Chapter 6 — OLD FRIENDS NEVER DIE.

CONTINUATION…

These were the far outskirts of the town. No vampire activities were carried out her because of human campers Tia had told me. This area was supposed to be a safe place for humans, very far away from the main town. But as I looked into the red glinted gaze of the vampire that had his fingers so tightly wrapped around Dawn's necks she could barely breath, fear enveloped me. I stood up slowly, my canines where visible under the moon light now, protruding from my upper lip and I was sure the same red glint was fixed into my pupils.

Watching Dawn in fear like this sparked a protective instinct in me. It made me want to protect her.

"Let her go!" I shouted across the distance, finding a new bravery to confront this anonymous vampire.

The boy, who was about to stick his inch long fangs into her throat looked up.

He hissed. "She's kill—"

"She's my kill!" I bellowed, muscled tensed, ready to fight him for her life.

"Na, ah…" He swayed his index finger slowly to either side.

I started closing the distance, walking closer and closer to him. He threw her down like a rag, stepping into a path that was lit by the moon above, and that's when I recognized the vampire. My heart skipped a beat. My eyes widened with shock as my mouth unconsciously fell open and I looked at the chubby vampire.

"It can't be..." I whispered.

Flashes of the round, frail looking, and pale face zipped through my mind and with it came the previous feel of nausea from the hospital.

"I watched you die! I watched you die... It CAN'T BE!!!" I bellowed. But even in my doubt I found truth. It could have been as easy as it was to impurify me to impurify him.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." I pressed my hands to my face, pushing back at my eyes. "How is this possible...?"

The face that was once frail and sullen with pain, was now vampire pale and filled with so much hate and anger it emanated off his skin. He didn't seem to recognize me but there was no way I would mistake that round, feature less face. The vampire was the boy who had removed his drip line and died in the hospital beside me.

Dawn had scooted to the side of her car, sh looked on at us. The fear pasted on her face was making her drip with sweat. I avoided her terrified gaze. If I looked at her right now she wouldn't recognize me, all she'll see is a demon.

He looked at me as if looking at a deranged two year old that was babbling nonsense. He focused his gaze on my face and his eye widened with recognition.

"Oh... I remember you. From the hospital..." He said lowly. Dawn was now massaging the area on her neck that was red with bruises from his hold

"You're that dead kid from the hospital..." He said again.

'Dead kid?' I mentally asked myself.

"So you were also—"

"Let's figure it out together... We both do not remember our past we could figure it out..." I said.

"What?" He asked. "I recovered my memories three months ago, I remember everything about myself." He said it with a nasty sneer.

"Oh," I said.

"Wait... Don't tell you are still blanked," He said, and I looked at him, feeling a bit of shame.

"Oh no..." He chuckled nastily.

"Blanked? What do you mean?" I asked him, diverting his drifting attention from Dawn and refocusing him on our conversation. I needed a plan, one that could allow me save Dawn.

'Maybe I could reason with him...' The thought was short and fleeting.

"It doesn't matter, some vampires take longer to remember their past lives, but it shouldn't really matter, I mean you are one of us now so who needs their past life anyway?” He guffawed loudly, throwing his head back. His laughter seemed to echo endlessly through open air.

“You are a powerful being, use your power to trample on these weak, pathetic humans,” He looked at Dawn with a sneer kn his face.

“But you were once human too,” I said, “you were like her before your impurification. When we were both in that hospital it was fellow humans who took care of us, day after day. Those humans showed us only love and compassion, they were like our family. So why kill a human if all they’ve done is show you love?”

He looked at me skeptically, and for a moment I thought I had gotten to him but he threw his head and guffawed loudly.

“Do you think I don’t know that?" He was still chuckling. "Or should I say, I once believed that lie. Those humans didn’t love us, couldn’t you see the hate and disgust that lay masked behind their eyes? Your cancer must have fried up your brain cells for you not to have been able to see it."

“So consider this revenge, revenge for all the hate the had me—for us.”

"Revenge?" I asked.

"Don't even get me started, she knows about us now. I'm only doing what's right by killing her. Maybe when this is done, we could talk about helping you to recover your memories, huh?"

I needed to be smarter.

"Yeah..." I looked at Dawn with the same evil glare he had, she gasped slowly and I could hear her galloping heartbeat. "Kill her and let's get on with it."

He smiled, an evil on. I couldn't let him see through me. Not when Dawn's life hung in the balance.

In one swift motion he had grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up. I winced as she whispered, begging him for her life.

"Consider this, mercy..." The last word left his mouth with a long hiss and he bent over, fangs towards her neck.

He was only a centimeter away from the killing blow, I needed him to get too enveloped in his blood thirsty instinct to stop.

My face twisted with rage as I willed my legs to move. I saw everything in slow motion, Dawn's reddened face with fear, the boy's twisted one with a demonic glare, it was all so slow. I easily pulled out a long, thick branch from a new by tree before speeding towards him. He barely had anytime to react before I had shoved Dawn aside and drove the blunt edge of the branch through his chest.

His eyes bulged out of his skull, the corner of his lips quivering sightly. I heard him swallow hard before he slowly looked down at where the branch went straight through his heart. I saw his eyes roll back and then his skin started to singe and evaporate in a burning like manner. I backed away from him, frightened by what I had done.

The singeing turned into a low burn that destroyed even his clothes. His skin burned out and then the tissue under burned away as well. He didn't even scream, only gasping slightly until his entire body, bone, tissue and all dispersing into the air like thin ash and the branch dropped to the ground, the blood on it evaporating also. There was nothing left of him. He was gone.

The blood that pounded in my ears was calming drastically. I knew I would be killed for this. I had almost forgotten about Dawn before her brittle voice broke into the silence.

"What are you?" She stood up from the spot I had pushed her to.

I turned and looked at her and she backed away.

"Dawn...."

"Stay away from me!" She warned.

There was no convincing her now. I didn't have the ability of the mind's-eye like Jhan. I couldn't just make it all go away.

"What are you?" She asked, her voice sounding a bit more bold.

"Nothing... Nothing you have deal with anymore..." I looked at the dirt at my feet. The vampire I had just killed once stood upon this ground as well, but now he was gone.

"Goodbye Dawn. Get into you car and drive home. Keep you mouth shut and you just might live..."

I took my eyes up to hers, she could only probably see the demon that had just told that vampire to kill her.

But I was in more fear that she was. I had killed a fellow vampire and also protected a human in the process.

Dawn didn't move from where she observed me. The tears that wet her face where now only moist lines that traced down her face.

I gave her one last look before I heard the loud cracking sound and I was speeding through the trees.