The Immortals of Sumer

Chapter Three

We got in and immediately I was immersed in loud music pouring through my chest, lights shattering my thoughts, and bodies everywhere. Lanie was beside me, holding my hand, and I watched her break and shake some glow sticks silently. She put three on me and a lot more on her. Suddenly, I was bumped into and turned to apologize because that’s just who I am but, when I turned back, I couldn’t find Lanie.

I knew Lanie’s rule. If us girls got split up, meet back up at the bar. I started to push and shove my way through the pulsing mass of bodies to get there. I took up a seat there and just observed, looking for Lanie. However, something else caught my eye after looking around a couple of times. The VIP section had Bogdan there, against the railing, dancing with a bunch of people, holding a champagne bottle and wearing sunglasses. Okay, well he was going to be hard to get to.

Out of nowhere, someone offered me a drink and I politely declined, showing off the x on my hand to show I was under 21. I finally got to look back at the VIP area and truly looked it over. I’m small and it could work to my advantage sometimes. When I say sometimes: the grocery store top shelf-useless; crawling through packed bodies in a rave or concert-easy. However, I realized that half of the men up there were actually his guards, shouldering unwanted people away from their boss. s**t!

After half an hour, he finally ran out of champagne and I watched him walk away to the VIP bar. He then took a seat at a couch way in the back of the VIP. Hmmm…then I saw it. The sign to the restrooms. I ran to the women’s bathroom and was so happy to realize it was exactly behind the VIP area! I looked in each empty stall until I found a vent. I went into the stall, locked the door, and started getting a nail file out of my purse.

I twisted the screws out, put the cover on the floor, and climbed in with a prayer to the God and Goddess. I went into the vent with hardly any room to move and some very questionable smells but, at the three way vent options, I mapped it out and took the one that put me closest to the VIP bar. At the end of the line, I peeked through the vent to see behind the bar. Hmm, that works for me. The vents were on the cheaper end so I spun the nut off the bolts of the vents and slowly unscrewed the bolts to push the vent out.

I tried to be as quiet as I could be, even at the rave, but naturally the bartender noticed and I slid out. Brushing myself off as he asked me what the f**k was going on, I muttered, “ You wouldn’t believe me even if I explained it.” And waved him off as I grabbed a champagne bottle. I had to be quick in case he got Bogdan’s guards but I also had to approach casually enough to not set his guards off instantly either. I danced near the couch before sitting down with a giggle.

Bogdan was easily six feet, football player burly, with dark brown eyes and curly dark brown hair. He barely cast me a second glance but reached for the champagne bottle. I didn’t let it go and he looked me dead in the eyes so I had to speak first to keep him off guard. “You have the same curly dark hair as your nephew! He told me to tell you that ‘the Tarot de Marseille was wrong about our death dates again, Uncle’.”

I barely had the whole sentence out of my mouth before two guards were in front of me, each one taking one of my arms and yanking me to my feet. s**t! “Stop!” Bogdan said and we all turned back to look at him. “Bring the goth girl to me.” They turned me around roughly and shoved me forward, back to him. I glared back at them before turning to him. Bogdan looked me up and down, so intently that I closed my jacket around me and folded my arms over my chest.

He chuckled out, “That is a family joke, girl. Who the hell do you think-” he began and I scoffed.

“Look, dude, if I told you what has happened to me to hear that and to get here-you wouldn’t believe me. But you have to believe that the dark haired guy told me to tell you that and if I don’t bring you to him..he is gonna rip my throat out or something. Please…” I said, being brutally honest. The man stood up in front of me and smirked, saying:

“Sounds like my nephew. Take me to Vlad now, woman,” he said all of a sudden and I breathed a sigh of relief. I motioned to go outside, telling Bogdan that he is waiting outside, and he told me, “Lead the way. Oh and you should be paying for that vent, missy.”

I don’t know why of all things that got to me but I snapped, spinning around, and said, “Oh, if you want to go there, let’s discuss the bloodshed he left in my whole f*****g manor! You wanna pay to clean that?” I asked then sighed. “You wouldn’t believe me about him anyway,” I muttered as I led the way between the security guards, down the VIP steps, where I saw Lanie finally see me from the bar, before Bogdan put his hand on my arm as we waded into more crushing bodies.

I quickly texted Lanie.. Hey girl, be careful. Im getting a ride home with my Uncles business partner since he wants to go to my Uncles now. Uncle is even coming home early for this so will you be okay? I saw Bogdan look down at what I was texting and he got suspicious but didn’t stop me from hitting send. Suddenly, someone smelling of straight rubbing alcohol-hmm, vodka-fell into us as we were passing, making me stumble, and his grip left my arm.

I felt a cold splash down my shirt and gasped as I felt myself tipping off balance. Out of nowhere, Bogdan had me by the waist and adjusted me against him so easily. Fall averted, he just shoulder checked the guy off and made it to the door without further incident. We were out the door, leaving the throbbing music and lights behind, and barely down the sidewalk very far before he stopped, turning to growl. I flinched and followed his line of sight into the alleyway. He took a step towards the alley as something stepped out of the alley shadows.

“Good job, little nymph,” Radu said to me as the dark haired man stepped out of the alley and up to Bogdan. ‘Take me to Vlad….’ He had said to me and I did exactly that. Is the man’s name Vlad?

“Hello, Uncle!” He said, happily. The two of them embraced, clapping each other on the back, before parting. Radu and Bogdan then did the same embrace.

“Where the hell have you been?!” Bogdan asked and Vlad looked to me.

“In her family basement,” he said simply and the men all turned to stare at me before Vlad continued, “Radu had been buried a ways away in her family’s old cottage cellar. If it weren’t for miss Elena here, we may have never awoken again. She tells us the world has changed much; it seems like the perfect time to have awoken, Uncle.”

Bogdan got a mischievous look in his eyes and shared the look with Vlad. “I’m grateful she did awaken you, for this world needs leadership now more than ever. Corrupt rich businessmen run the governments and countries while scientists learn more and more new things such as flying to the stars and advance us too far. All the while, they destroy the planet combing for resources to waste.”

“We need to come back to power now, more than ever. Allow me to catch you up on all that you have missed,” Bogdan began and he really wasn’t wrong. We were doing that. Hello, climate change and SpaceX.

“But first, we must gather Alexandru and-” Vlad began and Bogdan smiled, making Vlad cut off.

“They are already nearby. We immortals must stick together now more than ever as well.” Bogdan’s answer made Vlad visibly relax. “Let’s get you cleaned up and gather everyone. I have someone pulling files together to help you learn the past centuries history.” Bogdan offered the men and they both nodded. Vlad flicked his hand toward me, motioning for me to come to him, but I chuckled, trying to squeeze some of the vodka out of my shirt leather but it was just smelly and damp now…

“Since you guys seem to be catching up and all that jazz, I’m gonna go back and find my friend,” I said, turning around for the club again. I didn’t make it even three steps before I felt an intimidating presence behind me. I stiffened as he growled from behind me but sounded right next to my ear. Vlad pulled me back to him, his cold hands on my exposed waist, and I felt this growl vibrate through his chest against my back.

“If you wish to remain safe and protected over the next few months, which trust me when I say you ought to wish such things, then you will remain with us.”

“The deal was get you to Bogdan, Alexandru, and whoever else. I did that. He can catch you up. There’s no reason I even need to be involved anymore so let me go,” I demanded and he chuckled darkly next to my ear still.

“No,” was all he said before I was roughly turned back around. But instead of being shoved towards the others, Vlad ducked down and suddenly, I felt myself lurching off balance. Ooohf! Vlad recovered quickly, having thrown me over his shoulder before turning to Bogdan and Radu, as I started kicking and hitting his back, yelling at him to put me down. Radu wound up walking behind Vlad and taunted me for a bit as we walked. I was just worried about my ass flashing from under my skirt!

“Put me down now!” My demand went ignored.

“I truly didn’t think you had it in you, little one. The leather and makeup are a bit much but you did good.” Radu muttered to me and I swung at him, my black nails ready to claw his eyes out. Vlad felt me lurch on his shoulder and chuckled as Radu jumped back from my swipe. “My, my, feisty much?”

“Put me down, now! I’m gonna kill him! f**k, I’m gonna kill you all for this! You told me to do this! Put me down!” I shouted and the men just chuckled. Vlad kept his same stride all the way to Bogdan’s car, parked nearby on the side of the road. It was a huge black SUV type car and, once Vlad opened the back door, he set me down and insisted I get inside. I scoffed as I saw its fancy leather interior. An Escalade or something equally as fancy. When I looked back, I realized Radu was standing beside him and I was cornered against the open car door.

Knowing my odds were three against one, I got in and, as soon as I had, Vlad got in beside me and Radu went to the passenger side and got in on my other side. Bogdan got in front and started to drive. “Where are we going?” I asked immediately and Bogdan shrugged.

“Where are we going?”he asked Vlad and I looked over at Vlad. He looked to Bogdan, saying:

“Her family home is perfectly isolated but big enough for the family. Let’s have everyone reconvene there.” Bogdan nodded and pulled up a GPS on his dashboard. He looked at me for the address to enter for the destination.

“Truth be told, I don’t want your creepy ass in my house,” I said straight to Vlad. “You’re a killer!” I repeated like why is everyone so f*****g casual right now?!

“Honey, he is from a different time. War was personal then. You got up close and personal and stabbed a man then. It’s his way of life,” Bogdan said, yet again, casually.

“That’s the thing, Bogdan, they shouldn’t have a life. They should be dead!” I muttered, sitting forward from the middle seat towards him like I was letting him in on the big secret and he chuckled.

“We’re vampires, honey, a little dirt isn’t gonna kill us. Ergo buried doesn’t mean dead. That’s why, being from a different time and whatnot, they don’t understand why such a personal kill would be strange to you. Once they see the new technologies we’ve put into war…they will understand that you were raised in a time where murder is a statistic.” Bogdan said and I was insulted. War was war, not a damn number!

“Now sit back or you’re gonna get us pulled over,” he muttered and I glared up at him in the mirror.

“Good, I could only hope,” I hissed out. Vlad yanked me back against the seat by my arm and I took the time to glare at him instead. But internally I was processing that they just might be vampires….the vanishing and reappearing…the bloodshed…

“As I told you when we first met, behave, woman,” Vlad hissed down at me and I glared up at him some more. He chuckled, running his finger across my cheekbone, making me shudder and flinch away from him. “You will do well to remember what we are and what we are capable of.”

“I might be scared to die, of the unknown, but I’m not scared of you,” I said back at him and he growled softly in my ear.

“Shall I change that, Elena?” He asked me and the car got deadly quiet.

I turned to look at him, our faces inches away from each other, and said, “Go ahead and try, Vlad.” His eyes flashed black before he blinked and-

“Now-now, not on my nice leather interior, Vlad,” Bogdan warned but Vlad and I didn’t move an inch. We were sizing each other up.

Radu laughed suddenly and looked at Vlad from over my shoulder, “Do you still want to protect her? Because she is exceedingly disrespectful, brother.” I scowled at him too for a second, making him sit back again, before Vlad chuckled.

“I wouldn’t expect anything else of the little nymph,” Vlad said and I sighed, frustrated.

“I have a name! I’m no nymph. My name is Elena, goddammit!” I said to the whole car. Bogdan looked at Vlad meaningfully and shrugged.

“Fine, Miss Elena, what is your address? Because it seems we will be going back to your place after all,” Bogdan asked me.

“I ain’t telling you a damn thing. Best of luck, b***h,” I said with a sneer. Bogdan growled a bit, thoughtful, but smirked at me eventually.

“You may have an upper hand with them not understanding phones but I do. Vlad, get her phone off her and give it here. Everything there is to know about a woman is in her damn phone. Starting with an address, birthday, and email usually,” Bogdan said and Vlad grinned evilly down at me. He grabbed my upper arm again and lifted it away from my side to search my jacket pocket then the other side. I’d hidden my phone in my combat boot since everyone knew pockets were a pickpockets favorite spot in a club.

“Ha!” I laughed to Vlad and said again, “Best of luck, bitch.” He growled down at me and pinched my jaw in between his hand, c*****g my head of to the side as he got closer to me. I gripped his wrist to shove his hand away but I didn’t even get so much as a budge from him. He grinned darkly still as his hand traced my skirt hem. “Don’t touch me!” I said, trying to shake him off still as he finally dug into the small, empty skirt pockets. He growled softly and I smirked up at him.

“The boots! Normal women wear high heels; bet she hid it there,” Bogdan said and I glared at him. He laughed. “Hand it over, sweetheart, or I’ll send Vlad in for a strip search.” I hesitated until Vlad, still holding me to him by my arm and chin, put his lips to my throat with a deep inhale that I finally caved.

“Fine! Get off me!” I said harshly, finally getting my space back as Vlad lean away from me long enough for me to yank the strings of my boot loose and pull out my iPhone 11. Vlad instantly snatched it from me and I gasped at how quickly they had moved because, in a blink of an eye, it was in Bogdan’s hands.

“Hold her still, Vlad. Radu, point the damn phone at her face. She has a face lock on it.” He said, scowling, and Vlad wasted no time, grabbing both my hands and pinning them behind my back. Radu pointed my phone screen at me as I cursed them the hell out for this and I watched the screen slide up and unlock to my main screen. Radu chuckled and handed it back to Bogdan so I was expecting to be let go by Vlad.

But he didn’t let me go; instead, I realized he was right next to me, his mouth inches from my left shoulder. Vampire! The whole meaning of the word hit me as I took in his eyes and the hungry look in them. He inhaled as his lips touched my skin and I shuddered. “Don’t you dare,” I whispered to him and he chuckled softly.

“I already fed from you once, in the basement, Elena,” he whispered back to me-the pain to my wrist!- and then his grip changed, tightening. “I will feed from you whenever the f**k I please,” he growled out harshly before I felt his lips part on my throat and then intense pressure. My skin broke and I felt him sucking on my skin and I gasped, crying out.

“Vlad!” was all I could say out loud before my ears started ringing. He let my arm go to snake his arms around me, holding me to him as I closed my eyes and tried to shrug him off. The more I fought to get away, the more his bite hurt like hell. I felt myself lose warmth and black framed my vision as Vlad stopped biting me but he kept his arms around me as I fainted…

I awoke in my own bedroom. I sat up with a startle and looked around, just to realize I was alone. I threw my blankets off and put my feet on the floor beside my bed. No sooner than that, the door opened and Vlad was in the doorframe, intimidating as the shadows cast half of his face in menace. Nevertheless… “What the hell did you do?!” I asked him, angry. He came into the room fully, his eyes dark, and I felt my voice get lost.

“Good morning, my little Elena,” he said and I scowled at him. At least, it wasn’t ‘nymph’ again. “Thanks for the phone, darling, wouldn’t have found this place if it weren’t for that,” he added salt to the wound and I gritted my teeth. “We took the liberty of hiring some cleaners and renovators to work on the house and Bogdan has ordered all of our living relatives to gather here. All the while, your friend, Lanie, has been calling you excessively.” I stood up but my height did little to help me here as he towered over me.

My scowl deepened as I looked up at him. He rubbed his thumb along my bottom lip quickly but softly and I gasped, flinching away as soon as I registered what he was doing. His hand dropped to my neck, where he had bitten me, and he grinned. “After so many centuries of thirst, I have to say that you taste delicious. I don’t think I will be feeding from anyone else for the time being.”

“I’m not your blood bag,” I shouted, trying to slap him but his hand caught mine before I could even touch him.

He snarled down at me, “No, not my blood bag! But you are mine! My little savior…my little witch…all mine,” he growled as he lean down and kissed the spot he had bitten earlier. The urge to beg him not to bite me was at the tip of my tongue and I had to physically swallow it down to even safely speak again.

“I do not belong to you. What era do you think you woke up in?” I asked and he merely chuckled.

“I awoke to a new era. So much freedom yet so much disrespect in this world right now. I get to take over, behind the scenes, holding all the cards…because of you…I swear to you, I will protect you with my eternal life for this.” He swore so solemnly. I shook my head as he pushed me to sit back down on the bed.

“I don’t want your protection. I want you to leave, to not be in my life anymore! You’ve done nothing but disrupt everything!” I said, starting to cry.

He got angry and growled down at me, “I saved your life! All I did was awaken to a woman being trapped and threatened, her family having just been murdered, and I got her out of it all alive, in one piece, unscathed.”

He had a point but I threw out, “Unscathed? So it was my imagination that I had been bitten on my wrist, thought I was bleeding out in the dark, or what about my leg being pierced by-by whatever the hell it was!” He growled again and I scoffed. “You did all that for self serving reasons.” I was still crying. f**k it, I just let the tears and words flow out.

“You needed to feed so you did, from me! You needed your ally so you got us out. You took me with you, I’m sure, in case he needed to feed from me too. You did-” I was ranting until he had me by the throat and we were moving back. I gasped as he pinned me down against the bed, shocked at how much our bodies were touching so suddenly.

“You are mine! Not because I needed you but because I want you, my little Elena. Do not mistaken the difference. One means you have a purpose to serve and one means you have something I want…something I could just take,” he whispered in my ear as his hand roamed down from my throat to my chest, between my bralette, and teasingly hovered at the hem of my skirt again like in the car. He looked down at me with a mischievous grin.

“Don’t you dare, Vlad,” I growled up at him this time and he smirked at me. My gut clenched, afraid of him for a moment before my anger translated to sass again.

“I won’t….because that’s never any real fun,” he said before adding, “but I would watch your tone with me, love, because I am the one in charge here and now.”

“This is my home! It’s my life! f**k you!” I said, absolutely enraged. He could tell as he pressed his hand against my hip to pin me down to the bed even more.

“Your life was never gonna be the same after your Uncle died anyway. Already an orphan, now with even less family-no family from the way you said that you were the last Velden. Think of this as me stepping in to save you once again,” he said and I scoffed.

“Never, because I’m over 18, the house and hospital-everything of my family’s would go to me. I would need nothing from you,” I reasoned.

“Except protection,” he said immediately.

“The robbery was a one time thing. It is not like I need a bodyguard every second! Besides it sounds like you have a whole country to take over. You don’t have time to look after me. So get your family back together and all that jazz and then go away!” I growled up at him and he looked me dead in the eyes.