Take This to Your Grave and I'll Take It to Mine

I touched my face, there were scrapes. They weren't healing. There were scrapes on my stomach too, my shirt was torn luckily no where important, the knives that were strapped to my wrists had cut in I was just bleeding from everywhere.

But that didn't stop the battle. So now was the time to show real strength.

There were Dandies already after me.

I pulled the knives from my inner wrists and threw them at two Dandies that were nearing me.

The blades landed in their eyes sending them straight to the ground. I pulled my sword out and the real battle began.

They would come from every side and I would cut them down.

One of them had one of those canes that had the sword inside so he actually had a chance.

We were fighting like master fencers. It was a sword fight that every movie would love to catch on film but never could. His every move I countered and vise-versa. Until we ended up at one of those standstills that all depends on strength. His blade against mine and our faces glaring at each other.

Normally I would have thrown this sorry ass into tomorrow, but whatever that ass did caused me to be a pathetic weakling.

He was winning the strength war slowly but surely. I have to pull out of this at just the right moment.

He was starting to lean over farther putting all of his weight and strength into it.

I jumped back and threw him off balance, raised my sword over my head, and beheaded the bastard.

"Erin come on." Pete yelled to me calling me to follow them to the car.

I walked back over to the first two I killed and took my knives back.

Then I pulled out my Sharpie and ripped one of their shirts off and wrote one of my infamous notes.

“Hey Asshole,
I don't know what you did to me but once I find out, I'll kill you. As a matter-of-fact I'll kill you just to find out.
Signed, Your latest plague, Erin.”

I closed my sharpie, slid it back in my pocket, and ran back to the car.

"Hurry they might have others on the way!" Patrick shouted as I rounded the corner.
We all got back in the car and Pete turned to me.

"What happened to you?" He asked as he gently caressed my cheek.

"You’re not regenerating like you usually do, so what happened when you fell?" Patrick asked glancing back at me through the rear-view mirror.

"That bastard, William, stuck a needle in my throat and said, 'Try living like the others.' Then pushed me off the building." My anger was incomparable but I tried to put it back in the can. "Patrick do you have any ideas about what it might be?"

"I'll work on it. Good thing I haven't washed the towel with your blood on it. So we'll be able to tell if it's a chemical change in your blood. That's if you'll give me a new blood sample." He looked at me through the mirror again to reassure me that he was going to find out what's wrong with me.

"That's not going to be so hard anymore." I muttered angrily.

"Hey don't bitch so much! Now your just getting a taste of what everybody else feels! They took you off of your high horse! I only wish that I could have." Andy spat back just as pissed off as me.

"Hey, dude, give her a break! What just happened to her would be the equivalent of you losing a hand, ok. You wouldn't know how to work without it. You'd be angry for a day or two. So lay off man." Pete defended me like usual. "Andy your such a cool dude to everyone but her. What is so wrong with her?" Pete asked so much more gentle now.

"I don't like her is that a crime?" He snapped back.

"Yeah, since you’re the only one. I'm not asking you to like her; I'm asking you to be civil. Both of you. Ok?" Pete tried to reason with that idiot, like that would work.

"Fine." He huffed.

WHAT? He agreed?

Then Pete looked at me waiting for my reply.

"All right." I said in an exasperated sigh.

And that was all that really happened during that car ride.

Once we were home I realized how beat up I really was. All down the front of my body was bruised. This is something I haven't felt for a long, long time and I don't want to move, I'm not sure if I can.

After the car stopped I didn't move I just stayed there with my head leaned back on the seat.

"Joe I think I might have to carry her. Can you pass her to me after I get out?" Pete asked.

"Yeah man, she's pretty beat up." Joe grabbed me as Pete climbed out and passed me to Pete after he was out.

"I have to talk to Patrick so we can figure this out." I said so he wouldn't take me up to my coffin.

"Ok, babe." He said gently as he took me down stairs.

"Patrick she wants to talk to you." Pete called to Patrick and set me in the chair on the other side of Patrick's desk.

Patrick went and sat on the other side.

"So you want to give me that blood sample?" He asked real gently.

"Yeah." I said with my voice horse from being so injured and weak. "Is there a way you could take it from somewhere that isn't sore?"

"Where would that be?" He had an almost skeptic look on his face.

"Good point." I don't think a person who just fell off a building could ever find a spot that's not sore.

So he just took blood from the usual spot at the top of the forearm after I rolled up my sleeve.

"So you keep records on everything you know on vampires?" This is what I want to know.

"Yeah but it's not much." He said earnestly.

"Read it to me and I'll fill in the blanks." I smiled because I doubt he'll know about the old ones like me.

He pulled out one of the files and a pair of thick, black rimmed glasses.

He scanned the pages for the important parts "Well vampires are undead creatures that need to drink blood to survive." He stated the obvious. "They pass their 'virus' threw their blood and a fluid that comes out of their fangs. Their stronger then any human could ever dream of being and they survive more. They have a pack or 'gang' mentality from everything we can tell. They all like having numbers even if they take a human down alone they meet up with their people in the end. Even Pete. Only his are human. Pete has proven to differ from the others in many ways. Like you, him, and we assume his maker are the only ones we've ever known to fly. The sun sets them on fire like a dry log. Garlic if properly prepared can be turned into a big poison only if ingested. Holy water causes a burning sensation depending on how much you use makes the difference between whether it burns a lot or not. I guess that's all the obvious information. So want to fill in any blanks?"

"Damn right," I smirked sarcastically. "Are you ready to do some writing?" He nodded his head in response. "Ok. Well what I noticed is that, I'm nothing like what you described. Well in some ways, but not really. Do you not know why I'm different from the rest of them?" I smirked in satisfaction because even in this weakened state I felt superior in the way that I knew and he didn’t.

I guess I have a superiority complex.

"No I haven't got a clue I just thought you were older and with age comes power. That was just my best guess." This kid was so bashful it made me feel bad for him.

"Well your right about the age brings power thing but I'm not that old. When Pete is my age he still won’t be like me. It takes a long time to gain a new strength. Let's put it this way, I'm about 676 and most of the powers I have I've had since day one. But I'm not like them, not at all. The vampires you fight everyday aren't what the people of my day would call vampires. They're the watered down version of me. I'm a full blood, an old one, an ancient, whatever you like to call it; I was made by my sire just to make sure that our race lived on. I don't know how my race died out but they have. It's been six hundred years since I've even laid eyes on one like me that wasn't my own reflection. We can only turn someone by taking their blood and then force feeding them ours. We were picky, if you weren't young, attractive, and charismatic, you weren't going to be a vampire." I put it so simply that even a fool would understand that I'm not like them.

"So how did the new vampires come to be?" He was curious.

"No one is entirely sure, but the widely excepted thought was that a vampire was turning someone and the blood transfer wasn't completed. Then the bloodline just got weaker and weaker. I've been lead to believe that Pete's maker was the one that was the start of the weaker race. Which would be why Pete is so strong. He's one of the direct links between the new and old, a bridge as some would say, I think there might be something really special about Pete. Or that was what his maker said in a letter. I'll show you the letter tomorrow when I have the strength to find it." I was starting to get hungry so I should get upstairs away from the blood bags, I mean humans. "With that I'll leave you tonight. I'll finish tomorrow when I get my strength back." I tried to get up with little success and fell to the ground.

I cussed under my breath and rolled onto my back.

"I'll go get Pete or Joe." Patrick said as he rushed by me up the stairs.

He returned moments later with Pete trailing close behind him.

Pete wordlessly came over and swept me up into his arms and carried me up to my room.

He laid me on my back on top of my coffin.

"I had the feeling that yesterday wasn't the only day I'd need to use that fist aid kit on you." He walked into the bathroom and grabbed it. "I think this shirt is toast so I'm going to cut it off so you don't have to move."

"Do what you need." I'm more tired then I can ever recall being, but I don't even remember my last name so I'm not sure how much that means.

"Ok, I'm going to take your pants off to but I'll move you when I get there." He said gently pushing some hair out of my face. "How did you keep fighting after you took that fall? I'm mean you can hardly move now."

"Adrenaline I think. I was always like that if there was a fight and I got injured I just kept going like I was fine until it was done." I said in hardly above a whisper.

He started to undress me, first my boots socks, pants, then he started to cut my shirt. "I'll try not to cut your bra." He joked and he smiled at me.

That smile was dangerous. It made me drop my defenses, and long to trust him, but the second that happens I rebuild my walls. But I think he noticed this time.

"For once there was a gleam in your eye that said that you like my attention. So do you like my attention?" He asked honestly as he started to treat all the cuts and scrapes.

"I'm hungry." That was the best excuse I had, of course it was true but not the cause of the look.

"No. That wasn't a look of lust. That was a look of care. You can't use that excuse." What, when I lose my mind reading power he gets his?

I said nothing. What was there to say?

He just continued cleaning my wounds with care.

He got to the scrapes on my face and was even more gentle then he was on all the rest and he was more focused on my eyes then the scrapes.

"Don't cover any of them. They're not that deep." I said trying to regain control of the situation once again even in the slightest way.

"Fine, but you don't heal as well as you use to." He said as he finished and got rid of the wipe. "Your lucky to have landed with your head turned to the side. Or we'd be dealing with a busted lip and a broken nose instead of just scrapes."

"Well I wish I landed on my back instead of my breasts." The statement couldn't have been more true and if you looked my breasts were more bruised then anywhere else.

He had the nerve to laugh. "A woman more worried about her breasts being bruised then the back of her head being busted open."

"Hey once you fall off a building and land on your breasts then make a joke." I was mad because I wasn't joking.

He sat down on the edge of the coffin. "I'm sorry." He said a he gently caressed the side of my face that wasn't damaged. Then he leaned down and placed a soft, gentle kiss on my unscathed lips. He pulled away and smiled. "I wanted to make sure that those still worked properly."

I was once again left with nothing to say. I guess when your weak so are your walls.

"I'll just put you in your coffin and leave." He got up and started to pick me up.

"Pete stay with me please." Did I just say that in that pathetic needy voice that I hate?

"Ok." He smiled gently at me and picked me up.

He lightly kicked the coffin open.

"Where's Cleo?" I just noticed that I hadn't seen her since we brought her in yesterday.

"She's probably checking around the house some more. Patrick said yesterday morning she asked him to let her in here to sleep." He said as he stepped into the coffin.

Another day that the two of us spend in this coffin together.

It's no where near sunrise will Pete be able to sleep?

"Pete I'm sorry that I asked you to stay with me even though you probably won’t be able to sleep." I apologized more to the lid off the coffin then him because of the way I was positioned on him.

"It's fine Erin. Just sleep, ok." He said and gently stroked my arms.

Sleep overtook me with ease and was more dead to the world then ever.

I opened my eyes but I wasn't awake.

I looked around this large, lavishly decorated room and it was no where I'd ever been before.

William made his presence known to me by clearing his throat.

He was sat in a big plush chair right across from me.

"Have a seat." He said with a smooth voice and gestured to a chair identical to his that was behind me.

But I had no mind in sitting.

"You bastard! What did you do to me?" I screamed at him.

"I'll explain that once you sit down and calm yourself." His voice never wavered from that soft smooth voice he started with.

"I'm not going to calm down! Tell me what you did so I can kill you damn it!" I was borderline hysterical.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk, now that's not how you speak to a person who's just honestly trying to help you." He had this look on his face, the look of a joker. Seemingly honest eyes matched with a deceitful smile, all played on his pristine, pale face. "Allow me to say this isn't the physical world. Trying to hurt me will be utterly pointless here. Now, please have a seat."

I finally conceded and took the seat facing him.

"Now why did you bring me here?" I growled through clenched teeth.

"To have a simple civil conversation. Is that too much to ask?" Now I realize that that look never leaves his face just sometimes his eyes have more sincerity.

"Yes it is when you stick me with a needle that does God-knows-what, push me off a building, and abduct my sleeping soul from my coffin and bring it here." I threw my hands up gesturing to the surroundings with frustration. "Where ever here is."

"This would be my bedroom. Maybe you'd like to revisit sometime when you’re awake." The devilish smile his face commonly wore got even bigger.

"Fuck you." I snarled.

"That was what I insinuated, yes. Was that a yes or no?" He only responded in the sweetest voice he could fake.

"Did you bring me here to tell me something or just to annoy me beond any comparison?" I just want to know what's wrong with me.

"I brought you here to speak with you maturely, but sometimes it's just more enjoyable when I'm rude." He said with a cheeky grin and pushed some of his shoulder length light brown hair behind his ear. "Well I'd like to state the obvious and say, I've made you weak like all the rest of the vampires. You are now weaker then Pete, and most definitely weaker then me. But I'm not saying you’re stuck like that. You have two options; the first is, become Dandy and behind you Pete will inevitably follow and stand by my side; option two is you give Pete your blood like you would someone your turning and make an even more powerful breed of vampires then the original. Pete has all of the strengths of the new race and the old race with no weaknesses. He would then give you the more powerful blood and you'd kill the rest of the weak ones and start fresh with only three to start over." His smile got wider loving the plan.

"Who said we'd ever turn you? And your precious flunkies who obey your every order and dress like idiots in bowlers, what are you going to do with them?"

"Kill them. I don't have any attachments to them. I just need that feeling that all vampires need, that family or gang feeling that we just feel incomplete without. My theory is that maybe if we create this super powerful race we won’t need that. I mean look at you no feeling for anyone other then a cat." He smirked in satisfaction that he knew of the one person I care for.

He's going to use her against me.

"I just keep her for company; there's no emotional attachment to her." My stone face was back on.

"Really my boys that raided your apartment said she was trying to defend you with everything she had like she cared about you and that's usually a mutual thing." He said with the taunting tone in his voice more evident then before.

"And you think any of those idiots know what love's like? Why didn't they kill her?" That was the question that had been haunting me since that night.

I know torture and I'd assume they do to, so why not kill the one thing that the person is close to?

"I told them not to kill anyone or anything, just trap you. I know you think about the best way to torture someone and that wasn't the point of that night. The whole point was to make you sleep late and not be able to get out. I knew your power, they didn't of course or they wouldn't have done it. I mean they're afraid of normal vampires. Try telling them that they're pissing off a super-vampire." He finally dropped the joker face and you could tell he was serious for a moment but nothing lasts long as the face returned after he waved his hands and said, 'super-vampire.'

"You have humans working for you?" I was getting angry again.

If they would have opened my coffin they'd have been toast.

"Of course. How else would we rule this wretched city? We need people doing the legwork while we sleep. I can't very well go out there in hopes of doing what needs to be done during the day." He made a strong point. "Now allow me to say the brain boy isn't going to figure out how to fix this, at least not in time." He folded his hands in front of his chest as if he believed was the most intelligent person too ever walk the earth.

Then the most important question hit me.

"What did you want with the blind man?"

His face dropped.

I smiled because I've got something good. "Come on William what does the oh-so impressive 'king of vampires' need with a blind man?" I mocked him.

The anger in his face only grew when I mocked him.

"It's none of your concern." He said in a threatening tone.

"If it was none of my concern I wouldn't have had a dream about it last night. You know if Pete wouldn't have woken me up I probably would have been expecting this." I said as I pointed to my neck where he stuck the needle.

He smirked like he got something on me. "You love him too, don't you?" His smirk got bigger when my facial expression changed. "You do, the way the surprise took over after guilt gives it away. What is there to be guilty about?" I wanted to rip the smirk off of his face.

"You’re insane. Like I said earlier I don't care for any of them, not him, not the cat, none of them. I'm just using them as pawns to finish my job quicker. In the end they're all going to die." I said in the cold voice that I've come to know as my own with my stone face on.

"That's why Pete is sharing your coffin with you right now, right?" He's a cocky arrogant bastard.

"He doesn't have a coffin, before me he slept in a double-doored locker." Lucky enough for me I'm a good liar. "I mean really look at what position we're in. We're not cuddling."

He closed his eyes and focused. "But his arms are around your waist, really low on your waist and you’re in your underwear. If you don't love him he loves you." His eyes popped back open and looked at me. "The poor boy fell for a seductress."

"I'm not a seductress!" I was enraged and shot out of my seat and flipped the table that was between us.

I couldn't tell if it hit him or not, but he didn't flinch.

"One word to drive you insane. Why that word?" He was imploring me now.

"None of your damned business. Are you done with your ridiculous requests? Can I go back?" I was done. I don't like when people piss me off then expect me to answer their questions.

"I bet it’s guilt that makes you hate that word so much." He was trying to read my eyes. "Well, before you pointlessly explode again. You have until tomorrow same time, same place to make your decision. Or if you make the decision early you can meet me here when you’re awake. That's if dear sweet Pete lets you leave his sight." He smirked in success. "Goodbye Erin."

I didn't talk to him and it all went black.