TAINTED | CHAPTER ONE
The new girl
18 years and 359 days later
I pressed my pencil against my cheek as I looked at the math problem on the paper. I was good at many things, but numbers were not my exact calling in the world. My foot latched onto the bar of the chair as I leaned forward. After a while of just sitting there looking blankly at the paper, I gave up on the work. I'd have to talk to my professor later.
Instead, I took a piece of scratch paper from my pack and drew aimlessly on it until it became something. From the light shading, I imagined she had soft blond hair, almost white that went past her shoulders, but was longer; however, I only drew her until the shoulders. She had these remarkable lips that were plumped and pouty. Her cheekbones were high and enchanting making her look unique in appearance. I didn't know what possessed me to draw something so beautiful, but I was happy with it.
When I looked up from the paper momentarily to stretch, the strangest thing happened. I thought my eyes were playing tricks, but right across from me, out of a window, the girl from my drawing was there staring at me, with a hand on the window. I would be lying If I said I wasn't terrified. I shifted my gaze from the window to gain composure and then returned to it. But this time she was gone.
Maybe, I was just sleepy and was imagining things.
Taking in a deep breath I returned to my drawing. I was adding more detail in the sketch.
The chair beside me had pulled out and made me break gaze from my paper. When I looked up, I saw the girl from the window. It baffled me how similar she looked to the drawing. "Hello," she whispered angelically to me with a dimpled smile on her face. She had an accent that was foreign but nothing I could recognize.
For a moment, I just stared at her, and her smile faltered. "Hello." My voice was quiet, even more so than a whisper. I looked back down at my sketch, hiding it with my arm. The girl looked down at what she could see of the sketch, and then back at me.
"I'm Valentina."
"I'm Al," I went to introduce myself and she quickly cut me off.
"Alexander," she said, smiling.
She just said my name. How could that be possible? Well, she might have known because I was mentioned quite a lot around this small town. That didn't change the fact that this stranger knew my name. "How'd you know that?" I asked, moving my chair away from her just a tad. It puzzled me how similar she resembled my drawing. As I thought her hair was longer than just shoulder length it went to her hips. It looked incredibly soft. My eyes focused on hers as she spoke.
"I know a lot of things about you Alexander." She simply answered as she got out of her chair. She walked behind me and circled her arms around my neck. Leaning in she whispered, "I know more about you than you do yourself." Her breath tickled my ear and caused me to have a very uneasy feeling in my stomach. "My king," she breathed in a raspy low voice. I had felt every vibration of her smooth voice ringing in my eardrum.
I was more than freaked out by her, but I couldn't let my face give it away. Coolly, I eased her arms off my neck and stood up collecting my things. "I am not your king," I said walking past her.
My feet darted to the nearest exit door in the library building. Which happen to be not too far from where I parked. Before I left out, I let myself glance toward Valentina one more time. I wanted to make sure I didn't just imagine her. But nope she was still there sitting at the desk with a smirk on her lips. I turned back toward the exit and left to the parking lot.
An angelic voice stroked my thoughts as I went out into my car. 'You cannot run away from me, I will find you once again, my king.' I looked around to see where the voice had come from, but I was all alone. I took in a deep breath trying to relax my nerves. I was hearing things.
Subconsciously I bit my lip. I didn't realize how hard I bit until my blood started to seep into my mouth. It had raised an unfamiliar thrashing fire in my throat. I let off my lips and licked the blood that was there, and the taste was sweet, but wasn't sickening. After a moment, the torch in my throat had stopped and subsided.
My phone buzzed in my pocket alarming me that my mom wanted me to come over after I studied. She said she had something urgent to tell me today. I loved her so I'd do anything for her. I started my car and made my way down the highway.
I watched the trees fly past me in a blur as I sped down the highway going above the speed limit. I flung my hand through my hair and closed my eyes for a second feeling a rush.
When I opened them again, I was too close to the car in front of me. I had to ease off the gas pedal and nudged the break to slow down. Just by luck I slowed down enough to miss them. When I checked in the rear-view mirror to see if anyone was behind me there was. Their car smacked into the rear of mine.
My body jolted forward causing my seat belt to choke the living Christ out of me. I pulled back from the belt to loosen it up and wrapped my fingers around my neck so I can sooth the spot. After a couple of minutes spent composing myself, I got out. I walked to the back of my car to look at my damages. The rear was busted up bad, the bumper had fallen off and the frame was crushed. It didn't seem fixable. Stretching a bit, I looked at my car one more time before approaching the other.
It seemed like there was not even a scratch on the framework as I approached it. Their car seemed to be perfect with a high shine gloss that sparkled in the sun.
When I reached their tinted windows, I knocked lightly. "Are you kidding mate? I hope you're okay because I need to take down your insurance."
The window rolled down, and that same girl smiled sweetly at me. "Your car is completely wrecked. Let me give you a lift? It would be so wrong of me if I didn't."
"Are you following me? Then you have the nerve to hit me." I asked in disbelief.
"Well, you didn't let me explain things any further back there. So yes, I followed you, Alexander. It was the only way. I even told you that I was going to do so. Why be shocked? I didn't mean to hit you. That was truly an accident." She asked while putting on sunglasses. She had been squinting badly. Tears started to stream down her eyes.
"You are mad!" I spat at her.
"And you are the King of my kingdom. I care about the King, and you so happened to be him; may you please get in the car? We need to go to your mother's. She needs to hear this too." She said icily. I looked at her for a moment and a snarl had twisted her angelic face. "Get the fuck in the car so we can go. Or are you really trying to take that wrecked car to your mother's?"
"How do you know about my mom? I can walk back, your stalker," I looked her up and down in confusion.
"Get in the car and stop with the dramatics. I knew how to find you. Of course, I'm going to know about the human who raised you." She demanded. I wasn't going to take that from a stranger and on top of that a crazy-ass one. I turned back on the road, put my hands in my pockets, and started towards my mother's house. "Suit yourself, you royal ass, I'll just be waiting at your mother's house." She shouted out when she raced away.
I rolled my eyes and walked up to my car. I couldn't just leave it in the middle of the street, so I parked it off to the side of the road and left a note in the window.
Once it was parked with a note in the window I started running. I had to make it there before she did. My mom's place wasn't that far away, and I could honestly run the highway in six minutes.
I started running down the side of the highway next to the railing in case a car came. I took off at an easy pace, but I had an urge to go faster. And as I did my joints in my knees glided so effortlessly it propelled me forward. I could feel every tendon flexing inside of my thighs strengthening the speed that felt unhuman. Each stride I took felt like my normal twenty count. I always was a fast runner, but this felt different. I could even hear the wind whistle past my ears cheering me on. I never felt this sensation before. It was new, and it was exciting.
It was a matter of minutes maybe even seconds, but I wasn't giving myself that much credit when I arrived at my mother's house. I was impressed I didn't pass it and how fast I could stop. When my eyes focused near the driveway, I saw the sports car sitting in front of its curbs. It was that girl's car. That glossy paint was hard to forget. She was leaning on top of it casually with her hand in her hair. She wore a silk tight shirt that clung to her and black leather pants. She had those same sunshades on making her look badass.
"You made it the easy way; it seems." She beamed at me walking over in my direction. Her walk was catlike and sexy. It was as if I were her prey. "If you would just let me, explain the reasoning of your ability, then... you will understand and would want to help me. But we cannot let you hide amongst the humans any longer." Her voice was like fire. It was ignited with passion.
"What do you mean live amongst humans? We're both human..."
She cut me off by laughing wildly. What could she be laughing at? I said the truest statement ever so possible. We were humans. Did she not see us? "No darling, we are not. Especially you. You are of the royal blood."
All of what she was saying made no sense to me. If I wasn't human, what could I be? I moved closer to her and looked her deep in her eyes. "If I'm not then what am I?" I asked her, looking quite smug. I was confident she wouldn't have anything to say other than humans. However, she outdid me and said the impossible.
"A vampire darling." She smiled wickedly as my smug expression wiped right off my face.
"I don't drink blood," I said determined to knock her off her high horse. She was wrong about me, and I knew that in my heart that she was.
"If you care to let me, explain inside with your mother in sight this would be so much easier to prove this to you. Stop being a prude." I didn't know what a prude was, but I could feel I should have been insulted.
"Fine, you ridiculous woman," I muttered as I grabbed a hold of her arm. I was curious about what she meant. My mom's house was quite old fashioned. It had that homey feeling to it as you walked in you could feel the warmth. There were pictures of me when I was a young boy plastered everywhere.
I was an only child, my mother and father ever had. My dad had passed maybe a year ago right before my high school graduation. It was a sad time, but my mother took it quite well. If that's what well looked like. This last year I was trying to be there for her, but I had school and a job to balance all at once. It was fine for me, but it wasn't for her.
As we walked into the house, I smelt the warming of cookies in the oven. It was quite remarkable because I smelt everything, she put in them. There was cinnamon, nutmeg, and others, but each scent was different from the other in a profound new way that I never realized before.
The girl beside me mouth stretched into a smile as she saw me sniff the sudden fragranced air. "Mum!" I called out and I heard the shuffling of her tiny feet hit the ground as she worked her way over to my voice. My mother had aged well. She had a few hinted wrinkles but besides that, she didn't look a day over forty.
"Alexander! You came, and you brought a girl!" She exclaimed pulling me into a warm hug. I returned the embrace pulling in on her deeply. I could feel the heat from her body as we touched. When we were connected, I thought I could hear the faint fluttering of her heart. Her soft brown hair tickled my nose as I pulled away. I looked at her stuck for a moment in the scent of her. Before I could breathe her in Valentina distracted me with her comment.
"Cute," muttered the she-devil that was standing beside me. I rolled my eyes and she smiled graciously at my mother as if she never insulted her, but by the looks of it my mom hadn't heard a thing. My mom pulled Valentina in a hug, and she returned it right back. "It is so nice to meet you. Alex has been hiding me away." She suddenly said. I looked at her in odd confusion for a second and I saw my mom's face hardened with disappointment.
"Why hide such a pretty girl away from me? Are you ashamed of your girlfriend?" My eyes boggled out of my head.
"That's not my girlfriend," I quickly interjected. Then I heard the waterworks from beside me. She had started to cry and said something about how I didn't care about her. My mother quickly took her fend and tried to comfort her. "I just met this girl. She is crazy, mum. I did nothing wrong! She hit me with her car," My mom gave me that look that said, 'I better get out of her sight.' I quietly obeyed and entered the living room.
After what seemed like a short while the two entered the room and Val's chest was heaving up and down. My mother, on the other hand, looked upset at me. I clearly did nothing, but it was turning into something huge. "You haven't let me meet her in three months? She said she has been begging you. And when you do you make her cry? What is wrong with you? I thought I raised you better than this?"
"Mum, what in the hell are you talking about? I met this girl merely an hour ago, if that even, in the library. She is utterly mad. She followed me up to the mountainside and smashed the back of my car. This girl is lying to you." I said as I got up. I wasn't going to take this, from either of them especially that psychopath next to my mother.
"You can put up with her lies. I'm not, mum." I eagerly said as I left out of the door. I didn't need this now. The second I walked past them, Val, moved into sweeping my mother into a headlock. "What the hell are you doing?" I said outraged.
My mother did not struggle under the girl. She had almost a calm expression on her face like she was welcoming whatever it was to come. I had almost launched at Valentina. However, my mother calmly had pushed me away with her hand as I approached them. "It's okay, honey." She said with a blank expression on her face. "It's okay," she whispered under her breath a second time. I didn't know how I could hear her that low, but it sounded like it was self-reassuring and not for me.
"I'm proving to you that we are fucking vampires' idiot. Plus, saving you from dreadful hurt in the future if this woman dies." She spoke calmly to me as she proceeded.
She let go of my mother and dragged her by one arm in front of her. My mom closed her eyes and Valentina proceeded. She exposed her teeth and bit down on her own finger breaking her skin. I could smell her sweet blood pulse through the tiny hole. She then leaned in and bit deeply into my mother's neck.
The way her skin broke you could hear it pop. It was like breaking the skin of a sausage. She came up just as fast as her teeth went in. She calmly set the finger that was leaking out blood onto the fresh wound.
"How does this prove anything? All you did was left a hole in my mother's throat." I growled at her. But I was also quite interested in what she had planned.
My mother's body fell limply forward into Valentina's chest, and she quickly wrapped her arms around her shoulder holding her weight. She then gracefully picked her up and made her path to the couch in the living room. Once she was able to give me the full attention she said, "We needed to exchange blood for her to turn Elguto."
"Elguto?" I questioned back in utter confusion.
"It means she wasn't born a vampire; she was transformed. An elguto vampire is an unclean one, an unclean vampire is the one that is infected. It's the lowest form, but at least she'll be immortal right?" She spoke.
"What did you say we were?" I muttered as I heard my mother's heart slowed to a low whisper.