“Wake up, Victoria,” a voice said as it snaked through the fog in my brain. I knew this voice, but something deep inside me screamed of danger, but I couldn’t piece together why.
My eyelids fluttered once again and I struggled to focus on the blurry face hanging over me. The bright spotlight shone around it. I didn’t feel pain anymore and was only really aware of my head, as if it had been completely detached from my body.
“Ah, there you are. I’ve been waiting for a while. So inconvenient, really. But at least I was able to get some work done while you slept, were unconscious, whatever you kids are calling it these days.” He chuckled to himself and leaned back out of the light. I squinted in the suddenly bright light before he flicked it off. Spots of red swam in front of my eyes, tiny orbs bobbing in my field of vision like little bouncing cherries. They slowly cleared as did the fog in my brain, although my thoughts still felt slow.
Steve.
The tall, blond vampire moved closer to me. The fluorescent lights of the room, now turned on, gleamed off his marble skin.
“What do you want from me?” I gasped, my voice sounded like I’d swallowed a ton of gravel. My tongue felt large and struggled to form words.
“You, Victoria, are my greatest achievement, and that’s saying a lot, considering I’m about nine hundred years old.” He smiled at me, his frigid blue eyes piercing me like shards of ice. He ran a finger lovingly down the side of my face, a man appraising his most valuable prize. I shuddered at his touch, but my numb body was unable to move away.
“If you’d just come to join me from the beginning, it wouldn’t have been like this. We could have been friends. I wouldn’t have you staked to the table like a dead butterfly on display. Why didn’t you come?” He pondered my face with curious eyes.
“I don’t know. He scared me.” I whispered, referring to the first vampire. Steve seemed to register the reference.
“Well, Mike was kind of an idiot. It seemed like such an easy assignment. Be there when you woke—bring you back. It wasn’t rocket science. But no, he couldn’t even manage that.”
My eyes struggled to focus on him, my brain desperately wanted to let go and sink back into nothingness.
“Why me?”
“Because you, my lovely girl, had the perfect blood. I had researched bloodlines of the ancients for centuries trying to find just the right combination to recreate one of the Lost Ones. You had their blood, deep in your veins. The blood of the Lost Ones traveled for centuries through continents, hidden in your ancestors. And I was the one who figured it out, not the others. Me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who are the Lost Ones?” I grumbled.
Steve pulled up a chair and sat next to the table I lay on. He stayed level with my head, keeping his eyes on mine.
“The Lost Ones were a special tribe of vampires that resided in the Andes Mountains of South America for millennia. No one can remember when they began or where they came from. But they were the first and only Daywalkers. Until they perished.”
“What killed them?” I asked, my mind racing back to earlier today. I couldn’t remember if it still was today. I had no idea just how long I’d been in this room with Steve and no clue if Drake and the others had any idea I was gone. They’d never be able to find me. I didn’t even know where I was.
“A group of ancient vampires had joined the Conquistadors in their quest of the New World, seeking the untold treasures of an unknown land. The Conquistadors had no idea who their travel companions were, and based on the historical accounts of the discovery, the ancient vampires found these Daywalkers living among humans as gods, and even,” he wrinkled his nose in disgust, “shared their blood with them, using it to heal the sick and give soldiers strength during battle. The Lost Ones were not at full strength due to the sharing of their extraordinary blood with those filthy humans.”
“So who cares how they lived? Why couldn’t they mind their own business?” My voice oozed with sarcasm despite being weakened by my current predicament.
“Why? Because it was disgusting, this sharing of vampire blood. And vampires living in harmony out in the open with people was simply unheard of. The ancient ones decided they must be destroyed. Humans were meant to be used as food or as assistance for getting what one wanted, but held no greater place than a dog. They attacked the Lost Ones’ settlement and destroyed them, staking them as they slumbered and ripping their heads clean off their bodies. They dragged the bodies through the streets and burned what remained in a giant bonfire. They killed most of the humans as well, although it is clear some of those filthy animals escaped, or you wouldn’t be here right now.”
My head spun with Steve’s revelations.
“So, now you’ve made me. What now?”
He rose from his chair and stepped to the table full of gleaming metal. He picked up a large syringe and took a step back towards me.
“This might hurt just a smidge,” he said and raised the syringe over my chest. With a move as quick as lightning, he plunged it into my chest straight into my heart. I gasped and screeched as my body collapsed inward, my veins falling flat as he raised the plunger, sucking the blood directly from the font.
My eyes widened as he pulled the plunger up and it filled with my life essence, sucking it from my very core. I stared at Steve, my eyes no longer able to function according to my thoughts. I saw him through a tunnel; suddenly he was so far away. He raised the syringe to his own chest and grimaced, a cry escaping his lips and floating to my ears. He pushed the plunger down and sighed as the liquid disappeared into his own heart.