Nature or Nurture Ch. 23

The next morning, Vincent awakes with a new memory of his past life. In his dream, it was a moonless night on the moors. The wind was howling around the rough stone house, and he was in the stables, cold in his ragged servant's clothing. Loneliness and humiliation were making him feel colder still, but a tiny spark of anger always kept him from giving up.

He was waiting for something, no, for someone. Cathy. This was the night of their elopement, and they were going to steal Catherine's brother Hindley's big black horse. The horse was ready, Heathcliff didn't own anything, so no need to pack.

But where was Cathy? Did she change her mind, to marry into wealth and comfort after all? Linton loved her no doubt, as a puppy loved his owner, basking in the lovely fuzzy warmth of affection, never realizing all the love was coming from himself. Heathcliff was certain that all Cathy felt for Linton was a deep disdain for his servile love of her.

She did agree to elope after all, into an unknown future with not a dime between them. He convinced her he would be able to take care of her in the city, building a future in which they could always be together in freedom and love. And that future was to start now, with both of them flying from Wuthering Heights in the middle of the night, on the fastest horse in its stable.

Suddenly the stable door opened, and there she was, hunched in the doorway, her slight frame covered with a large thick coat, her face covered with a woollen shawl. She had two big bundles with her, one of which she dropped right in front of him. Then she threw herself at him and kissed him deeply.

'What took you so long?' he asked impatiently.

She nudged at the bundle at his feet.

'I got you some decent clothes from my brother, they'll be too large but they'll be warm. Open it.'

He quickly opened the bundle, uncovering woollen underwear and trousers without holes. Socks and boots, and even a clean shirt. Best of all, a black woollen coat, as long and as thick as Cathy's. 'You took an enormous risk,' he said, 'but thank you, I'll finally be warm in this, but decent clothes will also help getting a job. Let's make haste.'

And they did, while he dressed in the nearly new clothing, Cathy fastened the other bundle on the horse. They led it out of the stable and out of the yard, unlocking the gate with the key Cathy had also stolen. Then Heathcliff helped Cathy on the large horse, and got up behind her. Without looking back they reached the road, making great haste to disappear in the crowds of the city before her brother could mount any search for her.

Despite the powerful memory, which confirms exactly what Mina told them, Vincent feels much better than he has for days. Though his mind was busy, his body had a night of unbroken sleep, which was probably all it needed to heal itself.

He looks at Adison, fast asleep and looking a bit better already. She is still bruised, but not as vividly as yesterday. He cannot help touching her tenderly, dreaming of a life with another woman and feeling such passionate love towards her is quite disconcerting, and he feels a need to get in touch with reality.

Adison wakes enough to snuggle up to him, and he enjoys their closeness for some time. Then he turns around to see how Victor is doing, noting that his face looks as bad as Adison's did yesterday. His sleep is restless, he seems in pain. Small wonder, after such a beating.

He feels slightly guilty for being the one Simon was really after, but in fact, neither of them took the foppish lead player seriously after having fought against vampires and demon-like creatures. But though Victor's opponents were bad fighters, there were so many of them they could easily have killed him. Vincent is glad Adison took Mina with them that night on the ship, or their friend might now be dead. He decides to get Victor a painkiller and see if he wants to eat something, so he dresses and heads to the kitchen to put on the kettle for their morning tea.

Fetching the right painkiller from the study, he takes it to Victor with some water. Waking him carefully, he offers his sleepy friend the medicine. Victor is glad to take it, his sleep was troubled by a raging headache, and he has pain in numerous other places. He seems a bit disoriented as well.

'I was attacked, wasn't I? I thought I was going to die, then Mina showed up and saved me. You were there too.'

Vincent wants to stroke his poor face, but there is hardly any spot that is not blue, so he holds his hand instead.

'I came when Mina warned us you were not doing so well. Remember when the director gave you that dog-piss booze of his?'

Victor smiles at Vincent's language.

'It did taste awful, but there is something in that stuff. It woke me up.'

'That stuff will wake up a corpse,' Vincent says, 'maybe even better than you did.'

Then he inquires, 'Do you feel like some breakfast in bed? It is better if you eat something.'

'I have to eat well to feed Mina. But I can't, can I? I feel weak, I must have lost a lot of blood. What can I do, she'll starve!'

Victor is getting very upset, and Vincent tries to calm him down a little.

'Don't worry so much, we will not let her starve. She can have some of mine, I'm back to my usual strong self. From a bowl if you are worried I'll ravish her.'

Vincent cannot help laughing as Victor's face shows a tinge of jealousy at his offer.

'You don't want her to have to eat rats, do you?'

Victor looks a bit ashamed of his reaction, and returns to Vincent's question.

'I do feel hungry, and I want you to check on the wounds. Adison does it at least twice a day, and it works. I want to be back at work as soon as possible.'

It turns out to be a lazy day after all. Adison wakes up too to have a bite to eat and check Vincent's chest, declaring the wounds healed. He'll have some more scars to show for it though. She decides to supervise Vincent's work on Victor as well, and then the patients are both off to sleep again. There is not even time to tell her about the dream, but that'll keep until she's better.

Vincent checks out all the curtains in the whole house to see if they keep out the sunlight. Suppose Mina wakes up early again, it will be nice for her to be able to move around the house safely.

After that, he picks up a book, and reads until late afternoon, when he feeds his human patients again. Soon after that, Mina awakens, again at least an hour before sundown. Because the whole house is already dark with curtains, she can go wherever it pleases her. She is happy to hear that Victor, though in pain, has eaten and that his wounds are healing well.

Something does seem to bother her, and when Vincent asks she admits, 'You were right you know, I do need to eat today or I'll start to weaken.'

Vincent laughs, describes Victor's worries, and repeats his offer to Mina, 'I can spare you some of my blood, I feel fine today, though I promised Victor I'd give it to you in a bowl to prevent all chances of my ravaging you.'

Though Mina is touched by Vincent's consideration, Victor will have to accept a bit more intimacy between them.

'Somehow using a bowl doesn't work, it needs to be straight from the vein.

But if I bite your wrist here at the kitchen table, it'll do little to excite either of us. The thought of you ravaging anyone tickles me, though I suppose Victor knows best.'

'Oh, Victor has personal experience with the time that I used to be quite an excitable fellow, but I'm wiser now,' Vincent says,' let's get on with it, so I can tell you about the dream I had tonight. I think it is another memory of my former life, for it describes a scene you told us about.'

That sounds really interesting to Mina, so she quickly sits down on the opposite side of the kitchen table, and Vincent matter-of-factly hands over his arm. She shows him the canines, not getting a reaction of fear out of him either.

He trusts her, of course, after saving his friend's life he'd give her more than just a few mouthfuls of blood.

This time she doesn't strike, but just bites as if she was still eating solid stuff. But when the first taste of his blood hits her mouth, she nearly staggers: that is potent stuff!

Vincent of course feels the fangs enter his flesh, and then he feels the suction. Even at the kitchen table, that is one powerful stimulant! He sees and feels Mina reel with her first taste of his blood, suddenly worried that something is wrong with it. What if it is poisoned? He had forgotten about the chemicals Victor used to resurrect him.

But she doesn't look or feel bad, if anything, she is suddenly sucking with a lot more force and she looks, well, elated. Seeing him watching her, she lets her feeling leak to him, projecting just a little bit. Suddenly there is a really strong taste in his mouth, metallic but with something extra, an almost burning sensation. And he feels pure strength flowing through her, making her feel incredibly good, almost invincible.

Mina is not feeling lust at all, this is totally different and very heady. Vincent's blood is not as sweet as other humans', it is more like a potent brew: bitter and fiery, but once you get used to the taste and the burn, it gives you a feeling of strength.

It is even more difficult than usual to break off, she has only just grown used to the taste, and now she wants more of the heady stuff, but she forces herself to release her bite, then licks the puncture marks like she did with Victor. Only this time it is not to heighten lust, or even to prevent her donor from bleeding. No, she wants even those tiny drops, it would be such a terrible waste to let them fall, or be absorbed by a sleeve or a cloth.

Suddenly noticing Vincent looking at her amusedly, she lets go of his arm, still very much aware of the burning taste on her tongue and the liquid fire in her system. For a moment they sit in silence, she's still trying to get a hold on what she just drank, he's waiting for her to say something.

The first thing she is able to say is, 'Wow.'

Then after another silence, 'That was incredible. Your blood is so strong it burns! I no longer wonder how you can abuse your body so and never get infected. Nothing could survive in that hot flow. I feel on top of the world! That was great, thank you so much. Are you all right? Not dizzy or anything? It was hard to let go, I hope I didn't take too much.'

'I'm just glad my blood didn't harm you, for a moment there I thought I'd poisoned you. It's really interesting that my blood is different. I know of course that I'm stronger and more durable than other humans, and now we know it's in my blood.'

'But keep that a secret', she tells him seriously, 'or vampires will hunt you down, abduct you, then slowly drain you to death for the kick. We must share this only with Victor and Adison.'

After this, Vincent tells her about the scene from his past he relived in his dream.

'It was the moment we were eloping from Wuthering Heights, the house that belonged to Catherine's brother, where Heathcliff was a servant at that time. He seemed to think that the man she was supposed to marry really loved her, like a puppy he thought, but that Catherine scorned him. Though maybe that was his opinion.

She did seem eager to leave together and not at all afraid, stealing away in a moonless night. It was very strange to feel intense love for another woman. It was so real somehow. I really had to come back into the now, hold Adison for half an hour to convince myself I was really me.'

During his account, Mina has been looking at him intently, but apparently she has been listening to what he's said, for she observes, 'You know I think I met him shortly after they arrived, for he did wear quality clothes like you describe, that were slightly large on him.

Small wonder, for he was emaciated at that time. I wouldn't wonder if it was hatred that kept him so lean. In any case, when he started to make some money he filled out a lot and the clothes fit him a lot better. You are skinnier than he was, I suppose you do get a lot of physical exercise.'

And she looks at him again, quite intently. This time, he looks back questioningly. She looks away as if ashamed of her thoughts, then laughs at herself and explains.

'I'm still very aware of your blood running through me. I couldn't help thinking of all the blood we have let go to waste. Since I've lived here, I've seen you bleed a pint at least, and Adison washed it all away.'

Vincent finds this very funny.

'It's just blood, there's always more. Anyway, you just told me blood is of no use to you if it's not straight from the vein.'

Mina smiles. 'I guess it would have made a strange impression if I had sat on your chest, licking your life's blood straight from the wounds. Too bad...'

The next few days they take everything very slowly. The doctors both sleep a lot, and in the few hours they are awake, they decide to sacrifice the front room to have an in-house practice built. Why travel from patient to patient with only a few tools of trade and at risk of their person, when they can let the patient do the travelling and have all their medicine and utensils handy? It will take less time, so they can help more patients and reduce the price, making their services affordable to nearly everyone.

Of course they can still visit some patients, the ones who are too ill to move, or the very rich customers, for a different fee of course.

Mina finds she can skip a day's feeding on Vincent's blood, she can feel it in her veins long after normal human blood would have faded, so she forces herself to do so. The temptation to feed on him every day is huge, he expects her to need blood on a daily basis so he wouldn't even know. But her lust for the potent stuff worries her, it feels too much like an addiction, and she decides to remind her body that she is now in charge, that she is no longer subject to its whims.

Vincent does offer, of course, and seeing the hesitation as she refuses, she doesn't want him to think she feels unduly attracted to him, so she says, 'Your blood will last me a day longer than normal blood, but the taste of it and the feeling it gives me are so heady I'm sorely tempted to take you up on your offer and get a few mouthfuls more. But I'll wait until tomorrow before I feed again, because I don't want to be hooked on your blood by the time Victor is well enough to feed me again.'

'We'll save it for emergencies then', Vincent remarks laughingly.

'And maybe for special occasions and holidays?' Mina says with an infantile voice.

'Only if you have been a good girl,' is his reply.