Forbidden Love
"It'll be fine Dean." I tell him over the phone.
"I just, I have a gut feeling something is wrong with him."
"I know and trust me I do too but we have to just play it out alright?" I said to him
"Just be careful."
"Always. I'll call if we need anything." I say and hung up the phone as Sam walked over, "Hey. Whattya got?"
"Six girls in seven days, which is more disappearances than this city has seen in over a year - all about the same age."
"That's a little strange." I point out looking through the files.
"Yeah, well half a dozen girls, late teens, a shower away from greatness. Sounds like a profile. I mean, what else they got in common?"
"Well...six directions to go here. Pick a number." I tell him
"Seven. Another call just came in today." He says and we get into my car and drive
"Kristin's a good kid. A little naive, sure...you try to be a good parent. Girls are hard." Kristin's father tells us
"Right. Well, we'd just like to find your daughter." Sam tells him
"Last door on the left." He says pointing upstairs
"Thanks." I said and we head up
"Whaddya think he was talking about?" I whispered to Sam
"Drugs?" Sam asked and we walk into Kristin's room and I turn the light on. The walls are painted red and covered with vampire posters. Vampire and gothic accessories are everywhere - there are even vampire pillows on the bed.
"Oh, it is SO much worse." I mentioned
"Vampires?"
"Ah, these aren't vampires, man, these..." I started to say and Sam shuts the door and we catch sight of a full-sized cut-out of a "vampire". "...These are douche bags."
"Yeah."
"Wow." I said and walked over to the book shelf.
"Aha. All right." Sam walked over to the desk with Kristin's laptop, "Let's see what we can see. All right." He turns on the laptop; it makes a screaming noise and a picture of an intense-looking fake vampire pops up causing us to flinch, "Th-that's just...uncomfortable."
"What's he so bummed out about?" I asked and Sam starts pressing keys; a password prompt pops up. I looked down and see a paperback book on the desk, entitled "My Summer Blood". The cover illustration is a teenage girl in a white nightgown, asleep on a bed, while a pale-skinned, handsome male vampire stands next to the open, moonlight-soaked window, staring down at her, "Look at this. He's watching her sleep. How is that not rape-y?" I asked
"I gotta concentrate here, Lexi." Sam says and I start flipping through the pages. Sam tries a password but the laptop makes the screaming noise again.
"He could hear the blood rushing inside her, almost taste it. He tried desperately to control himself. Romero knew their love was impossible - " Romero? Really?" I asked
"Alexis. Shut up."
"This is a national bestseller. How is that possible?" I asked and picked up one of the vampire pillows while Sam tries yet another password and fails, "Hey, try, uh -Lautner".
"Wait - he's a werewolf. How do you even know who that is?"
"Are you kidding me? He's everywhere. It's a freakin' nightmare." I tell him
"Hey, how many T's are there in Pattins-" Sam began to ask but the laptop accepts the password, "That's it. We're in! Ha!" He starts looking through a Facebook-style page.
"Well?" I asked him walking back over to the desk
"Well, her inbox is full, from some guy claiming to be a vampire."
"A real vampire?" I asked
"Well, uh... "I can only meet you at night...I don't trust myself with you...the call of your blood is too strong..." Vampires fishing for victims?"
"Probably just a human mouth-breather, right?" I said
"On the other hand - talk about easy prey."
"For actual vamps." I point out
"Yeah. I mean, these chicks are just throwing themselves at you. All you gotta do is...I dunno. Write bad poetry." He says
"Huh!"
"Wow. This guy wanted to meet her at a place called The Black Rose." Sam told me
"Gimme a break..."
"Just reporting the news." He said
"It's probably just your standard-issue perv, right?" I asked and Sam closes the laptop.
"Well, you wanted Emo chicks, I think we hit Ground Zero." I tell Sam as we walk up to the bar and a waitress in a rubber suit gives us our drinks, "Thank you." I tell her and she walked away, "You think she wears all that rubber to the beach? When was the last time we had a beer together, anyway?" I asked Sam but he wasn't paying attention
"There." He said nodding to a teenage boy in a black coat and a dog collar chatting up a pretty teenage girl, "Whaddya think? He's hittin' on her hard enough. Real?"
"I dunno. It's hard to tell." I said and continued to look around and spots two other young men talking with girls, "Hey, we got multiple choice."
"Great. Three of them and two of us," Sam says and we watch as one of the men kisses another guy.
"Okay. Make that two of them."
"One's on the move." Sam says and I see the teenage boy in the leather coat walk out with the girl then the other man we had our eyes on leaves the room as well.
"All right. You go with Efron, I got Bieber." I tell him and we part ways
I followed the couple out and just when I see the kid about to take a bite I grab him from behind and threw him back
"Hey!"
"Go - get outta here!" I said to the girl and she runs away
"Wait, what..." The boy said and started to babble a bit then I slam him against the dumpster on the other side of the alley, "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Open your mouth!" I tell him and the boy obeys, revealing fangs - just two, on his canine teeth, "Take those out. Take 'em out!" The boy pulls off the fake fangs, "Oh, for the love of... What're you, twelve?" I asked him and looked a little closer, "Are you wearing glitter?"
"I only do it to get laid!"
"All right, mmmbop your way outta here. Go, go!" I tell him and the boy runs off, "And use a condom!" I yelled and started to walk away.
"You're pretty..." I heard someone say and I turn around and see someone else in the alley
"I'm sorry?" I asked him
"I said...you're pretty."
"Yeah, sorry again, pal. I'm not interested." I tell him and he grabs me then launched me through the air and I land on the dumpster then rolled into a pile of trash bags. I take a few moments to recover even though my vision blurry. I see the man walk towards me and in a daze I grab hold of a large pipe and take a swing at the guy, who ducks the attack easily. He soon has me pinned against the dumpster and began punching me. He pins me with his right arm, just below my throat then brings his left wrist up to his fangs and bites. I feel helpless and unable to move as the smears his blood over my mouth. I make a guttural noise in protest, but can't defend myself and end up swallowing it.
"NO!" I hear Sam yell and he rushes over to the man who releases then releases me. Sam makes a few slashes with the machete, which the man deftly evades. He laughs and makes a "bye-bye" wave before running away and climbing up the wall and escaping while I lay on the ground next to the dumpster, panting, blood all over my mouth.
"Sammy..." I said weakly then blacked out
Sam shuts the curtains in the hotel room as I hold my hands to my head. The regular noises of the city - cars, horns, sirens - are now amplified in my head, "Oh my God, what is that sound?" I asked him
"What sound, Lexi?"
I push over the lamp and it crashes to the floor and I wince. The siren and honking of a passing fire truck gets louder. I hear the muffled sounds of the TV in the neighboring room and I pound on the wall. Sam turns the light off but every noise is deafening, from his footsteps to the click of the light switch. Now Sam's steady heartbeat reaches my ears.
"Lexi, you should sit down..."
"You sit down." I tell him and sat on the edge of one of the beds and cradled my head in my hand. A passing freight train pounds into my ears, "Of all the ways to die, I never thought I'd be going out like this."
"Lexi, nobody is going out".
I hear a loud, mechanical ticking sound and looked over to the nightstand and watched as the alarm clock flips over to 11:11 pm. and I get up, "It's that..."
"What?"
I rip the clock's cord out of the wall, which causing sparks to shoot out then faced Sam, "Samuel is gonna kill me when he gets here."
"No, Lexi, he's not!"
"Yes he is, cause I'm gonna ask him to because you won't do it." I tell him
"Okay, just hold on a second..."
"For what, huh? Look at me!" I yelled
"We can figure this out!"
"How?!" I asked him and Sam doesn't answer. I now pick up on how calm Sam's heartbeat is, "Why aren't you freaked out?" I asked
"Of course I am!"
"Really? Cause I can hear your heartbeat, and it's pretty damned steady." I point out
"That's cause I'm...I'm trying to remain calm. Lexi, look - Samuel will know what to do."
"C'mon, Sam, I'm a monster, okay? This is not a problem that you spit-ball. We gotta deal with this before I hurt somebody." I said and there was an uncomfortable pause. I hold my head again and groan.
"How's it feel?"
"Now? Now you wanna talk about my feelings?" I asked him
"No, I mean...physically."
"How do you think it feels? Not good!" I said and walked to the bathroom
"Where you goin'?"
"Bathroom, okay? News flash, Mr. Wizard: vampires pee!" I yelled and stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door but right away regretted it because it echoed in my head. I go to the sink and splashed some water on my face, then looked at my reflection. I lift my lip with my finger to reveal that my fangs have already grown in. I hang my head and closed my eyes. After a moment, I turn the water on again then looked around and went to the window opening it going out.
I walked down the back alley way trying to see straight despite how blurry my vision was and I leaned against the dumpster groaning, "Oh come on Lexi you can fight this." I tell myself and continued walking then a horn honked and I stopped then sat down against the wall behind me.
"Alexis." I heard someone say and I focused my vision to see Cas walk towards me, "What happened?"
"Cas?" I asked him and held my head again.
"What happened?" He repeated and I looked at him.
"Vampire. I'm turning into a.." I said and stopped when I heard a rushing sound. I didn't know where it was coming from until I looked at Cas.
"Let's get you back to Sam." He tells me and helped me up but I still heard the rushing sound then looked at him.
"No. You...you need to get away from me." I tell him and pushed him away then started to walk.
"I can't do that."
"Damn it Cas don't you get it? I can hear the blood rushing through your veins!" I tell him and groaned as more noises hurt my ears.
"Alexis.." He started to say putting his hand on my shoulder and I looked down at it seeing the veins bulge out and the blood move through them. I grabbed his arm and turned him around pinning him against the wall and looked at his neck, "You need to fight this." He said and I swallowed as I continued to stare at his neck and moved closer, "Alexis." He says and I backed away and ran.
"She's not herself, Sam. She's a monster and she's hungry. You gotta be prepared to do the right thing." I heard Samuel say as I got back to the room
"I told you he'd kill me when he showed up." I tell them and they both look at me as I hunched myself against a cabinet and they quickly draw their machete's
"Did you feed?" Samuel asked me
"I went for a walk."
"Alexis, answer the question." He tells me
"You can relax, I didn't "drink" anyone." I tell him
"Thank God."
"But I came close." I said and slowly removed my jacket, "All right. Do it."
"Okay...if you insist...or I can just turn you back."
"What?" Me and Sam both asked him
"I didn't drive all this way to kill you, Alexis - I'm here to save you."
The three of us sit at the table and Samuel opens his journal and slides it to me, "That's my grandfather's journal. Cure's an old Campbell recipe, kind of like the soup. No one's tried it since God knows. What I hear...this stuff is a bad trip."
"Awesome." I tell him
"Hey - the cure is good. But a lot of this is on you. You drink, you're done. It won't work. I'm talking one drop of human blood-"
"I got it." I said
"Do you? Because you will feed. It's a matter of time." Samuel says and I slammed the journal shut.
"What else do we need?" I asked him
"Some stuff we got, some we gotta get. Trickiest thing on the list: blood of the fang that turned ya."
"That guy was huge." Sam pointed out
"There's nothing in the recipe about easy".
"I can get it." I tell them standing up
"You're gonna walk right into the nest?" Samuel asked me
"Well, I'm one of them, aren't I? So all I gotta do is get in there, get the guy alone, and...shoot him with so much dead man's blood that he'll think he's rushing a fraternity."
"I should come with you." Sam says
"No. Dude, you reek. You're like a walking hamburger. I gotta do this solo." I tell him
"Yeah, except - we haven't been able to find him yet."
"No problem. I can smell him." I said putting on my jacket, "Two miles east of town. You guys get the other crap and meet me there." I tell them and head towards the door.
"Alexis." Samuel said and holds out a large syringe filled with blood, "It's dead man's blood. Now, there's enough there to drop a linebacker, and then some." He tells me and I slowly reach for it, smelling the blood inside, "Good luck." He says and I take it then left.
I see the vampires' black SUV parked in front of a warehouse. Two vamps exit the building through a metal-grate door. As it starts to swing shut I attach a rope to it, allowing me to keep the door open. I avoid the vamps and sneak into the building.
I start to sneak through the hallway of the run-down warehouse, when my way is suddenly blocked by someone, "S'up?"
"Hey. I'm..."
"The chick Boris turned outside the bar, right? Said to look out for you." The guy tells me
"Yeah."
"Well. Glad you made it!" He raises his fist for a knuckle-bump; after a second I comply, "Follow me." The guy leads me through the hallways, "So you must be starving."
"Uh..." I started to say and he walks up to a fridge full of blood bags. He slides the door open and selects a bag and I try really hard to resist the temptation as I feel my mouth water a little.
"Here ya go."
"I'm okay." I tell him and he looks at me oddly then I smiled, "I killed so many people on the way over here, so..."
"Yeah, uh, about that...company line is we, we don't just kill people anymore...but you gotta tell me what that's like."
"Yeah. Yeah, first chance I get, I'll...I'll show you myself." I tell him
"Sweet." He rips the stopper off the bag and takes a swig. I look at him and my mouth begins to feel like hasn't had water in days, and is being forced to watch someone down a frosty bottle of Evian. I eye the blood bags once more, but forced away and followed the guy down a flight of stairs, through a crowd of more vampires, "Don't worry about them. They're jealous. The recruiters get to bang all the chicks." He says glancing at me.
"Recruiters?" I asked him
"Yeah. Big man'll explain." He said and I now find myself in what looks like the main room of an old bank. Seated at a desk, in front of a laptop, is a newly-turned girl which I assumed was Kristin and Boris leans over her with a hand on her back.
"Be with you in a minute." He tells us holding up a finger, "Your skin is the black velvet of the night." Nice. Stupid bitch'll eat that up, she'll be dying to meet." He leans in closer and takes a long sniff of Kristin's hair, and she recoils. I look and see several newly-turned female vamps locked in cages, sucking down blood from bags, "Go get yourself some blood, sweetheart. Then march that little ass right back here, okay?" Kristin gets up and she quickly locks eyes with me before exiting the room, "Thank goodness. Thought the hunter chopped your pretty head." Boris says to me
"Naw. I got away. Sorry, what's a "hunter"?" I asked him
"You'll see if he finds us. You'll see him inside out." He said and laughed, "You eaten?"
"Yeah."
"Good. You'll need your strength." He tells me
"For?"
"Robert didn't tell you?" He asked then snorts then gets close to my face, "How old do I look?"
"Thirty-three?" I asked
"You're off...by about...six centuries? And these are the best days in the last six hundred years to be a vampire." He said and laughed as he paced around me, "Dracula? Anne Rice? Please. These stupid little brats are so horny they've reinvented us as Prince Charming with a Volvo. They..." He says and reaches through the bars of one of the cages and grabs a vamp girl by the hair, "...Want a promise ring with fangs, so I give it to 'em. You - you go out and you get them, and you bring 'em home to me." He tells me and releases the vamp girl; she falls back with a cry.
"So what's with the cages?" I asked him
"Oh, that's just, y'know...till they're compliant. Eventually these girls will go out, and they'll fetch me boys, like what you will be doing and around and around we go..."
"Gotta say, I'm impressed. This whole system, it's...it's all you?" I asked him and he laughed
"No, no, no, no...I just...implement, y'know? Make sure you all fall in line." He says and points to the ceiling, "It's his...our father's..." He said and I looked up to see a huge Frank Lloyd Wright-looking stained glass decoration on the ceiling.
"Your father's?"
"Aren't you the curious one?" He asked me
"Oh, you don't know the half of it."
Boris leaned in closer, seriously violating some personal space issues, "In due time. You...you want the private tour, don't you?"
"Thought you'd never ask." I tell him trying not to vomit and he steps away and makes a beckoning motion with his finger. He turns his back on me and starts to walk the other way. With my game-face on, I reach into my pocket, withdrew the syringe of dead man's blood, and uncapped it then raised it up ready to plunge it into him but one drop leaks out and hits the floor. Boris must have heard it because he quickly turns. I try to stab him with the needle but Boris grabs my arm, moves behind me twisting my arm behind my back. With his free hand, Boris grabs me in a choke-hold.
"You playing games with me, bitch?" He asked and squeezed my arm until I was forced to drop the syringe and he laughs in triumph. But suddenly he releases me and I look to see his eyes are drawn upwards and after a moment, he falls flat on his back, eyes still wide open. I look on, highly confused, then heard the caged vampire girls dropping limply to the floor. After another moment, though, my eyes start to roll backwards a little, and I collapse as well.
A quick series of visions flashes through my mind...
A man sitting on a bench in the night. A little girl in a frilly dress and a flower in her hair. A graveyard filled with white wooden crosses. A cell dividing. An African-American man - the alpha vamp - reaching out, with long, sharp fingernails. A large, ivy-covered house. The girl again. The alpha vamp on the bench. Blood cells rushing through a vein. The graveyard, dissolving into a classroom with rows upon rows of empty desks. The little girl. The alpha vamp by a pond. The dividing cell. A computer animation of the circulatory system, dissolving into a roadmap, where the highways pump like veins. A red circle is drawn around Aurora, Illinois. The alpha vamp by the pond.
My eyes are still closed, but they dart back and forth under my eyelids, as if I was dreaming and the vision continues...
The alpha vamp by the pond. The graveyard, then back to the alpha vamp, then the graveyard. The ivy-covered house, where the little girl is having a tea party on the lawn - at night. She feeds her dolls blood. The graveyard. A pulsating cell. Blood in the vein. The cell divides. Another shot of the cell dividing. The little girl is standing under a tree. Suddenly a twin flickers in beside her. She smiles, revealing a mouth full of fangs. The twin does the same. The doll with blood on her face. The alpha vamp on the bench, only now the twin girls are sitting on the ground next to the bench. The dividing cell. A weather vane with a bird. The alpha vamp at the pond. The twin girls play with their dolls next to the pond; they look up at the alpha vamp. He bends over and strokes one of the twins' faces with his pointed fingernail. It leaves a trail of blood on her cheek. He smiles fondly. Blood cells in the vein. The bloody doll. The graveyard. The alpha vamp and the twins; he straightens up and points. The front hallway of the house; the door opens, and the twins walk through, hand in hand. A doll's hand. One twin. The house. The alpha vamp reaching. A cell dividing. The graveyard. One twin. The alpha vamp on the bench.
I blink my eyes and came out of the vision. I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the stained glass ceiling, which is blurry. I look around and suddenly realizes that Boris is up and releasing the vampire girls from their cages. I get up quickly and start to run. One of the vamp guards rushes down the stairs and attacks me, but is quickly brought down after I inject him with the dead man's blood.
"GO GET HER!" I hear Boris yell and I hightail it up the stairs; I'm attacked by another vamp guard when I reach the top. I make quick work of him and tossed him down the stairs and into the crowd of advancing vamps. Next I encounter Robert, who doesn't stand a chance because I quickly took out my machete and beheaded him. The crowd of vamp girls swarm me and I start swinging killing them all.
I take advantage of my vamp abilities and leap straight over the railing, landing deftly on the ground below. The nest is quiet because I killed everyone, well almost everyone. My eyes dart back and forth, looking for Boris.
"You've stopped nothing, you know that?" He asked me and stepped out into the open, "This is much bigger than you and me." He says and I get my machete ready as Boris lifts his hand and makes a beckoning motion.
"Lexi, you okay?" Sam asked me as I sit there on the steps.
"Yeah, I'm good." I tell him as I stare at Boris's head on the floor under my boot.
Samuel squirts a syringe of Boris's blood into a jar that holds the cure potion as I stand there panting while holding my stomach hearing their heartbeats, "If this works, you know it's not gonna be a kiddy ride, you know that." Samuel tells me
"I don't care let's do it."
"So what'd you see in there?" Sam asked me and I looked at him confused
"What?"
"In the nest - what'd you see?" He asked
"Sam, I can't hear you - your blood is so frickin' loud, okay? Just - just back off." I tell him and Samuel pours the potion into a coffee mug, "All right, gimme the damn cure." I said and he hands me the mug. I take a whiff and recoiled then lifted the mug, "L'chaim..." I say and chugged the potion messily, then tried to keep it down. Nothing happens. I spit a little bit out, "I don't think it-" I started to say then suddenly spun around vomited what looked like blood into the waste basket.
"Is it working?" I hear Sam ask
"Either that or she's dying." Samuel says and I finished vomiting and struggled to take a breath then raised my head clutching my stomach and moaned in agony as I feel my fangs go away. Just then I start to get flashes of the evening, playing out in reverse...
Me using Boris's head as a footstool. Boris beckoning me as I readied the machete. Injecting the guard with dead man's blood. Boris invading my personal space. Boris sniffing Kristin's hair. Me pushing Cas into the wall.
I collapsed on the ground as my body twitched.
Breaking the lamp in the motel room.
I continue to twitch, and struggled to breathe...
The bulbs in the ceiling lamp blinding me. Sam and I in the alley after I was turned, blood on my mouth. Sam fighting Boris. Boris smearing blood over my lips. Sam watching the attack. Boris roughing me up against the dumpster. Finally...Sam's mouth ticking upward into a smirk as he watched me get turned.
My eyes flies open and the world is silent again. I try to process what I just saw and blinked a few times then struggled to sit up. Sam and Samuel rush over to help me, Sam pats me on the shoulder, but I look at him strangely realizing my brother threw me under the bus.
"So, what'd you see?" Sam asked me and I looked at him
"What?"
"In the nest. What'd you see?" He asked again and I looked at him
"Uhm...well, I'm still trying to work through it, but, uh...I'm pretty sure they're not figuring anything out on their own. They're getting their orders from the top...where to go next, everything."
"Top, as in...?" Samuel asked me
"Their alpha. At least, that's what I think it is. They've got some sort of psychic thing happening. He sends 'em, uh...I don't know - messages?"
"Saying what?" Sam asked
"Honestly? Recruitment drive. Their alpha's building an army."
"Well, that's comforting." Samuel says
"That's not the worst." I tell them
"Then what is?" Sam asked
"We don't scare them anymore."
"Alexis." I heard Cas say as I put my bag in the trunk and faced him, "Are you.."
"A monster? No, fully cured."
"That is good news." He says and I nodded my head
"Cas I'm sorry, for attacking you I just...why were you there anyways?"
"I heard you." He said and I looked at him confused
"I didn't pray to you."
"Most people don't have to, even if you just think about a certain angel we can pick up on it." He says
"I see. Well that's interesting."
"How do you feel?" He asked
"Well at first it felt like a really bad hangover. After I took the cure it felt...freeing I guess."
"Well I'm glad you're okay. I have to go." He tells me
"Cas wait.." I started to say but he was gone, "Yeah figured." I said and Sam walked over.
"You okay?" He asked and I nodded, "I'm sorry Lexi. I wish I would have been quicker getting to you."
"It's alright. I at least know that no matter what you got my back. No matter what happens, I can always count on you, right, Sammy?" I asked him walking to the driver's side and Sam paused.
"Yeah. Of course, Lexi." He says with a smile but I can't seem to believe him. We both get into the car and drive off. One way or another, I'm gonna find out what's going on with my brother.