The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 10

I exhaled when Stump left the room again, taking everything with him, especially the dagger. It took me a while to get back to sleep, and sometime during the night, I woke in a cold sweat.

Memories wound their way through my mind, creating a labyrinth of terror and loss.

Though I had nothing left to remember them, the faces of my long lost home haunted me.

My mother, with her pretty, beloved face. My mother, lying on the ground while her own blood soaked her brown hair red, her dark eyes staring up at me, empty of everything that made her my mother.

My father's features were reflected in my own in the leech's mirrors. His expression had always looked hard, at least as long as I could remember, including while he tried to fight off three bloodsuckers at one time. It had only slackened in the end when they had finally run him through and snapped his neck for good measure.

My sisters, both older than me and similar enough looking that people often thought they were twins, with their heads of dark blond hair and soft green eyes. Pretty girls with pretty smiles, both taken by the leeches. They had been eighteen and nineteen at the time and the odds that they were still alive were slim to nil, but even after a decade I still looked for them in the faces of every human I met.

Other faces from my childhood haunted me. My friends and their families, either killed or dragged off to be food for the leeches.

Melissa, drained until she went pale and limp, in spite of my desperate attempts to reach her.

When he was done with her, that demon bloodsucker cast her body down to the ground as if she was trash. Her warm brown eyes grew cold even as I was dragged away from my home by the very same monsters who had destroyed it.

I had been almost seventeen, then.

Though the years since had been hard, I had not forgotten that leech's face, any more than I had forgotten my family's.

It had short black hair crowning a thin face and angular nose and eyes that were so dark even the red of its bloodlust could barely be seen in the depths.

Hopefully, I would live until I found it again.

My nightmares were a perfect reminder that it was not worth throwing my life away on just the bloodsucker who held me. I could kill it, but not if the act impeded my escape.

My morning was miserable, but at the same time I felt new resolve.

Confined to my room, the day went by painfully slowly. Food was brought to me at intervals which was the only way I could mark the passing of time. I was not locked in, but Leif had suggested I would find myself tortured in the dungeon if I dared leave, since apparently Trisha's and my persistent lack of branding would make the monster look bad to her peers if they noticed.

I had not heard more on the matter since the leech had last mentioned it.

I was not going to complain, even though it was probably holding it over my head to torment me. Every day marked as my own by my clear skin was a bonus to me.

Idly, I began to wonder which vampires had come to call upon the leech. Could any of them be my quarry?

I wanted to know. Was it worth leaving and risking possibly being further confined?

Stump came back to our room during my deliberations.

I decided there might be a better way. "What do the leech's guests look like?"

He looked surprised to see me talking again willingly. He straightened his glasses. I had begun to notice he did that when he was trying to buy time to think. "Why?" he asked.

"I'm curious."

"What will you do if I tell you?"

They were all so suspicious of me, which made sense for the leech, but I would scarcely harm my fellow humans unless they got in my way.

"There is a particular leech I've been looking for, for a while now."

He crossed his arms. "You're not allowed to see the guests. You're unbranded and who knows what you might do."

"I know. That's why I only asked for a description."

"There's no good reason for you to know."

"If you don't tell me, I'll go check myself."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'll just have you locked up."

Did he actually have the authority to do that? I supposed even if he did not, he could always run and tattle to the leech, and the traitor to humanity probably would the moment I pushed him.

I decided not to test it. "Listen, I promise to stay here and cause no trouble, no matter what I learn. I just need to know."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I'm no liar."

"Fine. I'll show you, but stop calling our mistress a leech, especially in front of Marcel. It annoys him and he's not the only one. I don't really care that much, but I'm sick of listening to him rant. If you want to get along here, you can drop the hostility. I don't like vampires any more than you, but she's not so bad."

I ignored his leech loving nonsense and focused on the only thing that he said that actually mattered. "What do you mean, show me?"

"I'll print out the pictures. If you agree."

It would be worth it. "I want their names, too."

"Fine."

"I swear I'll stop calling your mistress a leech." Out loud, at least. So long as my mind was my own, she would always be a filthy monster to me.

He frowned, as if still uncertain whether or not he could trust me. Finally he said, "I'll be right back. Don't leave."

"No intention of it."

It was less than ten minutes before Stump returned, with a few papers in his hands. I took them and scanned the leeches' faces.

The woman, Willow was the only one with black hair. Her face was heart shaped and pretty, but the expression on her sweet features was like that of a salivating monster.

The two men, Katter and Magnus were both likely alluring to women as vampires so often were, Magnus's hair lighter than my own and Katter's the dull shade of mud. The lack of humanity in their eyes was as clear as if it were written on their foreheads.

But, unfortunately, none of them matched the face in my mind.

"So?"

"No, not familiar." I paused. "Are there more of these?"

Stump's suspicion returned in an instant. "Yes?"

"Can I see them?" For the first time since I had been caught and bought, something was finally looking up.

"Sorry, but no. I already went out on a limb for you. After I tell our Mistress, you can ask her yourself if you want to look in the databanks. I'm not going anywhere near that."

"Do you think the—" I caught myself. "She'll agree?"

"No idea. She's not unreasonable, but she seems to—" He stopped himself.

"But she seems to what?"

"I've probably already told you too much. She'll kill me."

"Over this?" I shook the papers.

"Not literally." He straightened his glasses again. "Just talk to her yourself. I've got stuff to do."

He bid a hasty retreat from the room.

His suggestion that I should talk to her and ask myself tasted bitter in my mouth. I did not want to request anything from the vile bloodsucker.

I looked at the printed faces of the leeches again.

I had nothing better to do while they were here than to memorize their features, names, and the other bits of information provided with the pictures.