Page 10 of Loved to Death

He took it while she slung the saddlebags over her shoulder.

“Follow me.”

She turned to climb out of the clearing between the trees, but he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“You said you’d tell me everything.”

Scowling, she said, “We have a lot to do in a short amount of time. We’ll talk on the move.” She leaned down and crawled through the trees.

He followed her with a frown. Once he made it through the thicket, he got back on his feet and asked, “What do we have to do?”

She started making her way through the forest at a brisk pace. “We have to feed, travel as far away from this town as we can, and find shelter for the day.”

“Feed?” He moved quickly, darting around trees to keep up.

“You need blood every night.”

“Every night?” Thomas shook his head. He never wanted to drink blood again.

“You can survive about five days without feeding, but I don’t recommend it. The hunger will grow to unpleasant levels after just one night without feeding. Human food will do nothing to satiate your hunger. It will pass through you undigested. But you can satiate your hunger with animal blood for roughly a fortnight. Longer if you’re willing to live with the hunger pains and hallucinations.”

“Hallucinations?”

She nodded. “After about three weeks of living off animal blood, you’ll no longer be able to distinguish reality from the images in your mind. After a month, the damage to your mind is permanent and you’ll become a rabid animal.”

“How do you know this?” he asked, taking the information with a grain of salt.

“I should start from the beginning. But first I want to go over our plans for the night. We’re headed to check Mr. Gibson’s farm to see if my horse is still there. Next, we find a farm with a cow to feed on. Do you know of a farm that would be easy to reach nearby? Preferably one without many people.”

Thomas liked that idea. If he had to drink blood, cow blood would be his staple. “There’s a dairy farm about three miles north of town. They have at least ten cows and it’s currently being run by a widow and her two teenage boys.”

Polly nodded. “Good. After we feed, we travel. Hopefully on horseback. And last, we find shelter before daybreak. Shelter should be underground where no light can get in. A grave, a cellar, a basement, or possibly a deep cave.”

“Why not a house with no windows?”

“Houses built well enough to block the light aren’t usually vacant and staying in a house after killing the residents is dangerous.”

“Killing?” Guilt welled up in his chest as the memory of Jeffrey’s limp body in his arms assaulted him. “I can’t kill again.”

“It’s difficult at first, but you’ll get used to it.”

“I could never get used to killing!”

“You fed last night. You should understand. Once you taste the blood, there’s no controlling the outcome.”

Thomas shook his head. “Now that I know what’s going on, I’ll learn to control it. Just have a few swallows.”

Polly burst out laughing.

“I will!”

“What a sweet, naive boy you are.”

He stopped walking. “Don’t call me boy. I’m no boy. My name is Thomas and I’m a man. Older than you, I’d wager.”

She didn’t stop moving forward. “That’s a wager you’d lose,boy. I was born in 1837.”

“I don’t believe it. That would make you thirty-eight. Almost the same age as my mother.”

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