Bat Country

The smell of blood pulled Alexis through the dense forest with Brian trailing behind her a small distance. There were campers close tonight, an increasingly rare treat.
Their feet pounding over the terrain, the pair followed the scent through winding paths of flowering plants and trees. The sweet scent of human blood began burning their nostrils and they knew they were close. Alexis paused and allowed Brian to catch up with her. They resumed, but slowed their pace to a human like jog. Coming to a clearing there were two men sitting around a fire, one obviously drunk.
Alexis looked up at Brian and he nodded softly, grabbing Alexis’s hand and stepping into the clearing.
The two men’s eyes shot up. These were college kids. Wearing sweatshirts and shorts. They were smaller than Matt, but still larger than Brian, not that it mattered.
“Sorry if we scared you. My girlfriend and I kind of got lost.” Brian tilted his head towards Alexis who shrank into him a little bit and tightened her grip on his hand. She figured if this was what he decided to go with, she might as well play the part.
The two men looked at each other before one spoke up. “Well…we have a cellphone you can try…I don’t know how well it’d work up here.” The drunk one said quietly.
Alexis felt sad over this for the first time. These were good kids and they were about to meet their ends in this forest.
“Thanks, man. That’d be great.” Brian lied so well, even Alexis didn‘t hear any hint of it in his voice.
The man got up with some effort and they followed him as he came up unsteadily to the side of his tent. “Okay, who’s making the call?” He asked, his words slightly slurred together.
“That’s me.” Alexis said, finally releasing her hand from Brian’s and raising it. The man held out the phone and Alexis looked at it and dialed a random number and pressed the phone to her ear. Brian stepped back and looked around the corner. The other kid was sitting by the fire, practically ready to fall asleep. In a spot next to him, Brian noticed a rifle. He walked over to the other man.
“What’s the rifle for?”
“Bears.”
“Bears?” Brian asked, with a deceptive smile on his questioning face.
“Yeah, there’s been some stories on the news about bears mauling campers out here. So we just brought the rifle.”
Brian nodded and sat next to the kid.
Looking over, the young man didn’t give Brian much thought. As he looked away, his eyes fluttered and Brian took the opportunity to snap his neck and slump the body into his lap, burying his mouth in between this man’s neck and shoulder. A strong bite tore into the warm flesh. Brian’s arms constricted around the man’s waist and pumped the blood into his mouth.
Alexis had finished, and blood dripped from her chin while she watched Brian in silence. He was very gentle with the man’s body as if the corpse were valuable. Far more precise than Alexis, she envied his experience. When he had finished, he pulled away from the body slowly, looking up, his eyes accidentally meeting Alexis’s. They were dark and shadowed, but Alexis still recognized the tinge of guilt inside them.
“What do we do with them?” Alexis asked quietly.
The question seemed to pull Brian back into the moment and he looked down at the corpse in his lap.
“Um…” He looked around and pursed his lips, thinking for a moment. “We’re going to put them in the tent and burn it. Make it look like an accident.”
When Brian’s eyes came back up to Alexis, she was giggling almost inaudibly. Her hand covering her mouth, there were bloody tears in her eyes.
“Fuck.” Brian said, standing up and pulling the fresh corpse with him. Throwing it in the tent he stopped in front of Alexis who was starting to sway. “Dammit.” He threw his head back.
“What?” Alexis giggled.
“You’re drunk.” Bringing his head back up, Brian shook his head for not taking into account that the man Alexis had just killed had been drunk. Now he had a drunk vampire to get back home, and she was already faster than he was. Shrugging past her, he grabbed the other man and laid him in the tent.
“Get me his cell phone, please.” Brian requested.
Alexis bent down and grabbed the small device and handed it to Brian.
He threw it in the tent and turned to the fire as Alexis followed and watched, barely able to control her laughter.
Brian kicked into the embers and they flew out, causing Alexis to stop and admire them. But as they hit the tent, they had the desired effect. The thin fabric developed small holes as the embers ripped through them. Soon they smoldered and a small flame.
Alexis came up beside Brian and reached out for his hands with her fingertips. Brian opened his hand and Alexis slowly slid her hand in his and clamped down on it. Returning the gesture, Brian held lightly onto her hand as they watched those small flames rip through the tent.
The black smoke was thick and moved with the slight wind, teasing the flames even higher.
“We have to go.” Brian said, the pillars of smoke billowing up into the sky.