“Sit still, or else,” the shorter man said.
I complied. They were obviously much stronger than me.
As I sat in the back of the van, they pulled out of the mall parking lot. I considered opening the rear door of the van and hopping out, but I realized they’d be able to chase me down in an instant and there was no way I’d be able to fight or outrun them.
“Do you know what’s happened to you?” the shorter man asked.
“I have no clue,” I answered.
“The queen will fill you in on the details,” he said.
Chapter 3
As we drove across town, the two men remained mostly silent. Whenever I’d ask about what was happening all they’d tell me was to save my questions for the queen.
Before long, I noticed through the tinted windows of the van that we were headed towards the neighborhood where I’d been attacked. When we actually passed by Juanita's Bed and Breakfast, I started to realize that I was in trouble, big trouble.
A short while later, we were pulling into the driveway of one of the large historic homes I’d walked past the previous night. The four story brick house was huge. One of my hobbies was looking at real estate online – that I couldn't afford – and I knew this house would be worth millions.
“Get out and don't try to get away,” the taller man said.
They led me through the perfectly manicured lawn to a side entrance. We entered the mansion, and I realized that whoever owned the house was loaded with cash – or massively in debt. The inside of the house was adorned with paintings, antique furniture, and hardwood floors. Everywhere I looked, there were book cases filled with hundreds of volumes. As we walked down a hall way I saw a wide variety of swords on the wall. Some of them looked like they were oriental and others looked like they came from the civil war era.
At the end of the hallway there was a doorway. The taller man knocked on the large, ornate door.
“Come in,” I heard a woman’s voice call out.
We opened the door, walked in, and I saw a woman at a wooden desk with pale skin and red hair. As I entered she stood, and I saw that she was at least six feet tall. She wore an old-fashioned looking light blue dress, the kind that a medieval woman of royalty might wear. It looked extremely expensive and was decorated with intricate embroidery.
The room we were in looked like a museum. It was very elegant with paintings on every wall. Some were were portraits and others were landscapes of hills, lakes, and forests. Many of the paintings looked centuries old.
“Welcome,” she said, looking at me fiercely. “My name is Queen Teresa. You must address me as Queen Teresa or your Majesty -- whichever you prefer.”
I didn't know what to make of this demand, but I decided it would be best to go along with it.
“Hello, Queen Teresa,” I said.
“Welcome to my home,” she said in a not-very-welcoming tone. “Sit down.”
The two men had left the room. It was only me, the queen, and another young woman who was sitting beside her behind the desk.
I looked around and found a chair close by, and I sat down opposite the queen.
“So, how do you like my house?” the queen asked.
“It’s very beautiful,” I said, thinking that was the right response.
“Well, thank you,” she said. “It should be – I’ve been working on it for the last sixty years.”
Now I was puzzled. How could she have been working on it for sixty years when she barely looked twenty years old?
The queen sat back down without taking her eyes off me.
“Do you know why you’re here?” she asked.
“No . . . I don't,” I answered.
“I’ll tell you; you were bitten by my daughter,” she said. “You’re now becoming one of us.”
Now I was very alarmed. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“Have you felt the hunger yet?”
“Well, I’ve been starving all day,” I said.
“You’re craving protein,” she said. “That will continue and get worse.”
“Look, I may sound crazy here, but are you trying to say that I'm turning into a vampire or something?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
I didn’t know what was going on. Was this woman really a vampire or was she just crazy? As far as I knew, there were no such things as “real” vampires. But the fact was that I’d been bitten, and I’d been feeling unusually hungry since the attack, so I couldn’t dismiss her statement out of hand.
Suddenly, the queen she went through an astonishing transformation. Her pale face went totally white, her red hair turned black, and fangs emerged from her lips.
I was stunned -- she really was a vampire. My mind raced with the implications. I wondered if she was going to drink my blood.
“Look at me! I’m sure you have a lot of questions now,” she said.
I continued to sit motionless. I was horrified, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her
“Don't be scared of me,” she said. “I'm not going to drink your blood or anything.”
I was a little relieved to hear that.
“If you don't drink blood, then what do you eat?” I asked.
“Real vampires, not the kind you see in the movies, consume protein. We can get it from blood, but there are much better sources,” she said.
Maybe she was right, and I really was turning into a vampire. I’d been craving protein all day long. What would this mean? Oddly, out of all the consequences of turning into a creature of the night, my first thought was what Candice would think.
“You see now that I’m not joking. Now, you need to learn about your kind,” she said. “Ask questions.”
I hesitated, not knowing where to start.
“Go ahead, ask anything,” she said.
“How old are you?” I asked, hesitantly.
“You dare ask a lady her age?” she shouted. I flinched at this outburst.
Then she laughed “I'm actually 632 years old.”
The idea of such a long lifespan was fascinating.
“How long can a vampire live?” I asked.
“Forever,” she said. “We don't age.”
“But what if an old person is bitten?” I asked.
“They’re rejuvenated.”
“So, can someone be born a vampire?” I asked, sincerely curious now.
“Certainly,” she said. “Both of my daughters are vampires from birth.”
“Were you born a vampire?” I asked.
“I was,” she said. “Do you see that painting back there?”
She pointed to a painting of a woman with red hair.
“Yes,” I said.
“That’s my mother.”
“Is she still alive?” I asked.
“Yes, she is,”
I started to think about the horror movies I’d watched to help me come up with good questions to ask. Suddenly, I started to think about all the different abilities that vampires had in movies and television shows I’d seen.
“What powers do you have?” I asked.
“You mean what powers do we have,” she said. “You’re one of us now, remember.”
“I don't feel like I have any powers – I don’t feel any different except for being hungry all the time,” I said.
“They take a few weeks to develop,” she said. “You’re undergoing a total transformation.”
“So what powers do you . . . we have?” I asked trying to get used to the idea that I might really be turning into a new being.
She looked at me and hesitated before speaking.
“What you have to understand is that we have two sets of powers. The first set is physical – because of our altered physiology. For example, our muscle fibers have been altered. We’re stronger, faster, and have better reaction times than the humans. Also, we have perfect night vision, enhanced hearing, and a great sense of smell,” she said.
“What’s the other set?”
“First, le
t me show you something,” she said.
She took out a small knife from her desk.
“Watch,” she said, proceeding to cut into her arm with a great deal of force. I could barely stand to watch.
“You see it’s taking a great deal of effort for me to penetrate the skin,” she said. “Now look.”
She held out the bare forearm of her left hand which now had a deep gash in it about four inches long, and blood began seeping out. As I stared at the wound, amazingly it began to close up, and in less than half a minute, the wound had vanished. The young woman handed the queen a cloth and she wiped her arm clean.
“Now, you try,” she said. “Make a cut on my other arm.”
“I don't want to hurt you,” I responded.
“Go ahead,” she said. “You saw that you can’t hurt me.”
I stood up and took the knife, and pressed it against her arm. I’d never cut into anyone before.
“You’re barely applying any pressure,” she said. “Push harder!”
“I don't want to hurt you,” I said.
“Don't be stupid,” she said.
I proceeded to press harder, but no matter how hard I pressed, I couldn’t penetrate her skin.
I handed her the knife and sat back down in my chair.
“I’m tougher than you think, aren’t I?” the queen said with a laugh.
The young woman beside the queen continued to watch and listen to our conversation.
“Keep asking questions,” the queen ordered.
“What’s the other set of powers?” I asked.
“I thought you’d get to that. The other powers are mystical. You see, the virus that transforms human DNA into vampire DNA also contains a hex, or spell. The virus actually etches the spell onto your genome,” she said.
“What does the spell let me do?” I asked, now somewhat intrigued. If I was now a vampire, I needed to know all I could about what I’d be able to do.
“Look at this desk. It weighs hundreds of pounds. I can lift it with one hand,” she said.
The vampire queen proceeded to reach out and lift the desk into the air with one hand. Amazingly, all of the pens and papers stayed in exactly the same position.
“A normal woman of my size shouldn’t be able to do this,” she said. “But the power of the spell allows me to.”
That was truly awesome, I thought. The desk probably weighed twice what she did. She was violating the laws of physics.
“We can also use the spell to walk on walls and jump long distances,” she said.
“So do I have access to the power now?” I asked.
“No,” she answered. “Well, only to a limited degree. It takes weeks for you to develop the ability to tap into the spell's power. Then it takes years for the power to grow.”
I looked at her dark eyes, pale skin, and fangs. It was amazing to me that a creature so horrid looking was talking so normally.
“Can we go outside in the daytime?”
“Yes, as long as we’re not transformed. In this form I’m vulnerable to sunlight, but I'm still stronger than most people in my more human-like form.”
“What are our other weaknesses?”
“We have very few. As long as we feed regularly, don't go out transformed in broad daylight, and don't have our heads chopped off, we can live forever.”
“What happens if we don't feed?”
“We grow weak and the hunger for protein grows until we lose control. Then we’ll attack anything that moves, animal or human.”
“Is that what happened to me last night?”
“Yes.”
“Why was your daughter starving?”
“I was punishing her.”
“Why?” I asked with a slight shudder.
“She disobeyed me. I will not tolerate disobedience,” she said emphatically.
I decided not to ask any more questions about her daughter. I didn’t want to make her angry.
“How many vampires are there?” I asked.
“In this city, my city, there are a hundred and thirty,” she said. “With you, there are a hundred and thirty one.”
“How many are there in the world?” I asked.
“Oh, tens of thousands,” she said.
Suddenly I heard my stomach rumble. The queen did too.
“June, go get our guest something to eat,” she told the woman sitting beside her.
“Yes, mother,” the woman said getting up and going over to a black shiny refrigerator in the far side of the room. Returning, she handed me a tall glass of something that looked like a thick milkshake.
“Thank you,” I said examining the glass and its contents. “What is it?”
“Don't be rude to your host,” the queen said. “Drink it.”
I took a sip. It was cold, and tasted like eggs and sardines mixed together – not something I’d usually like, but now it was very satisfying.
“It’s my own recipe,” the queen said.
I quickly gulped down the liquid.
“Do you want more?” she asked.
“Yes, please,” I replied.
The queen's daughter took my glass and went back to the refrigerator. She filled my glass and I continued to drink.
“Do you have any other powers?” I asked.
The queen turned and looked at a bookcase behind her. Slowly a thick hardback book floated out of the case and onto the desk as she followed it with her eyes.
I was awestruck. “You’re telekinetic too?” I asked.
“Yes, but we’re mostly touch telekinetics. Our ability to move objects is reduced immensely when we’re not touching an object,” she said.
My glass was empty again, and young woman refilled it with more of the thick liquid. Although it tasted odd I was craving more of it.
“So you like my recipe?” she asked.
“Well, I just can't stop drinking it,” I said. “What's in it?”
It’s a mixture of whey, soy, eggs, krill, and cow blood.
The last ingredient made my stomach turn. However, my craving for the protein won out and I took another gulp.
“It seems there’s not a lot of downside to being a vampire,” I said. “From what you have told me so far, it seems pretty cool.”
“The problem is that you weren’t supposed to be turned,” she said. “My daughter turned you without permission.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“I may have to kill you,” she said.
Chapter 4
The vampire queen suddenly transformed back into her more human form. Her black hair turned red, her white skin became only pale again, and her fangs disappeared.
Her last statement had shaken me terribly.
“Why do you have to kill me?” I asked.
“We have strict rules,” she answered. “Before someone is turned it has to be voted on and I have to approve it. If we didn’t limit the number of humans we turn, our population would explode.”
“What would be so bad about that?” I asked.
“It would mean the humans would learn about our existence. They’d all want to become vampires,” she said. “We’d lose our place at the top of the food chain.”
“If you’re possibly going to kill me, why are you talking to me and telling me all these things?” I asked.
“Because you have a right to know. You are one of us, even if you may have to die tomorrow,” she said.
My mind raced. Was there any way to avoid being executed? I knew there was no chance to overcome the queen in a fight, and escaping was out of the question.
“Have you made up your mind?” I asked. “Have you decided if you’re going to kill me?”
“Not fully,” she said. “You seem to be intelligent, and I think you’d make a good subject.”
“You’re the queen. Why can't you just decide to allow me to live?” I asked.
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