Chapter Eight

Peter

All I could remember were the red eyes as the creature launched itself at Luke who had only just returned from town with bad news, no Greek Fire. As the creature began to rip him apart I grabbed my gun and fired, then when the bullets just ricocheted off as I should have known they would I went for the bow and arrows but he was fast, blindingly fast, and I found myself dangling from his fist, my feet inches from the ground looking straight into those terrible eyes.

"Who are you? Did the Volturi send you? Of course not, they wouldn't use humans to track us. Well you are in luck, I parted ways with my last companion so you can replace him."

As he said the last he brought me close to his face then suddenly he bent my neck and I felt a sharp pain as his teeth sliced into my flesh. Before I could scream he let go of me and I fell to the ground, had he changed his mind? Then the pain hit me like a freight train and I started to scream, it was the last thing I remembered for a long while, the pain, burning my innards to ash.

When I finally woke up I found myself alone in some scrub with only vultures circling overheard as if waiting for me to take my final breath but I wasn't ready to do that just yet. The sun was overhead but I didn't feel the heat only a terrible thirst and reaching for my belt I found my canteen and upended it down my throat but it made no difference to the thirst and the water tasted terrible so I spat it out lifting the canteen to my nose. The water smelled different, not stagnant but I could tell all the things that were dissolved in it, the earth, the river weeds. I threw the canteen from me exploring my surroundings and trying to remember what had happened. The last thing I could remember was seeing a pair of red eyes glaring at me and a question about the...Volturi whoever the hell they were.

Suddenly my head whipped up and I listened carefully hearing a rhythmic beat from a distance. The sound made my mouth water and the thirst become almost unbearable. It annoyed me and I grabbed a branch to steady myself finding it crunched into matchwood under my grip. What the hell was happening to me? Curious I picked up a stone from the dusty ground and closed my fist around it squeezing and expecting to feel its hardness between my fingers but instead it crumbled to dust. When I opened my fist there was nothing left except a little dry powdered grit. The thumping sound was getting louder and suddenly I couldn't resist its lure any longer. I started to run then suddenly stopped as I realized what I was doing, I wasn't able to run with my bad leg! Looking down I saw the bandage was still there and ripped it off impatiently to find the original scar and the second wound caused by Sammy thrusting the hay fork into my leg were gone. The skin was smooth and unblemished but much paler than I remembered. What the hell was going on?

Then I heard it again and forgot everything as I set off in pursuit coming upon a herd of white tail deer. Before I could stop myself I found myself on them grabbing at the largest and sinking my teeth into its soft hide. As the beast's blood ran down my throat the burn eased a little and by the time I had chased down the rest and killed and drained two more I felt a lot better. It hit me suddenly what I'd done and I found myself regurgitating the blood feeling sick to my stomach.

"Animal blood will do that to you, it's the wrong quarry."

I whirled around growling in my chest as I saw another man watching me from a distance, how the hell had I heard him speak? He was too far away from me to enable me to hear him but I had.

"Who are ya?"

"A friend, your only one right now."

"I got lots a friends I don't need no more."

"Really? I think you might find they aren't so keen to get close to you any more."

"Why? What did ya do to me?"

"I turned you but don't worry I'll show you how things are done now you're like me. We'll make a good team. What's your name?"

I looked around but I couldn't see anyone else close and now I realized I could see for miles as clearly as across this clearing near the creek.

"Who are ya?"

"I told you, a friend. I changed you and now you need me if you're going to survive."

"I survived pretty well afore you came along."

"Not as a vampire though, its a whole different world. You need help, to learn the laws such as they are although personally I don't care much for rules or laws, I live the way I want to and no Volturi is going to change that."

"Who are the Volturi? I never heard of 'em."

"No. because you were human then but now you're one of us it doesn't matter, they run our world. Your new world and if you're planning on not crossing them then I suggest you learn real quick."

"What happened to my friends?"

I had a flash of memory, Luke being torn apart by this man.

"Why'd you save me and not my friend?"

"I knew you were a fighting man and I needed one to help me. I tell you straight they're after me and I need someone to watch my back until the danger is passed."

"What danger?"

"I already told you, the Volturi, they're our law and they're on my track for killing humans and not hiding my kills."

"You killed The Major's family and mine?"

He shrugged,

"I've killed a lot of humans, its my nature and I'm not going to hide it from anyone. The Volturi are chicken, we take what we want, humans are merely cattle for our consumption."

"Humans? You kill humans for food?"

"Fun too, you'll enjoy watching them scream and run around like headless chickens trying to get away from us. They don't of course, they stand no chance but they still try."

I shook my head, this must be a dream, these creatures couldn't really exist and I most certainly wasn't one of them. This guy had mesmerized me somehow and I saw what he wanted me to see but what did I see? Humans running terrified from two enormously strong and fast beings and then I remembered hearing the others talk of inhumanly strong men with red eyes and pale skin that sparkled in sunlight. The stranger walked into the center of the clearing away from the shade of the trees and his skin sparkled like diamonds, so it was true. Everything they had said was true. Apprehensively I stretched out my own hand into a shaft of sunlight and watched as rainbow colors shattered off its surface. This is what they had seen, men who shone in the sunlight and I was now one of them.

I found myself getting angry, not just pissed off but really really mad and I ran at him but he stepped aside grabbing my arm and drawing it up my back to stop me retaliating.

"Boy, you save your rage for the next farm we reach then you'll get a chance to find out what being a vampire is all about. He was right, to my shame once I heard the heartbeats of the old couple who lived in the broken down shack I couldn't control my thirst and I attacked first taking the man even as he discharged his gun. The bullet merely hit my chest and bounced off as my teeth ripped into his flesh and I began to drink his warm salty blood, the terrible burning sensation in my throat easing until it finally it was gone and I suffered no more allowing my animal nature to take control of this body.