chose different paths. I couldn’t kill him either.”

“Even if it’s a choice between him and one of your humans.”

Ziva ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “I’ve never had to make that choice, Charmion. He’s my brother and I love him, even though I can’t stand the vampire he’d become. If the time comes that I have to make it…” She shook her head. “I honestly have no idea what I’d do.”

“Some day you might have to chose.”

“The same way you had to chose between your creator and your brother.”

Charmion nodded. “I never knew what I’d do in that sort of situation. I’d never imagined that situation would ever happen, but my brother was always going to be a problem and we kept him safe because it was what we’d been taught to do. Family first. He just didn’t think it would be my brother we chose as family, because he’d been there longer.” She blinked, as though she was trying to stop herself from crying. “I am sorry for what we did, because I did care for our creator, but our brother needed us more.”

“He’s at the donor house.”

“Being a vampire is still difficult for him, even though all the donors at the house are willing. A couple of times he’s talked about walking into the sun but I don’t think he’d ever really kill himself.” Charmion bit her lip and Ziva got the first view of the tiny fangs her vampiric niece had. “I hope not anyway.”

“Maybe if it was as easy as walking into the sun more vampires would kill themselves, but our choices are limited. One of your cousins, Kyle’s child actually, tried to kill herself by not feeding and it was more painful than she ever believed it would be. In the end she came to me for help.”

“What did you do?”

“I told her that there were humans who willingly donate their blood to vampires and if she wanted me to I’d help her find one. She actually took one of my humans with her, because he was willing and…” Ziva sighed. “How much do the vampires at the house know about vampire saliva?”

“You mean the immunity thing?” Ziva nodded. “They know about it, but I don’t know how they found out.”

“Accidentally probably. My human was immune to vampire saliva and I knew he’d be able to help her. I haven’t seen either of them since, so all I can do is hope things went well for them.”

“Names?”

“Back then Kyle’s daughter was Aingeal and my human was Galen.”

“I’ve never met anyone with those names at the house, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been there before. Ask Alice, because they keep records of every vampire and human who enters the house, and I know I’ve found a couple of vampires I was looking for by going through those lists.”

“Galen won’t be alive now, unless Aingeal changed him, and I know he was happy being human.”

“You never know what might have happened if they ended up falling in love or he met another vampire he fell in love with. I’ve heard of it happening before, but I wouldn’t suggest changing someone just because you’ve fallen in love with them. Love is such a fleeting emotion.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.