Response to Last Week's Story Prompt

I just checked our e-mail, and it turns out someone sent in a story based on last week's prompt. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet and it was a little light on the sci-fi for my taste, but it seemed like a very interesting story. Anyway, here it is:


“Imogene, it’s this way” called my father as he and my mother started towards the stairs that led to the Crawler bays.
I looked up form where I had been standing on the monorail platform staring out at the tundra and started to follow them. There were a lot of people on the monorail platform, but at 17 I was tall and skinny so I slipped through the crowed easily. By the time I got there my parents had already been swept up in the crowd. Part of me wanted to just turn around and disappear into the crowd myself, but instead I started walking down stairs towards the Crawler bays.
The crowed started to thin almost as soon as I started down the stairs, and by the time I reached the bay I was the only one in the stairwell. That just goes to show how many people are smart enough not to want to leave the Dome.
My mother came rushing over to me almost as soon as I had stepped out of the stairwell, “Where were you? We turned around and you were gone. I’m not surprised though. That’s what happens when you walk around with your head in the clouds. Your father was all set to go looking for you, but I told him…”
I though about trying to explain that the landscape outside the dome had distracted me, but after 17 years I had learned that the best thing to do was just let my mother keep going. If I tried to say anything it would just draw her attention to the fact that I had been distracted by… snow.
Instead I just stood there and looked around me. I spotted my father standing next to a big guy with long curly hair. Behind them dwarfing them set the one of the Crawlers. It was basically a large heavily insulated box like container on equally huge treads. I had read somewhere that the crawlers where designed to withstand the -100 degree temperatures that existed outside the Domes while maintaining about room temperature inside, but I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to bet my life on that claim. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to bet my life on machine gun mounts that had been placed on each of the 10 crawlers, but I was slightly more confident in their ability to protect us from bandits than their ability to keep us from freezing to death.
“Imogene, are you listening to me?” asked my mother snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Yes, mother I was listening. I was just trying see where father was,” I replied covering for myself.
“He’s over there talking to Mr. Hogan. I honestly don’t know how you could miss your father given how tall he is,” said my mother as she started to lead the way over to where my father was standing. I reached down to pick up my duffle bag and my father’s anti-shay case from where I had set them, but when I reached for it the anti-shay case was gone.
I frantically started looking around desperately trying to see who had taken it. My father obviously didn’t have it, and my mother had given it to me to carry so she wouldn’t have taken it either. Then I saw it. A young man about my age had taken it and he was half was across the bay already.
“Excuse me, but that’s mine,” I said trying not to sound out of breath as I ran up to him.
“You’re only allowed one carry on,” he said as he looked me over.
“It’s my father’s. He asked me to carry it for him,” I replied stiffly.
“I thought you said it was yours,” he said with a sly smile.
Great, he was flirting with me, “Could I please have my case back. It’s very important.”
“Like I said one carry on only,” then with a wink he turned and started to walk away.
Without thinking I made a grab for it, but he was too fast for me.
“Hey,” he said pulling the case back, and holding it up high, “that wasn’t very nice.”
I knew I shouldn’t, but instead of listening to that part of myself I reached up and made a grab for the box. As his eyes followed that hand I struck out with the other hand punching him in the stomach. Before he could react I used the hand that had been reaching for the box to punch him in the face. As he started to stumble to the side he dropped his arm, and I reached out and grabbed the box from him. Then I took off through the little crowd that has started to gather around us.
“Imogene, where have you been?” scolded my mother as I suddenly arrived next to her.
“Sorry, mother I got all turned around,” I replied trying not to sound out of breath.
My mother started to reply but my father cut in, “Honey, maybe we should start settling in.”
She looked at him like he had two heads, but she nodded anyway, “Of course Mathew.”
With a wink in my direction my father took her arm and they headed towards the crawler. I picked up my bag, and still holding the case close I followed them on board.
Over the next hour I watched as Mr. and Mrs. Grayson, who were moving to Infinity to be closer to their grandchildren, Heather Ramon, who was a New Faith missionary, and Peter Cross, the driver, all came onboard.
The last person to come on board was the boy I had hit earlier. The Driver introduced him as Zane Ellis, our gunman, and when I glanced up at him from where I was sitting I noticed that despite the black eye he looked good. He was at least 6 feet with short dark brown hair and green eyes. His inso-suite was tight enough it confirmed my earlier guess that he was very… fit.
I tried to ignore him and go back to drawing pictures of the samples my father had shown me earlier in the week, but he was staring at me and it was distracting me. The Grayson’s came over and watched over my shoulder as I drew detailed pictures of mice from my memory. After a while my parents came over and started explained that my drawings showed how a new gene therapy they had developed to allow people to survive in the subzero temperatures that had existed on Earth for the past 200 years affected lab mice. I thought that he might come over then, but he just kept watching me. It made me uneasy having someone I’d punched an hour ago standing so close watching me, but I the only thing that I could think to do ignore him and keep drawing. In fact I spent the rest of the day drawing different colored mice, and to the best of my knowledge he spent the rest of the day icing his eye and pretending not to watch me.
It was the middle of the night, and I was lying in the snow dressed in my inso-suite when I heard a door swing shut.
“You aren’t supposed to be out here.” Zane said from somewhere above me.
“I know. I just needed a second,” I said trying not to sound startled as tucked my sketch pad back inside my coat and started to climb to my feet.
“If you knew then why’d you do it?” he asked suddenly surprising me.
“What?”
“If you knew you weren’t supposed to then why did you come outside?” he clarified.
I knew how this would sound, but looked him in the eye and said it anyway, “To draw.”
“What?” he sounded even more surprised than I’d thought he would.
“I’ve never been outside of Serenity Dome before, and I wanted to draw what the sky really looks like,” I replied as I started to turn back.
“Hey,” he said surprising me again.
“What?” I said over my shoulder, not bothering to turn this time.
“Come on,” he said grabbing my hand and leading me over to the side of the Crawler.
He motioned for me to follow him as he started climbing up a latter that was fastened to the side of the Crawler. I hesitated for a second, but in the end I zipped my sketch pad inside my coat and followed him up.
He was waiting for me when I got to the top, and he reached out to help me over the low railing. I ignored his hand and climbed over myself. When I glanced up at him again he was smiling.
“You just won’t cut a guy a break. Will you?” he asked me seriously
I walked past him and set down with my back against the gun turret. It felt nice to be outside breathing fresh air, even if it was through an air filter mask.
Zane was still standing next to the railing staring at me. I patted the deck next to me with my gloved hand, “Consider this your break. I suggest you use it wisely.”
He smiled and set down next to me. He started to rap his arm around me, but something made him stop. Without a word I leaned over enough for him to put his arm around me. Then as he rapped his arm around me I leaned into him.
He looked at me surprised, and I whispered, “It’s easier to draw when I’m warmer.”
I was defiantly not warm a half hour later we when stumbled back into the Crawler. My fingers were so cold that I had couldn’t unfasten the hood from my inso-suite, but I’d never been happier.
Zane looked at me, shook his head, and reached out to help me with my gear. I thought about stopping him, but for some reason I let him. I think it was because I knew that if I said no he would back off, and honestly I didn’t want him too.
As he helped me undo my hood he leaned in close, and for a second my breath caught. I barely knew him, but still the thought of kissing him made me almost as happy as being outside had. I started to lean in, but then suddenly he eased my hood over my head and the moment was over.
The next morning I was sitting in the galley drawing, you guessed it, more mice when Zane slid into the seat across from me.
“Hey,” I said after a few seconds of waiting for him to say something.
“You drew this?” he asked as he put a drawing on the table between us.
I pulled the picture closer and looked at it. It was the one I had drawn last night after we had come back inside. It was of the two of us sitting curled up against the gun turret, “yes.”
“Why?” he asked as he reached out and took the picture back.
“I felt like I should do something to say thank you,” I replied even as I wondered if that really was why I had done it. At the time I hadn’t really thought about it, so yeah that probably wasn’t it.
“You drew it to say thank you?” he asked as he looked at me.
“Yeah, for letting me stay outside. Why did you think I drew it?” I said staring back at him still wondering the same thing myself.
“I don’t know. That’s why I was asking you,” he said as he leaned closer. I don’t know why, but I started to lean in as well.
Then as he took my hand there was a loud boom. A second later the Crawler started to sway, and I could hear things hitting the roof.
Zane was on his feet in an instant, and heading for the cockpit.
I got up and started to follow him, but my mother’s panicked voice stopped me, “What happened what’s going on?”
I turned to see her standing in the doorway to the sleeping area. Heather was standing behind her looking frantic. I stood there frozen for e second. I wanted to find out what happened, but my mother needed me to stay here.
In the end I moved over to her and rapped my arms around her, “its okay mom. Zane went to see what happened. He’ll be back in a minute to let us know.”
As if on cue I heard a all of the people in the room behind me start talking at once as Zane came in.
“Everything’s alright. Something happened to the lead Crawler. Hogan’s sending a team up there now to see what happened,” he said to the small crowd, and I let go of my mother as I turned to look at him, “we should be…”
But he never finished. Instead he was just standing there staring at my mother. I turned and looked at her. Heather had a gun pressed to the side of my mother’s head.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” She said sweetly, and then to me she added, “Honey, if I were you I’d start to back away very slowly.”
I heard the words, but it just didn’t register, and for what felt like the longest time I just stood there. Then a noise to my left snapped me out of it, and just as Heather cocked the gun I threw out my arm. I caught my dad square in the stomach and he doubled over.
“Nice,” complimented Hearther, “Now, one more time. BACK UP!”
Then from outside a man’s voice ordered, “Out of the Crawlers, now!”
“Alright,” said Heather as she pushed my mother towards us and started motioning for us to pull on our gear, “Not that this hasn’t been… interesting, but you heard the man.”
In the books this would be where the heroes would overpower the bad gun an escape in the nick of time, but I doubted that that was going to happen here. With that scenario out of the way I wasn’t sure what exactly would happen instead, so I just did what everyone else was doing and stood there staring at Heather. That is until Zane nudged me and shoved my inso-mask into my hands.
I pulled the mask on and reached for my parka. As I pulled on my gloves Zane opened the door and stepped out. Instead of moving out of the way he stood in the doorway and reached out his hand to help me down. It might have seemed romantic if I hadn’t already realized that he was trying to block the bandit’s line of fire. Oh well, I guess that’s still kind of romantic.
When we were all standing in the snow a man with a very large gun ordered us to put our hands behind our heads. Then he and Heather started herding us over to where the passengers from the other crawlers were standing.
“Alright,” barked a man who appeared to be in charge once we were all lined up, “I’m going to keep this simple. The nice people with the guns are going to come around and tie your hands, and if anyone makes a move your former passengers will shoot you.”
As they moved down the line towards us I stood as still as I could. My father reached out and took my hand, but I just kept staring off into the distance. Even without looking at Zane I could tell that he was watching me trying to figure out if I was okay.
They reached Zane first, and one of the bandits reached up and pulled Zane’s hand down to start tying his wrist. As he did that Zane swung his other hand down under the bandit’s arms and sucker punched him in the gut. The man doubled over and Zane grabbed the man’s head as he drove his knee up into the man’s face.
Zane started to run away from the line and towards the line of Crawlers. For a second I hesitated, but then my father let go of my hand. Before I could think about it I took off after Zane. I heard something, and I knew they were shooting at us. But I kept running.
Then, suddenly with an oof noise stopped I knew that my father had tackled the person who had tried to stop me, and I knew what would happen next. I started to turn back, but Zane had grabbed my wrist and wouldn’t let me. From behind me I heard the shot. My mother screamed, and then there was another shot, then nothing.
I knew that they were dead, but this time I didn’t even try to stop. I didn’t even slow down. We ran past the Crawlers and into the gathering darkness, and this time no one tried to follow us. Why would they?
Even though no one was chasing us we didn’t stop running until our lungs were about to explode, and there were ice crystals forming on our air filters. I collapsed in a snow bank breathing heavily. Zane tried to pull me up, but I wouldn’t budge. I could already feel the cold seeping in through my inso-suit, but at this point I really didn’t care anymore.
“Hey,” begged Zane as he pulled at my arm, “Infinity is just through this pass, but we’ve got to keep moving.”
I looked up at him and thought about getting back up again, but he beat me to the punch as he sank down next to me in the snow.
This wasn’t going to work. I had looked at the maps before we had left Serenity, and if we were where I thought we were there was no way we were going to be able to walk to Infinity before our suites gave out and we froze to death.
For the first time since he had put it there I looked down at the full syringe my father had slipped in my hand while we were standing in line. So, what do you chose: freeze to death or inject yourself with an experimental gene therapy that was designed to alter a person’s genetics so that they could survive in subzero temperatures. Not a choice that I had imagined having to make.
I pulled back my air filter, and then I reached out and pulled back Zane’s as well.
“What are you doing,” asked Zane as he turned his head to look at me. Instead of answering I leaned over and kissed him. It was a strange kiss. The air was so cold that without my air filter to warm it it burned my throat, but at the same time I felt warm all over. As we kissed Zane started to relax easing us both back into the snow bank. When he was lying back I pulled away a little, and I drove the needle through his inso-suite and into his arm. He gasped and looked up at me shocked as I shot half of the serum into his arm. As the serum entered his blood stream he started to relax even more, and then he closed his eyes.
I took a deep breath and before I could talk myself out of it I drove the needle into my own arm. For a second I felt very tired, and then everything went black
When I woke up I was laying in a bed, and Zane was standing over me. At least I thought it was Zane, but he looked different. He had snow white skin and hair. The only thing that was the same was his eyes, but they were defiantly Zane’s eyes.
“Hey,” he said quietly when I opened my eyes.
I started to ask him what was going on, but I didn’t get a chance. As I watched he reached over and picked up a mirror from the bedside table, and handed it to me. I hesitated for a second, but then I looked down at it.
I looked so different. My hair was snow white, and all of the color had left my skin. Just like Zane the only thing that had remained the same was my eyes, but now they looked so sad.
I looked over at Zane who had set down on the bed next to me. Then I looked back at the mirror. I reached out and touched it with a finger hoping that the image would change. Instead a coating of frost spread across its surface obscuring my face from sight. Then the mirror cracked.

Response to Last Week's Story Prompt

Last night just under the wire someone sent in a story based on last week's prompt, and here it is.

I could here the voices through the walls.
“Excuse me sir, this area is off limits,” said a voice I didn’t recognize.
“My name is Shane Donovan. I’m here to pick up my baggage,” I heard Shane inform the man congenially, “I was told that my name would be on list of some kind.”
I could hear pages being flipped and then the man exclaimed, “Yep, Shane Donovan,” and as the man continued I could here that they were starting to move closer, “Delta Airlines Dallas, Texas to Buffalo, New York. Four checked bags. Lets see, they should be somewhere over here…”
When the man stopped speaking they were almost on top of me. It had been a long trip and I was hungry, and as I pulled in a deep breath I realized just how good they smelled.
The next thing that I heard was the man’s startled exclamation, “They’re coffins,”
“Yes,” replied Shane sounding taken aback, and then more self assured, “It was my mother’s last wish that she be buried with her family in New York,”
“Oh,” said the man apologetically but obviously still shaken, and then after a second, “but there are four of them,”
“There was a car accident. Her three brothers were with her at the time,” replied Shane sounding legitimately sad. I assume it was because that was actually how his mother had died.
“Oh, I’m sor-” but then the man abruptly stopped speaking. I could hear a rattling noise coming from somewhere to my right, and the man’s surprised voice saying, “What the…”
Vladimir and Wladimir must be awake, and they sounded hungry. So was I, but if they didn’t get a grip things would get very messy very quickly.
“I’d like to leave as soon as possible. Is there any paper work…” said Shane, and I could tell that he was desperately trying to get the man away from us.
“What the hell is in there?” demanded the man, and by now he was almost on top of us.
“The change in temperature must have warped the wood,” but Shane didn’t get to finish his excuse because at that moment I heard Vladimir and Wladimir tare through the lids of their coffins.
Vlad and Wlad should have had more control, but they were hungry so I could hardly blame them. As the smell of fresh blood permiated the coffin walls I wished more than anything to join them. But I had missed my chance. The kill hadn’t been mine, and anything I did would just seem like a threat.
Having resolved to wait until they had had their fill before I joined them I relaxed back into the padded interior of the coffin. But then I heard a crash, and I could smell Shane’s blood in the air.
I shoved my open hands upward, and they hit the lid with enough force to send it flying. Then I stood up taking in my surroundings. Vlad had the worker pinned to the ground, but Wlad had moved on to Shane.
Wlad reared back, his fangs running out and dove for Shane, but I was faster. Ignoring Vlad and the worker I crossed the 20 feet between us in an instant and rapped my arms around Shane putting myself between him and Wladimir.
That didn’t stop him. His fangs dug deep into my shoulder. I let go of Shane and drove my elbow into Wlad’s stomach as hard as I could. Then I pivoted to my right, catching Wlad off guard, and wrenched my shoulder from his grip.
He recovered in an instant and dove for me. Just as he was about to hit me I dropped down into a crouch, and he just about flew over my head. As he went I rolled back onto my back and kicked out with my legs. They struck him in the chest causing to go sailing up and over my head.
As he landed with a crash behind me I was already on my feet and moving towards him. I stooped and grabbed him by the neck dragging him to his feet. I snarled deep down in my throat, my fangs running out. Then I tossed him aside and moved off to check the fourth coffin.
Still intact. I gingerly tested the locks. Still tight. Thank God. Henri would have finished the job he started 400 years ago if anything had happened to it.
By the time I finished testing the locks Vlad and Wlad had gotten up off of the floor and I could feel them standing behind me.
Instead of looking at them I turned to Shane, “You got a car?”
“Yes,” he said still trying to shake off his surprise, “It’s, uh, it’s over there.”
I followed his gaze and saw a double cab pickup sitting just inside the hanger.
“Put it in the truck. It’s time to leave,” I said as I started walking towards the truck.
They nodded without a word and picked up the coffin as easily as if it were made of cardboard. Heads still bowed they carried it towards the van.
Phillip’s house was on the outskirts of a small town lying just off of the highway. The house was a beautiful modern mansion. As we drove up the driveway lights blazed from every window. Not the sort of place you’d expect to find a clan of vampires.
As we pulled up in the truck a servant came out and opened the door for me. As he moved to help me down I could hear his heart racing. He loved being this close to us. It excited him. It disgusted me. It was such a human response so… weak, and worst of all it reminded me of my own human life.
The man didn’t move to help as Shane came around the truck to stand next to me, but he stared as Vlad and Wlad went around the back to get the coffin. I watched him watching them. They fascinated him, and for that I couldn’t blame him. Henri had turned the brothers in their prime, and even after a hundred fifty years they were still every inch the Russian soldiers they had been the day they died. That was part of the reason that they worked with me. I was the only one other than Henri who was strong enough to handle them.
As Vlad and Wlad came to stand next to me I snapped out of it. Without another glance at the servant I turned and led the way to the front door. Shane walked at my right hand taking care to stay a few steps behind me. Vlad and Wlad followed carrying the coffin.
I didn’t break my stride as I reached the large front doors. Right on cue they open just as I had known they would. Death is a very strong incentive for high job performance.
The servant led us through the foyer and then through another set of doors into the great room. The room was full of vampires, and there were bodies littering the floor. We had just missed dinner.
One vampire in particular caught my eye. His name was Phillip, and he was my maker Henri’s brother. After Henri made me the three of us had traveled together for a time, but Phillip was reckless and blood thirsty. Finally, 300 years ago after a particularly blood incident in a village in France Henri decided that it was time for us to leave Phillip's company. After we had parted Phillip had made his was to the new world and founded a clan of his own here in New England.
Without even a hint of surprise at our unexpected appearance Phillip rose from his place on one of the room’s many couches and came to greet us, “Aurora, I did not expect you so soon.”
“Henri wished us to come as quickly as possible… so we flew” I said as we embraced.
At that a murmur ran through the crowd, and even Phillip looked taken aback. Vampires don’t fly, ever.
“We would have returned your emissary while we were here, but he refused to accompany us,” supplied Vlad in thickly accented English as he reached out to grip Phillip’s arm.
“I think he preferred to stay in Texas until he knew it was safe,” added Wladimir, and although it sounded like a statement everyone in the room knew it was an insult. Some Phillip’s newer vampires even started to show their fangs.
“He wished to accompany us, but if he had it would have been even more difficult to bring you this,” I said, forcing myself to keep my fangs in, as I motioned to the coffin.
With that Vlad and Wlad gently set it on the ground. I moved to the front of the coffin and started undoing the locks. As Vlad and Wlad moved to lift the lid Phillip moved in closer, like a child watching a present being opened. Even the crowd seemed to lean in a little.
I nodded to the brothers, and they pulled the lid back to reveal the man lying in side. Vlad reached into the coffin and removed the mask that had enabled the man to breath while in the coffin, and Wlad dragged the man upright.
Once standing it was easy to see that man had been something of a misstatement. He looked about 17, the same age I had been when Henri turned me. Even though we had been as gentle as possible when we captured him hunters are never easy to take, and the way he stood showed that we had obviously done more damage than intended.
The most impressive thing was that even though he reeked of fear everyone in the room recoiled from him.
Phillip motioned for two of his own guards to come forward and take the boy. As the guards took him all of the vampires in the room broke out in applause.
Under the cover of the noise Phillip said in a voice so soft that it was barely more than a breath, “Thank you, Aurora.”
“Of course, Henri said to tell you that anything his brother asks is our honor to provide,” I breathed, but then I noticed that the guards were taking the boy out of the room, “You’re not going to kill him.”
“I will, eventually,” replied Phillip still smiling, “but first I want to have a little fun, and when I get board then I’ll kill him, maybe.”
“Henri only agreed to help you because you told him you wanted to execute the Hunter for his crimes.”
“Well I tell Henri a lot of things that I don’t mean,” he breathed and before I could object he added, in a much louder voice, “I’m sure you want to freshen up and feed. Jerrod will take you to your room.”
The man who had opened the door for me, Jerrod I assume, had just appeared at Phillips elbow, so I smiled and replied, “thank you for your consideration. It was a long trip and we are quite hungry.”
As we followed Jerrod upstairs the sent of the air around us changed. I inhaled deeply savoring it. By the time we reached the sweet it was so thick that I could almost taste it, blood. But not just any blood. This was the blood of someone fearing for their life. The fear was making their heart pound and increasing the oxygen content in the blood, and the more oxygen there was in the blood the sweeter it tasted. Blood like that represented everything we lived for: the chase, the hunt, the kill. The feeling of pushing someone to the brink, letting them think they’d escaped, and then out of nowhere you appear.
As Jerrod pushed open the door I could see three people lying on the floor of the room bound and gagged. As they caught sight of us the whites were completely visible around their pupils and their hearts raced, and it took everything I had not to lung through the doorway. To their credit this time Vlad and Wlad also stood their ground behind me, but I could tell that it was taking everything they had to stay in place.
“Go,” I said, and I wanted more than anything to follow them through the door. Instead I closed the door and turned to Shane, “You should be hungry.”
“I am,” he replied carful not to get too close to me, and I realized that I was showing more than a little fang.
“You will take him to get something to eat,” I told Jerrod.
I could tell that he was hoping that he would get to stay and watch, but I had given him an order and unlike Shane he had no choice but to obey me, “Of course.”
As they turned to leave I thought again and called them back, “Jerrod, in 10 minutes send up six more.”
Vlad, Wlad and Shane were all still eating, but I had already finished and gotten cleaned up. Now I was trying to find Phillip. After Henri had made me we had traveled with Phillip for a time, and even after all these centuries I could easily separate Phillip’s familiar scent from all of the alien ones.
When I found Phillip’s rooms I paused at the door. I could smell two vampires. One was Phillip, and the other was unfamiliar. I exhaled all of the air in my lungs and stood their simply listening. I could hear the hunter’s heartbeat; it was racing but still strong. Every few seconds I heard a wet thunk, and he’d make an almost inaudible noise. I focused harder, and the next time the object hit I could hear the tones spread out and separate. There was a quick snap and then the thunk was spread out: a whip. I didn’t hear a body fall, so the hunter would have to be suspended.
Having gathered as much information as I could I straightened. Now was as good a time as any to pay Phillip visit.
I didn’t bother knocking. I simply turned the door knob until the lock broke, and then I walked into the room.
As I entered the second man whirled and lashed out with the whip. It would have struck me in the face if I hadn’t raised my arm in time to block it. Instead it rapped around my wrist like a snake. I grabbed it giving it a sharp tug, and it came right out of it’s owner’s hands.
I whirled as Phillip, who was sitting on the bed starting laughing, “You always did know how to take my breath away.”
“I know,” I replied as I tossed the whip in a corner, “Dinner bored me, so I thought that I drop by and see how things were going.”
The second vampire interrupted us, “Sir?”
“I thought you didn’t approve of torture,” questioned Phillip ignoring the other man.
“I don’t approve of lying to Henri,” I replied as I walked up behind the hunter, “there’s a difference.”
I slid one arm around the hunter’s waist as I propped the other on his shoulders. He smelled so good, even better than dinner. I moved in as close to him as I could, and inhaled deeply. His whole body went stiff as I leaned in even further and ran my tongue along his skin.
The hunter’s blood tasted even better than is smelled. Hunters believed in living pure lives, so unlike dinner this blood was untainted and pure. The taste made me want more. I wanted to drain him. But that wasn’t the point, so I made myself let go and move around in front of him.
I ran a finger around my lips, and it came away bloody. Then I ran the finger along his cheek as I asked, “Want a taste?”
His heart was pounding, and the fear came off of him in waves. He was fighting to keep it all in check, but I could still smell it. But he still kept his mouth closed and looked me straight in the eyes.
“Too bad,” I said as I leaned forward and licked the blood off his cheek, “Your blood tastes amazing.”
I turned to look at Philip, who was sitting perfectly still watching us, “The question you should really be asking yourself is would you rather watch what I’m going to do to him or have him watch what I’m going to do to you?”
“I thought you preferred Henri,” said Phillip not answering the question.
“It’s been 300 years. Maybe I changed my mind,” I said as I let go of the hunter and moved to stand in front of Phillip.
“Sir,” asked the other vampire again. Maybe he had been asking it all along, but neither of us had been paying attention.
“Leave,” Phillip ordered the other vampire. Looks like I had my answer.
Once he left I moved so that I was straddling Phillips legs. Then I climbed onto the bed, so that I was almost sitting on his lap. He reached out and took my wrist, the one that I had used to stop the whip. He kissed the bloody tracks, and then as he glanced up at me he bit through the skin and into the vein, a vampire’s kiss.
For us it is the most personal thing you can do with another. Blood gives us life, and for one vampire to share blood with another vampire is the ultimate show of devotion and of… love. For an instant two bodies become as one.
As his fangs dug in my senses stretched, telescoping. All of my senses became more acute. I could hear everything, feel everything, see everything. It felt as though I could break an I-beam in two. I wanted to do everything at once, but all I could do was throw my head back, letting my fangs run out, as Phillip's memories flashed through my mind.
When his fangs retracted I shoved Phillip backwards onto the bed. I reached up and pulled off my top. As it came off I tossed it out of the way and leaned over him. Then in one swift movement I drove the silver stake that I had hidden in the band of my jeans into his heart.
I shoved it in as far as I could and twisted, “Henri said to tell you that you shouldn’t have underestimated him.”
Then I rolled off of him and stood up. I walked over to the bed side table, and pulled a key out of drawer. The same place Henri would have kept it, brothers.
“You might want to leave now,” I said to the hunter as I reached up and unlocked the cuffs, “Phillip’s clan won’t be too pleased that you just killed their master.”
“You planned this?” asked the hunter stunned as he rubbed his wrists.
“No,” I said as I started to walk towards the door.
“Then why?”
I paused, and looked back at him, “Phillip was becoming a problem. I took care of it.”
I started to turn back towards the door, but I turned back. I had almost forgotten something important.
“Do me a favor,” I said as I tossed a pack of matches at the hunter. A silver stake was almost always fatal for a vampire, but I couldn’t take any chances, and neither could the hunter. As he caught them I grabbed my shirt off the bed and walked out of the room trusting that he’d know what to do next.