Rare Vampire

Chapter 16

I walked side by side next to Phil as he led me down confusing and winding paths towards the library.

There was no way I was going to be able to come here on my own if I ever needed to. But I've got to admit that there is an advantage to having such a confusing building. If someone ever broke in, you'd know your way around, while an intruder would not. 

I shrugged off the growing feeling of something inevitably bad occurring. 

It had been following me since Phil and I left my room. Flashbacks of the nightmare would cross my mind repeatedly, Phil was quiet and let me work through my emotions at the moment which I was grateful for. 

We continued to walk for a while longer when I was hit with a strong scent of must and paper, a familiar smell that I tended to adore when I entered a library. All thoughts left my mind as I looked in awe at what was in front of me. 

Thousands of books sat around the room in a multitude of shelves, portable ladders were littered across the spaces in between to allow access to higher books. Authors were listed from A-Z on one wall while another had the Dewey decimal system organizing the shelves. Books in different languages were in the middle of a smaller section. Fiction, non-fiction, every book you could possibly think of may have been in this magnificent library. 

I grazed my fingers over the covers of the books and let them linger on books that I had always wanted to read but never managed to find in the small town that I lived in. 

My eyes danced across everything in sight, I almost forgot my purpose for coming down here until I came across a particular section of books that had gold covers, above the books in bold writing read 'Restricted' and slightly below that was the words 'Access for King Marcus only, others may face consequences...' 

The words were cryptically noted, what could harm me if they didn't know?

I glanced around and saw that Phil had picked up a fiction book and was sitting on one of the plush bean bags reading it. I walked over to him and sat next to him, I had all day in the library I may as well enjoy it as long as I could.

"What're you reading?" 

Phil closed the book slightly so I could take a look at the cover. 

"Goosebumps?" 

"Yeah, I haven't read any of these since I was 11. They were really something." Phil smiled in memory of those young and oblivious days. 

That statement jogged something in my mind, Phil had said that James saved him. How long has he been here for? How old is Phil?

I opened my mouth to ask him, and stopped when I saw that he was studying my face. 

"Midnight, are you sure you're okay?" I nodded meekly in response and asked him my questions. 

He smiled disdainfully as he mulled over my words carefully.

"I'll start with the easy ones first, I'm 18, I'll be turning 19 in a couple of months and I've been here for just about a year but not quite yet." 

He's close to my age, I smiled to myself and looked at him with calming eyes urging him to start his story on how he got here in the first place. 

He took a deep breath before starting, "It's not something I'm fond of talking about, the memories are awful but I suppose you would've found out anyway if you had decided to ask James, but I'm glad you asked me.

"I used to live a couple towns over and I was at a party, one of those ones where you don't know many people but someone is always friends with somebody you may know. I was plastered, there were so many people but I got dancing with a girl and she led me outside. Nothing seemed weird about the whole situation so I let her lead me away. Maybe a block down and these guys came out of nowhere, I was drunk and confused, everything was chaotic. 

"The girl stepped away and these two guys grabbed me while another appeared out of the blue in front of me with a needle tipped syringe. The liquid inside was a really pale yellow colour almost clear, I identified it immediately as a tranquillizer.

"I was thrashing around but the guys had an iron grip, I was injected in the arm and it took a while for anything to kick in, but just as everything was getting drowsy I was bitten by the girl and heard a distinct shout of a guy yelling at everyone.

"I woke up here and found out that vampires exist, that I was attacked by a group of them that were planning on adding me to a human slave trade specifically for my blood, coincidentally James was tracking this group down but a couple got away, that's why I decided to stay here where I was better protected. I feel indebted to James for saving my life, but I am aware that if I ever chose to, I could leave.

"My whole situation seems rather pathetic, I'm staying with a bunch of vampires that drink blood from me every now and again, but I know for a fact that the vampires here are much kinder and I would take this over being an actual blood bag for a multitude of vampires that wouldn't hesitate in hurting me.

"And on the plus side, if I never stayed, I wouldn't have met you, Midnight." 

I wasn't sure at which part of his story I started silently crying. Phil had such a faraway look in his eyes as he recalled the events of that night. He went through such a traumatic event and I had thrown him across a room, of course, he would have been scared of me for a while after. 

Yet, here he was telling me that he's glad that he met me. We were so close together, inches apart. Phil and I stared at each other until his eyes flicked to my lips for a split second and back to my eyes. 

"Can I kiss you?" His voice was low and husky, it made my stomach do odd flips. 

My small nod was enough and I didn't think twice when I saw him lean closer.

His hand reached up behind my neck and tugged me closer and then, our lips met.

~~~~~

Dayuummm, how many ships did I just kill? Let me know :)