Eileen

I was one hundred percent sure today it would rain heads, my schoolmates’ noggins to be precise. I and my little sister Amity, were the only humans present at Fang Institute for precious knowledge.

Our father insisted we study here, where we were covered in the moon’s silver rays and spoon-fed the gloom of the withered, black roses. I abhorred this stuffy room with twenty or more hungry vampires, praying for an opportunity, hoping for any chance of feeding on us. As if we were blood mules.

If they didn’t stop staring at my little sister’s neck, I would do them in before any crucifix wielding rebel might have the pleasure.

Father was an ex-vampire hunter, the one sent by the Assembly of spiders to reign in the masses by creating a seemingly peaceful alliance between the vampires and the humans. It was all hogwash if you asked me. They could no more abstain from blood than Amity could abstain from her favorite sugary treat, cookies filled with raspberry jam.

“Psst, Mayberry? Mayberry!” Zamfir Graves, the main bully on the block yelled behind me.

I turned around slowly, almost theatrically slow and asked, “What?”

He squinted, and grinned, his lips forming into a cupid’s bow.

“I couldn’t help but notice your complexion is awfully pale, child. If I didn’t know any better I’d say we weren’t the only undead creatures around here.”

I sighed.

He was pretty young for a vampire, being one hundred and fifty years old.

Still he had a right to call us children, because Amity and I were only fifteen and eighteen respectively. But just because he had the right to do it doesn’t mean I had to like it. I was an adult!

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I stared into his soulless green eyes and felt like prey. There was really no true humor, in his delicate, angelic features. It was only malice and the desire to possess. I’ve seen all his human slaves, coming to give him purple grapes on their hands and knees.

They were dirty, exhausted, their bones protruded and were dressed in shabby clothes depicting his family crest. They seemed drugged.

And how could I forget their faces, forever stuck in a toxic smile, as if he was pleasuring them just by eating. As if they did not prostrate themselves in front of anyone and called that atrocity Master.

A small part of me understood why they surrendered. He was more beautiful than a thousand burning suns, more mysterious than an uncharted island, and those lips looked round and awfully good.

They should have been perfumed with putrid grave smell or decomposed worms! But no, his lips smelled like cherry. I knew since I have got close to him once in an argument about his slaves and tried to beat the stuffing out of him. The fallout hurt my vampire hunter in training pride.

“What do you want now?” I asked him. I was a bit defensive.

“Picture this, Mayberry; you, me, an enchanted, candlelit room full of torture devices and sex toys.”

He was very direct. I have known about his plan of turning me into a slave since arriving here. I thought it would give him extreme pleasure to puppeteer the daughter of the most infamous ex-vampire hunter in centuries.

“I’d rather swear off sex for eternity, thanks,” I told him and he cackled.

“Eternity is such a long time. Don’t be hasty. Besides if you won’t be mine I would have to punish you,” he cooed.

“I’m shivering in my boots,” I said and rolled my eyes.

It was always good to not show fear, especially to someone that was like a shark in the water.

“Of course if you wouldn’t join me into sweet lovemaking than perhaps your sister might experience an accident today,” he threatened.

My face got red, I was certain I was seeing red too. My fists trembled. I got out of the chair and dashed near him. Everyone’s eyes were on us. Amity looked concerned; her doe-like gaze followed my every move. She was biting her nails again. She always did that when she was anxious.

“Picture this Graves; you, me, a fighting arena and castrating devices,” I whispered.

“It’s a date then,” he said as he began smiling, his canines on display.

Did I just challenge him to a duel?