a longer one :) we are just starting to get into the action so please stay with me ;)
dont forget to review
Chapter 3:
Watching security footage in the daytime wasn't all that interesting. No vampires were out; they were all hiding from the sun. The only thing that was exciting was watching tan dust tornadoes blow around.
In the distance I could see the sparkling gleam of the buildings in the city; we were about 4 miles away from them, and yet we still remained hidden from them.
"I can't believe he ran all the way out here, and survived none the less." Dominic spoke with disbelief. He had joined me a little while ago in the surveillance room, but we had been sitting in silence, pondering about the new boy, Isaac.
"I know! And he really knew what he was doing when he fought off those vamps." I laughed a little. "Maybe he could teach Orion something."
Dominic and I both laughed at that, but we stopped as soon as Orion walked through the door. "Ha. Ha." He laughed sarcastically as he strutted in.
"Why do you hate him so much?" I asked, leaning back in my chair and crossing my legs.
"Since when do you trust strangers so much?" Orion countered. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk to strangers?" he teased, arching his eyebrow and taking a seat next to Dominic and me.
I thought of my mother then. She was so sweet. Her friends always told me I was an exact replica of her in every way. My heart ached for her. I wanted her to be here to hug me and tell me that everything was going to be all right, that we would make it out alive. But she couldn't. My mom died that day at the wedding and she never came back; she was too… mutilated to come back—even though most people come back. That's why there are so many of those monsters. I guess, in a way, she was lucky.
"I don't trust him." Orion spoke up again.
"Why not? You saw him. He doesn't even look like one of them. It's physically impossible for him to be one of them. He doesn't have fangs and his eyes are human." I explained.
"He may be human, but that doesn't mean he's on our side."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? He's working with the vamps?" I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness.
"He said he lived in the city, maybe he's working with them for his freedom, maybe they are threatening him."
"If that were true, and they knew where we lived, then why wouldn't they just attack? Why would they go through the trouble of using a spy?" Dominic asked. Orion didn't have a comeback so he just stayed silent. Dominic smiled triumphly. "Maybe you shouldn't judge people so quickly. I think this world has made you crazy. Isaac's not a spy; he's just another human that is trying to survive this world, just like the rest of us."
"I still don't trust him." Orion arched his eyebrows and crossed his arms. He pointed a finger at Dominic. "And don't come crying to me when your boyfriend trades you in to the monsters." Dominic's face went white.
"I—he—he's not my boyfriend." Dominic started blushing, staring at me wide-eyed, waiting for me to defend him.
"Oh please, we both saw you getting your flirt on with him." I joked.
"I at least give you credit for trying." Orion spun lazily in his chair, staring uninterested at the ceiling.
I give Dominic credit too. I mean, I want him to be happy, and the chances of there being a human boy out there that wanted a relationship with Dominic were slim to none. I can't imagine what it's like to be him; he's had such a rough past and he has an even rougher future. He deserves to be happy.
"He hasn't said anything yet, so I might as well keep on trying." Dominic shrugged his shoulders.
"Well," Orion said standing up. "As much fun as this is, talking your possible personal love life… I'm going to go sharpen my knives or something… maybe teach Lucile something new." Orion didn't care that Dominic was gay, and didn't hate him for it either; he was just uncomfortable talking about it sometimes. "Abby, you want to come and help?"
"As fun as that sounds," I teased sarcastically, but in truth, anything sounded better than watching sand fly around on a screen. "I'll have to take you up on that deal. You'll be okay in here?" I asked Dominic.
He waved me off and his sleeve fell down revealing one of his multiple tattoos. It was a black bird. "You two have fun."
"Thanks." I got up from my chair and followed Orion. I slipped my hand into his as we left. I felt the multiple miniature scars that spotted his hand, most of which were from training Lucile, more of the serous scars were on his chest and arms; those scars weren't from Lucile.
"So, what are you really leaving for?" I asked.
"You don't want to sharpen knives with me?" Orion asked, his lips curving into a cocky half smile.
"There are a lot of things I'd rather do than sharpen knives."
"Such as?" Orion pulled on my shirt to twirl me around. My chest was pushed against his as he slid his hands to my waist. I smiled up at him, since he was about five inches taller than I was, and kissed him. Without a second thought, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders—strong and safe. His touch was familiar and grounding. When I was with him, he made me believe I didn't have to worry about anything else; that's why I was so conflicted when it came to our relationship. I wanted to be with him, but if anything were to happen, I would fall apart.
Orion pushed me against the cold cement wall as he laughed playfully in his throat. His kiss deepened and his hands wandered farther south, curving around my thighs.
"Am I interrupting something?" a voice spoke up, clearing his throat. Isaac was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets, not looking the least bit worried that he had interrupted Orion and me. He was wearing a new, clean, white shirt, apart from his old shirt he arrived in and his hair was slightly wet. I couldn't help but notice how his t-shirt was tight around his muscles.
Orion hung his head and bit his lip, smiling. "Not at all." He turned to look at Isaac. "You look better. Get enough sleep?"
"Yes I did." Isaac nodded slightly. "Is Dominic in there?" He pointed to the security room.
"Umm, yeah he is." I crossed my arms in order to cover myself. I felt a little too exposed at the moment. I wonder if I'm blushing. How embarrassing… in front of the new kid too.
Isaac grinned, but for some reason it looked conniving. "Great. Thanks," and he walked into the room.
"Maybe I was wrong about him." Orion spoke up.
"You don't think he's a spy?" I was hopeful.
"No. I still think that." I hit Orion's chest lightly as we continued to walk. "I think that Dominic may get a boyfriend."
"Shame," I rested my head on Orion's chest as we walked to his room. "He's hot. He's got a jaw line that was chiseled by gods." I felt Orion stiffen. He was definitely the jealous type. "Relax, I'm not leaving you for a possible gay boy I just met."
Orion looked at me with a forced shocked face. "That's the closest you've ever come to saying I was your boyfriend."
"And it's the closest thing you'll get for a while." I smiled up at him and gave him a big hug.
. . .
Isaac left his new room hastily, hoping he wouldn't miss his opportunity to get blood.
His memory was much better now than when he was human, so he knew how to navigate the maze-like corridors already. Left. Right. Right. Second door on the left. He punched in the code. No one had told him it, but when Dominic punched in the code earlier, his super sensitive hearing had heard the tone difference, and he was able to replicate the code.
This time when he opened the cafeteria door there was silence, apart from a few dishes being cleaned and banged onto a countertop. He counted three beating hearts. Easy enough.
Isaac made his way down the staircase and toward the humans. All three of them were women. Too easy, he thought with a smile.
"Excuse me, can we help you?" One of the girls raised her head. She was probably 30. The other two were much younger 7 or so; they looked like twins, possibly the woman's children.
"Actually, yes," Isaac helped himself into the kitchen and let the door fall closed behind him. The kitchen had several chrome pots and pans the hung from the ceiling. Huge stovetops were on his right. No windows, just cement walls.
The women were to his left where there were several washing stations. The area smelled like cooked bacon and slimy dish soap. Isaac's stomach churned at the memory of forcing down that glass of milk and quickly pushed the memory behind him.
Isaac sauntered over to the older woman. Isaac was stuck at 20; he had been going to college when all of this happened and had no doubts that he could lure the woman in. He had been able to do it as human, and ever since then, his looks had become even more defined, making it easier than ever to attract prey.
He leaned on hand on the stainless sliver counter top. The woman had stopped doing the dishes, but the other girls continued working. "And what do you need help with?" she asked.
"I'm a little hungry. Do you know where I can get a bite to eat?" Isaac moved in a little closer.
"Well," the woman giggled, reminding him of a little girl. "This is the kitchen."
Isaac laughed deep in his throat. "Mmm hmm." He moved in even closer, and the woman didn't resist. He leaned in and kissed her neck. He could feel small goose bumps on her skin appear under his lips. She giggled again.
Isaac's kisses followed her artery and he closed his eyes, fearful that if he kept them open, the small girls may see the monster he really was, and scream. The beating of her heart made his fangs prick his lips as they popped out. He hadn't tasted fresh blood in so long.
He was about to act on his natural instinct when a voice inside him stopped him.
Don't draw attention to yourself. It was the first rule he promised to obey. Resist your urges.
Isaac lifted his head reluctantly and whispered in the woman's ear. "Would you be so kind as to tell me where the farm is?"
The woman looked confused. "It's outside."
"And it's private? No cameras?" he interrogated.
The woman smiled and walked her fingers up Isaac's chest. "Nope."
"Perfect." He cooed and then shifted his tone to a more demanding one. "Now finish up your dishes."
The woman's face contorted into an angry frown. As Isaac left the kitchen through the backdoor he heard her mutter, "Ass."
The farm wasn't as elaborate as Isaac predicted. There was a poorly built, wooden building attached to the main cement one and inside were the animals. Stalls on his left held horses and stalls on his right held cows. A chicken coop was at the far end, and he could hear and smell the pigs in their own separate building. Hay littered the ground and rays of sunlight came through the rickety, hand-made, wood siding. Even in this small amount, the sun bothered Isaac and he was cautious not to step in too big of a ray.
Some of the horses whinnied and pounded their hooves; horses were very smart animals; they could sense what he was. Therefore, in order to keep anyone from coming out to check on the noise, he moved over to the cows. They would sense the danger too, eventually, but he would shut them up quickly.
Picking the nosiest one, he let his fangs pop out and plunged them into the cow's large neck. It mooed with pain, but Isaac didn't let go.
The fresh animal blood that flooded into his mouth was better than the stale human blood he had been drinking in the city, but it was still bitter. His body knew this wasn't what he needed. His body needed human blood to survive; he knew it, and the doctors knew it. That's why he was put on the mission: to find more human blood. Supplies were running low in the city, just like everywhere else.
Isaac ripped away from the cow's throat and it collapsed to the ground. For a moment, as blood dripped off of his chin, Isaac stared at the cow and wondered if vampirism could be spread between animal species. He never heard of anyone drinking straight from an animal before.
Just to be safe, Isaac grabbed an axe off the wall (that was obviously used in butchering) and swung down onto the cow's neck. A warm scarlet mist splattered on his face.
. . .
After cleaning up, Isaac looked at himself in the mirror. He was wearing a different shirt now—he had found clothes in the dresser that were just his size—and his old shirt was soaking in the sink in pink water. He had cleaned off his face and ran his fingers through his sandy blonde hair.
He wasn't as pale anymore. Feeding had helped. His veins were darker now and pulsed slightly as they fed off the life the blood had given him.
He figured he better go see where the weak boy was—Dominic.
As he navigated his way through the hallways he heard two familiar heartbeats racing. Isaac turned the corner to see Orion and Abby together, pushed against the wall, kissing. I wonder what would happen if they were to break up? I could get to her as well. Hearts are an easy thing to break... "Am I interrupting something?" He spoke up.
Orion's tone seemed annoyed, but he was smiling. "Not at all." He turned his head to look at Isaac and wrapped a protective arm around Abby. "You look better. Get enough sleep?" Orion asked.
"Yes I did. Is Dominic in there?" Isaac questioned, even though he already knew the answer. He could hear Dominic's heart and steady breathing in the room just down the hall.
"Umm. Yeah, he is," Abby responded, her heart still racing. Isaac thought that her heart was not racing from Orion, but from Isaac's presence. Isaac smiled, noting that for later.
"Great. Thank you." He walked pass them and into the security room where Dominic sat by himself.
"You two love birds get bored—?" Dominic spun around in his chair and looked shocked to see Isaac standing there.
"Hey," Isaac said, walking over to an empty chair.
"Hey," Dominic responded.
Isaac cupped his hand around his neck. He remembered that humans fidget when they are nervous. "I—uh, just wanted to apologize for the way I acted earlier. I was a jerk. I just… it's been a long day."
Dominic smiled warmly, "Yeah, I get it. I remember what it was like living out there. It can really get under your skin sometimes."
"Yeah," Isaac replied quietly.
Dominic's face softened. "Did something happen?"
Isaac paused. "My brother… he didn't make it." Dominic's face softened even more, almost like he knew the pain Isaac was pretending to suffer from. "He tripped, scraped his knee, and started bleeding. That's how the monsters found us. They smelled him. It was hard for him to run, and he slowed me down; we both knew it. By the time they caught up with us, he told me to run." Isaac paused, using this time to fake-breathe.
"I'm sorry," Dominic interrupted.
"What?" Isaac was taken back; he didn't expect Dominic to say anything.
"I'm sorry, about your brother. I've lost people too."
Got you, Isaac thought. I can play off of this. "I don't even know if he survived."
"You don't think that he'll come back as one of them?" Dominic asked.
"The vamps in the city never feed live anymore, most of them never have. They farm from humans and save the blood into bags so it's easier to be distributed and the farming area has extremely high security. The blood they get is not fresh. This was probably an outright feast for them."
Dominic smiled and spun in his chair to pull up something on the large screen. He type a few codes and pulled up a video. On the screen, a night-vision video popped up and a mangy coyote crept across the screen, its eyes reflecting in the camera's view. Following closely was a vampire that leapt and tackled the animal; they both rolled in the sand, but eventually the coyote's body went limp. When the vampire lifted his head, its chin was dripping with blood, a satisfied look on its face before it ran off again.
"I know this sounds strange, but I've always found them… fascinating. They've adapted just like we have, and this may be proof that they may give up human blood." Dominic said shyly.
Fascinating? That's a description Isaac had never heard before.
Dominic kept talking, "I mean… I've always wanted to experiment with them—find out how they operate. You know, I used to go to med school before all of this."
"I thought you were a techie?" Isaac asked with an eyebrow arched.
"Well, I really wanted to work in the labs, but the heavier tech stuff I did on my own time." Dominic smiled and shrugged. "It's always been a hobby."
"I took some medicine classes before all of this too," This time, Isaac didn't have to lie. Even now, in the city, he helped the doctors' figure out how the transition happened and what could be done to reverse it. The blood supply was getting low and they had two options: figure out how to reverse the process, or find away to get more blood. They decided on the latter.
"Guess we've got a lot in common." Dominic punched Isaac playfully in the shoulder.
"Yeah," Isaac mumbled sullenly.
"You really miss your brother don't you?"
Isaac looked at Dominic and tried to soften his face like Dominic had done earlier. "He was all I had left, but I knew this day would come. I knew we would eventually get separated."
Suddenly, Dominic's face lit up. "Hey! Abby, Orion, and I are going out hunting tonight you should come with us! If those vamps are out there, you deserve to get revenge on them."
Isaac lifted his head and smirked, "I'd like that."
What do you think? LET ME KNOW PLEASE! review review review!
