A Taste of Ichor

Chapter 2

"Oh, what fun this is!" A high-pitched voice shrills from my right. I try to look over and as I do a huge fire ignites in the midst of our Camp. As the light penetrates my eyes I glance around to see my Family. All held by creatures. I look around frantically for the littles, but they are nowhere to be seen.

"What a sweet family, all lined up..." the voice comes from a woman, taller than me with white blonde hair and eyes that hold no pupils. It's just a white space where they should be. Inhuman eyes but not regular vampire eyes. These are different. More powerful. I can't take my eyes off of her. "Oh how I wish my family were like this! But alas, they're all dead."

A giggle rings through the night air, slicing through any sounds that dare challenge it. I can see each member of my Family, some stoic and quiet while others whimper and look around hoping to make eye contact with someone. I lock eyes with Evette, who stares into my eyes pleading with me to do something. The hands that are holding me are far too tight. I can't get loose and my weapons, the ones I'm not allowed to take to forage, are off in my tent. My tent is closest to where Ethan is being held. I tear my eyes away from Evette and glance at the person behind her, holding her arms in the way that I assume mine are being held. The man behind her is tall with dark hair and the classic black eyes that vampires usually wield. He's everything that I've been taught to look out for. But her? My eyes dance towards the woman smiling maniacally at us. I have never seen or heard about one like her.

"Let me make you a deal, old man." The woman says as she saunters over to Ethan and looks him in the eyes, mere inches away from his face. "You point to the one you sacrifice, and I'll let the rest of you live a long, happy life."

My heart jumps into my throat. Ethan looks directly at me, almost through me, and lifts a boney finger to point at me.

"That one." He says, with almost too much ease. There was too much calmness in his voice for him to be damning me to death.

The woman spins and comes over to me too fast for my eyes to keep up. They're not all this fast, they're fast. Yes. But not that fast. I get a better look at her, as she is now staring at me face inches away from me. Her ghostly white hair, draped elegantly over her shoulders, caressing my arms and sending goosebumps to greet it. Her eyes weren't dark, like the others, instead they looked almost translucent. I was sure if I kept staring into her eyes that I would see her retina appear before me. I glanced down, away from the monstrosity in her eyes to her hands. No, not hands. Claws. They were definitely claws. At least her nails were. They matched her nail bed, but came out farther than any fingernail I've seen, and they came to a point at the end, much like you would expect of a knife. I swallowed hard and a sadistic giggle rang through the air.

"This one?" The lady scoffed and ran one claw down the side of my face, almost in a caressing way, "poor little sheep, given up so easily, without even a second thought." Her voice sounded condescending but the way she was staring into my eyes, no, into my insides, confused me. Almost like she...pitied me? She stayed that way for a few long minutes, they dragged on as I stared into her eyes. You could not see anything beyond her pupils, but as I watched them, terrified to look away, I noticed the cloudiness of them stirring around, revealing hints of the usual black that vampires wield.

Finally, and unexpectedly, she clapped once. Her voice was much more tired now, and the sadistic-ness that had once been apparent was now turning into something much worse. Anger.

"You give up this one so easily. Why is that? Why did you not even stutter, or feel conflicted? You took all of my fun out of this." Her voice hissed, as she spun towards Ethan, slowly walking towards him until she was directly in his face again. Ethan didn't say anything, just glanced around to his children. His real children. "Do you take me as a fool? I can see your eyes dancing to meet those of your offspring. Do you think their lives are more valuable than hers?" A finger is pointed in my direction without the woman looking away from Ethan. He remains silent, and suddenly her face goes cold. The anger that she once harbored turned into...well, nothing. There was no indication of feeling at all in her face. She turns away from Ethan and looks to the vampire holding Sampson.