Chapter Seven

For Keeps

I was almost sure that I was going to fall any second during all the twists and turns at high speed. I couldn't exactly just sit up and put on a seat belt. Plus, I was starting to see things. Every street light that flashed by seemed to be smiling at me. Then again it could be the souls of heaven preparing to greet me. I never thought of death that way. I mean, I have been baptized in case that's needed. And as far as I'm concerned, I haven't broken any major laws of entrance to heaven. Except I have recently lied... crap, if I'm sent to Hell for that reason, I will never forgive myself. I started mentally praying for forgiveness of that lie and any other lie I may have uttered. I admitted I have a problem with lying, and will try to get therapy for it... and maybe even a priest. At least I don't cuss unless a vampire is altering my mind. I'm still a virgin, and the only way I could have murdered someone is by using canned hairspray that aided in destroying the ozone and gave someone skin cancer. I asked for forgiveness for that as well, just to put it in there. In the name of Jesus Christ, the holy ghost, and God himself, amen.

The vampire guy -- still haven't figured out his name and probably never will -- didn't say a word to me. In fact, the obvious frustration at something was the only thing that seemed to be related to me at the moment. All he did was use a peice of cloth to wipe of any blood on his face. Thanks for sharing. But whatever he was annoyed about seemed to be rushing towards somewhere. Maybe he'll just throw me over a river. Hopefully not into the middle of a highway. If an icecream cone could cause a wreck and kill someone, I would probably kill five.

I felt a bit unconnected to the world. It was kind of like being high... or if my dad asked, what I would figure being high would be like. Everything didn't seem to be on the same plane as me. I seemed a bit higher, floating over the distance, yet not in that way where neardeath people say they were floating over their body. I was definitely still in my body, and not floating anywhere, but my head felt a bit floaty. It was just like the dizzy spells I got except without the black spots just yet.

The car braked to a sharp stop, and turned off. The vampire got out of the car and seemed to take a moment before opening the back door. And here's where he finishes me off. When he reached into the car to grab me, I attempted one last time to get him to not kill me. But the only thing I could get out was a weak stream of, "Please don't. Please. Please don't. Please, please..." I felt like a mess, with blood on my mouth and tears burning down the sides of my eyes. But he didn't stop and leave. Instead, he growled and pulled me out of the car. He pulled my left arm over his shoulder before picking me up. I gave up with the pleading and leaned my head on his shoulder.

I didn't feel like twisting my head to see where we were, but it must have been a house because I heard a twist of a door knob and the sound of him kicking open the door. I felt a sudden cool of the house, both tension-wise and physical. And when he carried me through the open door, I heard something else scuffle into the room. He paused, and there was no sound for a second.

Then, "What the hell are you doing?" It was the silky voice of a girl, who obviously wasn't happy with what she was seeing. Was she another vampire? She seemed to know the vampire carrying me. "Why'd you bring food here? Are you becoming stupid or something?!" Definitely another vampire, or a cannibal. Whatever it was, the vampire holding me merely walked past her, leaving her to scoff in disbelief. I heard her call out something of a sort, but it was drowned out from my ears by the scraping of chairs being moved. He continued to carry me wherever, but I still didn't look.

Suddenly, he lifted my legs onto a hard surface, and I moved my head to take a look at where I was going. It was a kitchen counter, except placed in a way that circled around the kitchen to the middle so that there was no wall against this part. He swiped off all the stuff on top without much care, and laid me completely on the counter, resting my head suddenly gently on the hard surface. He still looked frustrated, but wasn't expressing it physically or verbally. Instead he seemed to have gone soft, moving my arms to where they were placed comfortably by my sides, and brushing back the hair from my face. I hate him. But all I wanted to do was sleep rather than try to hop off the counter and probably break something in the process.

More than one set of footsteps were moving rapidly towards the counter. From what it sounded like, it was a mixture between stomping and just walking leisurely. The vampire moved away from me, as though presenting me to someone, and my heart started to pulse faster. Hopefully I'm not going to be some big meal for someone. That would be worse than just being fed on by one pair of fangs. Imagine having more than two at the same moment, drawing out your life with a hunger... like Satan pulling out souls to feed upon. Okay, a bit exaggerated, but that's how I think of it.

"What's this? You know our rule about bringing the food home. Imagine if some stupid authority food came along and found a dead girl here. We'd have to move again, is that what you want," a dark, powerful woman's voice questioned angrily. It wasn't the first girl who had questioned him, but still was a vampire as well. I closed my burning eyes and rolled them over to look in their direction. I wanted to know how many were here. There was my vampire, who seemed to be one of the tallest of the bunch and looked a bit confused. Then there was a woman who was just about as tall as my vampire, but not quite there. She must have been the latest one to question him, with her voice booming with power, which could mean she ran the joint. She had short black hair that was cut just to the chin. Her nose was narrow and sharp, almost adding to her authority status, and her eyes were a dark blue that wasn't even half as interesting as my vampire. Not that I was comparing... as if I would have pride in a vampire who tried to kill me twice or three times, if you count after Kyler's interruption. I got a flash of Kyler's twisted neck, and closed my eyes in pain for a moment.

The only other girl there was extremely beautiful, even with the annoyed expression... along with something else that I couldn't identify. She could be the beautiful sculpture of an angel, with golden blonde hair, thick, red lips, and almost glowing green eyes. Her skin seemed to be glowing as well, and she seemed to be dressed like the girls would on MTV. She had golden jewelry, hoops, layered shirts, black jean capris with shoe strings tied through bought rips, and fur boots. I looked away quickly when she glance at me in the corner of her eye with that expression that I couldn't name.

And there was one more, who seemed to be the only one without an expression of annoyance, rage, or confusion on his face. When I looked at him, he didn't growl or glare, he just stared with a certain curious yet sad look. He would be considered a jock at my school, with his short, sandy brown hair, well built body, and school letterman jacket on. His eyes were a pleasant, caramel brown that seemed to make me feel safer than before. But then I figured it was just some tactic he used to eat people, so I went back to closing my eyes from my doom.

"I thought I killed her, but..." my vampire started, and I nearly screeched when I felt a cool hand grasp my right hand gently on the opposite side of the counter that all the vampires had been on. I opened my eyes weakly to see it was the jock vampire, who must have speed of light along with quiet of air. My vampire moved protectively closer, while the other two moved around the counter with displeasure. The jock traced the scarred bite on the back of my hand before turning it over to trace the other. And without a word, he gently moved my head from side to side, examining the other two bites before lightly touching the cut on my lip with his thumb. Then he moved away from me.

"How long have you been after her," the jock asked almost painfully.

My vampire hesitated, but said, "Three weeks ago, I found her and I thought I had killed her, but she has heart problems that I didn't know about so when it fluttered, it turned out that she wasn't exactly on the brink of death, just acting up earlier. And then I found her again tonight, and went to finish her off..."

There was silence. "Well, do it," the powerful woman ordered strongly, no longer interested in the matter, "But get rid of the evidence." And she seemed to be finished with the mess. I strongly disagreed with her. Let me go instead. But I kept quiet, not feeling up to wasting my breath.

Nothing attacked me. "But I can't," my vampire admitted in frustration.

"What's that suppose to mean? You obviously know how to bite her, just drain her dry. And if you're not hungry, suffocate her or something. Humans are really easy to kill," the woman stated in annoyance.

"I can't. I tried, but I can't. I don't know why... I just can't," he tried to explain, and I felt a sort of inner relief.

"I'll do it," the angel vampire volunteered readily, almost eagarly. My relief vanished as she grabbed my arm.

"Oh, no you won't," my vampire snarled, stepping in front of her and pulling my arm out of her grasp. "Don't think I haven't noticed that look on her face. I know what you do to humans like her." And there was a growling match.

"Fine," the powerful vampire snapped, "Let Mikel do it. He is a mercy killer anyways, and you said she had heart problems. He'll be gentle as can be and you can rest your mind in knowing she died mercifully. He'll do it, won't you, Mikel?" And Mikel -- the jock, I assumed -- was on the other side of the counter in a flash. He frowned at me, thinking on the offer. He didn't seem happy about the chance, which gave me hope. He traced his finger over my throat, and I winced at the sudden pain. At first I thought Mikel had done it, but then I remembered that my vampire had been the one to nearly break my neck.

"I'll do it," Mikel suddenly agreed, and the dread settled in. They all waited for my vampire's opinion, and when he didn't say anything, Mikel gently grabbed my left arm; the only arm not marked by bites. My heart started pulsing faster the closer my wrist got to his mouth. My breath became shorter in fear, but more rapid. And when he bit into my wrist, it was a sharper pain than when my vampire had, and I twisted my head sharply away, biting down on nothing, folding my legs closer to my bottom, and clinching my hands into tight fists. But that was all the strength I had to use. The draining was stronger this time than it had been with my vampire, and I gasped with pain. The black spots started clouding my vision, and my heart started stalling rather than fluttering, as if feeling the tug of the blood itself. Breathing was becoming harder, and my fists started loosening.

"Stop," I heard, "Stop it." For a moment, I thought it was amazingly me, but then I noticed it was a male voice and I hadn't gotten a sex change in the last five seconds. "I said STOP." And the fangs were ripped out of my wrist, causing me to let my legs fall back to being straight in release. I blinked rapidly, willing my heart to go back to normal. It had been a struggle, but apparently Mikel hadn't pulled out enough blood for my heart to start fluttering in struggle for life like before. When I glanced over, I saw that Mikel had his face pressed against the wall, but nobody was holding him there. He seemed to be trying to get control of himself.

"I want to keep her," my vampire stated as if ordering that they should allow this to be doable. "It's not unheard of, keeping food for awhile instead of killing it off automatically. So I'm keeping her, not killing her. Got that?" There was silence; Mikel still was clinging to the wall, unmoving, while the other two vampires were glaring at my vampire, who was standing in guard in front of me.

The powerful woman slowly crept in front of my vampire, completely displeased by this outburst. "You," she poked his chest with rage, "You can keep her all you want, but if it interfears with your Rising, I will personally destroy her in front of you."

"She won't," my vampire promised, sounding pleased that he could keep me. I felt a nosebleed coming.

"And if she so much as attempts to escape or interferes with any type of business in any way that is displeasing, we'll kill her with or without your permission. Understand?"

"Understood." There was more silence.

"Get her out of our sight," the woman ordered thickly. And my left arm was pulled over my vampire's shoulder before he picked me off the counter. I could feel the blood still leaking from the unclotted bite on my left wrist, and it was most likely being dripped onto the back of my vampire's shirt. I hope he enjoys that. As he carried me up the stairs, I couldn't stand fighting against the darkness, and leaned my head against his shoulder before letting my body shut down.

Just when my vampire and I were out of distance, the three other vampires hovered just at the base of the stairs, looking towards the direction we left. The woman seemed displeased, the girl bothered, and Mikel pained. The woman looked at Mikel curiously. "I've never seen you enjoying a meal so well before, Mikel. Want to share with us what it was," she asked humorously. It made Mikel flinch with guilt.

"It rushed in my mouth... ready to be devoured, and I wanted it," he said before leaving the house in disgust.

The woman chuckled darkly at his leaving. "He's used to the diseased and the old. The young, healthy blood startled him. And the blood pressure probably helped in that," she told the girl. At the expression on the girl's face, she stopped chuckling. "Don't worry, dear. She'll screw up, and when she does, you'll be the one who gets her. And you can do what you're good at."

"And enjoy it," the girl snarled jealously.