ENTRY 9
GENESIS
My heels snapped over the wet pavement, steady despite the slick fallen leaves choking the sidewalks. It was cold out, I suppose, but I didn't feel the temperature. The sweater I wore was carefully chosen to help me blend in—and stand out—in exactly the ways I wanted.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I glanced down at it.
Alice:
The party is packed. You'll eat well.
I smiled, responding to her with a kiss emoji. Alice had opted out of eating humans back when we first met, but she never tried to talk me out of my own diet. True to form, my supportive friend used the extra gifts she possessed to find the right meals for me. The people who were going to commit atrocious crimes, the people that wouldn't be missed.
One block from the frat house, I caught an unfamiliar scent in the air. My whole body froze as I took it in. Sweet, musky, like tart apples and cognac. I spun around, my eyes scanning the dark street.
He stepped out of the shadows faster than I was ready for. My heart, a hardly functioning organ anymore, squeezed in shock as I skittered to an abrupt halt.
"Now, now," he tsked, his voice lightly European. "What have we here?"
I could feel the power rolling off him. He was far older than me, which meant he'd have a power I could only dream of.
It was nearly impossible to advance in Vampiric hierarchy. Our power was subject to how long we'd been a vampire. Sure, that meant we gained more as we aged, but there would always be a host who had been around millennia longer. Some vampires, like Alice, were reborn lucky, gifted with powers that aided their second life. But for most of us, we had to wait through time to grow any real strength.
"Looks like a lost lamb," another voice said behind me. I spun around to find a second vampire appearing behind me. Alice and I occasionally ran into other vampires, and for the most part they left us alone. We weren't rich enough to run in circles with the really old ones.
"Are you lost, lamb?" The first one asked. I turned to glare at him.
"I'm expected somewhere," I said, my voice stiff.
"No, I don't think so," the second one said, stepping closer to me. "We have a far better party for you."
Panic was starting to kick my slowly beating heart into a firmer pace, and I spun back to the one in front of me, trying to think of how to get out of this.
"Come on, lamb," the one in front of me said. "Don't make us mar that pretty little throat."
I swallowed hard. I knew they wouldn't bite me. Vampires couldn't feed off each other, not without losing our minds. Vampire blood was a quick death for us. One drop and we began to change, humanity completely driven out of us until we were mindless, savage things. Alice and I knew those vampires as Wildlings, though I'd heard the European vampires call them another name. Whatever those beasts were, it was never something one aspired to be.
These two wouldn't bite me, but there was plenty they could do to me.
"No, I…"
My words died on my tongue as one of the vampires grabbed me. He was so much faster and stronger than me, and the moment his hand touched my arm, I could feel his malice and ill intent.
They didn't mean for me to live through the night.
Panic set in, and instinct drove me to fight, even though I knew it was a futile battle. I whipped around, slamming a hand into the chest of the one who grabbed me, but he laughed and grabbed my other wrist as his friend wrapped his hands around my waist and they both dragged me off the street and into the shadows.
I brought a knee up, and managed to get one in the groin, but the other one grabbed me, holding my limbs out so that I couldn't struggle away. I could hear the one I'd kicked swearing, and it brought me a small degree of satisfaction.
He turned to glare at me, his red eyes burning, and in that moment I knew I had a choice.
I was going to die tonight, but I'd be damned if it was on their terms.
Sending a silent thought to Alice that I knew she'd not be able to hear, I bid her goodbye as the vampire came at me again. He didn't expect me to bite him, because it was suicidal, so he left his throat exposed as he lunged at me.
My teeth sank into his throat, like stone sliding through butter.
His companion screamed in surprise, and I fell from his grip. I tumbled down, but my teeth were clamped onto his friend's neck, drinking the sweetest blood I'd ever tasted. I felt drunk on the flavor, and I gulped him down greedily, blood flowing out of my mouth and down my throat.
I felt his friend shift to run, and I spun, letting go of the throat to clamp down on the second. He screamed, falling to his knees as I sucked the life out of him, my mind wild and frantic with hunger and energy.
I'd never known power like this. It was singing through my veins, pumping strength into every cell that made up my body.
I sucked the last drop of blood from the vampire and let him fall carelessly at my feet. My body was vibrating with power, my mind reeling with new knowledge, hundreds of years of memories and stories I'd ripped from their owners. I was so much more than a vampire; I was a Wildling.
Why had I feared this?
I waited for the madness to set in. We had seen it happen once. A vampire had turned on another, and within a matter of minutes had gone through the change and died.
I wondered if I would have time to see Alice before I died.
My body moved without actual thought, faster than I'd ever moved before. In less than a second, I was approaching the party.
"Fuck! Great costume!" One guy shouted at me as I drew nearer. I supposed it was fortuitous it was Halloween and the gore covering my body could be written off so easily.
I slipped into the packed house, my skin on overload with the touch of every human I passed.
I found Alice in the living room, dancing with a boy who had his hands wrapped around her waist.
"Bella!" she gasped when she saw me, untangling herself immediately. She tugged me out of the house without a word and didn't stop until we were in an alley two blocks away. "What happened to you?"
"I was attacked," I said, my voice thin. Alice frowned.
"And you decided to decorate yourself with their blood?"
I swallowed hard and shook my head. "I did it, Ali. I drank vampiric blood."
Alice hissed instinctually, her eyes going wide. "What? How long ago?"
"I think it'll happen any moment," I whispered, crimson tears burning my eyes.
"I didn't see any of this," she protested.
"I guess we found out there are limitations to your visions," I said, my voice hollow.
Alice glared at me. "Stop, this is no time to joke, we have to…"
But her voice died off. There was nothing to do, no way to save me.
"Will you just sit and wait with me?" I asked, my voice soft. Alice's own crimson tears were welling, and she nodded.
"Of course," she whispered.
We made our way to a rooftop, both somber and quiet as we waited for the horrific death to start.
Alice held my hand, and we sat together, silent and waiting.
In the east, dawn began to paint the sky a dark periwinkle. We'd been here for hours and somehow, I was still alive.
How was this possible?
"Bella," Alice said, as we watched the sun slip slower toward the horizon. "Are you sure you…"
I looked at her. "Yes, they were vampires. I drank them dry."
Alice shook her head.
"I don't understand," she said slowly. I didn't either. I should have been dust hours ago.
It was minutes before sunrise, and I was still breathing.
"Bella, we have to get inside," Alice urged quietly. I stared at the lightening sky. I hadn't seen a sunrise in one hundred years. How I longed to stay and watch this one.
"Bella," Alice urged.
I blinked, letting her pull me off the roof. If I wasn't dead yet, there was no point in lingering around and waiting for the sun to finish me off. I'd been given a gift tonight, one that it was best not to push.
I let Alice lead me off the roof and back down into the shadows where we belonged.
-G-
As soon as we were home, I slipped into the bathroom. I showered quickly, cleaning myself of all the spilled blood down my body. When I was done, I wrapped myself in my best towel and headed to my bedroom.
Young vampires—which Alice and I were still considered to be—still needed sleep. We didn't need a lot, about four hours or so, but we still had those needs.
I curled up on my bed without bothering to put clothes on. My blacked out window kept my room dark, but part of me longed to reach up and open it.
I wanted sun.
It was a completely suicidal thought though, and since I'd had my quota of those for the night, I laid back on my bed and willed myself to sleep.
-G-
I was ripped out of my dreams by the smell of tart apples and cognac.
I sat up, my heart slamming in my chest as I tried to take in my room past sleep-blurred eyes.
He melted out of the shadows like ink bleeding from a pen.
Tall, broad shouldered, pale skin that seemed to glow in the dark, and piercing red eyes.
"W-who are you?" I hissed, scrambling up on my bed. His eyes draped over my body, and I realized I was still naked. I hissed again and yanked my blanket over myself. His gaze returned to my face, an amused smirk on his full lips.
"I saw what you did tonight," he said, his voice low and slow. He was powerful, probably more powerful than any other vampire I'd ever come across. I could feel it filling and pulsing in the room. He was a predator, and I was most definitely nothing more than prey.
"W-what?" I choked.
He moved silently, and so fast even my advanced eyes couldn't track him. He leaned down, taking my face into one hand, his red eyes boring into mine.
I didn't speak, didn't dare breathe, as he gazed at me.
Finally, he nodded. "Get up," he instructed, releasing my chin. "And get dressed. We have to leave."
"What? Where?" I asked, unmoving.
He scowled down at me.
"We have to get you out of here before every Wildling comes tearing through here, hunting for you."
"But there are no wildlings. They die within minutes."
"Most do. The ones that survive are all predator, no conscious thought. And if they scent you here, they will come in droves and devour everyone in their path."
My heart lurched in my chest. "Where are you taking me?"
I climbed out of bed and quickly pulled on some clothes.
"We have to get you somewhere safe."
"Why?"
He turned to me. "Because you are something unspeakably rare, and if anyone finds out, they will kill you."
My mouth went dry. "But I'm nothing special."
He shook his head, striding toward me. "You are. You're a Genesis. Your blood could change the world. Now come, we have to go."
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