Blood Curse

Chapter Three

 The ground shakes when I wake up. It takes me a few seconds to realize I'm lying in the backseat of a moving car. Everything is dark outside the car, only the headlights offering any sort of illumination, and I come to the realization that we aren't in Bellwood Falls anymore.

"Where am I?" I groan, sitting up in my seat.

"Oh good," a man says. "You're up."

The sight of him makes the memories come rushing back and I gasp. "Where am I? What happened to Morgan?"

The man Noah called Wyatt glances back at me from the driver's seat, "calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!"

"Have you already forgotten that I could tear you into pieces with my bare hands?"

"You won't," I state, although I'm not sure of anything at this moment. "You would have already done it by now."

Wyatt stares at me through the rearview mirror, "smart girl."

His eyes are blue just like Noah's except Wyatt's are darker. They're the deep blue of a churning sea just before the storm hits. His looks are more rugged than Noah's, but he's just as handsome. He's definitely older, I'd bet early thirties, with his slicked-back dark hair and chin dimple.

"We're not going to hurt you," he continues. "We're trying to protect you."

"You have an odd way of showing it," I wince, touching the tender bump on the back of my head.

"The people who took your friend are not good people."

"And you are?" I question.

Wyatt purses his thin lips. "I've done many things I'm not proud of, but they're worse."

Tears brim my eyes at the thought of Morgan being stuck with those people. I can't believe any of this is happening. Vampires can't be real, they're just a myth, but how can I say that after everything I've seen tonight. My father was right all along, I should have listened to his ramblings.

"What do you want with me?" I sniffle.

"We want to protect you," Wyatt says gently. "We're going to get your friend back, too."

"How?"

"Noah's working on it."

"How can I trust... vampires?" I struggle with saying the word.

"You have no choice."

I stay silent for the rest of the drive. Wyatt never tells me where we're going and I don't ask again. Soon enough we pull onto a dirt drive in the middle of nowhere and drive up to a small cabin. It looks old but well-kempt.

"Where are we?" I ask after Wyatt opens my door for me.

He grips my arm as I get out. "My house."

"I got that, but where is it?"

"You're a little sassy considering you should be scared out of your mind."

"I already know you aren't going to kill me."

Wyatt pulls me to a stop just outside the front door of the cabin. "Just because I won't kill you doesn't mean there aren't vampires who won't. Lesson number one: never let your guard down around our kind."

He lets his eyes go black during his rant and my heart speeds up at the coldness in them. It's as if all of his humanity is gone and all that's left is a cold, calculating predator. As quickly as his eyes changed they go back to normal and he unlocks the door to the cabin as if nothing even happened. He turns on the light and I get a glimpse of how a vampire lives.