Bitten by the Vampires

by Sophie Stern

  I climb down the narrow ladder of the guard tower, and then I start walking toward my home. It’s a small, tiny tent set up at the edge of the settlement. Most of the residents have shelters or little homes, but not me. I have a sort of miniature hut that I live in, but I don’t really mind. One day, I’ll actually build myself a place to live.

  At least, that’s what I always tell myself.

  When I reach my tent, I kick off my shoes outside and climb into it. It’s a small tent: barely big enough for my mattress, but I don’t really need much. When my parents died in our own village, Edna found me and took me in. I lived with her for many years. Then, after Edna died, her kids made it clear I was no longer welcome in her home, so I left and came here. The edge of everything might not be ideal real estate, but it works for me. I’ve always been a sort of outcast. You have to be if you’re chosen as a guard, anyway.

  Guards are the people nobody misses when they’re gone.

  They’re expendable.

  That’s what my town thinks I am.

  They think that nobody will notice or care if I just disappear, and even though I hate to admit it, I think they’re right.

  Chapter 2

  THE SOUND OF SCREAMING is what wakes me. I’m jolted awake and sit up in the darkness of my tent. The world is no longer quiet the way it’s supposed to be. Everyone is awake, and everyone is yelling.

  “They’re here!”

  “The vampires! They’ve come!”

  “Monsters!”

  “Run!”

  “Fight!”

  It takes me a minute to realize what’s happening. There’s an invasion. They really are here. So I wasn’t dreaming about those men in the woods, was I? It wasn’t just a daydream. They were real, and now they’re here. They’ve come for the town. I’m smart enough to know that even if I’d warned people when I was on duty, they wouldn’t have believed me. They wouldn’t have reacted.

  After all, vampires aren’t supposed to be pretty.

  They aren’t supposed to make your heart stop or make it difficult to breathe. When I’d seen the men in the woods, I’d felt so many different emotions. Now their group is here, and they are going to...

  What?

  What are they going to do?

  Eat us?

  Destroy us?

  Catch us?

  I might want to be a vampire, but I definitely don’t want to be slaughtered by one. Not like this. Not on someone else’s terms. The village is practically burning to the ground, judging by the sounds of things, and I know that I don’t have much time.

  I grab my brown shoulder bag. It contains my spare clothes, my journal, and the doll my mother left me. I loved that thing when I was little, and I’m not about to let it go now. The bag also has the only memento Edna ever gave me: a small key that unlocked her very first home in Eagleton. She made me promise not to tell any of her children she gave it to me, and I did. I always kept it tucked away carefully. Now it can serve as a memory of everything I’ve left behind.

  Climbing out of my tent, I look around quickly to assess the situation, only to find it is in utter and complete chaos. It’s even worse than I thought: the town is unceremoniously being completely destroyed.

  People are running around wildly. It’s easy to see who the humans are and who the vampires are, because unlike the townspeople, the vampires don’t seem to be yelling or shrieking or even panicking. They’re just methodically walking around, grabbing humans, and tying them up.

  “Are they hog-tying people?” I mutter to myself, whispering. I’m so used to whispering that it doesn’t even cross my mind to speak out loud.

  “Yes,” says a voice, and I turn around quickly to see that the tall man from yesterday is standing just beside my tent. “Don’t yell.” His voice is deep and rough with just the right amount of command. If this guy wants to boss me around, well...I’ll let him. That scares me a little.

  “Okay,” I whisper. If I hadn’t spent the last decade or so of my life whispering, I probably would have screamed. Just as the other people are panicking, I can feel myself growing wary and nervous. It doesn’t seem fair or okay that the world is burning down around me. I’m so not going to be fine after this is all over.

  “Tell me your name,” he says. I look up at the man. In the darkness, I can’t see him very clearly, but I know exactly who it is. He’s one of the men from yesterday: one of the guys who came to scope out the village. Perhaps I should have actually told Joe about what I saw. Then maybe this wouldn’t be happening.

  The man looks at me patiently, as though we have all of the time in the world. It’s a bit ridiculous, really, because we obviously don’t have all of the time in the world. Things are falling down around us. The community is burning.

  “Your name,” he says again. It’s not a request. Again, it’s a command.

  The truth slips from my lips.

  “Tyana.”

  He looks at me carefully and steps closer. There are dim lights on the walls surrounding the town, and that, coupled with the stars, lets me see the man’s face a little more clearly now that he’s closer to me. He is even more beautiful up close, and unfortunately for me, that frightens me a little. Why does he have to be so damn pretty?

  Why doesn’t he look like a monster?

  Monsters aren’t supposed to be beautiful or perfect or things you want to kiss and touch. They’re supposed to be ugly, horrible. They’re supposed to be scary.

  Perhaps I’m an idiot for not being more scared of this man, but I can’t help the way I’m reacting to him in this moment. I look up at him, and I stare at him as though he’s my savior. I look at him like there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here.

  With him.

  “Lovely,” he says.

  “Are you going to hog-tie me, too?” I whisper.

  Something flickers in his eyes.

  Desire?

  “That depends on you,” he murmurs.

  What the hell does that mean? And why, oh why, does that comment make my belly flutter? There is no way I want to be tied up by anyone. I certainly don’t want to be tied up by this monster.

  Do I?

  I press my hands to my stomach, as though that will calm my nerves. I should be screaming. I should be running away from this man right now, but I’m not. Somehow, I can’t seem to move my feet. I’m stuck in place, completely transfixed on the man in front of me.

  Why am I not running?

  He looks at me, and then he holds his hand out.

  I stare at it so long that he chuckles.

  “Is this your first time being around anyone new?” He asks. “Take my hand.”

  “I don’t know you.”

  “Take my hand,” he repeats, and this time, his voice is a little more firm. There’s something in it that makes me want to obey him, to listen to him. I look over my shoulder at the wild chaos unfolding around me, and somehow, this man seems like a light in the darkness. Turning back to him, I reach for him, and I take his hand.

  He smiles at me, but it’s not a happy sort of smile. It’s almost smug, as though he knew that I would consider my options and decide that he was the best choice for me. Okay, so I’m giving in, and I’m taking his hand. He doesn’t have to look so self-satisfied.

  “Good girl,” he murmurs. His words sweep over me, wrapping around me like a comfortable glove. Okay, maybe there is something wrong with me. Why do I feel this physical reaction to this man? Should I even think of him as a man? I’ve never met anyone like him before.

  “Thank you,” I whisper. I don’t really know what else to say to him, and I definitely don’t know what’s happening around here.

  Why have the monsters come?

  And why do they look so different than I expected them to?

  For years, I’ve been taught that these are large, winged creatures who fly around causing chaos. This man doesn’t have wings, and he might create chaos, but somehow, it seems like he is in control of everything that happ
ened. He seems completely unbothered by the things happening around us: people being caught, people being tied up. It doesn’t seem like anyone is actually being killed.

  Not yet.

  Why do I get the feeling that this man is completely in charge of everything around him?

  And why does that make me feel safe?

  “Where are you going to take me?” I ask.

  He looks at me for a minute. He seems completely unbothered about everything that’s happening all around us. He doesn’t even look up when someone runs by screaming. Instead, he ponders whether he’s going to give me the satisfaction of an answer or not.

  Finally, he settles on something that works for him.

  “Home,” he says. The word is very crisp and very polite and very straightforward, but it really doesn’t answer my question at all.

  Home?

  But I have a home.

  I look over at my tiny, raggedy tent. Okay, so my home is kind of trash. It’s not my fault. At least, that’s what I tell myself. Maybe I should have left Eagleton years ago and taken a chance on living alone, but I didn’t. I was scared, yeah, and I was worried. I didn’t want to go wandering off. It wasn’t that I was afraid of monsters, but that I was afraid of Edna’s memory.

  She wouldn’t have wanted me to put myself in harm’s way. There are worse things in the woods than vampires, she told me.

  There are wolves.

  There are bears.

  Someone even told me there is a cannibal, but I don’t know how true that actually is. It seems as though much of the information I’ve received throughout my life has been a bit skewed. Judging by the way this creature looks, I’d say the information I’ve received has been very, very skewed, if not completely false.

  “Home?” I finally ask him. I look up at the man, squinting at him. His dark brows furrow, as though he’s not quite sure what else to say to me to get me to understand, and oh, I get that. I get that he’s agitated somehow, he’s frustrated. I don’t have the necessary skill set to survive this situation.

  “Home,” he repeats.

  Okay, so he’s going to play up the mysterious thing. He’s going to play up the dark and dashingly handsome thing. Mr. I-Wear-Leather and I-Have-a-Vest and I-Look-Like-I-Could-Eat-You-Alive wants to play secrets.

  I can deal with that.

  If it means that his attention is focused on me, then I’m pretty sure I can deal with just about anything. I’m scared that I’m so attracted to this guy because I’ve never experienced true attraction before, but I’m also excited and turned on and wondering what exactly is going to happen when we get “home.”

  Instead of pressing that issue, I decide to approach the man from a different angle. If I switch topics, will he answer my questions?

  “You were in the woods yesterday,” I accuse him gently. What’s he going to say? Is he going to deny it? I still feel like I might be going crazy, and it’s kind of taking all of my energy to make myself feel like I’m not.

  I’m not going crazy.

  Am I?

  “Yes,” he says.

  “You were with two others.”

  “Yes.”

  “Who are they?”

  He hesitates again, and this time, I think he’s definitely going to answer me, but he just shakes his head.

  “You’ll meet them soon. Now come.”

  “But...”

  He starts walking, and he pulls my hand as he moves along. I try to free it, but his grip is firm, and tight. I yank again, unready to go with him. Wherever the hell he’s taking me, I don’t know where I’m going to end up.

  Is this a place that’s going to be safe?

  Somehow, I’m guessing that wherever we’re about to go is not going to be a haven. Not by a long shot.

  I dig my heels into the ground, but they slip and slide in the dirt. The man seems completely unbothered by this, and he keeps walking. Eventually, I give up trying to escape. Instead, I decide to ask a question of him. If I pester him with questions, he eventually has to answer, right? He definitely will. He’s got to.

  “Sir?” I whisper, and he stops instantly. He stops so fast that I bump into him and stumble backwards, but he drops my hand and instead reaches for my shoulders.

  “Tyana,” he whispers. “Not another word.”

  Okay, so asking a question is not on the table. Something in his voice makes me realize that this is more than just a command. It’s both a warning and a threat, and I would do well to take what he’s saying seriously.

  Okay, no problem.

  I can do that.

  I can do this.

  I can listen to this guy, this man who is probably going to save my ass from whatever it is that’s coming, and I can do as he says. I don’t know if the vampires are going to kill the humans who live in Eagleton. Maybe it’s because I’m such a social outcast, but I feel a sort of strange disconnect as I see the humans being tied up and left in different places around the city.

  I see people I know, but nobody seems to notice me as I let the monster lead me to the edge of the town. I wonder what happened to Joe. Did he escape before they came? Will he die with everyone else? What about Edna’s children? We weren’t really friends, but we knew each other. It’s strange to think that someone you know might be dying or dead in a matter of minutes. I’ve known plenty of people who have died, but it was never like this. It was never in a war-like situation filled with screaming.

  There are several vampires standing by the front gate when Big Bad and I approach. One of them is the blonde-haired guy from yesterday: the one who looks like an elf from a fairy tale. He’s damn pretty to look like. I want to reach out and start playing with his hair, but I have a feeling he’d absolutely despise that.

  “You found her,” he says coolly.

  He seems neither pleased nor interested in the fact that yes, the other dude found me. Perfect. So now, I’m not only not wanted in Eagleton, but I’m also not wanted among the vampires. Am I ever going to be able to find a place where I belong?

  Will there ever be a spot for me?

  It kind of feels like there will not be.

  “Not the time, Benjamin.”

  “Then would be a good time, Eli?”

  The man who is holding my hand, Eli, sighs audibly.

  “Just take her,” he says, and he pushes me unceremoniously toward Benjamin before he turns and walks away. Where is he going? Where does he need to be? And why, oh why, is he leaving me with this stranger?

  The elf-man catches me, but not in a romantic, kind, or gentle way. He’s rather rough with me, and I don’t know why, but somehow, it makes me feel this wild sense of being unwanted, which is horrible because it’s just a stronger version of the emotion I’ve been dealing with my entire life.

  Unwanted.

  After my parents died, Edna took me in, but nobody else wanted her to. My parents had lived off in the forest in another town, but it was destroyed. Edna found me wandering around in the woods after the town was slaughtered. She brought me in and swore to raise me as her own. The problem was that Edna already had two daughters, and neither one of them liked me. Nobody wanted their mom to bring in a stray, so I was always the outcast. Besides, Eagleton was phasing out children. Once we grew up, nobody else was allowed to have kids. If you get pregnant, you have choices, but if you want to stay in the community, having your baby isn’t one of them.

  Edna took care of me well enough. She looked out for me as well as she could. Then she died, and I got to be the outcast a little bit more.

  I’m silent as Benjamin spins me around and places his hands tightly on my shoulders. My back is now to his front, and I’m forced to watch the scene unfold in front of me. He doesn’t hide it from me. He doesn’t offer any sort of calm reassurance that everything is going to be okay.

  “What are you going to do with them?” I ask, quietly whispering, but he doesn’t answer, and I don’t really expect him to.

  Chapter 3

  BENJAMIN HO
LDS ME STILL until Eli returns. I don’t know what he was doing, and I honestly don’t want to know. There are other vampires here: more than just the three I saw yesterday. I see them hauling and pulling the townspeople away from everything and everyone. People are screaming and crying and yelling. They’re looking around wildly, trying to find a way to escape, but the vampires methodically. They don’t seem to be killing anyone, and I don’t know if that’s bad or good. Instead, they’re tying people up and hauling them off somewhere: someplace I can’t see.

  Maybe they have some sort of transportation. They must, right? They must have a way for taking the humans wherever it is that they’re going. I just don’t know, though. I can’t tell, and as hard as I’m trying to look, I still can’t see very much of what’s happening.

  Eli comes back and looks from me to Benjamin and back again. Finally, he speaks, but he ignores me entirely.

  “How was she?”

  How was I?

  Are they seriously going to talk about me like I’m not even here?

  Like I’m nothing to them?

  I’m a fucking person. I have feelings, and opinions, and thoughts. I don’t need to be treated like I’m not important or like I don’t matter. I don’t need any of that.

  “I was fine,” I snap, and Benjamin instantly yanks my hair, pulling it back. Ouch. That seriously hurts! I don’t cry out, though. I won’t give him the satisfaction. There’s no way for me to fight back against this treatment. I can’t fight him. He’s much too big.

  This just makes me angrier.

  Why don’t I get to be the monster right now?

  Why don’t I have any sort of strength?

  Why don’t I get to have a say in anything at all?

  I hate feeling this weakness, this vulnerability. It was bad enough when he was holding me in place. Now he’s talking about me like I don’t even exist, like I don’t even matter.

  Benjamin follows suit. He doesn’t talk to me. He doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t pretend like he cares about my opinion.

  Instead, he just holds my hair tightly in place and looks at Eli.