Young Writers Society

Evie sat in the kitchen with a cup of steaming tea nestled in her hands. The tea she had bought for Michael. The tea he refused to accept because she was a vampire. Her nerves were shot and she could feel herself shaking but at the same time was completely detached from her body.

Her insides cringed but she was too numb to make a physical reaction when she heard Caius’ bare footfalls coming down the stairs. He glided gracefully into the kitchen, swooping passed her with his open red and grey dressing gown floating behind him. He poured a glass of blood and sat in front of the circular table. Evie could feel him inspecting her but her eyes were distant and transfixed on a crack in the wall behind Caius’ head. He curled his foot around the leg of his chair and yanked himself forward, closing the distance between himself and Evie as much as he could. Even the loud scraping of the chair against the laminate floor didn’t pull her out of her almost trance-like state.

“Evie,” Caius hedged, dipping his head as if to study her from a slightly different angle. “Are you okay?”

Finally, she moved with a wince. Her body felt stiff but she managed to shrug her dressing gown off her shoulder so it dropped and pooled around her waist. She couldn’t look at Caius, couldn’t bear to see the realisation dawn on his face. But she heard him suck in a tortured gasp as he took in the bruises that covered the tops of her arms. Little did he know that most of the damage was still covered up. Those ugly purple marks ran right down her sides, too.

“I…did that?” asked Caius in a soft, broken voice.

She nodded and pulled her dressing gown back up, her expression tightening with pain. She flicked her long red hair behind her back as she shrugged it back on. Caius’ eyes widened and he practically lunged across the table, his vampire speed sending Evie’s heart crashing against her ribs. He swiped a fallen strand of hair behind her ear and gasped when what he thought he had seen…was actually true. Two puncture wounds pierced her throat. “Oh my God.” He sank back down on his chair, looking as deflated as Evie felt.

A lump swelled in her throat as she watched Caius coming to terms with the truth before her. His pale blue eyes flitted back and forth as everything suddenly became very real. He shrank back into the chair and stared down at the table with wide, vacant eyes.

“I know we used to bite, Caius,” began Evie, her voice strained from the sob trapped in her throat. “I know that was just what we did…to feel connected…to feel closer…but things are different now.”

“I fed from you,” he said hollowly, talking to himself. “I…I didn’t even think. I didn’t even know I did it…I just thought-”

“You didn’t think because you never needed to. Just like you didn’t think you needed to be gentle with me…you never needed to. I could withstand your heavy hands. But I can’t now, Caius. I’m weak. I’m fragile. I’m human.”

He ran his tongue over his top teeth, thinking. “We went too fast. Rushed into this blindfolded. But I’ve been here before, Evie, I can learn to control myself. I just need time to adjust.”

Ah, yes, Caius had been here before…with Catherine. And how did that end? She died. She was brutally murdered. By vampires.

Evie ground her teeth at the memory of Caius’ former lover as she stared down at her cup of tea that was now only fairly warm. She jumped at the sound of Caius’ chair scraping across the floor. He was by an open drawer in a millisecond with a knife in his hand. He held his other hand flat, palm to the ceiling, and placed the tip of the knife against it.

“Caius, what are you doing?”

He hissed with pain as he drilled the sharp point into the centre of his palm. Leaving the bloody knife on the counter, he crossed back to the table, curled his injured hand into a fist and hovered it over Evie’s mug. Blood oozed from his wound like red string and dripped into her tea. She watched with confusion as Caius winced, squeezing his fist tighter to release more of his blood. Finally satisfied with ruining her brew, he withdrew his hand and dropped back down onto his chair.

Evie inspected the contents of her mug rather uncertainly. The blood swirled around on the surface before dissipating.

“To heal you,” he said.

Evie’s gut twisted but she held the mug to her lips under Caius’ watchful stare, and gulped down the mixture of tea and blood. She had been trying to avoid this. This sordid transaction of bodily fluid. But what was the point? There was no escaping the truth. Evie’s blood fed Caius’ hunger. Caius’ blood healed Evie’s cuts and scrapes.

They had gone from being on the same side to polar opposites.

She could feel her aching muscles beginning to sooth as if a trained masseuse was stroking her bruises, coaxing them back to health. The wound on her neck sealed shut and so did the scabbed up slice across her forearm. By the time she drained the mug, she was completely healed. She placed it back down on the table and saw that Caius’ open palm was also fully healed under the smudged stain of his blood.

They both sat in the dead silence, watching each other for a moment. Jaws flexing. Eyes flickering. Skin itching. Until finally Caius spoke up in a soft, tentative voice. “Do you forgive me?”

The hope in his voice made Evie’s heart swell. She tried to reply but her throat was dry. She cleared it and managed to rasp, “Yes.”

She didn’t smile. Nor did Caius. They just sat there around the circle table, the silence sweeping over them once again. She pushed her chair back and took her empty mug to the sink. Expelling a heavy breath, she turned on the hot tap and began scrubbing.

“What day is it?” she asked, not looking back.

“Sunday,” replied Caius.

“I’m going to go to the club and quit…if they haven’t fired me already.”

Caius shifted, making the chair jerk noisily. “You’re quitting, why?”

“My nights are precious now and I don’t want to spend them…not with you.”

“Does that mean you want me to quit, too?”

“No.” She placed the washed mug on the drainer and turned to him. “You work part-time anyway so it’s no big deal and plus-” She walked over to him and ran her fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes at the feeling of her fingertips massaging his scalp. “-you need a reason to put some pants on.”

He laughed lightly and looked down at his bare legs. She kissed the top of his head. “I’m going getting dressed,” she said before heading up the stairs.

When she returned in her winter coat, woolly hat and thick tread boots, Caius was still sat in his chair but now inspecting the free newspaper opened out on the table.

She sighed. “Caius.”

His head bounced up and he looked at her through the strands of his hair that flopped over his eyes.

Her brows furrowed. “Please, try to go outside. Even if it’s just in the back garden. You’re going to develop agoraphobia.”

He laughed lightly, shaking his head. “Don’t fret. I’m fine.”

She paused for a moment, watching him as he got back to reading. Worry made her chest constrict. She shook off the feeling and opened the front door. “See you later!”

Evie decided to take the car, feeling like it was the safer option, now that she was extremely conscious about what lurked in the shadows. Part of her understood why some humans acted the way they did as fear sprouted inside her, making her scope every street she went down. She passed a vampire bar on her way which was being vandalised, as usual. Men and women with masks threw eggs at the walls and were spray painting ‘Vampire scum’ and ‘The Devil’s children’ across it in blood red letters.

The door burst open and three vampires stormed out, fangs extended. The humans stopped but stood their ground, a little fearfully. It was general knowledge that all vampire owned businesses were watched throughout the night by the local authorities armed with guns and silver bullets. If the vandals didn’t know this, they would have run a mile at the sight of those gleaming canines.

Evie shook herself and continued on her travels to the vampire owned shopping centre, the only one that had shops open at night. She’d never really taken much interest in the local authorities but now she was very thankful to see them parked up outside, ready and waiting. She parked only a few spaces away from the officers, even though the car park was almost empty. Vampires didn’t need cars.

She wandered past the music store Caius worked at and noticed the human that he worked with playing with his phone behind the counter. Some humans worked in these stores because they enjoyed doing the nightshift for whatever reasons, and that was how Caius was able to stay under the radar like Evie. Of course, his vampire employer knew what he was, but he swore to keep it a secret.

Finally, she found the store she was looking for. No one was in the phone shop so she was in and out in a heartbeat- a heartbeat that the man behind the counter was very aware of. She had bought two mobile phones, one pink and one silver. Cheap and second-hand, but they did the job. Evie figured that if Caius did finally put some clothes on and venture outside, it was best that she could contact him to make sure he was doing okay. And seeing as Nico had taken both their phones, new ones were needed. He had also taken away their other form of communication – telepathy.

Hopping back into the car, she made her way to Sourz.

It had just passed midnight when she reached the city centre. She parked up in a layby not too far from club and lost herself in the throng as she made her way over. Eric did a double take from the door as she weaved through the excitable drunks.

“Evie. Oh my God!” His brown eyes widened. “Where’ve you been? You’ve missed work. You haven’t returned my calls. I thought you were dead,” he laughed but there was actual concern underlying it.

“Hey, Eric.” She smiled, walking up the step. “I’m sorry I went AWOL. Lost my phone and things have been pretty intense with Caius lately.”

Eric’s eyebrows rose. She hardly ever talked to him about Caius. She hadn’t even mentioned to him that he had been missing, mainly because talking about it just made it feel more real. But she didn’t share stories about her relationship with Caius in fear of saying too much. Eric had seen him from time to time and they acknowledged each other, but Caius had decided long ago to hide his vampirism so he knew making human friends was risky. He used to lecture Evie about her relationship with Eric being too close until she grew tired of it and stopped listening all together.

“Really, what’s wrong?” asked Eric after checking a young woman’s ID and sending her through.

Evie shook her head. “Nothing to bother you about. But anyway, I’ve just come here to quit…if I haven’t been fired already.”

Eric’s face slackened. “You’re quitting?”

She frowned, hearing the disappointment in his voice. “Yeah. I need to spend more time with Caius and try and sort stuff out. Sorry, Eric.”

He sighed. “Well…it’s your choice, I guess. I’m going to miss you, though.”

She smiled. “You’d better. I’ll miss you too. I’ve enjoyed our nights together.”

“Whoa, don’t let your boyfriend catch you saying that.”

She laughed and leaned into him when he opened his arms to her. She wrapped her arms around his round middle, pressing the side of her head into his black bubble coat like it was a pillow. He held her close and squeezed her tightly before letting her go.

She readjusted her hat and looked warily to the door. “Wish me luck?”

He chuckled. “Good luck.”

Apparently, she had already been fired. Her boss, Keith Fraser, was just as shocked as Eric was when she came into his office after a tentative knock. He too had thought that she had just vanished off the face of the earth.

“I called you and you didn’t answer. Three strikes and you’re out, Evie. And you’ve had plenty more than three in the last two weeks. Which was very odd indeed- you used to be so dependable.”

Evie stood in the centre of his office, his guilt trip working wonders. She felt awful as he gave her the sad eyes from behind his desk.

“Anyway, I’ve already been interviewing replacements. So, thanks for showing your face but you can leave now.” He gestured to his door with his tanned, perfectly manicured hand.

“I’m sorry, Keith,” she mumbled.

He sighed. “You were good, Evie. It’s sad to see you go but I have no choice.”

“I understand.” She nodded and made her way out.

She shouldered her way back through the gyrating bodies and squeezed herself back out of the door, coughing up the stench of sweat and booze.

“How’d it go?” asked Eric.

“Not bad. He was more upset than angry.”

“No wonder, it won’t be the same without you.”

“Oh, stop.” She slapped him playfully on the arm. “You’re going to make me cry.”

He chuckled, his large belly jiggling. “We’ll keep in touch though, right?”

“Right.” She nodded. “Oh!” She opened her plastic bag and fished out her pink phone. “I’ve got a new phone.” She messed about with the SIM card and pressed a few buttons until she got the hang of how everything worked. “Can I take your number again?”

“Yeah sure,” he replied and recited it for her as she dialled in the numbers.

“Great.” She gleamed when she successfully saved her first contact. “I’ll give you a call sometime.”

“I hope you do,” he replied. She smiled up at him but then her forehead creased as she noticed how he was looking at her.

“What?”

“You look different.”

Her heartbeat quickened. “Really?” she asked, her voice rising a few octaves. She cleared her throat, silently admonishing herself. “How exactly?”

He pursed his lips in thought, studying her face. “I don’t know…you just do.”

She rolled her eyes and let out a hopefully convincing laugh. “Okay then. Anyway, I’d better go.” She smiled and turned ready to walk away. “See you around.”

“Yeah, you too.”

She turned back to send him a wave and a smile before leaving.

Evie got back into her car and headed home, still very wary of the dark side streets. But vampires living outside the law and daring enough to grab a fresh snack weren’t her main worry like other humans. She was more concerned about Nico and his men sending her back to that mansion and locking her up. Maybe Nico had enough of her blood though. Maybe she was being paranoid for no reason. But she had escaped and brought Caius with her. He might just want her back so he could punish her for outsmarting him and taking one of his precious ancients.

She managed to get home safely and tried to shake off the unnerving feeling of being watched as she rolled the crappy Cavalier up the driveway. Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.

The door was unlocked which meant that Caius was still home. She bit down on her tongue with irritation. He needed to leave at some point. Caius was supposed to be the strong one and seeing him the way he was now was starting to get to her.

She sucked in a breath and pushed the door open, ready to kick his arse into gear. She stormed into the hallway and spun towards the living room. She paused for a moment, her mind taking a while to slot everything into place. Then everything came whirling into focus. Her heart plummeted to her feet. The floor was ripped from underneath her. She stumbled back on unsteady legs until her back collided with the wall. The thrumming of her pulse was so violent that her head was throbbing. With her hand to her heart, she gulped short, sharp breaths.

Everything’s not fine.