Chapter 2-The Trio

I felt myself move into a crouch, mirroring the position of the three that stood before me. The two girls, both pale though one was colored more like Joaquin, seemed ready to attack. The olive-toned one, with lustrous black hair cropped close to her head, shifted her stance with sinuous movements. The paler girl had short brown curls that seemed filled with static electricity, as did the rest of her body, as she bounced back and forth on her toes.

The lone boy with sandy blond hair eyed me with the same inkling to attack, but then he adjusted himself and pulled out of his crouch. He wasn't very tall, perhaps only a few inches taller than me, and a little stout. He held up his hands in a show of non-threatening behavior. It didn't match the scars scattered across his arms, screaming out a dangerous warning. He had less than Joaquin, but enough that I was still wary. I noticed that both of the girls had scars as well, though even less than the boy, perhaps only two or three marring their pristine skin.

"Easy, easy," the boy said, his voice low and smooth. "Everything's alright. We're not going to hurt you."

The boy glanced at the two other girls, still in their crouches.

"C'mon, remember how it was. She's not a threat."

He looked back at me, his ruby gaze pleading. "We're not a threat."

Slowly, the girls straightened, though they still eyed me with distrust and hesitation. I couldn't blame them. I'm sure I was looking at them the same way. However, once they were no longer crouching and hissing at me, I felt the fight leave my body and was able to straighten up as well.

"I'm Clyde," the boy said.

"This is Julissa," he motioned to the black-haired girl, "and Sammi," he acknowledged the brown-haired girl.

"Bella," I replied. "What is all this? Where am I?"

"Somewhere in Mexico, we think," Clyde began. "Just over the border, maybe, but we're not exactly sure. Maria and Joaquin grabbed us from different places. I'm from California, Sammi's from New Mexico, and Julissa's local. Well, she's from Hermosillo, but we don't know if that's near here or not. The whole journey here was confusing, and then the burning after..." We all shuddered. "Well, anyways, nothing's super clear."

"Maria?" I asked.

"Yeah, tiny thing, long black hair, and a killer bite?" Sammi sneered. "She's the one who did this to us. We're her property."

My brow furrowed. "I...I don't think Maria did this to me..."

My mind went over the strange things Maria-for I now had a name to put to the mysterious woman-had said about me and Joaquin. Clyde, Julissa, and Sammi were staring, their bright red eyes confused and expectant.

"Maria said something...about how Joaquin wasn't supposed to do it. But he said he couldn't help himself, that I was bleeding-"

My throat tightened. I watched Clyde and Sammi wince, and Julissa raise her hand to her neck, her face contorted with pain, and massage the skin absently.

"I can understand that," Clyde muttered. "I'm sure you do too, now."

"Not exactly. Nothing makes any sense."

"This is your new home," Clyde explained. "And, life, I guess," he added with a shrug. "Maria and Joaquin...they took us, all of us, so we could work for them."

"You're a little soldier now," Sammi hissed, her eyes glinting.

"That's what Maria said but...soldier?" I laughed at the thought. "I can't fight anyone. I can barely walk without tripping over my own feet."

"Maybe before. But not after the change," said Sammi.

"Change? Maria mentioned that too, but I don't understand..."

I glanced at my too pale hands, turning them in the moonlight. The blue veins were still there, faded, but I felt no rush, no warmth, no steady beat. There was an idea, a horrible, unbelievable idea lingering at the back of my mind. I could feel it trying to push its way forward, but I shoved it back. Fantasy, I told myself. Utterly absurd. But then Clyde spoke, and what I knew to be true blew away like dandelion seeds.

"You're a vampire now. A creature of the undead," Clyde said with mock gravitas, his fingers curling into claws by his face.

"That's-" impossible, I wanted to say. But I couldn't. Some part of me knew. I thought back over the people I had eagerly murdered, and how gleefully I reveled in the taste of their...blood. Blood. Which I used to hate. But now, the mere thought of it caused an ache in my throat.

"I don't understand..." I repeated, sinking into the floor.

"It happened to all of us. Look," Clyde lowered himself to my level, settling on the floor beside me. He looked back at the girls and inclined his head towards me. They followed his lead and sat on the ground.

"It's a war zone out there. Humans don't really know about it, but all that violence you hear about? Gang wars and drug cartels? That's the vamps, taking what's theirs. Maria, she fights to free this land. Joaquin says that vampires are always fighting for territory, and that Maria used to have a lot. Like, she once owned everything from coast to coast, all that blood, enough for everyone. She made it so no one had to fight anymore, there was just blood, and peace, and freedom. But some vamps didn't like that, didn't like Maria. Joaquin said they held a grudge against her, but Maria won't talk about it." His forehead creased, cracks in marble. "She lost a battle, a big one, and every single one of her soldiers died. She fled, far away, and ended up here. To rebuild."

Clyde looked at me, assessing whether I was following. I nodded, urging him to continue.

"Maria got to me first, about three months ago. Then she grabbed Sammi a month later. Julissa here was our most recent, from last month, until you."

I eyed the girl with short black hair. She cocked her head in response to my stare, her lips curling into a hint of a smile. I leaned in closer to Clyde.

"Does she speak English?"

Julissa's eyes narrowed, and she bared her teeth at me, the dark growl at odds with her lovely face.

"Enough," she snapped at me, her voice high and accented. "But I understand plenty."

"Easy," Clyde cautioned, stretching his hand out towards Julissa. "Joaquin said to behave."

Julissa growled, but calmed down.

"And you listen to what he says?" I scoffed.

All three of their heads snapped towards me, eyes wide.

"You don't?" Julissa questioned, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

"I don't want to listen to anything he has to say. He gives me the creeps."

"But you don't find him compelling?" Sammi interjected.

"Should I?"

"When Joaquin says to do something, we do it, even if we don't want to," Clyde explained, though he still looked to be in shock.

"And he can stop us from doing something we want to do, with just one word," Sammi grimaced.

"It's a vamp thing. Maria says some are special like that." Clyde's gaze deepened, searching. "You really don't find him persuasive at all?"

"No. Not one bit."

The three of them continued to gape at me in incredulous silence. Sammi was the first to break it.

"That's so weird..." she muttered.

Great. Even among mythical creatures, I was weird.

The sudden awkwardness was confining. Desperate to get their attention off of me, I started asking questions about the trio. The first thing that popped out of my mouth was how Maria had gotten to them. Julissa had been driving home from work late at night. She had been a waitress, saving up to pay for nursing school, and volunteering at a local clinic on the weekends. Sammi had been on the road early in the morning to the airport. She was going to surprise her long distance boyfriend for his birthday. They'd been dating since sophomore year of high school, but he'd gone to college out of state. And Clyde...

"I was with my friends from school, a couple of my frat brothers," Clyde began. "We were heading down to Tijuana for the weekend for one last summer party before classes started back at...Santa Barbara, that's right. UC Santa Barbara. Sorry, it's hard to remember human things. Vamp memory, it's like perfect but everything before is all...foggy. Anyways, we had...maybe just crossed the border when Maria attacked." Clyde's brow furrowed, and his eyes became unfocused. "I don't know why she picked me, but she did. She saw something in me, I guess. Some reason to keep me, make me strong, while she killed the rest."

"Things get foggy?" I asked, uncomfortable with the look on Clyde's face.

"Yeah, anything from before. If there's stuff you'd like to remember, I'd suggest thinking about it now before it's gone forever. And I do mean forever." Clyde spread his arms out by his face, palms wide.

I chewed on my lip, marveling at the new texture as I considered the possibility of forever. There was just one thing that didn't add up.

"But you said Maria's soldiers had died."

There was an uneasy glance among the trio.

"We can be killed," Julissa piped up, her voice hesitant. "Fire, it's very dangerous."

"We have to be broken," Clyde explained further. "Our bodies can put themselves back together, as long as they don't burn."

"So never lose sight of your arm," Sammi added with a sadistic grin.

I looked at Sammi, with her short, frizzy, brown hair. The image stirred some nagging memory...Clyde said I had to think through the fog. I focused in on Sammi, and let my mind fill in the gaps. She looked familiar...like...like...

Renée.

Mom.

Oh god. Renée. How could I have forgotten about her? She was probably worried sick. Had she found the car? What did she think had happened to me?

The perspective shifted around me and I became aware that I was standing. My breath came in odd, halting gasps, as if I were hyperventilating. But I felt no light-headedness, only heightened anxiety that coursed through my body like electricity and captivated my mind.

"Whoa, Bella, hey." Clyde rose and held out his arms towards me. I batted them away.

"My mom...oh god, my mom...how long have I been gone? She's gonna find the car, and I'm not gonna be there, she's gonna think I'm dead, what-"

"I mean, you are kinda dead," Sammi said with a toss of her hair. The hair that so resembled Renée's. My hands shook as I brought them to my face and pressed them to my temples.

Clyde shot Sammi an exasperated look. "Not helping."

"I have to go back, I have to let her know I'm okay, or as okay as whatever this is. Crap!" My nails dug into my head.

Clyde reached for me again, and a terrible hiss escaped my mouth. The sound frightened me, and I buried my face in my hands, my hair falling forward like a curtain.

"You can't go back, Bella," said Clyde. "Even if you wanted to. You'd probably end up killing her."

I choked out a sob.

"Nice," commented Sammi sarcastically. "Anyways, Maria says our past is gone, and the only relationship we need is our loyalty to each other."

"That doesn't mean you have to forget your mom," Clyde jumped in quickly. "You just gotta understand you're in two different worlds now."

"You have your new life. She's part of the old one," Julissa agreed, her voice ringing like bells.

"I'm gonna approach you now, Bella. Is that okay?" Clyde asked.

I wanted to tell him no, go away, leave me alone, but I couldn't find the words. Hazy memories of Renée flitted through my mind.

"I'm going to touch you now, Bella, okay? Don't be afraid, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just gonna grab your hands, alright?" Clyde's voice was calm and reassuring.

I felt the lightest of touches pry my fingers gently away from my face. Clyde curled his fingers around mine with a delicate squeeze. I flinched at the close contact, and his grip loosened immediately.

"I wasn't too hard, was I? Sorry, I'm still working on moderating-"

"No," I cut him off. "You're fine, I just..." I expected a blush to color my face, but there was no such warmth in my new body. "Thank you."

He grinned, and boyish charm lit up his face.

"Wow, a thank you. You hear that, Sammi?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't go around expecting anything like that from me."

Clyde eased me back to sitting on the ground. The trio started a new conversation, Clyde teasing Sammi about her manners, but I couldn't stop thinking about Renée. They said it was impossible for me to see her, and while they were probably right about the bloodlust, I couldn't stand the thought that she was out there, somewhere, looking for me. I could picture her in my mind, her face blotchy from crying, putting up posters and wrangling her friends from the school and yoga studio into a search party. She'd probably even call my dad, Charlie, down from his Podunk town in Washington. He was a police chief, after all. He'd have experience with things like this. I bit back an anguished sigh. I'd forgotten about Charlie, too.

I resolved, then and there, no matter what the others said, that I would see my parents again. Someday, I'd find my way back to them, let them know I was alright and that they didn't have to worry. I knew I wasn't ready now. There were too many unknowns. For the time being, I'd stick with the trio, and Joaquin-ugh-and Maria, until I felt I knew enough about myself and my new life that I wouldn't be a danger to anybody. But I couldn't just forget about my family. I wouldn't.

We talked all through the night, as the trio explained to me more about my new life. How I'd never sleep or grow tired, how unchanging I was. How my eyes were red, like theirs, but how that meant great strength and new speed. How Joaquin trained them to fight and Maria led them into battle with other vampires.

"We've only fought a couple of covens," Clyde admitted. "And they were pretty small, like us. Nothing major. That's why Maria keeps adding more, like you."

As we spoke, the light changed in the dusty stable, night shifting to day. Every now and then, I was distracted by the shadows dancing on the stable floor, the beams of light peeking through holes in the roof and missing boards in the wall. The stalls had fallen to pieces, or had been removed I wasn't exactly sure, so there was nothing to impede the emerging brightness. As more and more light crept into the stable, I found myself increasingly distracted. There was a scratchiness in my throat, like the beginning of a sore throat, which flared annoyingly every time I swallowed.

After spending several hours with the trio, I now realized the perfume-like scents I'd observed surrounding the stable were them. My mind picked apart each distinct strain, and I lost myself in the intricacies of each flavor, sniffing out the notes that defined them. Clyde was a cool, sea breeze that tickled your nose and made you dream of sun-warmed sand. Sammi was sharp, heady spice and citrus. Julissa reminded me of fresh berries, just picked and dolloped with cream. Their scents didn't aggravate my throat, but turning my attention toward it brought new pain. I grimaced, and my mind jumped.

There were new sounds that caught my attention. Birds flew overheard, their song high and delicate. Somewhere, on a distant road, a car engine rumbled. My throat was so dry. My thoughts wandered to what was outside the farm. Were there neighbors? Did they know what was going on? And damn, my throat burned!

Clyde was saying something to Sammi and Julissa, a joke, I think, that I was meant to be listening to, but I couldn't concentrate. There was a new pressure around my neck, and I discovered that my hand had moved to caress the aching skin. My fingers absently stroked from my collarbone to my chin as thoughts whirled in my head. Clyde caught my eye, and his laughing smile turned pitying.

"Bella?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know-" Pain strangled the rest of the words. "My throat really hurts." My voice came out in a feeble whisper.

"You're getting thirsty," Julissa said with a sympathetic nod of her head.

The implications of that terrified me. "I don't want to kill anybody!"

Sammi rolled her eyes. "You're gonna have to get over that."

"There has to be another way, right? I'm not a murderer. What I did before-I didn't know any better, it was a mistake, and not one I intend to make again-"

"Hey, hey," Clyde cut my rambling off. "Look, I know you don't want to kill, but Sammi's right. You're not human anymore so you're gonna have to get over human feelings like that. Besides," a smile crept across his pale lips, "you can't deny how good humans smell and taste."

Fire blazed, and my hand tightened around my throat. There was a hiss to my right, and I noticed Sammi's hand mirrored mine.

"Ugh, Clyde, why did you have to say that. Now I'm thirsty, too." Sammi rubbed her neck, her tiny features scrunched up in discomfort.

"Just-try to focus on something else for a while, okay? Joaquin doesn't let us feed until he's happy with our training. You've gotta stay calm for a little while longer. Hey," Clyde placed his hand atop my left hand, which was trembling in the dirt, quelling the shaking. "It's alright. We'll help you through this. Just listen to me, okay? Focus on my voice."

So I did. Clyde told a story about some hazing prank from college, but I ignored his words and honed in on the rise and fall of his tone. The melodic wave of his voice was soothing, and if I focused solely on that, I could almost trick my mind into forgetting about the burn in my throat. Almost.

The sun rose further in the sky as Clyde talked, warming the air around me. It was amazingly pleasant, and I closed my eyes to savor the sensation. I had the oddest urge to stretch like a cat in my patch of sunlight. When I opened my eyes, I gave a yelp and threw myself against the nearest wall.

"Bella? Bella, it's okay." Clyde was back on his feet, arms extended toward me.

"What was that...my skin..." I sputtered, my hands running over my arms where only moments ago I could've sworn I'd seen startling, unnatural light.

"Yeah, vamp thing. Our skin is super hard, but direct sunlight makes it go all crazy shiny. That's why Joaquin has us stay inside during the day. No one can see us like this." Clyde moved his fingers into a shaft of light, and I watched, mesmerized, as sunlight glinted off his fingers and shattered against the stable walls.

"It doesn't hurt. Totally safe. Just a little bizarre."

He beckoned me forward, and I stretched out my arm to place my hand in his, gasping at the new warmth in his fingertips. Like a prism, my hand shone and refracted light. My head whipped back and forth to see all the new colors surrounding me as I wiggled my fingers.

"Very pretty," Joaquin murmured from behind me.

I turned around to see him leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest in a relaxed manner. I'd been so distracted by the light sparkling on my skin, I hadn't heard him come in. Joaquin eyed me approvingly, with a smile that raised the hair on the back of my neck.

"I trust you have explained things to our new recruit?"

The trio nodded.

"Good. It's time for training."