“It’s not exactly like there’s a handbook on what to feed your recently-returned-from-the-grave cousin,” Priscilla replied. She was being half-serious, but she was completely right.
“I guarantee you she’s not mad at you for bleeding,” I told Cora.
“That makes it worse,” she replied. “Because if she’s not mad at me, then she’s probably blaming herself. I hate that I stirred this up.”
“It’s gonna be alright.”
“Speaking of blood,” Priscilla began as she stood next to Tiffany’s lifeless corpse. It was still hard seeing her like that. “What do we do with her body?” she asked.
I looked back at Cora and waited for an answer, and Cora sympathetically glanced in my direction. “Cover her with a sheet for now,” she instructed. Priscilla immediately went down the hallway in search of one. I stood up, ready to follow, but then Cora touched my arm. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know she was your friend.”
My eyes began to burn, but I didn’t want to cry. “She’s in a better place now,” I replied.
I wasn’t sure how much of that I even believed, but anything had to be better than the state she was in a few minutes beforehand. That wasn’t the Tiffany I knew. That was something else entirely.
A minute later, I knocked on my bedroom door. It felt strange to be asking for an invite inside the place I used to sleep every night, but I had no idea how Melanie was holding up and if she even wanted company. When she didn’t reply to my knock, I slowly pushed the door open and found her sitting on my bed with her knees pulled to her chest. She was shaking. She was a total mess.
“Are you okay?” My voice was barely above a whisper, but it still startled her and caused her entire body to jump. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s…” Melanie let out a long sigh. “I’m on edge. It’s not your fault.”
I came closer to her and sat down at the end of the bed. Melanie looked away from me, and it was clear she was trying to shield me from seeing the blood all over her mouth. My friend’s blood.
“It’s okay,” I said.
“You shouldn’t see me like this,” she trembled. “It’s gross.”
“I’ve seen and been through worse.”
“I’ve never done something like this before. They wanted me to join them in hunting but I could never go through with it. I don’t know how to deal with taking someone’s life.”
I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She flinched as if it was the first touch she ever felt. “You don’t have to worry about any of us judging you. We’ve all had to go through this. Even Cora.”
Melanie peeked over her shoulder at me, and in the darkness, her eyes were like sparkling sapphires. “It shouldn’t be your job to comfort me. She meant something to you and I took that away.”
“No,” I responded honestly. “You can’t take away something I didn’t have. The person lying in the living room right now wasn’t my friend. I don’t know who that was. Tiffany died in Rookridge. I know that now.”
Her eyes were sad, but still Melanie forced out a weak smile. Maybe it was for my benefit and so I’d feel like I was actually making her feel better, I don’t know. Regardless, it was a beautiful, but tragic smile. All of hers were.
“I’m so sorry,” she softly said. “It seems like all the shitty things happen to the best people.”
I was flattered she saw me that way.
“You too,” I responded.
“I wouldn’t say I’m one of the good people. Ask anyone who knew me in high school.”
“What were you like?”
“I was a cheerleader who dated half the football team and got drunk every weekend behind my parent’s backs.” She laughed to herself and added, “Me and my friends used to throw popcorn at Cora when she was dressed as the team mascot. I was such a monster to her.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Yeah, I doubt you and I would have been friends. You sounded more like Molly’s crowd.”
“Oh god, you’re probably right.” She looked at me skeptically and said, “If that’s true, though, how did you end up friends with all of them?”
“Tiffany. She’s the reason I had any friends at all.”
For a moment I had Melanie in a lighter mood, but the moment I said that, all the happiness drained from her face and she was back to hating herself. I put my hand on top of hers. “Please, don’t be sad. It’s contagious.”
Her eyes were watery and shining. Oh, those magnificent eyes. “You’re not sad at all?”
I swallowed hard. “When sadness is your default emotion, you get really good at handling it. I’m like a sponge—sort of pitiful looking, but capable of carrying a lot.”
“That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard.”
I shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“No, really, it’s not.”
I removed my hand from hers and said, “Hey, Cora is worried about you. You should go see her.”
Melanie’s head dropped. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t go anywhere near that room.”
“They’re covering Tiffany’s body. You won’t have to see her.”
“It’s not that, it’s…” She briefly closed her eyes. “It’s Cora’s blood. Even through the walls, I can smell it. I don’t know if I can handle being so close to it.”
“Oh.”
Melanie’s head hung low, and her blond locks dangled over her face when she looked up at me. “It’s so humiliating. She’s my family, one of the only people that gives a damn about me, and all I can think about is how good her blood smells and how much I want to taste it.”
“Tiffany’s blood didn’t quench your thirst?”
She shook her head. “No. You can’t live off of another vampire’s blood. Cora tried her best with the steak from
