My fingers grew numb as the slight grip I had managed began to slip slowly from the edge of the jagged remains of the third floor. I couldn’t reach the platform with my right arm, even though it was now untangled from the sheet’s straight jacket embrace that had held me but a moment ago. I swung it up to hopefully catch on to the edge, only to immediately slip back off. I wondered if, or when, I did fall, just how many bones I would break. I was sure that it wouldn’t really be an issue; I probably wouldn’t survive the impact.
Shaking the morbid thoughts out of my head, I grunted as I tried one more time to reach the platform with my right hand. I was just inches away and the strain made me grit my teeth in pain and frustration. I couldn’t reach it. No matter how hard and long I stretched, it seemed my left arm was somehow longer than my right. It seemed to have stretched an infinite length from holding my weight. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Glancing down, I stared at the black depths below; the light from the windows was blocked by debris, leaving the place grey and dark. If I fell, I was pretty sure whatever ferals had survived the blast would be happy to finish me off for dinner. I whispered a small prayer to not live through the fall.
The fingers on my left hand reached the jagged edge and slipped off. The jolt of gravity and the feel of weightlessness made my body feel almost unreal at that point. For a moment, time stood still and the building hovered in my vision as I waited for my fate to come in that moment that seemed to last forever. When a hand gripped my wrist, the hovering feeling faded and the push of gravity embraced me again. My left arm was searing from the shock of being yanked upward as I was beginning to fall. I was sure I had dislocated my shoulder for the agony that followed made me fight to not lose consciousness. Turning to look up at my rescuer, I caught sight of flashing yellow and grey-brown eyes and long, chestnut brown hair. The woman grunted at the effort, pulling at my arm to bring me closer to the edge.
“Give me your other hand, you aren’t that light!” She yelled out to me. I swung my right arm up, gripping her other arm. I held on for dear life and relished feeling the ground under my chest when I could finally pull my legs onto the hard, sturdy ground. Glancing up at my savior, who was now dusting off her black jeans and shirt, I wondered who she could be. My arms were numb and I rubbed them, attempting to regain the feeling back in them. I cradled my left arm as I stared up at the decimated ceiling above us. Standing up slowly, I came face to face with the first human I had seen in a long time, besides my family. Or so I thought she might be human. The pain in my left shoulder didn’t help me focus.
“Thank you, I don’t know what I would’ve done if…” I started, but she interrupted me almost immediately.
“Stop, don’t thank me. You made a massive mess and you really ought to think these things through.” The woman shook her head and rolled her shining eyes at me. I felt my face flush scarlet, wanting to give her a piece of my mind. She studied my arm and took hold of it with one hand and placed her other on my shoulder. Her sympathetic eyes found mine as she continued. “This might hurt a bit.”
“I was just saying thanks,” my voice was raspy and quiet but I was cut off when she jerked my arm, somehow getting it back into position with a strength I didn’t know she had. I let out a choked scream, wanting to black out so I didn’t have to feel the pain. I hated how small I suddenly felt; being at the mercy of anyone was not something I was used to.
“Forget it, I have to go,” she spat out, more annoyed than anything. I gasped at the flash of fangs in her mouth, suddenly full of confusion.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” I asked, staring hard back at her, readying to grab one of the weapons remaining on my belt loop before she could retaliate.
The woman stopped in her tracks, having already turned to go. She pivoted slowly back, looking at me with her eyes, sizing me up. She didn’t reach for a weapon but remained perfectly still, not saying anything, just watching me in a peculiar way. I stared right back, challenging her with my own eyes as I wondered why she would even save me. It suddenly dawned on me who she was and my skin peppered with gooseflesh as fear crept across me.
She was a vampire; didn’t she need blood? Why would she leave me alive if I was her prey?
“We don’t drink human blood,” she cocked her head to the side, her beady gold-rimmed, grey-brown eyes reflecting the small fires flickering behind me; it clung to the wallpaper on the other side of the room. Pressing my lips into a tight line, I was suddenly at a loss of what to do.
This vampire had saved my life. She wasn’t feral–she was another kind of breed, like the girl back home in the mountains by my van. Her face was now completely in my view and the streams of light that came down from the opened roof lit it up enough for me to see her more clearly. She was the watcher in the woods, the very same woman. The surprise must have been apparent for she did not seem angry, but began laughing at me.
“You really need to get to know how things really are, April,” she said, watching my reaction to her knowing my name.
“How do you know my name, who are you?” I hissed, my voice acidic. I felt toyed with, like I was missing a piece of a great big puzzle that I thought I knew how to put together. But I didn’t know how to put anything together anymore. The reality of it all was cascading down on me like a bucket of ice water, making me suck in my breath while I drowned in all my fear.
“I know everything about you,” the vampire explained. “I know you hunt for your mother and brother, I know you are quite a warrior and deadly too. I’m not the enemy–you have no idea who is and that is going to get you killed.” She huffed and turned as she started to walk away with a confidence about her that made me want to shake more information out of her.
“Who are you then?” I yelled at her back, enraged that she was ignoring me and feeling suddenly more vulnerable than ever before in my life. She beckoned for me to follow. I didn’t want to go with her but as I stood in the ruin of the ballroom, I knew I had to. She might have the answers I needed to find my family. She was my one chance to learn what I didn’t know. Everything was so fuzzy and confusing and only she could make it clear again. Reluctantly, I followed this vampire.
Reluctantly was an understatement.
Chapter Thirteen