The Progeny

by Shelley Crowley

  Alexander woke with a groan and wiped the trail of drool from the corner of his mouth. He squinted at the soft light that was penetrating through the closed cream curtains. Curious, he kicked off the covers and crawled across the bed. He knelt at the edge of it and inspected his bare arms in amazement. His skin was glistening in the filtered light of the sun and the fair hairs on his arms shone like spun gold. Even a minor amount of exposure like this would have usually made him blister. Now he could feel the warmth of the sun with no consequences. And it felt like being kissed by an angel.

  Hopping off the bed, he grabbed the curtains and threw them wide open. He couldn’t see the sun but the world was alight with its beauty and the sight took his breath away. He hadn’t seen the sky this light in over a century. He almost felt the need to cry all over again. Looking down, he realised his room was facing the back of the mansion. A huge football field sized lawn stretched out before him and in the distance, he could see another building- this one only one story and painted white. A pool house? Next, he spotted a tennis court. Then the basketball court. Holy crap this guy is loaded! His heart momentarily fluttered with glee. But beyond the luxurious courts, Alexander's eyes followed the huge spiked fence that surrounded the whole vicinity, separating him from freedom. It shone almost blindingly bright in the sunlight due to the silver coating. It looked like an ironic beacon.

  His glee quickly fizzled out.

  He crossed back into the bathroom to check his reflection, casting a glance at the clock as he passed it. It was 7.30am. Was that a reasonable time to be up? He didn’t know. It was odd waking at sunrise. He stopped before the sink and ran his hands through his long blonde hair. It had dried in the night and was now curling at the tips. His face still looked as youthful as always. No dark circles under his eyes or ugly blemishes. Leaning closer to the mirror, he checked for crows-feet.

  “I’d better not fucking wrinkle,” he grumbled, pulling his skin tight. He hated the look of old people. They freaked him out with their wrinkly prune-like faces. Mrs. Braverman hadn’t deserved to die though. It wasn’t her fault she had looked so revolting. She had just been in her front garden, bringing in a deck chair as Alexander had been checking the windows of her house for life. He had backed into her. She had screamed. And he had snapped her neck to shut her up before his sister had come. Realising what he had done, he had thrown her into her armchair and hoped it looked like she had just died in her sleep. Turned out his sister hadn’t bought it. It had been a stupid idea anyway.

  Apprehension tingled deep in Alexander’s gut as he made his way down the stairs. Nico had pointed the dining room out to him as he had led him to his bedroom, and had told him to meet him and the others as soon as he woke. Alexander paused at the foot of the stairs. The two men guarding the front doors sized him up before looking away. Alexander gulped and continued on his way. As he rounded the corner, he noticed that the double doors to the dining room were open. Voices were spilling out of them. Too low and jumbled together for him to make out words. He already hated hearing like a human.

  Sucking in a calming breath, Alexander padded across the wooden floor. Nico had not supplied him with shoes, probably because he hadn’t known his size. He had contemplated wearing his own white pumps but they clashed too much with his new outfit.

  His eyes were wide and his heart was pounding as he slipped into the doorway. He paused for a moment, like a deer caught in headlights, as several heads turned to face him. Nico was seated at the top of a long wooden table that was filled with large plates of food like a banquet. On either side of the table sat seven chairs, four had obviously been added hastily because they didn’t match the set. Eleven of the chairs were taken up by strangers- all wearing the same outfit as him which made Alexander hate it even more. He now felt like he was in a uniform. And uniforms reminded him of the army.

  “Good morning! Glad you could join us! Come. Sit,” Nico gestured to the free chairs. One was two spaces away from him. The other was the one on Alexander’s immediate left. Without a word, Alexander took the nearest seat. The man on his left- a Latino man around Alexander’s human age, with a lupine nose and dreadlocks down to his waist- eyed him up with cool amber eyes, before looking back down at his plate.

  “I’m sorry, I never got your name,” said Nico. Everyone else in the room had fallen silent since Alexander had sat down.

  “Alexander,” he replied, folding his arms and pushing his empty plate further up the table.

  Nico smiled with a nod. “Eat. There’s plenty for everyone.”

  But Alexander didn’t move. The look of human food made him feel a little queasy. After so long digesting blood and little else, he wondered whether his body might reject it and bring it all back up again. So instead, while everyone got back to eating, he studied his company.

  Were these all the vampires he had turned human again? Not many.

  There were five girls. Two were sat on the chairs closest to Nico. One was maybe a year or two younger than Alexander’s human age, with a bright blonde pixie cut which was obviously from a box. Her black roots were almost an inch long. Her eyes were big and bright blue, rimmed with long black eyelashes. The other girl made Alexander start. For a moment he thought he was looking at his wife but when the girl flicked her long, chestnut brown hair across her shoulder and Alexander caught a glimpse of her face, he noticed that she actually looked nothing like Elizabeth. His mind was just playing tricks on him. Next to Elizabeth’s not-so-lookalike, was the remaining empty seat and beside that sat a ginger man. His brown eyes were wide and fearful and his grip on his knife and fork was so tight it was making his knuckles bone-white. Quickly moving on, Alexander checked out the guy beside Carrot-top. Snowflake seemed like an appropriate name for this fella- with his bright white hair, fair skin and almost invisible eyelashes. The guy was clearly albino. Alexander found it quite amusing that he had once been a vampire. The poor guy would still have to hide in the shade in fear of burning up.

  The girl directly in front of Alexander made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Her long, black hair looked brittle and hung down like curtains over her pale face. She was muttering under her breath, savagely ripping apart a piece of bacon on her plate with her knife and fork. Her dark eyes flittered across the table as she continued to mumble, then she snapped her neck to look behind as if she were addressing someone who wasn’t there.

  Alexander turned to Dreadlocks by his side. “How long has everyone been here?”

  Dreadlocks plopped a green grape into his mouth, his eyes forward. “We all came last night, I think.”

  “Did you… get infected like I did? Through a blood whore?”

  The muscles in his cheeks rippled as he gritted his teeth. Nodding curtly, he answered, “Yeah. Nasty surprise. Almost killed me.”

  “Would you rather have died?”

  Dreadlocks turned. His amber eyes set on Alexander. After appearing stunned for a moment, Dreadlocks relaxed and started fiddling with the knife by his plate. “You ask a lot of questions.”

  Alexander shrugged and dropped back on his high-backed chair. “I just want to know if everyone is on the same page as me.”

  Dreadlocks’ eyes skimmed over the rest of their company. “Well, it looks like everyone has reacted to what has happened in different ways.”

  Alexander saw a shadow cross to the right of him and he turned towards the doors. His heart pounded at the sight of the man in the doorway. He froze – like Alexander had done- when he caught everyone’s attention.

  His short dark brown hair was perfectly styled in a small quiff and there were puffy rings around his eyes as if he’d just been crying. His lips were drawn into a serious line and his strong, square jaw was clenched.

  “Ah! Last but not least!”

  The new guy’s jade green eyes widened as he looked down the table at Nico.

  “There’s a seat here saved for you. Come. Sit. Eat,” said Nico, his overly friendly voice making Alexander’s hand
s turn into fists on the table.

  The new guy bowed his head and kept his eyes on the floor as he stalked over to the empty seat. Alexander couldn’t seem but pull his eyes off him. He was broader than Alexander, and so his black t-shirt fitted quite snugly around his chest and biceps. He slid the chair back and dropped into it, folding his arms on the table and staring, unfocused, on the bowl of fruit sat in front of him.

  Nico watched him for a moment and when he did nothing else, he got back to spreading jam on a piece of toast.

  Soon everyone turned back to their plates and carried on eating, either speaking to the people beside them or staying silent.

  Anger boiled in Alexander’s blood as he looked from one person to the other. They were all acting like it was a bloody dinner party.

  “Can I ask a question?” Alexander said, loud enough to be heard over the mutterings. Everyone shut up and snapped their heads to him. All except for the new guy who seemed to have thrown up an invisible wall between him and everybody else. Nico looked up, saw that Alexander was addressing him, and carefully placed his half-eaten piece of toast on his plate.

  “Of course,” said Nico, smiling.

  “What the fuck is going on?” hissed Alexander. By his side, Dreadlocks sucked in a breath. “How are we all just sat here acting like everything is fucking fine? You’ve destroyed our lives!”

  “Hey!” shouted the girl with the fake blonde pixie cut. She locked eyes with Alexander and gave him a death glare. “Don’t speak for all of us.”

  “What?” Alexander snapped back, irritated.

  “Don’t act like you are our spokesman. We all have our own opinions.”

  Alexander scoffed. “Really? Because to me it looks like you’re all just a bunch of drones. This guy-” he stabbed a finger and Nico, “-fucking poisoned us. He infected us with a virus and then took away our immortality!”

  “Yeah, and maybe that’s what some of us wanted,” the girl snapped back.

  Nico settled a hand over hers. “Calm down, Daisy,” he said softly. Her shoulders sagged and she slumped back into her chair.

  Alexander sneered, fucking suck-up.

  Nico’s grey eyes found him again and Alexander gritted his teeth. “I understand that you are upset with what has happened to you, Alexander. I am fully aware that you must all have a lot of questions and worries. I do plan to address them all later this afternoon. I was just hoping that this morning we could all just settle down, eat, and get to know one another.” He gestured to the whole table. “As I have said to you all, you will all be staying here for a while until I know that everything has worked out okay and that you are all safe. And so I thought it would be best that we could all be civil.”

  “Civil?” spat Alexander. You deserve a bullet through your skull.

  Nico locked eyes with him again. “Yes. Civil.”

  Alexander was fuming but he knew there was no point screaming and shouting. Nico may look innocent enough, but he needed to remind himself that he was the brains behind all of this. Right now, Nico owned him. If Alexander were to prove to be trouble, he was sure that with a click of Mr. Doctor man’s fingers, he would end up dead. Real dead.

  So, instead, he calmed himself down and approached Nico in a manner that was as civil as he could make it. “You say that once you know that we’re safe, you’re going to let us go.”

  Nico nodded. “That’s correct.”

  “So, what is stopping us from leaving this place and just getting ourselves Turned again? Then all of this would be for nothing.”

  A soft smile broke on his face and Alexander’s insides grew cold. For the short amount of time he had spent with Nico, he knew that his smiles weren’t all what they appeared to be.

  “As I said before, all questions will be answered later. But seeing as though you asked so politely, I will answer.” He fixed his glasses on his nose. “You can’t be Turned back.” Alexander’s heart plummeted to his feet. “To be Turned, vampire blood has to enter your system. You still have the Bergan virus inside you and it will fight against the foreign vampire blood, meaning you will end up how you were when you were taken in here. You will then either die or take the cure again, which will obviously only fight off the vampire blood in your system and nothing else.”

  Alexander was shaking. He was finding it hard to breathe. It was as if he’d just been plunged into a bath of freezing cold water. The backs of his eyes burned with tears. He could feel everyone staring at him, their gazes like hot needles into his skin. Unable to take it anymore, he jumped from his chair and stormed out the room. He only got to the corridor before he collapsed against the wall, gulping air that was too thin.

  His head was pounding.

  The floor was tilting.

  He continued to stumble. His vision growing in and out of focus. A bright light blinded him. He felt glass, then wooden panelling, then a handle. Grabbing it, he thrust a door open and was knocked back by a gust of wind. Suddenly, he could breathe again. The air was cool and crisp and clean. Blinking away the brightness, he let his eyes adjust and he realised he was outside on a patio with the winter sun beaming down on him. The heat on his skin was soothing but also terrifying.

  He fell to his knees and wept; the heels of his palms pressed hard against his eyes.

  He was trapped. Trapped in this mortal body. Trapped in this glorious prison. No matter how beautiful the sun was or how amazing food would taste when he finally plucked up the courage to taste it- it didn’t make up for what Nico had taken from him.

  Alexander picked up his head and swiped the back of his hand under his dripping nose. Voices were coming from inside. And footsteps. They were on the move. Desperate for no one to catch him crying, Alexander picked himself up, crossed the patio and flattened himself behind a wall that jutted out just enough for him to hide behind.

  Shadows crossed the patio flagstones and he peaked round to see Elizabeth’s not-so lookalike standing with her eyes closed and head tilted to the sun. She stayed there for a moment, basking in the warmth, and Alexander felt his heart flutter a moment at the thought of it actually being his long-lost wife. But then the playful happiness turned into dread and he flattened himself back against the wall, taking deep, calming breaths.

  He hated breathing already. It was such a chore.

  Several minutes passed before he was able to move again and step out of his hiding place. To his relief, the girl had gone, but he still wasn’t alone outside. Sat on a shallow set of steps that led to the huge lawn, was the guy that had come last to breakfast. He still held that look of complete exhaustion mixed with angst and pain.

  Alexander padded over to him, his socked feet making his footfalls silent even in his new clumsy human body. He dropped down beside the guy that- from up close- he decided he had been Turned when he had been possibly a few years older than himself.

  The guy’s jade eyes shifted to Alexander perched beside him, then he slid awkwardly to the side to create more distance between them.

  “Hi,” said Alexander, not smiling but hoping he looked friendly enough.

  “Hey,” he mumbled back, gazing out at the grass. A moment passed and Alexander watched his lips as they silently tried to form words. Finally, he managed to get out, “I liked your speech.”

  Alexander laughed. “That blonde bitch didn’t.” He rested his elbows on his knees and looked out to the lawn. “I just couldn’t take it. Everyone acting so cool and casual. Not to mention the ones that looked like they had just been dragged out of the loony bin. Did you see that chick with the black hair? Fucking creepy.” He shuddered. He company said nothing. “Anyway, yeah, I just flipped. That Daisy may like what’s been done to her but I fucking don’t. And who does this doctor guy think he is? Who gave him the right to mess with our lives like this?” Alexander heard the anger in his voice and hoped it was hiding the fear that was making him have heart palpitations.

  “I know there are a lot of vampires out there that hate what they are. But I wasn’t o
ne of them.” Alexander’s words began to shake as the burn of tears pressed against the backs of his eyes. He knew he was rambling but he couldn’t stop himself. His words were just pouring out of him. “I had built myself up. Turned myself into something new. And I loved it. Being a vampire was everything to me. Nico hasn’t cured me,” he spat. “He’s broken me. Torn down and ripped apart everything that I am. I don’t even…” He gulped a breath. “I don’t even know what’s left.”

  A moment of silence followed. The guy squinted a little and then shuffled his feet on the lower step. He was wearing black scuffed up boots, Alexander noticed, probably what he had been wearing when he had been infected.

  “Why did you come over here?” the guy asked.

  Alexander blinked hard. He had an American accent. Brooklyn. Alexander had travelled a lot with Varsee and was able to detect it with ease. But there was also something underlying it. A lilt in some of his words. His mother tongue perhaps? Alexander needed to hear more to dissect it and he was really hoping he’d get the opportunity.

  He looked straight into his eyes. Alexander’s heart thudded in his chest. His eyes were huge, framed with thick black lashes and filled with so much pain that Alexander could almost feel it radiating off him. “What?”

  “Why are you talking to me? There are plenty of other people here. Why come to me? I know I don’t have a welcoming presence. I’ve been told often enough.”

  Alexander smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe my vampire instincts are still lingering and I still find myself drawn to the wounded.”

  The guy furrowed his eyebrows. “You think I’m wounded?”

  “Are you going to tell me I’m wrong?”

  His lips quirked in an attempt to smile but it didn’t fully show. Instead, he stuck his hand out to him. “I’m Sebastian, but call me Seb.”