To kill a vampire

By Jamie-Lee Reed

Prologue

Ava Daniels back flipped on to the stone casket. The light of the full moon filled the area around her. Looking out of hazel brown eyes, she could see the miles of cemetery that surrounded them. The piles of earth, which had been ripped apart by the undead trying to roam the land, lay underneath the faded gravestones like innocent mole hills. Nobody would know that they had been the door between the underworld and our planet.

The church spire Climbed as high as the clouds, shadowed by the tall pine tree that grew behind it; yet in the distance the recently built white memoriam glistened like a piece of heaven. Flowers were carefully placed on loved ones resting spots; she could even see the black coal gate that hung over the entrance to the graveyard. This scary, uncomfortable place, was so familiar to Ava now, it was like a second home. She took a moment of thought to look up at the stars and take in their beauty as they played their continuous games as children did, they were so meaningless but they meant so much to Ava, another world she could always escape to, a place that would take her away from all of this drama, the drama she knew nothing about only 6 months ago.

Suddenly time seemed to slow down so seconds lasted for minutes. Ava's golden hair was blowing furiously as the wind continued to howl. She looked to her left to see her best friend Crystal fighting the ocean blue harpy.

The harpy's weren't the best looking creatures, part bat, part women was never a good combination. Their mouths were snouts snarling and grinning to show the fang like nashers that spread against the jaw line. Their eyes were only two slits on the each side of their face but when fully opened a pit of darkness was all that could be seen. They had wide bony wings, which looked so weak they would tear at the slightest touch but when fully wrapped around the harpy's body they acted like a sheet of steel. With claws as long as daggers and no record of there ever being a harpy attack before the trio thought them to be virtually invincible.

Crystal's blood red hair was also blowing with the wind as if fighting with its self. Crystal kept throwing blows to harpy trying to do the most damage but its wings were around its face acting like armor.

Crystals newly bought glovlets were torn to pieces as she scratched at the harpies cocoon like outer casing. Her hands were a painted glossy red with blood but still she carried on fighting.

She jumped backwards to get a moments piece when suddenly the moonlight filled her chocolate brown eyes as a smug grin spread across her face. The harpy looked up. Crystal ripped open her leather waistcoat to reveal several small bottles. The harpy sank as it realized what the vials contained. She tried to fly away but crystal chucked them, two at a time towards the harpies back. When the glass would hit the harpy, boils seems to rise on the skin. When Ava had opened her eyes she saw the pile of stringy blue mess on the floor and Crystal smirking right next to it.

Next Ava turned to her right to see her boyfriend Luke battling with the bogey green harpy. His once gorgeous curly blonde hair was now a stringy green thanks to the blood of the creature. He tried with all his might slashing at the monster but it just wouldn't seem to die. Crystal came running across the grass to try and help him but the harpy just knocked her to the floor. This made Luke mad.

"Nobody hurts my friends!" He screamed as he pushed the harpy backwards. The moon showed his crystal blue eyes flash red as he filled with anger. Seconds later he had pulled a small yet powerful handgun out of his backpack and the green harpy just lay there, two bullet holes paired together above the heart.

Finally Ava span to face the final harpy. Ava stood, paralyzed, as the fiery red harpy came raging towards her. What was wrong with her she had done this many times before? She closed her eyes hoping for the best but nothing happened. When she re –opened her eyes Ava saw the harpy had gone, her friends had gone, everything that was there had gone.

Chapter one

6 months ago

The once moonlit cemetery was now a black and white library. Her school library. Suddenly a voice came from above.

"Ah … here it is."

Ava looked up to see her mentor Alexis Jones, why was she getting a book the normal way? She usually uses magic. Ava's body was moved to sit at the first desk on the right. Her body was being moved for her; she couldn't control her movement, or say a single word.

Alexis made her way back down the stairs; this was like déjà vu, like re-playing a memory but actually being there.

The scene started to fill with colour as Alexis moved closer to Ava. Her toned calves were put one straight in front of the other. Ava remembered Alexis saying her skirt was too tight but it was for fashion. Ava continued to scan Alexis's body, was this a trick? How could any one of known about this day, only she and Alexis were there then. The day she found out she was a slayer. That day happened almost six months ago.

Alexis sat down in front of her, the memory hadn't changed. Her mousy brown hair was sleeked back into a bun with a simple pin through it, her hazel eyes looked through her rectangle glasses that hung on the end of her nose.

Alexis slid the moldy brown book in front of Ava. "This will help you to understand." She explained "Being a slayer is very important …"

"Are you crazy? There is no such thing as vampires and demons." Ava rudely interrupted. How she wished she didn't say that now.

"I know it's a lot to take in but it's in your destiny, your fate was chosen for you many years before you were born, it's time for you to live up to that fate." she gently smiled then continued. "This symbol on the back of this book is the symbol for all slayers everywhere, I still don't know what it means but ill research it when I have time, anyway that isn't important right now what is important is you." The symbol she pointed to was the shape of a dagger inside of a crescent moon. Ava just sat there cross armed raising her eyebrows. Present Ava tried to stop herself but it was like she was trapped inside of … her self.

"If you still don't believe me after reading this book come to the cemetery tonight, we are going to do some patrolling." Alexis gazed down at Ava through harsh intense eyes and Ava could feel herself squirming in the chair.

"Fine whatever I'll come to your 'patrolling' thing but I still won't believe you." Ava popped her gum, grabbed her book and waltzed her way out to the door.

The memory faded and re-appeared again, this time she was back in the cemetery but it was still six months ago. The crisp cold night pierced Ava's lungs as she breathed in, typical for it to be cold in June! A thick fog was gliding through the air like a white blanket. She remembered it all like it was yesterday. Her body began to move towards the noise, when Ava was closer the moonlight revealed a group of students from her school and her librarian, Alexis.

"Ava im so glad you came…" Alexis gleamed at the new comer with pearly white teeth and opened her arm as an invitation but quickly pulled them back and pointed to the other people around. "This is Luke, Crystal, and Victor, Victor's leaving in the autumn so it will just be us four after then," Alexis pointed to each member of the 'gang' and there stood the people she all knew and loved today, of course the black haired, brown eyed boy, also known as Victor, wasn't around today. He died on his final day with the group maybe that's what she meant by 'he's leaving us'. But everyone else looked exactly the same, Alexis wore the same outfit from earlier that day, of course she was always the one to fight in heels, never to be without her Gucci she would say. Ava tried it once and ended up nearly getting killed so she thought Biker boots would be best from then on.

Crystal wore a giant tutu, Black of course, but with a bright neon green underskirt with matching colour laces in her gothic looking corset. At that moment she emanated a sort of glow that always made Ava curious, soon she would find out that Crystal practiced magic, as well as Alexis, and she was currently practicing a close protection spell to keep all heat in and all cold out. Crystal was a curious being, she loved big hair and big clothes, total opposites from each other her and Ava would soon become great friends.

Then there was Luke, oh she had fallen for him quickly, his blonde curly hair and shiny blue eyes gave him a young innocent look that Ava loved. At this moment he only wore jeans and button down shirt, obviously stealing heat From Crystal as the glow transferred over to him too.

Ava began to speak abruptly.

"Yeh yeh whatever lets get on with it im bloody freezing out here." Before Crystal had a chance to share her magic with Ava to, a raspy voice spoke out from the darkness.

"Did some one say blood?" the voice said as it reached out for Ava's neck. As the long boney fingers glided along Avas shoulder, Ava felt the chills go up her spine and her body went rigid. Suddenly she grabbed the mysterious hand and flipped the creature over. Crystal didn't hesitate and shoved a stake right through his heart. The being disappeared as his body evaporated into dust.

"What… the… hell… was… THAT?" Ava screamed.

"A vampire duh ha-ha" Luke laughed and nudged Victor playfully.

"Seriously?" Ava pushed her hand into her chest to feel the thunderous beat of her heart. "I thought you were all joking."

"Nobody jokes about these things Ava. Do you see how your slayer instincts came through then? I bet you have never done that in your life." Alexis judged.

"No I haven't"

"Well then … do you see your destiny now?

"But this can't be real, creatures like…like this," Ava bent down and picked up a handful of dust that lay on the floor now like sand. "They don't exist, they are creatures of myth!" standing up Ava threw the handful of dust into the air, the wind blew it and covered Victor and Luke, the other girls giggled to themselves but Ava still stood eyes wide and mouth agape. Brushing himself down Victor spoke to Ava and stepped forward as if to confide in her. "Look, Ava I know this is hard to believe but you just saw it for yourself!" his voice was husky but comforting, it wrapped itself around Ava and seemed to bring her back to life.

"I suppose so." She looked up for more comfort and found Luke staring at her with a cheeky boyish grin, now it was his turn to step forward.

"Yeah babe! And it's not like you have to do this yourself," he stepped forward now and wrapped his arm around Ava's shoulder's; stepping out into the light of the moon she saw his gorgeous blue eyes for the first time. "We are here to help you," he continued "Alexis was going out of her brain trying to figure out who the slayer was and now she has found you everything is going to be fine," Luke pulled on Ava's shoulder as another sign of comfort, he spoke to her with such confidence she couldn't help but feel comfortable with him, now seeing his cheeky grin again she was quite looking forward to spending lots of time with him.

"One question though," Ava broke the silence, "Why dust? Isn't that a bit clichéd?"

"When the stake goes through a vampires heart the wood expels the magic which keeps the dead, undead, if they are no longer undead they return to their original age and most vampires are over 400 years old, leaving them too dust," Alexis answered with the upmost confidence, she had obviously been doing this a long time. "But you don't need to worry about all of the logistics yet that will come with time," she smiled at Ava.

"So what happens now?" Ava said in eagerness.

"You take the oath to be a slayer. But I must warn you. Once you become a slayer you become half a person, half a soul and the need to be whole will make you want to kill, the thrill from killing is what make you feel whole."

"Okay I understand for the good of man kind and all that yeh?" she didn't understand at all really, all she felt was the yearning inside of her to be part of something bigger in the world. The chance to destroy evil by being good was overwhelmingly tempting and she could feel it in her bones. This was right. However, having half a soul was going to be difficult, as Ava was soon to find out.

"Yes Ava … yes." They all chuckled.

The laughter faded away into the distance, and the cemetery blurred all into one. Ava felt her own two feet hit the floor again and resumed control of her body. Ava remembered what she was doing before the memory happened and quickly looked up.

The fire red harpy was still raging towards her, wings spread like an eagle, as time resumed back to its normal pace, the harpy leaped onto Ava, pushing her onto the walls of the Crypt and onto the floor. She kicked the harpy off and hastily jumped up.

The harpy sprinted towards her, fangs bearing, claws at the ready, to plunge into Ava's heart. Ava slipped her daggers out from her sleeves and as the harpy lashed onto Ava, its body went limp, and its raging heart faded to nothing. It was dead. As Ava slid the harpy off of her knifes she looked down in disgust. The harpies purple blood was more of a goo than a liquid. Ava hated this burden she had been given.

"AVA … AVA WHER ARE YOU?" She heard her friends shout. Then she remembered if it wasn't for this burden she would not have the wonderful friends she has now

Chapter two

Incomplete

A crisp cold day in December. The golden brown leaves had all fallen off the trees and when the cold would hit you it would numb your whole body. The snowflake ball was around the corner and nobody could wait for the big event. Ava had always dreamed of being on the prom committee and this year she was. Even though it was a freezing cold morn she still had the determination to get all of the decorations up before the dance, even if it meant having to put them up herself.

Ava slowly put one hand onto the icy metal ladder and began to climb, with the ice blue banner in her mouth. Her hands now red raw and barley able to move she attached the crisp, glossy paper to the wall with some string; when suddenly a horrendous roar of wind came from no where. The ladder began to rock violently, Ava screamed as she lost her balance, unable to move her fingers to hold on she plummeted to the ground. She closed her eyes hoping for the best, feeling and hearing the rush of wind and that swept passed her on the way down, but nothing happened. There was no pain, no warm sensation of a liquid trickling from any place, no desire to 'move on', just nothing.

Ava slowly crept open her eyes to see she was feet off the ground, was she floating? She turned her head to see she had been caught, like a damsel in distress, by Blayke O'Mara. The sun glistened on his wavy brown hair, and his smug grin completed the picture. It felt as if the world had stopped, she tried desperately to catch her breath as her heart pumped faster and faster. Blayke was ridiculously pale even for somebody who lived in Oxford, but the look suited him. As she gazed deeply into his emerald green eyes, she became fixated in a trance, and an instant connection was made. She felt…protected. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw Luke approaching them from a distance, jumping out of Blayke's arms she straightened herself up. He smiled at her, confused in a way. Luke changed his path but continued walking into the school gates, Ava looked back to Blayke to catch a glimpse of what looked like a fang, but this couldn't be possible vampires couldn't survive in the daylight, so Ava discarded it.

"Thank you for catching me I don't know what would have happened if you wouldn't have been here." Ava giggled.

"No problem what would this school be like without you," Blayke grinned.

"You know who I am? You know that I exist?" Ava said in disbelief, truly shocked by the image of beauty's words, how could HE have noticed HER?

"Of course," he smiled, "You're in my biology class, two rows from the front I believe, and I can't help but notice you,"

"Oh!" she said with excitement "Well I kind of noticed you to," she smiled shyly down at her feet and to her surprise he was doing the same.

"Oh you're bleeding," Blayke smirked, while wiping off the blood. Again the flash of a fang, no way to ignore it now, something had to be done.

"Oh I must have hit a twig or a branch on the way down I must go see the nurse and have her take care of it, so… well any way see you around and thank you again."

"Yeh see you around." Blayke put his finger to his mouth to lick off the little bit of blood he had wiped off of Ava's face.

Ava rushed down the corridor and burst open the big red oak doors that led to the library, the adrenaline that pumped through her veins made the 100 year old doors fly open and the noise ricocheted abruptly around the room, but Ava continued on her war path. The library was the oldest room in the school; it had walls so high no one could see were they ended. Shelves and shelves filled with the most unimaginable books, books that were almost 1000 years old. Its structure the original one from the original building made from solid red oak that was growing in the field that the school was built on. Ava scanned the numerous platforms to try and find the librarian, suddenly out of no where Alexis popped out in front of Ava. Alexis looked the same as always tied back mousy brown hair. A suited jacket, with a skirt, that showed her muscular calves. She didn't have the expression she normally did though, not the normal happy and chirpy Alexis no, something was wrong.

"I have something to tell you," they both said nervously.

"You first." They both replied.

"No you first."

Ava held out her hand as if to tell Alexis to stop.

"Me first yeh…" Alexis nodded "well… I think Blayke may be a vampire I don't know how and I don't know why I suddenly think this but I saw him today and I thought I saw a fang but vampires cant go out in daylight so I think this is very weird. Do you think this is weird? I think it's weird. I've never heard of a vampire that can walk around in the daylight." Ava took a big breath and Alexis stopped her from beginning again.

"He might very well be a vampire, have you ever heard of dies lamia? Well obviously not or otherwise you wouldn't be so confused, its Latin for day vampires, here…" she conjured a book from the highest shelf and it came gently down and landed on Alexis's hand. "This is all you will ever need to know about them." She opened the book to page 217 and read the passage at the top. "a dies lamia is a very rare yet very extravagant thing to encounter, only one dies lamia can exist at a time and they have the same properties as a slayer…" she continued "a dies lamia has half a soul like a slayer does, unlike normal vampires who have no souls, dies lamia have human capabilities and are free to roam the earth like normal human beings except for the fact they have to have blood to survive." Alexis slammed the book shut and looked down at Ava through her glasses in a secretive kind of way. "So there you go dies lamia huh."

"Well is he dangerous? Do I have to kill him?"

"No, not at all not unless, he attacks you, but dies lamias are normally very nice people."

"Okay phew… what did you have to tell me then?"

"It doesn't matter I'll tell you another time" looking away she place the crumbling book back onto her desk, turning her back on Ava.

"Okay, if you're sure, I'll talk to you later then." Not quite fulfilled with the answers she was given there was nothing more to do than go home, but something about Alexis' mysterious mannerisms troubled Ava inside.

Ava grabbed her bag and skipped out of the doors knowing that her mind was at ease and she didn't have to slay the person who had saved her life.

Darkness, a distant voice was heard from a far, a blurry image of Crystal's dorm room came into view, and Alexis, Luke and Crystal were gathered around the kitchen table looking quite worried and frustrated. It's still night time and the moon is the only thing that was lighting up the room. Suddenly the image was quickly zoomed in on. A big green book was lying in the centre of the wooden table and all three of them were staring at the text with fear.

"Oh no what do we do?" Crystal questioned Alexis.

"We have to find it, obviously, if we don't she will die." Alexis frowned.

"Why don't we find it with out her knowing then she wont panic?" Luke smiled hesitantly.

"NO, she has to know it says here she is the only one that can track it down." Alexis shouted.

"Then it's settled then… we tell her or Ava dies."

The image started to slip away, Ava reached out to grab it but it disappeared through her fingers.

Suddenly Ava woke up in cold sweat her chest heaving, her heart pumping, it was a dream, and it was so real. Ava grabbed her dressing gown and torch and ran down the stairs kicking open flat no.14b to see Alexis, Luke and crystal all gathered around the book, exactly how she pictured in her dream.

"TELL ME THEN, GO ON, TELL ME," Ava screamed, she ran towards the book and ripped it out of Luke's hands. "Is this what you wanted to tell me? Was it? That I'm going to die? Huh? Huh!"

"Ava just sit down and we will explain…" Alexis squeaked.

"No I will not sit …" Ava's eyes began to close and all went into darkness again. She could here the screams around her but she couldn't see the scene before her.

"AVA...AVA...AVA...!" Crystal screamed.

Ava opened her eyes to see Alexis and Luke surrounding her and Crystal by her side crying.

"Ava … your awake." Crystal collapsed once more onto Ava's stomach.

"What… what happened?" Ava croaked

"You passed out. This is what we were talking about, I found out the other day what the slayer symbol means… the sword is a sword you have to find, its called the luxlucis mucro, meaning sword of light, it is used to complete your ritual of being a slayer if you do not complete this ritual by 6 months of you finding out you're a slayer then …. Then…"

"I die."

"Yes you die… I'm so sorry Ava, but the anniversary of you finding out is..." rushing to her side, she clasped her hands on Ava's arms with desperation for forgiveness.

"In 2 weeks time,"

"Im so sorry I should of looked at it before!"

"It's not your fault how were you supposed to know, I should have known my self that's probably what the vision was for"

"Vision? ... What 'vision'?"

"I had a vision when we were fighting the harpies, it was about the first time I found out like a memory relapse, and it was probably a sign. But there is nothing we can do now; we will just have to find this sword it can't be that hard" she didn't know that for sure, but she had to keep spirits up as she was the hope of the group, but really reality hadn't sunk in yet, death could be looming closer than she thought. Funny how she dealt with her life ending everyday when fighting creatures of the night, but the wicked curse sank fear deep into her heart.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was a matter of importance, how was I supposed to know it was my sub-conscious telling me I was going to die in two weeks!" everybody stared at Ava in silence, it was like the realization of death had just slapped them all in the face.

"Oh well it doesn't matter now," Alexis cleared her throat and struggled to continue with the conversation. "… okay … we will start in the morning... Get some rest my dear; you have had a heavy load dumped on you this evening." Alexis stepped over to Ava and Luke politely lifted Crystal off of the floor and out the way. Reaching for Ava's elbow, Alexis smiled at her but it was a weak smile that did not touch Alexis's eyes, no, they carried traces of guilt and sadness. Suddenly Crystal's cold gray hand stretched out to stop Alexis, speaking softly she whispered.

"You can stay here tonight don't bother getting up," Crystal smiled, taking her hand of Alexis's and bending down to let it gently glide across her best friend's face. Smiling back at her friend's kind gesture, Ava lifted her hand also to touch Crystal's hand that lay upon her face.

As the girls gazed lovingly into each other's eyes Luke couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, so he tried to busy himself with the task of finding Ava a blanket for the night. Not even noticing his absence, Luke returned with Crystal's spare cotton quilt from the cupboard and approached the girl's once more.

Hearing his approach Ava looked up at Luke, bewildered, she had even forgot about his presence. He slowly knelt down besides Ava and placed the blanket on top of her rigid body, she gazed deeply into his beautiful blue eyes and smiled at the familiarity that was about them, but she couldn't help but feel she needed something more…

Pushing the thought from her mind she tilted her head up to kiss her boyfriend goodbye, as he and Alexis left the room she felt an over whelming sadness, loneliness. Suddenly, Crystal began to speak and Ava realized she would never truly be alone.

"I'll wake you in the morning and we can go to the Library together," smiling at Ava again. She was no longer at Ava's side but in the kitchen fixing Ava a cup of hot chocolate, laughing to herself she brought the mug over.

"I know it's not much but it may help," handing the mug over she sighed deeply and brushed her fingers through her hair, she resumed touching Ava's face once more.

"Death is a scary thought," she could not look Ava in the eyes, but only stared at her own fingers as they traced the contours of Ava's cheek bones. "But, I know we will make it through, and you have my constant support," she was looking into Ava's eyes now, "Always," she breathed.

"Thank you," Ava sniffed, stifling away the tears, she was so glad to have Crystal at a time like this. "Ha ha, look at me welling up already god! Stop messing with me Crystal we both need sleep," finishing her chocolate she passed the mug over to Crystal and she hastily took it back over to the sink. Looking back up at Ava her lips twitched the sign of a smile but it faded quickly.

"Until the morning," she breathed and stepped into her room, slamming it shut. Ava heard her friend slide down the side of her door, and the muffled sobs came shortly after.

"Good night," she whispered.