The Vampire's Rival

When she sees your darkness

Hadley had a plan for the vampire dogs? Of course, she did. In the few hours that we'd interacted, I was starting to believe she might have an allergy to self-preservation. My nose suddenly flared at the scent of her blood. She was still human, and I had to stop myself from tackling her to the ground and drinking from her right there and then.

"You're bleeding!" I said, my dropped fangs and still-healing trachea garbling the words.

For some reason she'd widened the dog fang wounds on her left arm. The drops of her blood hit the ground with uncharacteristically loud splashes. I couldn't take my eyes off every crimson splash.

"We need to make sure they follow us." Hadley said before running back the way she'd come, blood drops trailing behind.

I followed, keeping my distance so I wouldn't lose myself and hurt her. We made it into the Barn. I hadn't been in one of these Barns for centuries. I slowed down. We'd walked through a door that was built flush with the Barn wall to keep it camouflaged from the humans. In front of us were two buildings. I recognised them. The Mess Hall and the Barn Clinic. To our left, much further away, were other buildings. The humans' living quarters. This was the Habitation Cluster. Further afield were the food forests and farms that kept the Barns self-sufficient.

Hadley was racing towards the cafeteria.

When I burst into the room after her, I watched her race to a first aid kit on the wall in one of the corners, pull out a pressurised can and spray liquid bandage over the bleeding fang bites on her forearm. She flexed the arm, turned towards the cafeteria door, and waited, completely ignoring me. The scent wafting from splotches of her blood on the ground were incessant ice picks to my sinuses. My body was begging me to give into the need to drain her. Claim her.

Turn her!

I was about to finally give into the need when I heard it. The crash was loud enough to reach me all the way out here. The dogs had broken through the barred office door, and they would be on us in seconds. I looked around us to try and figure out exactly what Hadley's plan was. I hadn't seen a human cafeteria since before the Human Error and the UV Wars. I was now used to the blood cafes, with humans chained and lined up against the wall to pick a preferred vintage from. This space with walls free of chains and rows of tables and chairs and a buffet section at the front felt eerily foreign.

The cafeteria was empty except for the two of us. I was getting weaker with every second as the little human blood I still had in my veins worked to continue healing me. I would need to feed soon, or I would join the ranks of the monsters chasing us. I wasn't strong enough to survive another encounter with a single vampire dog, let alone nine, which was how many I counted that had made it through the Barn's main gate before it closed shut.

I was going to die.

Again.

I turned to the girl again, ready to drain her and save myself and hopefully this Barn. It was then that I suddenly realised her plan, like pieces of a puzzle falling into place in my mind. Hadley was in the middle of the large room waiting, looking at the door expectantly. She was tense, and every so often, her gaze would shift to the window behind her before going back to the cafeteria door we had come through.

She was using herself as bait!

As the milliseconds ticked by, Hadley slowly back pedalled towards a wall that was a floor to ceiling glass, with a glass door attached to it. Behind all the glass was a lovely potager garden with artfully placed raised beds full of herbs. There were humans in the garden. An elderly woman and a group of children who couldn't have been older than five. That's when I noticed the electric hum coming from the garden. UV flood lights! Every Barn had them installed in several spaces outside for improved human and plant health, just like in that herb garden, in lieu of the sun's natural UV rays blocked by the Shield launched during the Human Error. I turned back to Hadley who simultaneously turned to face me. I finally understood her plan.