The Vampire's Rival

There's no saint without a past

"Eat your dinner. And make sure you finish the wine." Mrs. Smith instructed.

They'd walked back from the cellar and were sitting at the dining room. In front of Hadley was one of those wild boar steaks, luscious mashed potatoes with a beet swirled through and snap pea pods, and golden brown gravy on the side. Next to the plate was an untouched glass of the wine mixed with my blood.

"I'm not hungry," Hadley replied.

"That wasn't a request. Eat. And finish that wine," the woman said, with a stern edge to her voice. "In a few years it'll only be the wine you'll need. Nothing more. Like me."

"I'm not drinking her blood." Hadley said. She was scared, that much I could tell, but she was doing what she did best, taking on what scared her without flinching.

That's my girl.

Hadley suddenly grit her teeth and grabbed to the sides of her seat, seizing through the shock of the collar. Mrs. Smith let it continue longer than she had before. When it stopped, Hadley reached for the collar but stopped midway, Mrs. Smith's livid gaze piercing through her. She slowly lowered her hand.

My jaw clenched painfully.

I was going to make Mrs. Smith suffer.

The woman didn't look a day older than forty, but I suspected she was much older. We called them Familiars in the days before the Human Error. Humans who served vampires as our "day walkers" before the Human Error. They ensured that we stayed protected in the shadows and hidden from the sun during the day, while also running our errands in the daytime, procuring humans for us to feed on at night or representing our business interests in the human world during working hours when we couldn't.

Before the Human Error, and for centuries, us vampires had created a corporation made solely to employ Familiars who protected the interest of all vampires and vampire estates. The Familiars were paid handsomely to keep our secrets, not only with money, but also in vampire blood. The blood kept those in the higher echelons of the corporation perpetually young and disease free, affording them a lifestyle that normal humans couldn't have ever been able to dream of, let alone experience, and guaranteeing us a string of long-lived, robust, healthy workers to deal with our affairs.

However, after the Human Error, we didn't need Familiars anymore. For that reason, there was no longer an incentive to allow these humans to know and keep our secrets, especially the secret of our blood and its effect on humans. It was too dangerous a secret to allow any of them to live to tell when we had no use for them, so, we killed them all.

At least we thought we'd killed them all.

"I like you, Hadley," Mrs. smith said, her voice strained as she tried to make it sound pleasant. "Don't make me kill you. You brought me such a wonderful gift."

Mrs. Smith pinned me with a look that curdled my exposed insides.

"That day in the forest, I thought I was delirious," Mrs. Smith continued. "I recognised you immediately, of course. Your eyes undeniably make you a Fisher, and that's a surprise that I still haven't gotten over. But I couldn't believe it when I saw her. The vampire who'd haunted my nightmares for more than a lifetime. Ruqwik!"

That she knew my name caught me off-guard. It confirmed my worst suspicions. She's been alive since before the Human Error!

"So, you see Hadley, finding you was my destiny because it also led me to her. It's a sign that I'm on the right path." Mrs. Smith stated. She became serious. "You will be my apprentice. You will learn The Craft. And when I have had my vengeance on this vampire, together, we will lead the human revolution . Now, eat your food. Drink your wine. Don't aggravate me."