Chapter two

Cassidy is now a vampire. Can Tristan teach her the proper ways?

Chapter two

 

Spring Valley had a vampire problem.  It seemed that’s how almost everyone died now these days.  No one was safe, day or night, since there have been many day attacks.  Most people who were attacked were the ones who would put up the least amount of fight, the women, children, and elders.  It never crossed my mind that as I was lying on the ground after the accident, a vampire could take me away and drink me.  Well, that’s not what technically happened, but it was close.

 

I woke up in the desert, gasping for breath.  The vampire who had rescued me and bitten me was crouched beside me, his hand resting on my arm. I jumped away from him, scared of what to do.  I’ve never seen a vampire before, but I knew they were powerful.  He just stared at me, saying nothing and not moving.  I tucked my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them.  I lifted my head to look at the creature in front of me.  He didn’t look much older than I was, he still looked the same as he had when he had taken me to the hospital, black hair, pale skin, only the indefinable eyes, were now red. 

“What did you do to me?” I whispered, afraid if he would attack me or not.  He stood up and walked over to me and crouched down in front of me again.  “Who are you?  Where am I?  What did you do to me?” I was panicking.  I was so scared I was dysfunctional and could only pay attention to what he was doing, oblivious to the other vampire sneaking up behind me.  Even before I noticed him my rescuer had attacked him. I spun around and saw two vampires battling it out in the desert.  The second vampire was red-haired and just as pale as my rescuer.  He appeared to be much older than my rescuer, but not as experienced.  My rescuer had him pinned down in a matter of seconds.

“Get out of here Keagen!” He growled.  The vampire apparently named Keagen stood up and stared at me.

“No, I’m hungry, she’s food.” with lightning quick speed Keagen was standing over me in milliseconds.  But just as quickly as he had ran over to me, my rescuer had stopped him and pinned him down again.

“She is not food Keagen!  She’s one of us now! Touch her and I’ll rip your f*****g head off!” Wait, I’m a monster? I needed answers.  Keagen was released and he sprinted off into the sand.  My rescuer stared at me with angry eyes, making me feel very small.  

“Who are you?” I asked again, hoping he would answer me this time.

“My name’s Tristan, Tristan Cabe.”

“What did you do to me?”

“I changed you, Cassidy.  I had to, it wouldn’t be fair for someone as young as you to die like that, you needed to live life.  I made you a vampire like me, so you can be powerful, yet still a teenager.”  Tristan had sounded like I was in bad shape, I knew they said I was going to die, but they could’ve found a way to save me.

“What are you going to do with me?” I looked up at him and saw him scanning the area.  Probably looking for more vampires.

“Well, your transformation isn’t complete yet, you’re still a human, but by tomorrow you should be fully transformed.  Until then I can’t take you back to the Home, you would just be food to them.” what home?  Tristan made it sound like I wasn’t going anywhere for the night.

“So what am I going to do then?” Tristan did one last scan and sat down next to me.

“You’re staying here with me. I can’t risk taking you somewhere else, the others would kill you in an instant since this is the time they hunt the most.” I shuddered at the thought of fangs going into my neck and sucking the life from me. 

“So I’m just going to stay here all night?” Sleeping on the sand doesn’t sound the most comfortable. 

“Yes, and don’t worry about sleeping on the sand, you can lay on me if you want.” Creepy, but better than anything else.  Tristan lay down on the ground and I slowly curled up next to him.  It took me a long time to fall asleep; a burning in my chest was keeping me up.  It seemed like Tristan never fell asleep, since he was awake every time I was.  When the morning came I felt . . . odd.  I felt colder, stronger, and my senses were improved.  I was still lying next to Tristan who looked down at me.

“Good morning fresh meat.” Tristan joked, although I didn’t find it too amusing.  I stood up and looked around me.  There was still sand everywhere, we were still in the desert.  Where we were going after this I had no idea.  I didn’t know what to do as a vampire, I didn’t know what to eat, when to eat, what a vampire can and can’t do, my only chance of survival would be to stay with Tristan. 

“Where am I going today?  What are you going to do to me?” Tristan sighed and stood up next to me.

“Is all you ever do is ask questions?  I’m taking you to the Home.  Clare and I will help you and take care of you.  We’ll teach you everything you need to know about vampires.”

“I’m sorry, but what’s the Home?” he laughed as we started walking, I guessed he was taking me to the “Home”

“I’m not sure when it was started, but the Home is this large mansion that our clan of vampires live in.  We have humans taking care of us to control our cravings for human blood so much and to help control our violence.  As you could tell from yesterday, Keagen is still a newbie; he doesn’t have as much control over himself as others do.” I nodded in understanding as we continued walking.  I was surprised at how easy it was to keep up with Tristan; I’ve never been a fast walker. 

 

We walked the desert for well over five miles.  Normally, I would be sweating my head off in the heat, but I was actually pretty comfortable right now.  Must be a vampire side affect.  All the way to the Home I asked Tristan about vampires.  What Tristan told me was nothing like what I thought vampires were like.  Vampires could go out in the sun (explaining why we weren’t dead right now,) the only ways you can kill them is setting them on fire or taking their head off, and they need human blood to survive, nothing else can satisfy it. 

“Despite the rumors and stories out there, we can eat garlic and wood can’t hurt us.” He seemed amused when he said this. We were still walking towards the home (good God how far away is it?) It was almost night before we even began to approach the large mansion.  Tristan wasn’t lying about it being huge; it was the largest home I’ve ever seen.  It was a large five-storied mansion with white brick and a medieval architecture to it.  Tristan led me up over the bridge and we stopped at the front door.

“The others might be a little . . . curious about you, just a fair warning.” Tristan grabbed my arm and pulled me into the building.  When I stepped in I stopped and stared at over 50 hunger-struck vampires.