Chapter 19: Almost time
1434 Words
We looked around the warehouse Lydia had found out about, but there had been nothing inside to indicate any vampires had been living there.
We had just left the warehouse when a male voice, soothing and serene, called out. “You won’t find any more of my children, you did quite the job of disposing of them.”
We looked up to the roof of the warehouse and saw a vampire, this vampire was different from the ones we had dealt with, though.
He was very attractive with jet black tousled hair that was long enough on top that it fell into his red eyes, his skin was not pale like you’d think, he had a natural olive complexion but underneath I could see his veins softly glowing a faint red, he had clearly been feeding on female werewolves too.
I was going to ask why he was feeding on female werewolves only, but something that was more alarming had me asking, “how are you able to be out in the sunlight?”
He smiled cruelly and answered, “it seems whatever flows through your veins has enough power to allow us into the sunlight if we drink enough.”
“So that’s why you drink our blood?”
“Not originally, ironically your blood tastes like the moon and sunshine and honey all rolled into one, it’s rather addictive, it was a lovely surprise to learn we could walk in the daylight again.”
“We?”
“Oh, you didn’t think the new little nests were my main clan, did you? They were mere younglings still learning.”
“And what are you? The boss?”
He laughed at that and gave a small shrug. “I suppose I am their boss, but they usually call me king.”
Oh crap, the older and more powerful meant the more intelligent and more control they had, more control over their bloodlust made them less animalistic and more cunning human.
“Why only female werewolves?”
I wanted to ask as much as I could while he was in a chatty mood.
“It tastes sweeter and is more addictive, so it was a more tastier choice, until we came to realise that drinking from the females is what allows us to walk in the sunlight, needless to say females are now our choice of meal but don’t worry, we wish to keep this information hidden from other clans, don’t want you dying out on us and losing this nice little perk do we. Do you wish to give me a taste?”
He licked his lips when he said those words, bloodlust filling his eyes and I could see it was taking all he had not to just jump down and feed from me, if he did, he would be ambushed by Lydia and Mason, and he knew that.
I could see that he was struggling enough that he gripped the edge of the roof so hard some of the brick crumbled away, he really was addicted.
Mason stepped in front of me and called up to him, “why don’t you come taste them? There’s two females here that I’m sure will keep you well fed for a good week or two.”
The vampire grinned at him, “maybe another time, I have a feeling I wouldn’t get a drop before you were upon me.”
“You realize feeding on us means you are dangerously close to starting an all out war with the werewolves if you don’t stop?”
He only grinned wider at Mason, showing rows of sharp teeth proving he was indeed a king, only the most oldest and powerful of vampires had razor sharp teeth, the rest only had two fangs like the cliché movies.
“You wolves wouldn’t fare well with my clan, there are over a hundred of us, can you say the same?”
Mason didn’t respond fast enough, making the vampire smile smugly, clearly this pissed Mason off because he withdrew a 9m Beretta, I had no idea he had been carrying a weapon and wondered if he had done every time we went out.
He shot at the vampire, hitting him straight where his heart was, but it wouldn’t kill him. The vampire stumbled back from the impact and covered the heavily bleeding wound with his hand.
He glared at Mason and snarled, “I will gorge on the blood of your female wolves and will not stop until you kill me, and you better be damned sure I’m dead because if not, then I shall rise and feed to my heart’s content.”
He flitted away so fast it looked as though he simply vanished into the air.
I grabbed Masons arm and asked, “where the hell were you keeping that 9m Beretta?”
He rose his eyebrows at me and replied, “I think the better question is how do you know what a 9m Beretta looks like and what it’s called?”
Both him and Lydia looked at me with great interest all of a sudden, and I blushed. “Uh, I don’t know, I just watch a lot of war movies and YouTube videos.”
When they still looked at me, I added, “fine, I game a lot too, lots of shooter games where you need to know your guns and what’s good and what’s not.”
They both seemed satisfied with that answer, and we left.
When we got through the door, Lydia wondered off while me and Mason were messing around, I pushed him through the front door, and he turned to look at me laughing, and then he dropped the laugh instantly.
He looked at me with guilt. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
He came over to me and gently ran his fingers along my jaw line. “I’m so sorry, Hazel, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Frowning I went and looked in the mirror on the wall and saw bruises blooming along my jaw line on both sides from where he’d gripped me so hard earlier.
I waved a hand at him, “ah, don’t worry it’s fine.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s f*****g not, I shouldn’t have touched you like that.”
He came up to me and softly stroked my hair out of my face, a tender look in his eyes for a moment before he realized what he was doing and then he stepped back. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled and walked off into the kitchen.
Mason avoided me for the rest of the night, so I went to bed thinking about the vampire king and what nefarious plans he was most likely concocting up.
When morning came, I raced down the stairs as usual for cereal and clashed with Samara, both our hands landed on the lucky charms box and neither one of us loosened our grip, she glared at me and I glared back. “Let go,” she warned. “No, you let go, pup.”
She scowled at me then and retorted, “well, you’re a pup stuck in an adult body.”
I scowled at her for that and then we both peeked inside the box and saw it was still full, slowly, very slowly, I unclenched my fingers off the box and let her pour the cereal first, she did so while never taking her eyes off me, and slowly she walked backwards still not breaking eye contact until she was sat down.
You’d think I was being met with a challenge with another wolf and not fighting over cereal with a ten-year-old and acting like it was some deeply guarded treasure.
No adults were around, so I was happy to be myself right now. I ate my cereal opposite her, both of us no longer being hostile to one another and then the adults started joining us.
Everyone seemed perkier today, more so the single unmated wolves, the room felt lighter, and I could feel a buzz of excitement coming off everyone, that’s when I remembered the mating ritual would be in a few days time when the moon was at its fullest and the moon goddess was closest to earth.
It was my turn to get excited then because no matter what Markus said, I was going.
Three days passed by uneventfully, and Mason was still avoiding me from guilt or what I didn’t know.
The vampires were being quiet for now, and then the day of the ritual was finally here.
- Writer
