Vampocalypse (old first draft)

Chapter Fifteen

"I'm no hostage," I piped up. "I'm here because I want to be...I think. Wherever "here" is. Where is here?"

""Here" is headquarters," Hector clarified.

"Headquarters for what?" I wondered.

"The return," the boy said simply.

"I was about to explain a few things before you showed up, Wren."

"It'll have to wait. Max is losing it. She thinks you screwed up and all the plans have to be rearranged. She's been on the war path since yesterday. Better get in there before she slaughters Jun, or busts up the office again."

"Whoa, she's really PO'd, huh?"

"Dude, you have no idea. I've never seen her this ticked."

Hector slumped his shoulders and sighed. He was always surprising me with his human-ish gestures.

"I'll explain things to you soon, I promise," he told me, then to us both, "Come on, time to face the music."

"Is Max... like you?" I asked as we trudged through the wilderness.

"Pfft. She's nothing like Heck here," Wren butted in. "She's scary, that woman. Heck is like Casper the Friendly Ghost of vampires, but Max... well, Max is like Cruella De'Ville."

What I meant to ask was simply, "Is she a vampire," but I got that and more. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by Casper the Friendly Ghost, but I did know who Cruella De'Ville was, thanks to Gramma's stories.

To put it lightly, that worried me. If she was that mean, wouldn't she rip my neck open right away? The prospect didn't seem to bother Hector, as he ushered me forward.

Sweat was beginning to coat my hands as I wondered what I was getting myself into, but as I began to soak in my surroundings, amazement won over nervousness. Though everything was being invaded by the wild, I slowly realized we were amidst some type of amusement park. Thick vines and moss covered concession stands, letters from random signs peeked through weeds, bushes formed shapes of the complicated structures hiding underneath. It went on and on. I was sure, had the wild not taken it, it would be a beautiful, wondrous place.

"Harper," Hector said, bringing me back to earth.

I glanced at him reluctantly. What I really wanted to do was explore, but he was holding weeds and vines to the side, revealing a doorway. Wren stood inside, eagerly pantomiming for me to follow.

Inside, stairs lead downward. We descended in single-file, first Wren, me, then Hector, who'd secured the hidden door behind us.

"Where are we?" I asked, unable to hold the question in anymore.

"Well, it used to be one of the happiest places on Earth," Wren said. "Of course, I never got to give it a whirl. I'm basically human. Heck remembers it, though."

"Yep. A happy place. You would have loved it. Maybe you'll get the chance to enjoy it some day," Hector said. "For now, as I said, Love, it's our headquarters. We're doing a lot here."

I followed them down the off-white hallway with tons of new questions floating through my brain with the old ones.

"Basically human?" I asked Wren. Initially, I hadn't even thought of what he was, but since he pointed it out. . .

"Awe, well, you know. Parents are weres, I'm not. Kind of a bum deal," he said.

No, I didn't know. "I've never met any humans with were parents," I said honestly, wondering what that must have been like for him. But I decided any questions I could ask would seem rude, so I kept my trap shut. It just wasn't good manners.

"Well, that's no surprise. There aren't many." He shrugged, then opened a door in front of him. "Found him!" he announced to someone inside.

"It's about time!" an angry voice exclaimed.

The first face I saw was a thin, smiling Asian man, wearing a lab coat. Then I saw the one the must have referred to as 'Max'. She was a vampire, without a doubt. I could tell from her unbelievably enhanced good-looks. But at the same time, she was unlike any other vampire I had ever seen. instead of the pale-white or dark-ashen skin, she was milk-carmel. Instead of the usual blue eyes, she had one green to go with one blue one.

The most noticeable thing about Max, though, was her size. If I didn't know she could tear off my head in three seconds flat, I may have giggled from the shock of it. She was obviously a young teen when she was changed. I would guess fifteen at the most.

"Why did you bring her down here? Why not leave her with the other survivors to look after her?" she shot at Hector.

"I thought you'd want to meet her," he said.

"Hector, it's none of my business who you date. All I care about is the job you were supposed to do."

"Don't be so cold, Max. That's not why I brought her here-"

"Certainly not," lab coat guy uttered. He leaned toward me, inspecting me seriously. "Astonishing!"

"What?" Max said, growing interested at his reaction.

"You can't tell?" Hector asked, unwilling to elaborate.

I was growing more anxious and confused by the second.

"What?" she demanded impatiently.

"I thought you'd know, I mean I didn't at first, but then I've never-"

"What are you on about Hector? Spit it out. We've got business to take care of."

"But, Max, don't you see? This changes everything," the lab coat guy said, slipping his cleaned glasses back on and standing to have a closer look at me. "Remarkable!"

He was really thrusting me into awkwardville.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"I'm sorry. I'm Jun." He held out his hand to shake mine. He was extremely warm. "I've been so rude. Forgive me, I had no idea there were any left. My, my, my. A living Spellbinder."