Penny's Choice

by Annette Archer

  He cleaned the blood from his face with his hand and turned back around, grabbing the throat of yet another werewolf. His light, shining eyes had turned black, showing the anger that streamed through his blood.

  Penny was horrified with the gruesome scene, but her guardian vampire would not stop for even a second. She second guessed her choice to join the Brotherhood.

  A playful smile graced his mouth as he gave her a sideways glance. He shouldn't look so carefree. Didn't he realize that there were about a half dozen wolves gnashing at him? A yell fled her lips, but the vampire had acted already, he stuck his two fingers into the beast's eye and tore its head in two parts.

  Things were moving too fast for Penny to keep up. The vampire never stopped protecting Penny and Charles. Penny couldn't believe that she was still alive. When she first saw pack of werewolves, she was sure that she was going to die.

  A werewolf jumped on the vampire and bit his arm. She screamed and stepped toward him to help. She really wanted to rescue him, but her legs wouldn't move from where she stood. Why did she even care about this vampire anyway? He was responsible for so much death already.

  Charles was also in the fight, but he was not nearly as majestic as the vampire. His arm was bleeding slightly, and there were some nicks on his face. He was mostly just providing some back up to the vampire.

  A low growl behind her made her heart stop. She turned around slowly and came face to face with the glaring brown eyes of a werewolf. She screamed for help and sweat poured down her pale face.

  The werewolf snapped its jaws and attacked her. She tried to run, but she flew in the air and smacked the ground hard. Blood gushed from a wound in her head. The werewolf leaped on top of her.

  The vampire crushed the werewolf on top of Penny with one swift blow and then he was gone again, fighting the last few werewolves.

  "You are not going to die," the vampire said to her. "Not now. I can't bear to lose you after all of this."

  His voice was very protective and she couldn't understand why. Why was this crazy vampire protecting her and Charles? She remembered what Charles had said; sometimes vampires do things that don't make any sense to humans.

  The vampire turned around and ducked the last werewolf. He plunged his hand into the werewolf's chest and tore out its beating heart.

  "Penny runs. You have to leave now. I have killed most of the werewolves, but the vampires are coming for you," the vampire yelled over his shoulder while protecting himself from a dangerous werewolf, she nodded and ran, but before she could only run a few steps before she was lifted up in the air by her hair. She screamed and saw it was another vampire who had lifted her off the ground.

  This vampire had pitch black eyes that were filled with hate. He stared at her in a way that cried death. Penny had no idea what was going on. Why was one vampire protecting her and why was this one about to eat her.

  But instead of biting her, he covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief that smelled of camphor. Penny collapsed into a lifeless heap the vampire's arm.

  (CHAPTER 7) Meet the Family

  Penny woke up in the black of night riding in a vehicle. She tried to get her bearings and noticed that she was lying next to another person.

  “Charles?” she asked, remembering that she was attacked and drugged by a vampire. She hoped that someone had been able to save her.

  “Ha, no Charles here,” a female said in a deeply sarcastic voice. Penny drowsily looked up and saw the face of a vampire. She laid her head back down on the seat. It was just like her luck to be the one captured by vampires.

  The vampire punched her in the stomach. Penny flinched.

  “Priscilla, I think we should avoid beating our guest too much,” the voice sounded like the vampire who had come to her rescue earlier with the werewolves. So she was in a car with two of the vampires that had killed her family. Penny thought about her miserable options. She couldn't really think of any options at the moment. She would have even taken a bad option at the moment.

  “I'll do what I want with her,” Priscilla snapped back.

  “I would just not speak anymore. We want her in good condition for bartering,” the Matriarch said from the other side of Priscilla. “If the Brotherhood thinks that she is dead or half dead they won't come back for her.”

  “I don't see why you think they will come get her,” Priscilla said with a half snort. “They always leave their own behind.”

  “I said that I didn't want you to speak,” the Matriarch said in a tone of finality.

  “Charles will come get her,” the male interjected into the conversation. “He'll lead a whole crusade for her.”

  “And then you'll all be sorry,” Penny said, mustering all the strength she had left in her. Priscilla retaliated with a swift club of her fist to Penny's skull. Penny slipped back into unconsciousness.

  Penny stirred from her forced slumber. She had been out of consciousness since the crazy female vampire, Priscilla had knocked her out. She had no idea if it was night or day. Or where in the world she was being kept. She was still in one piece, but she had quite a headache.

  So much for not harming the merchandise, she thought. She was still not quite in her right mind yet.

  “Hi there!” said a chipper voice from across the room. She was in no mood for upbeat people. She turned over and gasped for air. She looked to first see a cage-like prison cell. Her cell looked like a dungeon out of a bad vampire movie. Vampires were never very good at dispelling stereotypes. She looked past the bars and gazed upon the face of the vampire that had killed her family. Penny suddenly regained her strength and lunged for him and caught him by the shirt. His pointed teeth came very close to her face. She could see the shine of his fangs as he smiled at her.

  “You killed my family!” Penny still had a grip on his shirt. She wanted to pull hard enough to strangle him.

  “Sorry, sometimes these things just happen,” he said still smiling and about five inches from her face, only the bar of her cell keeping their noses from touching.

  Penny released his shirt. She didn't want to be that close to that beast. “Quit smiling,” she said. His smile was very disconcerting to her.

  “You are being rather bossy for someone in prison,” he said and readjusted the shirt that Penny had ruffled. He dropped his forehead back onto the bars. His floppy curly hair flew through bars. He rested his hands on the bars as he spoke to her. “I am happy, as I usually am, and when people are happy, they usually smile. At least that is the custom here. I know the Brotherhood is a little uptight.”

  “Let me out!” Penny banged against the door, but the vampire didn't budge.

  “Look, I'm not going to hurt you,” he said as he lifted his head on the bars, but still kept his eyes on her angry gaze. “I know you don't trust me, so I'll make this first encounter brief. I just wanted to know how Charles is doing.”

  “You leave him alone!” Penny could never stand loosing Charles, especially after losing her family. He was all she had left.

  “Easy, there, you are feisty one, aren't you? Charles told me about you in his letters. He told me he understood why I left you alone that night. I have a thing for feisty women, you know...”

  “Letters?” No Charles wouldn't send him letters. She backed away from the bars. No, she resolved he was just trying to get in her head. “You have never even met my Charles!”

  “Your Charles?” The vampire chuckled to himself. “So he decided again to steal the girl that I liked. Just like him. The girls always like Charles, perfect hair, suave, charming, mysterious. No one ever liked goofy, nerdy Thomas.”

  “What are you rambling about you stupid monster,” Penny said. She raised both of her eyebrows in total confusion.

  “Old family feud,” he replied. He took his hands off the bars and backed up a little from the cell.

  “What are you talking about?” Penny shook her head. She almost felt bad for the rambling vampire. He seemed disorganized and lost.


  “You had a sister right? And older sister?” He asked.

  “You should know, you killed her!” Penny stopped feeling bad for him. He was calculating on how to piss her off the most.

  “Sorry, soft spot, but actually that wasn't me. That was Priscilla.”

  “What does my sister have to do with this?” She really didn't want to talk about her family with this monster, but she was not in a position to choose the topic of conversation.

  “You two were arguing that night about another boy that you liked that she stole from you, right?”

  Penny winced. She remembered all too vividly that the last thing she said to her sister was that she hated her. She nodded.

  “Well, Charles has always stolen the girls that I liked. And it was worse than your...predicament. Charles was my little brother! 3 years my junior. He started stealing high school girls from me while he was just starting middle school. It was miserable!”

  “Your brother?” Penny asked. Now she was getting a little confused.

  “Little brother.”

  “No, that isn't right. Charles family was all killed by vampires almost 10 years ago,” she said. Penny decided that the vampire was just trying to confuse. She wasn't sure why he wanted her confused, but she wasn't going to give into his control.

  “No, and yes. We are vampires. Mom couldn't hack it all and after a couple months...threw herself into an incinerator,” the vampire stopped for a moment and a sad look replaced his ever present smile, “Dad hasn't been quite the same after that. Charles's twin, Charlotte, has taken to being a vampire better than the rest of us, except she misses that whole twin mystical bond thing with good ole Chuck. I can't say I'm unhappy. I get to read all that want. This no sleeping thing would have been great back in high school and wonderful for college.”

  “Twin?” Certainly Charles would have mentioned a twin before. He never talked about his family at all though. Penny shook her head. She was not going to fall for this vampire's trick.

  “Look, you picked the mysterious, reticent one, moi petite Chou, don't go complaining now that you are just figuring out that you don't know a thing about him.”

  Penny backed up and sat on the ground totally mystified by her conversation. She looked up at the vampire who had killed her family. He was right. He had Charles pegged: mysterious, reticent. Plus, the way Charles had behaved with this vampire at the party. They acted like brothers.

  “Look, I really am sorry about your family. I lost my brother and my mother too okay. I just came down here to see how my little brother is doing.” He let out a long sigh after he spoke.

  “You're the one that gets letters.” Penny crossed her arms and folded her knees up to her chest.

  “I know, but it's hard to get a read on how he's really doing from those. As you are figuring out, he's not very divergent.”

  “You just want to kill me and use me to get at the Brotherhood,” Penny said as she turned her back on the vampire.

  “No, Penny, I've actually saved your life four times!” He said. He grabbed the bars to her cell.

  “Four times? I haven't even met you twice,” Penny said, about to fly into a rage. She ran up to the bars and slapped him.

  Thomas touched his cheek where any human man would have had a red mark. “Perhaps I should stay away from the bars,” the vampire said and giggled. The giggle sounded familiar to Penny, but she just couldn't believe that this vampire was the same man who had saved her on numerous occasions. “I should have properly introduced myself from the start. So hello Penny, it's nice to see you again. I'm sorry I didn't get to introduce myself properly the first three, four times we met, but considering the...action that was happening....But my name is Thomas Wolf and I'm really no good at being a vampire.”

  “Thomas? Like...” Penny started to say, but was rather confused. She suddenly realized where she remembered the giggle from. Her instincts at the party had been correct. It was Thomas, her humorous friend that always came to her rescue. It would explain the odd behavior between Charles and the vampire in the ballroom and the even stranger exchange in the backroom. The disjointed pieces that never started to make sense, like how Thomas could jump out of a six story building, all started to fall into place. Perhaps she had never wanted to see before that Thomas was a vampire.

  “Yes, like the one from the werewolves and the library vampire. The driver you said couldn't be serious. And yes you're probably right; I have a terrible time being serious.”

  Penny backed away from her prison door and fell back onto the lousy excuse for a bed. She liked Thomas. But Thomas was involved in her family's murder. “Please, just go away, I need time,” she said, barely audible.

  “Penny,” Thomas said as he reached a pale hand into her cell.

  “No, just go...” Penny fought back a tear.

  “I'm sorry,” he said. He backed up from the barred door and went out of the room.

  Penny's mind raced with possibilities. Why would a vampire help the Brotherhood one minute then capture a member another minute. Why would Charles send letters to a vampire? The whys made her head spin so she lay down and curled up in a ball. As she cried herself to sleep, the only thought that kept coming into her head was family. She'd do anything for her family; so would Charles. But she was still mad and more than anything she felt betrayed by the only two men she trusted.

  “Penny, are you okay?” Thomas was standing outside her cell again.

  Penny jerked up from her fitful sleep. “Why do you care?”

  “Because you’re important to me. I like you,” Thomas replied. “I haven't saved your butt many times for no reason.”

  “You killed my family!” Penny was never in a good mood when she was woken up.

  “No, no I didn't. I tried to save them. I never kill when I eat. It...It just went awry with Priscilla there. And you girls were up fighting about that boy and then your parents came in to break up the fight just as we were...look I didn't want it to end that way. I told Priscilla, but....I could only save one of you! I was one vampire among five. I pushed you in the closet and barred it with my body; I wept while your family was butchered in front of me. I cannot get those scenes out of my mind. Not ever! You only heard it, but I had to see it. And it reminded me of mine own murder.”

  “I don't believe you,” Penny said with tears in her eyes.

  “Look, Penny, I want out of here. And so does my family. No matter what Priscilla may tell you, this 'operation' isn't about bringing down the brotherhood, it's about getting us – you me my family – out of here. And getting Charles out of the Brotherhood. That's why Charles sends me letters. Vampires...the Brotherhood...They're all bad. I just want things to be like before.”

  “But they can't! You are a vampire, Thomas.”

  “I know, but at least my family can be together again. And I don't have to be part of the awful things that Priscilla makes us do.”

  Penny sat on the edge of her bed, brooding. She wasn't really mad at Thomas. She could see the way that he acted that horrible night was not exactly normal vampire behavior. And he was just a random vampire then too. Her family was picked at random. But Charles, she trusted him. She trusted him with her life and her heart.

  (CHAPTER 8) The Move

  “I brought you something to eat,” Thomas said knocking on the side of the wall. He had allowed Penny free roam of the area. She still slept in the cell because it had the only bed in the place. Thomas had procured a few nicer pieces of bedding for her, so it was much more comfortable than the first night. No other vampire ever came down to see her, with the exception of Thomas's father. He came down once to meet her. He seemed like a depressed, broken man. Penny felt bad for him.

  “Thanks,” Penny said. She was still spinning from her recent discoveries, but she had decided that she could mostly trust Thomas. Most of this pseudo-trust was based on her belief that this vampire was indeed Thomas. She had grown to trust Thomas more than anyone over the last year. Plus, she liked Thomas. He was h
er only real friend. She looked forward to him cropping in her missions.

  She was still having a hard time putting aside her misgivings about his involvement with her family's murder. But, it did make more sense that he was trying to help her that night than harm her. It was the only scenario that any made sense at all. Even from the perspective of a vampire.

  Most of the questions she had now revolved around the Brotherhood. There was one thing that Charles said that really bugged her still. After the library fire, Charles had hinted that she didn't have a choice in joining the Brotherhood. She had postponed asking Thomas about it because she was afraid of the answer. She was afraid that she had wrongly put her trust in the organization.

  “It's meatloaf!” Thomas said, with a note of glee in his voice. He sat the tray down on the table, arranged the silverware, and pulled out the chair for Penny.

  “Meatloaf? What's so special about meatloaf?” Penny asked. It wasn't that she had a problem with meatloaf, but it was an odd choice to get excited about. So far, the food that she had eaten with the vampires was about ten times better than at the Brotherhood Sanctuary, even if it was just a sandwich.

  “It's my mother's recipe,” Thomas replied.

  “The cook has your mother's meatloaf recipe?” Penny said as she took her seat. Thomas helped her scoot up to the table. One thing was for sure, Thomas was a perfect gentlemen. Something that his suave brother lacked.

  “Sure, I'm the cook,” he said, taking a seat next to Penny. “Who do you think has been cooking all of your food?”

  “I don't know a cook of some sort?” Penny took a bite of the meatloaf. It was really good and just a little spicy. “You’re a really good cook, Thomas.” She spoke between bites of meatloaf. “Are you trying to fatten me up or something?”

  “Yup,” Thomas said, grinning from ear to ear. “I've never really understood my brother's fascination with skinny girls.”