Book: The First - Part: One - Chapter: 17 - Installment: vi

Hathandra stepped forward bravely to the scarred and burned looking monster before her.

“Take me. Be my Mistress. Give me the gift you possess.”

“It was you who provided me with the animal’s essence that gave me the strength to return?”

“Yes. I sacrificed the beast.”

“What is your name, child?”

“Hathandra.”

“How quaint. That name has come back in to use in… what century is it?”

“The Twenty-First, Mistress.”

“So, not so long has passed as I might have expected. Funny, no one used that name in the Twentieth Century.”

“No. It is merely my vampire name, Mistress.”

“Oh, stop that. What is your real name, child?”

“Jennifer.”

“I don’t take to liars, human. Has this been your only lie in the brief time we’ve been acquainted?”

“There was a half-lie.”

“Come clean now, I won’t take another transgression.”

“I killed the beast. It was he, who spilled the blood.” Jennifer pointed to Ruthven sitting on the floor in his own shit.

“That’s a pity. He looks like an utter fool.” Said the vampire with bored disdain.

Sarah and Ruthven sat together in the corner, frozen in the rapt fascination of fear.

The monster continued, “But reward must be apportioned according to merit.” 

She snatched Jennifer from her knees in one fluid motion, lifting her clear from the ground.

The fangs entered Jennifer’s throat, cutting off her last anguished cry in mid syllable.

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Sarah watched as the hideous woman took her time sucking the life out of Jennifer. Ruthven and she were cornered. And even if they weren’t, between the entangling cloak and the vampire’s great speed, there was no way she could hope to escape.

Letting Jennifer’s drained body crumple to the floor, the vampire took in the two blinded students. Sarah had forgotten entirely about them. They were both clearly in extreme agony, and neither could see. She couldn’t know how much of Jennifer’s conversation with their assailant they had heard over their own wailing, but they seemed to be attempting a feeble escape, crawling randomly across the floor. One was headed towards the fireplace, and would likely soon realize he was headed in the wrong direction when he felt the heat. The other had made the door to the dining room, but was progressing without confidence and would not make it far once their attacker decided to come after him.

Turning, the vampire focused on Ruthven. Sarah noticed that the skin on their captor appeared more intact than it had when she had first appeared from between the joists.

“What is your name?"

“Ruthven.”

The vampire raised her eyebrows contemptuously.

“Kevin. My real name is Kevin.”

“And so will be your vampire name.”

She stood over Ruthven’s barely clothed form. She reached down, seemingly not allowing Sarah the tiniest sliver of her attention, though mere inches from her. She pulled Ruthven to his feet, looking him over.

“You,” she paused for effect, “are a disaster. But it ought to be worth some amusement.”

“Please, I don’t want…” Ruthven managed to stammer before she sunk her teeth into his clavicle. He gasped in agony as she pressed his body against hers until he quit fighting and fell limp.

She killed him too. Thought Sarah. She was toying with him.

Then the hideous woman stuck her tongue between her own fangs and chomped down with obvious pain and a sickening crunch of resisting flesh. Blood dripped from her mouth as she forced open Kevin’s dead mouth. She let the blood drip in one continuous saliva-mixed string into Kevin’s open maw.

After several moments, Kevin’s body heaved in one complete head-to-toe spasm. He coughed and sputtered, suddenly breathing again and gasping for air.

“Drink.” She gurgled through her own blood as it continued to flow between them.

Kevin struggled, resisting. She shook him, and shouted “Drink!” again.

This was finally too much for Sarah. She heard the cry escape from her throat entirely unbidden by her. Neither Kevin, nor the vampire took notice as he writhed in apparent agony. The flow of blood thinned like a water-tap easing shut, dwindling to a drip. She dropped Kevin to the floor, where he continued to writhe. The vampire knelt beside him, whispering to him.

“It’s the change, Kevin. Let it flow. You can’t stop it now. Become. It is all you will ever be again. Trust me, it’s a pleasure to die.”

Sarah looked on with growing horror as her boyfriend transformed into something that mere minutes before she had imagined as merely fantasy. She didn’t want to die, but she didn’t think she liked the idea of being a vampire either. She definitely didn’t want to suffer what Ruthven – Kevin – was, doubled fully in half, and shaking. His eyes had rolled back into his head, and his lips were drawn with a fierce aspect. But more disturbing was watching his veins rise to his skin, each bulging like pencils under the surface while ripples traveled along them like there were pellets running up and down their length.

As the shaking subsided, Kevin began an unholy sounding, shuddering moan as his skin lost much of its colour.

The vampire stroked Kevin like a pet and continued to talk him through his metamorphosis. “It’s okay, Kevin. It’s just your soul, you’ll find it’s quite superfluous.”

Finally Kevin stopped his moaning and settled into a rough breathing as though he were catching his breath from a long and fevered run.

“Alright, Kevin. Pull on your clothes, my dear.”

Kevin absently stood and pulled up his pants, before suddenly stopping as if realizing he’d forgotten his keys at home.

“You feel it. The first hunger. Go on, Kevin, feed.” She turned to the blinded students. One still tried to find his way out of the living room, the other had found the archway to the dining room and pulled his way to his feet. He pawed around the paneled walls desperately looking for an exit. “They’re yours, Kevin. Take them.”

Kevin looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time.

“Oh… oh.” Was all Kevin could manage to voice, as he looked at his hands as though they had never been a part of his body before. Baring his teeth, he flared his lips and Sarah watched as his incisors extended as she watched. The teeth retracted again and Kevin snorted like a wild horse and the teeth extended again. The magnitude of his transformation manifested for Sarah in the revelation of those deadly teeth. Still wrapped in the cloak, Sarah pulled her head inside like a turtle.

I need to escape. She thought, meaning emotionally, she had to extract herself from the world immediately outside of the cloak. No. I MUST escape. This time she was thinking pragmatically.

Sarah heard the vampire’s voice from out in the room-proper. “Follow your instincts, Kevin. Feed. He will make you strong.” Sarah heard the brief cry of one of the students. “Drink my child.” She heard the body fall to the floor. Kevin had become a monster in body and action. “And now, the next.”

Sarah popped her head out of the cloak, fearing that she might in fact be next. She watched as Kevin entered the dining room in pursuit of the second student, who had found his way to the kitchen. The vampire followed him into the dining room, turning her back to Sarah. If she were to have a chance, any chance of surviving, she had to capitalize now.

She looked around, surveying the room, though she knew that she was trapped.  There was one door to the room, and it was blocked by the female vampire. The remaining props from the ceremony lay about the room, though little was within reach and she knew she’d have precious little time to act – the woman vampire simply moved too fast. The dead goat sat at her feet. The knife that had ended its life still stuck out from between its ribs. Sarah rocked forward, grasped the handle and pulled it free. She tried to determine where would be her best position to defend herself from when she saw what she had missed the first time around. Above her head where she was sitting was a hand-rolled glass window. It’s panels lined by lead calmes. Seeing this, she redefined her notion of her best chance.

Girding her resolve, she stood, pulled the cloak around her face and body as tight as she could and dove blind through the glass, praying the ground would come fast.

It did. It hurt. She landed shoulder first and rolled to a stop, her thin body had spared her fragile skeleton and serious trauma. Untangling herself from the cloak she became aware again of her nakedness for the first time since Ruthven had lay poised to take her virginity. She didn’t have time to put modesty over survival. She grabbed the knife and ran.

     Installment vii