CHAPTER 3

Burning.

Pain.

Fire.

The pain is all I can focus on. I don't know what's happened, where I am, or what I was doing before this. Hell, I don't even remember my own name. I hear screaming. Endless screaming and endless pain are the only things I am aware of.

Time means nothing. I'm not sure what happens or when, but something changes. I can think around the pain. I can remember my name. Amanda Adams. I can remember my life, my family, my sons.

My babies. My sweet boys. What has happened to them? Where are they? Where am I? What have I done to deserve being burnt alive? Am I in Hell? What has happened to me? I was supposed to board my plane today. I was supposed to be headed home. I was supposed to see my children, my family today. A strangled sob escapes me and I come to the realization that the screaming I've been hearing is coming from me. Why would I be screaming like this? This is the absolute worst pain I've ever felt. Giving birth naturally would be a cakewalk compared to this torture.

Time passes. I'm not sure how much time, but I do know that it passes. The pain begins to change. I can no longer feel the burning in my fingers and toes. Maybe this torment is ending. Maybe I'm dying. Death would be a welcome relief from this Hell.

The pain keeps receding. My arms and legs are finally done burning. A part of my brain knows I could walk around if I wanted to, but I don't. My torso is still burning. I thought that the pain in my body would be less by now. That's not the case. It just seems to be getting hotter. I idly wonder how that would even be possible. It feels like the fire is receding from my limbs just to be added to the already scorching inferno that is my heart.

More time passes and I can finally feel my hips and shoulders. The fire seems to be concentrated around two areas now, my throat and my heart. The fire in my throat is easy to ignore, but the fire in my heart…well, that seems to be my main focus. There are no words in the English language to describe the heat that my heart is currently experiencing. Although it is beating, I can hear it stutter every once in a while.

The stuttering is happening more frequently now, the beats slowing. Counting the seconds between beats seems to help me focus on something other than the million other questions in my head. Obviously I seem to be going through some sort of transition. I'm not sure what kind, but I have a feeling I will find out sooner rather than later now.

It's been about a minute since my last heartbeat. I do not believe that it will beat again. So, does that mean that I'm dead? Is this what comes next after someone dies? A part of my brain says "no" while another part says "it's possible". That's just great. I'm arguing with myself in my own head. Not that I haven't done that before now, I mean before this I had to argue with myself to get out of bed in the mornings, but everyone I know has arguments with themselves over silly things like that.

A noise catches my attention. Footsteps. Someone is headed my direction by the sound of it. I focus in on the sound and then a sent assaults me. It's not unpleasant, but I can't quite place it. I realize that I have my eyes closed, so I open them to see who has garnered my attention when I notice everything around me. I can see dust in the air and a part of my brain starts to count the dust flying around. Another part of my brain finally recognizes the sent that has permeated the place where I'm currently laying. Pepper. It's an interesting sent, so I take a deep breath and feel my lungs expand, but there's no relief in the action. So, this means I don't have to breathe? What? That's a new revelation. I had always enjoyed breathing. You know, to keep me alive. Now I don't need oxygen? I find, however that I do like the feeling of breathing. I can taste everything around me. Metal, concrete, dirt, that peppery scent, plastic, and a million other tastes assault me. I've never been able to taste so much!

The footsteps that I've been tracking stop about 10 feet away from me and my brain tells me that it has only been about 10 seconds since I opened my eyes. Huh, I've never been able to do those kind of calculations in my head before. Interesting. I look at the person standing close to me and see a man. He doesn't look older than about 20. He has sandy blonde hair, is extremely pale skinned, he's 6 feet tall, he's dressed well in jeans and a long sleeved shirt with a long pea coat, he has red irises that are too beautiful to look away from, and is grinning at me like I'm his next meal. That grin could be my undoing. I haven't felt this attracted to anyone in so long. That grin doesn't bode well at all and for some reason, I'm strangely comfortable with that thought.

"Welcome to the Army" he says. His voice sounds like a musical instrument. It has a deep resonance to it almost like the lowest notes on a xylophone.

I'm confused by his statement and my eyebrows scrunch together to show it. "What Army?" I ask, but that voice is not mine. My voice is deeper, rougher, accented with a Southern twang. This bell-like sound that I hear, that cannot be my voice.

The man sees my confusion and comes closer to me. Unblinking, he stares at me and it unnerves me. I react instinctually and am suddenly standing in a crouch, with my arms out next to my sides, and a noise I can only describe as a hiss comes crawling out of my mouth. I made no conscious decision to do any of those things. "What have you done to me?!" I demand.

"You are not in a position to be so demanding." He replies. "My name is Riley and you have been recruited into my Army."

"Your Army? Why have you recruited me? What am I?" I ask bewildered.

"Perhaps I should let you hunt before we talk further." He replies coldly.

"Hunt?" I ask. "Hunt for what?"

He doesn't bother to answer, but instead turns back towards the way he came simply stating "Follow me" over his shoulder.

He doesn't seem like a threat to me, so I straighten up out of my crouch and start to walk the same direction without consciously thinking to do so, but that pulls me up short of him is how quickly I moved. It was almost like I thought to catch up to him and I was all of a sudden right beside him. How?

Riley notices my confusion and smirks before turning away from me to continue walking. "I promise to answer all of your questions, but first let's find you someone to drink."

"Excuse me?" I say exasperatedly. "Someone to drink?"

"Yes," he says, "someone." He makes the statement like it should be nothing. Like I should want nothing else.

A part of my brain realizes that my throat is on fire. The mention of drinking someone makes the flame that much hotter and all of a sudden it's the only thing I can think about. I nod my head at him, grab my throat to put the flames out, and he seems to notice my discomfort. He starts running out of the building that I was being kept in and after one step outside I realize I'm still in Seattle. However, there is no sun shining today. It's raining again. It wasn't raining when I left my hotel.

I follow Riley to another abandoned building that seems to be close to the docks I remember sitting at. He walks in the front door and I follow. What I see resembles a faint memory that I had once. I see a woman standing close to the door. She has the curliest and reddest hair I've ever seen. She is an inch shorter than me and her skin is as pale as Riley's, her red irises rake over me and she says "I see our newest recruit is awake."

"This is Amanda." Riley states back to her.

"Hello Amanda, I'm glad you survived. You will be a great help to me." she says.

My attention is drawn away from the red head when I hear a thumping noise. It sounds like what my human heart used to sound like. At that thought, my mouth fills with saliva. I'm thirsty all of a sudden and I rush over to where I see the only thing that can cure this burn in my throat. People. I also see that a bunch of others with red irises are surrounding the people in a big circle, but no one is approaching them.

Riley walks over at a lazy pace and stands in front of me with a curious expression on his face. "What do you want to do to them?" he asks me.

I look from the people to Riley and back before I answer. "I don't know why, but I want to bite them here" and I point to a spot on my own neck.

Riley turns to everyone in the circle before he says "I don't have enough for everyone, so you must share. Two to one human." He turns back to me before saying "I'll share with you since you don't know what you're doing. Go ahead."

I run up to the first human I see and snatch them out of the center of the circle. At my movement, everyone else does the same and they begin biting these people. I drag the man I took back to Riley and he motions for me to go ahead. I grab the man around the throat and sink my teeth into his soft flesh. I want the blood that pours into my mouth from him. I barely notice that Riley kneels next to me to take one of the man's ankles in his mouth. Long before I'm ready for the human to run dry, he does. I look over at Riley and say one word that says everything, "More."

I can see in his eyes that he knows what I mean, but he chooses to ignore it. He grabs the body in my arms and proceeds to carry it out to a dumpster next to the building. He tosses the corpse unceremoniously into the dumpster and everyone else proceeds to do the same after they're done. I watch as Riley pours gasoline into the dumpster and sets it alight. He heads my direction before he says "Walk with me."

I go with him willingly up to another floor of the abandoned building we're in. He doesn't say anything to me for a few minutes, but I patiently wait. I take the time to drink in and commit to memory the godlike creature that stands before me. He really is beautiful. He turns to me and says "This might be difficult for you to hear, but the only way I can break this to you is bluntly." He turns to me with a serious expression on his face and says simply "You are now a vampire. You were burning for 3 days and this army that you have been recruited to is going to destroy another coven. We need your help and you can never leave."

The seriousness of the situation was broken when I unceremoniously laughed at him. "I'm a vampire now? Really? The stuff of myth and legend and the excuse for the decay of human bodies back when no one knew better? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?" I ask incredulously.

"Think about what you've just done." he says, "That man you and I drained. We drank his blood and reveled in the relief that it gave. Do you honestly think that you are a myth now?"

I stare at him shocked. I knew he was right because I did just help him kill a human being. I feel nauseous and the first question I have is "What about my sons? I have two babies at home in Georgia. Do you mean to say that I can never see them again? If I am to never leave, what becomes of them? They have no one else." I'm practically shouting by the time I finish my rant. I'm in hysterics. My sons will never see me again. That's not fair! I would do anything for them, I can't just disappear!

"Your sons are meaningless." Riley says. "Your only focus now should be feeding and fighting."

"Feeding and fighting?" I ask sarcastically. "Is that all?"

Riley pretends not to hear my sarcasm. "You have a month to train with the rest of your coven before we destroy our rivals. You will be rewarded if you win fights, and punished severely if you lose."

"Rewarded and punished. Really, Riley? This is bullshit. I will not be punished for failing and what kind of reward would I want more than seeing my sons again?" I ask.

"Your limbs can be detached and reattached as your punishment, though painful, you cannot die from these wounds. You may receive scars while training because the only thing that can scar us is a limb being detached and reattached or a bite from another vampire. The venom in your system burns others like us because it isn't compatible with anyone other than you. The only way for you to die completely is by being burned." Riley states matter-of-factly and continues, "The reward that you are to receive is being given the opportunity to feed freely. This way you do not starve and drive yourself insane from thirst."

I stare at him in shock. This cannot be real. I'm in denial, I know it, but it's a lot to take in even if it seems my brain has the extra processing power to process everything.

Riley continues, "You will start your training in an hour downstairs. You will notice that your brain is able to remember everything that you do with perfect clarity. You have no need to sleep, so you will train until your next time to feed. You do well, and then you can feed. If not, you starve until it's time to feed again. Do not disappoint me."

He turns his back on me and starts walking back towards the staircase. I know he is going back to all of the others. At the door to the stairs he says flatly, "Take this time to say 'goodbye' to your old life and 'hello' to the new one I have given you. Embrace the changes that you find, do not run from them and do not be frightened of them. You are powerful now. Do not make me regret the decision to change you."

I wait until he is out of sight before I drop down to my knees and scream for the losses that I now have. My babies are gone and I can never see them again. My family is gone and they will always wonder what happened to me. I cannot stand the emotional pain I am in. I scream in frustration and anguish. I fall to the floor and curl up into the fetal position and sob uncontrollably. I cannot cry. I feel the venom in my eyes, but it does not fall.

After 45 minutes of self indulgence and self pity, I pull myself up off the floor and begin my way back downstairs. I feel dead inside as well as outside. I have said goodbye to my family and now I cannot feel anything anymore. I notice that everyone is ready to begin training and have all set themselves up in a circle similar to the one we were in while feeding. I walk to an open area in the circle that was obviously meant for me and stand there watching the scene in front of me unfold.

There are two men circling one another in the center. One is very tall and lanky, and the other is his polar opposite. Their eyes don't leave the other as they search for any sign of weakness. As if on cue, they both run at each other with fists flying. The lanky one lands a punch and it sounds like boulders colliding. The round one growls menacingly and tries to grab the offender's limb to rip it off. The lanky one tries to dodge out of the way but fails miserably as his arm is ripped off at the elbow. The noise that follows is one I can never forget. It's a screeching and grating sound like nails on a chalkboard but a thousand times louder. The round one tries to use the dismembered arm as a club to bash the lanky one in the head. He swings it 'round like a baseball bat and the resounding crash that I hear makes me realize that he's made contact. I expect the lanky one to be completely unconscious at this point, but he makes a full come back by swinging his long legs under the big one and dropping him to his ass. I have to stifle a giggle under my hand because the big one has this bewildered look on his face that clearly shows he wasn't expecting that move. That gives the lanky one all the recovery time he needs to get back on his feet and charge the big one again. This time the lanky one uses his height and long limbs to his advantage and keeps the big one at bay. The next kick the lanky one lands is on the big one's back, which makes the big one sprawl out face first on the concrete. That was apparently the opening that the lanky one was looking form because all of a sudden the lanky one has the big one by the hair and his teeth are at the big one's throat.

Apparently from what I see the lanky one won, so he grabs his dismembered arm and licks it before reattaching it below what's left of his elbow. The big one sits up in the center of the circle as Riley comes forward. He stares at the big one with what I can only describe as irritation before he moves. Quicker than any movement I've seen from him yet, Riley has the big one's head in his left hand and his body in his right. He twists his left arm sharply and I see what has been done. The big one has been decapitated. Riley reaches into his pocket to grab a lighter and immediately lights the head he's still holding on fire before throwing it on the body. It's amazing how quickly the flames catch. I make a mental note to stay away from fire for the rest of this miserable existence.

Riley looks back at the rest of us with an angry expression on his face and states, "Your comrade has outlived his usefulness. Let this be a lesson to each and every one of you, if you cannot perform as well as I expect you to, you will be destroyed. Each of you pair up with another and begin learning how to defend yourselves."

A girl no more than 12 or 13 years of age comes over to me. She has straight black hair, bright red eyes, and is dressed in what you would normally see a child of her age wearing. She sticks her hand out for me to shake and says "Hi. My name's Bree."

"Hello Bree." I reply. "I'm Amanda. Forgive me, but how old are you?"

"I was 13 when I was changed by Riley." She replies, "That was a few months ago. That was not the reason I came over, though. I know I may look young, but if I don't find a sparring partner, Riley will punish me next. I seem too young for anyone to want to spar with me, but I don't have a choice."

Her pleading look gets to me, I'll admit, but I just can't see this little girl as a threat. There's a reason why she hasn't been able to learn anything. Riley changed her too young. I know she's not as fragile as she looks, but the thought of hurting someone so young makes me think of my children and I closed myself to those emotions an hour ago.

"I don't think I can spar with you, Bree." I say to her. My voice is raw with emotion and I need to shut that part of my brain off if I want to continue to exist. I say coldly, "Maybe someone else will be willing." I start to walk away from her into the throng of my coven to see if I can work off some of this excess sadness and anger. I need a good outlet and fighting someone just might be the ticket.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading my story. Hopefully I can try and update it about once a week. I'm currently working on Chapter 4 hand hope to have it and Chapter 5 up by next Saturday. Remember, reviews are appreciated and welcomed! It makes me write faster!