Chapter 9 First hunt

Joana never believed that she would have this much fun going hunting with Derick and drinking from the dead body of a wild animal. At first, she refused to let her mouth touch its raw skin, telling him to pour the blood into the bowl for her before she would agree to drink. But as she saw the blood was rushing out from the deer, she felt it call to her. She didn’t know what came over her as she dragged it away from his claws and began to drink from it. She couldn’t believe it, but it felt better than drinking from the bowl as this was coming right from the source, still flowing, still fresh, it felt like heaven to her mouth. She didn’t stop until she finished it, she didn’t mind Derick who was looking at her, shaking his head.

After she finished, she dropped the bloodless animal to the floor, licking the few drops of blood that stained her lips, she was still hungry, or still thirsty rather. Derick noticing how she felt, spoke to her.

“You’ve got quite an appetite there, but don’t take any more. Blood is good for us but it can also be bad for us when it becomes too much. It’s an unsatiable hunger, it never goes away, so you’ll just have to control it.”

“I’ll go and look for another one. You stay here while I go and feed and store some in this bowl, I’ll come get you when I’m done.”

“Ok,” she said, taking a deep breath and trying to control her urges as he went away. She didn’t wait there for a long time as Derick came back a few moments later with the bowl filled with blood.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said as he noticed she wouldn’t stop looking at what he carried in his hand. “You’ve already had too much and besides, I’m keeping this for Edmund and Hillary, we don’t know if they have had anything to eat.”

“Fine,” she said.

“Let’s head back, the sun will soon come out.”

And they started their journey back to the castle. Hillary and Edmund had arrived and were in the castle hall when they returned.

“You’re back!” Derick said to them as he and Joana entered the hall, he walked over to a nearby table to drop the bowl before strolling to where they were.

“Yes, but hope you didn’t miss us too much?” Edmund added with a smirk.

“I only missed Hillary,” Derick replied.

Edmund made a sarcastic laugh at his remark while the two ladies watched as the men were teasing themselves.

“Oh, where are my manners?” Derick said remembering Joana. He walked over to where she stood at the entrance and brought her over to meet the other coven members.

“Joana, meet Edmund and Hillary, they are the newest members of our coven although they’ve been here for a long time, even when Marylin Lou was still around. They also happen to be a couple.”

“Nice to meet you,” Edmund said, holding Joana’s hand up to his mouth and giving it a small peck.

“Don’t be deceived, he’s no gentleman,” Hillary said before walking over to embrace Joana. “Welcome to the coven.”

“Her name is Joana,” Derick continued. “And she’s our new Marilyn Lou, but only for now as she wishes to perform the sacrifice again and return to her former human life.”

“But why?” Hillary asked her. “I saw you when you were flying towards the castle, you looked happy, like you belonged here, like Marylin did.”

“Marylin never belonged here,” Joana said. “That’s why she strived to see that she would become human. I’m going to do the same thing too because I know I don’t belong here.”

There was a long moment of silence. Everyone kept on staring at themselves unsure of the right answer to give Joana. Hillary found her voice and began to speak again.

“Ok dear, I see you’ve made up your mind, but please spend some time with us before you go back. We missed having Marylin Lou here.”

“I am not Marylin Lou, and I am sorry, I can’t spend anymore time here than necessary. I have family back at home and they are going to get worried if I do not go back there on time. Because of the agreement Marylin made with the council centuries ago, I was not able to get married. I am supposed to be on my honeymoon by now with my true love and not here.”

“Ok then, I see you’ve made up your mind, and we respect that. The same way we respected Marylin’s decision to become human, even though it meant we would lose her.”

“Thank you,” Joana said.

“But do you know where they are? It took Marylin months before she could find them, even as a strong vampire.”

“I don’t know, but I’ll try all I can to see that I find them. I don’t know how long it will take, but since Derick has offered to train me on how to use my powers, I am hoping it would take lesser time than if I had done it alone.”

“Yes, it would,” Derick cut in, “and I didn’t offer to train you, you were the one who was giving me those strange eyes.”

“Oh, she gave you Marylin’s famous googly eyes huh, you were never able to resist those!” Edmund said, laughing.

“Shut up, bro,” Derick told him, hoping Joana hadn’t noticed anything.

Joana looked at Edmund, a bit confused by what he said about Derick not being able to resist Marylin Lou, where they lovers?

Derick then looked at the window, in an attempt to hide his flush. He noticed the sun was already rising. It was time to go to sleep. He turned back to Joana.

“Go and get some rest, we meet here tomorrow at sundown for your first lesson, don’t be late,” he said before leaving the room.