Protected By Vampires

Chapter 18

      When my brain let me wake up, everything was silent. I was confused and embarrassed, and I just wanted to go home. I opened my eyes and found that everyone but Sam was staring at me. Sam was glaring at Beth and if looks could kill, she’d be six feet under.

      “I want to go home.” I said quietly, lowering my eyes to the carpet by my feet so I didn’t have to look at any of them. I needed time to process everything. I still felt like I had gone off the deep end and perhaps a loony bin would be better than my house since I was starting to believe them. 

      “There’s still more you need to know Viv.” Sam's smooth voice whispered next to my ear. 

      I jumped, I hadn’t heard him move and was still expecting him to be on the other side of the room.

      “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” 

      My hands were shaking and I rubbed my sweaty palms on my dress, realizing that it was covered in blood.

     “I want to shower and change.” I said, trying for any excuse to get me out of the room full of vampires. 

     Beth smirked like she knew exactly what my plan was. “I told you that she wouldn’t take this well Sam. You got too close to her. Now look at her, she’s just a scared little girl. I don't even know why we are protecting her.”

     Sam slowly stood up and I could feel the anger radiating off him. “She handled it a hell of a lot better than you did Beth. You screamed for days and we had no choice but to change you or kill you. Don’t make me think we made the wrong choice.” Sam’s voice was quiet and steady but Beth flinched with his words.

      “Sam, please just take me home. We can talk about this later. They don’t really need to be there for that talk, do they?” I begged him.

     “No they don’t, unless Mark or Brian want to.” Sam looked up at the two men he had mentioned.

    “I don’t know anything you don’t Sam, but Brian might have some answers to some of her questions.” Mark answered.

     I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought I could handle just Brian’s company. I didn’t want to deal with any of the others, except Sam.

     “Okay, so can I have like an hour for me to freshen up, then meet you at a coffee shop or something?” I asked. 

     “You stupid human!” Beth yelled at me. “We can’t talk about any of this in public. Mark, she’s going to out us. I say we just keep her locked up here for the next month, then kill her after she has the baby.”

     Sam growled and jumped in front of me.

     “Calm down you two, nobody is going to kill her.” Mark said, then he studied Sam for a moment and added, “But Beth is right, you’ve gotten too close. This could be a problem.”

     “It’s only a problem if we make it one.” Sam answered.

     Mark nodded then waved his hand toward the door, dismissing us. “Make sure you have her at your house in an hour. I'll send Brian over.”

     Sam took my hand and led me out of the room, past the security, down all the halls, up the stairs. When we were finally outside and I felt the sun warm my face, I breathed a sigh of relief. Sam opened the passenger door of his car for me before getting in the driver’s seat.

     “Wait! How are you in the sun? Aren’t you supposed to melt or burn or something?” I asked him.

     Sam laughed and shook his head. “That’s a myth, for most of us anyway. Almost everything modern society thinks about vampires is wrong.”

      “Yeah, especially the one where we all think they aren’t real.” I said with a frown.

     “Especially that one.” he said with a nod and a smile. 

     “So garlic, holy water, wood?” I asked.

“I don’t really like garlic, but it doesn’t hurt me, holy water is just water to us, and wood can harm us but it isn’t some secret weapon.” Sam answered.

     “Okay, so what is true then?” 

      Sam took a while to answer while he thought about my question. “Basically all the good things. It's a little complicated and I'll explain it in more detail later but mostly we are strong, we are fast, we heal exceptionally well, and our eyesight and hearing is better than you’ll find anywhere in nature.”

     “So basically you’ve got all of the good, but none of the bad?”

     “Kind of. But that also means that we aren’t heartless monsters, we never kill if we don’t have to, and we see ourselves as a sort of guardians to the humans.”

     I snorted. “And what exactly are  you protecting us from?”

     “Werewolves.” Sam said it like it was a dirty word that left a bad taste in his mouth.

     “So werewolves are more of a monster than vampires?” 

    Sam nodded. “Once you’re clean and feeling a little better I’ll explain more.” he said again as he parked the car in front of our apartment. I had been so distracted by our conversation I hadn’t realized he had pulled up in front of our shared building. “Go clean up, we’ve got somewhere else to be.”

     “Where else are we going? I thought we were  supposed to be at your place in an hour.” I asked.

      “We are going to my place. This is my apartment, I’m taking you to my house.” Sam answered. 

     I could tell by the look on his face that he was hiding something. “Why are you renting an apartment if you have a house?” I asked, a bit confused.

      “To protect you.” he said with a shrug.

      I wanted to ask a million more questions but I also needed time alone to process everything. At the moment I wanted a shower more than I wanted answers. 

A/N

Sorry for the late update, I've been working crazy and long hours. Great news though, I finally broke through my writer's block and finished this book last night. Now all I have to do is edit it as I post it. My plan is to post a chapter or two a week, maybe more. I can't wait to mark it as complete. I already have book 2 planned out and I did start on the first chapter to give everyone a preview. Don't forget to vote and comment if you're enjoying my book and feel free to share of you think someone else would enjoy it too. Thanks for reading!