Claimed

Ch. 1: Astrae

Minneapolis, Minnesota. The cold breeze blew through Astrae’s hair as she listened to the click of her boots on the sidewalk. She was walking to the warehouse district.She knew she could find a place to stay for the night there among the crackheads and the teenage runaways.

Astrae could smell the drugs, and she knew she had arrived by the large abandoned and graffitied buildings. She closed her eyes and listened, there were four heartbeats she could hear. They were rushed, afraid. Astraes body went tense as she backed herself up against a wall and stopped her heart. Astraes mother was a vampire, and her father was an incubus. Her mother had no heart beat, but her father did. When she was born with a pulse, she learned at an early age that she could mute it. She would sit and listen to her parents fight and they didn’t even know that she was there. That is until her father stabbed her mother in the chest during one of their arguments, and without thinking Astrae ripped off her father’s head.

She heard screaming. Intense pain. Soon enough, the scent of blood wrapped around her nose. It had been weeks since she had killed the girl. It had been even longer since she had fed on human pheromones. She was hungry, but she couldn’t bring herself to risk killing someone again. Her gums began to swell as she forced herself not to let her fangs out. She knew that if she let her fangs out, whoever was screaming would be dead. Whoever was attacking him would be dead too, not as though they didn’t deserve to die.

The screaming stopped, but the smell of blood only intensified. She had no doubt in her mind that whoever was screaming was dead. The smell of blood was way too strong for them not to be. It was time to find a place to sleep for the night, preferably a better place to hide.

After poking her head out to make sure nobody was out there, she took quick and quiet strides, towards a warehouse in the back. She breathed out once she was inside and let her heart start beating again. It took too much of her energy to hide it. She stumbled and eventually sat down on a wood crate exhausted. Her back leaned against the metal wall as she allowed her eyes to sink closed.

Because of her vampire half, she could not sleep. However, she could fall into a relaxed state, much like meditation. She was about to let her eyes closed when a metal flap on the side opened and someone crawled through. She sat still. She used what was left of her energy to muffle her heart.

“Please don’t hurt me.” The young girl scooted back, sitting on the dirt floor using her legs to push her. Astrae let her heart make a sound as she clenched my jaw. She sounded so much like the girl from Texas, begging Astrae not to drain her blood. Astrae looked over to her again, her hair was blonde. Also like the girl she killed. Her heart pumped blood fast through her body, and Astraes gums swelled even more.

A man stepped into the room, smiling at the girl. Pure horror was held on her face as the man pinned her against a wall, and tore off her head. The young girls limp body fell to the floor, blood spilling everywhere. He looked over to where Astrae sat. She used her inhuman speed to dart a foot back behind some boxes, but she soon know it was too late.

“Another stray.” The man called. Astrae listened to the boots and soon realized there had to be at least 4 men there to make that many steps. It was time to run. She bolted out the the door and in between buildings as fast as she could. It wasn’t fast enough, because she wasn’t strong. But she would try to survive. It was in her blood.

She was tackled into the dirt by a boy, he could be no older than 17. He had black eyes and light hair. He wrapped himself around her legs as she tried to squirm out, panic struck her. She reached out, grabbing for the nearest thing. She felt a board. Before she could strike the boy with it though, she felt a pain in her legs. She looked down to see her own blood pouring out of the bloody bite mark left in her leg, way too big to be human.

Shit. The sudden realization hit her. She had interrupted a lycanthrope hunt. Lycanthrope weren’t exactly fond of vampires, but were completely intrigued with succubi, as were most creatures. After the great war, Vampires triumphed and Succubi were few. The ones who lived either went into hiding or were used as slaves for the vampires. Thats how my mom met my dad. My dad was her brothers slave.

She dropped the board and reached down, grabbing his head between her hands. She looked him dead in the eyes and started to hum her song. The song coaxed his pheromones out, sweat poured down his face. Her body was becoming more powerful, but not very. She wasn’t very good at the whole succubus thing, doing it on humans was hard enough but trying to do it on fae was near impossible. She got a bit out of him before she couldn’t do it anymore. She dropped his head and rolled his body off of her. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even unconscious. He was just in shock, she often had that effect on people. The pack couldn’t be far behind, she was surprised they weren’t already here.

She scooted off the ground and took off running, muting her heart. Its alot harder to find someone when they can’t hear them. She ran around the corner of a warehouse only to be face to face with another man. She knew that they were from the same pack by the twisted but pleased look in his eyes. She was frozen. He was beautiful. His eyes were dark, so dark that they almost looked completely black. He had long black hair, tied in a tight braid down his back. His skin was tan, reminding her of warm sand.

She was brought back to reality by his claws lightly trailing down her arm. She shuddered. It reminded her way too much of freddy krueger.

“You have no heartbeat, yet here you are.” He stepped closer to Astrae and took a deep breath, smelling her hair. “Bloodsucker.” He snarled. The rest of the pack was behind her. One of them was drenched with blood. The first man must of put up a fight. Her gums throbbed, but she forced herself to focus on the man in front of her.

“Demitri, Justin is down and won't get up. He’s alive though.” she recognised a woman's voice. The man she was talking to was the one standing in front of Astrae. She took this moment to look around, searching for a way out.

“Did you check him for fang marks?” He asked. He was calm. His calm demeanor made Astrae even more on edge.

“There is nothing physically wrong with him. He is just sitting there smiling, but he has no awareness.” When Demetri looked back at her, she expected to see anger, she had damaged one of his pack. She also knew that if she didn’t fix him she would be dead. Instead, when he looked back at her, his eyes were entirely curious.

In half a second, she was pushed up against the wall. The back of her head cracked against the brick as she cringed. She knew it would start bleeding soon.

“I have never met a vampire who chose to compel her victims instead of killing. Most do this because of the thought that once it wears off, they know that they are going to be hunted until they are dead, if no longer for fury, it would be for honor. So why did you chose to compel?” His face was inches from hers. She could hear the sound of him sniffing her while observing every inch of her face. She stayed silent.

Another crack of the back of her head getting beaten into the wall. She cringed. Her gums felt as though they were on fire. She just wanted to lunge and rip his throat out. She couldn’t though. She knew if she killed him, she would have to kill all of them and she wasn’t ready for that to be on her conscience.

“How about you just let me go and be happy I didn’t kill your brother.” She squeaked out. She was terrified. What little energy she got from the boy they called Justin was already almost gone. Healing takes a lot of energy.

Before she could stop it she let her heart beat. It beat four times before she could muffle it again. Four beats was enough for Demetri to get even more intrigued. I bit down on my tongue. I wasn’t going to talk, and I wasn’t going to rip out his throat. Finally, he caved.

“I’m curious about our little vampiress over here. So bring her back to the den and tie her up. Do not harm her, and do not feed her.” With that, he stepped away and a few men grabbed her. She thrashed her body and kicked. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t without letting her fangs out. Eventually, she gave up and let herself be taken back to their den.