Winter's Bite

Chapter 23 Cait

I backed away. The figure before me had a beastial face with red bloodshot eyes. Fangs protruded from its mouth. Long claws extended from its fingers. It stood upright, with a young girl's slender figure, wearing torn designer jeans and a black teeshirt, but it wasn't human.

'Owen's not here,' it snarled. 'You won't see him again.'

'Who are you?' I asked. 'What have you done with Owen?'

Fear for Owen overwhelmed me. What if this creature had harmed him?

The beast laughed. 'What have I done with Owen? What have you done to him, more like.'

'I don't understand,' I said.

I knew the creature was dangerous. If I could keep it talking maybe some-one would rescue me.

'Owen is mine.'

The creature's features rippled and changed. Owen's younger sister stood before me.

'Chloe! What's going on? What do you mean? You're Owen's sister.'

'Foster sister. We're not related, except for our foster father's blood flowing through our cells.'

'I don't understand,' I said.

'It's how vampires are made. Through blood exchange. Its how the virus gets into our cells and changes them.'

'Are you saying...' I trailed off.

'Owen is a vampire like me.'

'I don't believe you.'

'Believe what you want.' She shrugged. 'It won't matter much longer.'

'What do you mean?'

'Owen is mine,' she repeated. 'Always meant to be mine. But first Magdelena came along and now you. You tried to take him away from me.'

'I love Owen.'

I never thought the first time I'd say that would be in a dirty hut confronted by a mad vampire girl.

'I love Owen,' she yelled. 'You don't know what love means. I've loved him for over a hundred years. What's your puny human love compared to that?'

Owen was over a hundred years old? That couldn't be true.

'Does he love you back? As more than a sister? Why isn't he with you then?'

I knew it was dangerous taunting her but I was too angry to care.

'Because people like you interfere.'

'Come off it, Chloe,' I sneered, 'if, as you say, you've had over a hundred years wouldn't he be with you by now if that's what he wanted? If he loved you?'

'He will love me. We will be together,' she insisted. 'Once you're dead.'

I shook my head.

'It won't happen, if it wasn't me it would be some-one else. He doesn't love you, Chloe.'

With a hiss she stood beside me, swifter than I'd thought possible for anyone to move. She morped back into vampire form and grabbed my face between her claws. She twisted my head up, exposing my throat.

'You won't be around to find out. Do you know what this place is?'

I shook my head, as much as I could with her claws clamped tight to my face.