Blood Dawn

It was the Saturday before the first day of school, Elirah’s last and final year at New Brighton High School. Her senior year. A strange foreboding settled into the pit of her stomach because for some odd reason she felt as if Monday was going to be the first day of the rest of her life. Whether that was a bad or good thing, she had no clue. Closing her eyes, she sent a prayer out into the universe hoping this year, her last year of torture academy, aka New Brighton High, would be different. Her stomach sank wondering what this year had in store for her. She laid on a thick limb of an enormous oak tree deep within the Opal Tree National Forest hidden high amongst the luscious green leaves that swayed back and forth in the warm breeze. With her eyes closed, Elirah could feel the warmth of the sun’s rays as it peaked through the leaves and danced along the length of her body. It was a warm and beautiful warm summer day so naturally Elirah was in a black tank top, skinny jeans and her favorite pair of black and gray hiking boots. The ladies over at the St. Francis Children's Home had given her the weekend off to help her prepare for the start of her senior year. Elirah would have much preferred to have kept busy helping with the children. It was Hot Cake Saturday for crying out loud and she was a little miffed about missing out. But Mia and the ladies at St. Francis had insisted. They even got the kids in on it by giving her a handmade coupon they had each taken turns decorating it as a coupon for a weekend off. The coupon had come with fine print that said she had to use it this specific weekend or what do know it so happens to expire. At first she had wanted to tell them that it was very sweet of them to make her something so special but she was going to stay and help like she had always done. Yup, that had been the plan until she gazed upon each of their sweet little expectant faces and all of the hard work they had put into her weekend off coupon, how could she deny them? It also didn’t hurt that they had made her cupcakes and then sent her on her merry way. Volunteering had been an almost everyday thing during her summer break as it never hurt to have an extra set of hands to help with the nine kids that called St. Francis home. Not only did she help clean and make breakfasts, lunches and sometimes dinner for the kids but she loved being able to play with them and reading to them. Whether it was because she played tag or hide and seek or read books to them or helped prep and tutor them for their own school year, all of the kids loved her. And she loved them just as much. The children had always been excited to see her. Their bright and innocent eyes lit up with smiles that reached their eyes as soon as she peaked her head into the small cafeteria in the mornings. They were genuinely happy to see her and wanted her around. Unlike the averted gazes she regularly collected while school was in session, at St. Francis she was welcomed with open arms. Literally. Elirah related to each one of them because they all had one thing in common. She, like them, was an orphan. She felt a kindred connection to each of them as she understood their fears of being truly alone in the world. Understood the feeling of not knowing who your true family was. Wondering who your mom and dad were and always wondering the eternal question of why we were given up. Abandoned. Left behind. And even though Elirah shared a deep common bond with the kiddos, there was one thing that seperated her from her little friends. Elirah had been born a demon. Not that she was unique in the supernatural underworld that existed within the fringes of society. There were countless supernatural, otherworldly, and paranormal entities and creatures out in the world but she was unique in that she had never met another demon quite like her. Elirah was an orphaned demon with no last name, no origin and no birthday. Well she did have a "birth date" but it wasn't her actual date of birth. Her birthday had been the day that she had come to live with her foster mother, Lisa, minus the years Elirah had held up with her little fingers to let Lisa know how old she was. She had always assumed that she had come to live with Lisa because she too was a demon but of a different race. Elirah had originally planned to use this weekend to volunteer at the children's home while working overtime at her job to keep her mind off of what new hell her bully and her pack of rabid hyenas would have in store for her this year. The anxiety setting off her blood needs so much that she figured hunting today and tomorrow was better than allowing her hunger to wait because that would be bad. Really bad. But it would be alot better than letting her blood needs loose on the students and staff that attended New Brighton. Even if there were a select few who definitely deserved it. One. Final. Year. And she would be free of New Brighton High and everyone who attended. Which meant that she had the herculean task of trying to mentally prepare herself at the moment. If it wasn’t for Lisa and everything she had done for Elirah, she would have dropped out. A long time ago. It had always been Lisa’s dream to watch Elirah graduate, so she was stuck. It still didn’t stop her from envisioning herself walking across the stage, grabbing her diploma, walking straight up to Lisa and handing her foster mom her diploma, then she would beeline straight for the exit right out of the ceremony. Where then she would make a mad dash to her car and peel out of there as she would officially have no obligation to stay. An image of flipping the bird at the school as she rode off into the sunset put a smile on her face. As Elirah rode the post feeding high she got anytime she fed, she hummed along to one of her favorite songs, Love Like Winter by A.F.I. She listened along with her headphones on and the volume blasted to the loudest setting on her cell phone. The only way she ever loved listening to music. Her body too felt as if it was humming to a tune of its own as it used the blood of the large male stag to norish her demons blood needs. The song she was listening to finished and she paused the playlist before the next song could play. She suddenly felt like listening to Tool’s Lateralus. A series of muffled bangs made Elirah pause. Quickly, she sat up and yanked on the cord of her headphones to pull them out of her ears. What the heck was that? Elirah wondered as she scanned her surroundings. The oak tree she rested on was in the middle of a small meadow and this gave her a view of the forest around her. BANG! BANG! BANG! Elirah whipped her head around. The quick succession of bullets being discharged from a gun and the sound of it getting closer and closer definitely was not a good thing. She instantly sobered. BANG! BANG! For a second, Elirah thought that maybe there were hunters hunting in the area but normally hunters stuck to the opposite end of the Opal Forest in the designated hunting areas. “What the heck is going on?” Elirah whispered out loud. Elirah wrapped her headphones around her cell phone and stuffed it into the black backpack she had been using as a pillow. Putting it on, she pulled the straps down to make it snug around her shoulders. If she had to make a run for it, she didn’t need the thing bouncing on her back throwing her off balance. She repositioned herself to kneel on the tree limb. Closing her eyes, Elirah took a deep breath. A breeze blew upwards toward the sky and the scent of blood came like a slap to the face, snapping Elirahs head back. Her eyes rolled back in pleasure and her mouth watered as she moaned at the delicious scent. It was light and sweet in the air, kind of like... cotton candy. She took another deep inhale, just like cotton candy. “Mmmmm” Elirah purred deeply. She caught herself and snapped back to attention. She felt a chill run up her spine that made her shiver and she knew that her body had instantly changed into her true form. Her pale skin shimmered iridecently and her long razor sharp claws glittered red in the sun’s rays as they continued to peek through the leaves in the breeze. Looking down at her hands, they were replaced by a set of claws. Claws that were made of five long tapered fingers with three inch razor sharp nails. Her hands were covered in red diamond scales that glistened with the movement of her fingers in the late afternoon sun. The scales came up her arms in long flowing markings that faded into her skin at the top of her shoulders. Blood diamond scales appeared on her face like tears streaming from her eyes fading into the skin on her neck. Normally she had conscious control of her shift but her demon side appeared without her control and it worried her brow. BANG! BANG! BANG! Alright, the gunshots were seriously starting to piss her off as it was ruining the quiet serenity of the forest and disturbing the wildlife in the area. Elirah focused again on her breathing and projected her aura out, down the oak tree and into the woods. Invisible to the naked eye, her aura flowed out from her like dense black liquid smoke blanketing the forest floor. Her aura was like having your own built-in sonar and this little trick was how she hunted. Her aura would absorb the sounds of everything it reached, allowing her to see in her mind's eye a glowing outline of the animal. Then depending on type, size and age, Elirah would hunt it down and feed. A rhythmic pounding like that of feet digging in and crunching hard and fast on the ground allowed her to zero in. Glowing neon blue pulses lit off to the left of her letting her know exactly where it was coming from. A glowing neon blue outline slowly came into focus, becoming sharper allowing her to “see” the figure was a young man in his late teens. She could see he had a lean but muscular body and she could tell he was tall by the long powerful strides his legs took. He was running with a hand covering part of his abdomen like he was covering a wound. He must be the source of the blood scent. A shot rang out and it distracted her from tracking. It was then she noticed two enormous glowing red forms following close behind. These guys were bigger, meatier and had guns aimed at his back. Reaching closer towards the edge she laid her body along the tree limb, thankful it was sturdy enough to hold her weight. The leaves on the branches kept her hidden from the unsuspecting trio. She listened with her heightened hearing as the sounds of multiple feet running got louder and closer. She realized that the trio were traveling at a high rate of speed which meant that they were not human. At that moment, another sweet cotton candy breeze caressed her face again, she began to register the icy cold ache that let her know her teeth were sharpening. Sharpening to the point that if she wasn’t careful, she'd tear the insides of her cheeks up they were so sharp. The ice cold ache got worse as the scent of blood overwhelmed the air around her. She inhaled deeply and growled low. She slapped a hand over her mouth. As another round of shots went off and Elirah retracted her aura. The blood scent getting stronger as they rushed closer, it triggered something in her. An insane protective urge came over her and before she realized what she was doing, she was already halfway down the oak tree heading straight for a lowest lying tree limb that would give her a better view of the three men heading towards her. Strange, this scent was kinda familiar once she thought about it. She exhaled and inhaled again, closing her eyes to really concentrate on the scent and taking in as much as she could before her lungs began to protest. A distant memory stirred. The last time she smelled something that was just like this was… Elirah froze as the image popped in her head and she opened her eyes wide. A surge of long forgotten memories assaulted her and she winced at the sudden invasion of memories she swore to never think of again consumed her. There was only one person that she knew of who smelled this delicious to her. “No. No. No.” Elirah whispered breathlessly praying that she was wrong. When the first of the trio broke through the clearing, Elirah’s breath left her lungs in a rush like a punch to the gut.