Blood Bag

The First Vampire

Looking down at my arms, I study the blue tendrils that sit under the surface of my skin like the barely concealed roots below a forest floor. Within one week I've gone from being Addie the sulky teenager, to rebel assassin and now vampire's blood bag. Even by my standards this was tragic. 

Luckily for me sulky-vamp still hasn't returned, so no ones sucking me dry like a leech, yet. Unluckily for me I now only have blondey for company, or Samuel, as he's informed me he would much rather be called. The guys a class-A leach lover but I'm already getting the impression it has more to do with money and status than romanticizing the idea of vampirism. This at least makes a little more sense to me. Life in Lavort isn't exactly a walk in the park for it's lower class citizens.

"So, care to share your name?" Samuel asks, flicking through a book I am ninety-percent sure he can't read. "You didn't have any ID on you when we brought you in and Plarou will need your name, he'll want to do a full back ground check, can't blame him really, since you tried to murder one of his." 

"I'm not telling you anything." I mutter, yanking the chain around my ankle until it bites painfully into my skin. 

"You're gunna wanna rethink that, Plarou will be here any minute now and he'll get the information one way or another, better to co-operate and come out alive, than to get yourself pegged as a rebel and executed for treason." Samuel snaps the book in his hands shut, his watery blue eyes boring into mine as if he's trying to will me into submission. I only barely resist the urge to laugh in his face and then the door to the room is swinging open and three male figures step in.  

I recognize the sulky vampire straight away, his messy dark brown hair a tangled halo around his head, the next figure is unfamiliar but his hulking form is immediately intimidating, as is the cruel smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He doesn't have the tell tale dark rings around his eyes that mark a bloodsucker, so I deduce that he is human and turn my attention to the last figure. 

This one I know all to well, my stomach does an uneasy flip as I catch his sunken beady eyes and my heart threatens to beat its way straight out of my chest. Richard Plarou, head of the BDA, rumored to be the first vampire, confirmed to be strong willed and merciless. At first glance he looks like an elderly man, weathered, beaten down, sick. But he's looked the same for the last fourteen years at least, probably a lot longer. I know it won't pay to underestimate him. 

He steps forward, adjusting his cuff links and straightening his suit. "Now then." He says, smiling wide enough that I can see the fangs brushing his lower lip, "Your name please child." I stare at him open mouthed, my hands shaking on my lap. My name, my name. I can't tell him my name, can I? I feel him surveying me impatiently and shake my head.

He eyes me with an bemused expression."No matter," he shrugs his thin shoulders, "I don't have time for this today, and it's clear you are too unhinged to be part of a rebel group. Since this was obviously a solo act, let me put this to you clearly, in words I hope your muddled mind is capable of understanding. I'm offering you a choice, an incredibly generous one, so consider yourself fortunate and choose wisely." He pauses for a moment, gesturing with both his hands to the men either side of him before carrying on. "The fellow to my right is Julian Rivera, the vampire who marked you as chosen and the gentleman to my left is Marcus Ashborn, our current rebel executioner. It's your decision, you may go willingly with Julian, or unwillingly with Marcus, but there is no third option." 

Put that way, the choice doesn't seem particularly generous at all. I weigh up losing my head against a life of enslavement and find the decision harder than I could have ever imagined. I want to hold my head up high, walk out of the room and embrace my fate, surely I'd rather death than life as a walking blood bag, haven't I always said as much? But somehow I can't bring Marcus's name from my throat. The realization almost drowns me. I don't want to die. 

Words fall from my mouth before I can stop them. "Julian, I'll go with Julian!" I yell. Plarou breaks into a wide smile again, fangs on full show and Marcus the Murderer looks creepily put-out. Only Julian's expression is un-readable. His dark eyes set stubbornly on the floor, his jaw taut. I wonder if he's relieved or mad. He gets to keep his chosen blood bag - unfortunately for him its defective.

"Very well child, you now belong to Julian. Serve him well." Plarou says, each word hitting me like a physical blow to the chest. I find myself wanting to throw the bed covers over myself, to block it all out, to make it go away. But this isn't some nightmare, it's reality and I have to face it. Plarou turns to Samuel, who visibly wilts under his gaze. "Take her to be medicated at once, we can't afford another mistake like last time." He says, and then strides from the room, taking Marcus the Murderer with him. 

Julian finally looks up from the floor, his dark eyes flicker over me quickly before he turns his attention to Samuel, "I've got some people I need to visit before we return to the apartment, take care of her." he mutters. Looking ashen he turns to the door and flits out of it without so much as a backwards glance. 

Samuel grins at me. "Looks like its just you and me again crazy-pants." 

"Don't call me that." I hiss wrenching a pillow from the bed and lobbing it directly at his head.