History Repeats Itself

Chapter 12 – A feral vampire

All she wanted to do was go home and not think about the s**t she just did. Jade wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. And it didn’t make sense. She hated it. She wanted more answers, not more questions. She had other vampires that she might be willing to ask, but that could be a hell of a slippery slope to take on. To gain what? She didn’t need to help Xander. Or was this past that point now? Jade shook her head, not knowing what to do.

Sure, she told Xander she could talk to other vampires, but did she want to do that? It wasn’t like Xander could protect her if this s**t went south. Maybe that’s why vampires weren’t allowed to question things. With a sigh, she turned down her street and into her driveway. But she screeched to a halt when she saw the man before her garage door. f**k it all to hell.

“I have a message,” he told her, walking over to her with the paper in his hand. She rolled her window down further and took the paper.

“Another f*****g vampire death? Doesn’t this seem unusual to anyone else?” The man just shrugged.

“I’m just the messenger. I don’t question what’s told or what’s going on.” With that, he walked away, leaving Jade alone. She watched him walk, curious. Did he really not question? Did he really not care? After all, this was their community, vampire deaths were something that shouldn’t be taken into anyone’s hands and yet he didn’t bat an eye at it.

With a shake of her head, she opened the paper and glanced down at the address. That wasn’t in the slums, in fact, that was downtown. And a very busy place. How the hell did that even happen? Jade checked the time, making sure there was still plenty of time before she took off, her mind spinning. The more she looked into this, the more the questions came, and the more the pit in her stomach happened.

Twenty minutes later, she parked in the back of an alley and got out, making her way to the street. Her eyes glanced at the female who was impaled. She was immune to it by now. The first was a shock, the second a double take, but after the third, she couldn’t do anything more but look at it sadly. She took in the ice, the lack of melting on it, the way the body hung there, and then glanced at the body on the ground.

That was abnormal. That froze her in place. The neck wound was evident, clear as day. And she knew what caused it. If she were human, her heart would have been pounding in her chest. As it was, she fought the clenching of her hands and the baring of her fangs. A trained vampire, someone who had years to curb themselves, was always hard-pressed to teach another vampire a lesson when they did things like that.

“Jade?” She ignored the voice, needing a moment to compose herself or she was likely to jump on him. “Jade?” he questioned again, lightly touching her arm. She jerked away before looking at him.

“It’s not you,” was all she managed, knowing her fangs were already halfway extended. She couldn’t even picture what she looked like right now. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before turning around. “Give me a moment, please.”

“Not if you’re not okay.” She wanted to smile at the concern she heard buried there, but it wasn’t warranted. She wasn’t going to do anything. And certainly not with people still milling about, even in the darkness of the night.

“I’m fine. It’s an instinct buried in any vampire.” She took a couple of moments, stilling herself against the pain, then turned back to him.

“What’s instinct?”

“Punishing those that do wrong,” she told him.

“I don’t follow.” When Jade knew she was okay, she turned back around to look at the scene. The other cops and the teams were gone, leaving her alone on the scene with Xander. Sure, the people still milled about, but it wasn’t anything she could avoid. She could still explain everything without them overhearing anything.

“We don’t claw at people’s skin like that. It’s unlawful. We don’t cause wounds that are bigger than what we can heal. And a newbie vampire doesn’t have the medicine within their salvia to close up wounds anyway.”

“You think she did this?” he asked. Jade walked over to the vampire, checking her nails. There was skin still buried underneath them. She was more than certain those belonged to the man on the ground. Next, she lifted the lip, the blood still on the fangs. Jade swiped at the bottom lip, wiping the wet substance away.

“I think she did,” she told him, holding up her thumb. “That’s fresh blood, her teeth are still stained, and there’s skin under her nails. It’s clearly evident she killed him.” Xander crossed his arms and lifted a brow at her.

“But you don’t kill.” And this was the tightrope. She had said they didn’t kill, and they didn’t. That was older vampires who had been mentored and learned to curb their basic instincts, didn’t kill. She looked at him, her own brow c****d.

“We don’t.”

“Jade, I don’t follow.” She glanced around again, noticing the people had wandered off.

“I need to explain this, Xander. But here isn’t the spot.” With that, she walked over to the body on the ground and grabbed her phone, taking a picture of the neck. The victim wasn’t her concern, sadly. Just the way the mark on the neck was.

“What’s a good spot?” Jade lifted her head and made a quick calculation of time.

“Your place? Aren’t you around the block or two?” She watched as he narrowed his eyes, but she couldn’t help but smile. She might have done a search on him, but nothing major.

“I don’t want to know. Sure, we can head over there. Let me just clean this up.” She nodded and headed back to her car, driving over to the address she had found. Ten minutes later, he showed up as well and took her to his condo.

“Nice place,” she told him, walking behind him. She glanced around, surprised to find it homier than manly. “I thought there’d be naked pictures of women all over the place.”

“Not sure where you get your information from. But have a seat and explain what you saw and what exactly your comment meant.” Jade took off her jacket and tossed it on the back of the chair. She then sat down on the couch and crossed her legs.

“I told you that vampires, when they are turned, need to be watched, right?” Xander poured himself a drink as she started.

“Sure, I recall you stating that.”

“We’re bred to kill, it’s our nature. Over time, we’ve learned to live with humans without killing. But it’s still deep within us. Hence why there are laws in place for our community. It’s also a major no-no to turn a vampire and then to leave them alone.

“The unspoken rule is that you need to be with your turned vampire for at least a year. You need to be able to teach them how to not give in to their instincts. How to stop feeding and not want to kill. How to make it pleasurable for both parties involved.” Jade stopped and then reached for her jacket, wanting to get the smoke out, and stopped herself. He tracked the movement and handed her the jacket.

“Smoke?” he questioned.

“The taste calms me.”

“Go ahead. We can go outside, might be better for you.” She smiled as she took the pack and the lighter, then followed him out. She lit up and took the chair across from him. “So, go on, your forced to stay with those you turn.” She blew out the smoke and nodded.

“Vampires go feral if they don’t know how to curb anything. We build up the medicine over time to close wounds, hence why we lick the spots we bite from. We also learn to read our victims if you will. They aren’t meant to be picked at random on some street. When we feed, it’s an enclosed spot where it’s already approved. Like the club. Humans truly don’t go in there not knowing what’s going on.” She inhaled again and leaned back, once more crossing her legs.

“What do you mean by feral?” Jade took another drag on her cigarette and slowly blew the smoke out before turning to look at him.

“The art of a bite is taught. There’s a dance with your person. It’s strange, but it’s true. Again, it’s meant to be pleasurable. The days of feeding just to feed are long since gone because we’re trained. However, if you aren’t, you won’t understand that and your need for blood, to bleed someone out, to claw and bite someone apart, is very much there.

“And that’s what she did. She dug her nails into his skin and scrapped. I have no doubt if you turned him over, you’d find marks along his back and probably deep gashes in his shoulders where she held him. And because they aren’t taught how to feed, they tear at the human skin. Literally. It’s not an easing of fangs into one’s vein to draw blood. It’s an act of ripping the easiest vein open to get as much blood as possible. It’s an act of going berserk trying to feed.

“It’s an act of opening a wound so big that can’t be closed, so therefore the victim will die. A vampire, a newbie vampire, hasn’t harnessed the means to drain slowly before the victim bleeds out. It’s an act of being feral. It’s an act of not caring. It’s an act of not knowing. It’s a law punishable by death. But not by ice.” She paused, taking a final drag of her smoke before putting it under her booted foot. “She was caught in the act, and someone took it upon themselves to kill her. But not the council. This isn’t their stamp. But it is a vampire. And for sure something I’ve never seen.”

“Why do you say that?” he asked, and she could feel his eyes trained on her.

“Because another vampire doesn’t go after another vampire’s blood source, regardless of the act. But that victim, he was bitten again before he bled to death.”