The Healer's Guardian Chapter 7

More training and Aleena gets out of her cell.

For a while, I wasn't allowed out of the cell at all and both Gustave and Amiel stayed there with me. They went over different things with me such as how to keep myself calm, how to not focus too much on a human's heartbeat or the scent of their blood, and how to keep the "thing" inside of me, that shows up when I need blood and makes me want to feed from a human, under control. First it was talking about it, then doing some things like deep breathing and coming up with things I can focus on to either bring myself back, if I did try and hurt someone, or to keep myself from attacking in the first place.

Talking about things and using techniques, without a human there, was one thing. That was fine and I actually felt a little silly in some cases. There were also times where I just wanted to leave the cell, not seeing how exactly what was being talked about, and what I was doing, would actually help. Halfway through the second day, though, was when I felt like I actually started my additional training. I definitely hadn't expected it, and had somewhat wondered why it was being done, but was also kind of glad it was happening.

Gustave had looked at me and said, "Do you think that you are ready to be around humans now?"

I questioningly looked at Amiel then at Gustave, and said, "Why would you ask me such a question? I thought, I shouldn't..."

"Just answer the question, Aleena," Amiel said, sounding a bit harsh. "Do you feel that you are ready to be around humans?"

I wasn't thrilled about how Amiel had talked to me, but I still said, "Yes, I do!"

"Yes, well, that remains to be seen," he said, before he went and stormed out of the room.

I scoffed as I watched Amiel leave, then said to no one in particular, "What are you talking about?"

I looked over at Gustave, and said, "Where is he going?" He didn't say anything to me, though. I wasn't sure why that was, really kind of confused by the whole thing. I walked a bit closer to him, then said, "Gustave, what is happening? Why did Amiel leave the room?"

Gustave was silent for a little while, before he said, not looking at me but watching the door, "You will find out soon enough."

That comment and the fact that Gustave still wasn't looking at me confused me even more. It also made me kind of angry. Before I could really do anything, though, I heard footsteps and not too long after heard a couple of heartbeats. They didn't sound calm at all, though, more scared than anything. It didn't matter to me, though, whether those coming to the cell were scared or not. It was more of that I was starting to get that feeling like I wanted blood, especially since I hadn't had blood since before my additional training started. As the heartbeats got closer, I could feel the need for blood get worse. I wanted the blood, but at the same time I knew I didn't want to hurt anyone. So I closed my eyes and took deep breaths as well, focused on other things, so I wouldn't get too out of control.

When I opened my eyes, I could see Gustave walking over to the cell door to open it. It made me a bit nervous, but I went and took some more deep breaths and kept telling myself that I would be fine and I wouldn't attack the humans. I fought to keep control and felt pretty good when the door was open and Amiel walked in, dragging a couple very scared looking humans with him. Once in the cell, the door was closed and locked by Gustave, and Amiel brought the humans further into the cell.

I looked at the humans for a little bit, then looked at Amiel and Gustave, before I said, "Amiel, why did you bring them here? They're terrified."

Amiel stopped walking, when he was right in front of me, still holding onto the human, man and woman. He looked at me and said, "You say that you can be around humans without a problem. You are going to prove it."

I looked back at the humans, halfway through what Amiel was saying. I didn't do anything at first but eventually found myself putting my hand out and running my hand through the woman's hair, as well as moving my nose close to the woman and man and sniffing them. When I felt myself moving close to the man's throat, though, I realized what I was doing and fought back. I moved myself away from them, and got myself under control. I then said, "I'm sorry. I did not mean to do that."

Not too long after I said that, I heard footsteps coming towards me then I felt someone take me into their arms. I realized it was Gustave when I recognized his scent and when he said, "I know that you did not mean to do that, my love. You actually did very well."

I looked up at him and said, "I did?"

He nodded his head and said, "Yes, you did. You actually fought to not hurt them, instead of fighting to hurt them."

I was silent for a little while, before I said, moving closer to Gustave, "The humans were brought here so that you could be sure I wouldn't hurt anyone, weren't they?"

"Of course they were," I could hear Amiel say.

"They were also brought here so that you can learn to feed without taking too much," Gustave said. "It will help you keep control as well."

I wasn't really sure how I felt about that at all. On one hand, I wanted to learn how to do that, so that it wouldn't always be that I had to drink blood from a wine glass. At the same time, I wasn't sure how much I'd take and didn't want to take too much. Now was as good a time to learn how best to feed as any, though.

I looked up at Gustave and said, "Ok. What do I do?"

Gustave chuckled a little, something I hadn't heard him do much lately, then said, "You do not have to worry about that. You will instinctively know what to do, and I will make sure you do not take too much."

Not too long after that was said, I could smell blood and looked over. I noticed that the woman's wrist was cut and tried to go over to her, so I could feed. Instead of letting me go, Gustave went and walked over to her with me. Once there, I went and grabbed the woman's wrist and put my mouth to it then started drinking. I could feel my thirst going away and didn't want to stop drinking, her blood tasting sweet to me.

When half her blood was gone, though, I heard Gustave say, "That is enough, Aleena. You need to stop now." I also felt him tug on my arm and shoulder a bit too. It took me a little bit, but I stopped drinking and pulled away. When I did, I noticed that there were additional wounds on her wrist as well as that she really looked weak. I hadn't felt fangs show up, but I obviously had them now. I was so glad that I hadn't taken any more than I did.

I looked up at Gustave and said, "Will she be ok?"

Gustave nodded his head then said, "Yes, of course. She just needs to rest for a while. She would not have been if you had taken more from her, though."

He paused then said, "Are you still thirsty?"

I nodded my head and said, "Yes, I am."

Gustave let go of me and said, "Go ahead and finish feeding then. I am sure you will not run into a problem."

I hesitated a little before I went over to the human man, who had been let go when I'd been feeding from the woman. He was in a corner, and I went over to him. After getting to him, I went and sunk my fangs, as gently as I could, into his throat and started drinking. I could feel him getting a bit weak after a while, and tried to pull away. This time it only took a little persuading from Gustave to get me to stop feeding, which was better than it had been.

After that, I went and licked away any blood that might have been left and let Gustave get rid of any blood I missed. Amiel and Gustave went and took the humans out of the room then came back and stayed with me a bit longer, making sure I was OK and going over things some more just to make sure I knew them. After that, when I needed to feed again, a couple other humans were brought to the cell. After the first few days had passed, Gustave, Amiel, Mirabelle and Bernier all spent time around me to see how I was doing and to see whether or not I would be alright to go to the castle. I was also brought out of the cell for a little while. For a while, I was fine but then I had a bit of a relapse and they all knew I wasn't ready yet.

I was brought to Gustave's room, instead of the cell, and a message was sent to the castle that the wedding was to be postponed for a few days. I wasn't thrilled about it, but I could understand why. I was glad, though, that I wasn't brought back to the cell. After the message was sent, I went and lay down beside Gustave and went to sleep.