The Feeding House (8 page)

The drunkard had had enough of Jack talking and had decided that he didn’t like his attitude, stumbling momentarily backwards from the effort he swung his fist as hard as he could connecting with the side of Jack’s jaw sending his head sideways with no obvious signs of pain as his head simply followed the momentum of the punch. The man stumbled back into eye level with Jack recovering from the h
ard punch that he had delivered. There was a moment of silence as the man looked in horror at Jack. Surely no man could take a punch like that without feeling anything even though he was drunk he could tell that the punch had been a bit harder than just a slight nick on the chin and anyway he felt it connect his knuckles hummed with the pain of the collision.

Jack unnerved by the punch
, slowly turned his head back into its original position and clicked his neck. He looked dead into the eyes of his attacker “My turn.” He said a glint of maddened rage brimmed out from his eyes as he looked at the terrified drunkard.

Jack punched the man in the stomach as he held the man’s shoulder for support, the man let out a great gasp of air as he felt Jacks hard knuc
kles push need into his stomach. It felt momentarily like the force of the punch was going to penetrate his organs. The man curled in agony from the punch his stomach burned with pain but Jack did not stop to allow him time to realise properly what had happened to him. He pushed the man, using only one palm that connected with his chest and threw the man across the room with unnatural force. The drunkard hit the wall on the far side of the hallway and hit his head hard against the wooden panelling. He began to bleed from the wound as he lay in a pile on the floor. He was out cold.

Jack couldn’t stop himself a primal urge began to build up inside of him he didn’t know what it was and couldn’t describe this new feeling that ran through his mind
. It was as if he had opened some form of flood gate. He jumped the remaining length of the hallway with no obvious effort and knelt down in front of the man pulling his head to the side to make the man’s juicy blood filled neck easily accessible. Jack felt his set of vampiric fangs slide down into place and his eyes turn completely black, he couldn’t control himself it was like an overwhelming lust that boiled inside of him. It wasn’t that he wanted to feed on this man it was that he needed to feed on him and he was about to do it.

“What’s going on up here there best not be fighting because if there is I’ve got bullets with all your names on them,” Jack heard the unmistakable voice of
Valerie behind him and his fangs quickly retracted and his eyes returned to their normal colour. The overwhelming urge to feed left him and he felt as though someone had just woke him up from a deep sleep by pouring ice cold water over his face.

Valerie
looked around at the scene that was before her. She saw the man lying unconscious on the floor and Jack standing there looking very guilty. The woman who the fight had been about was now getting to her feet. She looked very flustered but had seemed to calm down. Valerie was holding a large Winchester rifle by her side and did not look like the sort of person to carry one for show or be afraid to use it. She handled the gun with a worrying amount of expert precision.

Valerie
turned to Jack and began to point the gun in his face “What did I tell you about fighting? I knew you were a trouble maker. I want you out of her as fast as your legs can carry you. You hear me? You’ve got two minutes before I start shooting. I’ve shot men for less than his before and don’t think I won’t do it again!” Valerie was right up in Jacks face now as she pointed the gun directly at his chest. Her voice alone was enough to scare a man into doing pretty much anything.

Jack tried to respond but couldn’t only small half words came out as he fumbled around trying to form a sentence or explanation as to what had gone on
but he was in too much shock after he had almost fed on the man that had started a fight with him. He knew that the final part of the transformation was soon to take place, he knew that he’d need to feed but he didn’t think that it would be that easy to do it, if it wasn’t for Valerie’s sudden arrival he would be feeding now and it would all be over.

The women who had been down on the floor had now got up and composed herself and decided to intervene in the heated situation grabbing
Valerie’s arm with a desperate look in her eyes “Don’t kick him out, he’s done nothing wrong he was protecting me if anything this man’s a hero old Toby down there had a huge debt and wanted more. He was getting violent because of the drink if it wasn’t for the arrival of this stranger then he’d probably be beating on me now and getting what he wanted please don’t punish this man he’s my saviour.”

Valerie
looked at the girl dead in the eyes and could tell that it was the truth. Her body language began to open up and she lowered the gun down to her side she took a sigh seeming to be slightly disappointed that she wouldn’t get to shoot a man today. Her pride seemed to be slightly bruised as well for jumping to a conclusion of the situation and trying to follow it through with full force.

“I guess that I owe you an apology sir,” began
Valerie as she tried to avoid eye contact with Jack it was obvious that apologies were not something that she was used to. “You can stay. I suppose we’re lucky that we have a big strong man round these parts now who actually has a good head on his shoulders. You have my thanks,” She now looked down at the man on the floor checking out the damage that Jack had inflicted on him “Well it seems to me that you beat on this man pretty furiously. I’ll get him out of here in a minute but if he doesn’t survive he isn’t going to be missed the man’s been a thorn in my side for a long while now.”

Jack sat in his room for the next few hours nursing a bottle of whiskey that
Valerie had given to him as a thank you gift for sorting out the problem that had occurred earlier that day. The alcohol swam around in Jacks mind bringing an open minded form of relief that he had much needed since he had woken up. It was a beautiful night and Jack had the curtains open allowing a humid breeze to come into the room. It brought a welcome comfort to his skin as he sat drinking from the nearly empty bottle and smoking deep on his current cigarette. He had many of them that night, chain smoking one after another, only feeling content when he had one lit in his mouth.

The need to feed had not returned but Jack had thought a lot about the events that had occurred that evening, he worried about when the urges would build up again and if they would come again in the same intensity as they had before
. It was as if he couldn’t control himself it felt like a natural action like breathing or walking and that was the thing that scared Jack the most. He also remembered his strength, the way that he could take that punch without feeling anything and the way that he felt he barely even lifted a finger to put that man into a deep state of unconsciousness.

These things combined scared Jack more than any other part of the transformation and knew that it wouldn’t be long before he couldn’t resist any l
onger and he would have to feed. He could feel a dull urge building up inside of him even now. It seemed as though it was always there pulling quietly on the back of his mind reminding him of what he had to do to survive now it felt like a slight weight pushing down on his chest, one that he knew would only become more severe.

There was a knock on the door and before an answer could be given
it slowly opened just a crack and a head popped around the corner. It was the girl that he had helped earlier the one that the man was yelling at.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything sir I just wanted to drop by to say thank you,”
the girl walked further into the room her whole body in plain view as she nervously and quietly closed the door behind her. She turned back to look at Jack “I’m awfully grateful for what you did earlier most people wouldn’t stop to help a person like me, my names missy by the way.”

Jack sat back for a moment taking in the view of the women that stood in front of him
. She couldn’t be any older than 22. She had that naïve look about her, not just in her eyes, but it seemed to flow the whole way through her body. She was good to look at and Jack allowed himself to stare at her for a moment as she entered into the room.

“I just wanted to say thank you in the only way I
know how,” The girl started to undress first pulling down one of the straps on her dress revealing the now white skin of her shoulder. Jack looked at her for a moment as she did so and was taken a back for a second mostly due to the alcohol that was clouding his judgement. As he got a view of more and more tender skin and the subtleness of her figure he began to feel the thirst build up inside him, slowly at the start but gradually as she took off more and more clothes, it became so much more severe he had to stop her. He had to take control of this now before it was too late and he fed on this woman.

Jack tried to remain calm while he spoke trying to avoid the building lust to feed
inside of him “I appreciate the offer but put your dress back on there’s other ways that you can thank me. You don’t have to give me your body for the night.”

Jack thought he had done quite well in phrasing that as he knew better than anyone else that he wa
s no good with mincing words as he would call it. Missy however seemed, it would be fair to say, insulted, slightly and embarrassed. She went bright red and began to scramble to put her dress back on as if she was trying to cover up every inch of exposed skin and feeling as though she would somehow be judged and ridiculed about it. Missy defensively wrapped her arms around herself.

“I just thought that
, you know, I needed a way to say thank you and you being a man and all I thought you would have jumped at the opportunity. I’m sorry to have offended you sir.” It wasn’t the words but the way that she phrased them that made the sentence seem sarcastic in the most subtle of forms almost as if instead of apologising to Jack she was in fact trying to make Jack feel bad for what he had done.

Jack took the hint “Look its lovely you coming in here and I’m sure that a lot of men would jump at the opportunity, I mean you’re a beautiful women and all,” Missies eyes began to brighten and warm ever so slightly
. Jack continued knowing that he was saying the right things. This was what she wanted to hear. “It’s just I’m a dangerous man missy I don’t know what’s going on with me or who I am any more but I don’t want to drag you into it, I just think that what you were offering would end up being a really bad idea, don’t ask me why I just do.”

Curiosity turned to sympathy and
interest very quickly and soon Missy’s mood changed completely. She sat herself down on the side of the bed and gave Jack the most comforting and understanding look she could. She didn’t know anything about him but at least she was willing to listen and she wanted to understand. The situation quickly diffused and the negativity that floated around the room intertwining itself with the smoke from Jacks cigarettes left the room.

Curiosity got the better of M
issy as she put a comforting hand onto Jacks lower leg. “You poor man, what’s wrong? If you don’t mind me asking who are you, you see Valerie told me that you’re a law enforcement officer here on some secret business but you don’t seem much like a police officer to me I’ve met a lot of them in my time some of them come round here from time to time looking for certain services from some of the girls and you don’t seem anything like them.”

Jack was surprised at the intelligence of this co
nclusion he had underestimated Missy because of her profession but she had seen straight through his lies. He felt a want to open up to her and tell her everything, feeling that he finally had a person that he could talk to about all the problems that had gone on but decided against it. After all there was no chance that she was going to believe the true story and besides, even if she did, it would probably scare her off and get him killed.

“I don’t want to go into it M
issy if it’s all the same to you, I just don’t know who I am any more. I’ve got to find my place. I don’t feel safe in my own skin anymore.” Jack replied in such a way that he could get a little bit of his frustration out without actually giving away any details. He felt better for opening up a bit.

Missy could see that
she was pushing Jack further than he wanted to go at the moment however she was still curious as to what was going on with him and who he was. In a way she felt that she could relate to him. He was just as lost and alone in the world as she was. Both of them seemed to not have a sense of where they were going or their place in the world.

Missy smiled
. The tone of her voice became very positive “How about you and I have a little drink downstairs tomorrow night around nine? I will be in by then. Buying you a couple of drinks is the least I could do to say thank you for saving me. We could have a little chat about stuff as well if you want, as friends even?”

Jack looked up at M
issy through his alcohol stained eyes. She was beautiful that much would be true even if he hadn’t been drinking. She seemed so positive and happy as she looked at him. He felt a warm feeling build up inside of him “That sounds like a good idea to me, I will meet you downstairs at nine then.” Jack forced a small smile and Missy replied in kind. The dim light of the room bouncing off of her face with a warm glow that really extenuated the kindness in her smile.