Bitten

Prologue

The only thing registering in Thomas's brain is the heavy foot steps following close behind, his own gasping breath, and the thought echoing through his head: I am going to die.

If Thomas was thinking rationally, he would have noticed that the footsteps behind him were slowly getting farther away as his supernatural speed kicked in, but panic and adrenaline rush was flowing so quickly through his veins that nothing was processing except his survival instinct.

Thomas was breathing in quick and heavy bursts, but after he realizes he's no longer being followed, he slows down to a slow walk and tries to quiet his breathing. He knows that because he's a vampire and technically dead now that he doesn't have a heart beat that he doesn't really have to breathe, but it just feels weird if he doesn't. Like his body will still freak out if he doesn't get enough oxygen to his lungs.

More awake now that he's gotten up and about, Thomas is surprised that he's not tired. He was only turned a couple months ago - he can still remember vividly the pain of being turned. He knows he always will - with vampire's perfect memory.

Thomas shakes his head to push the memories to the back of his mind.

He feels so light, without the heavy sweat humans produce when they exercise. Thomas pats down his shirt, still feeling the memory of what it used to feel like to be alive and human. He knows that if he still had a heartbeat and his sweat glands still functioned, he would be soaked.

A distant yell echos from not that far away, and Thomas is reminded that he needs to get off of this territory.

Even though by now humans and Vampires have a pact to not hunt each other, Thomas knows that line runs thin, and if he crossed over into human territory without explicit permission before hand, he would be killed on site.

As Thomas reluctantly breaks out into a jog, he sees the tall walls surrounding human territory begin to show themselves over the tree line and swerves right, heading towards wolf territory.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out. Thomas breathing is as normal as it would have been if he weren't sprinting and were lying down in one of his hammocks with Aris and Teresa, chatting and giggling quietly so as to not attract attention from Alby.

Thomas closes his eyes and pictures the scene, losing his sense of the now. He can almost smell fresh pig meat roasting over a fire, the cheerful noises of what became his second family, and the taste of animal blood bitter on his tongue; yet still more tasteful than any other human food.

Human blood is always infinitely times better than animal blood - almost irresistible - but ever since WWIX and the distant peace between the species, vampires haven't hunted humans and vice versa.

"Hey! I found one!" A younger voice shouted. Thomas jumped: the voice was only a couple meters away. Thomas started sprinting faster than before when he heard the hissing and cries of what was once his family. He distantly heard men and women shouting where he heard the little boy and the other vampire.

Who was that? Did the hunters kill them? Was it Alby? Aris? Winston? It's only then that Thomas realizes that he may well be the last one of his clan.

Thomas can feel the blood drain from his face and he gets dizzy from the strain. Stopping in place, Thomas goes over all the possibilities. Could they have gotten away if they ran fast enough? Thomas knows he was the fastest of them - that's why he was a runner - so could they have also gotten away even though they weren't as fast as Thomas? What happened to them if they were caught? Did the hunters kill them? Capture them? Experiment on them-