31 Blood Donation Center

The staircase led us to the first floor of the huge building, and the sign hanging on the door answered a few of my recent questions.

"𝕭𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝕯𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝕮𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗"

Markus pushed the door and held it, while I came inside. He followed me, then closed the door after us. A middle-aged woman in her pink office dress and pink ankle straps reached us in a second and bowed her head. Her pale face was shining with a welcoming smile.

"Mr. Malone, we're so happy to see you back." Her bright red eyes moved from Markus to me, then to his hand on my waist, then she bowed her head again. "Ms. Malone, we're happy to finally meet you."

I moved my eyes from her to Markus, wondering how she knows who I am and that I wear his family surname. Then, I understood how. A pendant on my neck! It indicates who I am to Markus, and that is exactly why he asked me to never take it off my neck, even if I'm in a shower. Well, that's not a problem as it's really beautiful and suits me, and after I understood its real role I'll never take it off.

"So, this is the donation center?" I asked her, seeing her friendly smile still on her face, as if it was her role to smile non-stop.

"It is. Do you want to know more about it?" Seeing the node of my head as a positive answer to her question, she turned around and showed me with her hand to follow. Markus took his hand out of my waist and put them in his pockets, remaining in the same place he was before, while I followed the woman in a pink office dress. She pointed at a wide range of sofas and coffee tables near the windows leading to the street.

"Here, human visitors can wait in their queue to donate blood. We care for them to feel comfortable, so we have a Café on the same floor at the end of the corridor, where they can have a drink or eat, or just spend their time." She pointed at the door at the end of the corridor, while I looked around the whole floor. Except for sofas and coffee tables, there were a few bookshelves and a lot of plants here and there. The interior of the floor was quite simple with beige walls color and a black and white floor. The woman stopped near one of the doors, right in front of one of the sofas.

"Here, humans donate blood. Do you want to come inside and take a look at how it's going?" she put her hand on the door handle, then looked at me, but in a second her eyes moved to someone standing behind me.

"We do," Markus said, standing behind me, so I just bowed my head, and she pushed the door. The smell of blood hit my nose when she opened that door and my fangs appeared, cutting my lower lips.

"Argh," I pressed a handkerchief to my lip in order to stop it from bleeding, and the woman looked at me with… fascination? She never saw how dhampirs' fangs appear?

"Are you okay?" Markus whispered in my ear, and I just bowed my head, feeling something strange going on in my stomach. Maybe, they should offer us blood, but I wonder if those humans know what they are doing here and to whom they are giving their blood.

"Marisa, can you tell Aurora everything she should know about humans donating their blood?" Markus said in a plain voice, so it was hard to understand if he was really asking her or just giving a command.

"Sure, Mr. Malone," she bowed her head, and went deeper into a huge room with beige walls and a black floor, then took a plastic cup out of the table and held it to me. "It will help to ease the thirst, if you don't mind, Lady Malone."

"Aurora," I corrected her, then took a cup and made a small sip. At the first, it seemed like my stomach is going to turn that blood back, but when I made another sip it calmed down as if excepting the treat. I sighed, "It's better. Thanks."

"Now we can start." She pointed at the two big white folding screens standing near each other. "Behind the left one we take all needed measurements to understand if the blood is good or not, and should we take it or not, and how much. Behind the right one, our qualified nurses take the blood. It takes from an hour to an hour and a half, then our visitors can be free."

She turned to me and her friendly smile disappeared.

"Please remember, Lady Aurora, that our human visitors come here at their own will after they decided to pay for Mr. Malone's favor. We don't erase their memory after they donated blood, on the contrary, we allow them to remember it and bring more visitors to our center. And yes, they know they are donating their blood to vampires."

"Interesting," I said and turned back to ask Markus about something, but that strange feeling inside my stomach stopped me and I froze. I felt like everything is turning there upside down, and it made me feel bad because I can't understand what was going on. Markus caught the changes in my mood in a second, then put his hand at my waist and pressed me to myself.

"Are you okay?" he repeated his question, but this time I shook my head negatively. "Thanks, Marisa," Markus said, then led me out of the room and put me on the sofa, "Water?"

"Yes," I sighed and looked at him going to the Café for water, and some crazy thought ran into my head, so I started looking for my purse.

I found it lying near me on the sofa, so I opened it, took a small handy calendar, and looked at it. I found the previous month and looked at the dates with red crosses near them indicating when my last period was. Furthermore, I counted the number of days from the last cross to today's date and shook my head.

"They should start five days ago," I said to myself, then hid the calendar, seeing Markus coming to me. He gave me a cup of water and sat near me.

I just took the cup of water and drank it all at once, but it didn't help. The uncomfortable feeling inside my stomach continued, and I wasn't able to explain it, as I never had anything like that before.

"Better?" Markus put his hand on my back, slightly stroking it in order to comfort me. I looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah, I think I just haven't used to drinking human blood. Yours is much better," I smiled in order to hide my lie, and I wasn't one hundred percent sure he believed me. I can't share with him now what's going on as I don't understand what's going on too.

"Indeed, if you're good with my blood, drinking human blood can affect you like that," he smirked, and I thought he believed my lie, but I wasn't sure. Again, Markus is too hard to fool, and no, I wasn't going to fool him. Well, for some short period of time until I catch what's going on here.

"Where's the WC?" I whispered, and he pointed at the black door at the end of the corridor, not far away from the Café. I stood up and headed there, squeezing my purse in my hand. If only I had anyone to ask about what I feel and how sudden sexual life can influence the dhampir organism, but I don't have anyone except Markus.

When I went out of the cabin, everything was okay. No period, but the same strange feeling inside my stomach. I started washing my hands and looked in the mirror.

{What's going on? I always had my period in time after I started calculating, and they were never late, especially for five days! What does it mean? And that reaction to human blood, is it really because I got used to Markus's blood, or it's all a lie? And what should I do?"

I turned off the water, wiped my hands, and went out of the WC, then headed to Markus. He was waiting for me on the same sofa, but he seems to be deep in his thoughts. I reached him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"What are you thinking about?" he jerked his head up at me, then stood up and wrapped his hands over my waist.

"You." Markus kissed my ear, then hugged me tightly and burst his nose in my neck, "I love you."

"I love you too," I wrapped his neck with my hands, then hugged him tightly and kissed his lips. He smiled, then kissed me back, hugging my waist. I let myself lost in him and his hug, and forget about everything bothering me right now.

We were kissing each other for a really long time, as I felt I'm lack of Oxygen, and broke the kiss. Markus kissed my nose and moved his hands from my waist to my back, and hugged me tighter.

"Should we go to the upper floor or do you want to say something to me?" Markus suddenly looked deep into my eyes, as if really expecting me to say to him something very important. His eyes full of hope made me think about the reason for the delay of my period and the reaction of human food, but can it really be?

And if it can be, is he really waiting for that?