Past And Present

It started two years ago, when the jerk of the century, Jaxon, decided he wanted a snack. He picked me. 

We're vampires. Like for real vampires. I don't know what you've heard about us, but I know that what I thought I knew about vampires was entirely wrong.

First, we don't sparkle, sorry Stephanie Meyer, but we just don't. However, we don't burst into flames either, sorry. It hurts us, but no flames.

We don't sleep, and that means no coffins. It's like one endless day over here in Vampireland. It's kinda sad actually.

The blood of humans is the only thing that can keep us alive, no animal blood, it's like a poison, so is human food. 

We can fly, but we don't turn into bats, we're like Superman, but without the cape. 

We have superstrength, super-hearing, and super-speed. Duh. Don't all vampires in books?

That's pretty much it when it comes to what we can do, besides the fact that the only way to kill us is with fire or a wooden stake.

So let's go back to two years ago, when all this began.

***

(Two years before)

"So the move is totally 'official'?" Jessica, my best friend of all time asked me, her blue eyes sad.

I nodded, "Mom thought it was official enough to post on Facebook, so it's a done deal." I shut my locker door, and turned to face her. Her lower lip was stuck out into a pout, and there was a crease between her eyebrows.

"I'm not dying Jess, and I'm only going to be an hour away." I told her encouragingly, trying to get her mind off of the subject.

We walked to her car, falling into a comfortable silence. When we reached her red Camry, she slid into the drivers' seat. "Want a ride?" She asked me, putting her purse into the back seat.

"Nah, I want to get home slower, delay the packing process a little." She nodded, then drove away in her car, staring at me out of her rear-view mirror.

I started the walk home, kicking rocks that I saw on the sidewalk. I didn't want to move, everything I loved was here. I had family and friends in the area. Plus this was the only place I had ever known, moving away from all that, that would be hard.

I kept walking, and when I was about a half mile away from my house, I heard a noise in the woods. I stopped, and looked into the woods. I know what you're thinking, this is one of those horror movie things, look in the woods and get kidnapped.

If you would have been walking with me and said that, I would have laughed. But unfortunately, you would have been right. 

Lightning fast hands shot out of the trees and grabbed me, they were freezing, and strong as steel. Wind whipped past my face as my kidnapper threw me over his shoulder and ran.

 

When I say he ran, I literally mean ran. Everything was a blur, and I had to shut my eyes from the dizziness it was bringing to me.

Finally I was set down, my kidnapper looked me straight in the eyes. 

"Prepare to die, human." He smiled at me, a creepy, demonic smile. His canines were longer than normal, and growing longer by the second.

I tried backing away from him, but he grabbed me with one arm and kept me there with his steel grip.

I tried opening my mouth and asking the usual question, "Why me?" But nothing came out except for a small whimper. 

He grabbed my arm and pulled me upright. He pulled me close to him, so close that I could smell the woods and blood that came off of him.

 

He grinned at me, once again showing me his fangs. Black spots danced in front of my eyes, a panic attack.

He brushed the hair off of my neck softly, like he wasn't about ready to kill me. "What a waste, such a pretty young thing." He laughed, and in my ears it didn't match the psycho killer who it came from. It was light and care-free, not hostile and evil, which is what I expected.

I was shaking now, he was so cold, and I was terrified. He leaned closer and put his lips against my neck. 

I screamed, it was the first and probably the last coherent thing I was able to do. Pain exploded in my neck, and soon my screams were faint. I was dying, dying a painful death. And nobody would ever find my body.

I saw light flash before my eyes, and then the man who was hurting me was gone. The pain was still there, but I could barely feel it.

"Drink this." Someone put something against my lips and forced a metallic tasting liquid down my throat. The man who attacked me was standing behind another man. My vision was dark and blurry, and my thoughts were no longer coherent.

I saw a flash of the brightest blue, before everything faded into nothingness.

 

***

 

I don't know how much longer after that I woke up, feeling oddly light. There was a pain in my throat, like I hadn't drank anything in months. I sat up and saw a figure standing against a windowsill, watching the moonlight.

"Welcome back to the living dead." A sarcastic voice growled. The figure had turned towards me, and his bright blue eyes looked at me in wonder. 

"I bet you have so many questions, don't you?" He asked coming closer to me with a glass of something in his hands. I stared at the glass. It was giving off an intoxicating scent that I couldn't deny. I got up off the couch and slunk into a crouch, ready to take the glass from him.

"Ah, of course. You are thirsty." He handed the drink to me, and it was gone in a matter of seconds. The red liquid soothed my parched throat, although after I drank it, I instantly wanted more.

"Sit." The strange man commanded me, his voice stern and yet familiar.

I sat down and stared at him. "Why am I here? What happened to me? Why aren't I dead?"

"First, you are at the mansion of my father. Built in the late 1600's and still standing and looking beautiful today." He waved his hand around the grand room, and my eyes took in all of the old fashioned furniture and just the antique feel of the room.

"Second, a man named Jaxon killed you. I arrived in time, and turned you." He gave me a sad smile, and leaned back into the couch.

"I'm not dead, idiot. I'm sitting right in front of you." Another sad smile. He looked around the room, and his words came back to me, this time along with their meaning. 

"You lived here with your father in the late 1600's. How are you still alive?"

"How are you still alive? That's the million dollar question isn't it?" He folded his hands into his lap, and looked at me, as if waiting for me to give him an answer.

I thought back to what I could remember. The fangs, the man biting me, drinking the bitter liquid.

"I died. You turned me into a vampire, didn't you?" I stared at him, anger welling up inside of me. Who was he just to go around turning people into vampires?

He looked at me solemnly. "I had to, you see killing you would have meant war with the humans. I couldn't risk that. It would mean we would never be free, hunted until the end of our existence."

"It wasn't your choice, was it?" I was angry beyond belief and I didn't really know why. I mean yes I was ticked off, but I felt ready to kill him over this.

He shrugged his shoulders, he seemed perfectly calm. Like I wasn't about ready to rip his stupid head off his shoulders.

"You'll learn to love it, eventually. Oh and I should mention. Until you learn to control your feeding habits. You won't be allowed to leave." With that he stood up, crossed the room with inhuman grace, and exited through a polished wood door, locking it behind himself.

 

I glared at the back of the door, then stood up and crossed the room. I put my hand on the doorknob, only to yank it back when a burning sensation went through the palm of my hand.

Snarling with anger, I punched the door, but even with my new-found strength I couldn't break that stupid door down, I remember how angry I had been. Things were different now, I could control my hunger, and I had learned to control my strength and other abilities as well.

***

(Present)

I leaned back against the tree branch, the light breeze ruffling the leaves and making my golden hair swirl around my face. I stared down at the woman I was watching. I hadn't seen her for two years.

Gray was streaked through her blond hair that was like mine, and sadness filled her green eyes. I wanted to cry, but of course I couldn't, I was dead, just as the woman below me feared. I knew who she was, I knew her like I knew myself. Mom.

I heard a noise behind me, and turned to see Max silently glide up to the base of the tree. His blue eyes looked up at me questioningly. Then he waved at me, telling me to come down. 

I sighed and stepped off the branch falling into space. I hit the ground, landing in a crouch. I stood up when my jacket had settled around me and I stood up, my vampire eyes focused on the man before me.

"I know you want to go back, but I don't think it's a good idea." Max said, he stared back towards where the mansion was set into the woods. He was worried about some of the other vampires. Jaxon had changed four more people in the last year alone. 

Max had turned me, saving me before Jaxon could kill me. I still hated Jaxon for it, he's just lucky I haven't had a chance to get my fangs on him.

"They don't know I'm still alive, they deserve to know, Max." 

"You aren't alive, Aria. What will you tell them when they ask you where you've been? You look different, you move different, you talk different, and you have a very different diet. You cannot go live with humans, not while you're a vampire." Max's blue eyes once again held that sad look they had when he told me that I was a vampire.

"I was kidnapped, but I don't remember anything. He kept me blindfolded, and he decided to let me go. What I do remember is just too painful to relive." Max's eyes narrowed at me, but I could tell he was going over it in his mind. 

I heard him sigh, and smiled at him, knowing he was going to let me go home. To my real home.

"Thank you!" I squealed, then I ran back to mansion, super aware that I was being followed. 

"I wasn't finished. You can go home, but Jaxon is going with you." My eyes narrowed at him, just the thought of Jaxon made me want to rip someone's head off, preferably Jaxon's.

"He's one of the oldest vampires and-"

"And he'll turn the whole school into an army of the undead." I interrupted him, anger probably visible coming off of me in waves.

He shrugged his shoulders. "He goes with you, or you don't go at all." My eyes narrowed again. He wanted Jaxon to go with me so I would back out. He was so wrong.

"Fine." I gave him a fake smile, and this time his eyes narrowed. He hadn't been expecting me to agree to his terms.

Two hours later, I was blindfolded, my hands bound, and being pushed roughly by Jaxon. He shoved me down a few times, causing scrapes and scratches to appear all over my body. Since I hadn't fed in a while, they weren't healing as fast as they usually did. But that was for the best.

We must have reached the edge of the forest because I heard Jaxon stop. He chuckled then said, "See you in school blondie." There was a whoosh, and a rustle of leaves, then Jaxon was gone.

I stepped out of the woods and kept walking. It was awkward, having my hands tied behind my back, and not able to see anything. I walked for a few more steps until I smelled the scent of humans. They gasped, and I heard the noises of them running towards me and one of them tugged off my blindfold while the other tried to undo the knots at my wrists.

"What's your name sweetie?" A woman with chocolate brown eyes asked me.

"Aria Loth."

(Two Years Before)

I was left in the room for at least a day before anyone came back. I hoped it wasn't Jaxon again because I wasn't sure that I could keep myself from strangling him this time.

But it wasn't him, it was the first man I had met, the one with the bright blue eyes.

He crossed the room gracefully and sat down next to me on the soft red velvet couch.

I regarded him warily, wondering what he was going to tell me this time.

It couldn't get any worse than it already was, I mean I'm already dead. Am I going to sprout wings too? Like the Angel of Death? The thought seemed unlikely, but I wasn't quite sure that it wasn't going to happen.

"How are you feeling?" His voice had changed from the last time I had heard it. It was falsely sweet, like venom.

"Just peachy." I plastered a fake smile on my face, then rolled my eyes. "Can I leave now?" I was beyond irritated by this point.

"No you cannot leave. You are unable to control you hunger. You may hunt a human, and start a war."

I snapped. I lunged for his throat, and felt a sharp sort of pain shoot through my mouth. He just stared at me and stood there, until half a second until I would have touched him, he snapped out his hand and I fell backwards and landed hard on my back.

I felt my breath leave my lungs and I gasped for the air I no longer needed.

He stood over me, his bright eyes glinting darkly with anger and annoyance. "You dare oppose me, you will not win. Learn to respect me. You will leave when I deem you ready to leave." With that he left, his muscular body moving gracefully towards the door.

***

(Present)

The young couple had taken me to the hospital where they had put band-aids on my scratches. They had taken some blood and called my parents and the police.

The police had tried to talk to me, but I told them what I had told Max I would, that it was too painful to talk about. They left me alone but I could tell they weren't done trying to get it out of me. I had been missing for two years, and I had just shown up, basically unharmed. As far as they could tell.

But wait until they got my blood-work back from the lab. It was bound to raise questions for sure.

Max was going to kill me if I brought too much attention to myself. If they asked questions, then the stake was already in my heart.

I waited in the hospital waiting room until my parents came to pick me up.

When they came through the doors into the room, tears began to fall from Mom's brilliant green eyes. She hugged me tightly and if I were human she would have squeezed the air from lungs. But I wasn't human, not anymore. Jaxon had taken that away from me.

When she let go she brushed my hair back from my face. "I never thought I was going to see you alive again." Well Mom, I'm not. Fresh tears fell from my eyes and I knew I had made a mistake coming here. I couldn't cry, and any normal person would have been bawling their eyes out by now.

I wasn't alive I was dead, and there wasn't anything anybody could do to change that fact. Here my parents were staring at me, thinking I'm alive when I'm actually dead.

After this touching little scene, they put me in the car and drove back towards the home that I never thought I would see again.

***

(Two Years Before)

The sound of the lock clicking back into place made me want to scream. They couldn't do this could they? This was kidnapping or at least vampire-napping. 

I hissed in frustration and ran a hand through my messy golden blond hair. I sat down angrily on the soft red velvet of the couch. I lay down and shut my eyes and tried once again to sleep.

After about an hour I heard the lock click open, and the door began to creak open.

"I know you aren't asleep. You aren't able to sleep anymore." The voice was like melted honey and yet I hated it so much.

I opened my eyes and saw the handsome face of Jaxon. I wanted to hurl.

"What do you want?" I was irritated and I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. 

"Aw is the little vampire getting a headache?" His voice was mocking and high-pitched. I wanted to chuck him through the nearest wall.

I felt the sharp pain in my mouth again and Jaxon laughed at me.

"Look, the little vamp got her fangs." His voice was sarcastic and attractive and I hated myself for thinking that. He let his own slid out and bared them at me.

I hissed at him, and bared my newfound fangs right back at him. "Back off."

"You may be a threat to me one day, but not right now. Max sent me to take you on your first hunting trip. So get it in gear, cause I am leaving, with or without you." He left, the door standing wide open behind him.

Feeling free for the first time in the longest two days of my life. I ran for the door, and not once did I look back.