Servitude

Vampires

A head of raven hair swayed in the wind behind the girl who was running as fast as she could through the streets, heading towards the school building that was just up the hill in front of her. Her lungs burned and her legs ached from how far and how long she had been running. A pair of blue eyes widened when she looked back and saw that the guys who were chasing her were closing in. 'Just a little farther' she repeated in her head and willed her legs to pump harder.

Her name was Aerial Carters. She was 17 and attended Bayside High. Chasing her were 2 students from Jules Academy, her rival school. Students from both had never gotten along very well and the academy made it a habit to pick on the regular high schoolers. Most of the other Bayside students kept their distance from the academy students, but Aerial was different and could never run from a good chance to harass the academy. After all, they acted too stuck up for her taste and needed to be brought down a peg or two.

The academy was filled with the rich kids whose parents owned companies or were lawyers and doctors. They were the types of stuck up kids that knew they were rich acted like it to. They all drove fancy cars and bragged on their parent's dimes. Bayside was public so the people were more down to earth, and Aerial preferred it that way. Rich kids were too easy to piss off in her book, which was probably why she enjoyed it so much.

Though, today was different. She was only running because her home room teacher had threatened her with a week of detention if she was late again. And Aerial already hated being at school, she did not want to be here after it ended for detention.

"Why don't you get back here and fight b***h!" one of the boys yelled.

She laughed. "Sorry guys. I don't have time to play with you p*****s today."

The school gates came into view and she had never been happier than to see her favorite security guards standing at the front gates. Being an orphan, Aerial never got along well with the other students. She stuck more to the security. Her dad had been a cop and she wanted to follow in his footsteps one day.

"Carters you better not be late." one of the guards yelled when he noticed her heading for the building.

She smiled and waved. "I'm trying not to, but I got some baggage. Handle the fools will ya!"

The security smiled and nodded as they let the girl run past them and then stepped in the way to stop the two boys chasing her. "Alright you two, you know the rules. No farther for the academy students."

Aerial smirked as she could hear the cursing of the two boys trapped at the gate. It always helped that academy students were never allowed on property without a reason and a pass to verify it. She made her way into the building and wiped some of the sweat from her head, sighing. That was more taxing than she intended for it to be.

Looking at her watch, she saw that she still had a little time to get to her locker and grab her things, so she headed in that direction. Opening her locker, she took out her books and placed them in her bag and then smiled at the image of her parents she had hanging in there.

Aerial hated school and everything about it, but if it weren’t for the fact that she needed it to become a cop, she would have dropped out a long time ago. It held no interest to her, the people were boring and a nuisance, and there wasn’t much else in her life that she had any desire to want to do. She only preferred this school cause the people weren't as stuck up as her other option. Closing the door, she quickly fixed her hair as best she could and made her way through the halls and towards her first class.

Oh, how she longed for the days when she could just go to one class a day, nap, and then eat some cookies. Times were simpler then. Moving from class to class was just annoying and put Aerial in the mix of her fellow classmates more than she wanted to be. It wasn't like any of them wanted to be around her either from how they acted.

Ever since she started school, she was considered the 'weird girl' or the outcast. She wasn't as talkative as the other students, she didn't have any interest in the latest band or none of that, she didn't date the guys, didn't gossip with the girls, and she didn't care for what fashion was or wasn't in. Her fitted jeans and her T-shirts did her fine. No, she did not fit in much here, but at least they kept their words to themselves and didn't try to bully her. They all knew how bad that would only end for them.

Aerial had adopted the philosophy long ago that, even when someone didn’t like her, she would never tolerate them disrespecting her. That tended to mean that she got into a lot of fights with (want to be) bullies. Sadly for them, Aerial was a born fighter.

The bell rung just as she walked into her first class, which was English. She took her seat at the back, next to the window. It was relaxing to imagine her freedom whenever the teacher started to bore her, which was often.

"Welcome. I trust that everyone completed their reading assignment and is ready for the test?" Ms. Londell, a thin, middle aged woman with honey blonde hair asked. She had brown eyes and a genuine smile that reached them. Among the seniors, she was considered the most attractive and the nicest of the teachers in the whole school. As boring as she could be, Aerial liked her.

"How nice to see that you made it on time today." the teacher commented when she noticed her.

"Thank you, ma’am." Aerial smiled. Ms. Londell was also the only teacher who seemed to take notice to her. She was the only one who went through the trouble to make sure to 'persuade' Aerial to come to school. She would have come anyway, but she enjoyed the game of cat and mouse the teacher and she played still.

The teacher proceeded to pass out the test and everyone got quiet. Aerial glanced at her paper for all a second before she just decided to answer all of the questions randomly and turn her paper over, signaling that she was done.

Sure, if she had to guess, she was probably the smartest kid in the whole damn school, but sometimes, it was better to keep attention, good or bad, off of her so she purposely only did just well enough to pass.

The day carried as normal and Aerial was more than happy to finally get out of school When the bell rang, she was the first one out of the building and heading towards the bar she worked at. Yea, she was too young, but being the daughter of a famous cop gave her some leverage sometimes.

Her father had known the barkeeper for years and he knew and understood Aerial's situation, so he was more than willing to give her a hand and let her make a little extra money. She was great help and the customers loved her.

"Evening Mr. Smith." Aerial greeted entering the bar. 'Sky Down' had been open for years and Mr. Smith had a bunch a regulars and hardly any trouble. They all respected him too much and on the rare occasions when a newcomer did come in and was looking for trouble, Aerial was right there to kick them out.

"How was school?" Mr. Smith smiled.

"Shitty like any other day." was her serious, but playful reply. "I'll be on the floor in a second." she said and exited to the back room to get into her uniform.

The uniform for her was a white button up that showed off plenty of cleavage and a tight-fitting black skirt that stop just below her bottom. It was kind of revealing, but Aerial was proud of her body and had no problem showing it off. Besides, it got her more tips if everyone understood look and don't touch.

She made her way back out onto the floor and stopped for some small talk with the bartender. Being a Friday night, things would pick up pretty fast after the doors opened.

"So, any news on that kid?" Aerial asked.

Scott was a relatively young tender, being only 25, and he was married, and his wife was pregnant with their first son. He was so ecstatic he had come to work and showed everyone the ultrasound pictures. "She's due any day now." he smiled.

"That's awesome. Bet you're on edge." she said and took one of the olives he was laying out for the drinks.

"You should know the answer to that...So, when are you going to settle down with a nice guy?"

Aerial scoffed. "I'm 17. I'm not settling with anything."

"Oh yea. That's easy to forget with a body and an attitude like yours." he teased. Scott and she were always making perverted jokes to one another, but they both knew that they were only jokes. If anything, he was like an older brother to her. Scott's wife also adored her and thought of her as her teenage daughter. Aerial was sure that she was just a test run for when they really did have a daughter.

The time to open the club had come and, just like she thought, things were filling up fast. There were a bunch of guys at the bar, but Scott was used to handling like a million people at once, so this was like nothing for him. The groups at the tables were all mostly throwing back beers tonight so there wasn't much for Aerial to do but keep up with refills.

For it to be so busy tonight, things were oddly boring. No one was trying to talk to her tonight and no newcomers had come in. It felt more like a Monday night, just with more people.

"You look out of it." Scott commented when he saw Aerial leaning against the side of bar. "Need any more beers?"

She nodded. "Nah. Everyone is fine for now."

She scanned the room one last time and noticed a man sitting in one of the corner booths. Her brows arched. She had not heard the ringing of the bell saying anyone else had come in. How long had he been there? And she could tell that he was new.

"Did you see when he came in?" she asked Scott, motioning to the corner booth.

He looked and thought for a second. He hadn't seen him before or heard the bell either. "Maybe he came in right behind someone else and we didn't notice. Anyway, go talk to him so he's not waiting much longer." he said and started cleaning some glasses.

Aerial agreed and made her way over to the last booth. She couldn't help but notice how odd this man looked. He was wearing a black suit and a long matching coat with a matching hat that was pulled down and hiding his face. He sat, leaned back and seemed to be completely at ease in the booth. In fact, his demeanor was more like he owned the place. Behind him was a ponytail of hair, the color of moonlight. No way that was natural. He was giving her total silver fox vibes.

"Good evening. Could I interest you in a drink?" she asked.

The edges of his mouth quirked in a smile. "Good evening indeed. I'll have a bloody Mary. Extra bloody" was his reply.

Aerial swallowed and nodded. "Coming right up sir." She made her way back over to the bar and gave his drink order. Getting away from that man felt great. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but something just felt off and she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Scott handed her the drink once he was done and she put some extra napkins on her tray also.

Taking the drink back over to the new man, she set it on the table in front of him. "Here you go sir. Is there anything else you need?"

The man leaned forward and picked up his drink. That's when she noticed the color of his eyes. They were amber, but probably the most intense eyes she had ever seen.

He took a sip of his drink. "Not what I ordered, but this will do." he commented.

Aerial had no idea what he was talking about. "But sir, you wanted a Mary; extra bloody."

He glanced at her. "And this is not extra bloody service girl...You're dismissed."

Instead of saying anything, Aerial just nodded and turned from the table. That drink couldn't have been no bloodier than if she had just put blood itself in the cup. What a weird guy. And how rude did he have to be? 'You're dismissed'! Who the f**k did he think he was?

The night dragged on and many tables had come and gone. Not much had changed. Aerial was still bored with how listless the crowd tonight seemed. Though, the weird guy in the corner was making his way into her mind often enough. He had just been sitting there all night, never taking his hat off, and he hadn't ordered any other drinks.

"What's his deal?" Scott asked, wiping off the bar some. It was almost closing time.

"You tell me."

"Let him know that it's almost time to go so I'm doing last call."

Aerial walked back over to the booth. "Excuse me sir...but we're doing last call...so..."

"I'll be leaving shortly. My guest is almost here."

"Oh, were you waiting for someone?" That would explain why he was here all night. Though, he was one hell of a friend to wait this long. She would have left by now if someone she was waiting for was this late.

"Yes, and you should hurry and get home service girl...It's dangerous at night."

"I'm sure I can handle myself." she muttered and walked away from the table, heading back to the bar.

"So, what did he say?" Scott asked.

"Apparently he's meeting someone." she replied in a clipped tone. Who was this guy?

As closing time got closer, the last of the customers came in and hurried and ordered their drinks. They were less than two minutes away from closing when the bell rung as one final customer entered the bar. It was a female with dark hair and bangs that hung in her face, wearing a small black dress. She walked in and looked around, taking note of the emptiness.

Aerial watched her and then saw a smirk appear on the man’s face in the corner. It was the only emotion he had shown all night. This must be who he was waiting for she thought and scoffed. Of course, it would be a cheap hooker; at least that is what she looked like.

The woman made her way to the bar and took a seat directly in front of Scott. He got her drink order and got busy mixing all the ingredients together. "It's kind of late for you to be out don't you think?" he asked, trying to make small talk.

The woman smiled. "It's still quite early for me."

Aerial went ahead and continued to clean all the tables and flip the chairs. She wiped off the tables for the booths, avoiding the one the man was sitting at. Was he ever going to pay and leave?

"Am I in your way?" came his slick voice as she passed him.

Aerial managed to smile and not say the 'duh' that she was thinking. "No Sir, but we are closing up soon and will have to ask you to pay and leave."

"Soon." was his reply.

Scott placed the drink in front of the woman and was about to walk away when she suddenly reached out and touched his arm. "What a lovely watch. May I take a closer look?" she asked in a sweet voice.

He was a little taken aback at first but decided to let her see. She turned his arm over in her hand and smiled, licking her lips. "What a lovely watch."

"Thanks...my wife got it for me." he replied, unsure.

Aerial watched the whole thing taking place and could not understand. The guy in the corner said he was waiting for someone and hadn't taken his attention off the female since she entered the bar. Yet, the woman was blatantly flirting with Scott and he seemed fine with it. What type of s**t was this? Were they swingers or something?

She went about her cleaning and took a tray of dirty cups to the back room for dishes. She dumped them in the sink of already soapy water and went about rinsing the ones that had already been washed. She dried the dishes and was about to put them away when she heard a crash and Scott's scream coming from the other room.

It had to be the guy and that girl; she just knew it. They were probably a team and had come to rob the place, Aerial thought as she took off heading to the main room. The only time she stopped along the way was to grab the gun that Mr. Smith kept in his office.

When she got back out to the main room, Scott was laying across the counter and the woman was leaning over him. She looked like she was sucking on his neck, only, there was blood. Was she biting him!? And the other man was just sitting in the corner. He hadn't moved a muscle.

"What the bloody hell is going on here!?" Aerial yelled, aiming the gun at the woman. "Let him go or I'll blow your f*****g head off!" she warned.

The woman looked over at her and smirked, taking her mouth off of the man’s neck. Blood dripped down her jaw and spewed from the wound she had left. His body slipped from the counter and hit the floor with a thud, unmoving. Aerial's eyes checked his form for any signs of movement to show that he was breathing.

"Scott...Scott...S-Scott..." she started in a shaky voice. There was no response.

Finally, the man in the corner stood and started to chuckle, clapping his hands. He grinned and reached into his coat, removing a large, black gun. "I must say, it's quite amateur; your behavior." he said, addressing the woman. "I told you to go home." he said again, this time looking to Aerial.

The woman smirked and turned to him. "You're just like me." she smiled. "So, you should understand that sometimes you can't help being thirsty."

The man's smirk grew, showing his own fangs this time. "You should also understand how the law works."

Aerial stared at the two. What were they talking about? Thirsty? The law? She didn't know where this conversation was going, but that b***h had just, most likely, killed her co-worker, drank his blood, and the guy was talking like they were sharing coffee or something.

"And who are you to tell me about the laws?" the female questioned; arms folded.

"How rude of me." the guy said, removing his hat and smirking. His silver hair fell over a pair of red eyes. "I am the one who lives and rules dark." he stated.

"But his eyes were amber before." Aerial thought. Did he really have time to put in contacts or something?

The woman's eyes slit at him. "W-what do you mean?"

"I am the leader of the Red Knights…However, you may know me as Kaiden, the vampire king." he finished

The female looked at him and backed up a few steps, moving towards the side of the room Aerial was standing on, gun still aimed. She noticed and stepped back herself.

"Don't move any closer!" Aerial said and coked her gun, ready to pull the trigger. She had heard and seen more than enough. Obviously these two were f*****g crazy and she was not about to stand around and let them eat her next.

The woman looked over at her and then back to the man in black. She smirked.

"I know the laws just as well as you do." she said and lunged for Aerial.

Her arms were reached out to grab her, but much to her amazement, the girl dodged and moved out of the way, re-aiming her gun and taking a few shots, hitting her in the shoulder. The woman faltered and glared at the girl. "So, the b***h can aim." she seethed and moved again.

It took Aerial more effort to avoid her this time. She was moving with speed that she had never seen before. She took a few more shots, this time hitting her in her legs. "Come near me again and next time I'll aim for something more vital." Aerial warned.

The female vampire growled. "I'll be damned if a human b***h best me!"

She lunged one more time at the girl, only to be stopped, this time, by shots coming from her sides and two bullets lodging in her head. She dropped to the ground.

Aerial stared in utter shock at the female who she was sure was dead, lying on the ground, she turned to where the shots had come from and saw the man putting his gun away. He smirked over at her.

"Excellent job slowing her down Server Girl, but you were taking too long for the kill."

"I-I... how could you...she...w-what?" Aerial slid to her knees and looked at where the girl had once laid, only to see a pile of dust in its place. Her eyes widened. She had never seen any s**t like this in her whole life. What the f**k was going on?

"W-what are you?" she asked to the man. "Who are you?"

The man returned his hat to his head and smirked. "I answered who I was for the females whose ashes lay at your feet...as for what," his smirk grew, "I already answered that as well."

"A... vampire?"

The man turned towards the door and was about to leave. "Money's on the table." he said, placing his hand on the knob.

Aerial panicked and stood up. "WAIT! You can't just leave me here to explain all of this to the police." No sane person was going to believe what she had seen here tonight, and they would lock her up for sure, thinking she had gone mad and killed her coworker.

"My job is done here. The creature is exterminated."

"Job?"

"Why yes Server Girl...I don't do this for fun."

"Leaving me here is just going to make things worse!" Aerial argued. "I'll take the blame for this." She aimed her gun at him. "Sorry, but I can't let you just walk away."

The man smirked. "You couldn't kill a low-class beast like her, and you dare turn your weapon on me?"

Before Aerial could even register what was going on, the door to the bar came bursting open and two more men rushed in. They stopped next to the one called Kaiden and surveyed the area. One of them, Aerial noted, was shorter and looked almost like him, only his hair was wilder and his eyes less intimidating. The other man had shorter dark hair that was in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. They both wore dark suits.

Are they mafia or something, Aerial wondered?

"Don't tell me we missed all of the fun."

Kaiden looked over at his half-brother. "Perhaps you should have been on time."

The one with the dark hair chuckled. "Yeah well, we ran into some trouble of our own."

"Doesn’t look like you needed us here anyway."

Aerial watched the three of them talk between each other. From looks, she could guess that the first two were probably related in some way and the guy with dark hair was probably a friend. But, none of that told her who they were, and it was like the first one, Kaiden, had even forgotten that she was in the room.

"So, are we all clear for the night?" Ryan asked, the one who resembled Kaiden.

Kaiden almost scoffed at him. "Are you so ignorant, little brother, that you didn't even notice that we are not the only ones in this room right now?"

Chris, the other man, looked and spotted the girl in the corner. He also noticed the gun she was holding and the pile of ash not far from her. Had she been present for the entire battle?

Ryan finally noticed the girl and sighed. He hated dealing with humans. "Who's this b***h?" he asked.

"I have a name asshole and it's Aerial." she glared back, aiming her gun at him now. If they were going to kill her, which she was guessing they were, she was not going out alone and might as well take the most annoying one with her.

"Cease this nonsense." Kaiden ordered and turned to leave. "Let's take our leave...and bring the girl."

"WHAT!" Ryan yelled. "Why do we have to take her? Just kill her and we can get out of here."

"What makes you think that I would go anywhere with you freaks?" Aerial yelled. She wasn't about to just let them drag her off somewhere and do who knows what.

Kaiden glanced back at her, his amber eyes intense. When the hell had his eyes turned back? "Were you not the one who didn't want to have to explain this to the authorities?"

Aerial thought for a second and weighed her options. Obviously, if she stayed here, there was no getting out of anything, but maybe if she went with them, then she could have someone explain to the cops her situation and involvement. Also, she wouldn't admit it, but she was curious. Whatever happened here, was not normal and was on a whole new level, one that the police probably did not even touch.

This man had to be a part of a special forces through the government, or they really were the Mafia. Maybe civilians weren't supposed to know about him and his line of work. He had to be an assassin or something. Going with him was probably going to be the only way she was going to get answers tonight. Or it would be the end of here.

"I-I'll go." she said.

"Good...Just remember that the choice was yours." was his final reply before turning and disappearing out of the door.

"Well, let's get going." Chris said and approached the girl. "I take it the name's Aerial. I'm Chris and that's Ryan. You'll be safe with us."

His smiled widened and Aerial noticed the fangs he had at the edge of his mouth. He was just like the lady, who apparently was just like Kaiden. They were vampires, but there was no way this was happening. They shouldn't exist or be real. Those had to be fake and maybe this was all some gimmick for their special force team.

"Come on. We ain't got all night." Ryan said, growing impatient and turning to leave behind Kaiden.

Aerial swallowed and took Chris's hand. He pulled her close and smiled, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Hold on tight," he said and took off out of the door, going at inhuman speed. As soon as he was on the outside, he leapt and landed on top of the nearby buildings and began leaping from roof to roof.

Aerial held tighter and closed her eyes. She could not believe that all of this was happening right now. How had her life taken this drastic turn from bearable to bat s**t crazy in such a short time? Maybe, she was sleep and would wake up soon.

"I hope this isn't too much for you." Chris called out over the sound of the wind whipping past them as he ran. He felt bad, considering this was him going 'slow'.

"Oh no. This is average for me." Aerial joked.

Chris smiled. "So, how did you get caught up in all of this?"

"Well you know, it was either go to jail or escape with the vampires. Like I said, average day of work."

It was good that the girl could find some humor in the situation he figured. It would certainly help her keep her sanity depending on how deep she got into everything. Speaking of, he had to wonder what Kaiden intended to do with her. It was uncommon for him to bring anyone back or let anyone live who had gotten in his way.

Finally, a large mansion came into view and Chris landed right in front of it. He opened his arms to let Aerial out and she noticed Ryan and Kaiden standing and waiting in front of the doors. The building was huge and looked like it had to cost millions of dollars. Looking around, she noticed all of the trees and open land and had to wonder just how far outside of the main city they had gone. They were only traveling for about 5 minutes.

"Bout time you two got here." Ryan said.

"I tried to make the trip as comfortable as possible." Chris said.

"So, exactly, where are we?" Aerial asked.

"This is our home, my mansion, and possibly your new job." Kaiden commented.

Aerial stopped looking around and stared at him like he had grown two heads. "Job?"

"Well you obviously can't work at your bar anymore, now can you?" he said.

Aerial mentally sighed. Did he have to be so blunt about how f****d up her life was now. "What if I don't want the job?" she glared.

He glanced at her, bored, and shrugged. "Then we kill you."

Ryan laughed at the look on her face. "You didn't think we could let you live after everything you've seen did ya, eh stupid?"

Aerial growled. "It's not like you're anything amazing to see anyway, but fine, I'll hear you out on the whole 'job' thing." At least, she would play along until escape became an option; anything to keep her alive.

Kaiden smirked. As annoying as most humans could be, this one was quite interesting. Her composure was holding well for just having learned of the existence of a mythological species and seeing her co-worker slaughtered by said species. She hadn't gone through her human mental breakdown like most would have. And she was strong, being able to hold her own against that draculina as long as she had.

Yes, having this human around was going to be amusing for him.