Blood Type R

Chapter 2

Five hours later and there was no sign of anyone coming for her. She let go of any hope that they would. She knew better than that.

She looked up at the sky and thought of Mars. It was common knowledge that humans made it to Mars before all of this. She wondered if they were still alive and what it must be like to live without the paranormals - lycans, vampires, witches, demons in the woods, creatures in the water, and demonic little fairies.

Human society crumbled when the bombs and EMP blasts permeated their world with change.

Her father told her that after an EMP blast, all the logistics seemingly vanished. Grocery stores were not restocked, places called pharmacies were no longer getting their medicine that kept people alive, and the reach of communication inverted overnight. It was like stepping on an ant hill and digging up their tunnels, forcing them to start over.

Within the first week, people were robbing and killing to survive.

And so, the calculated hunt began.

As humans scurried for their lives, the vampires gorged. Vicious, wild creatures roamed free as there was no one to enforce them. Rogue lycans who have an appetite for humans fled their packs to hunt freely. Without the paranormals, humans would have recovered, but it was nearly impossible.

If it wasn't for the witches, Cora didn't know what would have happened to humanity. They corralled the surviving humans into protected villages, and forty-something years later few remained that still remembered that world. Her father was one of them.

She wished she had the thing called a telephone. She couldn't imagine living in a world where one could simply "call" a person. Her father tried to explain it to her once, but she didn't grasp the concept. To hold an object, connected to a person sometimes states away, and speak to them as if in the same room, was absurd. She honestly found the idea unnerving. If someone was not in the same room as her, she should not be able to hear them.

But now, she could see where it would be beneficial. She pined for her father and for his wisdom. His sheer presence would work too.

She didn't want to beg for him to come get her, as she did not believe that her life was worth risking his over. She just wanted to update him, to tell him that she wasn't dead, or at least not yet. And to say goodbye, and to remind him that everyone liked tea with breakfast, and their sister Amber needed to be prompted to wash her hair or it would mat.

Closure was all she really wanted at this point.

She felt her throat burn again, and so she let her family haunt her shadows instead of her mind. She looked around, taking in the vast mountains that made her lift her head nearly all the way back just to look at the top of them.

The sun was also almost over the rocky peaks.

It was a sensation of being in uncharted waters. She had no advice on how to traverse the lands and was ignorant to what creatures lived here. Wild...this feels like wild lands to me, and all I have for protection is a kidnapping lycan. All she heard were the hooves of the horses, the random bird flying over, and vermin scattering away when they approached. Her thighs and ass were starting to hurt from the horse. She didn't ride often.

"Stop your horse!" Roman shouted.

"What?" Cora asked without thought, not listening to him.

"STOP!"

She pulled on the reins with both of her hands, which we still bound, rubbing her fingers on her palms as her heart raced, eyeing Roman like he had gone mad. His dark eyes were slowly looking across the landscape, as if following something.

"Those bitches made a deal..." he said.

"Wha-"

"Quiet," he hissed. Then his eyes darted her way, his jaw clenched to pronounce its already strong shape. She looked at him with wide eyes, breathing heavily out of her mouth.

It all happened so fast, and yet she saw every detail. Roman flared his nostrils, his head lowering as his gaze fixed right at Cora. He charged Jenny right into poor old Jack, Roman's eyes alive with a fight. Cora jumped off prior to the collision, her body hitting the dust with a thud as the horses scattered about, tensing her body that was ready for one to trample her. None did.

She groaned in pain when she moved onto her left elbow, her eyes narrowing on Roman in exasperation. Did he just attack her?

The pain in her elbow seemed to vanish as her adrenaline begged for her to run.

Before her was no longer Roman. It was a giant, bipedal beast three times the size of himself from earlier. Thick, beige hair trailed from spine to tail, the rest of it thin and exposing rippling muscle. In his mouth was a giant serpent of sorts, covered in dirt, its head the size of Cora's, fangs bared and hissing at her. Stringy saliva lined its mouth, some drooling off its jaw.

She shuffled backward in instinct, dirt getting into her pants as she was desperate to get away from it.

Its blood trickled to the ground as Roman clenched his jaw further onto its neck, its bones crunching, a painful howl of misery coming from it. An involuntary shudder rolled Cora's shoulders forward at the sound. She stopped backing up in the dirt and pushed to her feet. She stumbled as she stood. Nothing felt broken, or if it was, her mind was not registering it. She stammered backward, dust kicking in the air, nearly falling over at one point. She looked around for the horses and saw they were running back home.

Her shuffle turned into confident steps, her back still to the horses as she watched Roman drop the legless creature, Cora's eyes darting to a hole in the ground from where it came. She turned around and started to lightly jog. She quickly broke into a full sprint, her hair flying behind her, bound hands darting back and forth as she tried to balance herself.

She didn't know why she was running. He'd obviously catch her, but she did it anyway.

It wasn't long before she heard something large chasing her, a human hand grabbing her arm that made her shriek, which boomed through the mountains. "NO!" she shouted and thrashed in his grasp, dust kicking up in their scuffle. She refused to look at him and began to wail as she looked at the horses running home. "FATHER!" she shouted to no one as if the horses would carry her echo home. She wailed, her knees nearly giving out as Roman seemed to barely struggle to contain her. Her head slouched over in defeat, and she finally let her muscles give, her body falling to the ground, but it never reached. She felt Roman's arm around her waist, preventing her from hitting the dirt as she sobbed.

"Get ahold of yourself," he scolded.

"f**k you."

"I need you to get a grip. The dirt serpents aren't supposed to be here, but they are. Unless you want to get eaten by one-"

"Let it. What's the f*****g point?" she asked, snot hanging from her nose, saliva dangling from her bottom lip, the blood rushing to her face as he was the only thing preventing her from falling.

He pulled his arm away and she fell forward. She winced as she hit her head, slowly rolling onto her back. She looked up and saw him standing over her, silhouetted by the sun with a glow around him.

He said, "If you don't comply, I can just pick you up and carry you. I still got a delivery to make."

"Just like I had a life to live?" she spat, raising her head as she yelled at him, stomping on the dirt.

He shot his hounds out and placed them on his hips. "Your life compared to the pack's needs...well, they don't compare."

"I am a human, moron. What the hell can I do for lycans?"

"You have R in you, moron, as I have already said."

"Yes, but I have no idea what that means!" The smell of a plant being squished as she dug her elbow into it filled her senses. She continued to struggle with her balance until she was on her feet. She faced him, panting from the emotions, the anger, and the exhaustion. She felt her energy rise again as she spat her words at him. "All I know is what you told me when you kidnapped me, which wasn't much. Does consuming my blood give you powers or some weird magic? Is it a fetish, or some s**t?"

He laughed, running a hand over his hair. "We aren't going to eat you."

"So then care to share? I'd like to know why I was taken, at the very least!" she yelled after him, sitting up. She tasted dirt in her mouth, crunching when she clenched her jaw.

"What can it hurt?" He yelled, his back to her. "R means that you can produce offspring immune to silver, and will be twice as strong as the rest of us." He laughed and spread his arms out, dropping his hands at his sides. "Finding you is like finding a f*****g unicorn."

"That doesn't justify kidnapping me!" she shouted, looking to the ground, dark strands of hair in her eyes. Offspring. He said offspring, oh f**k me sideways. I never thought something like this would happen. We were so safe in Kamas, promised our village would never be used by the paranormals... Cora now felt the witches that guarded their village had done them a disservice. The protection that they promised proved as useless as a bucket full of dirt in a land full of sand.

She felt dizzy.

"I'm pretty sure if anyone found a unicorn, they'd totally kidnap it. Do you know how hard it is to find blood type R?" Roman asked, moving toward her to put a hand on her shoulder to stabilize her. She was hardly aware of everything.

"Where is your proof...of my blood type?" she asked in a small voice, her body still growing lighter. She felt like she was in one of those dreams where you can barely move your body.

"A vampire informed me," he said with reservation, grabbing her arm and marching her forward.

"You're a lycan, not a vampire," she said, the sudden movement allowing her to focus again.

"Oh, s**t really?" he said with mockery, "I had no idea! Use your head, idiot...we may all fight and war with each other, but we all have a price. I paid a vampire a lot of silver to find me a blood type R."

"Wait, you gave your enemy silver, the thing that kills you? Doesn't it kill them too?" she asked. She looked around for something to kill him with. She was still close enough to home that she could make it, if she just didn't have him to worry about.

There was nothing. Only dusty random objects, giant boulders and plants.

"We all have to handle it very delicately, but it's useful to fight each other. I decided giving up some of my silver is worth it if Ludovic takes to you and accepts you as his mate, once you're turned."

She started to shake her head. "No...nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. f**k that."

The panic came once again, only this time, her knees buckled and her mind went blank.

When she awoke next she felt blood pooling in her head, her hair dangling below her. She watched as leather boots left prints in the sand.

"Put me down," she said with a raspy voice. He was carrying her on his shoulder.

He was quick to oblige.

"What happened?"

"You fainted. Now move, before more of those weird snake things come back," he said and grabbed her arm.

Cora walked next to him, as if a bystander in her own life. She tried to pull out of his grip, but it was pointless. She wasn't escaping, not with him.

And so she trudged her own feet along, her emotions starting to numb. She had never felt like this before.

Her mind slowly replayed the events of everything that had happened, trying to make sense of it all, until one thing, in particular, stood out. "What happened to the other lycans that you brought with you?"

Roman was silent and his jog slowly came to a halt. "Roman," she warned with a raspy, tired voice. "Where are the other lycans, the ones that held my siblings?"

"Oh yeah, I lied about that," he said as if he merely lied about what he had for breakfast.

"What..." Cora said with a vacant expression. She felt a chill run underneath her clothes, gooseflesh rising.

"The lycans that came for Benny boy had already left. It was just us then, and it's just us now."

Cora stopped walking and stared vacantly for a solid ten seconds. She nearly blushed from the embarrassment and shame that she believed him without trying to verify the facts. I don't know why I believed him...I am a f*****g i***t. I literally had no reason to.

"You lied to me," she said, angrier at herself rather than at him.

"Oh, the horror," Roman mocked.

"You....you mother fucker," she said under her breath with a snarl.

She didn't know why, but that seemed to be the breaking piece of information for her. I could have tried for it...I could have screamed for help in my bedroom. I could have fought him. My father would have come with a silver bullet chambered...I could have grabbed my dagger coated in silver. I could be at home right now.

She started to lose control and began to move about as if forgetting what any dance move looked like. She yelled at the mountains, thrashing her fists in the air and hitting her thighs. She wanted to punch something. She looked up to Roman with seething teeth.

She punched him hard in the chest with her bound fists.

He just raised his eyebrows in return.

"This isn't fair," she said pathetically, her face turning to sorrow.

"Like I said, I don't really have an option."

"Yes, you do, and you're choosing to punish me."

"Well," he began, his eyes darting to the dirt. "Life isn't fair," he said with a sober tone not yet associated with him, grabbed her arm again and thrust her forward.

She pulled her arms back and stood there like a child that lost the greatest temper tantrum of their life. "Well, what now? There's no horses."

"We keep walking until Arlo gets here."

"Who is that?"

"Another lycan who is meeting us. Now keep walking. I want away from this area in case any more funny s**t happens."

"That seems like a you problem, not me," she said, finding an enjoyment in petty replies.

He pinched the area between his nose. "I regret taking out the leather gag."

"Well, what else are we going to discuss? Your favorite food and color?"

"Oh, see that's a better topic!" he said as if they were on a terrible date, and not a hostage scenario. "I love the color green, and my favorite meat to eat is deer. Although my favorite cooked food is cornbread. Sweet cornbread, none of the salty shit."

She stared at him with an expressionless face as she walked next to him, his grip still as tight as ever. She didn't know whether to laugh or not. This was absolutely ridiculous.

"What's your favorites, then, Cora?" he asked, his brown eyes looking down to her.

"What?" she began. "Why does it f*****g matter if I love pancakes or not?"

"What's a pancake?" His brows furrowed.

She stared at him for a moment before answering, "It's like cake but you cook it on a skillet."

He raised his brows and gently rose his shoulder inconsideration. "Sounds similar to cornbread."

"Oh my god," she said lethargically, closing her eyes for ten full seconds to collect herself as she walked without caring if she'd trip or not.

"Don't worry, lycans still have hankerings for human food. We can probably get one of the human chefs to learn to make pancakes."

"You realize pancakes are the least of my worries at the moment?!" she snapped, trying to jerk away from him, but it was in vain.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Just trying to give you something positive to focus on."

"Taking me home would be a start," she spat and turned her back to him. They stood in silence for at least a few minutes before Cora grew tired of it. Her attitude was getting worse by the minute.

"So, is Ben alright?" she asked, her scattered mine trying to put pieces together.

"I don't know. I was just given the bear."

"What do you mean you don't know?!" she asked, trying to make him stop so she could face him. He forced her to keep walking.

"I don't know," he repeated, looking at her with stern eyes.

"They wouldn't have killed him, right?"

"I'd assume they'd use it as leverage," he said, his jaw clenching.

"What does that mean?" she pressed.

He took in a deep breath, but his his face relaxed all tension and a wide smile to reveal slightly crooked teeth overtook him. "f**k yeah! Arlo brought the semi."

Cora scrunched her brows and looked ahead. She saw something on the road in the distance, moving through the waves of heat.

She stopped walking and looked behind her.

She wondered if it was the last time she would look in the direction of home.