Chapter One: Agony

“With the cataclysm raining down,

Insides crying 'Save me now',

You were there, impossibly alone.”

~Iridescent, Linkin Park

The Arcane Archers did it again, Andromeda thought as she expertly shot an arrow at an archer clad in red. In the corner of her eye, she could see Raze, her fourteen-year-old best friend (actually, a hundred and forty-five in human years), fighting off the bowmen clad in red in hand-to-hand combat. They were no match for Raze's swordplay, I mean, Raze was an expert in swordplay, after all. He just knew his weapons very well.

But they just kept coming back. They were the Arcane Archers, after all. They were a rebel group of vampires that the officials wanted to bring down. They were criminals, and there was a bounty on their heads for a never-ending supply of gold bars and ingots.

As she fought them off with archery skills of her own, she could only ignore the voice in her head that reminded her that she used to admire these bowmen clad in red. She still refused to believe that her village was burning, and it was their fault with their fancy flaming arrows and all.

She shook her head and fired another arrow at an enemy archer's chest. The Arcane Archers, all clad in red, took one last look at the village in flames, and retreated. She dropped her bow and fell to the ground, on her knees. She buried her head in her hands and began to cry, ignoring the wounds. Burning hot tears stung her pale cheeks. Vampires just weren't meant for tears, and she couldn't believe she was tearing up in the village square, where anyone could have seen her break down in tears.

“You're bleeding all over,” she looked up to see Raze looking down at her. He held his hand out, and she gratefully took it. “Come on,” he said, meeting her cold icy-blue eyes. “I'll take you to the infirmary before you die of blood loss.” he said jokingly, a small smile lighting up his face.

She didn't even budge. Usually, she'd be rolling on the floor laughing at that joke, but now was not the time. Her village was in flames, the Arcane Archers had attacked again and they only managed to kill off one-fifth of their group, and the wooden bow that her father had carved for her went up in flames.

“Andromeda, what's wrong?” he asked, the smile on his face fading away. He bit his lip, and she mentally groaned. Everyone knew that if Raze bit his lip, he would look at you with puppy dog eyes in less than two seconds, and you had no other choice but to explain yourself.

“My bow went up in flames,” Andromeda muttered. That wasn't a lie �" she was disappointed that her trusty bow had been shot off her hands by a flaming arrow and it burned like it was a piece of firewood. “I loved that bow, and you know, I felt like that thing was a part of me and all. It was the bow my dad gave me for my eighth birthday.” she added.

“Oh, I know that feeling. I lost a sword tonight in the hands of one of those guys, but hey, no sweat. I'll carve a bow for you tomorrow,” Raze said, trying to make her feel better. She smiled and thought, Gods d****t, Raze, what would I do without you? He was her best friend, and they've been friends since childhood.

Her head began to spin, and she stopped walking as the world began to blur. “D****t!” she cried out. She lost her balance and would have fallen facedown to the ground if Raze hadn't caught her.

“Whoa, be careful there,” he said, pulling out a vial of human blood from his pocket. “I figured that you'd need it tonight. You always have thirsts for human blood at night.” he said, uncorking the vial and giving it to her to drink. He watched her gulp down the blood. Her breathing slowed, and her heart beat faster.

“Thanks, Raze,” she muttered. He took her hand in his and squeezed it, and her cheeks turned a light shade of red. Okay, she may or may not have a bit of a slight crush on him… Oh, who was she kidding. Yes, she liked Raze a lot. She had a huge crush on him from the day that she met him �" the day he moved from Greece and became her neighbor �" and she wasn't so sure if he was well aware of that. He was a bit daft and clueless at times (despite him being the star student in Zarra's Academy.)

Before she knew it, they were in the infirmary, and she was disappointed when he let go of her hand. “I'll be right back to get a few dozen bandages and some ice. D****t, you need to tend the wounds. Don't worry about it, I'll take you home.” he started to go through cabinets and drawers, and took out a bunch of clean bandages from who-knows-where. He ordered her to stay still and wrapped the bandages around the wounds of her left arm and muttered incantations under his breath.

Her wounds started to feel much better, and she looked at him in awe. “Where did you learn how to do that?” she said, flexing out her left arm and wincing slightly in agony. She shouldn't have done that. “You never said something about learning healing magic before.”

“Healing magic was really important back in Greece,” he shrugged. “I studied under a few witches when I was a kid. I'm not expert, but by the looks of it, you need to go to Chrysos to heal the wounds. Your left arm was almost burnt off, you know?”

“I-I don't know,” Andromeda sighed. “I'm tired, I'm bloody, I'm sleepy, and the Arcane Archers are bound to come back soon. I need to fight �" it's what I owe this village much. These guys need our help. These guys need my help and �"”

“Andromeda,” Raze said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Sleep. For me. So the Arcane Archers might attack any minute, but you need as much rest as you can get. We've done our part, and the rest of the villagers are doing theirs by rebuilding half the village. They need us to rest.” he pulled her over to a bed with white linen sheets nearby and gently pushed her to it.

She looked up at him with uncertain blue eyes, but she gave in and lay down on the bed. She pulled the blankets over her, and he was the last face she saw before the world went black as soon as her head touched the pillow.

Raze smiled at her as soon as he heard her light snores and lightly kissed her forehead. Sighing, he muttered. “Take a good rest, Andromeda,” he looked at the sight of the half-burnt village outside the infirmary. “You're going to need it soon.”

Author's Note

Hello, thanks for reading this story! I'm looking for ways to improve the story, so if you can kindly give me constructive criticism, that would be excellent! So, stay tuned, my readers! You all are awesome!

Reviews

[Jamal]

I think Andromeda and Raze could use some more descriptions. I mean they're vampires and all but atleast we'd like to have an image in our heads as to what they look like. The Arcane Vampires, what makes them Arcane? how do they differ greatly from other vampires? The description you gave of them just clad in "red" was pretty vague.That's all I got for now