Vampyre

Chapter One

I see him standing at the bus stop heading downtown. I exchange a few words with him because that is the friendly thing to do, and I’m on my way toward my neighborhood. I get this strange feeling as I’m coming up to the entrance. Every part of me is telling me to turn around. So, I do. Then I’m only inches from Dr. Carter’s body. My heart is pounding loudly and very hard, but I’m not scared. When Dr. Carter speaks to me, I feel at peace, as if I’m floating on air.

“How is everything at home, Jade?” he asks as he places his hand on my shoulder.

I look into his mesmerizing pale blue eyes. His pupils are dilated a bit. I finally answer him. It feels right telling the truth for once, especially to him for some reason.

“Not so well, Dr. Carter. The other kids are truly unpredictable. They aren’t genuinely nice to me either.”

“You’ve been waiting for a forever family since you were five, correct?” he cups my cheek.

“Yes… But I’m seventeen. No one wants a teenager. I overheard Mr. and Mrs. Jinx talking last night about how they are going to put me back into the system because they don’t want to care for me anymore.”

“How about I become your forever family?” he asks. His eyes narrow slightly.

“R-really? Why would you want to do that?” I stammer.

“I must do something first…” Dr. Carter breaks off his sentence as he lifts his arm to his mouth.

I’m very intrigued with what he is doing. He bites into his wrist and inhales sharply. He lifts my chin with his index finger. He looks up from his wrist into my eyes.

“I need you to be one hundred percent before I do this.”

“What do you need me to say?” I ask with more enthusiasm than expected.

He laughs with amusement, “Say, ‘I want this. I want you to do this.’ Okay?”

His voice sounds like silk going into my ears. I try to shift my weight a little, but my feet are planted in front of him. I get this overwhelming feeling that I should not move. I do not want to move. I want to listen to his voice forever.

“Jade?” he interrupts my inner banter.

Automatically, my mouth starts moving and words are flowing out, “I want this. I want you to do this.”

Dr. Carter smiles and for the first time I notice that he has fangs. They aren’t scary. They are more welcoming than anything. He takes ahold of my wrist, places my hand on his forearm, and moves them towards my face. I finally look away from his eyes and look down at his wrists. There is blood. His blood. My eyes widen and I look up at him.

He nods, “Go on. It’s alright. It’ll make things easy and better.”

I’m not sure of what he is telling me to do. It must have shown on my face, because then he lifts his wrist to my lips. It’s cold at first, then I lick my lip. My body bursts with electricity. His blood has a sweet tanginess to it that is overwhelming. For some reason, I want more of it. I need more of it. I start to drink Dr. Carter’s blood. The longer and the more I drink, I begin to feel dizzy and fill with ecstasy.

“Slow down, Jade. I don’t want to start anything yet.”

I drop his arm, wipe my mouth, and step back, “I’m sorry.”

Dr. Carter holds me close to him. I notice I feel lightheaded, and my knees are weak. I can barely stand. He holds me up more to support the dead weight I’m beginning to have.

“This may hurt just a little” He whispers as I feel his teeth sink into my neck.

My eyes widen; I’m so confused. What is happening to me? Coldness fills my veins, I start to feel numb. I feel panicked. I look at Dr. Carter; he has a warm welcoming smile on his face. I feel relief, then he snaps my neck, and everything goes black.

***

I roll over in bed; the silk sheets feel nice and cool against my hot flesh. I slowly open my eyes and sit up. I scan the room. It’s bigger than any room I have ever seen or been in. There is a large fireplace with a roaring fire across the room in front of the bed. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and slide off. The hardwood floor is cold where the heat of the fire doesn’t touch. I run my fingers along the smooth wood of the poster bed frame as I walk to the bay window. The curtains are closed; I barely touch the cotton curtains to open them when I hear a knock on the door.

I turn around and see a silhouette standing in the doorway. There is a strong smell that was almost overwhelming. I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I take a deep inhale. I shiver and take a step forward. As I do so, the silhouette becomes a person. He is the most beautiful being I have ever laid eyes on. He is tall, about six foot and a few inches. He is muscular, kind of warrior-like. His hair is a nice flowy color of caramel. His bright emerald green eyes have hits of gold in them. As I stare into them, everything disappears around us.

I didn’t realize how close I got to him until he spoke.

“Good evening, Jade.”

His voice is music to my ears. I never want him to stop talking. ‘Who is this guy?’ I think to myself.

“Jade.”

He says my name with such authority that I shake my head and take a step back. I collect myself and try to find my voice.

“Welcome home. How are feeling?”

“Starving.” I surprise myself by saying it. I didn’t realize how hungry I am.

He chuckles, “that happens when you wake up after transition.”

“What? Transition? What does that even mean?” I question.

“You’ll see,” he turns around and walks out of the room. I stare after him with confusion rising in my chest, “Are you coming? I thought you were starving.”

I take a deep breath and hesitate before I follow him. We don’t exchange any words while we walk. Occasionally his arm would brush against mine and I swear electricity exploded through my body. We round a corner that opens into a large staircase. I gawk at the beautiful interior design of the house. The floor at the bottom of the staircase is a beautiful grey marble. The pillars in the entry way reach all the way up to a skylight. Not just any skylight, it was like the windows you see at the mall when you look up into the ceiling. I stare up at the moon that stares back down.

If I didn’t know any better, I would have said the moon took shape of a woman who caressed my face. I shiver and look down the staircase. My eyes land on Dr. Carter, he smiles at me.

“Good evening, Jade.”

I smile back and made my way down the stairs, “Good evening.”

“I hope Mikah has been nice to you. Has he shown you around?” Dr. Carter looks from me to Mikah.

Mikah… why does that sound so familiar… I thought to myself.

“I just brought her from her bedroom. We haven’t made it far, but she said she’s starving.” I swear Mikah smirks, but it went away as quickly as it appeared.

Carter smiles at me, “I am so glad to hear that. If you walk down this hall,” he points to the corridor to my right, “all the way to the end and turn left, the kitchen is down there. I need to speak with Mikah for a moment.”

I nod and head in the direction of the kitchen. The hallway is exceptionally long and there are doors every couple of feet. I am looking at all the doors on my left and my right, between the last couple doors is a large mirror. I catch a glimpse of myself as I walk past it. I halt in my tracks, turn around and walk back to the mirror. I gawk at myself. My eyes are a brighter honey brown. My hair is longer than it is yesterday; I run my hands through it. It is thicker and softer too. I turn to my side; I’m slightly thinner, but I’m more muscular too.

“Wow, I look…” I trail off still gawking at myself.

“Beautiful.”

I jump and turn around to see Mikah walking towards me. I feel my cheeks get warm. I look away from him. He stops in front of me and moves my face to look at him. He looks into my eyes, and I feel everything around us disappear. His hand moves to my waist, and he pulls me closer to him. Mikah takes his free hand, tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear, and cups my chin. My skin tingles where his fingertips touch.

“You really are beautiful. You were beautiful before, but everything has been intensified.” He breathes out.

I close my eyes and lean into his touch. I never want him to stop touching me. Then what he said registered.

“Before?” I open my eyes and look at him with confusion, “how do you know that?”

He gets a puzzled look on his face, sighs, and takes a step back away from me. I get this weird feeling of emptiness because he isn’t touching me.

“You’ll remember soon enough,” he grabs my hand and pulls me to the kitchen, “besides aren’t you hungry?”

My stomach grumbles in response. Mikah laughs and leads me to the kitchen island in the middle of the commercial sized kitchen. He points to a bar chair, “sit.” I sit down and watch Mikah open the fridge. Something in the refrigerator catches my eye.

“What’s that?” I ask as I lift my finger to point at a large glass bottle.

Mikah looks at me over his shoulder but doesn’t answer me. I shift my gaze from the bottle to his eyes; without taking his eyes off mine he takes out the bottle, uncaps it and sets it in front of me. A strong smell wafts up to my nose and it sends a shiver down my spine. I grab the bottle, pull it close to my nose, and take a deep inhale.

“Drink it.”

I look at him with confusion but take a sip from the bottle anyway. There is burst of energy that courses through my body as soon as a drop of the liquid hits my tongue. It is the most delicious thing I have ever drank in my entire life. I tip up the bottle and gulp down the rest of the liquid. I set the bottle back down on the counter and let out a satisfied sigh. I glance up at Mikah. He was just staring at me with a smirk on his face.

“What are you smirking at?” I question.

“Was it good?”

“Yes, it was surprisingly good. What was it?”

“Blood.”

I choke on my salvia, “it was what?”

“Blood. You just drank blood.”

“Why did it taste so good?”

“It’s what we drink.”

“We? What are we?”

“Vampyres.”

***

I don’t know where I’m headed. I don’t know where I will end up. I just know I must run. I must get out of here and leave. I look around me as I run. The trees, there’s something about the trees. I can’t place it. I continue to run and then it hits me. The trees are in slow motion. I stop and turn in a circle, looking around. There are trees in every direction for miles. I rub my face and take a deep breath.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask myself.

I lean back against the tall oak close to me and thought about what just happened with Mikah.

***

“Was it good?”

“Yes, it was surprisingly good. What was it?”

“Blood.”

I choked on my saliva, “it was what?”

“Blood. You just drank blood.”

“Why did it taste so good?”

“It’s what we drink.”

“We? What are we?”

“Vampyres.”

***

“I thought they were myths. I have been told my whole life, they’re myths.” I say out loud to myself. I put my hand to my forehead and let out a sigh. “This is crazy... this cannot be real. Is this really happening? Am I really a Vampyre?” I shake my head and sink to the ground. I rest my head back against the trunk of the oak tree I stopped in front of, close my eyes, and try to make sense of what just happened.

***

“It’s okay. I’ll catch you; I promise. All you must do is just jump.” He says to me, holding out his arms.

“But what if I slip?”

“Come on, baby. Have I ever not caught you when we’ve come down here?” he asked me.

“No. You haven’t.”

“Alright,” he smiles, “jump.”

I leap down the hill in the direction of his outreached arms. He spins me around once, places my feet on the ground, smiles at me, and kisses my forehead.

“Wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”

I let out a giggle and shake my head. He takes my hand and leads me through the forest trees, into a huge meadow. I gasped at the beauty of the meadow.

“Takes my breathe away every time.” I said looking at him.

“Me too.” He replied.

I let go of his hand and walked to the middle of the meadow. I spun around slowly, taking in the scenery. The trees were still full of leaves, but were starting to change color slightly, the sky was a bright blue, brighter than it has been all summer, the grass was greener than usual, and there were more meadow flowers around than there has been in a long time.

“You are so beautiful,” he said as he came up to me, “I can’t ever get over it.”

I smiled at him and blushed a little, “Stop... I am not.”

“Yes,” he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

“Shut up.” I said tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, still blushing.

He lifted my chin and kissed me.

***

I open my eyes, noticing the sunrise started peeking through the trees. ‘What time is it’? I think to myself as I stood up. I look around me, trying to gather my surroundings. I was still in the woods. ‘Did anyone come look for me?’ I asked myself.

“I doubt it. I guess I’ll start back toward the house.” I look around me, “which is in what direction?” I start to panic. “Where did I run from?” I wrap my arms around myself. I look down and began to cry. That’s when I hear someone’s voice.

“Jade!”

I look up and in the direction the voice it came from.

“Jade, where are you?”

“Mikah?” I whisper.

“Jade!”

Then I saw him, looking in every direction for me.

“Mikah!” I shout.

He turns toward me, “Jade!”

I run to him, he opens his arms right before I reach him, and I fall into his arms. He feels so warm as he wraps his arms around me. They feel like home. I let out a sigh of relief.

“I looked all over for you. I got a little worried when you didn’t come back.”

I don’t stop hugging him, “how long was I gone?”

“Five hours,” he squeezes me close before letting me go, “Come on, let’s go back home.”

“Okay.” I look down at the ground as I follow him back.

It was quiet the whole way back. I keep thinking about that dream I had. ‘Or was it a dream? I thought to myself. It seemed so real. Passed life? No. Maybe. Why can’t I remember?’

“Jade? Are you okay?” Mikah looks at me with concern.

“Huh?” I look up at him, “Oh, yeah. I’m great. Honestly, only tired.”

He opens a sliding glass door, “Want to take you back to your room?”

“No, that’s okay. I can go by myself. Thank you.” I say, stepping inside the house.

“Okay.” He replies as I walked away.

“I’ll see you later.”

“Oh! Jade, I forgot.”

I turn around to look at him.

“Carter wants you and I to go to his office at about eight-thirty tonight.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you in the foyer.” I say before walking towards the staircase.

He doesn’t say anything, but I feel him watching me as I walk up the stairs. I shivered as I walk down the hall to my room. ‘What was that ‘dream’? It was so clear and vivid. Was it a dream?’ I open the door to my room, walked in, and then close the door again. I sigh, looking at the clock on my nightstand. It reads; 6:30am.

“Should I set the alarm? Why not?” I pick up the clock and set it for eight-fifteen p.m.

“Plenty of time.” I say, laying on my bed.