Chapter 5 - Chloe

My whole body burned and pulsated. I felt like I had just been deep fried in oil and laid out in the sun. I tried to reconsider what had happened. That boy had bit me. I felt fear rise in my chest. I heard a cracking of glass. I sat up and noticed the window continued to run like spider webs cracking. What. Is. Happening. I was feeling more and more scared by the second. The window shattered sending glass shards everywhere. I screamed; I was back in the car wreck. Terrified we had just been hit by the car all over again.

Jacen rushed into my room. “Chloe you’re okay, you have to calm down.” He looked worried. “you have just stepped into your powers and its more than you can handle at this time. Please let me help you.” He gently reached out his hand to me. was he a vampire? He had not attacked me. I put my hand in his, “please help me” I said. His hand felt cold to the touch. He was the man I saw the night we got into the wreck. I felt safe with him. Not like I did with his brother. I touched the bandage on my neck remembering what had happened the night before.

“I know it doesn’t make up for what he did, but he is very sorry.” He gestured to the flowers around the room. As if that could make up for it, the flowers should burn. At that thought, all the beautiful roses caught on fire. Fear filled my chest again and the walls started to crack. “okay, okay. Deep breaths.” Jacen said looking at me. “okay” I said taking a deep breath. “Why don’t you get dressed and we will get some breakfast” he said smiling at me. As if it was on que, my stomach growled.

Jacen stepped outside of my room. I shuffled threw the drawers, not knowing to what to expect. I was shocked to see my clothes from home was in them. Did our belongings not make it to the school? Has the school contacted our parents to tell them we are missing? I threw on a Devil wears Prada t-shirt and some blue jeans. I found my favorite converse shoes and slid them on. I walked to the door, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Whatever happens now, there is no going back. I had to keep myself and Taylor safe. They were fast and strong. The only way out was to play their game, gain their trust and then get the heck out of there.

Jacen was waiting out of the door for me, he smiled big when he saw me. No fangs, perfect. “ready?” he asked looking at my attire. “as I’ll ever be” I replied. He led me down the hall, we stopped at the paintings of six pictures, one being Jacen, and one being the dark-haired man who bit me. “Liam” he said. “what?” I asked looking confused. “his name is Liam. The man who attacked you. He’s my older brother.” I flinched. “you are brothers?” so he was a vampire too. Or were that how vampires worked?

“Yes, he is my brother. All six of us are the progenitors.” He said proudly. “progenitors of what?” I asked. “vampires, dear. We are the original vampires. Before us, there are none” when he smiled this time, he showed me his fangs. “We are faster and stronger than other vampires. And unlike others, we cannot be killed” I stood there. Why do I feel like I can trust him? “the others are not actually my brothers and sisters. But we all became vampires on the same night, so we are family”

“I see” I said as we entered a large dining room, there was thick red drapes over the windows. What did I know about vampires? They are killed if you stake them through the heart, the sunlight kills them. They need to survive on blood to live. I looked back at the drapes, what if I burned them alive? I did a circle around the table so I could get closer to the drapes. “you can open them, they are bright and will slightly burn my skin, but it cannot kill me.” I looked at him stunned. How did he know my- “thoughts?” he cut off. “yes” I said. “My thoughts” I looked at him. “sit and eat, I’ll tell you everything.”

I sat down at the large table, a waiter came in with a large plate of eggs, waffles, bacon, and hash browns smothered in cheese. My mouth started to water, when was the last time I ate anything? I started to dig into my food, practically inhaling it, I was so hungry. I heard Jacen chuckle, so I looked up. He had no food, just a wine glass full of blood. I gulped my food down hard. “whose blood is that?” I asked him in horror. He put his hand up as if to subside my fears. “donated.” He stated. “Donated? People just willingly donate their blood to vampires?” I asked in disbelief, not a chance it has to be stollen. “Actually, it’s not, we own a blood donation center, plus we have in house participants.” He said.

“participants?” I asked out of curiosity. “yes, they are humans that live in this house, they allow us to drink from them and in return we pay them very well.” I felt sick to my stomach, I remember how bad Liam’s bite hurt. “I doubt people opt for that.” I said. “usually when a vampire bites a human, they are full of ecstasy and they tend to enjoy it very will they get high from it. For some reason Liam’s bite broke a spell that was placed on you keeping your witch’s mark and powers concealed.” He looked at me. “but back to where I was, there are six of us. We all used to be a witch, but we wanted something more, we wanted to live forever. As witches not as blood thirsty monsters. But I will say, it’s worth it to live forever.” I looked at him in disgust. “that is disgusting” I said.

“yes, well either way we are who we are. Would you like me to finish the story?” he asked. Which I did. If I knew how they came to be, I could probably kill them. I nodded. “very well, we made a spell that would turn us into immortals. As you can see it partly worked. I am 5000 years old and have not aged a single day. We had hoped to be immortal and keep our magic. I’m certain we lost our magic as punishment.” There was pain in his eyes. “punishment for what?” I asked him. He looked at me. “all the deaths.”