Part II: See The Sun
Chapter 9: Vladimir's Not Here

1

There are many things we do to satisfy the people around us. Very few things that we do in our life are for our own enjoyment. As Joss fell to the Earth I felt no remorse for my deed or any immediate regret. I felt joy – I felt exhilaration because for the first time in a long time, I was happy.

Seeing his body fall down to the traffic of the Vegas strip at a hundred miles per hour lit up my life. For one millisecond I was excited, exalted by the pure thrill of the fact that there was a possibility that I could finally live in peace. Not fear.

But as I saw Russell Edgington speed towards the Earth a fearful thought passed my mind. For a second the thought was so real and alive, but deep down I didn't know if it had any truth to it. The purple vanishes from my eyes as I fly off into oblivion.

Joss is going to live forever.

2 – FIVE MONTHS LATER

My field of vision is foggy as I step out into the moonlight in the Grand Canyon. The cave I've been spending my time in seems darker and darker these days. The silence is unbecoming; and I like that. I drop down a few rocks and they make a huge crashing noise as I land on the final one fifty feet down.

I sniff the air and then zoom to the nearest tourist attraction. A car is rocking left and right in the darkness. I smell sex in the air and move closer – hiding behind a sign and looking closer. A man and a woman are having aggressive sex in the back of the car.

I notice something then that rocks me. There's another car nearby and a sliver of blood on the ground. I listen closer to the people in the car and then I notice something shocking.

The woman is being raped.

3

Meredith Brookstone is packing to head back to college for the next semester. Her parents are sad to see her go but Meredith is quite happy as she finishes packing and her father takes the last bag out to her car.

"So you're sure your friends are going to meet you at the BP by the highway?" Her father asks for the third time and she rolls her eyes.

"Yes, dad. I promise. I don't see why you're so worried. I've done this drive tons of times." She shuts the trunk of her car and then walks to the driver's door.

"Honey. Your father has every right to be worried, I mean, this is the first time you've ever driven with friends without any parental guidance."

Meredith smiles and then opens her door. "I promise, you guys are worried about nothing."

They smile at her and then her mother comes forward and hugs her sweetly. "We're just worried. You know how we are. We believe in you baby. We know you're more than responsible enough to get there."

Her father scoffs. "It's that boyfriend of yours we worry about."

Meredith rolls her eyes again and hugs her father.

"I swear, I'll be fine daddy." He embraces her as she holds him and the two eventually separate. He smiles at her and she smiles back at him.

"See you on your birthday buttercup."

Meredith slowly gets into her car and smiles up at her parents. "I'll be home before you know it."

She closes her door and puts on her seatbelt. As she pulls away her mother gets an uneasy feeling. As if she's having some kind of premonition. A part of her wanted to stop Meredith right there and make her come back inside the house and stay forever.

But she knew she couldn't do that. Deep down in her heart she knew her daughter would be fine.

If only she knew how wrong her heart was.

4

Meredith stops at the BP and gets out of the car. Her boyfriend runs over to her and picks her up in a hug. He smiles and kisses her sweetly on the lips and then lowers her to the ground. He smiles at her and she smiles back waiting for him to say something.

He kisses her again and this time pushes his tongue in her mouth, exploring her taste and pulling her closer as she whimpers into his mouth.

The two eventually separate and he laughs lightly. "Sorry. I'm just so happy to see you."

She hugs him again as his friends Jamie and Peter walk out of the gas station with a few bags, smiling and hugging each other.

Meredith and Cody turn to face the two as Peter begins to speak. "Hey, I guess the boys will ride together and girls will ride together?"

Cody's face contorts. "What? That's no fun. Why can't you and your girlfriend ride together and me and my girlfriend ride together?"

"My girlfriend and I." Meredith says as she shakes his grip. She walks over to Jamie and elbow-locks with her. "Besides, I would love to ride with Jamie. I think that's a great idea Peter."

Jamie and Meredith walk past Cody as he punches Peter on the arm. "Nice work cock block."

The girls get in their respective cars and the boys do the same. The look on Cody's face is priceless is he angrily climbs in the back of the Boy Car.

The cars drive off in the distance and a man stands at the gas station watching them drive away. He has a lollipop in his mouth, and his denim jacket moves slightly in the wind.

5

The cars trundle down the highway, and the vegetation dwindles to null as they begin to pass deserts and rocky outcropping.

The sun is just setting on the horizon as they pull over to the final gas station on the long road through the Mojave Desert. The boys fill both take and there's an eerie silence between the four of them as they climb back in the cars. But Meredith has to use the bathroom so she jumps back out of the car and runs into the station and asks for the key to the bathroom.

She walks over to the bathroom and lets herself inside. Two stalls sit in the dark room, both very obviously old and downtrodden.

Meredith selects the one on the left and sits down and does her business. Before she can stand and leave the bathroom a noise blows into the room. A pair of boots pass Meredith's stall and stop at the next one over. The shady figure then sits on the toilet but the person doesn't drop his or her pants. Meredith gasps. What do I do? She wonders if she's just imagining the fear and stands up to leave her stall but then there's a loud crash and suddenly the boots are in front of her stall.

She hears one of her friends yell for her outside and the figure stomps out.

Meredith takes that as her only chance to leave. She pushes the stall door open and runs out of the bathroom. Then, without a word to anyone, she hops in the car and they drive away.

6

The sound of the road echoes in Meredith's ears as she tries to get some sleep.

Jesse McCartney drones quietly on the radio as Jamie picks up the pace a little bit on the road. Out here the smell is nothing but dirt and heat. And Meredith can't think of a more peaceful time to take a nap.

The sun is but a distant memory now as they move down the highway at a slow pace, and it's at that moment Meredith notices the truck driving close behind her car.

"Jamie. Do you see this asshole?" She says as Jamie looks in the rearview. The boys are perhaps fifty feet ahead at all times, pulling a speed a little bit higher than the girls.

"Yeah, he's just a-"

Suddenly the car lurches and Jamie swerves the steering wheel to keep it steady, but it's of no use. The car completely flips and lands in a ditch.

Meredith is launched from the window and lands with a sickening crunch down the street. The boys' car turns quickly to come back and the truck speeds forward. In just a few seconds Meredith's boyfriend's car is smashed hard and comes to a stop right outside of an empty tourist attraction.

The truck turns back around and passes Meredith, and suddenly she hears the engine die nearby.

There's silence.

And then footsteps. Meredith rolls onto her back and looks up into the face of evil. A man wearing a denim jacket and the boots from before.

"Well, aren't you just a blood-splattered angel?"

The man grins. Somewhere far away, Meredith screams.

7

I couldn't believe the smell of the blood. It made me dizzy for a few seconds and then made me hunger for her. Meredith. The love of my life.

She was being raped five feet away from me.

In a flash of speed I run to the side of the car and rip off the door, and then I pull the man from atop Meredith's body and throw him. He lands with a sickening crunch on the ground ten feet away from the car and I lay on top of Meredith and look at her body.

Her left eye is swollen and her skirt is hiked up to her hip bones. Her breeding farm resonates below my knee, covered in blood and semen.

The sheer vulgarity of the scene makes my stomach lurch at first, and then suddenly only the hunger remains. I get out of the car and speed over to the man lying on the ground with my fangs bared.

His leg is obviously shattered but I can tell by his face that he doesn't fear me.

He laughs as I run up to him and then he pulls a gun out of his pocket. "Don't you dare freak. I'll put a wooden bullet in your heart and put you down."

"I'm the Pravus. I'm immortal. Your wooden bullets will only irritate me." I lie. I know that my immortality was tainted long ago, but I keep the bluff up and he drops the gun.

"I don't want to hurt you Pravus. I come with a message. The people who sent me knew that the only way you would respond is if I hurt someone you knew or loved. This was the only way. You came when you knew she was endangered."

"I came to feed! It was random that Meredith was the one being attacked. It could have been any number of people!"

"So you think." Meredith is on the ground by the car now. As the man continues my fangs beg me to feed on her weak mutilated body. "You had the impulse to come out here whether you realize it or not. And now you're going to kill me to feed."

I laugh. "I would never feed on someone whose blood is so filled with waste and trash." The man was probably over 300 pounds, and filled with God only knows what.

"Then feed on her. We have no use for her anymore. Then we need to move on from here. We have a mission Vladimir. You have a calling."

"How do you know my name?" I ask. The man laughs again and then puts his hand to his broken leg and groans. "Give me a sip of your blood and I'll tell you."

"What?!" My eyes glow and the man winces. "You childish fool. Stop with the anger. Vampire blood has healing qualities, and you broke my leg. Now I can either leave this realm or have a few drops of your blood. One will take days while the other will take mere minutes. So decide."

I look over at Meredith and then back at the man. I rush over to her and look at her face, but all I see is a blood bag. No longer the girl I once loved.

"Vladimir?..." She asks. And turns to look at me with her good eye.
"Vladimir's not here." I answer. And suddenly my teeth are in her neck and the world is restored.

End Chapter.