FicWad

I awoke to the sound of a furnace buzzing and hushed murmurs coming from nearby. My memory was rather scarce but the voice in my head assured me that I was where I was supposed to be. As I sat up to examine my surroundings, I saw that I wasn't alone.

"Amber," spoke a thin girl sternly with no expression as her eyes glanced up from the floor and fixated themselves onto me. She stood promptly at the edge of the bed. She was very attractive; shoulder-length brown hair that graced her flawless cheekbones. She was small, not much taller than me, but she was very slender, despite the petite size. Her skin was like marble, shining exquisitely in the brief light that shone through the window. Her complexion was white, for the most part, but possessed a human-like blush to such an inhumanly beautiful appearance.

But aside from her beauty, the area around her nourished a levitating aura of discomfort. Nervously, she shifted her eyes towards the doorway, where I saw that three guys watched curiously with caution, as the girl whipped her head towards them and yelled, "Andy..Joe... I advise you to leave before one of you gets hurt…Patrick, you may stay."

The boys skittered away except one, who looked rather distinct with his funny hat and sideburns as he shuffled forward and stood next to the mystical stranger. She sighed and turned her focus on me, her eyes having some weird mind effect that held my attention towards her against my own will. It was then when I felt a tingle across my entire body as my eyes took notice of her barely visible fangs and shimmering hazel eyes.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked pleasantly despite he intimidating nature. Dumbfounded, I stuttered, "W-who are you and how do you know my name? How did I get here?”

She shut her eyes and answered, "I’m positive that this will all make sense to you in short time. My name is Jess and this is Patrick," while pointing to the boy beside her, who stared vigilantly, seeming utterly fascinated by me. It made me feel awkward. It makes me wonder what a lab rat must feel like…

After looking down and realizing that I was wearing someone else's clothes, I stubbornly demanded, "Explain to me exactly how I got here!"
Jess crinkled her nose and began to retort some snide remark when Patrick flailed and covered her mouth, asking, "What's the last thing you remember doing?"

I sat back down and thought about it. I remembered a brief quote that informed me of the mission but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to pull it off. William didn’t tell me anything. He just simply said, “Operation infiltrate secret headquarters.”

But what did that mean?!

After minutes of arguing with my confusion, I huffed out, "I was attacked by a group of vampires in an alley."

Patrick stared peculiarly before asking, "Do you remember anything before that?"

"I was supposed to meet with my brother," I stumbled half-truthfully, skimping on the details, “for lunch.”

Patrick nodded and rambled, "I see...well, that's all we need to know! Feel free to make yourself at home here while we isolate th-"

"Wait a second! What makes you think I'm going to stay here? I'm going home," I interrupted as I stood up abruptly, only to fall back down onto the bed due to the unbearable pain I’d caused to my immobilized ankle. Whimpering on the bed, I shot Patrick a long hard glare.

Patrick's eyes widened and he argued, "We saved your life!"

Jess held him back from getting too worked up as she stepped forward sending a gaze my direction. My skin hardened and my body could no longer move within my control. I was frozen in place as she explained, "Look, we can't let you leave. You're in a secret location that cannot be exposed to anybody. Besides, we found the stake in your book bag. You knew about those vampires! Who do you work for and why were you attacked by that specific group?"

She unfroze me, allowing me to stumble back onto the bed where I stuttered, "W-what are you talking about? I don't work for anyone! I don't even know who you people are!"

She glared fiercely and said, "You're lying! Who are you after?"

“My brother gave me that stake so I could protect myself from situations like that one,” I lied intuitively, not letting any precarious detail be slipped out, before sighing hopelessly and looking at my injuries, I muttered, “It obviously didn’t do me any good, though…”

After a few minutes, her gaze lightened up as she forecasted to Patrick, "Her mind's clean, Trick. She's telling the truth."

He nodded and she turned walk out of the room before looking at me, and enlightening me by saying , "I apologize for the rash assumption but we've gotta be a little careful about mortals. Anyways, please feel comfortable while staying here. It's only temporary until we find a reason to let you go."

They both walked out of the room at the same time, leaving me confused and angry. What reason did they have for keeping me here like this?

I staggered clumsily off the bed and over to my book bag where I dumped everything out in an attempt to figure out if William had left me anything that would hint to what my mission was.
Inside the bag, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Just a few notebooks, pencils, money, and a stake.

I sighed knowingly, a part of me hoping that William had abandoned me. Anyone that wasn’t on the side he was on would be considered an angel. And perhaps it was time for me to be independent. Relying on a vampire brother like Bill was like a one-way ticket straight to hell.

He was going to kill me one day. I knew that much. Being around him was unlike anything. He may be my brother but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s not human and that he hated my blood. He hated mortals with a passion. From the time I was born, I had suffered the guilt that he and my dad pressed on me and my mother. But now that she’s been dead for three years, Bill’s been turned into a bloodthirsty monster. He’s killed everyone I’ve ever known, leaving their corpses at my doorstep. Horrific images forever plastered into my mind. I’ve seen it all…

To others, it may appear like I’m not trying to get out…but this is a lifestyle I’ve grown to be accustomed to, whether or not it’s kosher.

I stood up and hobbled into the hall, eying the few pictures they had on the walls. These people were vampire hunters...

For some reason, this information seemed to get my blood rushing and I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. I didn’t want to think about anymore…but it felt extremely awkward being in a house of people I didn’t know.

I walked down the hall to find some sort of den, with boxes piled high on the walls, with a couch and TV in the middle. Sitting on the couch were the two rough looking men from earlier.

One with curly brown hair styled in a small fro looked up alertly while the other one watched the TV screen intently, pretending not to notice or simply not caring. I raised an eyebrow at the weird looking man with outstanding blue eyes, making him frown before he punched the other guy on the leg to get his attention. Now the other guys attention, with long hair and glasses, was focused on me. I stood awkwardly before muttering, "Hi, my name is Amber."

The curly haired guy smiled at his friend before saying, "The name's Joe. And this is Andy!"

Andy did a little nod and I smiled as I went and sat in between them and asked curiously, "So...why do you guys hunt vampires?"

Joe bit his lip in thought as he started at the wall while Andy raised an eyebrow and said, "Because it's fun."

Joe smiled and agreed, "Yeah, it feels good to know we’re replacing the justice system when it comes to protecting the innocent.”

"But you have vampires on your team..."

They stared at me nervously before Andy muttered, "It's not the vampires we're fighting; it's the bloodsuckers. Not all vampires are bloodsuckers. Why do you ask?"

I leaned back and exhaled, "Just wondering…you know, since I was attacked by vampires and all.” Only not really. Just wondering because I happen to be related to a vampire and would like to know if they’re all like that for my own safety.

Joe smirked and said, “We actually happen to have a couple on our team, you know…”

“You mean there‘s more than one?"

Joe smiled and said, "Jess is a half-breed. That’s when a vampire and a human commingle, and then tadah! You get a half-breed. But you see, although she doesn't have any characteristics of true vampire abilities, she’s lucky to have such a unique gift equipped in her.”

“And what’s that?” I asked, suddenly interested in this topic of conversation. Andy grinned before enthusing eerily, “She can dig through the minds and memories of mortals and tell if they’re lying or not.”

My heart seemed to stop as the fear crept over me. I wondered to myself hastily, “Could she tell I was lying earlier? Why didn’t she say anything?” But my mind sifted back to the explanation Joe and Andy were giving me about the whole workings of vampires. However, something caught my attention.

In mid-conversation, a breeze of icy cold wind had brushed past me, creating a wave of chills across my skin. I looked up briefly to see a blurred image sweep around the corner of the plastic-lined bar table that resided in the middle of the this large room that appeared to be set up like a studio. Curiosity swept me from my pleasant seat in the conversation as I stood up and I hobbled over to the countertop where the person stood with their back turned from me as they busied themselves with cutting up ingredients to a concoction unknown to me.

“Excuse me,” I asked politely. A part of me wanted to know who this person was and why they were stomping away from the rest of the group. The boy standing there didn’t acknowledge my request whatsoever as he continued cutting up onions, garlic, while adding various other herbs and spices that I’d never seen before into a blender.

I watched observantly as he spliced the ingredients and ingested them swiftly before darting out of the kitchen after merely glancing up at me once or twice with haste... or was that fear?

Either way, he looked oddly familiar to me so I went with my gut reaction and dashed uncouthly towards him where I mouthed out, “You can’t ignore me forever, you know.”

“What do you want?” he growled irritatedly. It was clearly evident now that he was trying to avoid me. Too bad, I just wasn’t the kind of person to let something like that go.

“Pete,” the name slipped out of my mouth firmly yet it took me a moment to notice that I even said it. Hell, I wasn‘t even aware of who I was speaking to until I said it! That moment, my one-sided memory remembered him saving my life the day before. I couldn’t help but stare at his features, even with his angry reaction. He was remarkably handsome with his flawless tanned skin shining with the same granite texture as Jess‘s. His eyes were a warm colored light brown and there was a slight indication of facial hair outlining his chiseled cheekbones. His beauty threw me off guard and I couldn’t find the right words to say to such a person. My insides boggled up. I saw thoroughly that he was no longer squinting at me but a panicked expression had made its way across his face as he knocked me backwards into the wall, trying to make a rampant escape from this awkward situation.

My mind raced the million words I could say that would keep him from running away. Incidentally, my mind was quicker than I gave myself credit for. However, its turns out that I ended up blurting out the first thing that came to my mind. I am an idiot.

“How are you?” I cried, louder than I’d intended. I covered my mouth, mortified as Pete stopped in his tracks, turned around slowly, and raised his eyebrows smoothly as if asking himself, ‘did-she-seriously-just-say-that?’. The heat from earlier had risen back in my cheeks as I anxiously rambled, “That wasn’t what I meant to say...”

He chuckled inaudibly and stared at me with curiosity plastered on his cleanly shaven face. I swallowed, not very sure of what exactly drew me over to bother him in the first place. The words twisted their way onto my tongue as I chuckled nervously, “I wanted to thank you for...you know, saving my life twice in one days work.”

His face blushed bright red with surprise and at that moment, the initial question that should have entered my mind was “Does he like me?” but instead responded with the smart alecky question of, “Vampires don‘t blush...do they?” I guess I never was your average girl, come to think of it. I missed out on High school.

My thoughts were interrupted with a husky growl as Pete tore rapidly down the hall frustratedly.

“Damn,” I thought disappointedly to myself, “Missed my chance.”

But little did I know that later that night, I’d undergo two major surprises that I’d never forget.