CHAPTER 2

“Vivi, what have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything!”

“Why is there a human girl in the back seat then?”

“What girl?”

“Vivi!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Answer me!”

My head pounded uncomfortably as voices filled my ears. I clenched my jaw in pain as the throbbing continued to cause me discomfort. The quiet hum of an engine told me I was in a car, and the gentle bumps every now and then told me I was in a moving car. Weariness swept over me and I had to fight the urge to go back to sleep. As tired as I was, I had to figure out whom these voices belonged to and why I was in a car. It hurt, but after a few moments I was able to force open my eyes.

A young man with pale blonde hair and chocolate colored eyes was staring back at me. I inhaled sharply in surprise, quickly sitting up in my seat. A wave of nausea washed over me, and I brought a hand up to my mouth, feeling as though I was going to be sick. The blonde blinked at me, narrowing his brown eyes.

“You okay?”

“Who are you?” I demanded, suddenly alert. I looked out the window and realized I couldn’t see anything but a black forest whizzing by. “Where am I?”

“I’m Joel,” the blonde responded, pointing to himself. “And you’re in a car.”

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” I snapped, not in the mood for sarcasm. “Why am I here?”

“Well, Vivi randomly brought you to the car and threw you in the back… I’m curious as to why you are here too.”

“Who’s Vivi?”

“My name isn’t Vivi,” a smooth voice commented from the driver’s seat. “And I couldn’t just leave her there.”

My eyes snapped to the man who had spoken. He glanced at me through the rearview mirror. Piercing blue eyes met my gaze and I felt my heart skip a beat. Memories from earlier suddenly flooded my mind. The school, the bloody girl, his

fangs …

“V-v-vampire!” I stuttered, staring at him in horror.

“Bingo.”

Oh my god… “No… no!” I shook my head violently. “No! Vampires don’t exist!”

“Well you’re looking at two right now,” Joel said, grinning and showing his over-sized canines.

A scream escaped my lips, making the blonde jump in surprise. This was too much for me to handle. My worst nightmare was sitting in front of me! And there were two of them! I frantically grabbed the door handle of the car, shoving it as hard as I could.

“Joel!”

“Don’t worry,” Joel responded immediately, still grinning in amusement at me. “Child lock is on.”

Desperately, I attempted to open the door again. When that didn’t work I began to pound on the windows. “Let me out!” I shrieked, slamming my fist down on the glass as hard as I could. “No! No!”

“She’s quite the noisy one, isn’t she, Vivi?” Joel commented, watching me curiously.

“My name is Vincent,” the blue-eyed one snapped, his eyes flickering to Joel to give him a short glare. “Don’t call me Vivi!”

“Whatever. Can we do something about her?”

“Since she’s finally awake, yes.”

Without warning, Vincent slammed on the breaks, making me pitch forwards, off my seat. I fell to the floor of the car, landing on my wrist uncomfortably. A small groan of pain escaped my lips and I quickly pulled my wrist out from under me. The car door opened behind me and there was suddenly a rough tug on the back of my jacket, and I was yanked backwards and out of the car. A rough hand captured my wrist, preventing me from running.

.

.

“Let me go!” I cried, attempting to yank my hand back.

“Stay still, or I’ll break your wrist,” Vincent growled, his eyes penetrating into mine.

I froze, narrowing my eyes at him. As much as I wanted to ignore him, I couldn’t afford to have my wrist broken. Not to mention that would probably hurt. A lot. So I stood stock still, barely even daring to breathe. Vincent raised a pale hand to my face and I immediately closed my eyes, shying away from him.

“Open your eyes.”

Slowly I did as he said, and found my eyes once again entranced by his sapphire orbs. For a few moments we stared at each other. Vincent’s eyes suddenly narrowed, and he pulled his hand away, dropping my wrist.

“Joel,” he snapped and the blonde vampire appeared next to him before I could blink. “Try to erase her memory.”

“Eh?” Joel responded, a flicker of amusement appearing in his eyes. “The master at erasing memories can’t erase a memory?”

“Just try.”

“Right away!”

Joel stepped up to me, and put his pale hand in front of my face. This time I took a step back in surprise. He chuckled, coming closer. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.”

“Stay away,” I warned, wondering why I had let Vincent so close to me in the first place. “Vampires don’t exist!”

“Keep saying that,” Vincent commented in a snide voice. “There’s living proof right in front of you. Well, technically not living…”

“If you let me erase your memories, vampires won’t exist,” Joel said coaxingly, putting his hand to my face again.

I watched him distrustfully, but let him do so. I would give anything to have my memories erased. Not knowing about vampires would leave me much better off... No wait, what was I thinking? They didn’t exist! They couldn’t exist! I didn’t care if these two claimed to be vampires! It was impossible!

After a moment a frown appeared oh Joel’s face. He pulled his hand away and furrowed his eyebrows. “Why isn’t it working?”

“It didn’t work?”

“Vivi, who is this girl?”

I turned my eyes to Vincent, who shrugged. “I have no idea.”

My head throbbed painfully again and I scrunched up my eyes in pain, bringing a hand to my forehead. Another wave of nausea crashed through me and I tottered on my feet for a second. Joel’s hand shot out to steady me. Surprised, I jumped violently, taking a quick step away from him.

“D-don’t touch me!” I warned, trying to figure out which blonde man to glare at. My vision was showing me two.

“Dude, how much blood did you drink? She looks sickly.”

“I didn’t drink much at all!” Vincent snapped glaring at me as if it was my fault I looked sick.

I did my best to glare back at him, but the pain from my head made it a hard feat, and I ended up just closing my eyes to ease the ache. It was becoming a hard task just to stand on my feet. I backed up until I could lean against the car for support. I needed to escape.

“But she’s so pale!”

“She said something about being anemic or something.”

There was a short silence before Joel suddenly started laughing. “Are you kidding me right now? You drank blood from and kidnapped an anemic, human girl? How ironic can you get?”

.

.

.

“It’s not like I knew she was anemic,” Vincent retorted. “And I wouldn’t have had to… take her if she hadn’t passed out.”

“What are we going to do with her then?”

It was really starting to irritate me how they kept talking as if I wasn’t standing three feet behind them. But, I could use that to my advantage. I took deep, long breath, trying to make my vision normal again. While they were distracted, I could make my break.

“We can’t let her go,” Joel continued. “If someone finds out a human whose mind we can’t erase knows about us then…”

“I’m fully aware of the consequences, thank you,” Vincent snapped in an irritated tone.

“It’s even worse for you, considering your position,” Joel laughed. “You should have thought twice, Vivi.”

“Stop calling me that!” Vincent growled. “For now, we keep the girl with us. Maybe Sebastian can sort this all out. Whatever happens, we do not let my dad know.”

Vampires had families? That surprised me. I thought all vampires were turned… I shook my head quickly. Thinking wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I needed to escape before I was dragged off to who knows where. Checking to see if Joel or Vincent were watching, I slowly began to creep along the edge of the car, ready to start sprinting.

“I do not want to die,” Joel told Vincent, “so I don’t think I’ll let him know.”

“Good.”

By now I was at the back of the car. I had no idea which way to go. After only a second of hesitation I made a break for it, dashing as silently as possible down the dark road. My vision was still blurry, but I did my best to ignore it. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice… Maybe a car would come by and I could stop it and they would take me to safety—

“Trying to run away again, are we?”

A pair of stone hard arms wrapped around my waist, making me come to a complete halt. A groan of frustration and hopelessness left my mouth. The one holding me chuckled and I realized it was Vincent. He let me go, but kept a vice-like grip on my shoulder to stop me from running again.

“You’re causing me enough trouble as it is, don’t push it by trying to escape again,” he warned, dragging me back to the car. “Get in. We’re leaving.”

“No!” I cried, ducking out of his grasp. “I won’t go! I can’t! You don’t exist!”

Joel laughed while Vincent gave me a harsh glare.

“I’d hate to break it to you, love, but there’s no way you can deny our existence since we’re standing right in front of you, and Vince has already drank from you,” Joel told me, smiling.

“I refuse to believe,” I stated stubbornly.

“Should I remind you then?” Vincent asked, suddenly pressed up against me again.

“No!” I screamed, swatting a hand out and making contact with his face. Immediately I dropped my arm, staring at him in horror.

Joel started laughing again. “She totally bitch-slapped you, Vivi.”

“Get in the car,” Vincent growled, pulling me roughly by the front of my bloodstained sweatshirt. He opened the backseat door and threw me in roughly, cramming my legs in so he could slam the door.

.

.

.

“No!” I shouted, lunging for the door, but he managed to close it just before I could stop it. I tried the handle, only to find it child-locked again.

Twisting in my seat, I attempted to climb to the front and escape from there, but the two vampires seemed to guess my plan and before I could blink Vincent was in the driver’s seat, and Joel was in passenger’s, grinning back at me.

“Relax,” he told me.

“Relax?” I repeated shrilly, staring at him open-mouthed. “You… you monsters are kidnapping me! How can I relax?”

“Lean back and close your eyes?” Joel suggested, a smirk playing at his lips.

“Let me out! Let me out of this car right now!” I cried, resorting to slamming on the windows again. “This is crazy!”

“Well, Vivi, you really know how to pick your girls.”

“Just shut up,” Vincent responded, keeping his eyes on the road. “She’ll shut up eventually too. Just ignore her.”

“My parents will definitely file a missing person report!” I warned them. “They knew I was coming home tonight after the movies! They’ll definitely… definitely…” I trailed off, a hand automatically going to my pocket. My phone… it was still in my car. Unbelievable.

“Love, we’re vampires. People don’t know we exist,” Joel responded, giving me a pitying look. “Do you think we’ll care if you become a missing person? No one knows you’re with us, and no one knows who we are.”

“The… the blonde girl from before does!”

“Not anymore,” Vincent interjected, glancing at me through the rearview mirror. “Like any normal human, her memory has been wiped of the accident.”

“It’s not my fault you can’t erase my memory!”

“Ignore Vivi,” Joel said, gaining my attention. “He just made a mistake and knows he’ll have to admit it so he’s in a bad mood.”

“My name isn’t Vivi ,” Vincent growled.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I realized there was no way I could get myself out of this mess. Vampires, my worst nightmare, were kidnapping me. And there was no way I would be saved. I sniffed, rubbing my eyes frantically to stop the tears from spilling out. I couldn’t act so weak in front of these monsters!

Joel looked at me, his expression soft. “Don’t cry. I know it’s a lot to take in, love, but we aren’t actually that bad…”

“Emily.”

“What?”

“My name is Emily,” I told him, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Stop calling me

love ”.

Joel grinned at me. “Okay then, Emily.”

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, glancing at the window. “Are you going to kill me? I want to go home!”

“To answer your questions in order; we’re taking you back to Vivi’s place, I don’t know, and for right now, that’s not happening.”

“But my parents—”

“Will survive without you,” Vincent said coldly, glancing at me through the rearview window.

I looked at him in alarm. Joel sighed from the passenger’s seat.

.

.

.

“Ignore him, like I said, he’s in a bad mood,” Joel told me, rolling his eyes. “He can’t accept he made a mistake.”

A grin came onto Joel’s face, and I caught glimpse of his fangs. Immediately I pressed myself back into the seat as far as I could, staring at the canines in terror. Vampires… out of all the mythical creatures that existed, it had to be vampires, didn’t it? The one thing I was scared of the most. And they were kidnapping me. Why couldn’t it be unicorns, or leprechauns?

“What’s wrong?” Joel asked me, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Your heart rate just spiked.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “How do you know?”

“I can hear it,” Joel responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Super sensitive hearing, remember?”

“No, I don’t, since vampires don’t exist!” I snapped back at him.

“Please,” Vincent snorted, glancing at me through the rearview window again. “You may be happy in your state of denial, but it’s pissing me off.”

“Pissing you…” I reiterated, staring at him in disbelief. “Pissing you off? That’s funny. You know what’s pissing me off? The fact that I’m being kidnapped by something that shouldn’t exist! And you’re angry because I want to deny that little fact! Oh, that’s grand.”

Joel started chuckling as Vincent rolled his eyes. This was unbelievable. I was going to go crazy! How could they act so normal when they were kidnapping someone? Did they not realize how serious the situation was? It was against the law! They were taking me from my friends and family! What was worse was that they looked like they were my age. How could people so young participate in such a hefty crime? But then again, they were vampires. Who knew how old they were. Or what they would or wouldn’t do.

A new thought popped into my head. What was going to happen to me? From the movies I’d seen, I figured vampires were capable of anything. Including killing. Panic began to rise in my chest. Was I going to be killed? Because they couldn’t erase my mind, or whatever? That was hardly my fault!

“If you’re thinking that we are going to kill you, we aren’t,” Vincent suddenly stated, once again looking at me through the rear view mirror.

Looking away from this piercing gaze, I pressed my lips into a thin line. “How do I know you won’t?”

“Vampires have laws too,” he said simply. “Murder is just as big a deal for us as it is for you humans.

“But you were going to kill the girl from before!” I protested, looking back into his mesmerizing eyes.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“She was covered in blood!”

Vincent glared at me through the mirror. “That’s because some idiot interrupted us, and she fled before I could heal her and erase her memory.”

“I didn’t interrupt you,” I responded. “I walked by.”

“And she saw you.”

“But that doesn’t have anything to do with interrupting you.”

“Yes it does.”

“The point is,” Joel interjected, turning around to look at me again, “that while we are allowed to feed on humans, killing them is out of the question. Killing a human can result in a sentence to death.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” I asked, narrowing my eyes suspiciously.

“You’re very mistrusting,” Joel commented, a small smile gracing his face.

.

.

I stared at him skeptically. “Am I wrong not to trust you guys? You’re kidnapping me! How can I trust you?”

“Ow, it hurts,” Joel said, putting a hand to his heart in mock pain. “She thinks we’re untrustworthy, Vince.”

“I don’t care,” Vincent responded flatly.

Joel frowned for a moment before sighing. “You’re no fun, Vivi.”

“Don’t—”

“Call me that,” Joel finished for him. “You can say that as many times as you want, but I’m still going to call you Vivi.”

Vincent didn’t respond, making Joel chuckle quietly. For a moment they amused me, but a smile still couldn’t find its way to my face. Not that I actually expected one to. I mean I was being kidnapped. How could I smile? I was happy enough that I wasn’t hyperventilating.

Suddenly the smooth motion of the car became rough, making me bounce in my seat. I glanced out my window for the first time in what felt like ages and realized woods now surrounded the car. The road the car was traveling down was uneven and made of dirt. Obviously we were on some sort of back road or trail.

After a few minutes of being jostled in the car by the uneven road, we switched over onto a paved road. Confusion ran through me as I stared into the pitch black forest that still surrounded us. Why pave a random road in the middle of the forest? It seemed like a waste of money. Surely no one used this road…

My thoughts were suddenly lost as an immense, Gothic mansion entered my vision. The building was at least four stories high, and twice as wide as my school. As we grew closer I noticed a towering, black, speared fence surrounded the estate. The building looked like it had been taken straight out of 12th century Europe!

Vincent drove the car all the way up to the fence, and through an open gate that was attached to it. The mansion looked even more staggering as we grew closer. I could make out vines climbing the edges, but instead of making it look unkempt, it made it look more breathtaking. However, the mansion still had an eldritch air to it. Goosebumps rose on my skin. Creepy.

Vincent pulled the car all the way up to the front of the estate before cutting the engine. Immediately Joel was out of the car, opening my door, and pulling me out roughly.

“Let go!” I cried as a reaction, flinching away from him as he set me on the ground.

“Take off your jacket,” he ordered, keeping a tight grasp on my shoulder.

“What? Why?”

“Because you smell too human,” a condescending voice commented from behind me.

I turned to Vincent with a frown. “What?”

“Just take it off.”

“No!”

Before I could blink Vincent was in front of me, his hands at the base of my jacket. In one swift movement he had the article of clothing over my head, and off my body. He tossed it into the car, and turned to Joel, gesturing towards me.

“Put this on,” Joel ordered, handing me the coat he was wearing five seconds before.

“No,” I stated stubbornly.

“Do it,” Vincent growled. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

After a short glaring match with Vincent, I finally took the jacket out of Joel’s hands and put it on. A shudder made its way through me as I pulled it around me tighter. It was freezing!

“Let’s go find Sebastian,” Vincent said, turning back to Joel. “Hopefully he can sort things out.”

I looked up at the building again, becoming entranced by its height once more. It was actually a very awe-inspiring building. “Where are we?” I asked without even realizing it.

“My house,” Vincent responded, our eyes coming in contact again.

“Your house?” I repeated, my eyes widening.

“Welcome to the Rutherford manor,” Joel said, sweeping his arms out in a welcoming gesture.

I stared from Joel, to Vincent, to the house, and then back to Joel again. This definitely wasn’t a very welcoming welcome.

“Now let’s go find Sebastian,” Vincent said, grabbing me by the upper arm and dragging me towards the magnificent estate.