Chapter Two
I scrambled backwards so quickly I'm surprised I didn't bend time and space to get away from the vampire. In fact, I flew back so fast I hit my already injured head straight into a metal bar. I let out a pained yelp and whimpered, lifting a hand to feel the back of my head. Blood was matted to my hair and I could feel huge lump that made me flinch to touch.
"Are you well, little one?" The vampire's gaze had shifted from my bloody knee to my eyes and my shoulders relaxed slightly. If he were going to kill and drain me or whatever he would have done it while I was unconscious right?
"No. I have a raging hangover, a probable concussion and I have no idea where I am or how I got here." Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic. Just breathe.
The vampire, bless him (or not, considering the whole undead, cursed thing people like to rave about), still looked concerned for me. "What is the last thing you remember?"
I frowned. "Um – I think I was downing my fifth tequila shot at a bar with my friends? Wait, how long ago was that? This was on the eighteenth, what's the date now?"
"Do not fear, it is still the eighteenth. You have been unconscious in here for about two hours now but I do not know how long before that. From what I overheard from the humans who brought you here, they ambushed you on your way home from a bar. Judging by the way they talked, they knew you would be there. This appears pre-meditated."
"Yeah I remember now! I didn't have enough money for a cab so I decided to walk! Wow, that was dumb as shit." I sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling, questioning drunk-me's life choices.
To my surprise, the vampire chuckled. "It was certainly not wise."
We fell into silence, each lost in our own thoughts. Where the hell was I? Why was I here? Who took me? More importantly, what were they going to do with me? My fear grew bigger and bigger, a swirling mass clamping down on my chest and blocking my throat as I imagined all the awful scenarios that could happen. Don't cry. Don't cry. I took a few deep breaths and counted to one hundred in my head and slowly my panic subsided enough for me to start to thinking clearly and find a way to get answers. My fellow prisoner was obviously my first option. He clearly wasn't here by choice either if he was trapped in the cage with me.
"Where are we? Do you know who took us? Do you know why they took us?" I broke the silence that had settled over us and was startled by how loud my voice sounded.
He stared at me, searching my face for… something, although I don't know what it was. "You mean, you don't know why you are here?"
I stared at him flatly. "Well duh, why would I have asked if I already knew?"
His eyes flickered with amusement and his mouth twitched up in a slight smile. It was then I noticed that actually, the guy was really quite hot. Dark hair, dark eyes, perfectly symmetrical face and amazing bone structure. He looked young, maybe a year or two younger than my twenty-one years, although that didn't really tell me anything considering he was vampire.
His face once again fell into a mask of sombre contemplation and then I started to question whether or not it was really mask at all – we were both in a bit of a sticky situation after all. "We are in the basement of a church, more specifically, a church owned by the Fellowship of the Sun. I cannot imagine you are here for anything good."
"Who?" Fellowship of the Sun? Did some sort of weird nerd cult kidnap me? Or worse, an actual cult that wanted to use me as some kind of human sacrifice? "Oh wait, I have heard of these guys! Are you fucking kidding me? I was kidnapped by some idiotic, vampire hating religious zealots?"
"Unfortunately, I am not joking, little one."
"Hey! I'm not that short – I stand at five foot three inches thank you very much." I sniffed. "But seriously, what would they want with me? I thought they targeted fang-" I cut myself off. I was about to use the word fangbanger but I didn't think the vampire would appreciate that particular term of endearment for his mortal friends. "I mean, vampire enthusiasts. You're the first vampire I have ever really spoken to."
He tilted his head to the side in a gesture that suddenly reminded me that he wasn't human. I don't know what it was about it but it was eerily similar to the way animals like dogs and big cats tilt their heads. Out of everything that he had done that night - staring at my blood, the haunted, ancient look in his eye – I don't why it was a simple head tilt that had reality crashing down on me. I was stuck. I was stuck in a cage with a vampire, who probably hadn't eaten in a while and I had no escape.
He must have noticed a change in my expression or heartbeat or however it is that vampires read people, because he reached a calming hand out but I flinched back immediately, staring at him with unbridled fear.
"Sh, its ok, young human. I will not hurt you."
I stared at him suspiciously.
"If I had wanted to hurt you, would I not have already done it by now?"
"You may not want to hurt me now, but who knows how long we will be down here – you're going to get hungry eventually."
"While I may have posed a threat to you if I were a younger vampire, that it is not the case now. I am old enough that I need very little blood to sustain me. You are quite safe. At the very least, you are safer here in this cage with me than you are with the humans upstairs." He stared at me imploringly, once again searching my face for something I did not know I had.
He looked so serene, so earnest that I found myself believing him. I couldn't help myself. I didn't know if this was a mistake or not – my mom did always say that my biggest weakness was my trust and belief in people and that it was going to get me killed one day. But at this point – what else did I have to lose? Plus, the guy had a point – I probably was safer down here with him. And if he did decide to kill me there really wasn't anything I could do about it so I might as well give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
I gave him a shaky smile and his face returned the gesture, although his smile was much smaller and far less watery.
"I'm Amelia Kent but I prefer to be called Mila." I held my hand out for him to shake.
A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he took my hand. His was firm and strong and I could tell he contained a lot of power – like a hell of a lot of power, more than I could ever understand, but I assumed it was positively gentle for a vampire.
"My name is Godric."
I gave him an actual smile now. "Cool."
"May I ask why you prefer to be called Mila?"
"Yeah, sure. Its kind of silly really. When we were little, my younger brother couldn't say Amelia, he tried but all he could say was Mila and, I guess it just kind of stuck." I heard him huff in amusement and I smiled again.
We stared at each other for a bit, me still smiling like an idiot and him regarding me with calm yet expressionless face. When I realised I was staring I blushed and quickly looked away, not wanted to appear rude.
"So, Godric, why are you here? Did they kidnap you too?" That seemed quite strange to me, didn't vampires have like super strength or something?
"No, they did not kidnap me. That would be impossible. I am here through… unfortunate circumstances."
Well that was the biggest non-answer I had ever heard. Raising an eyebrow at his non-answer, I shifted so I was sitting cross-legged across from him. "That was very mysterious."
He didn't reply.
Feeling awkward I tried once again to strike up conversation – anything to stop myself from thinking about why I was here. "I would do anything for some aspirin right now."
"It has been a long time since I have suffered from a prolonged injury, vampires heal very quickly, so I cannot relate to you but I hope your pain eases soon." The look of concern was back on his face and I was kind of touched.
I giggled. "How old actually are you? You speak very formally. Is it because you don't know me or is it because you learnt how to speak in another time?" I didn't know if this was considered a rude question in vampire etiquette like it was to ask an older person their age but I was really very curious.
"I am old – even by vampire standards."
Another cagey answer. It just made me all the more curious. "Two hundred? Three hundred? Five hundred?!" he only smiled mysteriously. I huffed. "I'm twenty one years old?" Maybe if I told him how old I was he would feel obligated to return the sentiment. He didn't. The vampire just smiled again.
"You are so very young."
"Hey! Wait, does that mean I'm like a baby to you? Are all humans like children to you?! That must be so strange. Are we very boring to you? I mean you guys have seen so much, we can't have much to say that haven't already heard before." The questions were just leaping out of me and I had to make a conscious effort to stop and let him speak. This was a pretty shit situation but at the very least I would probably never get an opportunity like this again to ask a vampire so much. I was so so curious.
"No, I do not view you like a child. It is difficult to explain and I don't think you could ever understand how vampires view humans, especially young humans, without actually being one." I sighed in disappointment. He continued, "I do not view humans as boring, although I do know many vampires who do. Honestly, I find you fascinating." There was a glimmer of something in his eyes but I had no idea what it was. It seemed like regret but I knew that wasn't quite it – I had never met anyone so difficult to read, it came quite naturally to me but I think I could spend an eternity observing him and I would never quite get it.
"Really? I stared at him sceptically. "You think humans are fascinating?" I couldn't help but think of all the dumb stuff I had seen humans pull throughout my life.
He smiled slightly at my obvious disbelief. "Really."
"Why?"
He opened his mouth to answer but he suddenly became alert and at once he went from clam man to lethal predator quicker than my eyes could ever follow. He stared at the door intently and I was so scared, so filled with anticipation that I held my breath, not moving a muscle.
After what felt like forever, but what must have actually been about five minutes (I had had to take a breath eventually), I heard a door unlock. Light flooded into the tiny basement and I noticed a flight of stairs that it had been to dark to see before. Then my heart stopped and restarted again, this time trying to beat straight out of my chest. I could hear footsteps. Someone was coming.
