Every hair on my body stood on end. This was no fairy or Cleric. The
movement was too liquid and quick to belong to anything, but a dead one. All I could
think was run. I turned, tripped over a tree root and fell flat on my face. A mouth full
of dirt, I crawled forward then decided I wanted to see it coming rather than be
jumped from behind, and flipped round to scuttle back. The vampire loomed over me, silent and deadly. He was dressed all in black and
the space around him pulsed with darkness. Gesturing to me, his fingers were palm up
and they curled around the air.
"Quiet, now," he said. "It is not what you think. I would have revealed myself
in a less dramatic manner, but the tear the fairy made was closing, and I did not have
another way." His somber expression lightened and his eyes twinkled. "I have already
eaten, a skinny girl, bitter."
I shrieked and scrambled back some more. My hands were scraped and gouged
by stones and bracken, but the flares of heat a second after told me I was healing. The
vampire followed me, human slow so my eyes could track his movement. I'd heard
they liked to torment their meals. Make them beg and scream for death before putting
them out of their misery.
"You are being rude," he said shortly. "Will you not talk to me?"
I blinked, astonished, and stopped moving. "Huh," I grunted, incredulous. "I'm
about to die and you think I'm being rude by not talking to you?"
If I was in my right mind I would never backchat the living dead, but I was
shaking with fear, and pretty sure I was about to pee myself.
Backchat didn't seem bad anymore.
His face remained passive. "I am death to those who cross my path." My
heartbeat picked up as if to emphasize the point. His mouth pulled into a grim line. "I
do not deny what I am. I embrace it, but I have not come here to hurt you. I told you. I
have already eaten."
I started backing up again. It was stupid me crawling back and he walking after
me, but now I was over the initial shock, I couldn't get my body to stop. "Forgive me
for not wanting to trust you, but your kind and my kind haven't exactly seen eye to
eye." As I spoke I wasn't sure if I meant humankind or fairykind, but I was sure the
relationship with the vampires was about on par.
His lips quirked then fell straight. "No. I suppose not. Would it help if I gave
you my word?"
He stopped and held out a hand to help me up.
I thought about it and managed to stop crawling. My arms were tired, my ass
was damp from being dragged across the forest floor, and I was pretty sure I had a
spider crawling up my back. I sighed and tossed my head to get the hair out of my
eyes.
"No, it would not help, but I'm tired of being on the ground, and if you're going
to eat me I'd rather be upright with my head held high."
I clasped his hand and curled my fingers around his. They were rock solid, cold.
He pulled me up and my legs wobbled, so his other hand snagged my waist to steady
me. For a moment I stood, but was weightless. The sensation was unusual. I scowled
and stared into the face of my vampire.
He was older than me, not by much and he was ugly. Swept back from his
forehead and longer than fashionable, his hair was coal black, and cut close at the
neck. His eyes were red ringed, like he was sickly, and had a peculiar stillness about
them. He hadn't blinked, not once since he'd first revealed himself to me. His
eyebrows were thick and dark, as was the smattering of hair on his chin, which had a
deep cleft. His brow jutted out from his face and his cheeks were gaunt, giving him a
look of the starved. It was a strong face but one that did not appeal to me.
Straightening, I pulled myself from his grip and knocked his hands away. A
faint, dry scent hit the back of my throat and my hackles rose. Swallowing hard, my
eyes left his as I controlled the sudden urge to launch myself at him. To rip, bite and
tear. A manic giggle bubbled in my chest. The thought of launching yourself at a
vampire was ridiculous and suicidal, but my body was seriously contemplating it. He
brushed the hair out of my eyes and I recoiled. He hadn't made a move for a vein yet,
but he was a blood drinker, and I was full of blood. He flashed me a smile, and his
chalky lips framed pearly fangs flanked by two smaller canines. They had run right
out as he'd touched me. For a moment I was overcome. I stared at them, the spiky tips
resting on his lower lip, a startling shade of ruby red. Everyone knew vampire fangs
ran out when they were mad or bloodlusty. Which was he? Probably the latter, if he
was mad my limbs would be scattered across the forest floor by now.
"You're going to kill me now," I said steadily.
I'd been through too much to deny that I was living on borrowed time. To be
honest I was waiting for the hammer to fall. I would die there, food for the vampire-
boy the fairy-boy was hunting. Breandan would return eventually, like he promised
and find my rotted corpse. Would he be sad? Would he and the 'we' he'd referred to,
lament over my body. Would they give me a proper burial? After all he had said I was
like him, fairykind too. In my last moments of life pondering on how I felt about
being named a demon, I did not feel disgust or fear, but sort of a resigned relief. I was
no longer a freaky human girl, but a demon. My strangeness made perfect sense now.
"I am not going to kill you."
The vampire had spoken. It took me a while to realize he had, because my last
words had been a statement not a question. And even if he'd interpreted it as a
question, it was clearly rhetorical. I was living my last moments and the flashbacks of
my life were about to commence, so the interruption was not appreciated. But since
he'd spoken again I felt obliged to say something back, and I was getting used to
conversations with strangers.
"Why?" I asked genuinely puzzled. "You didn't dive through that hole for fun.
If the wires had caught you, you'd have set off the klaxon and had Clerics with stakes
and silver on your ass until you were ash. Vampires don't seem the self-sacrificing
kind to me. Plus, the sun is rising." I pointed east. "You don't have much time, and to
be out this early, or late, you must be super hungry to risk the true death. Or suicidal.
Which brings me back to the fact you guys are big on the self preservation."
He made a low rumbling noise and his shoulders shook. It was laughter, and it
was gruesome and wretched. "I have been looking for you."
I thought about this. For a vampire to be looking for you and not hunting you,
was unheard of. It was intriguing and I knew then curiosity was about to get me into
more trouble.
"You're not the first to try that line today. You demons know how to flatter a
girl."
He growled a little. "Fairies." He said the word like a curse.
I sighed again, exaggerating the rise and fall of my shoulders. Fine, my
tribulations for the morning were not over. I could deal with that, but I needed the
safety of Temple walls. The forest was no longer comforting, but alien and hostile.
"If you're not going to eat me would you mind if we walked and talked? I'm
tired but have to keep going, or I'll be late for class."
He remained still and peered past me into the trees. I found it hard to read his
face. His expression was not worried, but I thought it brooding, or rather, preoccupied
with being anxious about something.
"I need to find a dark place. A safe place."
The dead and the sunlight didn't mix well. They burned, badly, and burst into
extravagant blue and red flames. Then their blackened corpses flaked into ash. I could
see why he might be anxious to find a 'dark place' as he put it.