Bryony

The woman didn't appear to be any older than her early twenties. She had long brown waves and unnaturally bright green eyes. She was physically fit and donned business-casual clothing and black stiletto pumps.

She didn't seem shaken by the hole in the earth as the caretaker had. In fact, the woman standing before Bryony must have been waiting for her to climb out of the ground. The dead body lying behind Bryony didn't faze the woman, either.

"Did you enjoy your little snack?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. "Being the nighttime groundskeeper is the kiss of death. They almost always get eaten. A fledgling is always so hungry when they come up."

"Who are you?" Bryony demanded.

"Don't be rude. I know you're a bit panicked but that's no reason to be disrespectful, especially toward your sire."

"Sire?"

"I made you into what you are," the woman explained, "a vampire."

Bryony raised her eyebrows. "A vampire? Look, lady, the institution is a quarter of a mile south of here, you should think about checking yourself in."

"And the police station is a block east of that, you should think about turning yourself in," the woman retorted, "after all, you just killed a man. You drank his blood. After you broke out of a coffin beneath a thick layer of concrete and six feet of dirt in which you'd been lying, dead, for five days."

Shit, Bryony thought, she's right.

"What does that mean, then?" Bryony asked quietly, almost unwilling to admit it out loud.

"It means you better come with me if you aren't interested in being filleted. The sun's due to rise in two hours and you can't go to the home of anyone you know. They all think you're dead." Bryony just nodded. "I'm Sienna."

Sienna began to walk to the road that ran along the back of the cemetery grounds, not far from where they had been standing. Bryony scurried to keep up. Sienna walked at the speed of lightning and Bryony didn't know how she'd moved so quickly when she killed that man. When they got to the road, Sienna motioned for her to get into a mint green Volkswagon Buggy.

"Somehow, this wasn't what I pictured when I thought of vehicles vampires might drive," Bryony muttered. Sienna shrugged.

"It belonged to the woman I drank from before I came to see if you were out yet," Sienna said as she climbed into the driver's seat.

"You mean killed?"

"No, you don't have to kill your victim. We just usually do. Anyway, she didn't taste very good so I only drank enough to get me here and back to the house. Now get in." Bryony didn't like how casual Sienna talked about such a barbaric thing, and was almost tempted to walk away from Sienna, but because of the fact that Sienna had the answers to all Byony's questions, she did as she was told and slid into the car. Before Bryony shut her door, Sienna had the car on, the gear in drive, and was speeding off down the road. She made a right and then a left and pulled up to a mausoleum that must have been at least a hundred years old. She shut off the car and within a second she was out of the car and at the door of the mausoleum.

She's got to teach me how to do that, Bryony thought, following her.

At the very back of the mausoleum was a door made from iron bars with a padlock to keep it shut. It was very stereotypical-- covered in dust and cobwebs-- and made Bryony shiver.

Where is she taking me?

"Those cobwebs are fake," Sienna explained, "With all the traffic this door gets it'd be spotless by now. The lock is also just for appearances. It's much too annoying to have to keep track of the keys for a real one."

They went down two flights of stairs into a long corridor decorated like a castle from medieval times crossed with an Indian palace. Satin sheets covered the walls, leaving small spaces of uncovered dirt wall where lights were mounted periodically. At the end of the hallway, the underground haven split off into two opposing directions. Sienna led Bryony left and opened the door to the very first room on the right, then waited for Bryony to enter.

"Chang, she rose," Sienna said to a man sitting cross-legged in the far corner of the Oriental-style room. He was facing a small altar covered in candle nearly small enough to be placed on a birthday cake.

"Oh, good, you're finally awake," he said, barely above a whisper, as he rose slowly. Bryony shrugged one of her shoulders ever-so-slightly as he turned. "I hope you aren't too perturbed by my appearance."

Bryony let out a shriek of horror at the sight of him.

The man had no face.