Chapter Three

The next day happened to be a Saturday, thus I awoke later than usual and stayed at home. I occupied much of my time thinking out different techniques to get Travis. I had taken my mother's advice and gotten myself a nice that I had drenched in the strongest poison we had. I knew my school was quite tolerant; metal detectors were non existent, we never required identification cards, the amount of guards was quite scanty, the probability of anyone noticing my weapon was negligible. 

Later, in the evening I called Ethan and asked if he wanted to go with me hunting. He agreed which did not surprise me. We headed toward a new club, it was well known as a popular spot for vampires. Because of our ability to teleport, we can hunt any place on the planet we wish. I myself have taken single trips to Hollywood, Vegas, Paris, New York and some other great cities,xlthough I had only gone in search for these ungodly, blood-sipping vampires.

"Did you hear that?" Ethan asked me.

"Yes," I answered. "It sounded like bones snapping."

We darted to a deserted alley spot and si and vampire standing above a lady. She had flaxen hair, a little overweight and appeared to be inebriated. A better look shows that one of her legs was broken.

"Don't do it," she slurred. "My folks will punish me if I get pregnant." She already assumed he was going to rape her.

Some vamps just feed and then kill; they do it without caring about how painful it is, or how much their victims scream. Others, like this one, played with their food. They had sick, twisted minds, and tortured people before they drank. It actually wasn't uncommon for them to rape people either. Some are even worse, my dad once dealt with a vamp that used to skin his victims alive. Those are the truly evil vamps, not that all vamps aren't evil, some are just more so than others. The ones that aren't quite so twisted, pick a random victim, snap their neck, have a meal, and move on with their lives. Cold hearted, yes, but still better than torture.

Ethan ran and grabbed the girl up from the floor. His power was super speed, vamps have this one too, but I've never met one faster than Ethan. The vamp turned and spotted Ethan, he couldn't see me of course. I was invisible. The vamp's nostrils flared in fury, I walked up to him, glad that he was so focused on Ethan that he didn't hear me, and I kicked him. While I fought the vamp, Ethan ran with the girl back to a club, and he called an ambulance. The vamp kicked me in the stomach, hard. He was clutching my wrist so tightly it was going to leave a bruise.

Ethan was back. I shoved the vamp away from me, and Ethan grabbed him and held the knife ready to stab him in the heart, when I felt another vamp grab me from behind.

"Don't do it," the vamp holding me said to Ethan. His voice was gruff and sounded vaguely familiar.

Ethan stared at the vamp with his fangs at my neck and I could tell he was trying to guess his chances of killing the one he was holding, and then saving me from the one holding me before he bit me. His chances weren't good.

I struggled against the vampire, but he was strong and I saw the vamp that Ethan was holding trying to struggle too, but Ethan had him in an iron grip.

"Look, just let her go and I'll let your friend go," Ethan offered. He was starting to struggle with the vamp he was holding down.

"I don't think so, I think I'll kill her and then move on to you," the vampire said.

"Ethan, just kill him already," I said. "Don't worry about me."

I could see that he wasn't going to listen to me. He never listened to me. That vamp he was holding was putting up a more serious fight than before. At the risk of him getting hurt, I knew I was going to have to force him to kill the vamp. Doing so would require something that was sure to get me in trouble later, supposing I survived.

Ethan would tire out faster than that vamp he was holding. Vamps were immortal, they didn't need to sleep or to rest, the only thing they ever needed was blood. I needed to stop Ethan from bringing about his own death.

So I held on to the vampire and immediately, I teleported.

We ended up two blocks away from Ethan and the other vamp. The vamp, still holding me, was only disoriented for a second and I quickly made the most of that second. I managed to jab an elbow blow and pull away from his grasp. He lunged at me and I dodged him. I grasped the handle of my knife and reached up to stab him. And then, blackness.

I recalled something, someone, smash me onto the floor, hard. My head made contact with concrete and after that I have no idea what happened.

I sighed. Well there went my plans to wow everyone with my awesome hunting skills by killing him. I wouldn't be able to kill him without feeling guilty now, which was on my part very irresponsible. If I went around feeling sorry for vamps, I would end up turning out to be the hunted instead of the hunter.

Before I turned to leave I asked, "Where are my knives?"

He left the room and came back a few seconds later, "Can you blame us for being worried that you'd attack us?" He asked as he handed them to me.

I looked at him, knowing my answer. Of course it made sense that they would want to disarm me, but still something was nagging my brain. So instead of doing the sensible thing and getting out of there, I allowed my curiosity to take over.

"What kind of vampires are you anyways?"

"We're pacifists," he said.

I snorted. "Yeah right, pacifist vampires? I've never heard that one before."

"I told you that you weren't open minded."

I looked at him, all of a sudden interested. Questions were going through my head at rapid speed. That was very stupid. I shouldn't have been interested in a vampire in any way other than to kill him. He looked back at me with a patient expression on his face. I kept staring at him, aware of how hot he was.

"I should probably go," I told him.

He looked a little disappointed. Or maybe that was just my imagination.

"Alright, how are you getting home? Can you teleport? I could drive you if you're feeling too weak to teleport." he offered.

I wondered if he was really concerned about me. "I'll figure it out," I said.

"No it's okay, I'll be fine," I assured him.

He chuckled, "you should know we live about three blocks away from school on 22nd Street."

Damn, I thought. That was about eight miles away from my house. It wasn't an impossible walk, especially for a hunter, but it was long, and in my present condition, starved for food and still aching everywhere, I wouldn't be all that much better than a human. I could probably hitch a ride.

I think he saw my distress. "Maybe you should eat something," he said. "Let me take you to breakfast. We'll go to a nice restaurant and then after that you'll probably feel strong enough to go back home and stop your boyfriend from worrying."

"For the last freaking time," I hissed, "HE IS NOT MY-"

"Your boyfriend," he cut me off. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I just like messing with you. You're really cute when you get upset."

I stood there fuming, partly because of his annoying attitude and partly because my brain was analyzing the "you're really cute" part of his words.

I stood for a few seconds trying to make up my mind. Why was he so worried about me? "Fine," I finally said.

All the while a voice of reason in my head was screaming at me, but I chose to ignore it. 

So he took me to a nearby restaurant, got a table and sat down while the waitress ogled at Travis, probably amazed at his looks.

We didn't talk until after we ordered our food.

"Are you always this quiet?" Travis asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Why haven't you asked me the things that are really bugging you?" Travis wondered.

"What are you talking about?" At the moment the only thing bugging me was how close he was sitting next to me.

"You want to know why I don't hunt humans. You're also curious about why I saved you. You're probably really disappointed, I shattered the notion that all vampires are evil and disgusting, so now your whole world is different," he said.

"Well that's a bit dramatic," was my response. I didn't care to tell him that he was right. My world wasn't exactly different, but I had a lot to think about. If it was possible for vampires to be good, then why was the majority so evil?

The waitress came back with our food and he watched in silence as I devoured the food.

When I was done, despite my protest, he paid for the meal.

"Need anything else?" he asked as I stood up.

I shook my head no. "I'm going to teleport home," I said and then hesitated before adding an awkward, "thanks."

He smiled at me, "No problem."

I walked to the bathroom, made sure it was empty and then teleported back to my room. Once there, the first person I called was Ethan.

"Rhea?" he answered the phone sounding hopeful.

"Hey Ethan," I said.

"Thank God. Do you know how worried I was? I spent all night looking for you. Why did you teleport like that? You're really lucky he didn't kill you," Ethan went off.

"Relax okay, it's fine. After I teleported, the vamp and I had a cat and mouse sort of chase. It took most of the night, but he's dead now," the lie came out effortlessly. I didn't even feel all that bad about it which was not a very good thing.

We talked for a while before I finally hung up. I laid on my bed and couldn't concentrate on anything else, as all that kept going through my head was the thought of Travis and how simply hot he was.