by Mira Crest
Olivia looked around. Her eyes moved from band member to band member before landing on Virginie again. “What’s going on?” she said.
Virginie did her best to explain the situation to her bewildered and dumbfounded friend. Each time her mouth opened, sentences came out, which she never thought she would ever say aloud. “They’re vampires,” she said. The term made her feel hokey. The only vampires she could envision were of the sparkling variety or the pale-skinned Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise versions from the 90’s. From a movie her mom insisted on showing her.
Every time she explained a new concept, she would turn to Axel or Trevor to make sure that she had her facts straight and they always just smiled and nodded. But the things that came out of her mouth just seemed so fantastical. “So we have to keep our mouths shut,” she said to Olivia. “Or else the Slayers will come after them. That’s why I had you take down your InstaFace post.”
Olivia nodded. “What were those shadow creatures at the concert?” she asked.
Virginie turned to Axel, hoping that he had a better explanation for her friend. “They’re vampires too,” he said. “And strong ones at that.”
“You don’t know who they are?” Olivia asked.
“Well, it’s not like a club,” Kain said, as he rolled his eyes. “It’s not some secret clubhouse thing where we know every member.”
Trevor interrupted. “Think of it as another race,” he said. “There are hundreds of different races and nationalities in the world, we’re just like another race.”
Olivia nodded. “Oh, okay.” Her shoulders slumped. Virginie could see her try to process all the information that she had just given her. “I can’t believe that vampires actually exist,” Olivia finally said. She grabbed Virginie’s hand.
“You and me both,” Virginie added, patting their clutched hands with her free one. “And if I hadn’t seen it all with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.” Her mind went back to the events of the past few days. The concert. Nowhere. This mansion. The men in the alley.
Axel leaned in toward Virginie. “Those shadow creatures seem to show no fear. They’ve attacked humans out in public. They’re not afraid of being hunted down by Slayers. That’s dangerous, Virginie,” he said. “That’s the main reason why I wanted you to come here. You’ve seen them – or at least one of them. That cop that attacked us at the concert. That means he knows your face too. And he’s not afraid to go after humans.”
Up until that point, Virginie had been afraid of the Slayers and what they would do to Axel. While she realized that the whole situation was dangerous, it wasn’t until those words came out of his mouth that she realized there was specific danger to her life. Vampires didn’t just want her because she was a human. That cop knew who she was – or at least what she looked like.
“Those vampires out in the alley,” he continued. “Lance and his friend…”
“Frankie,” Olivia said softly.
Axel nodded. “They’re just regular vamps. They probably aren’t affiliated with the shadow vampires. I don’t know what that cop’s plans are but if he thinks that you might get in his way, he will kill you.”
Virginie felt a lump grow in her throat. Her gaze moved from his face down to her lap. She shut her eyes tight, as she tried to keep from crying. The sensation of Axel’s hand on hers brought her back. Her eyes fluttered open, a couple of stray tears streamed down her face.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Guys,” Kain said as their conversation died down. “Have you seen this?” He turned up the volume on the TV, which Virginie hadn’t noticed before. The large flat screen was housed in a sleek wooden entertainment unit with doors that appeared as if they slid side-to-side on rails. On the television was what appeared to be a leaked footage of Axel getting up after being shot on the stage.
In the blurry, gritty cell phone footage, Axel stood up next to Virginie and held his hand out. A bright white light emitted from it and shot outward toward the edge of the screen.
Or at least, two figures that looked like Virginie and Axel. Luckily for them, the footage was so grainy and blurry that their faces were obscured, as were most of their physical features. But their profiles were distinctive – at least, they were to Virginie. By the looks on everyone else’s faces, they were pretty distinctive to everyone else too. She turned back to the screen and watched as the vampire policeman’s shadowed form moved, just at the edge of the screen.
Both Axel and Virginie looked back at Olivia, who had the same shocked look on her face as everyone else in the room. “It wasn’t me,” she said. “I didn’t take that video. I was too busy trying to stay alive.”
Axel exhaled slowly, his chest rising and falling slowly. “It’s supposed to die down but more and more things keep popping up.” He pointed at the screen. “First the internet, and now television too.”
Virginie’s brows furrowed in worry as she watched his reaction to the news segment which claimed that strange occurrences happened at the concert and that there were a variety of conclusions including aliens coming down from outer space, Axel’s ghost saving a fan, and that Axel being an angel which had descended on earth.
“See,” Lovejoy said. “They’re just idiots. They have no clue.” His voice startled Olivia, who had yet to hear him say anything. She squeezed Virginie’s hand, the only show of excitement that she could let slip out.
Considering the circumstances, Virginie thought that she was behaving herself and being incredibly chill. She eyed her friend who responded with a look that said both, “I’m scared of everything that’s going on” and “I can’t believe that we’re here.” It might have been best-friend telepathy or perhaps Virginie was just transferring her excitement to her bestie. They both composed themselves.
Kain’s stern voice boomed over Lovejoy’s soft one. “I don’t want anyone to know,” he said. “I mean, it’s bad enough that these two know.”
“We won’t say anything,” Virginie said. Olivia nodded fervently beside her. “Why is everyone so concerned about us knowing anyway?” Virginie asked. “As long as we keep our mouths shut, everyone should be fine, right?”
“You’re both in danger now that you do know,” Axel said.
“But why?” Virginie pleaded. “We’re not vampires, you guys are. If we slip, aren’t you more likely to be in danger than us? And besides, you’re so strong.”
Axel shook his head, then shrugged. “Simply stated, there are vampires out there who don’t follow the rules. They don’t play nice with humans and they could care less about your safety at all. These are the same vampires that drink human blood to fulfill their primitive desires.”
“Primitive?” Olivia asked.
“We’ve evolved,” Axel explained. “We don’t need to feed off of your blood. All of that is just bloodlust.”
“If they’re driven by their desires,” Virginie said. “Aren’t they more concerned about the Slayers killing them? That’s what Slayers do, right? They kill vampires who attack people.”
Trevor nodded and interjected. “Yeah,” he said. “But honestly, Axel’s probably on the Slayer’s radar more than any other vampire.”
Axel sighed. “Unfortunately. It’s like I have a gigantic target on my back.” He rolled his shoulders back a couple times and rested on the couch. His eyes gazed up at the ceiling.
Virginie wanted to reach over and rub his shoulders for him. She wanted to make him feel better. He risked his life for her. He’d done so much for her already and they’d only known each other for less than a week.
“You’re amazing,” Virginie said. She blurted it out, surprising herself as well as everyone else in the room. “You’ve done so much for me. I can’t see how anyone would think that you would do anything to hurt anyone. At least, not anyone who didn’t deserve it.” She looked down at her hands, suddenly embarrassed at her outburst.
Axel placed his hand on her knee to get her attention. She
looked at him. “Thank you,” he said, “for that compliment. But it’s precisely that. That’s why they probably think that I would be out there killing humans. They probably think that I’m out there, trying to silence witnesses who saw my revival at the concert. In fact, since it was Olivia that posted it on her social media account, they would have thought that I was the one responsible if anything had happened to both of you back at the alley.”
“But it’s just the opposite,” Virginie blurted.
“I’m so sorry,” Olivia said. “I didn’t know.”
“Let me tell them,” Virginie pleaded. “Let me tell them that you’ve been saving me from these other vampires.”
Axel held up his hands. He turned to Olivia. “You didn’t know. You were just being a typical teenager. I wouldn’t expect anything less from any other teenager. Let’s just look toward the future instead of looking back at what happened.” Then he turned to Virginie. “We have to be cautious of our next few steps. If we do something – anything – wrong, it could be disastrous for me, you, and everyone else in this room.”
Virginie nodded. “Has this ever happened before?” she asked, her voice meek.
Axel nodded. “Yes, actually.”
“Whenever celebrity vampire identities are outed,” added Trevor.
“It never ends well,” said Kain, with a smirk on his face.
Axel shot him a dirty look.
“No reason to get so melodramatic,” Lovejoy said.
“He’s right,” Axel said. “Being melodramatic isn’t helping anyone.” He turned back to Virginie. “It used to happen fairly regularly, actually. Back then, whenever there was a witness, they were killed, not by the exposed celeb vampire, but the rogue vampires who took advantage of the situation. In the end,” Axel said. “the celeb vampires that got caught up in those situations were hunted and killed by the Slayers.”
“Remember Johnny Phoenix?” Lovejoy asked.
“Oh yeah,” Olivia said. “My mom used to be a big fan of him.”
“Your mo-” Lovejoy started. He sighed. “I forget how fast these years go by sometimes.”
Axel grinned and nodded. He cleared his throat and his smile disappeared. “That was what happened to Johnny Phoenix. The journalists and tabloid reporters said it was a sudden death. It shocked the world about 24 years ago.”
“Slayers did that?” Virginie said.
All four members of the band nodded slowly. They looked solemn, most of all Kain.
Axel shook his head. “He was gunned down in public by a fan. Everyone thought he was dead. But since he was a vamp, the gunshot didn’t kill him. According to the rules, he should’ve transformed on the next full moon and took on a new identity. But when the time came, he didn’t. He couldn’t accept losing all that fame and status, to start all over again. But that didn’t sit well with the Slayers.”
“That’s so sad,” Virginie said. “What happened after that?”
Axel continued, “To make things worse, he got sighted by some paparazzi and shortly after, those journalists were found dead. Bitten in the neck. Then, the Slayers thought it was Phoenix who did it to silence witnesses. So, they hunted him down and killed him.”
“Johnny Phoenix didn’t kill those photographers, though, did he?” Olivia asked.
Axel shook his head. “No. It was some other vampire. Or vampires. No one ever really figured it out.”
Olivia bolted upright and stared right at Axel. “What happened to the Slayers after they killed Johnny Phoenix? Didn’t the police go after them?”
Axel pursed his lips for a second, frustration written all over his face. He shook his head. “They can’t. When vampires die, their bodies turn to dust, their existence erased from all knowledge, remembered only by those who knew them for who they truly were.”
Virginie thought back to the beast that turned to dust in the hallways of Nowhere. That’s probably one of the reasons why she’d never heard of vampires existing in real life before. There was no body after they died. She sighed. “Did you know him?” Virginie asked. “Personally, I mean?” She looked directly at Kain whose gaze moved up to meet hers.
He shook his head. “Naw,” he said. “I’ve lost friends and family to Slayers, though.” The sad look in his eyes quickly changed to anger. “They always think they know better. That they fight for good. But they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“They want to rid the world of vampires,” Trevor said, with a hint of sarcasm weaved in between his words. “Because we’re all bad.”
“That’s not helping anyone,” Axel interrupted.
Kain motioned to Axel. “He was a good friend of Phoenix, though.”
All eyes turned to Axel, who just looked down at the ground. “He was a great guy,” he said. “He had the biggest heart and he always knew how to make everyone smile. Even though he was getting rich and famous, none of that went to his head. He just-” He paused to compose himself. “He worked so hard. He was just too tired to start from scratch.”
Virginie felt helpless. She’d never had to deal with any type of discrimination before – not like this. The worse she’d ever encountered was bullying by some of the popular, rich kids at school, but she normally just shrugged that off to high school shenanigans. This was life and death. This wasn’t something that she could just shrug off.
Axel’s voice broke the silence. “You and I are just lucky that those two vampires that attacked the both of you in that alley were just novices,” he said.
Olivia squeaked. “They were just novices?” she said. “They seemed pretty scary to me.” The fear in her eyes was mirrored in her shaky voice.
“I didn’t say they weren’t frightening,” Axel said. “But that was mostly just the bloodlust in their eyes.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Lovejoy said. “We didn’t ask you about how that turned out. I mean, I assumed it turned out well.” He offered an apologetic smile.
Axel nodded. “They were just a couple of stupid kids,” he said.
Kain smirked. “Did you give them a talking to?” he said. “Mr. Passivist over here,” he said, motioning to Axel.
“Hey, if I can get away with not hurting anyone, it’s a good day. I don’t know why everything has to be so black and white with you,” Axel said to him. “They were just stupid kids. I just scared them off with a brief display of Maya, so they would think twice before giving in to bloodlust.”
“What is Maya?” Olivia asked. “Everyone keeps talking about it, but….”
Virginie had been wondering about that word since she arrived at the mansion. The boys in the band had been talking about it since she got there, but no one had explained it yet.
“Oh.” Axel scratched his head. “Sorry. I hadn’t realized- Maya is sacred energy, one that’s manifested from the mind and it allows us to conjure spells.”
“Yeah,” Trevor said. “Vampires usually use it to draw lust energy from humans. Instead of using blood to sustain us – you know, as food – we use Maya to absorb lust energy.”
“There are different types of Maya,” Axel explained.
Virginie bit her lip. “Like,” she said, thinking back to her first arrival. “When you said that Lovejoy was using Concealment Maya?”
Axel nodded. “Yup. Some Maya heal wounds, some are used for combat-” He pointed to himself. “Like what I used when I fought the vampires at the concert or what I used to scare off the attackers today. And others to repair and mend objects.” Movement caught his eye. He turned to Olivia who was digging around in her pocket.
“Can you fix my phone with Maya?” she asked.
“Teenagers,” Kain said. “One track minds. What would you do without those silly smartphones?” he asked.
Trevor scoffed. “Leave the kid alone,” he said. He leaned toward Virginie and Olivia. “That’s my expertise,” he said.”
She placed the smartphone in his hand. Virginie watched as he turned it over a couple times in his hand. The screen was broken and it l
ooked as if someone had stepped on it a few times – or had dropped a wrecking ball on it. The pink case looked a little funny in his hand. He didn’t look muscular, nor was he dressed in all black like Axel, but the bejeweled case did seem like it wasn’t his normal fare. As she smiled at the image, his hands began to glow.
He had an uncharacteristically intense look in his eyes which were focused on the small electronic in his hand. Where once, he was holding it in his palm, it was now incased in a glowing orb of blue and white energy, which he had contained in between both hands. The phone slowly turned by itself, twirling slowly in a circle as it repaired itself.
But, of course, it wasn’t repairing itself. Trevor was doing that.
After a few minutes, the orb began to fade. The blue and white light dissipated, and the phone landed in his palm once again. He inspected it closely before handing it back to an awe-struck Olivia.
“Wow,” she said simply. Virginie elbowed her. “Huh?” Olivia raised an eyebrow at her before suddenly turning to Trevor. “Oh, thanks,” she said with a big smile. “Thanks a lot.” She quickly began to mess with it.
“What are you doing?” Virginie asked.
“Checking out the video I took that night at the concert,” Olivia said as she opened up her file explorer app.
Virginie thought back to the anticipation that she felt prior to the concert. Things were just so much easier back then, she thought. She leaned in and watched themselves on the screen, then glanced at the crowd around them. Both the girls were walking down the stairs toward their row of seats.
In the video, Olivia had taken a shot of the crowd prior to the start of the concert. As she panned the camera away from the stage to the back of their seats, something odd stood out amongst the plethora of fans.
“What was that?” Virginie asked, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her.
Olivia paused it. “What?” she asked, squinting at the screen.
“Before this part,” Virginie replied. She tapped on the rewind button so that it went five, ten, fifteen seconds back. “Right there.”
