The Realm of Truth (Book 1) [In the process of editing]

Chapter 12: Friday Bites

Welcome to another day of karma, where nothing but bad only happens to me. I should be on TV advertising this life story of mine.

Anyways, the only good thing about being a vampire is being able to regenerate my cells so I can heal. I may be 117 years old, but because I still feel like I'm a fledgling who just takes on animal blood instead of human blood to keep myself going. As someone who's working on her own, I don't like hurting people like Damien. That's not in my nature. No one can convince me otherwise that killing humans is the right thing to do for me to get stronger.

"Again, I'm sorry!" Damien said, facepalming. His face twisted in regret and was still apologizing.

"I'm sorry, my ass." I said, in disbelief. "I can't believe you ran me over with your truck!"

"I wanted to help! My headlights can only shine so bright here." He yelled. Damien climbed out of his vehicle and started heading towards me, all big and buff.

"Tell that to my bruised head!"

"It's not as if you can't heal!" We both were face to face now, and are growling at each other at this point. I felt so betrayed by what had happened, even though I was blinded by the truth. When I'm angry, I stick with my side of the story. "I'd be in the hospital by now if we swapped places. Humans are breakable unlike you, thank you very much."

Sophie was looking back and forth between us while this was going on as if it was a tennis match and I nearly forgot she was still here. "Hellooo," she sang, and waved her hand in a flourish way. "I think we're all missing the big part of the picture here, don't you both think?" We glared at her when she spoke and she shut up real quick. "Woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, haven't we?"

"Shut up," Damien said, "This is all your fault for ruining Odette's life!"

"My fault?" Sophie exasperated with a gasp. "Honestly, it's your girlfriend's fault for not understanding her life in the world. If she had admitted to herself before that she's weak and rendered useless, then this wouldn't have happened. I'd still be a part of her, just not wrecking havoc like now."

"I'm not his girlfriend!" I hissed with Damien who said the exact same thing, "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Well, you both act like you're an old married couple, what's stopping you?" Sophie muttered. "Oh right, me." She launched herself at Damien who was caught off guard before I could try to pull him behind me. Damien had a fearful look on his face when he was slammed against his truck. He looked at me and gave me a wink, that he knew what he was up against and I shook my head. I denied everything that was going to happen within a few seconds and Damien reached behind his shoulder for the mirror on the side. He ripped it apart from the truck so he could have something sharp to attack Sophie with, but she slapped it away from his hand.

I was frozen still at my spot, not knowing what to do. It was incredibly weird watching me fight Damien. Sophie tried to bite at Damien and I had no other choice but to throw a small stone at her head. It wasn't much, but oh well, what else could you use at a graveyard?

She turned to me, and after she slammed his head down hard against the truck, she threw Damien. I watched him being tossed aside like a ragdoll, and he groaned in pain. "Damien!" I said, running towards him. My knees were sliding on the gravel and I lifted his head on my legs carefully. "Are you okay?"

He spit out some gravel that got caught in his mouth. "Geeze, she's strong." he mumbled, "But she is right, Odette, you have to get stronger."

"And I am," I started to defend myself again.

"You are strong, but not strong enough to defeat yourself." he said. "You have to drink human blood. You depend on it, and you can't keep depending on animal blood as a substitution for it. Think about it, when was the last time you drank human blood?"

"A hundred years ago, Damien." I said.

"You've starved for a hundred years." He was shocked, I was too. "You do realize, you're starving yourself?"

"Ah, don't kid yourself." Sophie said from the sidelines. "She's never going to own up to her own mistakes. She'll realize it when desiccation occurs, and that's when she's at her most vulnerable. Speaking of her abilities, has she discovered that she has a unique power yet?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "What unique power?"

"God, you are a fledgling." she shook her head in disgrace. "What haven't you learned about yourself? Well, I've got to run and kill more humans. You kids have fun with the desiccation." When she left, I looked back at Damien. 

I helped him up on his feet and he was stumbling as we walked to his truck. "You want me to drive, or...?" I started to say.

"You don't even have a license to begin with, Odette." he said. He reached down and grabbed the mirror from the ground. I saw the sharp, pointed like a stake that connected to the mirror, and he started to harm himself with it on his forearm. I saw the blood dripping from his skin.

"Are you stupid?!" I yelled, swatting the mirror away from him. "I'm fine. I don't need to drink your blood."

"You need it." he said, more sternly. Damien held his forearm up to me, and I tried to push it away from me. "You need to get better, and stronger or you will die. Or so help me, god, I will shove my forearm into your mouth while you pretend to sleep at night."

"Then I'll go and die!" I snapped, surprising him. "I don't need it, Damien. I can go another hundred years without it. I've done it before, and I'll do it again."

"She's going to keep killing more innocent people. I know we don't want that to happen, but if you don't do this yourself, then this is the only other option we have. We need to get you into practice."