Chapter Eleven

 Bright rays of sunshine flowed through my windows. I groaned and looked at the time. It was seven o’clock, early but good. Only because I was hurried did I make it to work on time. Penny greeted my with a bone smashing hug.

“I missed you so much!” she screeched. I greeted the rest of my co-workers. They were all very excited I was back; either because penny was driving them insane and she needed someone to rant on or they actually, genuinely, missed me. Today we were shooting common people, no Celebes for me. A man, dashing in his coat and pleated pants, a woman, very gorgeous in her little black dress, and a little girl around the age of five, all dolled up in a white and black polka dotted outfit, came into the studio.

“Hello, names Ava Redde and I’m your photographer for today.” I went on about our certain packages and specials this month. The woman quickly picked and started brushing out the little girl’s curly orange hair. I bent down at the girl’s height and waved.

“Are you excited to get your picture taken today?”

“Yes.” She mumbled, a little grin forming on the corners of her lips.

“You’ve got a very pretty dress on there.”

  The next thirty minutes went like this. I would compliment her and she would say yes, but I was simply enjoying her presence. Maybe it was because she smelt good, maybe not. The man walked up to me while the ladies were in the restroom.

“Hello, my name is peter.”

“Um, hello.”

“Don’t play coy with me.”

“What do you want?” I hissed, keeping my voice down. Why wasn’t I running?

“You’ve been experiencing some changes, yes?”

“Just a few. What did you do to me?” he walked closer, something I wished he didn’t do, because now I could feel the blood slithering through his veins, beckoning me to come closer.

“It’s a guilty pleasure isn’t it? One that hard to hide.” He smiled, catching my longing gaze, but I saw no pointy canines.

“Just a tad.” I glared up at him. “Seriously what did you do?”

“I just opened you up to what you really are.” He chuckled softly.

“But I don’t want this!” I cried softly. “I’ve dealt with it alone for so long. You didn’t have to interfere.”

“Oh, but I did.” Suddenly the girls walked out and in one quick moment my eyes caught and he was gone.

  Once we were done I pulled peter aside.

“Please answer my question.” I pleaded.

“Which one?”

“Why did you inject me?”

“The chemical I injected into your blood stream slowly fights down your system, making it attack itself. In a few days you’ll slowly start to fall apart, but with you being a younger vampire it should take more time. Unless you fill your need to feed.” He walked over the huge window, over looking the city. I followed him, only for the rich scent of his blood, and stood behind him. His wife and daughter had left for their car. Maybe I could just drain him a little…

“What kind of sick game is this?” instead of answering, too quickly for me, he clamped his hand around my neck and pushed me through the window. The deafening sound of glass breaking was the last thing I heard before I hit the pavement, hard. The thwap! of the pavement echoed in my ears.