Our Species

Chapter 7.

I had actually witnessed a few other vampire kills before this one in my lifetime, and all of them hadn't been particularly pleasant to watch, but it turned out that Judith was a rather neat killer. She had turned her back on me, so I crept as silently as I could from my hidden spot in the shadows. Pointless. Judith hissed as her head snapped round when she heard me place my foot on the soggy grass.

'Oh. You,' she muttered.

'Me.' I carefully took a few more steps towards her.

'I'm not normally this neat,' she said, gazing down upon Bill's pale, lifeless body. 'I was just so thirsty I lapped it up extra quickly.'

I shuddered. 'Well that's understandable.'

'Let's head back. I'm disgusted at how clean I was...' she uttered, tearing her gaze away. She started walking away and I followed her.

'I don't know why, but I'm always interested in the age of vampires, and is it offensive to ask how old you are?' I asked. Judith smirked slightly.

'No it isn't offensive, I was born in 1524, I'm 489 years old.'

'Huh. Wow. You seen a lot of the world?'

'No. I've haven't been out of Europe yet, never seen any point,' Judith murmured.

'Well if I lived forever, I'd want to see as much of the Earth as possible.' I panted a little; Judith was walking very fast.

'Well you're not going to live forever. Life is a bitch.'

I laughed quietly. 'Yeah I suppose it is...'

'So how old are YOU?' she asked very suddenly.

'Ermm..19! Haha not quite as old as you.'

'Hrmph. You're younger than I thought. And therefore much more naïve.'

'So I've been told...you had a family then?'

There was a long pause as we continued walking.

'I did. My father died just before I was bitten, and my mother was a prostitute so I never really knew her. I had no siblings.' she explained, sounding unimpressed.

'How old were you when you were bitten?'

'14. I was bitten by a vampire called Earl Streets. He specialised in biting children...'

'Oh, have you met him since?' I asked timidly, I sensed Judith was getting a bit irritated with all the questions.

'Oh yes. I killed him. Ha. He wasn't expecting it.' Judith grinned very disturbingly.

'Lovely. I've killed someone before. I controlled a tree root to shoot up through his jaw and he bled to death. It was accidental, I was 6 years old, and it was my father who was killed,' I said quietly, staring at the grass as we continued.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Judith said. She didn't sound it.

Neither of us said anything, and it was a relief when we reached the house, it was now pitch black. Branch was standing in the doorway, with his arms folded. Uh oh.

'1 hour 45 minutes. You were much quicker than I expected.' He winked at me, and I didn't return it, the reminder of my father had upset me.

'It's bloody freezing,' I said folding my arms tightly and hunching my back, 'let us in, will you?'

'No. You can stay out all night in the freezing wind all by yourself until morning after I've had my breakfast,' Branch replied sarcastically.

'Ha ha,' I said, pushing past him through the doorway. He didn't resist. As soon as I entered the living room I was a knife hurtling towards my head again.

'Jeez!' I gasped. I quickly changed it's direction with my mind so it flew to the left and stuck out of the wall.

'My bad. But you got into my fire line!' Ryan said, sounding a bit annoyed, he was sitting on the dresser casually on the other side of the living room.

'Well maybe when you train up a bit you can keep it in mind to be a bit. More. Careful.' I snapped. I stormed upstairs without another word. I didn't know why I was suddenly so annoyed with everyone and everything. So I just stripped off and got changed into my nightwear, collapsed into bed and went straight to sleep. I was lying to myself. I did know why I was annoyed. And I never wanted to admit it.