PART I – The Change
Chapter 1
“It’s a bit
chilly out today, what do you reckon?” asked Eric, bunching up his big
shoulders to keep in the warmth.
Evie gulped
and forced a shiver. “Yeah, it is a bit.”
It was hard
to go on day after day pretending to be human, but Evie decided years ago that
it was much better than coming out as a vampire. Sure, the humans put on a
brave face and tried to treat the bloodsuckers as ‘equals’ but it was hard to
miss the fear and hatred in their eyes.
Eric was a
good man, Evie had always thought. She’d been working with him for just over a
year now as a bouncer at the club Sourz.
It was a human club. Evie thought it would be best. There was much less blood.
Although, every now and again a drunk would stumble out after being bottled
over the head with blood dripping down from their scalp and smeared over their
hands. That was when Eric would step in and Evie would slip into the alleyway
beside the club to cool down. She had mentioned to Eric the first day they
manned the door together that she had a thing about blood, couldn’t stand the
sight of it. Eric was very understanding and would always usher her away when
any of the red stuff was around.
The night was
still young, only nine o’clock. The youth didn’t start lining up until around
ten so Evie and Eric had some time to kill. She noticed that when he breathed,
puffs of white mist came from his mouth so she started breathing too, before he
caught onto the fact that the air around her was completely untarnished.
“So, how’s
things with Clarissa?” Evie asked.
Eric frowned a
little, looking ahead. “Not so great.”
“Oh? How many
dates has it been now?”
“Three.”
“You said it
was going well.”
He sighed. “It
was, until the last time we met up.”
“Why? What
happened?”
His dark eyes
flickered to her. “She likes to go to those vampire bars…”
Evie’s stomach
cramped. “Oh…”
Eric puffed
out a heavy breath. “She’s into the whole…biting thing…I mean, I have nothing
against vampires as long as they keep themselves to themselves. They have blood
rations and those blood whores, no need to go around biting others, too.”
“But they do
go in there willingly,” said Evie, hoping to not sound too defensive.
Eric narrowed
his eyes ahead. “That’s what they make us believe. It’s that compelling that
creeps me out. I mean, you could go to one of those bars and they could do
whatever they want to you and make you forget the whole thing. For all we know,
those blood whores have vampire pimps doing exactly the same thing to them.”
Evie pushed
her tongue against her teeth to force herself to stay quiet. She knew he was
wrong because vampires can tell when a human has been compelled and she knew
the Dial-a-bite system didn’t work
like that. But obviously, she couldn’t tell him that.
“Anyway,” Eric
sighed after a short silence. “It has put a strain on things.”
“It might
still work out…” replied Evie hollowly, squinting into the breeze.
Another
silence followed but Eric quickly broke the unsettling quiet. “You think
they’ll be any fights tonight?”
She shrugged.
“Probably. There always is.”
He laughed,
his large, round belly jiggling a little. “Gotta love this job.”
“You sure do,”
smiled Evie.
Whenever a
fight did break out, they always wanted Evie to be the one to step in and sort
them out because of how mean and intimidating Eric looked. She couldn’t blame
them really. She always thought that if the tables were turned, she’d want the
young, pretty faced red head to throw her out rather than the six foot three
black man built like a truck. But little did they know that Evie could run
rings around Eric and shred him to pieces if she wanted to.
They made a
good team, Evie and Eric.
“Oh, looks
like the night has finally started,” Eric inclined his head over to a group of
lads heading towards the club.
They both
asked for their ID’s and all four of them lined up in front of Evie, giving her
the eye as she checked out their driving licenses.
“Like what you
see?” One of them grinned.
She arched her
eyebrow and shoved the ID into his chest. He winced and clutched the card
before following his friends inside.
Eric chuckled.
“You really do attract them.”
She laughed. “The perks of the job, I guess.”
The last dregs
of drunken misfits started making their way home at around three in the morning
and Evie called it a night soon after, watching the sky turn from black to a
murky blue. She shoved her hands into her leather jacket pockets and tilted her
head down from the wind as it whipped her auburn hair across her face. She may
not feel the cold but the wind still irritated her.
Even though
there were no fights tonight and no blood was spilled, she hadn’t eaten
anything fresh since two nights ago and she was feeling peckish. She noted that
she still had some blood bags left in the fridge and she had Dial-a-bite on speed dial but she needed
something now. Her fangs had already lengthened and her stomach growled for
attention.
Heading down
another dark alleyway, she spotted her victim.
She bent down
and tried not to gag at the smell of alcohol and vomit. This is what I have stooped to, she thought. Carefully, pulling
back his grimy hair, she opened her mouth and pressed her fangs into his neck.
He gurgled and tried to swat her languidly then hiccupped and started to snore
again. She was so glad that her bites had a numbing chemical in them because
she really didn’t fancy having to fight a hobo just to taste thin, less than
appetising blood. She withdrew her fangs and stood, wiping the blood that
trickled down her chin. Tramps were easy targets. They just stayed slumped on a
street corner blissfully unaware of the vampire sucking at their neck. She
didn’t have to lure them somewhere dark and hidden or bother compelling them to
forget her. Not that she could do that now anyway. She hasn’t been able to do
anything like that for fourteen years. It would have been a lie to say she didn’t
miss it but she also didn’t think it was worth the consequences. Evie often
felt like she had the red dot of a sniper trained on her forehead wherever she
went. It was a feeling everyone had had to get used to. Known vampires were
constantly watched by the human authorities and simple interacts between
vampires with humans often came with a not-so- concealed stake held in a sweaty
grip. Evie was always thankful that she had been able to keep a low profile for
so long. Sure, she was watched every now and again. Everyone was to some
extent. But it was nothing compared to the scrutiny that outed vampires faced
on a nightly basis. It irritated her to a point that she sometimes wanted to
scream but then she’d calm herself and submit. This was just how the world
worked now.
Evie pricked
her finger with her fang and pressed it to the bite marks on the homeless man’s
neck, soothing them and closing them up with her blood.
Two drunks
stumbled out of a bar, laughing and slapping each other playfully on the backs.
Evie licked her lips but zipped up her leather jacket and regressed into the
shadows. Checking her phone, her gut twisted. No new messages. No new
voicemails. She chewed her lip and called Caius again. Just as she had
expected, there was no answer. She was starting to get worried. It had been a
week since she had seen him. He had left to go to the hospital and never come
back. Sure, Caius was a big boy. He had been around for ten centuries for God’s
sake, he could look after himself. But she couldn’t shake the prickly feeling
at the back of her neck that told her that something didn’t quite add up.
Evie and Caius
had been side by side for just short of a hundred years now and yes, it could
drag on sometimes and yes, there were times she just wanted to smash his head
through a wall. But that’s why they organised holidays away from each other.
Had he just gone on a last minute trip? No. He would have told her. He knew she
would be worried. He would have called.
The heavens
opened and rain started to clatter to the ground. Evie hugged her jacket close
but she had no intention of carrying on through this weather so she vampire-sprinted
her way home. Even though she made it to my porch in less than thirty seconds,
her hair was stuck to her face. She pushed it out of her eyes and slotted the
key into the door.
“Caius!” she
called, slamming the door behind her. Her boots squelched as she walked across
the laminate. They used to have carpet but blood stains were right bitch to
clean. Her stomach knotted. No answer. Where
the hell is he?!
She
headed upstairs, stripped off her wet clothes and jumped into the shower to try
and scrub away the disgusting feeling that crawled over her skin after she fed
off a homeless person.
Caius wouldn’t
approve.
But Caius isn’t here.
Lathering up
the shower gel on her body, she felt a hot tear run down her cheek. She rubbed
her face, irritated by her own emotions and focused on the hot spray on her
body. She missed how her body would flush under the heat of the water. Now she
felt it hit her the same way the rain did. Just...water on flesh.
It was about
an hour before dawn when she dried off and redressed into her pyjamas. She
brushed her teeth to get all of the hobo taste out of her mouth and inspected
her reflection. She sighed at the bags under her eyes. In human years, she was
only twenty two but her worry about Caius has made her age significantly.
Every night
she spent alone with her own thoughts, she felt like she was unravelling.
Drinking from that homeless person had been dangerous. Why had she even done it
anyway? It was so out of character. Perhaps a part of her thought that rebelling
would bring Caius back, even if he did just show up to scold her.
She locked
all the shutters and climbed into the empty double bed, despite the darkness
still looming outside. There was still an indentation in Caius’ pillow. She
hugged the covers close to herself and stared at it, envisioning his head
filling the space. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat as she brushed
her fingertips over the pillowcase, imagining his long mahogany hair splayed
out over it. He had changed so much since she had first seen him. His style
changed with the times. When she first laid eyes on him, he wore well-tailored
suits and had his dark hair perfectly coiffed. Now, he looked like a reject
from an indie rock band with his oversized, worn out leather jackets and the
unkempt, shaggy mop on his head.
She sighed. What happened to you, Caius? Why have you
left me?
After
checking her phone for the final time, she placed it on the bedside table and
burrowed deeper into the bed. She’d been sleeping alone for the past week but
that didn’t mean she was used to it.
My eyes flicker open at the sound of
clicking footsteps. The shivering starts. Or maybe I had been shaking as I
slept too. I had never thought I would catch myself shivering. But maybe that’s
what happens when you are slowly being broken down, your human frailties
surface.
My hair is dank with my blood and is
pasted to my face but it hurts when I move so I don’t bother trying to brush it
away.
“Rise and shine,” he croons in that voice
that is too cheery to be real.
I’m slumped against the back wall of the
cell, as far as I can possibly be from him but it still doesn’t feel enough. My
eyes flicker open and I can see him through the curtain of my hair.
“Oh, you’re not going to talk to me?” I
can almost hear him pouting. “You know what I do when you don’t co-operate,
don’t you?”
I don’t even have time to answer before
the honking buzzer sounds and the UV light flashes into my cell. I cry and
careen forwards, landing on my chest as my skin burns and singes. My clothes
are nothing but scraps now and hold no shield against the unyielding light. It
only lasts for a second but when the room returns to its slightly duller
polished whiteness, I’m shaking and coughing from pain.
I take this chance to push my hair from my
face and peer up at him on the other side of the bars. My hands are
outstretched in front of me in a sticky puddle of old and fresh blood. My
blood. The open sores covering my exposed arms are a mixture of black and
glistening red, still smoking slightly and making a disgusting crisping sound
as my body judders uncontrollably.
In my unconscious state, they have
reapplied the tubes that feed into my wrists. It doesn’t surprise me. Every
time I yank them out, he tortures me until I pass out and sticks them back in.
He’s fed the tube through the bars in front
of the cell and has stuck them back into that machine on the thin stretch of
wall. It’s filled with a new bottle. His steely eyes twinkle at me through his
round specs.
My mouth opens and closes but my throat is
as dry as sandpaper and my lips are so chapped and broken I can’t get a word
out. I haven’t fed in a week.
“Don’t worry too much. You’ve survived two
of these already. You’re definitely a fighter. Let’s just hope that this time
you give me what I want.”
He flicks the switch and the plunger
lowers, pushing the serum down, out of the bottle and into the tube, heading
straight for me.
I can feel it burning its way through my
veins, attacking me from the inside. I cringe and attempt to claw at my wrist
but I’m so weak I can barely move.
It’s like I’m burning within. I cough and
cry and wait for the nausea to knock me unconscious.
Evie sprang up
into a sitting position with her hand clutching her chest, gasping empty air.
If her heart could beat, she knew it would be clattering against her ribs now.
What was that? A dream? No. Not a dream. Vampires don’t
dream. It was a cry for help. A cry for help from her Maker.
She remembered
Caius talking about this. He had told her that in times of distress, Makers can
communicate to their progeny and visa versa through their mind, not
intentionally, but more on a subconscious level. He called them ‘Cries for
help’, because that was basically what they were. A way to send a message to
the other that they needed rescuing. But Makers can also call upon their progeny
whenever they wanted and they are forced to obey. Why hadn’t he done that? If
Caius was in so much trouble, why hadn’t he called her to his rescue?
A chill ran up
her spine.
Because he knew she couldn’t rescue him.
Her stomach
growled for attention so she looked over to her bedside clock to check the
time, the sun had gone down, she could tell because she wasn’t drowsy but with
the steel shutters down, it was hard to tell how deep into the night it was.
It was only
seven but she knew it would be as black as pitch outside due to the gloomy
winter weather so she opened the shutters and plodded downstairs. The empty
house seemed even more eerily quiet and set her on edge as she went to all the
windows, drawing back the shutters. Part of her kept expecting an ominous face
pressed up against the glass, waiting to steal her away. She shuddered and
pushed back the thought as she headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
She ripped the
cap off a blood bag, settled onto the sofa in the living room and turned on the
T.V. Maybe there was something on the News that could give her a clue to where
her Maker was. Maybe the humans had finally had enough and were starting to do
more than just vandalise vampire bars and throwing them insults in the street.
Maybe they were taking a stand…
But there was
nothing new, everything seemed the way it always was, always has been. Lady Sylvia,
a prestigious member of the Vampire League, was on assuring that humans had
nothing to fear. She was on almost every night saying the same thing, but they still managed to start a debate with her.
If humans
really are the good in this world of
good and evil, why are they filled with so much hate? Evie always wondered if
anyone also had taken that into consideration.
With a few
more lonely hours to kill before her shift at the club started, she grabbed her
phone and looked up the number for Dial-a-bite.
“Hello, you’ve
reached Dial-a-bite, how may I help you?” said the cheery female voice down the
phone.
“Hi, it’s Evie
Graham. Same as usual please?” Evie replied.
“Okay, one
second, Evie Graham, I’ll just whip up your information here…” There was a
pause and the sound of fingers on a keyboard. “Okay, so your usual is Michael,
thirty-two, male, B positive, is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s
correct.”
“Okay, great!
Let me just check if he is available…and yes he is! When would you like him
round?”
“As soon as
possible, please,” said Evie, getting up off the sofa and turning on yet
another lamp when a chill crawled up her spine.
“He will be
round in fifteen minutes. Do we have your current address?”
“Yes. Yes, you
do.”
“Okay, great!
He will be round shortly. Enjoy!”
“Thank you,”
said Evie before hanging up.
Fifteen
minutes. Only fifteen minutes and she would no longer be alone with the gnawing
pit of dread in her stomach.
Have you watched True Blood, by any chance? Because the world this story is set in is kind of like the one in that. Where humans and vamps live side by side. It works in some ways, but obviously there is some trouble XD
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