Chapter 3:

Inhuman Error

He's just a human boy, Vanessa said to herself as she frowned lips and stared at herself in her closet mirror, indecisive of what to wear, while at the same time convincing herself a relationship would never work out. With her wanting his blood, and him wanting...well...whatever boys want, there was no way she could keep her true nature a secret. Saturday evening had come too soon, Charlie had called and shyly asked if she could come over, but Vanessa had not had time to hunt enough to avoid major blood lust and barely agreed. With much further debate, she decided on black pants and a black Korn band tee, So Original!she told herself. Vanessa fed Cornelius, drank a bag of blood from her almost-empty fridge, making sure to lock the doors. I never lock my door, I guess because I never leave my house, she thought.

Vanessa walked stiffly, a multitude of thoughts whirling around her head. What will we do? Crap! What if my fangs peek out and he suspects me? Millions more came through her head, until a dark memory from her past came back to haunt her.

It was New Year's eve, ten years ago. Vanessa had spent the evening drinking hard liquor in a bar in a shady area of Newton. When she finally gurgled down her last shot, only stopping because she was out of money, she had swaggered out of the bar and into a dimly-lit street behind it. She walked down the street, meaning to find an intersection she recognized and head home, but near the dumpsters of a closed restaurant she saw the silhouettes of two people, one stalking towards the other, and the other stepping back. Quietly nearing the scene, she began to be able to make out the people's figures with her night vision. One was a hairy middle-aged man with a lot of muscle and a blunt stick in one hand and the other was a small, fragile lady, maybe in her mid-twenties. Vanessa watched as the burly man stepped closer and closer to the frightened woman who shouted "Help! Somebody, please! He's going to hurt me! SOMEBODY HELP!" Her voice became louder and more frantic as the man grinned evilly and lifted his weapon above his head.

"I only want to play with you. Com'ere" The brute said in a rough, broken voice.

"Never! HELP, SOMEBODY."

The man leapt toward her and pressed his dirty palm against her gaping open mouth, muffling her pleas, when, all of a sudden, Vanessa burped loudly. The man immediately turned around, his wild eyes searching the darkness.

"WHO'S THERE?!" he screamed.

When no sound replied to his frenzied remark, he looked at the woman, and then back down into the darkness of the street Vanessa had been walking on only moments ago, his head turning from side to side. Fight or flight instincts taking over his mind. The ugly creature shoved the woman down with one heavy hand and bolted in the other direction, looking back several times. I guess he chose flight. Vanessa thought bitterly, barely disturbed by the violent scene she had just witnessed.

The woman, muddy and bruised from the criminal's forceful treatment of her, began to sob, a painfully loud noise that forced Vanessa to avert her attention to the small thing in the middle of the road. Vanessa's cold, un-beating heart immediately softened and Vanessa groaned as the unfamiliar need to comfort another being rushed through her, along with a weakness she could not allow herself to feel, pity. Vanessa slowly walked over to the lady, trying not to frighten her, but the woman was too caught up in her own cries to notice the approaching threat.

"Hello?' Vanessa said.

The lady slowly looked up at Vanessa, her teary eyes searching for comfort. Vanessa was shocked to find that the "woman" she pictured was actually only a teenage girl, probably sixteen or seventeen years old. Seeing herself in those saddened, lonely eyes, Vanessa sat down next to the girl and wrapped one arm around her shoulder in what she hoped was a welcoming gesture, allowing the girl to put her small head onto Vanessa's shoulder and continue to cry. The two sat like this, neither one able to speak, for several minutes until the human grabbed Vanessa's hand and gasped loudly.

"Y-y-your hand is so-so cold." she whispered shakily.

"Yeh, it's usually like that." Vanessa replied, entering the girl's mind to plant calm, content feelings.

The effect was immediate as the teenager closed her eyes and sighed,

"That was you who burped, right? Y-you saved my life. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, tell me, what is a young girl doing out alone at night on New Year's?"

"I wasn't alone, before I was with my friend, Madeline, but she got wasted and followed some random guy out of the club across the street. I tried to follow her to tell her to stop, but that…man…you saw tried to take me home with him. I refused, but he followed me all the way over here. I really thought he would r-rape me, but he turned away when you burped." her gaze dropped down to her bloody feet.

Bloody?! Vanessa thought, gazing down at the girl's high heels she noticed that she had a large cut across her big toe from when the man had pushed her to the ground. How had I not smelt it before?! The sweet, crimson scent enveloped Vanessa and tempted her to drink. Vanessa gulped as a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, No way am I drinking from this innocent girl.

"What's your name?" Vanessa asked.

"Mary, you?" she asked shyly, surely not the type of name or person to go clubbing on New Year's eve.

"Vanessa…Where do you live anyways? I want to escort you safely home."

"That won't be necessary."

The girl smiled wickedly and pulled a wooden stake from her nearby handbag, thinking she could slay Vanessa, obviously aware that she was a Vampyre. Vanessa's eyes widened as she slammed the girls hand down and pinned her arms to the ground, growling in fury.

"How dare you!" Vanessa slammed her fangs into the girls neck as she thrashed around below her, kicking and screaming obscenities.

"Get off me!" The girl screamed, trying to no avail to push Vanessa off of her, unaware of how futile her attempts were. Vanessa continued to feed, easing the girl's pain with relaxing feelings and endorphins from her bite, but the girl continued to struggle as Vanessa saw her face loose all color and gently drop to her side. Vanessa completely dried the girl of blood, so that she could not awaken as a Vampyre.

As Vanessa returned from the horrible memory, she saw the teenagers eyes, filled with hatred, once again. Since that new year's eve ten years ago, Vanessa wondered about the girl. She knew of a small number of families who passed down stories of the Confederate Vampyres and raised their children as Vampyre hunters, The Protectors they had called themselves, but she still did not know whether the man had really almost raped the girl, or if it had been all some cruel trick to lure Vanessa out into the open. Either way, Vanessa constantly looked around Newton for signs of hunters and, even ten years later, worried about opening up to humans who could actually be Vampyre slayers. It seemed silly now to think Charlie could be one of The Protectors and she tried to smile at herself for suspecting him, but all she could think of was how strangely similar he looked to Vampyre Charlie.