Drusilla's POV
"How do you feel today?" I asked Anna my sick patient who laid helplessly on the hospital bed. I watched her as she struggled to utter her answer. She could not as her vocal cords were damaged. A vampire running at top speed ran into her, and her vocal cords and rib cage got damaged. The vampire got arrested and was awaiting trial in police custody. Running that fast in public was against the law.
"You don't have to speak" I beckoned to her to stop trying.
I picked up a pen and the patient record book as I wrote down her thoughts I could hear.
"I have a pounding headache, my chest pain has reduced but it still hurts. It doesn't hurt as much as my throat. Nurse Drusilla am I ever going to talk well again?"
I stopped jotting as I was taken aback by the question in her thoughts. I felt so much pity for her.
"Oh, your poor little girl. Of course!" I consoled. I crouched beside her and patted her head. I made sure to be careful as I didn't want to disturb the bandages on her throat.
"You will be singing joyfully at the top of your voice in no time!" I continued. The fear I read in her mind moments ago vanished as happiness set in, and she managed a smile. I smiled back at the 14-year-old human child.
"I believe you vampires are just and peaceful. We humans don't treat you right and I'm so sorry" she thought in a sad voice.
"How sweet you are!" I smiled as I said to her. I was not touched by her words. Humans were so innocent, honest, and kind as kids. As their maturity set in, so did their wickedness. I was only going to be touched if she maintained her stance as an adult.
"How is she doing nurse?" Dr. Hardy asked as he stepped into the room, interrupting the moment Anna and I shared.
"She is responding to treatment" I replied without turning to him. I still had my eyes on Anna, smiling at her.
"I just need to administer her daily dose of draculin" I continued, standing upright now.
"Then get to it" he responded flatly as he exited the room.
Considering the dedication and consistent effort I had offered to St Mary's hospital, Central City all through my career here of about 80 years, I deserved to be in the position of Dr. Hardy as head of the hospital. Due to the discrimination, humans showed us, vampires, I was stuck at the level of a nurse. The board's flimsy excuse, a human had to be head of the hospital that treated humans alone. It didn't matter to me as I had the hearts of virtually every patient that was ever nursed in the hospital, and there was a greater height I aspired to reach. The greatest height actually, president of Utopia. The country's name didn't reflect in the everyday drama but I was going to make it live up to its name.
"...and now, for your drug," I said to Anna as I reached for the drawer just at the other side of her bed. It was just a dose of draculin left. I was going to have to ask Dr. Hardy for more supplies later. Draculin was just vampire spittle that helped humans heal from any ailment or injury faster. It was only to be given to them in small definite amounts over time as too much of it at once could override their bodies and kill them.
I could've simply just bitten Anna and injected some of my spittle into her but biting humans was against the law. To add to that, humans requested that our spittle be made to go through the process of "purification" with their sorcery. I thought that was balderdash and so did pretty much every vampire thing but being the calm, orderly creatures we are, we let them do their thing.
Anna flinched as I stuck the needle into her vein and injected the drug. She showed no pain so I learned she was now used to the initial burning sensation the drug brought.
"Thank you so much nurse, Drusilla," she thought and I smiled in response. I kissed her on the forehead to comfort her and also to piss the human monitors off. There were cameras positioned on the ceiling of every ward. Vampire nurses were closely monitored at all times because they were not supposed to treat patients in any illegal manner like biting them. I was the only vampire nurse in St. Mary's Hospital.
My shift was over and Anna had slept. It was time to go home. I went downstairs. As I walked down the hallway towards the door, as usual, I was met by the eyes of nurses and some patients staring daggers at me. I couldn't read their minds as that was something I could only do with people who trusted me. They reeked of fear. I didn't have to read their minds to know that, I just sensed it. Humans hated whatever was unlike them or better than them, and that was just a fact.
Their nature. Their wickedness was innate. Any vampire could've quit this job due to the conspicuous hate the humans showed but I was not just any vampire. I loved my job nobody was going to make me quit.
I finally got to the gate and I had to sign out and get searched as usual. I did that and got searched by the security official who tried to put up a brave front but I could still sense his fear. He had a silver stake on his waist but no gun. Could it mean humans were not expected to misbehave? The silver stake is a special weapon against vampires, but maybe it was going to be used on humans too. After the search, I stepped out through the automatic door that sensed me approaching and split open.
Outside, I was welcomed by the lively environment. The sweet smell of the blood of so many humans filled the air. Us vampires always had to fight the temptation as it was required of us for this not-so-peaceful coexistence. It was no problem for me as I wasn't hungry, and even if I was I'd been trained both by my parents and myself to resist the endearing smell of blood. Given how the system was built, resisting eating live humans should've been no problem for any vampire. We lived in a symbiotic society. We sold our saliva to humans as it was a very beneficial drug to them, and in return, they sold their blood to us. The first Friday of every month was called 'Red Friday'. On that day, every adult human was expected to sell two liters of their blood to any blood bank. We had no definite day for selling our saliva to them, we just supplied to their hospitals whenever they had run out of it.
I walked to the vampire lane where we could run however we liked. The vampire that injured Anna must have been running through the human lane and that was forbidden. The human lane was noisy, filled with the irritating sound of car horns and exhaust pipes. The vampire lane which went over the human lane like a bridge was tranquil. The silence was only interrupted once in a while by the wooshing of the wind which was caused by vampires running at top speed. As it was 9 PM, the wooshing was so frequent as vampires were more active.
I started running. I loved running. The way it made me flex my joints, the way my long hair danced in the wind, I loved it. Looking down at the human lane I kind of felt pity for them. They needed cars to move around quickly. A car was like the most unnecessary thing for a vampire to own. Some only owned cars for official purposes.
"Hey!" Serafino greeted me as he caught up to me. He startled me as I was absorbed in my thoughts about humans.
"If I get home before you, you go on a date with me. Now you've heard my proposal, even though you're faster I'm sure you'll let me win" he said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes.
"If I get home first, you stop pulling up on me on my way back from work and now I've heard your proposal I've been motivated to run even faster!!" I shot at him and quickened my pace. I ran so fast, if I tried to run faster, I could've broken the sound barrier.
Serafino, a fellow vampire, son of my dad's best friend Raul, and also my neighbor. For decades he had been making advances towards me and I just kept turning them down. It didn't look like he was going to stop any soon and I was not prepared to give him a chance either. With the goal I worked towards, a relationship was only going to be a distraction. So many centuries awaited me so I had all the time in the world to settle down. Even if I had to settle down now, Serafino didn't entice me one bit. He had so much hatred for humans, the only thing that stopped him from going on a killing spree now and then was that humans stood a chance against us with their sorcery. I didn't hate humans and my vision was to change them. He was no party to my dream so he disgusted me.
After running past two towns, I was finally in mine. Streeneedsea. One of the few cities in the country that had more vampires than humans. Some humans only lived here as they had to monitor whatever the vampires could be up to.
As I approached my house, I slowed down and stopped by the gate. Leaning against a pillar, I checked the time on my watch. 9:20 PM. It was 20 minutes since I had left work, I ran past two towns in twenty minutes. Seconds later, Serafino caught up.
"Took you ages," I teased.
"Oh please you're like the fastest vampire ever," he said, defending himself.
"I'm sorry but I can't grant you your request," he said wryly. I rolled my eyes, got into my compound and the gate shut itself as Serafino tried to follow. It didn't allow strangers in.
"I'm not giving up on you!" He screamed and I kept walking towards the building, covering my ears as I cringed. I got into the liar. It was pitch black, just the way we liked it. Electricity ran through the lines, but we had no light bulbs as we didn't need them. We saw just fine in the dark.
"Your admirer sure is noisy," my mother said, not moving her eyes from the newspaper she was reading. I headed straight for the fridge at the extreme part of the room.
"How was work?" She asked probably hoping I'd tell her humans pissed me off and I no longer wanted anything to do with them.
"Work was just fine! Can't wait to go again" said happily as I took a can of blood out of the fridge. B positive, my favorite type. My mom worked at the blood bank so we had blood in all types. We never had to hunt down animals as some vampires who couldn't afford human blood all the time did. Animal blood wasn't so nutritious and some vampires were even allergic to it. Years ago, I hunted down a bear just for the fun of it and its blood didn't taste bad at all. I liked it but I still preferred human blood.
My mother scoffed at my answer as she could tell I only tried to tick her off. Knowing I had successfully done it, I gulped my drink and smiled. My mother despised my likening for humans, the unruly creatures as she always describes them.
She never wanted to have any of my peaceful coexistence schemes each time I brought it up. One time she referred to it as arrant nonsense.
"Drusilla," my father called my name flatly, finally saying something as he was seated on the sofa he dedicated to himself the whole time.
"Yes, father" I answered as I stopped drinking, recognizing he was about to say something really important. My father, Silas Hemlock barely ever spoke as he was more of a listener. Decades ago when I told him about my dream to unite humans and vampires for real, he didn't respond negatively as my mother did. He simply said he'd love to see that happen. Knowing he was very understanding, I knew that whatever he ever said or asked one to do, he had carefully thought it through and wasn't being biased. That is why his next set of words shattered my spirit as it was clouded in an air of finality.
"You have to quit your job."
