Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

Trapped

                 Ava

I kept my head rested against the wall. I wanted to sit down, not out of necessity but out of habit. The shackles on my wrist kept me from doing so. My arms were still chained above my head, forcing me to stand for hours.

In the cell beside me, Hanson moaned. "At least, we can keep each other company."

I shot a dark look in his direction. Hanson, the vampire who had changed me. Of all the people to be trapped with. I wondered if God was laughing right now, thinking this to be his own little joke. "How about we stand here and just don't talk?"

"Oh, Ava." He laughed hoarsely; his thirst must have been even worse than my own. "Your words hurt. They truly do. I want to get out of here as much as you do. Maybe even more." He shuffled forward, the sound of his chains rattling. "Damn. What does a vampire have to do to get some blood around here?"

"They're not going to give us blood," I told him.

The shadow of his face snapped towards me. "And how would you know, Newborn?"

"Because they want us weak. Why else would they shoot us up with whatever that was and leave us here to rot for hours?" I lifted my head from the wall. "And I'm not a Newborn anymore, by the way. I completed my transition. No thanks to you."

"Right." Quiet footsteps came in my direction. "If I remember correctly, I left you at that party to die. And now you're here in full vampire form. Who did this, huh? Who gave you their blood? It was that guy I saw that night. The one who walked into our little rendezvous."

I swallowed. "You don't know him, but he's got a hell of lot more humanity than you could ever have. You killed me."

"Oh, I never actually got around to killing you. Your little friend stopped me before it could get that far." He kept his tone nonchalant as if we weren't discussing my death. "But you were going to die soon enough. He must have been desperate for some sort of companionship. That or he just really wanted to play hero."

"Shut up," I snarled back at him. "You don't know anything about William."

"Is that the name of your hero? Your mate? Your bond?" Humor infected his voice now.

I slammed my head up against the wall. "I don't want to talk about him, okay?"

"Oh, do I sense a lover spat between the two of you? Was it about the bunnies? He sounds like a bunny eater to me. Can't stand vampires who insist upon living that way. It's just so demeaning to the rest of our kind. We're here for a reason. And I like to think that it is to keep the human population at a decent number."

"I'm not talking about it," I hissed at him. "I don't see how it's any of your business."

He stood at the edge of where the sunlight crept through the tiny window above us. "You're right. Maybe it's not any of my business, but the way I see it, we've got all the time in the world."

I turned my head towards him, considering. "No," I finally said. "I'm not going to tell about things I'm not even sure about. You're a stranger, a murderer. I'm not just going to spill all my secrets to you. Not here. Not now. Not to you."

"Fine." He stepped back to his side of the wall. "I didn't expect you to, anyway. But I'm not a total stranger to you, remember? We have a past, therefore, we are acquaintances at the very least."

"Strangers, acquaintances, friends, enemies, whatever." I shook my head. "I don't care what you think we are. I'm not talking about William and me. I messed up, end of story. Like always, Ava screws up in the end. Can't have anything relatively good in my life."

Silence echoed against the walls around us before Hanson sighed through the darkness.

"Don't tell me you're about to cry."

I rolled my eyes. "I can't. I'm vampire, remember? Just like you. I can't express emotions like humans do."

"Yes, we've been through this. You are an emotional wreck, and I am ruthless."

I prepared a snide response, but the thudding of a heartbeat distracted me. Someone, a human, stood outside the door I couldn't even see through the darkness. I glanced over at Hanson to see if he noticed.

"The scent..."

I stared back in the direction of the heartbeat and sniffed the air. The scent of human blood hung in the air, but it was far fainter than usual. A stronger scent overrode the blood, making my nose burn especially now when the thirst so badly wanted to consume me. It was the scent I had found in the meadow before they took me. The same scent I recognized from the last time Val and I had made contact.

"What is that?" I asked Hanson, turning my face to the wall.

"I guess I was right," he said in a distant voice, ignoring my question. "We really are dealing with vampires. Huh, this will be fun. It's been a while since I've dealt with a whole compound of them."

I cleared my throat—the dryness disrupting my voice. "Do you think they're here to shoot us up with more of whatever that was?"

I waited for either Hanson to say something or for the hunter to walk through the door. But a minute passed without either. Then Hanson stepped into the sunlight, his face even paler than before.

He pressed a finger to his lips signaling me to be quiet.

My eyes flickered back over to the invisible door, right before it burst open letting in the silhouette of a short, slim woman. She stood there for a moment—the aroma of her blood and the stinging scent lingered in the air.

"So, it's true," she said in a soft voice. It was so familiar, like the memory of a childhood bedtime story. I held on to it, assessing each syllable she spoke. Just trying to fit it into my blurry, human memories. "We've got two vampires today. Why, how lucky am I?"

Hanson moved around in his shackles, the sound echoing in the smell room. "If by lucky, I hope you're talking about the fact that you'll be dead in a matter of minutes. Imagine how much of a relief that will be."

The woman laughed, a light and shrill bell tone, concurring more distant memories. "Do you really think that you can break those chains and bars and come and attack me? In case you haven't noticed, we know what we're doing here. We're not your average human beings."

"No, you're not. Are you?" A crooked grin appeared on Hanson's face. I could still see him in the sunlight.

"I'm surprised you can still manage to stand in the sun, Hanson," she spoke his name as if she had said it time and time again. Like he was an old friend though I predicted otherwise. "But maybe it's just an effect of your usual stupidity that you dare call bravery."

He laughed without much humor. "How long has it been since we last talked? Years, I believe. Though I'll admit that I have been blessed getting to know your daughter recently."

The fuzzy outline formed in my mind of a woman with the same figure. Swooping blonde hair that she usually kept held up in a giant clip. A tired face, beginning to show a hint of wrinkles on her forehead from worrying so much. She always wore jeans. She hated her job where she worked as a receptionist at some firm. She loved 80's movies. She told the best bedtime stories.

"Val?" Her voice rose higher with panic.

Hanson glanced over at me, his smile not leaving his lips. "I actually wasn't referring to your eldest this time."

And with those words, the woman stepped into the streaming sunlight. The same blonde hair and tired face. The same dark eyes she shared with her eldest. A woman I hadn't seen in years. One that abandoned me and made me the person I was today. The girl afraid of love, afraid of people leaving me.

"Mom?"