Blood Born

by Jamie Manning

  I was on the verge of turning around and heading back to the gym and telling Chance that I was canceling our plans, when the all too familiar scent of death slapped me in the face. I ignored Kayla’s warning about not using my super speed and quickly closed the gap between us. I latched onto her arm, pulling her to a sudden and jarring stop.

  “Don’t tell me,” she said through ragged breathing.

  “Yeah.” I answered. “There’s a vampire nearby.”

  I barely got the words out when I was blindsided and knocked a good hundred yards away by a very large, very pissed off vampire.

  Fortunately, I wasn’t knocked unconscious by the impact my body made with a large pine tree. I felt the wood snap beneath the force, the top half of the tree crashing to the ground below. The pain shot up my back and across my body. I couldn’t breathe, and my head felt like red-hot fire. I knew I had to get up and defend myself or the vampire would be on me, ripping the skin from my neck and draining my blood, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t move.

  Get up, Ava. Get up now!

  The voice in my head grew loud and powerful, and I focused all my energy on doing what it told me. My mind flashed back to that first night at Aldric’s, when he had drop-kicked me into the wall of his basement. That pain was intense, but if felt like a paper cut compared to this. This was a new kind of pain, a pain so massive I thought I was going to die. I was actually wishing for it, just to make the agony go away.

  You have to help her, Ava. It’s going to kill her.

  Kayla. She was all alone to fight the vampire. I knew she could probably fight the vampire off for a while, but no way could she win the battle alone, not without some sort of weapon. And what better place to find a makeshift stake than in the middle of the woods. I rolled my body over, surprised and thankful that the vampire hadn’t shown up to kill me yet. Of course, that only meant that he was probably too busy killing Kayla. I couldn’t let that happen.

  I found a hidden burst of energy and pulled myself from the ground. The massive, towering trees around me were swaying so badly I thought we were in the middle of a hurricane. I quickly realized it was my head that was spinning, not the trees. I closed my eyes, letting my body get accustomed to standing, before running over as fast as I could to help Kayla. The vampire was on top of her, his fangs inches from her neck and dripping deadly venom. She was doing her best to hold him off, but I could see through the haze of my concussion that he was inching closer and closer to her, and she was rapidly growing tired from trying to fight him. It would only be seconds before his teeth made contact with her skin. I had to act fast.

  I jumped as hard and fast as I could, my body flying through the air like a rocket. I watched the trees shoot past me, clearly making out the moss-covered bark on their trunks. It was like I was flying in slow motion, but I knew I wasn’t. I made contact with the vampire about to drain Kayla’s blood, and the two of us spun off of her in a mesh of fangs and venom and snarls.

  Just touching him made me mad, filling my body with rage and violence. I thought of nothing else but ending this creature’s life, and after several minutes of struggling, I found my chance. I grabbed a large, fallen branch from an oak tree and snapped it in half, while pinning the vampire’s arms with my legs. He squirmed wildly beneath me, flopping around like a fish out of water. He was bigger than me, both in height and weight, but I was stronger. I could feel the muscles in his body pound against my legs like granite slabs, but I wasn’t letting up. I gripped a piece of the broken branch, stared down at the monster beneath me, and drove it down hard.

  It didn’t even pierce the skin. The branch broke in my hands, flying off in a thousand tiny splinters. I still had a firm grip on the vampire with my legs, but I knew that it wouldn’t hold long. Panic filled my nerves, and I searched frantically for something to kill him with. That’s when I saw Kayla sprinting toward us. She had blood running down her face from what looked like a broken nose, and her clothes were matted in dirt. She ran up to me and pressed the vampire’s head hard against the ground with her foot.

  “You have to bite it,” she said, her wild eyes glaring at me. “Bite it, Ava. It’s the only way.” The vampire realized what was about to happen and began screeching, a sound unlike anything I had ever heard.

  “I can’t!” I yelled out amidst the chaos. “I can’t do it!” I knew in my mind I had to. It was the only way to keep him from killing us. But something was stopping me.

  “It’s already dead, Ava,” Kayla said, her voice calm but urgent. “But we’re not. If you don’t do it now, we will be.” I could see in her eyes that she was scared. I was too. More scared than I had ever been. But I also couldn’t let anything happen to her. I couldn’t let this monster kill her, so I had no choice but to kill it first.

  “Okay,” I finally said, staring down into the burning eyes of the vampire. “How do I do it?”

  Kayla gave me a quizzical look. “With your fangs.”

  “What?!” I glared up at her, her tiny frame struggling to hold the vampire down. For some strange reason, my mind didn’t register when she said I had to bite the vampire to kill it. But when she said the word fangs, the realization of what that meant flooded my senses. “I-I can’t. And I’m not just saying that because I don’t want to, and believe me, I really don’t want to. But, I don’t know how.” That was something Aldric had never shown me. We went over tracking the blood scent, kickboxing, using my powers of compulsion to dupe humans into doing things for me—which I refused to do, but which Aldric insisted I learn—practically everything needed to achieve my goal. Except how to actually use my fangs. I had said I would never bite a human, so I guess he didn’t think it was something I needed to know. Right now, sitting on top of a vampire with no other way to kill it, I was fuming mad at him.

  “You don’t know how?” Kayla’s question ripped my mind from the panic attack it was caught in. “Why not?”

  “I don’t know why not. It’s not like I came with a manual you know!” The vampire must have sensed my apprehension, because he became even more violent and determined, haphazardly kicking and arching his back to try and throw me off of him.

  “Well you better figure it out in the next three seconds, or he’s gonna get loose and we’re dead.” I knew what she was saying was true, that he would no doubt kill us if I didn’t kill him first, so I reluctantly opened my mouth wide, feeling my fangs rip through my gums and slide into place. Kayla’s face filled with fear, but was quickly masked by determination. “Now, look for the vein on its neck.” I followed her eyes down to the vampire, and focused on the pale skin stretched over his collarbone. Just above it, running along the ridge of his shoulder and up his neck, sat a thick vein filled with dead blood.

  “Lean in and puncture it, Ava. You’ll feel the blood burst into your mouth.” I hunched over, my entire body shaking with nerves and fear. “You have to do it, Ava. Now.” Kayla’s voice was ringing in my ears as I brought my fangs down to the vampire’s pulsing neck. Just the act of doing so set something on fire inside of me, and regardless of how terrified and badly repulsed I was by what I was doing, I couldn’t hold back the urgent, overpowering need to feel blood pulse through my fangs. With super speed, I dropped my mouth onto the vampire’s skin, it’s cold, dead texture sending a chill down my spine. My fangs punctured the tough leather like a hot knife through butter, and my mouth was filled with ice cold blood. Even though the taste was disgusting, and the smell was even worse, I couldn’t stop drinking. I wanted nothing else. Nothing in the world mattered to me more than drinking every drop of his blood.

  The vampire had managed to free one of his arms from under my leg after I bit him, and he was using it to grip wildly at my back, trying to pull me off him. I could feel his nails rip my skin, my own blood running down my back, but I didn’t even flinch. It was a pointless, last-ditch effort to save his own life. I wasn’t stopping until he took his last breath and I took his last drop. Of that I was certain.


  The entire process took less than two minutes, but in my mind if felt much longer. The euphoria of my first bite collided with the putrid smell and taste of the dead blood, sending my brain into an almost catatonic state. I could have been ripped limb from limb at that moment and probably wouldn’t have even noticed. Only Kayla’s hand on my shoulder pulled me from my trance.

  “It’s done, Ava,” she said, pulling hard on my shoulder. “Don’t keep drinking or you’ll kill yourself.” I believed her, and though I didn’t want to, I quickly ripped my fangs from the vampire’s neck. My body was instantly in a state of panic and shock. It wanted blood, more than ever. I wanted it, I realized, and I had to have it. I stood up and moved away from the now dead vampire, my bloodlust overpowering me. I glared at Kayla, my eyes slowly moving down to the young, tight skin of her neck. I quickly spotted the large vein running down the side of her neck, pulsing with sweet, warm, living blood. At that moment, I ignored the human side of me screaming for me to stop, and allowed the deadly, powerful vampire side to take control. With rage in my eyes and an ever-growing hunger in my stomach, I sprang forward with all my strength, my fangs full of venom and Kayla’s throat locked in my sights.

  2

  1. BLOODLUST

  I could hear Kayla’s screams as I lunged for her, my fangs seeking out her blood. I knew how scared she was but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything. My throat burned with hunger, and that hunger overpowered everything else. I knew that I was going to kill her.

  I took one last jump toward her, my body leaping into the air like a lion on attack, my hands open wide, just waiting to feel the warmth of her skin beneath them. I watched the horror of what was about to happen spread across her face and her body tensed, causing that luscious vein in her neck to bulge even further. I thought my mouth was watering, until I tasted the venom. My fangs were hungry, and it was time for them to feed.

  Just as my hands made contact with the velvet skin of her neck, something large and powerful collided into me, sending me spiraling across the cold dirt of the forest floor. It only took a moment before I was back on my feet and ready to pounce again, the bloodlust coursing through me stronger than ever.

  I stayed in a crouched and ready position once I turned myself around to face Kayla. What I saw were the sad, searching eyes of Chance. He was standing between Kayla and me, his large hands curled into fists and his entire body heaving with each breath. All the veins on his forehead and his neck—oh, especially his neck—were pumping blood at a rapid rate. I knew that he would taste good, maybe even better than anyone else I would kill in my lifetime, but I had already chosen my victim for this kill, and I wanted her now.

  “You can’t stop me,” I snarled at Chance, my body low to the ground and rocking back and forth, just waiting to strike. I watched Chance’s eyes watching me. They were filled with pity.

  “You don’t want to do this,” I heard him say, though I couldn’t really focus on his lips. My eyes were focused on the pulsing vein in Kayla’s neck, who was lurking like a coward behind him. I smiled at her before turning back to Chance.

  “Yes, I do.” We stared at each other intently, neither of us ready to back down from what we wanted. I had no intention of letting Kayla get away without tasting her blood. He had no intention of letting me touch her. The Hero versus The Monster. It was morbidly poetic.

  “You’re letting it take over, Ava. Don’t let it beat you.” I didn’t know what it he was talking about, and I didn’t really want to find out. I held my ground, my fangs dripping venomous anticipation.

  “Nothing is beating me,” I said. “And nothing is stopping me.” With that, I jumped forward with all the strength I had, high into the air over Chance’s head. Below me, I could clearly see Kayla, small and insignificant and definitely terrified. I wondered as I made my descent if I would be that scared when I met my own death. Would I be that cowardly, hiding behind someone else? Or would I proudly stand up and face what was coming? My body began to fall toward the earth with the speed of a bullet. I would be on top of Kayla and tasting her sweet-smelling blood in less than a second.

  But that brief moment I was suspended in air was long enough for Chance to pull something black and metal from his coat and toss it to Kayla. She grabbed the device in midair and pointed it up at me. The last thing I remembered before my world went dark was a tiny flash of light and something deadly piercing my skin.

  I was swimming in darkness. Nothing existed but me and that darkness, cold and scary and suffocating. I felt it wrap around my body, squeezing me with the strength of a thousand weights, trying to destroy me. My lungs couldn’t expand, couldn’t open up to breathe in air. I was dying, and I was dying alone.

  My eyes flew open and I gasped wildly for air. I felt it rush into my lungs, filling them with life. The milky haze covering my eyes slowly faded, and a room I didn’t recognize came into view. The walls were a pale white, with matching curtains drawn across the only window on the far side, blocking out the harsh street lamps littering the night skyline. A brown chest of drawers sat to the right of the window, its top bare. My eyes slowly moved along the wall until they found a plush, comfortable-looking blue chair that didn’t match anything else in the room. Its gaudy color wasn’t what caught my breath. It was Chance sleeping peacefully there.

  As I watched him sleep, the memory of what I had just done came rushing back to my mind. I had tried to kill Kayla, and I probably would have killed him, too. I had wanted her blood, and I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. Oh God, what he must have thought. If he didn’t fully hate me before, I’m sure he did now. He saw what I truly was: a bloodthirsty monster that had no concern for anyone but herself. A girl who wanted to murder innocent people and drink their blood. I was disgusting.

  But Chance was good. He was genuinely, wholly good. Someone who would die for what he believed in, and would give all of himself to those he loved. He had done everything in the world for me, starting with risking his life by teaming up with a vampire to save my soul. And how did I repay him? By trying to kill him and my best friend in the middle of the woods like wild animals. I knew since the moment I saw him that night in the cemetery that there was something happening between us, something real, but I ignored it. I fought it all this time, when obviously he had embraced it. He must have known back then where our relationship was headed, and he wanted it. He stuck by me when anyone else would have cut their losses and ran. And now here he was, asleep in a chair beside the deathbed of the girl he cared for, the monster who had wanted to kill him. My heart ached for him.

  Without provocation, Chance’s eyes slowly opened and he shifted in his chair. I closed my eyes and pretended to still be out of it as I listened to him stand up and walk over to my bed. After a few seconds of doing nothing, I suddenly felt the intoxicating warmth of his touch as his hand brushed hair away from my face. I knew then that I loved the feel of his skin next to mine, the energy his touch created. I realized at that moment that I never wanted to lose that. But how could I have him when I had done something so horrible? Then it hit me: maybe he was here to kill me. Maybe he was brushing the hair from my face just so he could touch me one last time before ending my life and ridding the world of such a horrible creature. I wouldn’t have blamed him. Just as I was getting ready to open my eyes, I heard the door across the room scrub slowly along the hardwood floor, and the smell of Kayla’s blood once again flooded my nostrils.

  “How is she?” I heard her voice, low and soft.

  “Still sleeping,” Chance whispered back, his hand moving from my face. I wanted to reach out and grab it and never let it go, but I decided to keep feigning sleep and listen to what they had to say. Honestly, I didn’t have the nerve to face them just yet.

  “Thanks for letting her stay here,” Chance went on, his words falling silently from his lips.

  “Of course,” Kayla answered. “She can stay as long as she needs to.” That explained why I didn’t recognize any of my surroundings;
I only wished that my first visit to Kayla’s house had been under happier circumstances. “Do you think she’ll remember?” she continued, her voice now closer to me.

  “I hope not,” Chance answered. “It’ll kill her if she does.” If he only knew that I did remember. I remembered everything that had happened in those woods, and he was right; it was killing me.

  “I just hope she doesn’t blame herself,” Kayla said. “We both know that wasn’t really her out there.” I couldn’t believe she was saying that. How could she be so calm after what I had almost done to her? How could she stand to even be in the same room with me? Didn’t she hate me, want me dead? And why didn’t Chance answer her? Did he think that the monster he saw in the woods really was me? Did he believe that I couldn’t be saved?

  “If she does blame herself, I won’t let her do it for long.” Chance’s words were covered in emotions, from anger to fear to love, and I knew that I was going to have a huge fight on my hands once I woke up and expressed my deep, gnawing guilt. “All she’s been focused on since the beginning was saving her human side and destroying the vampire in her.” Chance continued talking, but paused long enough to brush my cheek again. “I won’t let what happened make her lose focus on that. I’m going to make sure she gets what she wants.” He kept his hand against my face, the heat of his body fighting to calm me down.

  “I’ll help too,” Kayla added. Then I felt her hand rest on top of mine, and I became overwhelmed with the fact that this girl who I had tried to kill just a couple of hours ago was now standing beside my bed, holding my hand and vowing to help me. I had heard enough, and slowly opened my eyes.