Chapter 2

Callum came to after what felt like days, but must have only been a few hours. He was lying with his back on the cold stone floor, head resting to the side. His eyes fluttered open and it only took a few moments this time for them to adjust to the darkness.

The clouds of sleep were still dissipating from Callum's head as he sat up slowly, stretched, and rubbed his neck. He flinched, the touch making his body remember what had happened for him to pass out in the first place. Strangely, there was no pain nor change in the texture of his skin when he touched the side of his neck. The wound had healed completely, so how long had he been asleep for, exactly?

"Your strange light box has been singing." The sudden breaking of silence made the blond jump. Only now did Callum notice that reclining against an intact column was the man. He had one leg stretched out straight and the other bent so he rested his elbow on it. In this position, Callum could see the man's immense muscles on full display and he couldn't help feeling the pose was carefully calculated just for this very reason. Callum's phone was sitting next to the man's hip.

"H-Has it?" Callum croaked. He wondered if it was the trip chaperone trying to reach him or perhaps it was his friend wondering where he had gone. Maybe it could even be Melanie. Surely there was a search party out looking for him by now, but didn't want to reveal that to the man just yet.

"Why...am I still alive?" Callum asked the man. He continued to feel around his neck for any sign of scarring, but the flesh was smooth and unbroken. "Not that I'm not glad, but...I thought for sure you were gonna kill me."

The man's glowing eyes watched Callum carefully. They were no longer red, but a warm honey color. Callum remembered how the man's canines had extended into fangs earlier and wondered if the red glow also came about in a similar fashion. "Camazotz sent you to me," he said. "Because you awakened me, I felt His presence telling me to hold back. I have never felt such a sensation before."He shifted his gaze up to the hole in the ceiling. "I sense that the world has changed much since I last laid eyes on it and I fear it may have moved past the point of reverence for me. I will need a guide through this strange new world."

Callum swallowed, realizing this man, this vampire, hadn't spared his life out of some sense of internal goodness, but rather because his usefulness hadn't been fully utilized yet. He chose his words carefully as he continued. "You're a vampire, and you bit me...but I'm not dead. Am I...will I become a vampire, too?"

The vampire let out a hearty laugh that echoed through the chamber. The bones on the floor rattled. Then his expression turned serious. "No. It takes more than a mere bite to bestow eternal life on a mortal. That is not a gift to be given to just any human."

"So...why is there no bite mark?"

"I healed your wound with a small portion of my own blood." The vampire paused for a moment in thought before adding, "You would have bled out quickly had I not."

Callum nodded as if any of this made sense to him. He still didn't feel as if what he was experiencing was real yet. There was still a chance he might just wake up and find himself back in the hotel room, never having ridden the bus to Palenque. Maybe he hadn't even gone on the tour in the first place.

"We are wasting time," the vampire spoke as he rose to his feet. "Come. We must go before the sun rises." He was about ready to grab Callum by the wrist again when Callum protested.

"Wait!" he said retracting his arm. "Please, I'm too dizzy. I don't think I can walk."

The vampire's expression turned to one of annoyance. "Are all humans of your time so coddled?"

"...At least hand me my phone." Callum gestured to the device on the ground behind the vampire. He gave a questioning look before gingerly picking up Callum's phone, turning it in his hand for a moment, then returning it to Callum, who placed it in his pocket.

"Now stand," the vampire commanded. Callum obeyed.

"Wh-Where are we going?" Callum asked, rising to his feet clumsily. His legs felt weak, just as he had expected them to, having lost enough blood to pass out. The vampire stepped closer and Callum instinctively flinched, which was met with a smirk from the vampire.

"I want to see what has become of this world."

And with that, the vampire lifted Callum off the ground with his powerful arms and held him close. One powerful motion and the two were airborne. Callum thought they might be flying for a moment as he squeezed his eyes shut and his stomach did a back flip, but when they touched down with a thud in the hallway above, he realized the vampire had merely made a jump from the chamber below. He stepped away from the vampire and nearly collapsed on the stone floor of the hallway.

When they reached the mouth of the temple, Callum saw the vampire hesitate a moment. He was silently gazing out at the crumbling and empty ruins and Callum thought he could see the faintest crack of sadness appear in the vampire's expression. That sadness went away in a mere moment, however, as they took their first steps down the temple stairs.What had all of this looked like in the vampire's time? Callum figured it was surely lively and beautiful, but the ruins were now only a hollow husk of what they had been. He returned his thoughts to the situation at hand.

"So..." Callum began tentatively, "What does...Camazotz...say he sent me to you for?"

"The gods do not speak so directly," the vampire replied. "Though I am a higher being capable of receiving their messages, the gods are cryptic in nature. Your usefulness to me has yet to manifest...other than staving off hunger."

Callum was trying desperately to keep up with the vampire's larger pace, but he was beginning to fall behind. "Gods? Do all the Mayan gods exist?"

The vampire didn't answer for a long moment and Callum thought his question might be ignored when the vampire finally replied, "All you need to know is that several exist, but the only one I revere is Camazotz. He is the father and overseer of my race."

"Is Camazotz another vampire?"

The vampire whirled around on his heels to face Callum and gripped his neck in one hand so the blond let out a strangled cry. His eyes were glowing red and his fangs had reappeared. "I have dealt with your bumbling and questioning up until now," the vampire growled. "But do not forget that I only let you live to serve my needs. You are my prey. In the time before I fell into a deep slumber, no human dared speak to me without my strict permission to do so first and""

"¡Alto! ¿Qué haces?" The vampire was cut off by the sound of someone calling to them off to the side. The vampire's attention was drawn away from the blond. Callum turned his head as best as he could against the fingers digging into his neck and through tears saw the beam from a flashlight shining right into his eyes. The hold on his throat disappeared and Callum collapsed to the ground, coughing. Through his gasping, he could hear a commotion near where the voice had come from and everything culminated in a scream followed by a loud thud. Callum had to take a few more moments to collect himself enough to look again. The flashlight was now on the ground, shining into the trees. Also on the ground was a guard in a now bloody uniform and standing over him was the vampire with a human heart bleeding in his hand.

"Oh, my god!" Callum yelled, looking down and covering his mouth in shock. "Oh my god..."

The vampire had ripped the guard's heart straight from his chest. He was biting into the heart now and Callum could see blood pouring onto the grass below. It was utterly disgusting; the primal form of this creature bending over to feed on the organ he had just ripped from a man. The vampire lifted his head up and twisted it over his shoulder to look at Callum, his eyes glowing in an expression of pure ecstasy, and said, "Which god?" There was a sickening slap as the heart fell to the ground, completely drained of whatever fluid it had once held and Callum dug his fingers into his palms.

"You didn't have to kill him..." he said, his voice trembling. "He might've had a family."

The vampire fully turned to face Callum. He began taking slow, smooth steps toward the fearful blond and when he reached him, he crouched down and rested his elbows on his knees.

"Let that serve as a lesson," he purred, blood still staining his lips and chin. His fangs glinted from the ambient light around them. "If your usefulness to me runs out, that is what I will do to you." A solitary finger found its way under Callum's chin and lifted his head so he was looking directly at the vampire. The glowing eyes dripped with superiority. "You should be grateful I was so gentle with you before," he whispered before rising to his feet.

Callum didn't want to move. He was truly and utterly afraid of going anywhere with this monster, but he knew that to stay still was to sign a death warrant. Would it be better to just die right here? No, he couldn't just give up. Not when he wanted to see his friends, family, and home again. Besides, if he didn't follow this vampire, there was no chance he could be stopped from just wreaking havoc on the towns he passed through. At least with a human guide, there was a chance mass slaughter could be slowed or halted. And, Callum resolved, he would find a way to kill this creature before it could hurt those closest to him. Breath escaping rapidly from his mouth, Callum stood to walk near the vampire again.

"Now," the vampire said, readjusting his neck/shoulder piece, "Take me to your place of residence."