But I managed to hold it down. I downed another gulp, larger this time, holding my nose as I swallowed. And then I took a third gulp. A fourth. A fifth. Until I had finished one and a half glasses of the blood.
I hurried to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth out in an attempt to get rid of the disgusting aftertaste before returning to the main room and sitting down on the edge of the bed.
The jinni was watching me closely. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
I held up a hand, breathing deeply. It was too early for me to say. When I’d last tried to drink blood, it had taken a while for my body to expel it—at least a few minutes. During those minutes I had allowed myself to hope, falsely. I wasn’t about to do that again.
“Ask me again in fifteen minutes,” I said, eyeing her diamond-encrusted wrist watch.
She took a seat on the sofa, opposite from me, and the two of us sat in intense silence. I leaned forward, resting my elbows against my knees, and closed my eyes, trying to feel what this animal blood was doing to me. I hadn’t vomited by the time Nuriya told me that fifteen minutes had gone by.
I tried to remember how many minutes it had taken for me to throw up before. If I remembered right, it was certainly less than five.
I moved over to the dining table and tipped the blood remaining in the jug into the glass. Slowly, I knocked down the rest of it. Every last drop. And then I waited again for another fifteen minutes.
Despite the taste, I was still showing no signs of expelling the blood.
“I’d like to drink some more,” I said. I wanted to fill myself up with as much blood as I possibly could, so that there could be absolutely no doubt in my mind as to the conclusion of the test.
“Why don’t we return to our kitchen then?” she asked. “You can sit there and drink as much blood as you need, my child.”
I agreed. She made smoke surround us and the next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of the jinn’s huge kitchen. It was empty now, the fragrance of a recently cooked meal flavoring the air.
She pointed to a table and chair in one of the corners, upon which stood a large round, steel container of blood, a label hanging from its edge. Nuriya reached up to one of the shelves and took down a tall glass. As I took a seat at the table, she set it down in front of me. She squeezed my shoulder. “Drink to your heart’s content, Benjamin.”
“But stay with me,” I said. I wasn’t ready for her to leave just yet.
I began making my way through the vat of liquid—but I only managed three more full glasses. I’d consumed a lot more human blood than that in one go before. I hoped that this was just something normal for vampires in general—they couldn’t hold in as much animal blood as they could human blood—and not specifically a problem with me.
After downing as much as I could, I stood up slowly, trying not to unsettle my stomach.
“I’m going to return to my apartment now,” I said.
A smile spread across the jinni’s face. “Splendid,” she said, a trace of relief in her voice.
We parted ways. I returned to my quarters and locked myself inside. I walked the length of the corridor and entered the living room. I wasn’t sure how many liters of blood I’d just downed, but I couldn’t deny that my stomach was full. I didn’t feel even the least twinge of hunger—I felt… satiated.
For the first time, I let go of my resistance to hope and couldn’t help but begin to believe something might’ve changed. It’d been about an hour since snake blood had first touched my lips, and my body wasn’t displaying even the slightest sign of expelling it.
I spent the rest of the day locked up in my apartment. I found myself instinctively avoiding the bedroom—the last place I’d spent time here with River—and stayed mostly in the living room. The fear that I was going to upchuck any second began to subside, and a feeling of confidence built within me.
Once evening arrived, I stepped outside my apartment. I moved toward the direction of the kitchen, and as it came within view, I was glad to see that the door was open. From where I was standing, it was dark, and there was apparently nobody inside. It was late enough for them to have already finished cooking dinner and, from the sounds coming from the dining hall further along, the Nasiri family were all feasting merrily.
I made my way along the veranda and slipped into the kitchen. The blood I’d consumed earlier had settled down now, making room for some more. I was bent on consuming as much as possible, today and over the next few days, until every shadow of doubt that remained in my mind was cleared.
I looked around the kitchen for the container of blood. Previously, it had sat on one of the counters, but it had been moved. I cast my eyes about and spotted the entrance to a pantry. I moved toward the door and pushed it open. I was at the top of a small flight of stairs leading down to a cold storage area. Descending into it, I passed by huge sacks of white powder—which I soon realized was ground human bone—along with an assortment of whole human bones, stripped of all flesh and hanging from the ceiling by ropes. I was worried that the sight would disturb my stomach, so I averted my eyes and continued looking around for the snake blood. I found the container eventually—it had been stored right at the back of the pantry. I picked it up and carried it back up into the kitchen. I sat down, poured myself a glass, and began to drink.