The Last Theiro

21

Eden
•••

When I awoke my limbs were as stiff and cold as a corpse. I raised my hand to my neck and it came away bloody.

As I struggled to recollect how I got into this dank basement, or whatever it was, I ran my tongue over my teeth.

I stopped at my incisors and to make sure I felt them with my fingers. They were long and sharp. I rose to my feet and stumbled to a cracked mirror on the wall. I put my face close to the glass to get a good look but instead saw the empty room behind me.

Was I a ghost? I looked back to see if my body was still on the ground but it was not. I patted my body, definitely solid. I was aware that I should be terrified by now but my heart was even and my mind nonplussed. I realized now that I was in some dim crypt and made for the exit. It was morning. As soon as the sunlight hit my skin I felt it bubble and smelt the aroma of burnt flesh. There was no pain but I retreated none-the-less. Then it hit me.

I was a vampire.

I looked around the forest desperately and began racing my way through the trees. How did that happen?

My body collided in a muscular chest and I looked up at the centaur.

His messy hair reached his shoulders and he wore a deep scowl.

"You're awake." He muttered and walked back to the place I had woken up in.

"How...how did I get here?"

The centaur looked back at me and he narrowed his eyes. "You don't remember?"

I stared at him.

"Well, it happens with the transformation. But your memories will come floating back to you somehow."

Memories of the night in the forest filled me and a vague picture of a vampire towering over me swam in my head. "What happened to Tessa?" I asked desperately.

"I don't know. When I woke up, she was gone."

I swore under my breath and raced through the thick bush. My legs moved faster than I ever imagined and I was surprised by how much speed my body could generate.

When I reached the cabin, my pulse was calm and my breathing remained slow and steady. I barged through the front door. "Tessa!"

Silence.

"Tessa, where are you?"

I searched the cabin, no trace of Tessa being there.

"Did you find her?" The centaur asked as I exited the cabin, my face set in a deep frown.

"No." I sucked in my bottom lip and ran my hands through my hair. "You said when you woke up she was gone. What happened to you?"

"Vampires attacked me too." He inclined his head and pointed at the deep scars on his neck. "But unlike you weak humans, the transformation doesn't affect us."

I ignored his statement of us being "weak humans" and sat down on the floor, trying to think what could've happened to Tessa.