• Blood Savior

    Chapter 1
    The Beginning


    I watch the red dust fly through the boiling hot air as my walk turns awkward because of the Death Promise tucked into my right combat boot. Or as my one year older brother, Marcus, and I nicknamed it, the V.A.S.I.T.G.S.W.T.G. Also known as Vampires Are Screwed If They Get Shot With This Gun.

    “MAYBELLE! WAIT!!!!!!” My 13-year-old and three years younger sister, Melissa, screams as she desperately tries to catch up with me. She trips and brings me down with her, face forward into the dust, and my sun-repellent contacts pop out of my eyes.

    “MELISSA!” I shout as I bring my hands up to shield my eyes. I search desperately for the contacts in the dust and Marcus shows up by my side and hands me an extra pair. “Thanks.”

    “Yeah, I figured Liss would pull a stunt like that.”

    “HEY! I’M OFFENDED!” She yells up at Marcus.

    “I’m standing right here, Melissa! You don’t have to yell!”

    “Oh, right….sorry.”

    I sigh as I finally get the contacts onto my dark red eyes and then we start walking again. We make our way down the hill, with Melissa babbling on endlessly about how the dust totally clashes with her pale white skin and pink mini dress. Her heels clunk against the cracked pavement and she gathers her thin, bouncy white-blonde curls together to put in a messy bun.

    “Hey, Bellz.” Marcus talks over Melissa’s never-ending jabbering and she puts her hands on her hips and enlarges her lips in a pout. “Sure you didn’t get damaged?”

    “No, I’m fine.” I reply hastily before turning towards the school ahead and running in that direction. I hate these kind of topics. It sucks being a Vampire Hunter when you’re a vampire yourself.

    Or, a Blood Savior, is what we’re properly called. But stupid mortals changed it to plain ‘Vampire Hunter’. And I don’t quite like the word ‘Vampire’ either. I prefer bloodsucker. And, like I said, it sucks to be a bloodsucker.

    Craving blood 24/7. Not being able to stay out in the sun for more than 24 hours (especially sucks when you live in Arizona). Having to wear special sun-repellent contacts because our deep red eyes are extremely sensitive to the light. Being graceful, fragile and beautiful. Always having cold and pale white skin/not being able to be warm or get a tan. The only things that I like about being one of the dying breed is the powers, speed and strength.

    It’s also pretty cool to see vampires’ reactions when they see that they’re being killed by one of their own race. Especially since we are almost extinct. And since I’m a pureblood and we are supposed to be saving and protecting us.

    I try to blend into the crowd of students dashing inside the cool building, away from the Arizona heat. But, of course, a beautiful, graceful girl with red eyes and no tan walking through the school can not be ignored. Especially since it’s a new school year and there are new students.

    I turn to see my brother bid the little Liss goodbye as she turns to dash over to the middle school. He runs his hair through his also white-blonde hair as he walks through the doors, and the freshmen girl there just stand, frozen in awe, not being able to breathe because of how extremely handsome he is.

    He walks through the crowded hallway to reach me and we walk, silently, down the rest of the hall, everybody else stepping out of our way and not breathing a single huff on us, afraid that it will break our fragile beauty.

    I uncomfortably shift my thick, black choker necklace with spikes along it on my neck around.

    “This damn thing is like a collar.” I growl, cussing out the device that controls my bloodlust in my dark mind.

    “I know it sucks, Maybelle.” He pats my shoulder and I jerk it out of his reach. Then he sighs and whispers so low only I can hear, with his lips barely moving, “But do you really want to lose control and attack some of these innocent mortals, like that one kid a couple years back?”

    The memory of the girl with the beautiful skin, waist-length black hair and gleaming red eyes appears in my head, but I cast it away and shake my head in answer, then speed up my walking and roughly push my way through the rest of the crowd until I reach my homeroom.

    I shove open the rotten, wood door and ignore the fact that it’s top hinge just broke off in the process. Glaring at the back wall, I make my way through the busted up classroom, being heated by the uncovered, glass windows on one wall. I take my seat in the back of the classroom, in a dark corner, right next to the air-conditioning.

    “Um…..I was sort of sitting there.” A girl with light brown hair and bright blue eyes hesitantly says as she steps forward.

    I glare at her and then kick the pale pink shoulder backpack out from under the desk and reply, “Not anymore.”

    She looks over her shoulder and exchanges a ‘WTF’ glance with a girl who has short, black hair as she picks up her backpack and walks over to join her.

    The teacher walks into the classroom and starts speaking to us all. Introducing himself, the subject, bla bla bla, all that crap.

    I slip the bobby pin out of my hair that Melissa had managed to wrestle on this morning to hold back my extremely long bangs, and use it to carve the word ‘ANTI-PREP’ into the rough desk in front of me, along with all the other signatures and bad words and markings.

    The day drags on and soon enough I’m back in my 2-story house (not counting the attic, which is where I hang out most of my time) at the top of the hill across from the school. I pull all the blinds shut and take the contacts out of my eyes, then start to run up my stairs to my hangout when my dad stops me.

    “Hold up, Maybelle.”

    “Please don’t call me that.”

    “It is your name and I intend to call you by it the rest of your life.”

    “My immortal, blood-sucking life.” I growl as I take a seat on the bottom steps. Melissa sits on the edge of the dining room table, chewing on a blood-flavored apple (I know, weird, right?) and Marcus sits in front of the T.V., watching “Malcolm in the Middle”. Dad turns it off and looks at us all before continuing.

    “There is going to be a new family moving in next-door.”

    “Well then-” I start to speak but my father raises a finger, and I cut off immediately.

    “I knew the parents of the family back in high school. They are vampires as we are, and they have a son.”

    “Is he my age?” Marcus asks, obviously hoping that he can finally make a friend for once in his life.

    “Is he hot?” Melissa pulls the apple away from her mouth and leans forward.

    “ENOUGH!” Dad yells, fed-up. Then, after taking a few deep breaths, he continues, “The son is Maybelle’s age, but is not a vampire.”

    My back straightens and I look up from my crumpled up position on the stairs. Melissa frowns as she takes another bite and Marcus leans back into the table and says, “Well, that pretty much ruined everything.”

    “He has no idea about the Vampiric World, even though he has had some brief glimpses and distant ideas and thoughts. But none of you are allowed to share the true information with him, his mom forbids it.”

    “Mom?” I ask, confused. “What about his dad?”

    “His dad spoke to the leaders of the Vampiric World, asking if they could turn the boy into a full human.”

    “And…?” I prompt, gesturing for him to continue.

    “And in order to change his life, one had to be given up.”

    My eyes widen and I can see the glimpses of the girl turning into a V.Z. and then leaning forward to attack my sister and I, my mother leaping in front of us, the blood, the flesh, the cries of torture and then the gun shot…..

    I squeeze my eyes shut and then open them to see that it’s Saturday, the week has passed, and that my siblings and I are sitting on the dust-covered pavement across the street from our house, as we watch the moving trucks come in and start bringing things into the house. A lady who looks around her 30s steps out of a black Mercedes, and her open-toe black heels echo as she walks forward to get a good look at the house.

    “That must be Mrs. Harrison.” Marcus mutters as we all sit up and stare at the lady slowly walking around the house, studying it carefully. She’s wearing a black pencil skirt with a matching, poofy, short sleeved blouse, resting underneath her button up, heavy black jacket. She’s wearing black leggings under her skirt and on her dark blonde head is one of those mini black hats with the short veil, decorated with tiny black specks, that hangs over her left, blood red eye.

    “Come, Xavier.” She calls into the car. A boy who looks about 16 years old--my age--steps out and my breath is taken away. He is a human, but he still has the vampire look to him. His looks are amazingly beautiful and his eyes are a super dark red, not like the normal vampire’s blood red ones. His hair is a blonde-brown and rests over his eyes, and on his skin is a zipped up, light black jacket, dark blue skinny jeans, and just some plain old Vans.

    “It’s true.” Marcus whispers as he leans down behind the bush that he dragged us over to and where we were spying on the new family. “He was a vampire….” We look back up over the edges of the bushes and he continues, even quieter so I have to strain my ears to listen, “but was turned into a human.”

    Mrs. Harrison turns in our direction and we duck back behind the dying plant we were hiding behind. I whisper through my straight, white-blonde hair (the color runs through the family) with black streaks, and whisper, “How can he not remember?”

    “Must have erased his memory too.”

    I feel brief jealousy of him, of how he gets to be a human and not this thing. But it would sort of suck if you had no idea about your past and how one of your parents died.

    Or, it was his parent, right? “Was it his dad that died?”

    “Yeah, probably.” Marcus replies. Our eyes slide over to the silent Melissa and see that she is staring dreamily over the bush to Xavier. Marcus and I look up over the bush and the we all jump as Mrs. Harrison’s face appears before ours.

    “Hello. You must be the Ashworth children.”

    “Oh, um, yes.” I reply as I stand up and shake the woman’s hand. The others follow my gesture and do the same. “I’m Maybelle, this is Marcus, and that’s Melissa.”

    “Well, it is very nice to finally meet you all.” I nod and smile as I push my dark sunglasses further up my nose, for they were too big and were sliding down. “Your father and us Harrisons have been keeping in touch and meeting up whenever we could. He, your mother, my husband and I were all best friends in high school.” She sighs and her voice lowers as she continues, “I’m afraid your father has become a Blood Savior because of us. He used to think vampires were superior, until the three of us came along. And, it’s funny, because when your father became one of what he is, your mother started speeches about how each race is equal, and those kind of things. But she really did believe it. Really is a shame that she was killed because of your father-“

    “Are you blaming my dad!?” I cut in as I take a step forward. Marcus grabs my elbow and jerks me back.

    Mrs. Harrison’s eyes widen in sudden accusation and she hastily says, “No, no, not at all! I’m just saying it’s sad your mother just had to die because of it.”

    My hand that was reaching for the gun in my boot stops and it reaches back up to rest in the pockets of my black hoodie. She says, “But that’s not what I came here for.” She takes a deep breath and then finishes in a rush, “This is the main area for vampires in America, and I do not want my son to be Awakened. So I would be very pleased if you agreed to look after him and protect him from such things. I would do this myself, but I am the Queen’s assistant, there forth a very busy person.”

    I stood there for a moment before I finally realized that she was talking to me. Not all three of us, but me, just me. Maybelle Ashworth.

    “Why……me?”

    “Because I trust you, Maybelle. And I know you can protect my son.”

    I stand as I consider this and then reply, “Okay, I’ll look after Xavier.”

    At that time I had no idea that I would love this boy and we would get into the most dangerous adventure of our time.