The Vampire's Rival

When she hurts you but doesn't see it

"This isn't personal," I said.

The dog whined.

"I hope you know that."

He whined again and stopped to look at me, his begging eyes crushing my heart.

"We both know you can't stay with them." I avoided using his name because I didn't think I could go through with this if I did. "And even if we find the Wildlings, they won't accept a vampire dog."

He was about to whine again, but his ears suddenly pricked up. I looked up as well. I'd heard the sound too. Before I could stop it, the dog had dashed into the forest, disappearing into the shadows. I looked back at the glow from the campfires behind us for a second before deciding to race after the dog. If the dog had found a source of danger, I'd have to deal with it before it made its way to the camp.

I found the dog with a rabbit in its mouth, it's fangs deep in the animal's muscles. The dog then ripped its fangs from the corpse and looked up at me. I could have sworn it was smiling, blood dripping from its fangs. I smiled back.

His eyes were more red than green!

"Good boy, Brownie!" I said, patting his head. The dog wagged his tail, then turned around and ran away again.

I looked down at the rabbit carcass and picked it up. Humans ate rabbits, right?

Crystal, Billy and the teen Progenies were back at camp when I arrived. I walked over to Billy.

"I was told you're the one with the skill to transform this into something useful," I said, handing Billy the rabbit carcass.

She looked up at me, her lip curled. "You... caught that?"

I shrugged, knowing what she was implying and not bothering to correct her.

"Well, do you want it?" I asked.

Billy's look of unease deepened.

"Don't be rude, Billy," Crystal said, taking the carcass off my hands. "Of course, we'll take it. That's breakfast sorted! Thanks."

"You're welcome." I replied.

Walking away, I was ambushed by Drew.

"Where's Brownie?" he asked, his lower lip quivering. "I can't find him."

I was about to start explaining that Brownie was never coming back, when the canine came bounding towards us, lunging at the delighted Drew, and covering him in kisses.

"Stop, Brownie!" Drew giggled. "You smell funny!"

I noticed a few new splotches of blood on the dog's snout that weren't from the rabbit. And his eyes were fully red now. He'd learnt. If he was to stay here with us, he had to stay fed. He'd learnt. All in one go. It was more than fascinating.

"Please don't go away again, Brownie." Drew said, hugging the dog tight.

Animal blood. Who would have thought he'd accept that?

I couldn't stand the stuff. Most vampires couldn't. Not the humans anyway. It didn't only taste worse than awful, it was a fickle type of fuel, draining away in a day or so, if not mere hours. It was beyond disgusting and worth way too much effort to find and feed from critters.

No, thank you.

I was going to wait until we found the Wildlings.

Every tribe had a closet fang banger, a vampire groupie, and I could telepathically sniff out their desperation faster than you could say, "blood starved".

I'd wait.

I just wished that every second I waited wasn't bringing me closer to the edge and ratcheting my anxiety to a peak.