Dragonblood Vampire

Cindy's footsteps stopped at the wall, and I heard her inhale. Smelling for me. But for whatever reason, she didn't climb the wall right away. Instead she circled the outside of the wall, breathing slow as if tasting my smell.

The front door of the house clicked open. I lay still, throbbing and burning, my muscles gone as limp as cooked spaghetti. I was lying with my head on one arm, so I couldn't see the person on the porch, but she breathed like a woman. Slowly she descended the steps and walked across the Zen yard to the outer gate.

The gate creaked open. Feet scuffled on gravel with sudden violence. Cindy shrieked, “No!”

The woman snarled, “Stay away from my house, vermin.”

Cindy sprinted away and there was sudden silence. The gate clicked softly shut.

Everything inside me screamed that I needed to bite this woman. I bit my own fist instead and wished I could die.

Could vampires really starve to death? If the rest of the stories were true, about wooden stakes through the heart and cutting off the head and all, then mere hunger couldn't do them in. Maybe I'd go insane instead. Someday I'd wake up with my teeth in somebody's throat, and that'd be it. The hunters would come for me. Heck, I'd probably pull up my shirt and bare my heart for their stakes.

The woman's footsteps approached me. I tried to sit up, but my body refused to obey. I lay there like a corpse. A hungry corpse.

Until she reached me. Then I smelled her and my heart gave a thud. Her blood was all wrong.

I rolled halfway onto my side in an attempt to run, then sank back with a groan.

The woman knelt, shoved me on my back, and turned my head to examine my damaged throat. "Well well. So this is what the parasite was after." She leaned over me. She had black hair and a bathrobe, and I had an impression of Asian features--tiny nose, slanted eyes, smooth, flawless skin. The porchlight made her eyes look red. And glowing.

"Go away," I whispered.

Her perfect lips parted in a smile. Her teeth were perfect, too. But her breath smelled like sulfur. "What have you fed upon?"

I turned my face away. "Nothing. Leave me alone!"

The woman stood again, arms still crossed. "A very fresh turn, indeed."

I tried to get up, but my cursed body refused to obey. I flopped onto my stomach and lay with my nose squashed into the grass.

The woman knelt beside me. "If I feed you," she whispered, resting one small, hot hand on my back, "you will belong to me forever."

"I don't want," I began. But she shoved her warm bare arm against my mouth.

I couldn't help it. I sank my teeth into her flesh, biting through skin and tasting her blood. But it tasted like gasoline. I choked and tried not to swallow, but it was already trickling down my throat.

She hissed through clenched teeth. "Feed, parasite."

So I did, keeping my eyes closed and hating myself. Whatever flowed in this lady's veins, it wasn't blood. But my newly-turned body adjusted and began to thirst for it.

Enough. I pushed her arm away and stood up. Liquid fire rushed through me. My whole body burned as if I'd suddenly developed a fever. At the same time, it was strength and power. I was Superman. If Superman had fed on other people's life force.

I wiped my mouth and stared at the woman. She examined my bite on her arm, and breathed on it. Flames darted out of her mouth and engulfed her arm, erasing the wound and healing the skin.

"Uh," I said. "I take it you won't turn into a vampire now?"

"Dragons can't be turned," she said, with a smile. Her smile vanished and she grabbed my neck in both hands.

I wrenched myself backward, but her hands were as strong as a vices. I dropped flat, grabbed her arms and hurled her over me. Then I leaped straight up into the tree.

The woman landed in a roll, whipped to her feet and leaped after me.

I plunged from the tree and ran away, legs pumping so fast I wondered why my bones didn't shatter. Oh, invincible vampire, right.

I ran up the side of the yard's wall, leaped off the top, and dashed out into the road.

She tackled me from behind. We hit the ground with the force of a car wreck, cracking the asphalt, and rolled over and over. I tried to grab her throat, but she blocked me with flicks of her forearms. She wore an amused little smile.

Then she kicked me in the stomach. It was like being hit by a missile. I flew across the road and smashed into a telephone pole, which cracked and leaned sideways. Fresh pain tore through me, even on top of the burning in my borrowed blood--one of the metal spikes for climbing the pole had stuck through my back, between my ribs.

The dragon-woman walked up to me, smiling. "Enough?" She grabbed my arm and yanked me off the spike. I swore. A lot.

Gripping my arm in one of her industrial-strength hands, she led me back toward her house. "First lesson. Avoid iron and steel. Second lesson. I am the only dragon on Earth. If you leave me, you'll starve and the hunters will find you."

"What're the odds?" I said bitterly. "I just happened to climb the only dragon's front wall."

"There's a wall for a reason. I am Jia Li. What is your name, vampire?"

"Dalton. There's no such thing as dragons."

"There's no such thing as vampires, either." We reached the front yard again. She marched me up on the porch and into her house. As powerful as I was, she outclassed me completely. What in the heck did she really look like?

Her house was very Asian inside--bamboo screens, silk wall hangings, low furniture, incense burning in a carved wooden holder, a tiny fountain on a table, and lots of open space. It smelled faintly of seasoned pork. It would have smelled good an hour ago. Right now, nothing smelled good. Not even Jia's blood.

Jia halted and stared pointedly at my feet. After a long, stupid moment, I kicked off my shoes beside the sandals parked beside the door. She marched me to one of the long, low sofas and shoved me into it. Then she sat on a small chair across from me.

We stared at each other for a while. Anger and frustration still seethed inside me. It wasn't fair! I never wanted to be a vampire of any stripe! Nasty enslaved things with half-lives, completely dependent on their hosts. What would my parents do? What would I do about Jimmy?

Jia broke the silence. "Well. This is an interesting development. I wasn't aware a dragonblood vampire was possible."

I didn't say anything.

She drummed her perfect fingernails on a tabletop, and crossed her perfect legs. Like one of the human-feeding vampires--the strongest ones--but different. A wildness glinted from her eyes, and she moved with a sort of contained ferocity. As if losing control might lose her human form, too. And I was linked to this creature. A tinge of fear joined my frustration.

Jia smiled suddenly and leaned forward. "I don't know your limits. I shall send you on a mission to test you."

Despite the heat in my veins, my hands and feet went cold. "What?"

"Kill the vampire who turned you."