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CHAPTER SIX
The run with Elena was surprisingly pleasant. She was a sweet and mellow vampire, guiding me along the trails through the woods. It was nice to feel the earth beneath one’s shoes, to breathe the pure air, to hear the crunch as we made a path through the thickly packed snow. She seemed in her element, her face gleaming again.
Inside the cottage, she seemed plain, even unrecognizable. But here in the woods, her eyes returned to the previous night’s glory, shimmering with a life of their own. Her skin seemed to give off a light of it’s own, as if she smoldered from within. She held herself with a certain grace. It wasn’t in arrogance though, that much I could tell. It was more in subtlety, something that I don’t even think she noticed. I had never met a vampire like her, and by her thick accent, it was obvious she was from the Wars.
When we took a break, seating ourselves upon a moss-covered log, I decided to ask her about where she was from. She paused slightly when I finished speaking, taking a deep breath, before turning to face me. “Australia,” she murmured. “The Wars were the worst elsewhere and I was lucky enough to leave when I did. Walter had found me off the coast of Florida and took me home with him. I’ve been here ever since.”
I mulled over this answer, amazed how at ease she was, her eyes locked above in the heavens. “Do you not miss it?”
She met my gaze, her gray orbs like oceans of wisdom and I had to look away, afraid that she could see past me, as if she could hear all my secrets. I didn’t like the feeling that I was open as a book, ready to turn the pages at will for her. “No, to be quite honest. Australia, as beautiful a country as it is, didn’t hold what I needed. I didn’t need exotic places and open plains. I needed a home to call my own and Walter gave that to me with little affliction.”
“Do you remember your home land?” I was curious; it was hard not to be. I had only lived in one area my whole life and here was a vampire who had seen the Wars and who knew what else. I couldn’t resist questioning her further.
Elena’s eyes twinkled, as if she could hear my thoughts. “Bits and pieces, all not very clear. All I really remember is that I had been a rogue and had roamed the plains, hunting whenever I came into range of a town. I didn’t have a stable life and the Wars only brought that more into clarity when the infantries of Australia threatened all rogues in the area. I had no choice but to flee to America and pray for the best. I was beyond lucky that Walter found me when he did.”
“Wow, that must have been scary for you.”
“Yes, and no. Half of me was terrified of being found and killed. Any rogues were considered the enemy.”
“But that’s not fair. The Wars were to hunt down the groups that were hunting humans just to kill and murder. Not all rogues were like that.”
Elena smiled sadly. “Very true. But the infantries weren’t taking any chances. But at the same time, looking back on it, I didn’t just view it as a life-or-death situation. I also viewed it as a challenge, a game perhaps. I was a bit of a risk-taker in my youth.”
“You are still young,” I pointed out, and Elena laughed.
“Maybe in your eyes. But I feel it in my bones, in my blood, and know that’s not true.”
I was taken back at this. I had never heard of another vampire speaking of aging or even probable death. It was unheard of. Most of the time, you just ignored it and prayed for the end to come swiftly and painlessly.
Elena definitely wasn’t like other vampires.
She must have noticed my expression, for she gently gripped my shoulder. “Death is a natural part of life, Sophia. Every creature comes and goes. It is a biological order.” Standing, she stretched, sighing contentedly. “I think that run was exactly what I needed, don’t you?”
Elena changed the subject so swiftly that I didn’t realize until later that she had avoided the topic of her age. Rising as well, I nodded, my energy level feeling higher than before, though I knew that I still needed to feed. As I acknowledged the hunger, my canines pressed pointedly against my lower lip. Elena’s eyes widened at the sight of them before urging me forward.
“Come, I think I heard Walter talk about a hunting party going out early this morning.”
When we reached the cottage, Elena was proved right. Philip and the coven were crowded around the grounds. The atmosphere was electric, and I realized I wasn’t the only one who badly needed to feed.
Elena left my side then with a good-bye and a promise to seek me out later in the day to talk further. I watched her leave, her gait one of complete ease, and I saw many eyes, both male and female, observe her departure.
I heard my name and craned my neck around to see Dover and Nate approach me. “Hey guys,” I greeted, noticing instantly that my demeanor had changed, had almost done a three-sixty. Last night, I had been bitter, resentful of the move, but after talking to Elena, my emotions were settled, dormant for now, and it made me feel like myself again.
“Are you starving or what?” Nate gushed, his canines hanging audaciously out of his mouth as he talked. Dover was more in control, his only mere pinpricks peeking out of his mouth.
I nodded, unable to deny it. I ran my tongue over my canines, feeling them grow even longer until they resembled Nate’s. Spinning, I saw Philip pairing us all of into groups. He shoved Nate, Dover, and I together as one group, moving quickly through the throng. The coven was anxious to get moving.
Philip told us that we needed to head up to the border of Canada so we wouldn’t cause attention from the locals. At the signal, I took off at unnatural speeds, Dover and Nate on either side of me. For a few moments, I enjoyed the wind in my hair, the velocity of which we moved, forgetting all about my hunger until, twenty minutes later, we reached a town.
My senses were instantly piqued as I smelt human blood. I hated hunting like this. It was animalistic when I let my senses get so unruly that at one whiff of human, my nerves went crazy. I felt my eyes start to darken, the primordial part of me taking over. Dover must have sensed it because he nudged me, bringing me back to myself. I smiled thankfully at him as we continued north.
At Philip’s call, we took off west until we reached one of the ‘safe’ towns. Nate disappeared instantly and I slowed, hoping for a glimpse of him. Dover, being as young as Nate but much more sensible, slowed as well. “Where did he go?” I asked.
Dover looked worried, but didn’t voice his concerns, shrugging. “He’ll be okay. He’s hungry.” Winking at me, he took of in another direction and I was left alone.
I look my time, my hunting strategy always one of patience. I circled the town a few times until I pinpointed my prey—a male around the age of forty-five, single, no attachments of any kind.
The perfect victim.
I could tell all of this with one quick glance into his eyes. Even yards away, I could do this and I was able to enter his mind and figure these facts out quickly.
I tracked him to the local Bank where I gathered my strength and entered behind him. He smelled delicious, his blood thick and untainted by any viruses that humans sometimes contract. Each human’s blood mostly smelled the same. The only time it was off was when the human was either sick or dying, and we vampires usually steered clear of the infected and weak.
The male was of medium height, chocolate brown hair chopped close to his scalp. His eyes were a honey-hazel shade, his skin a delicate porcelain. It would be so easy to take him now. There would be only one witness, the teller, easily taken care of. It was tempting, but I held back, knowing it would be safer to lead him off alone.
Once he finished with his bank business, he turned and our eyes locked. It was so easy—almost too easy. One glance from me and it was all over for him. I knew that my eyes were dark, shadowed, calling him with every fiber of my being. He responded with an almost hypnotic walk over. I leaned over to him, inhaling his blood, indulging in the sin before whispering in his ear: “Come with me?”
He nodded, smiling down at me as if he would follow me to the ends of the earth, like I knew he would if I asked. I bet I could even ask him to jump to his doom from the roof of a building and he would obey.
Humans were so easily corrupted.
I took his hand in my own, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine, and led him into the woods. He didn’t talk, which made things all the more easier. Some humans, once overtaken, tried to please us with offered gifts and trinkets or endless love for eternity. I was always disgusted with these ones, how their proposals fell on deaf ears.
This one was quiet, which was a welcome change, because the hunger was growing within me like a swelling fire contained in my chest.
I moved stealthily, bringing him deeper and deeper into the forest, and he came willingly, every once and a while squeezing my hand as if encouraging me. Once I was sure we were a safe distance away, I took a breath and spun slowly to face him. He smiled at me, his eyes glimmering with hope for what I didn’t know.
I smiled as well and his eyes lost all sparkle of faith when he saw the two-inch fangs suspended from my mouth. It was incredible, that one second change between aspiration and inescapable death. The humans sensed it before the end, as if praying for a savior. They always knew before the final bite that concluded it all.
I had never been one that fed while the human was still alive. I at least saved them from such a horrible fate that I knew some of my kind gave them. Instead I leaned into them and breathed softly into their faces. When we wanted it to, the air from our lungs could be a deadly poison, like a cloth soaked in Chloroform. The more we breathed, the deadlier it could get until we could actually kill the human.
That’s the path I chose.
I caught the human before he fell, my breath so powerful that he was dead before I seized him. Laying him on the earth, I paused a moment, drawing in the heavenly aroma of his blood as it started to cool inside his veins. That was how I liked my blood.
Cold and dead, just as we were.
Unable to hold back any longer, I dipped my head and sank my fangs into his neck, the blood exploding in my mouth like peccadillo and pleasure were entwined together to create one of the most offensive, yet lovely tastes. I drank heavily, the crimson liquid slipping down my throat to gratify my parched throat.
It was a misconception that it was all contentment for vampires to drink. The pain was sometimes more powerful than the fulfillment. It burned on the way down yet soothed at the same time. Every now and then, I had to pull away, holding back the urge to cry out in both anguish and ecstasy.
When I finished with him, I curled up against the nearest tree and closed my eyes, swallowing hard. My hands trembled as the blood hit my stomach, swirling around in my abdomen. That’s when I felt my own blood, black as the midnight sky, start to stir and then, like a shock to my chest, my heart jumped to life.
That was what made it all worth it. All the trouble we went through to stay hidden from the humans. All the pain from feeding off them. This moment, when I felt my once dead lifeline inside of me jolt alive.
For a moment, I stopped breathing altogether and pressed my palm between my breasts, the soft thump as my heart pushed against my ribs making me beam.
This was the only time we truly felt alive.
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