Secrets of the Bloodless: Prologue

An acute pain in my side indicated a stitch, but I gritted my teeth and pressed on. I hadn't run like this in months; each exhaling breath felt to be ripped from my throat, every muscle screamed for me to stop, and the heat of my exertion was squeezing my brain like a sponge. My blood boiled, my skin prickled, and all encounters with the pavement rang in my skull. The adrenaline had provided me a decent head start, but now my spirit was waning, and I was weakening against the voice in my head that encouraged me to give up. The voice I had often succumbed to in the past.

To give up is the easier way to go. Not the better way to go.

My renewed determination at this thought, however, couldn't change the fact that I was approaching my physical limit.

Her laughter increased in volume. Whether she was drawing nearer or forcing more air into each peal, I didn't know. I begged the latter.

My thundering heart jumped out of its cavity. I urged my body to pick up the pace, but it didn't respond. I ... I couldn't continue...

Then her icy arm curled around my neck. My airways became clogged with her perfume. She stretched her mouth open, revealing a fine set of pointed teeth. Tinted red.

A numb hopelessness overtook me. It was over. I couldn't even reach the bag of pills in my pocket, which I reserved for such situations.

She didn't pause to plunge her fangs into my neck.

Not even to make some mocking remark.

Not even to lick her lips and comment on how delicious I would be.

The agony would have had me writhing on the ground if vampire venom wasn't sedative, and I gladly gave in to unconsciousness after the first taste of pain...

A mountain of limp adolescents. They were piled on top of each other in a lake of blood, which shone red in the cruel light of the moon. The sky appeared empty of stars--a black void, across which no cloud ever scudded. To the human mind, the scene would have been terrifying.

I, Xavier, was not human. The common human abhorred violence, and I craved it. The common human was easily afraid, and I never knew fear. My race didn't have anything to fear. We, not humans, were the dominant species of this Earth, a living nightmare to all living creatures. We preyed on humans. And as we were born from them, we had all the gifts of man and none of their flaws.

I couldn't imagine now clinging to life as a teenager. Who desired being a weak animal when offered a far better option?

My eyes refocused on the pile of bodies. Some had tumbled loose and were thrashing about in the water as they struggled to stay afloat. Coughing up blood, crying for help.

Help that wouldn't come.

I watched them drown unsympathetically. They were humans that didn't make it through the transformation. The disabled or mentally ill ones.

A black fog began to swallow the lake. In confidence that I was just dreaming, I let it smother me, and my body shivered; I was surprised by its chillness. This is only a dream, Xavier. Only a dream. But I could feel myself seizing up. I heard a crackling sound as my skin frosted over like glass. My tongue was frozen in place, so I could only emit strangled yells.

Had something gone wrong in my transformation?!

I leaned forward, gasping like a fish out of water. Though the numbness was subsiding, I retained a cadaverous hue. I staggered over to the window of an abandoned house, wondering if my reflection would show. Or did that rule just extend to mirrors?

No pair of eyes returned my stare.

I ran a slender hand over my face. A nose that protruded less and was thinner than I recalled...higher cheekbones...longer, more bristly eyelashes.... Then I swept my bangs in front of my eyes and saw that they were pure black instead of burgundy. So the rest of my features must match that of a vampire's: bloodred irises, fangs, a slim tongue, and a well-muscled physique.

The transformation was complete. The pain was gone. I punched through the window, and I received no cuts as it splintered into a million shards.

I was perfect. Whole.

But thirsty.