Bloodlines

Two

Groggy and disoriented, it took Elair five minutes to open her tired eyes. A wet lick up the side of her face alerted her to the presence of her loyal canine companion, Aiden. She sat up and wrapped her arms around her dog's neck. When she pulled away from him, the smile quickly fell from her face. Memories of what had happened to her quickly flooded her mind. Her hand flew to her neck and skimmed two round puncture wounds there. She winced at the spike of pain that shot through her at the light touch. The wound was extremely sore. Elair's fingers skimmed the floor. With somber heart and somber mind, she realized she was still sitting in a pool of her own blood. She pushed herself to her feet and shuffled into her bathroom.

As she bathed and washed the blood from her weary body, she forced all feelings, all thoughts, and all emotions to the deepest, darkest part corner of her mind. She couldn't think about it. About anything. Because if she did, she didn't know whether or not she would survive the downward spiral of her entire being. Everything about who she was and who she saw herself becoming had been drastically altered. Her whole life would be different now. She'd never finish high school, she'd never move to America and become an actress, she'd never get the chance to become a wise old woman like her grandmother was, and most of all, Elair would never physically change again. She would forever be stuck at the young age of eighteen.

She knew all of that with certainty, because she knew what she was. She knew the men who killed Jonas were vampires. She knew that the man who'd taken her chance at a life away had been a vampire. And she knew that because of him, she was a vampire. Elair was no longer human, but she would not believe she was no longer good. She didn't believe that she was a soulless monster. Her view was this: physically, she wasn't human, but mentally, soulfully, and otherwise, she was as human as she was when she was born and that would never change. Right then and there, standing under the warm spray of her shower, Elair vowed to be the first vampire to never kill a human.

Stepping out of the shower about twenty minutes later, Elair towel dried her hair and body and walked back into her room, Slipping into her most casual dress, she packed what little belongings she was planning to take into a bag and slung it over her shoulder. She took one last look around her home of eighteen good, loving years. She would miss it dearly, but maybe she would come back in a few hundred years when she and her family were long forgotten. It was safer for her if she stayed away for a long, long time. Stopping at the front door, Elair picked up a framed portrait of her, her parents, and Aiden. Tears came to her eyes as she thought about what she was losing. She'd never see her family alive again. Ever.

Luckily, she knew that her parents were and would be okay. Turns out they'd had to go on a surprise business trip and had forgotten to send word and let her know. She was forcing herself to leave Aiden behind for her parents to care for when they returned home. She had left them a note , to try for some semblance of comfort for them. It had said that she and Jonas had been attacked, that she'd witnessed his murder, and that she'd left to protect them from the killers who would now be after her. Which was true; she'd just left out the part about the attackers being vampires. She hoped the note would give them closure and help them grieve her, but she knew it was monumentally unlikely.

As she tucked the picture into her bag, her thoughts turned to Jonas. His body hadn't been there when'd gone downstairs, though his blood covered the kitchen floor. She wanted to know what had happened to him. Had he died? Had he been turned like her? If he was alive, where was he?

Elair pushed her negative thoughts from her head and walked out the front door. Her feet automatically carried her to the stables and then to her pure, white mare named Eadlyn. Elair secured her bag to her body and mounted the horse. With one last look at her home, Elair gave Eadlyn's body a gentle squeeze and disappeared from the town she'd been born and raised in.