James' Sacrifice

There was a circular bandage on the inside of his elbow. He pulled a grimace when he tore the bandage off to let Aiden see the thing beneath it.

There was a tiny, but visible hole on the lighter skin area. A thin metal ring surrounded the hole, looking a lot like a body-piercing accessory. Only that it was not.

James' eyes were locked on Aiden's face the whole time. There was relief in his heart when he detected neither disgust nor judgment coming from Aiden.

Aiden lifted his gaze from the tiny hole and looked straight into James' eyes.

"James, what is this?"

James' Adam's Apple bobbed up and down nervously. He put the bandage back in place and lowered his sleeve.

"This is a hole made for regular blood collection. I sold my blood to the vampire hospital in the past to get enough money for Princessa's treatment. Ever since then, I... I sold my blood again a few more times when I was short of money."

A look of understanding appeared on Aiden's face when he recalled the mysterious black car that picked James up the previous night from his house.

"Yesterday, you sold your blood again," Aiden softly whispered.

James nodded.

"They contacted me and offered a lot of money. You don't know how it is with money. One day what you have is enough, on the other day it is far from enough."

Ashamed, James kept his head down while rubbing the inside of his elbow through the fabric.

It was the first time that he told anyone about this. Truthfully, it was an illegal activity.

He was only fifteen when the vampire hospital staff approached him, the human boy who was desperate for money, with an offer that he could not refuse.

Blood selling was considered legal only above the age of twenty.

For every blood drawing session, the human being who donated blood must sign an agreement of consent, in which it was clearly stated that the blood was not taken forcefully and was given voluntarily in exchange for some money.

The Law of Three Races had even set a fixed rate for blood-selling transactions to make sure that human beings were properly compensated for losing blood.

While a lot of human beings sold their blood for easy money through vampire hospitals, it was known that the better-off vampires preferred their blood source to be younger and fresher.

Illegal as it might be, poor human beings existed everywhere. There were even some families who brought their underage children to the vampire hospitals to exchange the premium blood for some big bucks.

Aiden hugged himself as that thought crossed his mind.

How brutal.

How horrible.

"Aiden, I hope this doesn't change anything between us. I plan to get a good part-time job, and after graduation, I want to be a decent man who is part of the legal workforce. I will never again sell a drop of blood in my life if I can help it."

Aiden shook his head and patted James' back. Then he grabbed James' shoulder, looked straight into his friend's eyes, and said, "James, you have done a lot for your siblings. If you are looking for criticism, you are not getting it from me."

James' lips trembled from the surge of emotion in his heart. Ever since his parents passed away, no one had ever even once complimented him that he had done a good job in taking care of his siblings.

He received a lot of the "Poor boy, he suffers a lot" but no one had ever recognized the hard work that he put in to take care of his younger siblings.

Tears dropped from James' eyes and he quickly wiped them off out of fear that one of his siblings would come suddenly and see him crying. How disgraceful would that be?

"Anyway," he quickly said with a hoarse voice. "Aiden, I am not going to ask about your current situation. The reason I am telling you this is because I sense the same kind of desperation that I once had three years ago.

If, just if, you ever consider this source of income, you can contact this vampire. I have been selling my blood through her for three years now. She is not a shady salesman that tramples over human beings. I can honestly recommend her to you."

James carefully took out a black card in the shape of a coffin from his pocket. On top of it, only a phone number was written in white letters.

"You can call her Nick. If she ever asks, just tell her that you got her number from me."