Chapter 2

Alina

Science states that the evolution of mankind wasn’t a straight line. Several species had to become extinct for the ultimate survivor to reign on this Earth: humans or Homo sapiens. Human beings came from the prehistoric apes and have evolved over a span of millions of years. Exactly how many, even scientists have their doubts. Their best bets are from the hominid fossils that they’d discovered from various parts of the globe. They use all sorts of criteria, from quadruped to biped locomotion, an increase in cranial capacity,changes in food habits, etc. But one thing they agree on is that it took millennia to ultimately result in the perfect modern man who has made Earth the supreme habitat.

If you believed the same, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Human beings weren’t the only creatures who survived the eons of trial that Mother Nature inflicted upon us. No, there were others, beings who were stronger, faster, deadlier, and higher on the food chain. They never lost the habit of devouring raw flesh and blood, surviving purely on animalistic instincts, speed, and agility that were a part of their genetic makeup. For centuries, they’d been in hiding, never letting any human be aware of their existence until it was the last thing they knew. They preyed on us and stayed out of our sight just like a predator because they were the most impeccable of them all. They were the vampires.

How did I know all of this? How did I even know that vampires were real? How did I know about their history? No, it was not because they’ve been discovered by scientists or they’ve made themselves known to the world. It was because my father worked for them.

I ought to know because I was engaged to a vampire. I was to be Erick Stayton’s bride.

He was the heir to Stayton Incorporated, a company that specialised in marketing blood from donors and had blood banks in several parts of the U.S. It was a charitable organization looking for the betterment of the world and interested in helping people in need. No one really knew that it was just a facade, for only ten percent of the blood they collected went to charity. The rest was supplied to vampires all over Canada. They also ran a security service for VIPs and business tycoons, those who were in need of protection. All in all, he and his family were super rich, super arrogant, and very, very powerful.

Erick Stayton, my fiancé, was one of the most eligible bachelors in Canada. A lot of girls would die to catch his attention. However, he was too conceited to stay with one person for more than a week, that is according to Men’s Fashion and GQ. He was a ruthless and savage predator. For me, vampires have never been a part fairytales. They have always been the people I’d known to fear, and Erick was always at the top of that list.

My family were some of the few who knew about their secret. My father was the manager of the Main Canadian Blood Bank. Our families have been close even before I was born. Erick was the youngest child of his family, so we had an age difference of about three years. My mother and his were the ones who had arranged this wedding right after I was born. I didn’t have any idea why, though. Why did they choose a human girl who has no interest in vampires whatsoever? Why didn’t they choose someone more fitting like someone of the same race? It was no secret that I never liked vampires to begin with. Blood banks were a relatively modern creation. Who knew how many lives they took before the invention?

Everyone expected us to be great friends, Erick and me. They thought that we would grow up loving each other, but it was the exact opposite. I hated him with a passion. It was not just because he was a vampire, though. Oh no, it ran way deeper. You see, I had always avoided Erick ever since I was a child. He was always with the popular crowd, the bullies. Being naturally attractive, as was with every other predator on the planet, he always got away with it. So it was natural to avoid him and stay away from his line of sight. It was not that he didn’t know about me, but we just kept our distance right from the start. However, as I began to grow, I started attending parties with my parents, and he finally started to notice me. By then, it was still going okay. I could handle a few snide comments here and there, but it was when he and his mother came to visit my parents one day when everything went wrong.

We were all at the dinner table that night. I went to the kitchen to fetch an extra dish when I stumbled on the doorjamb and fell to the floor, but not before hitting my head on the counter and wounding myself. The wound wasn’t deep, but the hit caused the skin of my forehead to slit open and gush out blood. The next thing I knew, Erick was there, feeding from me until I was too weak to open my eyes.

When I regained consciousness, he warned me not to tell our parents or he would kill me. I, being the wimpy little child that I was, kept it a secret. I was eleven then. From that day onwards, he came to feed from me occasionally.

“You’re my fiancée. It’s your duty to feed me,” he used to say to me. I believed him for a long time until I grew old enough to understand the folly.

I would have still forgiven him, considering that he was a young vampire who had no control over his hunger if it wasn’t for what happened next.

I had just turned eighteen. It was Erick’s twenty-first birthday, and there was a party at their house. My parents wanted me to go, but I declined, making an excuse that I had a test the next day. In reality, I only wanted to stay away from Erick and his gang of browbeaters. My parents were always away on business trips, and I was often home alone. It was around two in the morning when I heard the front door of our house being forced open. I rushed downstairs to check and knew instantly that I shouldn’t have. Erick was leaning against the doorjamb with his clothes and hair in disarray. He was dead drunk.

I thought he was going to feed from me again, which had stopped for a while since he had plenty of girlfriends to drink from in his college. I was so, so wrong.

I didn’t remember what exactly happened that night, probably because of PTSD, but I do remember the next morning when I woke up bruised and bloody. My clothes were torn, and there were claw marks on the carpet all around me. Erick himself was in a similar state of undress.

Erick’s expression was unreadable. He only stayed to put on a few bandages on me so he wouldn’t get caught and left immediately with the same warning of killing me if I told our parents. However, I’d had enough. I never wanted to keep it a secret in the first place. I wanted so badly to tell my parents about all of this. I promised myself that I would the second they came back even if it meant dying at the hands of a ruthless vampire... but that never happened.

The next day, I had to rush over to the hospital instead. Papa had several serious injuries, and Mom was gone. They got into an accident on their way back home. An eighteen wheeler truck smashed into their car on a narrow road. After that, my life had never been the same. I completely closed off. I kept to myself and avoided company as much as I could. I no longer trusted people. What happened to me didn’t even compare to what happened to Mom, the person who never in a million years deserved this. Papa was so heartbroken, it was painful to watch.

He recovered after staying in the hospital for six months. However, he was diagnosed with stage two leukaemia. Now, he didn’t have much time left. It had been four years since the accident and my mom’s death. My father was already on his death bed, and Erick had never once visited even though his mother had so many times.

That was another reason why I was to be married to Erick as soon as the end of this month. Since my mom was dead and my Papa was nearing his, I would need protection from vampires who would gladly make main course out of me. After all, they couldn’t have me screaming to the world that they exist.

It felt like the walls that I have built after all these years were breaking apart. My life was crashing down on me, and I had no way of stopping it.