A figure in the corner of the waiting area shifted. The room was filled with a half dozen other Orbs that looked similar to him as he approached. But when he came into full view as he sauntered toward me, my breathing hitched.
He was beautiful. Not in the same way Babs was beautiful, in that familiar comfortable way. He was painfully beautiful, in a way that made me want to look away even though I couldn't make myself do so.
His skin was pale, like moonlight littered against his body. Pointed ears let everyone know that he wasn't human, and he had several piercings in his left ear, simple silver hoops and a single silver rod that went across the top. Long blond hair fell just above his broad shoulders, uneven tendrils dusting them as he walked. He was only a few inches taller than me, so he was definitely above six feet tall, which weirdly made my chest hot.
But his eyes were the most interesting thing about him. They were grey, but not how most humans with grey eyes looked. His were glossy, foggy beyond those heavy eyelids. It almost looked as if he were blind somehow but his posture and stride didn't indicate that he was having any issues seeing. He intrigued me in a way I hadn't expected and I felt a burn low in my belly that I pushed away from the forefront of my thoughts as he stood before me.
“I am Kroven.” He said in a slight accent that I couldn't place, and I had to plaster on a neutral smile before I thought too much about it.
“Great.” Clearing my throat, I gestured to the double doors behind me. "Follow me and I'll take you to your room."
“Splendid.”
I turned around immediately and lead Kroven down the hallway where the rooms designated for blood consumption resided. I gestured to one of the rooms I knew was available, and signaled back to Kroven. “Alright, here's your room.”
“Thank you very much.” He said, stepping inside the room.
I followed him in, and shut the door until just a few inches could be seen from the hall. There was a policy to never stay in a closed room with an Orb, a rule I wasn't eager to break.
Inside the room was a white couch for comfort, as well as asmall coffee table that housed random magazines from other the years. A small television was provided that hung from the ceiling in case the Orbs wanted to watch something while they consumed their donation. Babs told me most preferred to read, so there was also a small bookshelf with an assortment of literature on the far wall. Kroven sat down on the couch and crossed his legs, his eyes finding me again. Something about those eyes made me swell, and I worked overtime to push that recognition out of my mind so I could work.
I glanced back down at his chart. “You didn't list a blood type preference. Is there a blood type you'd prefer?”
“AB Negative if you have it,” Kroven said. “But if not, whatever is readily available is fine with me.”
“I’ll go check on that for you. Feel free to make yourself comfortable while I go retrieve the donation.”
Kroven chuckled, and when he smiled, I could see two unusually long incisors hanging from his top row of teeth. It made me shiver just looking at them. “This isn't my first time, but I appreciate it.”
“Right,” I cleared my throat of nerves again. “I’ll be right back with a donation for you.”
Scattering out of the room, I headed toward the room that Babs had shown me earlier that held all the blood coolers. Why was this guy making me feel all...weird? No, not thisguy, I had to remind myself. This Orb. I couldn't deny it though, the feelings I'd been suppressing from the moment I’d seen him. Kroven was hot. Ridiculously hot. But even if he wasn't an Orb, he was still a patient. Which meant that it was not okay for me to have these thoughts. Even if my dick twitched when I thought of his fanged smile.
Reaching the room that was filled with several large steel refrigerators, I pulled back the door on the one labeled AB Negative. Luckily for both of us, the fridge was well stocked with various pouches of the specific blood type. I grabbed twopouches from the fridge and acquired a straw from the service table that was between the O Negative and A Positive coolers.
I guess it was pretty weird that I was holding pouches of blood to hand off to a creature that needed it to survive. I wondered what they fed off of if they’d been around prior to humans if they needed blood. Maybe they had originally come from a different place, like some people theorized. Did all beings from wherever they could have come from before even have blood? Or was it just that human blood that was so damn delectable?
It should have put me off to Kroven in a big way but it didn't. He needed blood to live. At least he wasn't killing anyone to get it.
I knocked on the door as came back to his room, and he called back for me to come in. I had forgotten to grab a tray to put the pouches on before leaving the donation room, so I'd had to run back and retrieve one before my thoughts made me forget again.
Smiling back at him, I walked over and handed Kroven the tray.
“AB Negative,” I told him. “I’ll give you some privacy.”
“Actually,” He took the tray from me and sat it down on the coffee table. He turned to me and patted the seat next to him on the couch. “I’d much prefer some company, if you're allowed.”
I couldn't recall anything that Babs had instructed me on that said I wasn't allowed to do so. She'd really just hammered it into me to not make any of the Orbs angry. She'd said that none of the Orbs had gotten violent in the years she'd been here, but she’d heard stories, and it was better to be safe than sorry. So I nodded to Kroven for fear of the worst case scenario and cautiously took the seat next to him.
He looked at me, but I still couldn't tell if he could actually see me or not. Those eyes were just so fascinating that I couldn't not look into them, even if he couldn't see me. Plus his faceitself wasn't too bad to look at. The burning feeling in my belly returned and I shifted on the couch nervously.
Kroven laughed lightly, picking up one of the pouches and stabbing the straw at the designated hole with a speed and ease I hadn't been expecting.
“I hope you don't mind,” Kroven stated. “But I get the sense that you're new to this.” Damn, was I that obvious? “I thought it might ease your worries to perhaps get to know my kind. To better your work going forward.” I didn't know what to say, so I stayed silent. He seemed to notice, because he kept talking. “You can ask me some questions while I drink, as long as you don't mind questions in return.”
The curiosity in me bloomed. Was an Orb really giving me the chance to ask questions? All my life I'd been so enamored by them and here one was, letting me field that yearning to know more about them. I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
“Yeah,” I stumbled over my words, trying to make them more confident as I continued. “I don't see anything wrong with that.”
