I suppressed a hungry growl threatening to erupt from my throat. From listening closely, I had them pinpointed; one was to my left, just by the edge of the woods maybe sixty yards away and the other one to my right, slightly closer, also by the edge. My nose wrinkled in disgust from the scent they carried. From what I figured, they were disguised in actual shit to hide their own scent as they surrounded the animals. It was rather clever when you were just dealing with clueless animals, but a vampire was another matter. The scent of their blood was simply too powerful that not even foul-smelling human waste could hide it if you just focused hard enough. I didn't want to admit to myself that I had almost missed their scents because I hadn't tried harder.
I sat back a little and watched the deer still grazing, completely unaware that something was about to happen, but something didn't seem right to me. I knew I had heard three different sounds, so there had to be a third person somewhere, but my extended hearing didn't pick up a third human heartbeat.
Another one of their bird calls sounded, but this time it came from across the clearing with two quick responses. It sounded like they were getting ready to attack.
I smiled to myself, my mind already on the blood fest I would be having very soon.
Three sharp whistles broke my stream of thought and I heard them move before I saw them. I ducked low in the foliage as the two people on either side of me stepped into the clearing with raised weapons. Homemade spears it looked like. One was a man, tall and slender, but I clearly saw the muscles in his upper arms as he gripped his spear. The other one was a woman, shorter and very skinny, like myself when I hadn't eaten a decent amount of food for a while.
They both crept closer, spears raised for an attack, but the next thing happened so fast that if I hadn't had my vampire senses, I would have missed the whole thing.
The deer abruptly raised their heads, picking up the movement ahead and bolted in the opposite direction.
Across the clearing came a dark blur and in the seconds it took for me to register it was a person, they had already taken down the two deer.
Shouts of victory erupted from the two people in front of me as they hurried towards their fallen prey, leaving me to realize what had happened as I listened for three heartbeats, but only finding two.
The third was a vampire.
Which meant there was a good chance that they already knew I was there.
I crept backwards, keeping my eyes on the people in front of me. I needed to get back to the road and away from here, hoping the deer would keep them occupied as I got away.
Of course, I wasn't that lucky.
Just as I took off, something hard tackled me to the ground from behind. My arms were pinned by two strong hands and my body and thighs were pinned on either side by muscular legs. I bucked, trying to lift myself up, but to no avail.
"And who do we have here?" A calm male voice asked in the dark, but I could see him smiling at my feeble attempts of escape. His red eyes gleamed in the pale moonlight that had broken through the treetops.
"Get off of me," I snarled. I tried to get the upper hand, but this vampire was older and much stronger than I was.
"I thought we'd all established in the past that only blind people or pretentious dicks wore sunglasses when it's dark," the man chuckled, "so which one are you?" With a quick flick of his hand, my sunglasses landed on the ground next to my face. My bright blue eyes stared up at the man, who jerked his head back in surprise, then cocked it to the side.
"Well, that's new."
"Will you get off me?" I growled once more, feeling my gift stir inside me. If he didn't get off of me soon then I'd be more than happy to show him why my eyes were different from his.
Another chuckle and I felt the grip from his hands and legs loosen. He didn't get up, but made me crawl out from under him much to his own enjoyment. It wasn't until I stood up straight that he got up himself, casually dusting off his pants. He was a little taller than me, but nothing like Nox or Shax. He wore dark pants and a long-sleeved black shirt. His short hair, as far as I could tell was blonde, but it was caked with dirt. I had no clue as to how old he was in vampire years, but he looked several years older than me in human years.
"You are a vamp, right? I can smell the fangs on you, but your eyes..." his voice trailed off as he studied me closer, a faint smile still lingering on his lips.
"I'm a vampire, yes," I replied curtly.
"Interesting." Just then, I heard the approach of the two humans.
"Jackson, what the hell? You just took off. Was there another deer?" It was the woman. The other man followed close on her heels.
"No, not a deer," the vampire named Jackson replied, keeping his eyes firmly on me as he studied me.
The two humans finally arrived and the woman was quick to raise her self-made weapon at me. "She a human?" The woman was also older, with dark skin and a shaved head. Had she been a vampire I might have been scared of her and the amount of fighter instinct that oozed from her every pore. She was by no means a weak human. But a human nonetheless. Also she smelt terribly from the smears of feces across her clothes. Yuck.
The man behind the woman moved to lower her spear. "Look at her eyes, Nia. She's clearly human." The man also had reeked and I closed off my sense of smell. Could vampires gag? Not that I wanted to find out in this company.
"Don't be fooled by those pretty blues," Jackson said with an amused expression on his face. "She's very much a vampire like myself, but perhaps something else as well."
I bit my tongue and chose not to answer that.
The man took a step back and Nia instantly raised her spear again. "Why are you sneaking around here? This is our turf."
Turf? I had no clue what that meant.
I replied casually, "I caught the scent of the deer from up the road and–"
"Our deer," Nia interrupted.
"Well sure, you obviously got there first," I shrugged.
"We're not playing games here," Nia said. I thought she was going to actually growl at me.
"Down girl." Jackson moved his hand and lowered the woman's spear.
I watched the three of them interact. Jackson, the vampire, seemed to be in control. From what I could tell, the woman, Nia, and that other man weren't wearing bracelets as a sign that they had vampire protection. They didn't act like they were hostages. Were they actually working together? Humans and vampire? How had it come to happen? I wondered silently.
You did that, a voice in my head whispered. Before you were turned. You helped Nox and Sam.
This was clearly a way for them to stay alive. Interesting.
"We should just kill her and get back to our kill," Nia said, as if I couldn't hear her. I was getting annoyed with her already.
"I get it, they're your deer. Although I don't see how you could eat anything when smelling like that."
Jackson continued to smile, his eyes never leaving me and I knew he had to be the main focus of my attention. I had no idea what he was thinking, but if he associated willingly with humans, going as far as hunting with them, then he couldn't be a soulless bloodsucker like most of the others.
Perhaps I had a chance of getting out of there.
"What brings you out here? So far from everything," Jackson asked me.
"I was just passing through and I would like to be on my way again."
"Are you thirsty? There's an awful lot of blood just lying back there."
I couldn't tell if he was baiting me.
"I doubt I'm invited," I said, nodding towards Nia who still stood just a step behind Jackson, spear raised in both hands.
"Don't worry, only her words bite." Another grin. "And I would love to hear the undoubtedly fascinating tale of how such a bright blue pair of eyes came to belong to a vampire."
"I have no reason to trust you," I said, weighing the situation in my head. The humans only needed the meat and skin; they had no use for the blood. Two large deer would be too much for a single vampire to feed on. Would he have left the rest of maybe bottled it for later?
"You also have no reason not to trust me. After all, we're both creatures of the night." I could tell that last part was an attempt at being funny. He really didn't seem very serious, which was why I ignored the rational part of me that just wanted to get the hell out of there and continue towards D.C and instead smiled back at him.
"I've never had deer blood before."
Nia snorted and Jackson practically beamed. "Your first taste then. Excellent. Just keep your hands and teeth off of Nia and Paul and we won't have a problem."
I nodded once, glancing at the two humans in front of me. Nia still hadn't lowered her spear, but the guy, Paul, stood with his weapon at his side, visibly more relaxed, yet his eyes were alert. He was taller than Jackson, around the same height as Nox and was also wearing a set of grimy dark clothes. His skin was light brown with dark hair cropped close to his head just like Nia.
"Whatever," Nia finally grumbled and turned around, stalking back towards the clearing with Paul close behind her.
"This really is the most interesting night I've had in a while," Jackson grinned at me as he beckoned me to follow him. I kept my distance, still looking for any signs that he would try to kill me.
"You're new, I can tell," Jackson stated, eyeing me sideways as we followed his two human friends.
"And you're old?"
"Not as old as some of the dust-bunnies who think they own everything and everyone. I was still human when the takeover happened. I liked my human life. I miss those simple days of putting on a nice suit, heading to work in the city, coming home to a nice meal and then repeating it all over the next day."
I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, but that sounded... strange.
"I was turned not long ago," I said. "About three full moons ago, I think."
"Three months? Why then you're just a baby. Where is your maker?"
We'd come to the clearing and I avoided answering the question as we halted in front of Nia and Paul who were guarding the deer.
"Vamps feast first then we cut up the meat for these two delightful people, who both need to jump in the lake and wash up before dinner because I like the smell of deer, but not the smell of shit. Go on you two."
Nia scowled and I was beginning to wonder if that was just her natural expression. Paul nudged her and they both walked off to the small lake on the opposite side of the clearing.
Jackson gestured for me to take the deer on the left as he crouched down by the one on the right, its neck and head twisted around in an obscure position. He bit into the animal and hummed. I kept a watchful eye on Nia and her spear as I lowered myself to the ground, letting my knees support the rest of my body. I lifted the dead animal up to my mouth and sank my fangs into its skin. The blood tasted grassy and strange, but it was still warm and silky smooth and my hunger screamed at me so I sucked the blood as quickly as I could.
Unlike the other times, I'd fed in blood hotels I didn't have to worry about drinking too much. I was able to drink as much as I wanted, and I did until my stomach felt uncomfortably full, which was an unusual feeling for me.
Now I just needed to figure out what to do with these people.