Chapter Two: Juliana, Shirtless Vampires, Hard kissing and Darkness
I wake with a start, I have a throbbing headache and my surroundings are unusually dark. I stand to see darkness, no light from the torches of the wall. Nothing. Then I hear a scurrying of feet, I follow the noise and I am consciously aware that the woman and Steve are not here and my cell is wide open. I brace myself just incase the cell door is closed but there is no collision. The scurrying stops and I crouch down with fear. I have not stepped outside my cell and I'm scared of the unknown. Anything could be wandering around in the dark. I wait for what seems like an eternity until the scurrying starts again. The noise is more near and clearer than before. I recognize the scurrying to the noise rats make when they steal food and want to escape. Last term in biology we studied rat's behavior patterns and eating habits. I guess after this incident I won't finish my senior year at uni. I follow the rat's scurrying until I am sure they are right in front of me. I bend down and feel for the food, overwhelmed by hunger, and my fingers meet something warm and wet. I withdraw my hands and smell the liquid. Blood! Horrified, I step back and run straight into someone. I scream and soon realize it was very stupid because my scream echoes throughout the darkness alerting every soul within the vicinity. The person covers my mouth and whispers in a husky voice; "I am here to help! My name is Kurda Smahlt. I'm guessing you're the Vertahleenee Caffarelli I've been hearing non-stop from the boy!" His voice is so nice and reassuring, I think I'm in love even though I only hear his voice. It's also all these emotions bottling inside me. I think at any moment they might explode and I'll rush out and do something absurd it's a pity I cannot see my savior but I am sure he's handsome. I feel his face for features. Nice nose, mouth, eyelashes are long, long blonde hair, chiseled jaw. Gorgeous. "You're not a monster are you?" I ask. "The thing that has wrongly imprisoned you is being punished. He was a vampaneze. A form of vampire, they drink more than enough blood then they should, kill their victims. But they are not that bad!" I scowl, even though he can't see it, "Not bad! He was going to kill me. He drank my blood!" "I know" Kurda reassured me with a brief explanation of the murderous vampaneze that had imprisoned me. He told me some are good and only kill if need be others rampage and kill every living breathing thing in sight. He also told me about blooding. The way a human can be turned into a vampire or a vampaneze. They cut the tips of your fingers along with theirs and join them together so the vampire, or vampaneze, blood will run through your veins. "Wow, and I thought that a bite to the neck will do the trick!" Kurda laughed, "You're very pretty Vertahleenee!" I blushed and then realized it was pitch black. "How can you…?" I ask, scared for the first time around him. "I'm a vampire!" he answers. I shrink backwards. Frightened that at any minute he will pounce on me and drink from my blood. "Do not worry! I don't feed from the likes of the living. I prefer the dead. The dead that have only just died, that is! I have contacts that work in the morgue here in this city!" I relax and then walk back to him, my hands in front of me so I know where I'm going. "Why is it so dark?" I ask him. "The torches were snuffed by that stupid woman who offered you to the vampaneze in the return for his death. Unfortunately, it worked more his way then hers, thanks to me! She was a vampire hunter, her name Sakura Mori, Japanese for cherry blossom forest. She has been tracking down this beast for months but with no luck until she happened to be going to a nightclub and saw you. And then the moon shone on an alley near by and revealed Zanath, that's the vampaneze that's been following you for months!" I gasp, he knows so much but he sounds so young. "Why me?" I ask. "I don't know!" he answers in a depressed tone. I feel the mood between us change, a spark of jealousy and then fear. "How old are you?" I ask him the mood has a sudden burst of energy, "I stopped counting at 38!" We both laugh a lot, both knowing he is well older than what he looks (or feels). "Take my hand!" he says, "I'm taking you to the surface. Steve is waiting for you!" "NO!" I yell furiously, "Firstly, there is a body over there and secondly, he tried to rape me and then he tried to drink from me!" Kurda sighs, "The body first!" He takes my hand and our fingers thread through each other's. It feels as though they belong to stay like this. He has no trouble locating the body. "Zanath killed her!" he says. "What does she look like?" I ask, curious. "Long brown hair, one green eye, one blue. A small button nose and a distinctive pout!" he says. "Check her arm for a banana shaped scar!" I demand. "Which arm" he asks. "RIGHT!" I say furious with the possibility. He unthreads his fingers bends down and stands back up. "It's there," he answers. An extreme sense of loss and disparity overwhelms me and I collapse in a heap. I feel Kurda next to me, "Who was she?" I try to talk but I have to stop to breathe in between sobs, "Her name was Juliana Morrison. She was my best friend. She was my roommate. We did biology at uni together. How long has she been dead?" Kurda checks Juliana again. "Not more than a day or two!" I start to cry again and Kurda puts an arm around me. All these mixed emotions are so overpowering I push Kurda to the ground and sink my lips into his. His arms wrap around me and embrace me in a crushing grip. We're kissing very hard and my hands roam to find the bottom of his shirt. I rip it off and he rolls on top of me. And then the emotions flee and guilt, sorrow and fear cover me. I push Kurda off me, and wipe my mouth. "No!" I say, "We only just met! You're a vampire and I'm a human. My best friend died, I don't know where I am and there's a vampaneze on the lose" He puts his shirt back on and lends a comforting arm, "We could continue this later?" I laugh, and it feels so wrong but so right. "Let's get out of here!" I say. And he takes my hand and guides me through the dark.