Bitten – Episode 5
Chapter 5 ♀
My comforter was the perfect temperature when I woke in the morning. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments, enjoying the perfect warmth. It felt like I had slept forever, and my alarm clock still hadn’t gone off. My hand slithered out of the comforter, reaching for my side table where my phone was. When my hand met nothing but air, I lowered it slightly. Still nothing. I reached it out further, and a small tingle of pain ran though my wrist. Almost like…
My eyes shot open and I quickly sat up, throwing the comforter away from my face. A gasp escaped my lips when I realized there was an I.V attached to a drip in my wrist. My gaze wandered around the room briefly. I was definitely not in a hospital. Last nights memories suddenly came whizzing by me and panic rose up in my throat.
Stay calm, I told myself, keeping my breathing regular. I wasn’t dead. I had survived the night. Someone had also given me a drip; replacing the blood I lost two nights before. Or was it two nights before? I had no idea what the time or date was. Maybe I had only been out for an hour, or maybe a few days? My attention turned back to the drip and I realized it was almost done.
Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening and my head snapped in the direction of it. A girl who looked about my age came waltzing in, humming to her
self. She had medium length chocolate colored hair, and a lithe body. She skipped over to me, still humming. When our gazes met I let sucked in a quick breath. Her eyes were the same piercing sapphire color as Vincent’s.
“Morning, Emily!” she chirped, going over to the drip. “How are you feeling?” “I— How do you know my name?”
“ Everyone knows your name.” “Everyone?”
The girl with the same eyes as Vincent nodded. “Well, everyone in the manor. It’s not everyday we come across a human whose memory even Seb can’t erase.” “Sebastian?” I repeated.
“Yep. He’s the master mind-eraser. Last night he was pretty mystified as to why he couldn’t erase your memory. Give me your wrist,” she ordered. “I need to take the I.V out.”
I gave her a wary look before hesitantly giving her my arm. She grinned at me, showing off her oversized canines. A shudder ran through me at the sight, and I immediately retracted my arm. “Y-you’re a vampire too?”
She cocked her head to the side. “Everyone here is.” “Everyone?” I mouthed in disbelief.
“This is a vampire house… Don’t worry,” she added, seeing my horrified expression. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”
I almost laughed. “How can I trust you?” “Didn’t my mom tell you that last night?” “Your mom? The queen?”
The girl nodded. “The one and only. You can believe her. Now give me your arm.” After a moment I finally held out my hand to her. “You’re not going to… bite me, right?”
The brunette laughed, shaking her head. “No, I’m full at the moment.”
I gave her a wry smile. Nice word choice. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“Not exactly.” When I tried to retract my wrist she held it tighter, laughing quietly. “Calm down, I’m kidding.”
I turned my head away as she began taking out the needle. “What blood type did
you give me?”
“O.”
“How did you know I was O?”
“Well Vince knew since he drank from you.”
I winced at the memory. “Oh.”
“You’re pretty lucky to have an O blood type. Have you ever gotten a blood transfusion before?” the brunette asked, putting a square band-aid over the puncture in my skin.
“About every two weeks.”
“What? Really?”
I glanced at her, wondering why she sounded so surprised. “What?”
She shook her head, trying to mask her surprise. “Um, nothing. I’ve just never heard of a human needing to receive blood transfusions so often. It’s really weird…” She trailed off, looking thoughtful.
Crossing my arms defensively, I frowned at her. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
She held up her hands defensively. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just so weird .
Never in my life— and I’ve lived a long time — have I heard of that…Well that’s
a lie. Actually, I have but…” She paused, shaking her head. “No. That’s not
possible.”
“What isn’t?”
“Never mind. Do you have sickle cell or something?”
Now it was my turn to shake my head. “No, I’m just anemic.”
“Do your hands get cold?”
“Yeah.”
“What about your feet?”
“Yeah, that too.”
“Obviously you’re pale,” she commented, her eyes running down my exposed neck and face. “Do you ever have the urge to eat ice?”
“Um, yeah,” I responded, cocking an eyebrow. “How did you know all that?”
“I was studying to become a doctor when I was still alive,” she informed me with a small smile. “Anemia was one of the things we had to learn about. I remember chewing ice was a symptom I thought was particularly funny.”
My heart skipped a beat. When I was still alive . It sounded incredibly creepy. I almost forgot she was a vampire too. I really needed to stop letting down my guard. But it was so different with female vampires. They were so calm and soothing— I wasn’t that scared by them.
“Here, um, I went out and got you some iron supplements,” the brunette told me, holding out a thin, pale, fragile looking hand. “Do you usually take them?”
I was a bit taken aback by her thoughtfulness. “You went out to get them for me?”
She nodded. “Well, Vincent told me to, but I was the one who went out.”
That surprised me even more. “Vincent did?”
“You are his responsibility,” she responded with a laugh. “Not mine. But here, take these. There’s a glass of water on your night stand too.”
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I let her drop the pills in my hand and I quickly looked them over to make sure they were really iron pills. When I recognized the logo printed on them I relaxed. “Thanks, um…”
“Fiona,” the brunette told me with another flashy smile. “Fiona Rutherford.” “Fiona?” I echoed.
Fiona shrugged her shoulders. “It was a common name when I was alive.”
I made a face. She just had to remind me she was a vampire, didn’t she? Fiona handed me a bottle of water and I took it, swinging my legs off the bed I was on so I could sit up. I popped the pills into my mouth, quickly taking a long swig of water to swallow them with. When they were gone I took another drink of water to wash out the powdery taste they left on my tongue.
“By the way, I poisoned that.”
Immediately I spat the water out, choking. My hands shot to my throat as I waited for the burning sensation to start. Or for my limbs to go numb. Or something. Fiona started laughing, reaching over to pat me on my leg.
“I’m joking.”
I jerked away from her, feeling my heart leap into my throat. She pulled her hand back so fast it was there one moment and when I blinked it was gone. An expression of hurt was on her face. Guilt washed through me. She wasn’t hurting me— in fact she helped me. And yet I still flinched away from her, just because she was a vampire. But was it wrong to feel guilty about that? Ugh, too much thinking.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, relaxing my position. “I’ve just been terrified by vampires since I was a little kid, so I can’t handle being around you guys… Not to mention Vincent scares the crap out of me.”
Fiona blinked in realization. “You’re afraid of vampires?” “Guilty as charged.”
“That makes me feel so much better!”
I raised an eyebrow. “It does?”
She nodded excitedly. “I thought maybe you hated me or something. My mom was
thinking the same thing earlier too.”
“The queen?”
“Yeah, wait until she hears about your fear. I’m sure she’ll be as relieved as me,” Fiona told me, smiling widely.
I dropped my gaze, focusing my attention on a small crack in the floor by the far right corner. “Has she said anything about me going home?”
“Well we had a family meeting about it last night,” Fiona responded, taking a seat on the edge of my bed.
I forced myself to stay still, not allowing myself to move away. She wasn’t going to do anything. “What was the verdict?” I questioned, feeling nervousness spreading in the pit of my stomach.
“Well it’s not just up to us to decide,” Fiona started slowly, placing her hands in her lap. “We may be royalty, but we’re not exactly the law. There are some things we can decide ourselves, but since this has never happened before, we have to run it by the court.”
“A vampire court?”
“ The vampire court.”
“Vampire’s have courts?”
She gave me a duh look. “We have the same government humans do. Just… different. Instead of a president we have a Queen and King. But we have everything else the same. Including court systems.” My mouth suddenly felt dry. “Do I… Do I have to go?”
Fiona shook her head, a small chuckle escaping her lips. “No, you don’t. In fact, it will be better if you stay here. But there’s one problem…”
I bit my lip. Of course there was a problem. “What is it?” “The court appointment isn’t until next week.”
My eyes shot open and I turned to stare at Fiona. “What? A week?”
“Sorry!” she apologized, bowing her head. “We tried to get an earlier one, but there’s been a lot of stuff happening.”
“I can’t be here for a week!” I cried, feeling panic course in my veins. “My parents don’t even know where I am! You guys are vampires! I won’t be safe!”
Fiona looked back up at me, frowning. “Emily—” “I have to go home! Now!”
Without further ado, I pushed myself off the bed, and began sprinting towards the door, which Fiona had fortunately left open. She called after me and I knew within the next few seconds she would capture me, but I didn’t stop. When those few seconds passed and I was still running freely down the hallway, relief washed through me. She was letting me go. She understood my situation.
I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that if I kept looking, eventually I’d find the exit. Then I could escape, forget any of this ever happened, and live my
peaceful, ignorant life. I could tell my parents I actually ended up sleeping at Alli’s and just forgot to tell them, that way they wouldn’t worry over me. Everything was going to work out okay.
Just as I thought that, I crashed into something hard. My head ricocheted off whatever I hit and I closed my eyes tightly, trying not to cry out in pain. “Emily? What are you doing?” a familiar voice questioned.
I looked up to see Joel gazing down at me with a confused expression. My heart
dropped into my gut and I took a few wary steps back, getting ready to run again.
“I’m not doing anything…”
“Obviously you’re up to something.”
“No, I’m not.”
Joel gave me a sarcastic look. “Then why are you running?”
Instead of responding, I twisted on my heel, running back the other way. In a flash Joel was in front of me, causing me to slam into his chest. My body ricocheted off his, my head slamming against his jaw painfully. The hallway spun in front of my eyes and before I knew it I was on the ground. Joel hovered above me, raising an eyebrow.
“Need some help?” he inquired, holding out his hand.
I slid myself backwards, across the red carpet that lined the hallway. Joel followed me, taking the smallest steps possible, an amused expression on his face. I did my best to glare up at him. “Go away.”
“Go away?” he parroted, grinning widely. “Those are some mighty bossy words for a human.”
Holding his gaze, I slowly pushed myself back to my feet. “I’m going home,” I said slowly.
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Joel cocked his head to the side. “No…”
“Yes.”
“Uh-uh.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yes, I am, and you’re going to let me.”
“Actually, I do believe the King would like to see you,” he commented, tapping his chin with a slim, pale finger. “Vincent was sent out about half an hour to retrieve you but I guess he forgot.”
The King wanted to see me now? What about? I couldn’t stop anxiety from creeping up on me again. What if they decided the best course of action was to kill me? There was no way I was going to see the King. With that thought, I began to sprint down the hallway again.
Joel kept up easily. “I can just follow you until you tire out. Vampires have great stamina.”
Ignoring him, I abruptly took a right, continuing down the maze-like hallways. Unfortunately for me, it led to a dead end. Joel snickered from beside me as I came to a dead stop. Unbelievable.
“Give up yet?” he questioned, leaning casually against the wall. “Unless you can pull walking through walls out of your hat, I think you’re stuck.”
After giving him a sarcastic look, I quickly surveyed my surroundings. There was a door behind Joel, but other than that, the only way to escape was to go back the way I came. Joel faked a yawn, putting his arms up to stretch. I took the chance to duck under his arms and leap towards the door.
“Emily, I wouldn’t go in there—”
Ignoring his warning, I yanked open the door; looking back to make sure Joel wasn’t right behind me. Instead of meeting my gaze, his eyes shot past me, widening slightly. I turned to see what he was so surprised about, but as I turned back around I slammed into something hard. My head ricocheted off what felt like a wall and I stumbled to the ground, shouting out in pain. What kind of house was this? Who put fake doors in their houses?
“There you are Vivi!”
Vivi? I slowly raised my eyes to see Vincent gazing down at me with an amused smirk on his face. So he was the wall I walked into. Flushing, I immediately pushed myself back to my feet.
“I hope you do realize you were just about to enter my room without my permission,” he commented, snapping the door shut behind him. “You are not allowed to go in there.”
Swallowing nervously, I used all my courage to glare back at him. “Sorry, I didn’t know it was your room.”
“Now you do,” he responded simply. “Let’s go.” He abruptly grabbed me by my upper arm, dragging me down the hallway.
“Hey! Let me go!” I cried, staggering backwards in order to keep my balance. “Vincent, let go!”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “You remembered my name?” “Let go of me!”
“Nope,” he responded casually. “We have to go see my father. I have things to do today, so I don’t want to have to hunt you down as you try to run away. Now I suggest you keep up or I’ll be forced to throw you over my shoulder.”
I glared at the back of his head, once again attempting to rip my arm out of his grasp. “Let go of me! Ugh!”
Joel suddenly appeared at my side, falling into step with Vincent. “You’re in a better mood today I see.”
Vincent shrugged. “More or less.”
Scowling at the two of them, I finally managed to break free from Vincent. It was obvious he let me though— there was no way a human would be able to escape his vice-like grip. Joel flashed to my right side, scaring me half to death. He grinned sheepishly as I choked on air, flinching away from him.
“You know what you remind me of?” he inquired, giving me a rough slap to my back.
A small hiss of pain left my lips. “That hurt!”
“The girl who is afraid of pickles,” Joel continued, ignoring me. “You basically act around us the same way she acts around pickles.”
For a second, I was taken aback. Joel saw that video? Vampires watched normal television? But… “I don’t act like her!” I protested, narrowing my eyes at him. “She’s totally paranoid.”
“So are you,” Vincent pointed out.
“Well there’s the fact that you guys could kill me at any moment that puts a new edge to my fear!” I snapped, irritated. “Not to mention I’ve only known that vampires exist for… How long have I been here for?” Joel grinned mischievously. “Only about two weeks.”
I stopped dead, feeling my heart drop into my gut. Two weeks? How was that possible? What did my parents think? What if they though I was dead? And Leah and Alli? Tears sprung to my eyes before I could help it. Two weeks… Vincent suddenly punched Joel in the shoulder. “Don’t be a prick.”
“You’re no fun,” Joel mumbled moodily, rubbing the place where Vincent
punched him. “Sorry, Emily. I lied.”
I sobered up instantly. “What?”
“You’ve only been out for a night.”
Instead of feeling angry with Joel, I almost laughed. He fooled me so easily. Though the best part was the fact I’d only been gone for my day. If I could convince the King to let me go home today, my parents wouldn’t have anything to worry about. There was a chance everything could be fine again.
“This way,” Vincent ordered, yanking on my arm.
I jerked away in surprise, my breath catching in my throat. He held on tightly, rolling his eyes.
“You’re such a chicken.”
“Sorry,” I retorted sarcastically. “It’s obviously expected that I knew you were going to randomly grab me, isn’t it?”
Joel smiled in amusement, his brown eyes meeting mine. “I think I’m going to like
you, Em.”
“Em?”
“My new nickname for you.”
I frowned at him. A nickname? Usually only close friends called each other by their nicknames. But if it was Joel… No Emily , I told myself firmly. Even if Joel came off as a friendly person, he was still a vampire. And vampires were dangerous. I couldn’t let down my guard that easily!
“The same rules that applied while talking to my mother apply to my father,” Vincent told me. “Be careful what you say.”
I turned my head and gave Joel a questioning look. Be careful what I say? What was that supposed to mean? Joel gave me a half-smile. “The King is an interesting man… He’ll probably scare you more than the rest of us.”
Suddenly I felt like I was going to be sick. Just what type of man was the King?
