Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

but the thought and the atmosphere around her still gave Nora a shiver.  Finally, however, she reached Rogan’s house.  She started to walk up to the front door when she noticed that the small stairs up to the door were completely cracked down the middle.  In fact, the whole threshold of the house was almost completely in shambles.

“What happened here?” Nora whispered to herself.  She carefully and quietly stepped over the broken stairs and walked through the wide open door and into the house.  She proceeded with caution, for she wasn’t sure what she was going to find inside.  Everything within the house was dark and Nora looked around her warily. “Rogan?” she was careful to whisper.  She got no response however.  It wasn’t too long before she noticed the broken coffee table on the floor and the giant hole in one of the walls.  She kept looking around her, gawking at all the damage in the house.  It was obvious that a fight had broken out.

“Dagon must have sent Aaron or Jay back to get Rogan.  And obviously when he wouldn’t go, they fought,” Nora pieced together, speaking out loud to herself in a hushed tone, “Guess Rogan didn’t win.”  It was then that she stopped looking around and faced the open doorway.  She heaved a big sigh as she felt the slight autumn breeze that had come in and was hitting her face.  “Rogan must have been taken to Dagon,” Nora now concluded in her mind.  But, how was she was supposed to go and find him now?  She didn’t know where Dagon resided.  And even if she did find them, what would she do?  How could she save him?  Nora brought her hands up to her face and fell down to the floor on her knees.  She let out another long sigh with a slight whimper inside it.  What could she do now?

It was then that a thought instantly popped into Nora’s mind.  She lifted her head abruptly as she thought more on it. “No,” she said out loud, “I couldn’t do that.” But the thought wouldn’t fade, even due to her disagreement.  In fact, it got stronger and soon became almost a strong impulse.  Nora stood up and, because she really didn’t know what else she should do, followed her new instinct and ran to Rogan’s kitchen.  There she found a large fridge, and she opened it, going through these motions as if she’d lived her for years.  Inside, covering the shelves, were small vials of blood.  Most looked familiar; they had been the ones he had taken from her basement.  But some others, on a lower shelf, were in different containers and had different labels on them.  Most of the labels just had written letters on them: A, AB, and O. Nora could only conclude that these were blood types on the labels and the blood inside these vials was undoubtedly human.

She almost couldn’t help herself as she watched her arm reach out and pick one of the glass containers up.  She held it up to her and her eyes watched the way the blood inside swished around and created small bubbles.  What was she doing?  This thought had suddenly entered her head without warning.  Was she really about to satisfy a sudden whim?  The earlier thought that had caught her off guard couldn’t possibly be helpful.  Why would drinking blood be something she should do now?  Why had that thought even come to her anyway?  It was then that she began to slowly lower the cold glass that was in her hand back toward the fridge shelf that she had gotten it from.  She definitely wasn’t going to do this.  This was crazy.  Wasn’t it?

What else was she to do though?  She didn’t have any other plans as to how she will rescue Rogan, if indeed that is what he is in need of.  But, how would drinking blood help her?  How could this do anything for her?  She didn’t know.  She definitely didn’t know how drinking this blood would help her, but for some reason a nagging in the back of her brain was still telling her to drink it.  That it would help her.  Somehow.

Nora hadn’t noticed it, but she had been frozen in motion for a while now, in front of the open refrigerator, holding the blood vial out in her outstretched arm and blankly staring at its contents as if they were hypnotizing her.  She shook her head to free herself from the sudden daze.  She held up the glass to her face again, observing the blood inside once more.

It was then that Nora came to a conclusion.  She couldn’t keep thinking about this.  She had to do something and since nothing else was coming to mind, what would it hurt to satisfy this sudden desire she was having?  What is the worst that could happen?  She drinks the blood, it tastes horrible, and nothing happens; so what?  She didn’t want to give it any more thought.  She quickly twisted off the lid to the container in her hand and brought the jar to her lips.  She tried to do it as quick as possible so she couldn’t dwell on what she was doing for too long.  However, as she tossed her head back to chug the thick, red liquid, she realized it wasn’t horrible.  Actually, it tasted good.  She was reminded back to when Rogan had told her to drink some blood earlier that morning, and how it had surprisingly tasted good as well.  Was this still a result of the vampire blood that occupied her veins?  Possibly.  But this also seemed like something else.  This blood, this human blood, tasted so much better than the pig’s blood from earlier.  It satisfied a strange itch in the back of her throat and a craving that she didn’t know she had until she had taken a sip.  All she wanted to do, especially when she was finished drinking, was drink more.  She only stared at the rest of the vials in the fridge for a second or two, before ultimately deciding to shut the fridge door and back away.  What was odd now was that the strong craving she had was starting to fade now that she wasn’t looking at that blood anymore.  Very strange.

What was even stranger, however, was the feeling she was now experiencing.  She looked around her and noticed that, even with no light in the room, she could see!  Not extremely well by any means, but she could definitely see better than before.  It was if someone had lit a candle or a match.  Also, as she was taking in her new sight, she started to sniff the air.  She could smell something.  Something she didn’t think she’d smelled before, but nonetheless it was very familiar.  Instantly an answer popped into her head: Rogan.  She was smelling Rogan!  Nora took in deep breaths now and realized she could almost know, in her mind, where to go to find him; as if the smell was something she could actually follow.

“This is insane,” Nora whispered to herself.  She almost couldn’t believe this was happening to her, but she knew she didn’t really have time to contemplate it for long.  She really needed to follow the scent and find out where Rogan was.  She started walking through the house again, making her way back to the front door.  It was then, however, that she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the windows next to the open door.  She almost didn’t recognize herself.  It must just be the darkness around her that was making her reflection look strange.  Regardless, as she stared at her face in the window, she couldn’t help feel slightly afraid.  Her complexion definitely looked paler and her eyes looked a bit sharper.  She almost couldn’t explain it but they were much more defined and heightened in a way.  This version of her that she continued to stare at scared her.  However, in a way it also made her feel more confident.  As if she could find Rogan and know exactly what she needed to do to help him.  As if she wasn’t as fragile as she normally felt.  She found herself standing up straighter as she finally looked away from her image in the window and proceeded to run out the doorway of the house and into the open outside air.

It only felt like a few seconds before she was at Rogan’s truck that was still parked a few houses down.  She climbed in the driver’s seat and pulled out the keys that were in Rogan’s coat pocket.  She instantly started the car and began to drive, following the pathway that was now so clear in her mind.  The one set in motion by Rogan’s scent.

CHAPTER 20

IT DIDN’T FEEL like long before Nora began to slow down Rogan’s truck that she had been driving down a dirt road amongst a wooded area for some time.  She had barely remembered the drive there, not to mention she was in an extremely unfamiliar place, but the scent that filled her nostrils was almost pulling her to where she knew she needed to go.  The whole thing was very strange and somewhat frightening to her, but she tried her very hardest to be brave because she knew Rogan needed her.

Once she finally had put the truck into park, she climbed out of it and began her entrance into the thick, dark woods.  She tried her hardest to keep a light step as she went, so as not to alert anyone that she didn’t want to know she was there.  She couldn’t help think to herself as she went, however.  Things like, why was Rogan brought here to the woods anyway?  And was Dagon here?  Would she finally get to see this powerful vampire that she had heard so much about lately?  That particular thought gave her a shiver up her spine.

It wasn’t too long before she started to hear voices getting closer.  She slowed her approach until she was behind a giant tree, of which she slightly peered around to see a slightly cleared area amongst the woods where stood a few familiar faces.  There was Aaron, standing to the right of Jay, who was still holding Rogan in a tight grip.  Rogan seemed to be coming out of his temporary unconsciousness and Nora stared at him as she couldn’t believe just how weak and tired he looked.  He was slightly bruised all over and she couldn’t help feel confused at his state.  Why would he look so terribly beaten when he had just feasted the night before?  Unless of course, he hadn’t.

She didn’t have any more time to think about this because a large figure flew above her and landed in the clearing the other vampires currently occupied.  This dark figure gave Nora a sudden extreme sense of terror and she gripped the tree as she felt her knees start to buckle from beneath her.  She could only assume, logically, that this feeling was being brought on by—

“Dagon,” Aaron greeted with a smug smile as the figure in front of them brought its wings inward and made a few steps closer