Souls vs Blood 7

Souls vs Blood 7

The next morning, James woke up in a foul mood. The effects of a good meal were fading and he went back to his surveillance on Rebecca.
"Oh I know I'm pretty but stop looking at me won't you?" Rebecca teased.
Alice didn't feel so good about that, but it was true. Rebecca was pretty and James was staring, or actually, glaring at her.
"Alice, would you mind getting that plate for me over there darling?" Rebecca started her tricks...
The plate was obviously closer to Rebecca than Alice, and Rebecca was not in any position that made it hard for her to grab the plate for herself. However, Alice started walking towards the plate to retrieve it for Rebecca. The moment she lifted the plate, it suddenly became very heavy and Alice fell forwards. James, who had been concentrating too hard on Rebecca, took a split second later than usual to react, but managed to catch Alice by the shoulders while the plate decided to become light again. Alice couldn't, and didn't comprehend what was happening o.o...
Rebecca tried really really hard to hide her laughter and released about 3 pffts as James growled at her. She then regained her composure, looked at Alice and said, "oh dear me, are you all right there Alice? I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked you to take the plate that was so very near me." Her voice was sickeningly apologetic.
"It-- It's all right." Alice managed to say and stand up. She passed the plate to Rebecca anyway. James learnt his lesson this time. He watched out for Alice as well as monitored Rebecca. But he would once again be proved to be observing the wrong thing.
Breakfast was soon ready. James scooped a chunk of whatever that was in his bowl without taking his eyes off the two girls.
"Ja---" Alice wanted to warn him but it was too late.
James had already chewed the stuff he scooped into his mouth and was now spitting it out and howling. He ran around the table as Alice rushed to pour him a cup of milk to get rid of the taste in his mouth. She thrust the cup to James and he gulped it down quickly. There was a huge piece of leek in his bowl. Taste and size was enhanced by a little magic from Rebecca. She had a look of genuine worry but her eyes were twinkling with laughter. "Oh dear me, what happened?"
"I didn't see you add leak into what you were cooking Klar. James can't take leak very well. But he never did react as strongly as this." Alice replied worriedly.
Boy was James angry. He stormed out of the door while Alice hurried to follow him.
"I'll take care of the house Alice baby! Don't worry and just catch up with him!"
Alice complied and ran. She tried to talk to James out of his bad mood, but all James did was scowl in reply.
Rebecca rolled on the sofa laughing for a full 5 minutes before clearing up with ciffy jiffy and resumed planning for tricks and methods to mess with James and Alice. Might as well have a little fun and rile up the place while waiting for mr soul sucker to appear. She thinks Alice's little crush was the soul sucker. She's right.

Rebecca's tricks, were endless. Moment after moment when James focused his attention on one thing, she did some damage in some other way he did not expect. Her list of bottles and items that had weird effects were never ending. From incense to soap and from sweets to drinks, everything created some disaster Rebecca was apologetic for (to a very small extent). Alice started to think Rebecca was a hand full, so Rebecca did tone down slightly. However, when Alice wasn't around, her tricks on James were harsh but wonderfully amusing for her and only her, to her great delight. With Rebecca around, James didn't even have time to think about his lack of blood. It had been over a week since he last fed. He was getting temperamental. Whenever he could, he extended his fangs with his mouth closed around Alice. At least her mark was weakening. That was all he had going for him.

___________________________________________________________

On Harold's side of things, he was slightly held up in his world. His mother was having one of her cold wars again which made things difficult for Sarah. Harold did feel guilty since he was the cause. He mentioned vampires. But he didn't really regret mentioning them. He wanted to tell his mother everything. That's what he promised his father, to tell his mother two things. The truth, and everything. His mother was originally an emotionally weak person. Every piece of news could have devastating effects on her mental well being. But Harold's father never softened the impact of the situation or the news when he spoke to his wife and child. Apparently Harold had inherited that gene. Oh the disaster it brings to his mother. Other than that issue, Johnathon made Harold join the training barracks to defend himself against vampires. Since fangs didn't work on soul suckers and soul suckers could not absorb vampire souls, they could only rely on human weapons such as guns and tanks though of course, with a bit of magic. For Harold though, because he was not very strong physically, Johnathon made him join the physical strength and fighting training sessions. The war was approaching and Johnathon was not going to let his good friend just die without any means of protecting himself. Especially since Harold kept going into the human world for (as I always say) reasons other than feeding.

Soul suckers and vampires could survive for long periods without feeding as long as they were not addicted, or injured. Soul suckers may live for about a month without absorbing souls at all while vampires could survive about 3 weeks but they would crave for blood badly. The thing is, souls could be kept within a soul sucker's body and used sparingly while blood is digested quite quickly in a vampire's body. Which explains why soul suckers could survive slightly longer without new souls.

Harold, was exhausted by the training. Not being used to physical movement in the first place, he suffered tonnes of minor injuries from fight after fight. To boot, he wasn't getting much better. After about 2 days of useless training, Tom, who was in the same group as Harold but doing much better than him, came over to Harold while Harold was leaning against a wall, sitting on the floor, panting.
"Hey." Said Tom as he handed Harold a bottle of water.
"Hey." Harold replied in between two pants.
"You don't look too good."
Harold laughed. "You do.  That's good."
Tom smiled. "Thanks. You've only been at this for two days, it isn't much to make any difference."
"Hey, I've got no talent in this area. You know that." When they were younger, Harold was bullied a lot because he was weak. The bullys still taunted him but at least they didn't make a mess out of him now.
"But Harold..."
"What's up?"
"Even if you manage to stay away from the fighting, that girl in the human world. She's got a vampire around her doesn't she? Then you should at least try."
Harold felt a pang of worry. He hadn't thought of fighting that vampire called James.
"Yeah... I guess I should..." He replied vaguely.
Tom's small pep talk worked a bit. For the next few training sessions Harold really tried to learn something. He also managed to do sit ups and chin ups a little better than before.
By the time Harold could get out of the course, it had been almost a week. He had to go replace the mark soon. The very night he did not have a training session, he decided to risk meeting Alice and give up sleep. At least to replace his mark. With James around, he wasn't even sure it had lasted for so long.

He ignored the sores and bruises on his body, and hurried to the portal. Through the portal, whenever he passed people hanging about  in the night, he took a little bit of soul from them to recuperate and hoped he wouldn't absorb any from Alice by accident since, he had already absorbed some the previous time he was injured. Didn't want that to happen again. Yeah. Definitely not. Energized by the thought of seeing Alice, Harold rushed on.

At the venue to which Harold was rushing to, Alice had fallen asleep, Rebecca was concocting some new potion to play with her house mates, and James... James was restless. Awfully restless...