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As I sat in the clinic on the same bed I had been chained to on so many occasions, not only free but on the other side of the equation, I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it was actually happening. And yet, there was no room to doubt the purpose of the blood dripping into my veins from the infusion bag that had been filled with my own blood on plenty of occasions.
"How are you feeling?" Dr. Kelly asked, coming over to check on me. I was one of two patients in the clinic at the moment. As far as I could tell, the woman sitting on the cot as far away from me as possible wasn't injured, just receiving a transfusion for the same reasons.
So far, the only hunters besides Castor and Arrow who I was on speaking terms with were Claudia and Baker. In the case of the latter, I was pretty sure it was just because Castor had instructed him to keep an eye on me when he wasn't around, but beggars couldn't be choosers.
That was something I had to remind myself of continually.
I still wasn't sure what had changed Castor's mind, but the fact that he had been quite sour when he had announced that I should report to the clinic prior to training that morning made me wonder if it was his idea at all. Then again, sometimes he just got into a weird mood and I had given up trying to figure out what had or hadn't triggered it. I had enough to worry about just making sure I didn't directly piss him off, and that was easier said than done.
"I feel fine," I said, looking down at the needle sticking out of the crook of my arm. "But I don't feel any different. Is that normal?"
"For the first few transfusions, yes," he answered. "And I was instructed to start you out on a lower dose than usual, so it will probably take at least that long."
"Oh," I said, taking in the new information. "You mean by Father de Leon?"
"Father Marius," he corrected.
Father Marius? I wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he was so directly involved, but at least that explained Castor's sudden change of heart.
I heard a commotion from down the hall and looked up to see several hunters dragging the vampire who had been in the cell across from mine during my stay in the dungeon. His face was gaunt, even behind the thick leather mask obscuring the lower half of it. To keep him from biting, I assumed. It also seemed to keep him from speaking, but he was plenty capable of hissing and growling.
"Put him over there," Dr. Kelly said, motioning to an empty cot in the corner.
The guards dragged him over to the other end of the room with more difficulty than someone with his relatively thin build should have been capable of putting up. I guessed vampires really were a lot stronger than they looked.
The older ones were even stronger than wolves, according to Castor. A lot stronger.
I assumed this one had to be pretty old if he was giving the hunters such a hard time, even if he didn't look like he could be well over thirty. He had long, dark hair and eyes such a pale hue of pink, they almost looked white. I had come to realize that the vampires’ eyes changed depending on how much blood they had consumed, and hunters taking infusions of vampire blood worked the same way.
I grimaced as one of the guards brought his fist down on the side of the vampire's head, striking him hard enough that he blacked out for a second. His growling resumed as they forced him down on the bed and chained him with his arms behind his back.
"You're going to have to get over that," Dr. Kelly said, checking the infusion bag above me.
I looked up at him. "Get over what?"
"Seeing them as people, worthy of dignity and respect," he answered. "A hunter's lot in life is to kill beasts, nothing more and nothing less. You chose this life."
I clenched my jaw, knowing he was right, but that didn't necessarily make it easy to accept.
"What about you?" I asked. "You're not a hunter. You’re a doctor, and you swore an oath to help people."
"People," he echoed pointedly.
I frowned. "Yeah. I guess so."
The doctor seemed as if he wanted to say something else, but instead, he pulled the needle out of my arm without warning and announced, "You're free to go. Come back tomorrow morning, same time."
"That's it?" I asked, pressing a finger against the small wound the needle had left in the crook of my arm.
"It's not a very complicated process," he said. "And you still need to give blood now that you're healed."
"Oh. Right," I said sheepishly. I didn't know why I had assumed I had gotten out of that, and I didn't really mind. It made me feel useful, and even though most of the hunters acted like they could barely stand the sight of me, I was glad my blood would be on hand in case there were any more casualties. Especially knowing Castor was out there on the hunt every night, after he finished a full day of training me.
He was outside in the hall when I left the clinic, leaning against the wall as if he had been waiting for me. Most of the others at least went on their phones during their downtime, but I’d never even seen him with one. At first, it had been kind of bizarre to see people doing something so normal and modern when the Abbey resembled a medieval castle lost in time.
Not Castor, though. He seemed perfectly content with his own thoughts, and I found myself wishing I could be privy to them.
I knew it was probably wishful thinking, but I couldn't help but hold out hope that maybe one day, if I proved myself worthy as a hunter, he would see me as something more than a burden and a nuisance. It didn't seem likely, but I could dream, as dangerous a pastime as it probably was.
