Blood & Butlers

by S. J. Frey

  Luke pokes my shoulder with a smile. “Here.”

  I smile, seeing him holding two dark-colored drinks for us. A strong smell wafts from my glass, making me wrinkle my nose. I don’t want to be rude and quickly drank the whole glass. Hopefully, this would be enough to make me more relax. Luke smirks and finishes his drink before grabbing my empty glass to give to the bartender.

  “Would you like to dance?” Luke asks.

  “Sure,” I enthusiastically yell. Maybe I am too relax now.

  Luke keeps silent as he rolls up the sleeves of his dark blue button-up and takes my hand to guide me to the dance floor. The bass thumps harder in my chest, the closer we get to the speakers.

  Our bodies sway to the upbeat tempo, and for the first time since my life turned crazy, I am having fun. No thoughts ran through my head as my eyes close, and the music takes me away. We dance for a few minutes, and my body starts to slow down. My head starts to spin first. My body feels heavy, and I didn’t know I'm falling until Luke’s strong arms wrap around me.

  “Whoa, looks like you have too much to drink,” he muses.

  I’m limp, and I can barely open my eyes. Luke's face looks blurry, and my stomach is in knots. When the room stops spinning, I try to stand. Frantically I search for Amy in the sea of people. We have to leave before I embarrass myself and puke on Luke.

  “Come on, let’s go outside for some fresh air,” he says softly and leads me through the crowd.

  We sneak by a few patrons and make it through a door that leads into the alleyway. The crisp night air cools down my hot cheeks, making my stomach not hurt as much. Whatever is in those drinks is making my stomach do backflips.

  I glace up at Luke with a smile. I’m starting to feel better knowing that someone is here to help me. “Thank you. It’s nice to know there are still gentlemen in the world,” I manage. Trying to give him a compliment while keeping a calm composure is no easy task.

  Luke says nothing and stares at me. The vibe he is giving off is starting to make me sweat as my fight or flight response kicks in. I notice another man enter the opening of the alleyway opposite of us. I'm uneasy as the man walks towards where we are standing.

  “Maybe we should go inside. I’m sure Amy is looking for me,” I whisper desperately.

  I reach for the door handle to go back into the club when Luke grabs my arm. I laugh, thinking he is trying to fool around, but his grip becomes tighter, and he roughly pulls me to the ground.

  My head bounces off the blacktop, making a loud cracking sound. My ears ring, and my head throbs as I reach up to feel a warm, wet sensation on my forehead. When I can focus, my hand is covered in blood, and Luke is standing over me, breathing heavily. An audible hiss escapes his throat in frustration as the other stranger finally joins him.

  “The drug didn’t take. Her body is already filtering it out before I had a chance,” Luke growls, reaching into his back pocket for a cellphone.

  The pounding in my head is growing, and soon the sound of my blood rushing pounds in my ears. My eyes flutter closed as the full effect of my head injury takes over my body. I try to move, but my body is numb, and my elbow stings from the fall.

  “Why are you doing this?” I wheeze.

  Luke and the stranger wickedly smile in unison as Luke crouches down to my level. He reaches out and grabs a fist of my hair to pull my head up. The sting of my fresh wound causes my eyes to water as my heart thumps in fear.

  “Simple. We have a job to do, princess. Our boss can’t have you waltzing around, now can he?” He sneers.

  “Hurry up! You’re taking too long!”

  “Quiet! I know what I’m doing!” Luke growls.

  From the same back pocket, Luke pulls out a black leather handle and presses a button. The spring-loaded device produces a bright gleam of a blade as he holds it to my face. “Any last words?” he menacingly grins, showing off his white teeth and what appears to be fangs.

  I'm losing it. This has to be a mixture of pain and fear to make me delusional. My heart is pumping so hard that I knew it would stop this time. Luke raises his arm, with the blade in hand, ready to strike my skin. I quickly close my eyes, wishing that I never mentioned going out tonight. Before the tears can reach my cheeks, the tension on my hair is gone, and I fall back down. The sound of a man’s scream, and bones cracking fill my ears when I open my eyes. Darren is holding Luke by the arm, pushing him against the club wall. With what strength I have left, I push myself up to watch Darren squeeze on Luke’s neck with his free hand.

  “You better give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now,” Darren snarls.

  Luke coughs and scoffs, “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  The other man that knew Luke reaches down to grab the knife that fell and starts to run in Darren’s direction.

  “Darren!”

  I can’t get up fast enough and fear the worst. Out of nowhere, a blinding red blur came from the alleyway entrance and pummels the attacker to the ground. “Oi! Look what we got here. A snake in the grass.”

  Amy is standing on the attacker, one heel on his back and the other on his hand. I think it's Amy, the girl looks like Amy, but her voice was different. She has an accent. As I listen to her speak, I soon realize I recognize her voice. It's the same as the woman who was arguing with Darren the other night. What the hell is going on here?!

  “You took too long,” Darren barks, causing Amy to put her hands on her hips.

  “Well, excuse me. There were more than these two inside I had to take care of first,” she hisses.

  Luke laughs, causing Darren to press harder on his windpipe.

  “Now answer me, who sent you. Tell the truth, and I might let you live,” Darren threatens.

  “I’m not saying anything. You’ll have to kill me, I guess,” Luke wheezes.

  Amy digs her heel harder into the man’s hand on the ground, making him howl in pain. “And what about you? You better talk soon, I’m starting to grow bored,” she sneers.

  The man looks up at Luke and begins to sweat. Amy presses down on his hand once more, making him yell louder.

  “Okay! Okay! We were ordered to kill the girl,” he confesses.

  “By who?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know? Or you won’t say?” Amy questions adding more pressure.

  “Ow! We don’t know who! All I know is, we were sent a letter and from what I could remember, it said the girl will ruin everything and to take care of her. Please don’t kill me,” he cries.

  I finally had enough of whatever creep show is going on. “Would someone like to explain to me what is going on?” I demand. I would have stomped my foot, but I'm too unsteady, to begin with.

  Amy and Darren turn their heads towards me. If I were standing, I would have taken a step back. Both of them have a dangerous look in their eyes, and when Amy tries to speak to me, I can’t hear the words. Fangs protrude from her mouth slightly like the man on the ground. I look to Darren and Luke, who also sport the look. I am ultimately terrified.

  Luke began to laugh. “What’s wrong, princess? You act like you haven’t seen a vampire before,” he taunts.

  Darren hisses and lifts Luke higher against the wall, “Quiet!” He snarls. When Darren glances back at me, and his expression softens, “Elizabeth, we can explain everything,” he softly speaks.

  At this point, I can’t fathom what I just heard or how Darren could explain this. Vampires? Meaning, they are all vampires? This all has to be fake. There were no such things as vampires. They are just monsters in movies and teen books! What did any of this have to do with me? I am overwhelmed, and my head begins to spin again. Soon my world turns dark, and the last thing I hear before succumbing to darkness is my name being called out by Darren.

  Eight

  My legs burn. I ran as fast as I could. Laughter starts to fill my ears as sickening hissing noises follow closely behind. I don’t know where I am going, but I'm sure as hell wa
sn’t going to stick around. My head throbs as I try to peer through the darkness. A bright light shimmers ahead of me, and the closer I walk towards it, I can hear the loud but hushed whispers of two people.

  Slowly my eyes open, and I realize I wasn’t in the alleyway anymore. Instead, I am laying in my bed dressed in my pajamas. I looked at the door to see Darren and Amy arguing.

  “I told you not to go to that club. Too many of his followers are out there,” Darren hisses quietly.

  “Oi! I was following orders. ‘Make Lizzy happy’ remember? She wanted to go. How was I supposed to know this would happen?!” Amy argues through clenched teeth.

  “Not to mention you were negligent! If I didn’t get there in time, she would have been dead!”

  “If you would have told Lizzy the truth, none of this would have happened!”

  They both start to growl at each other flashing their fangs. I blink and sit too fast. The sudden rush of sitting up causes my stomach to lunge slightly. I look at them, thinking that this is all a dream. Vampires are real, and somehow, I am caught in the middle of something still.

  The back of my neck pulsates, and I reach up to feel a bandage on the spot where my head hit the concrete. Amy notices I'm sitting up and pushes Darren’s arm. “Look, you woke her up.”

  The way the two of them act, it's like watching a brother and sister fighting. It would have been amusing if I knew the two weren’t bloodthirsty monsters.

  Amy came closer to me and sits on the edge of the bed, causing me to back away. The hurt expression on her face makes my heart squeeze, but I have no idea what is going on. Until someone starts to explain what happened, I'm not going to get chummy with anyone again.

  “We uh, we haven’t been telling you the truth,” she starts softly.

  “Yeah, you think?” I snap.

  I am furious with all the secrecy and the fact that Amy never told me who she was. It really makes me question our friendship.

  Darren pulls up a chair from the little table by my bed and runs a hand through his hair.

  When no one is speaking, I grow impatient.

  “Okay, first off, why do you two act like you know each other? Second, what the hell happened last night? Are you guys really vampires, or is this some weird cult fetish?” I ramble.

  Amy clears her throat, “To answer the first question, well, I’ve known Darren for as long as I can remember. My name is really Amaryllis, but I usually go by Amy. I was sent by your father to make sure you stayed safe while in school.”

  I'm in deep shock. Amy, the one person who I relied on in my messed-up world, isn’t who she really is. So, the stories of her wealthy family are nothing but lies? The whole situation is sickening and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

  Darren and Amy reach out for me at the same time, but I pull away again. I'm furious and stare at the two of them for a while before I can speak.

  “What else? What else aren’t you telling me?” I demand.

  Amy looks at Darren and watches as he slumps back into his chair, not saying a word. She huffs and looks at me. “Those men that attacked you last night are working for someone who wants to harm you. Your father was a powerful and influential vampire…”

  “Enough, Amaryllis!” Darren snaps.

  Amy studies at Darren and barres her teeth. “She needs to know the truth!”

  Darren stands up from his chair and stares down at her. “Not like this. She can’t handle something like this right now!”

  “Oh, like you care!” She retorts.

  Darren growls and takes a step towards her. “You are out of line!”

  “It’s her heritage! She is next in line for the chair!”

  “She will be in more danger than she already is now!”

  I eventually have enough. It is all too much, the vampires, the fighting, and now there is the talk of a chair? I never grew up in a household with arguing parents before, and now I’m thankful I didn’t have to go through it. “Stop it both of you!” I yell and crawl out of bed. My legs wobble slightly, but I struggle at first to gain my balance.

  Darren stretches out for my arm, but I push his hand away. There is too much going on, and I can’t wrap my brain around it.

  “I have a hard time believing you guys are vampires or the fact I am so how involved with some weird mafia hit. Oh, and my father is a vampire?” I laugh in disbelief. Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair, feeling little pieces of asphalt slowly slip from the strands “I need some time to myself.”

  My body moves quickly past the two of them as they say nothing. My head is reeling with the idea of vampires being real and the fact that I’m stuck in the middle. Is Amy telling the truth? Was my father a vampire? If he was, did that mean I was too? Or was this some messed up coma dream?

  When I finally take a deep breath, I find myself outside by the gardens. The dark sky starts to grow lighter with the oncoming morning. I sit down on the stone steps watching the tree branches sway in the cool, early morning breeze. I close my eyes, trying to make sense of all that is happening around me when I hear soft footsteps approaching me. I jump and hastily turn around to see Darren making his way in my direction.

  Seeing a familiar face makes me breathe a bit easier, even though I'm still hesitant because of the whole vampire thing. After everything that happened, I’m feeling jumpy and don’t know what to expect next. I observed him as he slowly sits down next to me, keeping his own eyes on the flowers and trees. We sit in silence for a while, watching as the sky’s dark veil slowly lifts, revealing a soft pink aura.

  “You weren’t supposed to find out this way,” Darren states softly after sitting in silence.

  I swallow hard and look at him. “How was I supposed to find out?” I ask evenly.

  My heart swarms like an aggravated beehive of emotional betrayal. Strangely, I'm glad Darren is out here with me instead of Amy. She is supposed to be my friend, and instead, she lies to me for four years. I confide in her, I cried on her shoulder, only to find out that she was lying to me.

  Darren sighs and ran a hand through his hair. “Your father wanted you to figure out what you were going to do with the manor first, then we were going to tell you.”

  I bit my lip and glared at him, “Tell me the truth. What is going on here?” I ask, feeling emotionally drained from the night’s events.

  The look on Darren’s face says it all. He is ashamed for lying to me, and more importantly, he looks almost scared to tell me. There is a long pause with nothing but the two of us staring at each other. His eyes trace my face before he looks away, breaking the trance. His shoulders ease up, and for the first time since I met him, he looks normal, using the term loosely. Darren isn’t acting like the uptight butler I first met; he is now just a guilty guy.

  “Your father, may he rest in peace, was a good man. He wanted to help people and bring peace to everyone, but some people in this world just want destruction. Master Edmund took me in when I didn’t have anyone. He did the same with Amaryllis and Reginald. We were society's castaways, and it was him that brought us together like a family. For saving my life, I vowed to serve him in any way possible.”

  Darren watches the rising sun as I stare at him. He keeps quiet, and I can tell quickly that he misses my father. When I was growing up, I had my mother to help guide me through life. Darren had no one. For some reason now, I'm the one that starts to feel guilty. The words I say in passing about my father earlier probably hurt Darren pretty bad.

  “Yes, Amaryllis was sent to your school to protect you while you were there, but there is something you need to understand Elizabeth. Any orders your father gave us was to protect you.” Darren studies me. The fleeting butterfly feeling bubbles from my stomach, making my heart race. I swallow hard and nod, wanting him to continue.

  “There is an old vampire legend that when the gods created man, they also created animals, creatures, plants, water, air, things for man to survive, to keep them humble and in check. Your father, among others, was from t
he bloodline of the first vampire, the Originem. For hundreds of years, your father fought for the safety of humans and vampires. He wanted a world where everyone coexisted. However, that will never be a reality. Humans fear what they don’t understand, and the vampire race fears weakness.”

  I blink as a white-hot flash of fear starts to sink in my heart. Darren sounds convincing, and I can’t believe that I am entertaining this nonsense. “If my father was a vampire and part of this bloodline, then why am I not a vampire?”

  Darren chuckles at my curiosity. “It’s a little more complicated than that. There was a time where vampires of the Originem were changing humans to build the race. It takes more than just a bite. There is a blood sharing ritual where any vampire can turn humans. It started to get out of hand, which leads to the creation of the vampire council. The council was a select few from the Originem that oversaw all vampire activity. They made turning humans to vampires illegal, and any vampire was sentenced to death if they went against the council. Your father was the head of the council until four years ago.”