Harsh Light of Day

by Jaye A. Jones

  **

  Her hair was straight and lifeless, like it hadn’t been washed in too long. Not to mention, about five shades lighter than it had been before he passed out. Again.

  Will whispered her name as loudly as he dared until he had no more energy, even after he understood that she wasn’t going to respond.

  Finally giving up, Will let his body collapse to the cold floor. It made his ribcage scream with pain.

  He had been standing only because of adrenaline, and now, every muscle in his body throbbed from overuse. Blood trickled from his wrist, so he took off what was left of his t-shirt carefully, moving his painful ribs as little as possible, and ripped the shirt. Once his wrist was bandaged and pressed another piece of his shirt to his throbbing neck, he leaned forward and tried to put the pieces together.

  His thoughts dwelled on the memory of asking Lena for a kiss before she bit him. It was embarrassing, and Will didn’t know why he couldn’t shake the thoughts. There were more important things to worry about right now, but he couldn’t help it.

  It was dumb of him. Maybe he just wanted to feel something real, something good and normal before everything normal was taken away from him. But Will knew it was simpler than that.

  He loved her.

  The thought hit him like when it rained even though the sun was shining. It was so unexpected, Will had to blink a few times to believe it was real.

  When had it happened? How did he miss it? When Will was back at his apartment, which felt like days ago, he was sure he didn’t have those kinds of feelings for her. What changed? He wanted to go back to the beginning and replay every moment they’d spent together in his head so he could figure it out. Surely there’d be an explanation in there somewhere, if he searched for it.

  But before he got anywhere, there were sounds at the door. Will couldn’t hear exactly, but someone was on the other side. If someone came in now to check on them, Will had a feeling it wouldn’t be a good thing.

  He scrambled from the floor, trying to keep his middle from moving much, and hurriedly pushed a chair to the door, hoping to keep it closed.

  When the lock clicked, the door was open in a flash, and the chair he’d placed in front of it flew across the room and crashed against the far wall.

  Of course.

  He should have known. Will didn’t think he would ever get used to these things.

  “What has happened? Why haven’t you—” the scary little blonde stopped, and was instantly standing above Lena, whose eyes were open, but it was clear that no one was home.

  “What has happened here?” the blonde asked Will, who couldn’t believe she was talking directly to him.

  “I don’t know. We did the…the ritual or whatever. I woke up, and she was like this.”

  “And you’re bleeding. And still… And she’s…” she uncharacteristically blinked and returned her stare to Lena.

  Will waited, watching the blonde and trying to figure out what she was thinking. If she felt any emotion, it didn’t show on her face.

  “Something didn’t go right?” Will asked, reluctantly stepping towards Lena.

  The blonde flinched, and Will stopped. He pressed the piece of shirt harder to his neck and realized he’d better stay as far from the blonde as he could. A bleeding neck was too much of a temptation, even though Will could see her fangs weren’t extended like he’d seen Lena’s before.

  “I don’t understand,” the blonde whispered, and Will tried not to gawk. She suddenly looked so vulnerable and frail. A hint of emotion shone on her face and made Will see her for the first time as something other than a monster.

  Really, she was gorgeous. He was too preoccupied by being frightened of her to see it before, but the soft nest of golden hair framed her other-worldly face and as her big, icy eyes gazed at the lump of Lena on the floor, she seemed sad.

  Then she looked at him again, and Will couldn’t see her beauty anymore. She was a monster again, and seemed on the verge of tearing his throat out at any minute.

  The blonde stepped back from Lena and turned away from her. Though she didn’t say anything, somehow moments later, another vampire entered the room.

  Will knew this was her boyfriend. They took each other’s hands as soon as they could and stood closer than friends would.

  If they were talking out loud only for his sake, Will was surprised. That the boyfriend didn’t look so scary was a miracle. But there wasn’t time to consider these things.

  “Human,” the boyfriend said, but it didn’t sound as condescending as it could have. “Are you fit to travel?”

  Will was so shocked a vampire other than Lena would ask about his wellbeing, he said he was fine before he really gave it thought. He’d lost a lot of blood, and felt pretty weak. Looking down at his shirtless chest, he saw how bruised he was and only momentarily felt self-conscious about not being fully clothed.

  But he knew the vampires wouldn’t look at him twice. Not in that way, anyway.

  He hadn’t slept or eaten in way too long and the stupid house they were in was too dark and cold to allow him to concentrate. The past several hours, he’d spent in and out of consciousness, fainting from fear of all things.

  No, maybe he wasn’t able to handle anything more today. A root beer float, a piece of lasagna, a few phone calls, and a warm bed. Nothing else seemed possible.

  But the boyfriend motioned from him to Lena and Will knew what he had to do. And somehow even understood their reasoning behind it. Will had to stay close to Lena, to help her.

  “Follow us,” he heard the boyfriend say.

  Will took Lena’s hand in his. It was sticky and hot, and didn’t grip his hand back. The blonde and her boyfriend were already out the door and Will in some way knew, even in his worn out state he and Lena were dead meat if they didn’t stay with them.

  Lifting Lena to her feet even though it ignited his bruised chest, Will half dragged her behind. She was able to stay upright, but was still far from lucid. He would have to lead her.

  Catching a glimpse of her eyes which didn’t look the same as he remembered, Will took a double take. Was it just the bad lighting? But there wasn’t time to know for sure. Grasping her hand even tighter, Will scurried to catch up with the vampires, who were impatiently waiting in the hallway.

  Will couldn’t imagine a way out of the house without running into other vampires, the ones that wouldn’t be so helpful. There had to be hundreds of them. What did the blonde and her boyfriend think they were going to do?

  “Keep Lena safe. Stay behind us.”

  The blonde’s voice was affecting. Though Will didn’t know why she would be helping, he suddenly trusted her with his life. Even if Lena was the blonde’s only concern, Will saw her as beautiful again.

  It occurred to him then. Enough understanding hit to figure it out.

  The further they were apart, the more obvious it would be to the rest of the vampires.

  Of course. That was what happened. It took Will way longer than it should have to comprehend.

  Something weird happened. Backfired. Reversed.

  Will’s exhausted mind had a hard time understanding it any further. All Will knew was, he was still human.

  And now, so was Lena.