Vampocalypse (old first draft)

Chapter Sixteen

"What?" I said. "I'm not a- a Spellbinder. I'm just Harper."

I glanced at everyone, hoping they would admit it was a joke. Ha-ha new girl, we got you. But no-one was saying anything. Hector was biting his bottom lip, like a nervous human, and trying to avoid my gaze. An astounded expression was froze on Max's face as she gaped right at me - strangely, it was the most emotion I'd ever read on any vampire, including Hector. The man in a lab coat, Jun, stood back, crossed one arm over his chest and propped the elbow of his other on it, resting his hand on his chin.

"Aren't you?" he said, but the look on his face and the tone of his voice said he knew he spoke the truth.

"Yes," Hector told him with painful, shifty eyes. He looked at me. "Jun's not mistaken. You are a Spellbinder. I tried to tell you before-"

"You're out of your damn mind, both of you!" Max finally exploded. "Spellbinders have been extinct for decades, and you're trying to tell me that this girl- this child - has just miraculously fallen into our laps, the last of the Spellbinders?" Her hand was straight out, palm up, and she waved it up and down toward me in indication.

"She's not the only one. Her grandmother is a Spellbinder as well. They were living in one of the compounds, she swore her co-operation in exchange for the protection of her family. She never knew her only son would find a mate there and father a daughter," Hector explained.

"No, I'm not," I told Max quickly, because she was so angry. I thought she was about to claw me to shreds. "Stop, playing around, Hector. It isn't true."

But I was grasping at hope. I recounted all the times that the vampires had treated my grandmother differently, had shown her such respect, had never taken her blood. I thought of the strange scent that had caused Starsky to turn my blood away. I thought of my grandmother's strange clarvoyance, and how I'd always known somehow that there was something different about her. How theyd been so worried about something, that they'd taken me away from her. Finally I remembered Hector trying to tell me something. . .

My heart was pounding like mad. I didn't want to be a Spellbinder. Being a Spellbinder meant I was in much, much more trouble than I thought. Before, the Superior vampires would have looked for me for a while and given up. If I were only a human, they would assume I'd succumbed to the wild, that Hector had grown bored and abandoned me to be devoured by the deaders. But as a Spellbinder, I was dangerous to them. Unimaginably. They would never stop looking. They would expect me to know how to take care of myself, to be able to come back and cause all sorts of chaos.

It was a punch in the gut. In a few short moments, I'd gone from a mere escaped human to threatening Spellbinder. The worst part was that I didn't even know how to be one.

"I'm sorry," I said, staring at the floor. I couldn't bring myself to look at any of them before I spun and rushed back out the way we'd entered.

"Harper! Harper, wait!" Hector called after me.

He caught up with me in the hallway, halting me with a firm grip on my arm. He pulled me back to face him.

"Let go," I demanded.

"Where are you going?"

"Away. I don't know how to use magic. I can't help your cause. That's why you brought me here, right?" I said.

"No- well, yeah, sort of. That's part of it. But also because I want to keep you safe. . ."

"Don't you see? I'll never be safe. They'll never stop until they find me, and they'll kill me when they do."

"They won't."

"Because of your little group here? Well, I have news for you: I've lived with them my whole life and I know that if I really am a Spellbinder, they'll send a lot more than a handful of vampires after me. Trust me, you're seriously outnumbered, and I can't even do the simplest spell."