Chapter 1-A Fatal Meeting
"Eggs, Mom, really?" I muttered as I switched on my brights. The roads were fairly empty tonight.
It had been just a little after 10pm, right around the time I was putting a bookmark in my novel-Wide Sargasso Sea- and starting to head to bed, that Renée called to me in a panic from the kitchen. Her school was having its Holiday Assembly tomorrow, and she had forgotten that she had signed up to make three dozen cupcakes. Phil couldn't help, he was away at the baseball Winter Meeting in Anaheim, networking and trying to get signed. Renée dragged me into the kitchen, and together we hastily began to bake. Luckily, Renée had managed to remember to buy enough chocolate cupcake mix. Unfortunately, she had forgotten to buy enough eggs, and after finishing the batter for one batch, we were out.
"Bella, how about you run down to the Safeway, and I'll stay here and watch the oven," Renée said, as she flitted about the kitchen in search of a piping bag leftover from her cake decorating class. Renée had initially wanted us to bake and decorate our own cake for her and Phil's wedding. But when neither of us had ended up with perfect cake borders and delicately piped flowers by the end of the course, Renée had acquiesced and asked the class instructor, a young pastry chef with her own bakery, for her card instead.
Renée located the piping bag, and set it down on the table beside our homemade buttercream (the one skill we had acquired from the class) and a case of festive edible pearls.
"Besides, I have to get started on decorating the first batch once they're ready. Take my car, the keys are...well I know I left them by the door because I was thinking about buying Phil that new coat I saw the other day, you know the one? It was a sort of navy blue, very flattering-" The oven timer beeped, and Renée jumped mid-sentence. "Oh! They're done!"
"Remember to let them cool!" I called, moving towards the door. Her purse was open, and hung precariously on one of the rungs of the eclectic coat rack. I fished Renée's keys out of the clay vase that sat just underneath the coat rack and headed out to her car.
Now, it was nearing 11pm, and I was driving to Safeway, praying that the store was still open and hoping that there wasn't some other item Renée would desperately need the moment I got home. I made a mental note to pick up some milk and extra frosting while at the supermarket, just in case.
"And maybe a tray of cookies..." I considered, knowing without me present, Renée might accidentally leave the cupcakes in the oven too long.
Suddenly, there was a dark figure in the middle of the road.
I swerved, but in my panic overcompensated, and hit the guard rail. I felt the car lurching sideways, until it rolled completely over and off the side of the road. My head banged against the headrest, and the seatbelt burned roughly across my chest and the side of my neck. The window shattered, and tiny glass fragments rained down on my skin. The car came to a stop, rolled over passenger side down. I was still strapped in, my arms dangling in front and to the side of me. I coughed, and took several quick, deep breaths in. My chest ached, and my head throbbed as I tried to blink through the dizziness. A rusty scent filled the car, and I groaned. That wouldn't help the dizziness.
Black spots danced across my vision, and there was a sudden, horrid, metallic, ripping sound. With a rush of cool, desert air, I realized the car door had just been torn off. Had paramedics arrived? Strange, I hadn't heard any sirens, and it seemed too fast for them to have been here already. Maybe I had blacked out.
A cool hand grasped my shoulder, while the other reached around me to free me from the seatbelt. With a swiftness I didn't think was possible, the stranger caught me as I fell out of my seat and pulled me up and out of the car, placing me down on my back. My vision swirled, but I was able to vaguely make out my savior.
It was a man. I couldn't see much of him in the darkness, but he was tall. Well built. Dressed in dark clothing that blended in with the night around us. Dark, messy hair, with equally dark eyes. The only thing not dark about the man was his skin, which was an odd pallid color, tinted with olive, that seemed to glow in the moonlight. He stood above me, his head cocked to the side as he stared down at me. I tried to speak, to thank him for saving me, but the pain in my chest and side became sharper with every inhale.
A strange sound, almost like a hiss, escaped the man's mouth.
In an instant, I was airborne. I couldn't make sense of the change in motion, until I realized there were arms around me. The man was carrying me, and moving so fast that the wind whipped my hair around my face. Then, as quickly as he started, the man stopped. I found myself back on the ground, gravel digging into my back. Nausea swirled in my stomach, and I attempted to roll myself over to one side.
"She won't be happy with me about this," the man spoke abruptly. I was surprised by the beauty of his voice, smooth with a Spanish lilt.
Before I even had time to question what he was saying, before my mind could even process the words, I felt his hands on me again. They pressed down on my shoulder and face. It hurt, and I wanted to yell at the man to let me go, but then there was a new pain. Sharp, at my neck. Stinging. Spreading. Burning.
And this time I did cry out, my voice breaking. I tried to move, kicking my legs and flailing my arms, but the man held me down. The pressure at my neck increased, and with it came another stinging wave that spread across my shoulder and down my back. I whimpered softly, letting my arms fall limp. There was an almost...numbness that seemed to follow the burning. My limbs felt heavier, my breathing more languid. My heart stuttered and I knew.
I was dying.
A wild roar filled the air. In my daze, all I could think of was that a coyote was near...but they didn't make that sort of sound, did they?
And then the burning was back full force. Worse than before, stronger, hotter. Scorching me from the inside out with unrelenting fire. Flames ran down my arms, across my chest, searing me with burns. I screamed out in agony, but then something blocked my mouth. A hand?
Something shifted me, and I felt chilled air breeze against my body. But it did not bring any relief against the fire, which raged on undeterred.
I was moving again. Or rather, I was being moved. Through the blaze, I felt the slightest hint of ice against my body. Arms curled underneath me. The man. He must've been holding me, running like he had before.
How? Why? I couldn't make sense of any of it. But then I couldn't really think much at all as the fire spread. My throat was ragged, and I realized I was still screaming against the man's hand on my face.
I lost all sense of time as we moved, too consumed by the burning to think of anything else. I knew I was jerking, writhing as the man held me, but for all I could tell he never stumbled.
Hours passed. Maybe days. Years. All I knew was the fire.
Somewhere beyond the flames came a woman's voice. She was speaking fast, her tone sharp, and I could barely make out the words. It wasn't just the speed that made her difficult to understand, I realized. She was speaking in Spanish. I only caught a word or two between her and the man.
"...blood...couldn't wait..."
"hair...too late...weak..."
"what...where"
"...outside...away...a day"
There was a new sensation at my back, and through the fiery haze, some part of me knew I was no longer in the man's arms. But where? I had no idea. And I couldn't linger on any of those thoughts because the fire was getting worse.
It didn't seem possible. It couldn't be possible. The inferno blazed through every cell of my body, and I heard my scream echo around me. The flames centered in my chest, a white-hot sun so intense it overpowered everything else. And with a start, I realized it wasn't just that the flames in my chest were stronger than the rest. The burn was receding from my extremities, my toes and fingers infinitesimally cooler than my arms. I wanted to sigh in relief, but I'd screamed my throat raw and all I felt was a whistle of air that only seemed to desiccate my mouth more.
It was a paradoxical feeling. Chill in my feet and hands; boiling lava in my chest. My heart thudded a rapid rhythm. With every inch of soothed skin I felt, the fire surrounding my heart shot up. The salve was up to my stomach while the flames were constricting my heart, forcing it to pound faster and faster. It was too much sensation. I could feel it all converging; the cold, the heat, the speed, circling my heart, racing each other to some unknown destination.
My heartbeat quickened, a hummingbird rhythm, as the fire chased it down, the icy balm lagging somewhere behind...
And they collided. An explosion. A surge. A thundering that quickly became quiet. Too quiet.
My heart had stopped. The burning was gone. The chill washed over me like a sweet caress. I opened my eyes in blessed relief.
I didn't know where I was, but I knew I had never seen anything like it before. It wasn't a remarkable place-an old, dilapidated barn-but my eyes took it in as something incredible.
I could see every grain and knothole in the aged wooden roof. I noted which pieces were decaying, and even spotted a spider scurrying across the boards, its web spinning out behind it like shimmering silk. The moon shone down, bright as a spotlight in the midnight sky, surrounded by stars that were more akin to diamonds. The straw I lay on-for I now knew what it was-was more texturally complex than I could have ever imagined. Soft and dry, spiky and flexible, but not uncomfortable. I could feel each individual strand underneath my body. I knew the exact number without even having to think about it. There was a distant rumbling sound, mechanical and whirring, and I gasped as a plane flew over the barn, its lights blinking in colors far more intricate than red-ruby and amber and silver and more I could not name.
But I couldn't focus on the colors anymore. As I gasped, my lungs filled with air, and brought with them tastes and smells of all varieties. The stale but sweet straw, the mold in the wall, the promise of rain on the wind, and something...something...
Flames licked my throat, and my hand wrapped around my neck. So the burning wasn't gone completely. There was an aching need deep within me, urging me to search for that scent again. I inhaled, parsing through the unnecessary-wood and glue and oil-until there. What was that? It was all around me, suddenly so powerful and impossible to ignore. It wasn't perfect. Somehow I knew that the smell was off, old. But even wrong, it was undeniably heaven. My throat tightened. I dropped my constricting hand, and as it fell, it brushed against something odd on my shirt. I glanced down, my mouth burning as I took in the dark, reddish-brown smudges across my ripped blue tank.
Dried blood.
I expected light-headedness, nausea, all the usual feelings I had whenever I saw blood, but instead all I felt was...desire. Burning, white-hot desire that had me clawing at my shirt and lifting it to my mouth as my jaws snapped in a desperate need to quell the all-encompassing thirst.
What had happened to me?
I heard movement behind the door, and instantly I was standing. Well, rather I was crouching, hunched over in a defensive position. There was no thought behind the action, it was all instinctual.
The door opened, and a man took a cautious step in. He was dressed in unremarkable clothing, though I could see every rip and tear, every stain and discoloration. He didn't seem terribly older than me, perhaps mid-twenties. His black hair lay in unkempt waves that stopped just below his ears. His eyes were an unnatural shade of burgundy, and they gazed at me with piercing scrutiny.
But it was the scars that sent a jolt of fear through me. Crescent-shaped scars up and down his arms. Teeth.
A snarl ripped through my teeth, and the vicious sound startled me so that I jumped back, hitting one of the wooden supports. It cracked, and part of the roof came tumbling down in front of me. For a moment I was distracted, captivated by the way the light and dust danced together amongst the falling, shattered pieces of wood. Then, the man laughed. It was an odd sound, a bit like bells. I focused back on him, the words escaping before I consciously decided to speak.
"Who are you? Where am I?" I shrunk against the sound. That wasn't my voice. I mean, it was, but different. Smoother. Alien.
"My name is Joaquin. What is yours?"
I hesitated. "Bella."
"You can trust me, Bella. I'm here to take care of you."
I didn't believe that for a second. "What did you do to me?"
His eyes narrowed. He spoke again, his tone a bit more forceful. "Your questions will be answered later. For now, you need to feed. Come with me."
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
There was just the briefest flash of surprise across Joaquin's face, but he quickly composed himself. He took another step into the barn. I bared my teeth at him in warning, my chest rumbling.
"How strange," he murmured. His eyes focused on me, the burgundy irises intense. "You will step out of the barn with me now."
"Like hell I will."
Joaquin swore, then stepped out of the barn, shutting the door behind him. There were light footsteps; someone had joined him outside. Joaquin spoke to them in Spanish, and I caught the words "man" and "here" and something else that I think was "stubborn." The other person did not respond, but I listened as they ran away, stretching my ears to follow them. I lost them for a brief moment, but when their footsteps returned, they were accompanied by another sound. A heavy, rhythmic sound that entranced me. The footsteps grew closer, the thudding became louder, and there was something in the air that had me lifting my nose and inhaling-
And I was off like a shot. I don't know how fast I moved. I wasn't aware. I burst through the barn door, not even wasting time to open it in my eagerness to get to that scent. That scent. Similar to what I had smelled earlier, but so much better. Purer. It smelled right and good and like the answers to all my questions. There were other scents in the air, sweet and strangely familiar, but I ignored them. I zeroed in on the source, and pounced, pinning it down with my body as my teeth sliced through feeble resistance.
Ecstasy.
Warmth and goodness and sweet, sweet relief eased down my burning throat, cooling it and filling my body with light and joy. I moaned, first in pleasure, and then in despair as my heaven ran dry. I sat up, my eyes closed, savoring the last remnants of flavor.
My delight turned to horror when I opened my eyes.
A man lay dead at my feet. His neck, torn and ripped to shreds. His glassy blue eyes stared frightfully into nothing.
I jumped back in shock, my hands raising to my face. But they were covered in the man's blood and desire shook through me, igniting me again.
"¿Más?" A purring voice asked me. I knew that one. More.
I turned to look at the woman who had spoken. She was several inches shorter than me, her skin that same pale olive like Joaquin's, with glossy black hair flowing in waves around her face. She eyed me with a knowing smirk. The smell of the man clung to her, still as heady and intoxicating as it had been mere moments ago. Against my wishes, I felt myself move towards her, my body shifting into a crouch. A growl rumbled in my chest.
The woman gave a breathy laugh and darted around the side of the barn. I followed her instantly, some instinctual part of me thrumming with anticipation. We raced across a mile or so of farmland, till we came upon a small shed. The woman came to a stop and grabbed the door handle. She turned her head over her shoulder, and beckoned me closer with a single finger. As I approached, she threw the door open, and I glimpsed two women in rumpled clothing, huddled close. They were trembling, gazing at me with wide eyes. I knew what was coming, and I wanted to stop myself, but the smell of the women and the sounds of their heartbeats swirled around me, drawing me in like a vortex. I killed them both in quick succession, reveling in their sublime taste even as I hated myself.
No! I wanted to scream, as my teeth sliced through the soft neck of the first woman. Stop this! I yelled at myself as I reached for the second woman.
I dropped her as soon as she was dry and fell to my knees. My shoulders shook, and my chest rose and fell with quick breaths as sobs shuddered through my body. I expected tears to course down my face, but felt nothing except an odd, unresolved stinging in my eyes. It felt like there was a speck of dirt trapped, and I pressed the heel of my hand to my eyes, rubbing furiously. But the speck seemed stuck, much like my tears.
"Levántate," the woman commanded.
"Get up," she repeated when I didn't move.
"What's happened to me?" I whispered, glancing down at my hands, pale in the moonlight. Paler than I knew I had been.
"You have been changed, lifted from your former, lowly human state to fulfill a higher purpose."
"Changed?" I echoed.
"Joaquin wasn't supposed to do it. He was meant to bring you to me."
"But you were bleeding, querida, and I just couldn't help myself. Nearly killed you, too! Ha!"
I jumped to my feet as Joaquin materialized beside us. He smiled at me, and I snarled back in response. His smile stretched wider across his face. The woman sighed at the exchange, stepping forward to twist a lock of my hair around her finger.
"It's too bad about your hair...you'll have to tie it up. I don't like my female soldiers being so vulnerable."
"Soldiers? I'm sorry, I still don't understand..."
"You will help me free these bloodfields from tyranny, so that we may all eat as well as you have tonight."
She turned towards Joaquin. "Put her with the others."
I felt Joaquin's hand on my arm, and I spun to throw him off, but Joaquin must've been expecting that because suddenly both of my arms were locked in his grasp. He pinned them to my back and pushed me forward.
"Move, querida, or I rip your arms off."
I started to snap at him, but then felt his fingers dig deeper into my skin.
"Move," he commanded, his voice forceful.
He nudged me forward and I begrudgingly began to move. Joaquin directed me across the farmland, pulling on one arm or the other to push me in a certain direction, laughing when I hissed at him.
We were headed away from the shed, back towards the barn. With a more lucid mind, I was able to take in the farm and the surrounding area in more detail. Though it was the middle of the night, everything was clear. There were several other buildings between the barn and the shed, every one of them old and decrepit. The fields were overgrown, and filled with dead and dry plants. It was clear no one had lived here in quite some time. Joaquin pushed me towards what seemed to have once been a stable. A strange scent surrounded the stable, but it wasn't horses or manure. It reminded me of perfume, and as I sniffed the air I could make out three different strains, each one sweet and intriguing, though not as overpowering as what I'd smelled before...
Joaquin released one hand on me to push aside the stable door, and then with a final shove, he deposited me on the ground of the stable.
"This is Bella. You will tell her what she needs to know. I'll be back later for training. Behave yourselves."
A breeze, a creak from the stable door closing, and Joaquin was gone. I looked up to see three young people, their eyes blazing red, glaring at me with bared teeth.
