Fangs and Fur

Chapter 13 - Mitch

The night of November 2nd:

Mitch woke up in the cave, his night vision making everything in the dark cave seem slightly green. The other vampires were waking up too, but unlike last night, they didn't notice Mitch at all. Mitch followed them out of the cave, where they fanned out to patrol the forest. Unsure what to do once he got out of the cave, Mitch just stood there. He felt kind of faint, and he had a terrible headache. An instinct inside of him, one that hadn't been there a few days ago, chanted over and over in his head: blood, blood, blood. He needed to feed on something or he'd pass out.

After some time - Mitch wasn't sure how long - Kirstie approached him. Mitch barely registered her presence until she physically shook his shoulders.

"Snap out of it! What's wrong?" she asked.

Mitch blinked a few times, trying to clear the fuzz from his head. "I just feel really dizzy...do you have any food? I haven't eaten in, like, forever..."

Kirstie gave him an uncomfortable smile. "No, I'm sorry. Vampires just drink the blood of animals for nourishment. We don't have any other food. And we all have to wait for tomorrow night to feed again. It's still too close to the full moon, and we might accidentally turn some of the woodland creatures into vampire-badgers or vampire-birds."

Mitch smiled at that. The thought of a bird with fangs was an interesting image.

Kirstie looked down. "Sorry."

Mitch rubbed his pounding head. "What do you need to say sorry for?"

"I shouldn't have bit you. I ruined your life."

Mitch pressed his fingertips into his temples and started walking, hoping it would ease the fatigue. Unfortunately, movement only made him more tired. Shocker. "For the last time, you didn't ruin my life. You only changed it. Stop apologizing. Is being sorry going to fix anything?" he snapped.

Kirstie opened her mouth, looking hurt, but the arrival of a group of vampires silenced her.

"Matriarch," one of the vampires said, bowing his head. "We have been unable to move the human's - " he glanced briefly at Mitch. "- Mitch's - car out of sight from the road."

"Whyever not?" Kirstie drew herself up to her full height. "I want that car out of sight. If the humans come looking for Mitch, they'll find our clan for sure with that car on the road right beside our forest."

"Well..." the vampire bowed his head. "There's garlic inside the car, Matriarch."

Mitch raised an eyebrow. Were they being serious right now? Did garlic actually ward away vampires and all of that? He did  vaguely remember eating some garlicy Chinese food in the car last week...but that was so long ago. Did it really still bother the vampires?

Kirstie seemed to be taking the other vampires seriously. "Very well. You and your group, patrol the edges of the territory. Mitch and I will figure out the car." She waved her hand and the group of vampires dissipated. Then she started off through the trees.

"Hey, wait up," called Mitch, hurrying after. He hadn't meant to snap at Kirstie earlier about her apologizing, his head had just hurt so much and the words just came out. The truth was, she was pretty much his only friend in the clan. When he caught up to her, though, she wouldn't look at him. Well, Mitch wasn't about to apologize. Apologies weren't really his area of expertise.

Before long, they reached the edge of the woods. The moon, still close to full, illuminated the street. Mitch's car sat unmoving where it had skidded to a halt in the middle of the road when part of the engine exploded.

While Mitch immediately approached the car, Kirstie paused at the treeline and sniffed. "I don't know what those guys were talking about. I don't smell any garlic." She approached the Volkswagen and cautiously laid a hand on the vehicle. "I would have noticed the night I bit you, Mitch, if there was any garlic. My clan is likely just making excuses so they don't have to touch something that belonged to humans."

Mitch was only partially listening to her. A sudden thought had occurred to him: his iPhone was in the car. He needed to call Kevin or his parents or anyone, and tell them he was all right and not to come looking for him. He dodged around the edge of the car. The driver door was open, so he got in and searched for his phone. When he found it, Mitch tried to turn it on.

Then he remembered.

It was out of battery.

And with the car dead, there was no way of charging it.

Disappointed, Mitch climbed onto the roof of the Volkswagen and swung his legs off the side. His head was still killing him. "Ugh, Bae, why do you do this to me," he grumbled at the car.

"Who's Bae?" asked Kirstie, jumping onto the roof beside him.

Mitch pointed at the metal roof beneath them. "That's Bae. The Volkswagen."

Kirstie tilted her head to the side. "Maybe it's just me, but 'Bae' doesn't seem like a name you would give to something."

Mitch shook his head. "If it was up to me, 'Bae' would be 'Aphrodite.' But she was my dad's car first. He named her."

"Oh." Kirstie nodded. "That makes sense."

They sat in silence for awhile. Mitch was struggling to stay conscious. His head was seriously killing him. He doubted he could move the car into the woods in this state, even with Kirstie's help.

"What's your dad like?" Kirstie asked suddenly.

"What?" Mitch was taken aback. "Well, he's like a normal dad. Okay, better than a normal dad. Nice, funny. He understands me." A thought occurred to him. "Don't you have parents?"

Kirstie shook her head. "No. I never knew my dad, and my mom vanished years ago. That was even before I became Matriarch."

Mitch looked over at her. "Wow, that must suck."

"Yeah." Kirstie gave him a crooked half-smile. "It's not important though. I've lived long enough without them to get used to it. And I'm not a kid anymore."

Just then, a vampire yelled from the edge of the woods. "Matriarch! Matriarch, come quickly!"

Mitch exchanged a glance with Kirstie, and they both jumped off the roof of Bae. The vampire at the edge of the woods took off at a superhuman sprint, with Mitch and Kirstie right on his heels. They ran for what felt like hours to Mitch, with his headache pounding in time to his heartbeat. Finally they reached the far edge of the extensive forest, the edge opposite the one Mitch had driven into the forest in.

They stood on the edge of a plain dotted with trees as the forest faded into grasslands. In the distance, the lights of a human city glowed.

The wind picked up as they arrived and joined the crowd of vampires already gathered.

Mitch watched as Kirstie gathered her cloak against the wind and pushed to the front of the clan.

"What is it? What is going on?" she demanded.

"Matriarch, can you smell it?" one of the vampires hissed, sniffing the air. The others did the same. The wind was blowing towards them, from off in the distance.

Mitch inhaled, trying to understand what they were talking about. A strong scent assailed his nose: a sharp, tangy scent. It didn't smell like blood, like most animals did now. It smelled strange, and clean, and powerful. "What is it?" he asked.

Kirstie turned to him, hair billowing in the wind.

"Werewolf."