Destruction

20. Surviving The Day

Athena

"Can I ask what even is the point of having shutters for the day time?" Zachary was pacing round the small confines of the room while pinching the bridge of his nose. His tattered blood stained shirt was practically hanging of his frame as it showed of the now completely healed skin underneath.

"It's not meant to keep vampires out if that's what you're asking."

Zachary laughed. "And all this time I was under the impression that I could walk in the sun. Well, thank you mon ami for making that clear for me, I would hate to ruin my shirt even more."

"My god, a vampire with a sense of humour, this is surely something of lengend."

Zachary's growl was enough to cause Jude to pale, it was as though up until this point he had forgotten that he had been arguing with a vampire, a wild beast that was only being kept in place by the deadly sunlight that scorched the ground outside.

"There not meant to keep you out." Jude looked over his shoulder at the window which was covered with an alloy sheet. "It's to stop them." He turned around to start straight into Zahcary's fiery eyes. "Those people you use and then drop. The people who become addicted to the 'high' you can only get when a vampire drinks from you, those half people who only realize how disgusting they are in the light of day. Those are the people we're trying to keep out."

As if to prove his point there the sound of fists banging on metal filled the room, along with desperate cries and guttural screams.

"They sound like zombies." It was the first time I'd spoken since Zachary had woken and started his slagging match with Jude, I didn't want to have to explain to him why I'd left, or why he'd walked in on me and Jude.

I'd decided it would be much safer for me to sit quietly in the corner on the broken leather chair and observe the scene.

He laughed, "That's because they basically are." Jude turned to face me his back now to a fuming Zachary. "They're so reliant on getting their next 'high' that during the time that vampires sleep they don't know what to do."

Just the word sleep had me longing to shut my eyes and let darkness take me, I'd never fought of sleep before. When I was living in The Orphanage any sleep was welcomed, and as a vampire I'd never really needed to stay awake during the day.

"Don't fall asleep Athena." Zachary's voice was sharp as ice and just as cold, it was a clear sign that I wasn't forgiven for what he'd walked in on. "After all, because of you we are trapped in the enemies house."

It had never really sunk in the now they weren't my friend, they were our enemy as we were theirs, things could never go back to the way they were before. Because nothing was like it was before.

"And you think that's my fault." I demanded as I stood up with so much force my chair was knocked over. "Is it my fault that you turned me? Is it my fault that I'm surrounded by obnoxious, self-centred centuries old vampires everyday? Is it my fault that I don't understand anything? Is it my fault that you've been ignoring me?"

Before I had a chance to pull air into my now deflated lungs Zachary was standing in front of me, so close that you couldn't even fit a sheet of paper between us. "And what you think it's my fault?!" He put emphasis on 'my' as he stared into my eyes. "You're the stubborn girl who I happened to come across dying on the street, the girl who was bleeding out and in for a long cold lonely death, the girl who was lucky enough to by mate. I clothed you, feed you and tried to teach you about my world, but somewhere along the way you decided it was going to be all about you. And you know what mon amour, you ignored me first."