Miranda had been in that horrible basement for two weeks and she hated every second of it. While it seemed that Drew didn’t use sexual abuse, he wasn’t above using physical and emotional. She hadn’t been able to hunt and that was torturous in itself and dangerous for anyone with blood.
Her blood lust might activated and it was the one trait that might the humans hate them, thinking it was just them being monster and wanting to kill their kind. Blood lust wasn’t the need to survive, but a basic instinct, one that wanted to keep up their energy.
Her skin was covered in bruises, burns and cuts, each one standing out on her pale skin. At first they would just heal, but her healing was getting slower the longer she was without blood. Her muscles would be the next thing that would be effected. If she was without blood for a year, then she would die. It didn’t have anything to do with blood lust, but a lack of energy to keep her body moving and her organs going.
The silver didn’t help, slowing down her healing and thought process. Silver wasn’t deadly to her or her kind, but was enough to slow down pretty much everything. Some of the turned and half-bloods had dead from having too much gold or silver in their bodies.
She was glad that she was born after the late 1600’s, since she was sure that he would’ve cut them off. He was known for keeping her kind alive, just so he could kill them slowly. Barely any one had gotten away from him alive.
Logan of the noble Jaden family was the only one to ever get away. His story was one filled with torture and horrors, ones done at the hands of the man who kept her in a cage. His parents had been kind enough to pass the story alone, one that Logan had written.
The Jaden’s were close to her family and Logan had been one of her friends. It’s been four years since she saw them, along with the Angela and Lynn families. Three years since the Zion and Aubree families. Two years since the Rea and Brayan family. The Allen’s disappeared only six months before her own family.
He and his guild were able to track down the twelve half-blood families. She didn’t know many of them, since they were easier to kill then the pure bloods.
Two weeks and the only way she could tell, was the fact that he came down in the afternoons and stayed until dinner. Where Josue would always come to tell him that dinner was ready. Miranda was starting to love Josue’s voice, it meant the monster was going and she would be left alone in peace.
After the second time he came down, Drew started to demand for information. Small things like their wings to weakness that humans didn’t know about. He wouldn’t tell her what he needed it for, but she was sure that he’d use it against her.
She didn’t know if she was the last, but if she told him these things. It would make it easier for them to track them down, if they were any left. It was the only thing she hoped for, that some of her kind was just in hiding.
It was how she got the burn on the back of her leg. It was the reason that her jeans were ripped between her knee and hip, her singlet just under her breast.
He had left her fangs alone, but she wasn’t sure how long that had last. The only reason they were still in her skull, was the fact, that no matter what she never used them against the horrible human.
She was mostly left alone with her thoughts, ones of hatred and memories of better times. An event four years ago, made that man hunt her kind worse than he was. Before they would only kill the ones who were going mad, some with blood lust and others with mental illness.
When she heard the door open, she was prepared to take whatever he gave her. Both mentally and physically.
--
Austin could hear the girl’s screams. Even through his dad most likely used a gag on the young vampire, her screams still bounced off the walls and into his room.
He wasn’t blind nor was he has stupid as his brother and dad thought he was, he knew what his dad was doing to the girl. He had seen his dad keep vampires alive for hours, just so he could burn them alive, cut off their wings and pull their fangs out. He had killed children in front of their parents, who had gone mad. His dad called it ‘blood lust’, but Austin called it justified angry. He was thinking about going to the basement.
Josue almost walked in one a ‘training’ season once, and the poor nineteen year old had a lovely bruise on his check. He was trying not to rip the book he was reading in half, he knew his dad was going away soon and wouldn’t be back for a week.
His dad was going to Germany to check out a rumour, the locals thought they saw a vampire. A large male, who was ‘praying’ on their people. They thought that he was the reason people where turning up dead in the forest. It was almost impossible to kill a whole race, but it could be done, like the animals his kind had pulled into being extinct.
Soon, the screams had stopped and Austin left his room. Seeing his dad walking to the front of the house. Drew stopped to look at his eldest son, Jerry was at a friend’s house. “Austin,”
“Yes, dad,”
“You’re in charge,” he told him, pointing his finger at the young adult “So make sure that no one enters the basement,”
“Of course,” Austin told him and watched him leave. A week or two, without his dad. That meant the poor girl was going to be left alone for a while, without being beaten and tortured. He walked to the basement door, wondering if he should go down and tell her.
She might not want to see the son of the person, who had killed most of her kind and majority of her family. The son of the person who was making her life a living nightmare, one he would never wish on anyone, even his worse enemies.
“Austin, the girl’s a vampire,” a soft voice came from behind him, turning around he saw the cook of the house and one of his cousins. She was small, but not as small as the blonde vampire. She kept her brunette hair to her shoulders. She and Austin had grown up together, since Tamia was born only four months before Austin was.
“Tamia, what makes you say that?” Austin asked while turning the knob of the basement door, only to find it locked.
“I made a key… and Austin, who else would he torture, not humans that’s for sure,” Tamia told him a frown on her face, as she gave him the basement key, and pointed to the first aid kit at her feet “Take this, Drew isn’t known for being kind to them,”
“Thank you, Tamia,”
Tamia smiled at him, as she handed him the first aid kit, going back to the kitchen to start making dinner. She never hated the whole race of vampires, she might dislike the ones who killed her parents, but that was only one or two. Where Drew took it too far and hated the whole race, even when he killed the one who murdered his wife, then the one who killed his son.
“Oh dear god,” he whispered having entered the basement, he knew the room was covered in blood, on hot days everyone could smell it. It was the cage in the middle of the room that had his attention.
He thought the blonde was dead. With how many burns and cuts that where on her skin. However, when dull blue and crimson eyes looked at him, then widened he knew she was just badly hurt.
Miranda had thought Drew had left, so she was surprised to see a tall tanned male looking at her. So when she flinched, expecting to be hit about something she didn’t remember doing. So she was surprised when the sun kissed hand just gently stayed on her hair.
Austin looked at her cuts and burns, the one on the back of her leg was a second degree burn. It didn’t need to be looked at by a doctor, but it was very close to needing a trip to the hospital. He understood, why he needed the first aid kit, even though he could use his energy to heal.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered while getting some of the knots out of her hair “but don’t worry I won’t hurt you, but I need to look at your cuts and burns.”
“No! You humans are all the same,” she cried making him stop his hand. Tears going down her face as she looked at him, sobbing between her words “All you do is take. You killed us, simply because you don’t understand. You burned our homes and made us run, taking away our love ones. Your monster, who think everything should go your way,”
Austin was at a lost, he didn’t know what do with the crying girl, but he wasn’t going to leave her alone. Remembering what his mum told him about hugs, he stood up and walked over to the door of the cage.
Miranda thought she was going to be beaten for her outburst, like the other four times she did it, Instead, arms gently picked her up and pulled her out of her prison.
Austin just sat down, putting the girl on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. Gently rocking her as she cried, whispering that it was okay, putting his chin on her head. When she stopped crying he put his hand under her chin, making her look him in the eye.
“I’m sorry for what my dad has done to you,” he whispered, letting his healing energy go into her body, healing the mess of injuries “I understand if you don’t trust me. However, I’m going to heal injuries,”
“Why?” she asked looking into his green eyes, different to the dark brown that belonged to that monster.
“Why, what?”
“Humans have hated my kind for eons, why are you healing me?” she asked while his attention was put on the side of her mouth, where a thin trail of blood was coming out of her mouth, his dad had pulled out her fangs.
“Because your kind is misjudged and I want to understand. I’m curious about you,” Austin told her with a smile on his face “I’ve always been against killing your kind just because. The nuttier and more murderous ones I have problem with, but one kind can’t all be the same,”
“Thank you.”
“Huh?”
“You’re the first human to treat me kindly, talked instead of insult. You’re healing the injuries that your father had given me. No mortal has done that before, sure the Natives left us alone… as long as we left them alone. My family has been in America before it was America, in 1598,” she told him, while he wondered why her family came to unknown land. Something must have happened in the country her family used to live in. He was sure that the Black’s used to live in either today Germany or Poland.
“I’m Austin, by the way,” he told her when her injuries were treated, all of them gone. Leaving behind pale skin “I came down to tell you my dad was going to be gone for a week or two, most likely two, since they’re going after a rumour,”
Miranda didn’t know how she mistook the two. The only thing they shared was tanned skin and brown hair. He didn’t have as muscle as the monster, he was lean instead. He also had kind green eyes, even if they were an acid green.
“May I have your name?” he asked her, breaking the silence the two were in. Austin didn’t want to offend the girl, while Miranda was too used to getting hit for saying the wrong thing.
“Miranda.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
“Thanks,” Miranda told him. The smile on his face was setting warning bells of in her head. She didn’t know what they were warning her against, but they were warning her.
“Miranda, why don’t we get to know each other and become friends?” Austin asked he wanted to get to know her better. He wanted to know more about her, other than her being a vampire. He was sure, that like humanity, each vampire had a different personality.
“We can try,”