Bite Me... the tale of two vampires

Chapter Two - Lucius

Chapter Two 

Lucius

I wake to the sound of May's screams. I groan, rolling over until I fall to the floor with a loud thud. I bolt upright and race down the stairs to May's room, reaching it in under three seconds. I mentally high-five myself but snap to my senses when I see the screaming girl before me.

Night black hair soaked in sweat, tears streaming down her pale face, ivy green eyes dilated in fear; May is at her worst. I sigh, walking over and pulling her into my arms with ease. I whisper soothing words into her ear and rock her gently. May begins to relax in my arms and stops screaming like she's in the scariest horror film in history. I don't bother with tucking her back into bed, even though its only about four in the morning. The sun isn't even up yet, but I know there's no chance of May sleeping now.

I take her into her bathroom and sit her down on soft white bathmat facing away from the mirrors so that she isn't frightened by her own reflection. I made the mistake of doing that once and she flipped. It took nearly the whole day to calm her after that.

I run her bath, tossing in some herbs and powders at random. Hopefully I don't cause some mass destruction, because I know these aren't any normal bath ingredients, they're magic ones May harvested herself. I still can't believe that after all these years, she still practises magic. An odd aroma fills the air but its not bad, sort of lemony actually. I sniff the air and the rigidness in my body instantly subsides. I sigh happily and smile, this must be one of May's calming potions.

I turn the tap off and turn to see her, looking at me with empty eyes. I know those eyes; they say 'if you want me to do something, i'll do it. No questions asked'. One day, those eyes are going to get her in a lot of trouble.

I sigh, helping her to her feet. "Maysilee." She looks at me expectantly, as if she's a child waiting to see if a clown at the fair really can make a balloon animal like he says he can. "Get undressed and take your bath. Meet me in the kitchen afterwards. Do you understand?" She nods solemnly and I stride out of the room, letting the door swing shut behind me.

I pause at the top of the staircase, gazing out the wall window in May's room through the gap in her open door. The stars seem to dance here, tucked away in the woodland we live in, far away from the man-made lights of people. It's just an endless blanket of them. May once told me that other than me, they were her best friends. I didn't understand why at first but she soon explained that like me, she could count on them to always be there. It's not hard to make sense of that now, especially if you know her. Really know her as I do. Might as well include me in that sentence too, 'cause we're pretty much the same. Both pale as snow, both enchantingly beautiful, both easy to anger, both orphans, both stinking rich, both supernatural, both the same thirst for blood...

Yes, May and I are vampires. I've been since the dawn of time. Actually, I think they started counting the years that go by the day I was born. I was created for many purposes, one being to make sure the werewolf population never gets out of hand. But May only became a vampire for one reason, I didn't think I could live without her. Not in a romantic way of course. But even when she was just a human seven hundred years ago, she was the only friend I had. And besides, if I hadn't changed her the night that rogue vampire Adria attacked her, she would've died.

I walk downstairs and pass all the expensive furniture to the even more expensive kitchen. White tiles and walls, marble counter tops, plain cupboards, platinum silver fridge containing only one thing... I swing the door open, revealing the stack of blood bags. There's at least twenty in here, but I've got hundreds stored beneath the house in a cool-room. There's a reason I'm the most powerful and feared vampire in the world.

I take out two bags, selecting both May's and my favourite types, O negative for me and AB positive for her. Sometimes I wonder if she only likes it because of that movie Bruce Almighty. She denies it but I don't know if she's telling the truth. She can be a very good liar sometimes.

I pour the blood into mugs and put them in the microwave to heat up. Blood always tastes better at human body temperature. Except on hot days, then you have to have it cold. I hear soft feet pad down the stairs and turn to see May, but immediately turn back around again. As much as I like May and want to take care of her whist she's delusional from nightmares she isn't supposed to have (Vampires sleep, but we don't dream. My theory is that because she was a witch before I changed her, some of her power transferred over. I think that might've caused it but who knows?), I refuse to look at her naked.

"May," I say as calmly as I can because honestly, I'm trying not to laugh. "Please put some clothes on. Or at least wrap a towel around yourself." I can almost hear her look down at herself which makes me want to laugh more. I can definitely hear the surprise in her voice when she whispers, "Oh." I wait until she goes back upstairs before bursting out in mass hysteria.

The microwave makes a high pitched beeping noise and I snarl at it. One of these days I am going to kill that thing. I take the mugs out, placing one on the counter for May and taking a swig of my own. I watch as May descends the staircase, looking deadly beautiful in a soft white dress. Oh, I just made a joke.

"What's the occasion?" I ask as she takes a seat on the stool next to mine. She just blinks at me uncomprehendingly. Great, she's still in that place she goes after her nightmares, some place where nothing exists but them. I sigh, pressing May's mug into her hands. "Breakfast May. It's your favourite." She looks down at the blood, then back at me with a quizzical look on her face, like she's unsure if I'm telling the truth or not. She takes a sip tentatively, before a small smile appears on her lips. At least she's drinking.

The sun begins to peek over the mountains and the room begins to fill with light. The clock on the wall says that its nearing on five am and I know that soon, May and I will need to get ready for school. Honestly going to school seems pointless to me; May and I are fluent in at least ten languages, we've studied math with Einstein himself and don't even get me started on history! We lived it for crying out loud! But May insisted. I think she just likes the chance to be 'normal' again.

I look back at May, who has gone back to staring at the blood in confusion, and anger boils up inside me. "For goodness sake Maysilee, snap out of it! They're not real, they can't heart you!" Tears instantly fill her eyes and she drops her mug, letting it shatter on the tiles while she bolts for her room. "You don't know anything Luc!" It's only at the sound of my old nickname do I realize what I've just done. I groan, hurling my own mug at the wall. I watch as it smashes and blood flies everywhere. I'm going to have a lot of cleaning up to do later.

Music begins blaring upstairs and I know that if I don't do something soon, May's going to destroy the house. She always blasts music really loud to cover up the sound of her breaking things. I pull my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and dial the number of the only person I know that'll be able to help. Will, Maysilee's human boyfriend. I asked her once why she's with him and all she said was, "It's the same reason why you were with me when I was human, except we were just friends." Well, I guess if he makes her happy that's good enough for me.

"Hey you've called Will. I can't co-" I groan, chucking my phone on the counter and reaching for May's. No doubt he'll answer if he thinks it's her. I dial the number and wait impatiently for him to pick up. 

"Hello?"

"Hey Will what's up?" I say mockingly. I hear him sigh and i grin for a brief moment. "What do you want Luke?" I hate not being able to tell him my real name, but it's necessary if i don't want to be tracked. "It's your girlfriend, she's having a breakdown."

"What?!" Will hollers in my ear. "What the heck happened?!" I roll my eyes, "We had a bit of an argument. I need you to come over to my place and calm her down."

"Why's she at your place?" Will asks, not bothering to try and mask the suspicion in his voice. "Nightmares." I answer simply. That Will understands at least. "Okay, I'll be there in a bit then." "Great." I say hanging up.

I wet a sponge and begin scrubbing the blood of the tiles and walls. Will might be Maysilee's boyfriend, but there's still a lot he doesn't know.