She looks at my face for a long moment and I can see in her eyes that she’s noticing that I don’t look like the humans in her world. Pale face, dull reddish eyes, long black hair, fangs that are pressing up against the inside of my lips. I must look like a monster to her, but for some reason, she doesn’t look frightened. She looks more intrigued than anything.
Her breathtaking blue eyes move from my face to the arrow that’s sticking out of my shoulder and she winces.
“We have to get you to a hospital.”
“No. I can pull it out.”
“And then you’ll bleed to death.”
The feistiness in her voice brings a smile to my lips. God, when was the last time I smiled? I don’t even remember. It’s been decades.
“Let me see it,” she says, moving to get behind me.
I flinch away from her. “No!”
Her face hardens as she stares me down. “I’m not going to let you bleed to death! Let me see it!”
I start to move again when she does, but the determined look in her eyes makes me give up. She’s going to find out the truth about what I am eventually.
I let her tear away my shirt and she gasps when she sees what’s underneath.
“There’s no blood. That’s impossible…”
I turn and look at my shoulder. The arrow is sunk into my pale skin and there are cracks snaking away from the puncture wound like wet earth that’s drying in the hot sun.
Not one drop of blood is spilling out. My blood is all used up and I badly need a refill.
I wrap my fingers around the wooden arrow and yank it out with a grunt.
She watches in disbelief as I toss it on the ground and pull my shirt back up.
It was a venom-tipped arrow, but there wasn’t enough to kill me. Only enough to weaken me. Although, if the hunter would have gotten my heart, I’d be nothing but dust floating in the wind right now.
This morning, I wouldn’t have minded that. I probably would have even welcomed it, but now everything has changed. Now that she’s in my life, I have something to live for.
“What’s your name?” I ask her. I need to know. I need to repeat it over and over again like a mantra until the day I die.
“Alice,” she says in a voice so beautiful that it fills my cold body with warmth. “And yours?”
“Roderic Blackburn.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She offers her hand for a handshake and I take it. My fangs burn and ache when I feel her soft warm skin. The thirst is unbearable. The hunger too…
I want her. Every part of her. Her mind, her soul, her blood, her tight warm cunt. I want it all. I need it all.
“Are you okay?” she asks when she sees me struggling.
“No…” I’m so far from being okay. I’ll never be okay again unless I have her.
“It’s the arrow,” she says as she pulls me up to my feet. “We have to get you to a hospital and call the police.”
She pulls out her cellphone and curses when she sees there’s no reception.
I don’t need a hospital to cure my wound, I need human blood. It’s the only thing that will cure the venom.
The hunter is part of the Brotherhood, an international group of assassins who specialize in hunting and killing vampires.
The myths call them Warlocks, but they’re not magical. They’re human, even though they have extra abilities. They’re masters of herbs and potions, which turn these humans into something much more.
They crush their mixture of rare herbs into potions that harden their skin and tighten their muscles. They’re faster, stronger, and much more resilient than everyone else.
They’re mortal at least, but they’ve been hunting vampires for generations going back to before I was born.
In the middle ages, the Kings and Queens of the area hired them to hunt and exterminate my kind, but now things are different. We got so decimated in the 1800’s that our existence is now in question. We joined the myths and legends. We went into hiding and never came out.
Kings and Queens no longer finance the Brotherhood. The Czarina Coven does now. In the ultimate betrayal, the largest coven in the world turned on its own kind and started murdering us one by one. Any of us who refused to give fealty were excommunicated and had a price put on their head.
That was over a hundred years ago, but the contracts are still open. Last time I checked, it was a million dollars a head, but that was in the 1970’s. It’s probably more now.
They turned to the Brotherhood to execute the contracts and they were wildly successful. My kind is mostly wiped out. Only a few dozen remain scattered around the world and I’m one of them. I haven’t seen another vampire since the 1800’s.