"Blood contains a lot of iron, in its most bioavailable form. That means it's easily absorbed an utilised by our bodies. And those tablets I just gave you are high dose iron tablets."
Rebecca was frowning again. "Blood?" she whispered.
"Yeah, you drank his blood. And then you stopped looking like a corpse." Mark looked like he was enjoying himself. He'd slid down the wall, and sat on a thick rug with his legs stretched out and the kitten curled up in his lap.
"I don't understand," Rebecca looked uneasy.
"You're a vampire, Sis," said Mark gleefully, unknowingly hitting the nail on the head.
Rebecca
A vampire? What a ridiculous idea. I didn't even eat meat, let alone drink peoples' blood! But here Mark, my own brother, was telling me that I'd drank Angus' blood. The thought of that level of intimacy thrilled me, somehow, even as I knew I should feel repulsed by the concept. I pushed it away impatiently, trying to make sense of what he was telling us. I didn't want to believe it all, but I looked searchingly at Angus' face, and read the truth in his eyes, and heard the calm authority in his deep velvety voice.
I sat for a few minutes, running over everything in my head. Intellectually it made a kind of bizarre sense, but I knew I would need some proof. As if he had read the question in my mind, Angus started unwrapping the bloodstained bandage that encircled his wrist. Mark leaned forward slightly, anticipation written all over his face. The bandages fell away, and Angus held his wrist out to us, palm facing up. There was an angry pink scar running along one side of it. I heard Mark's sudden intake of breath, and looked up into his shocked face, and watched as it changed slowly to a kind of awed wonder.
"What?" I asked impatiently. Mark spoke without taking his eyes off that scar.
"That's where you drank his blood, Rebecca. He cut his own wrist less than twenty minutes ago, and I watched the blood pouring out of it. And now it's almost healed."
I glanced up at Angus' face. He nodded once. I felt the blood rush to my face.
"Did it hurt?"
"Yes. We feel pain, same as everyone else. We just regenerate a lot faster."
"I'm sorry that you had to hurt yourself like that for me."
"I'm not." His eyes were smiling at me again. I closed my eyes and imagined touching that beautiful face, running my fingers over his smooth skin. I shuddered as my body reacted to the thought, and opened my eyes again, trying to escape from where my mind was headed. I looked at Mark, but he was playing with the kitten again, wiggling his index finger as it pounced. I risked another glance at Angus. His eyes had darkened until they were almost black, and he was staring at me with such hunger and intensity that I felt momentarily afraid. And then he blinked, and that expression was gone, and he was smiling again.