IT took her a few moments for what Fred said to sink in.
But when it did, she was distraught.
She turned towards Zac, tears in her eyes and asked him, "Zac, is this true?"
He looked at her with defeat clear in his eyes.
He squeezed her hand which lay limply at her side and nodded slightly at her.
He couldn't reverse what had happened, but he wanted to be there for her, to comfort her.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
With a pained expression on his face, Zac wiped it away.
"Cristina.." he said, desperately trying to figure out what he could say to comfort her.
But he felt utterly helpless when the tears started to roll down her cheeks faster, when her sobs made her breathless.
Just yesterday everything was perfectly normal. She was happy.
What have I done to deserve this, she thought.
Who would've known that everything could change so quickly.
Life was so full of uncertainty.
But regret, she thought, wasn't going to get them anywhere.
With that thought, she pulled away from Zac, hastily wiped her tear stained face, sat up straight and interlaced her fingers in her lap, which is when she realized she was still wearing the dress she wore last night to the club.
My life's a mess, she thought to herself, and the only normal thing she could do now was take a shower- that wouldn't change, would it?
She almost smiled at the thought. Almost.
She stood up, rather abruptly, startling Zac in the process, who was lost in his thoughts, and announced,"I need to take a shower."
They nodded and watched her leave the room.
She had showered in a few minutes and pulled on a tanktop & a pair of shorts, along with her Converse.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she thought, A normal teenage girl..
But her eyes darted to her mouth, where she could see the pointy ends of her fangs.
She sighed.
A tiny voice at the back of her mind seemed to sneer at her and say, there's nothing normal about you anymore.
She ignored the voice.
As she walked back to the room where Zac and Fred were- her Converse squeaking against the floor- she realized something which felt like a slap to her face.
It's only when something disastrous and devastating happens that you start cherishing the small moments of life, that you realize their importance.
Tears stung the back of her eyelids but she wiped them away before they could trickle down her face.
She brought her hand down from her face and looked at them.
Her skin was pale and her veins- which were now starkly visible- formed a web beneath her skin.
As she opened the door, the smell of blood, salty and fresh hit her.
Her vision clouded momentarily but cleared again.
"I'm hungry." She said as she sat down beside Zac on the bed.
"Oh okay. I'll get you something.." Fred said."But first," he continued,"lemme introduce you to-"
The door swung open, cutting off Fred midsentence and in came a striking guy sauntering over.
He then gave an elaborate bow.
Tina caught Fred rolling his eyes.
The man wore a well tailored black tux and black gloves.
He was striking in an old fashioned way. Like if he were to be born in the Victorian Era, he'd fit in perfectly well.
The man's raven black hair tumbled onto his forehead in slight curls.
His eyes were clear green like the green-green fields in the country side and his gaze, piercing.
The mans gaze settled on Cristina and he smiled.
She returned his smile.
He acknowledged Zac with a small boyish nod which Zac returned, not unkindly.
"This," Fred said, his tone flat, for Zac and Tina's benefit,"is the high warlock of LA."
The warlock smiled at the introduction and deliberately removed his gloves, his eyes watching Zac and Tina's reaction closely.
For, in place of fingers, the warlock had talons.
A shiver ran down her spine.
Zac reached out for her hand and Interlaced their fingers.
"Ooh..Lovebirds I see." The warlock said, wiggling his eyebrows at the two of them.
Zac broke out Into a coughing fit.
Fred said, "No they're just friends.", Emphasizing on the 'just'.
On a regular day it would've been comical.
Zac finally recovered from his coughing fit, his face flushed.
"Oh ,well, my bad." The warlock said with a sly smile on his face and his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"I'm Dale Royce. And you guys must be Zac and Tina-" The warlock said.
"Yeah." They said in unison.
"-Because that's what the vampire told me." Dale said, motioning at Fred.
Vampire?
Zac and Tina both looked at Fred as if to ask why didn't you tell us?
Fred just shrugged innocently at the look they were giving him as if to say I thought y'all knew.
"So which one of you got turned?" Dale asked, a little too cheerily, bringing their attention back to the matter at hand.
Cristina's mood instantly dampened.
"It's the girl." Fred said, impatiently.
"Oh.." Dale said.
Dale snapped his fingers instantly producing two bar stools out of thin air.
Dale pushed one of the stools towards Fred with his foot and sat on one himself.
Fred, if Cristina heard correctly, muttered "show-off" under his breath, and sat down on the barstool.
"Okay, so Fred here must have told y'all what the vampires laws are like.
Draining an innocent humans blood is a strict no-no.
Especially a human who has never violated any of their rules, entered their premises and didn't even know of their existence." Dale said, gravely.
"So, we think-" Dale was saying but abruptly stopped when he saw that Cristina's attention was on something she saw through a small opening in the curtain outside the bedroom window.
It seemed to her as if it was glowing and fluttering.
Dale got up and opened the window a little trying not to upset the curtains as he didn't want the sunlight burning up the two vampires.
He picked up the fluttery thing which had ceased to glow the instant Dale's fingers grasped it.
He opened the thing.
A note.
The twinkle in his eyes dimmed and his look turned grave as his eyes skimmed across the scrawled message.
"What is it?" Fred asked, his voice tinged with concern.
The Warlock looked up, his face devoid of any of his former cheerfulness.
Just as how storm clouds block out the sunlight and make the birds cease their chirrup bringing only gloom and despair, so was his manner.
With a weak voice, he said,
"The vampires have been attacked."
***