Resentment

Part 6

“Can you access government files from this computer?” I asked. She tried to shake her head but I stopped her. “I think you’re lying to me Cassandra.” Beatrice, Felix and Jamie silently entered the room behind us and shut the door. “Now, I’m going to let go of your mouth and you’re not going to scream ok?” she nodded.

Satisfied I released her and spun her chair around to face me. At the sight of my face her eyes widened in horror.

“Vampire!” she exclaimed. All at once she began to cry. With trembling fingers she fumbled for the small shiny cross around her neck and held it towards me. “Get away!”

I raised my eyebrows in amusement “Seriously?” I drew out the cross around my own neck and showed it to her, letting it catch the light for a moment before I tucked it back into my shirt. “God’s not the one with a problem with us.” I didn’t know that for certain of course, but I did know that the cross had no effect on me whatsoever.

“Even so, this is still effective!” without warning she lunged at me, pressing the small piece of mental hard against my face.

With a shriek of pain I threw her away from me, causing her to land hard on the floor. Silver; I had been stupid not to have seen that coming. Scrabbling quickly to her feet, her eyes darted around the room in panic. I watched as she realised that all escape routes were blocked off, as she backed as far as possible away from us.

Glancing in the mirror on the wall I frowned at the cross- shaped, red raw mark on my cheek. “That wasn’t nice.”

Her lips twisted in disgust, “You don’t deserve niceness.”

My desire to question her beliefs overrode my desire to quickly get the job done; “and why is that?” I asked, “isn’t it basic human courtesy to be nice, or at least civil to people?”

“You are neither human, nor a person.” She retorted coldly.

Before I had a chance to reply to this Jamie stepped forward. I watched as her gaze flitted to him and I knew she saw what I did. Despite his recent injury his skin had a warm and healthy glow to it; his eyes were calm and almost friendly. There was just something indefinable about him that screamed human.

“As a fellow human, I think you should know that I was once in your position.” He said, “Or worse I think. I was a vampire hunter long before all of this started and it was my life.” He smiled a little sadly, “I truly believed that killing vampires was the right thing to do.” when he glanced at me I met his gaze, smiling in reassurance. I knew his history was probably painful to think about now. “But it turned out I was wrong. Very, very wrong in fact. I know now that vampires are people, just like the rest us. They can think, fear, hate and love… same as any human.”

She looked at him scornfully; “I’m sure you may once have been a decent boy… but I’m sad to say you have been corrupted by them. You’ve fallen for their tricks and lies. They don’t really care about you at all, it’s all an act.”

Before I had the chance to tell Jamie that she wasn’t worth the effort, the soft thudding of helicopter blades caught my attention. The sound was getting louder by the second, indicating the aircraft was approaching rapidly. The wail of multiple sirens suddenly broke out as cars screeched into the street both in front and behind the house. Clever; they had snuck up on us, allowing me to assume that the cars were just part of normal traffic until they had us surrounded. I cursed myself for not listening closer. Risking a glance out of my window I watched as countless armed police and to my slight surprise army men set up a perimeter. It didn’t take long for numerous weapons to be pointed in the direction of the building.