Chapter 2
I hadn't been in a more awkward situation in my whole life. I was sitting in one of the chairs on the right side of the table near the end. Sitting at each end of the dining table was Yuki and Yuura; I was next to the latter. I felt comfortable around Yuki, since he seemed so kind and warm, but Yuura, well… he barely spoke, but was staring at me a lot with a cold expression, making me uneasy. We made eye contact once, and I saw no kindness in his pale green eyes, and I promised myself I wouldn't look at him directly ever again.
Instead, I fixated my attention to the food on the table. There were no salads, veggies, toppings, or anything. All there was were steaks and other various meats. The meats steaming from the heat, but sitting in their own juice, and when I say juice, I think I really mean blood. I didn't want to be rude, but I couldn't find a way of getting out of eating something so… so nasty. Just the smell of it made my stomach turn a little.
Finally, people began showing up. Among the first to arrive were three very gorgeous women, two of them seemed to be twins, and another very attractive man. As they came to take their places, I saw they all had a puzzled look; at least, all of them except one. The one woman who didn't seem to notice me sat at the third seat from the end. She was tall and had long straight brown hair. Her eyes were hazel like my mother's, but not as harsh.
Shortly after the four arrivals came, six more entered the mansion. Three men and three women, and I couldn't help but notice these people were uncommonly gorgeous. When everyone filed in, I saw a shorter girl about my age with short black hair trailed closely behind a very tall, voluptuous woman with long, wavy, blonde hair and blue eyes. The shorter one seemed timid and shy whereas the other one seemed very… well, I could tell by the way she held herself that she was very comfortable in her skin.
As everyone else was seated, I watched them all carefully, returning stares they were giving me. Even though I felt confident in my ability to make myself not look frightened, I still felt intimidated.
We all sat at our seats, but two were still empty, so I assumed we were still waiting for the rest. Even so, one would think everyone would have something, anything better to do than just stare at me. The only ones not doing so were Yuura, Yuki, and the woman next to him.
Suddenly, the front door opened and a young man, who couldn't be more than 17 or 18, ran in. He looked asian, or at least had asian ancestry, and his jet black hair was spiky; no two strands pointed the same way. He had on dark blue jeans, a button down shirt, and a leather jacket.
"Sorry I'm late." He announced, short on breath, walking into the room, but he froze in the doorway, staring at me. Of course...
"And where is Alexander?" Yuki asked with an inquisitive look on his face. The boy continued to stare at me, not answering Yuki's question. "Jayden, It's not polite to stare at our guests, now tell me, where is Alexander?" He repeated; panic beginning to come to him.
The guy, Jayden, took his eyes off me long enough to deliver stunning news. "He won't make it for dinner." He said, clearing his throat in his fist. "He won't…ever."
Many engaged in surprised chatter, one of the women gasped, but Yuki seemed the most surprised of all.
"So be it," Yuura interrupted, pointing to the seat next to me, "sit down."
The boy obeyed, but I just stared at my empty plate, trying to avoid eye contact. In my peripheral vision I saw he wasn't staring at me, but I could tell he was curious and fought the urge to look.
Yuura stood up and began to speak in a wary, slightly shaky voice. "Everyone, as you have probably noticed, we have a guest tonight. She ran away from home, found her way here, and she'll be staying with us for tonight… or possibly a little while longer. I want you all to welcome her whole-heartedly." Nobody moved, they just continued listening to him speak. I'm glad nobody's attention was on me; I was starting to feel uneasy. "And now," Yuki continued, "why don't we all say hello to miss… Tobie was it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I nodded in confirmation.
"Tobie?" Jayden laughed faintly. "That's not a girl's name."
"Jayden, don't be rude." Yuki said.
"Well, no, it's not." I agreed. "My birth name is Jezebelle, but it sounds too girly, so everyone just calls me Tobie."
Yuki called the rest of the group to attention. "Now, shall we begin our dinner?"
At that, everyone filled their plates with the meat. I was about to suck it up and go for one of the steaks when suddenly, a man in a tuxedo came in and put a filled plate in front of me. I looked at it and I had just realized how hungry I was just smelling the chicken alfredo; my favorite meal. The butler then filled everyone's glasses with wine while I just got water. Fine with me I guess, since wine tastes like ass, but I found it odd that they didn't even bother to offer it.
What made it even weirder; the wine didn't look like wine. Wine is transparent whereas this was… thick. Maybe they were Bloody Maries or something, but drinking them from wine glasses? Something's up, and I don't feel safe at all…
----
I had finished the food and was starting to get really sleepy, since nothing exciting went on. There wasn't any conversation between anyone and I felt really out of place.
"Are you okay, Tobie?" Jayden asked, emphasizing my name.
I bit my lip out of frustration. "Oh, I'm fine." I replied trying to be polite. "I didn't get much sleep, so I'm just a little tired."
"Jayden," Yuura said with a deep, quiet voice, "why don't you escort our guest to her quarters?"
"But Sir-"
"Do it." He interrupted before Jayden could complain and give me reason to kick his butt.
Jayden threw his napkin onto his empty plate and got out of his chair. "C'mon." He demanded, shoving his hands in his pockets.
I got up and bowed to everyone still seated before I left their presence. "Thank you for the dinner." I quickly turned around and followed the boy.
We were silent as we walked, and when we got to my room, he opened the door for me, but shut it in my face before I could thank him.
What crawled up his ass? I wondered to myself. I can't have ever done anything to him; I've never seen him before in my life.
Giving up on logic and reasoning for him, I stretched my arms and got my pajamas out of the dresser. I took off the dress and returned it to the closet and put on my purple plaid pajama pants and black tank top. Since I was kind of afraid to leave the room to find the bathroom, I had to skip brushing. But since I didn't want my mouth to be a germ farm, I got out my mouthwash, cleaned my teeth and swallowed, since I couldn't find anywhere to spit.
"Ack!" I started coughing a little from the taste.
After getting over it, I got into the huge queen size bed and pulled the warm red satin sheets over my body and drifted off to sleep.
~*~*~
I was in a really dark tunnel with a red light at the end. Something inside me told me to follow it.
"But, the light at the end of the tunnel… logic states I should avoid it."
"No, you shouldn't." I heard Jayden's voice behind me, so I spun around and saw him.
"Jayden …"I whispered.
He nodded and pulled me close to him, gently caressing my shoulder, sliding my top's strap off.
"Just a taste…" He said, nibbling on the base of my neck.
Suddenly, I found myself chained to a wall. Looking around, I saw skeletons everywhere and I screamed when they started grabbing at me. Jayden then grabbed me and bit into my neck with huge fangs protruding from his mouth.
I quickly sat up in bed breathing heavily with my face covered in a thin layer of sweat. I quickly grabbed my neck to make sure that was just a bad dream. I looked around and saw my room was dark and figured it was still late. Then, I remembered that all the windows in the building were covered, so I approached the window and slid the curtain back. It looked like the sun was rising, but the lighting was different somehow. I quickly ran to the nightstand and took a look at my watch, which read 5:45 PM.
The sun isn't rising; it's setting! I really need to get going… but where? Then, I had a flashback to last night.
"…She found her way here, so she'll be staying with us for tonight, or possibly a little while longer."
What did Yuki mean by that? Maybe, since I'm a runaway, he'll let me stay here. Maybe I can earn my keep somehow, but he doesn't even know me, so why would he be like this to some runaway that he just met? For all he knows I could be a thief and steal everything of worth and bolt. That or I actually did find the place Kayle had told me about.
Just then, I realized I had to go to the bathroom, so I decided to try to find the facilities. I opened my door to find the hallway totally dark except for some candles lit on the walls between every other door. I stepped out, shut the door behind me and quietly found my way down the hall.
I passed all the doors, figuring none of them were the bathroom, so I proceeded downstairs and made it without making a single sound… until the last step, which I missed, and fell flat on my face.
"God damn it…" I said very quietly.
"A lady shouldn't swear." A deep voice resounded, startling me.
I looked up and saw the man from last night wearing the tuxedo. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
He shook his head at me. "Don't be sorry Madame. You should hear the words that come out of the young masters' mouths."
I gave a sarcastic laugh. "Right…"
He smiled at me and turned away, but I stopped him. "Oh, sir? Since you're up, could you possibly show me where the bathroom is?"
"Yes, follow me" He said, turning around.
I followed him through a big doorway, through a living room with a large flat-screened television, and into the bathroom whose doors were massive and white with gold accents.
"Thank you, Mr. Wallace." I said before proceeding into the bathroom.
I finished using the restroom and looked around and found this place to be bigger than the dining hall. The bathtub, no pool, could easily fit five people in it. "Wow that would be great for a sexy party." I said to myself, walking out the doorway.
"What would be, Madame?" Wallace asked, standing where he was before, never moving.
"Oh, um, the bathtub… is so huge, I mean five people could… you know… in there…"
He smiled and nodded. "I know," He responded, "and they do."
A chill went down my spine; I left the bathroom and followed him to the stairs.
"Enjoy the rest of your sleep, Madame."
I spun around in surprise. "Wait, what do you mean 'the rest of my sleep'? It's like, six in the afternoon!"
He, again, nodded. "Quite right Madame, quite right."
I smiled and thanked him for showing me the beautiful bathroom. To go back to my quarters, but when I turned, all I saw was a black wall. I turned back around in confusion and was struck blind; I knew my eyes were open, but all I could see was blackness. I began feeling dizzy and light headed, and I passed out from the overwhelming feeling of emptiness.
---
My head was hurting and I felt groggy when I finally came to. I opened my eyes, but my vision was blurred, but from what I could tell, there were a lot of candles and I saw some dark hooded figures and heard what sounded like Latin being spoken; the only word I caught was 'Mort', which means death...
When my vision was finally clear enough to see what was happening, I realized I was right about the candles and saw all the people from dinner were the dark figures. I then realized I was tied to a chair; mouth covered with a cloth, and on the ground was a large black pentagram with me sitting in the middle. I began panicking and tried to scream, but my voice was muffled by the gag.
"Good morning, Jezebelle." I tried saying Tobie to correct him, but I couldn't.
Great, I found myself in some weird cult. I thought to myself.
"Now, we can begin. Gwendolyn, please take off the mouth piece." Judging by the sound of the person's voice, I recognized him immediately as Yuura.
I heard someone step forward from behind me and she forced my head downward, grabbing my hair. She bent forward and took a knife to the side of my face, cutting the cloth and let it drop in my lap. She then stepped back to her original spot and stood still, eyes locked forward.
"Since we lost a dear member so recently, it may seem a little sudden to replace him tonight." At that, everyone bowed their heads. "However, I feel this one may be useful to us. And now, would the partner of the late Alexander step forward please."
A guy in a deep green cloak came forward and as he came closer, I saw that it was Jayden.
"Untie her, please." Yuura ordered.
Jayden did as he was told and stood me up. Yuura pointed to someone else who then approached me and grabbed the hand that was bandaged. He untied it, exposing the cut I received from hitting a rock yesterday morning.
"Proceed." Yuura ordered.
I quickly looked at the person who had my hand and saw it was Yuki. He then took a knife and irritated the wound, making it bleed profusely again. I tried to scream, but for some reason my vocals wouldn't obey. However, on the inside I was cringing, looking for a release. I then noticed the knife was gone, but was replaced by Yuki's mouth. He licked the wound, and then bit into it. I then found myself and screamed. I felt him draining me of my blood, and I was getting weaker by the second. I suppose my screaming was too much for everyone because Jayden covered my mouth.
"It'll all be over soon." He whispered in my ear. His voice was soothing, but I was afraid of what he meant by 'over'.
When he was finished, Yuki had Jayden release me from the grip. Through the tears, I saw that blood red frightening eyes replaced Yuki's kind green ones. By now, my body and mind couldn't take it anymore and I blacked out once again.
---
When I finally came to again, I was back in my bed. That couldn't seriously have been a dream I thought to myself, it was way too real…
I checked my watch and saw that it was 9:00 PM Mon. "Whoa, Monday?!" I couldn't believe I slept all through the weekend.
Then, someone came in through my door. I could only see the outline of a person, but the voice gave me an idea of who it might be.
"You're up early." It was Jayden. "When I went through that, I was out for eight days straight." He walked into my room and stood next to my bed.
I looked at him and was thoroughly confused. "Went through what?"
"You don't remember?" He asked. "The ritual of renewal?"
I looked at the palm of hand and saw wound. For some strange reason, I had the sudden urge to lick the dried blood, but instead looked up at Jayden. "That wasn't just some horrible dream?"
He gave a faint laugh. "No, no dream."
I stared at him for a moment, then asked the question I'm sure I knew the answer to, but wanted to make sure. "What kind of ritual was that? Renewal? What does that mean?"
"It means you are no longer who you used to be. You are no longer 'Tobie DeSylva': Human. You are now 'Jezebelle': Vampire."
I stared at him, not believing the last word he said.
"Wait, did you just say 'vampires'?" I laughed. "Vampires don't exist."
"Oh, really?" He asked, eying me intently. "You think I'm joking?" He sat himself on the edge of my bed and put his hand on mine. "The transformation you went through never happened? That cut on your hand isn't real?" He brought his face closer to mine. "Or your desire to lick the blood from the wound? None of that is real?"
I felt my face turn pale; he had a point, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. "B-but that slice on my hand was already there. I did that when I fell in the woods."
"Yes, but it got bigger." He pointed out. "The two holes weren't there before, were they?"
I looked at the unprotected wound and, sure enough, there were the bite marks I received from Yuki.
He then stood up. "Get dressed; we're going out for your first hunt. Put on something… something dark." He ordered, turning to go, but I stopped him.
"Wait!" I demanded. "What do you mean by 'hunt'?