The Vampire Diaries: Blood For Blood

Prologue

"Dan, where are we?" the petite blonde asked anxiously, drumming her manicured fingernails on the dashboard. Her husband, who had both hands clenched on the steering wheel, driving silently through the dark roads, finally looked at her. "We're almost there, honey," he said reassuringly, but his wife wasn't convinced.

"I don't like this place. Why is it so foggy anyway?" she asked, shuddering as she looked out of the window at the empty, desolate road and bleak, dark trees. It was eerily silent, not a soul to be seen. "This place gives me the creeps," she said quietly. Her husband sighed. "Don't worry, the fog will clear up in a second," he said confidently as they rounded a sharp turn.

The wife let out a piercing scream as they hurtled full speed towards a dark figure in the middle of the road. The husband slammed his foot on the breaks, but it was too late. The car hit the person with a sickening thud. The wife screamed again, and started breathing heavily. "Are you all right?" her husband asked as she put her face in her hands, trembling.

"Call 911! We just hit a person!" she whispered hysterically after a moment. Her husband opened the car door and got out. "Honey, I'll be right back. You call and I'll check to see if he's still alive," he told her, his face pale. He walked out to the front of the car, where a body lay on the road a few yards away.

"Please don't be dead, please don't be dead," he muttered under his breath as he approached the body. It was hooded, he couldn't make out the features. He bent over to examine it more carefully, reached for the hood, and suddenly the figure sat up.

"Oh thank god," he said in relief, and watched as the person slowly reached for the hood, its gloved fingertips freezing for a second, and then it pulled it off. From the back, it could have passed as a human. But the face was caked with blood and another substance that looked leathery, the skin bulging with veins, with pure black eyes, no pupils. It was the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.

Before he could scream, the creature lunged forwards and opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs dripping with a dark red liquid. And then everything went black.

Inside the car, the wife was frantically typing into her phone. "Fuck it," she said after a moment, and yanked open the door. She wobbled on her high heels for a moment, shivering in the city cold, pulling her leather jacket tighter around her shoulders. "Dan, there's no service," she called out. When her husband didn't respond, she stepped out to the front of the car.

There was absolutely nothing there. No Dan, no body, just the fog slowly creeping up the road and the shadowy, distant trees. "Dan?" she called again, louder, her voice shaky. Not a sound. She crept forwards, looking from side to side. She was seriously starting to freak out. She was about to run back inside the car when she felt a clammy, cold hand clap around her mouth. She tried to scream, but it was muffled as whoever was behind her put her arms in an iron grip and dragged her back to the car.

"Hush, little one," a smooth male voice warned her as she struggled to escape from his grip. She whirled around to come face to face with the most beautiful human being that she'd ever seen. His eyes were a mesmerizing deep blue, a cocky smile on his lips, his dark hair tousled. "Who are you?" she asked, but he cocked his head, the quizzical smile still there. "What's that?"

And then a woman's soft voice cut through the air, sharp and cold. "Let's not play with our food, Damon." She was just as beautiful as the man was gorgeous, long golden hair, steely gray eyes, red lips, and a long black silk dress that trailed out behind her. She walked right up to the wife, put one  red fingernail on her lips, and whispered, "Shhh."

And then she smiled, revealing sharp incisors and oddly red gums. "Mmmhmm," the wife mumbled, but the woman snapped her fingers and suddenly a body fell at her feet. It was badly mangled, blood oozing from sharp cuts and gashes on the face and all over the body. But it was the face of her husband. Tears streaming down her face, the wife looking pleadingly up at the ethereal beauty standing in front of her.

But the vampire didn't even flinch as her male counterpart slit the blonde's throat and let her fall to the ground. And like animals at a feeding ground, they fell to the ground and devoured the woman's blood. And as the clouds parted and the full moon shone down on the abandoned road, all there was were two bloody bodies and a pristine car.