Hera

“Where is she?!” The Templar screamed in the courtyard at his partner, spinning around to locate is target.
“I don’t know! We need to alert King George about the threat, and that he has to evacuate immediately.” His partner warned.
“Have you caught sight of her?” The first Templar asked which was followed by a dreary silence.
“Roderick?” He called. The Templars behavior went from on guard to frantic.
“Work of evil! Spawn of Satan! Show yourself and face me with true honor!” He bellowed out into the shadows. He pulled out a small golden cross and kept it to his fist, while wielding his sword within the other. A moment passed before a pale woman with straight black hair and icy blue eyes materialized from the shadows. With a tilt of the head and a smirk she stared down the brave, yet foolish man of god.
“In the name of God, I will slay you where you stand!”
“Thanks but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” Her words came from behind the doomed warrior. With a blink of an eye, she moved at such speed he had no chance of noticing. He also didn’t notice the blood squirting from his jugular until he felt its warmth soak through his cloak and run under his chainmail. With blood spraying about, he dropped to his knees and uttered,
“D-demon…” and with that last breath, the life left his being. The girl licked her lips at the sight of the red liquid.
“Dinner time.” She smiled.

Chapter 1
“You can do this Ulrick…” I encouraged.
“She is just a girl, a girl that ripped your heart out every year in front of the school when you asked her out, however this year is going to be different, and it’s your last chance. To top it off, you made quarterback, she’ll love that.” I pressed on. I filled my lungs with air, held my breath, and approached the tan, smooth skinned, skinny, petite blonde. She wore denim short shorts and a low cut T-shirt, showing off her bronzed beautiful skin. I lost focus on everything
Pg. 2
else and I probably would have walked right into her if it wasn’t for a knock on the shoulder from a passing student.
“Alicia.” I called with a confident smile. She gave me a slight puzzled look.
“Hi, Ulrick.” She greeted.
“I heard you made quarter back over the summer” She continued as she pulled a couple binders from her locked.
“Yeah, and it was a close pick to, but luckily I made the cut.”
“Yeah.” A silence crept up upon us.
“So, uhh, Alicia… What are you doing this Saturday night?” The question slipped out.
“I’m hanging out at Alex’s house, sorry. Maybe we can do something another time.”
“The soccer captain Alex?”
“That’s the one.”
“Oh… Right”
“Yeah, him…” She ended awkwardly. The silence came in for a closer inspection.
“I knew I should have tried out for soccer captain!” I yelled at myself in my head.
“Our school is popular for that sport anyway… There goes my last chance with the same result as every other year…” I continued.
“So I’m going to go to class… If you don’t do the same you’re going to be late.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll see you later.” I spoke aloud. The girl of my dreams, my crush since freshman year, closed her locker, spun the combination a bit, and then phased past me like I wasn’t even there, like I didn’t matter. My heart had plummeted into my stomach in pieces as I clenched my chest and slumped against the wall of lockers. I let out a defeated sigh and looked towards the ceiling.
“Bummer, man” My best friend Eric came up and took a spot next to me. I kept my gaze at the ceiling.
“Zero for four…” I groaned in strife.
Pg.3
“I guess you might as well give it up, you know there aren’t any other chances after this, it’s the last year of high school and every year it’s someone new.” He shared.
“Well, you don’t know that. Maybe he’s just using her and she might realize it later down the road.” I held onto hope.
“Or he’s going to succeed in using her, and he’s just going to keep her around and use her over, and over, and over again. Maybe she’ll get addicted just like all the other girls did.” He snickered to himself.
“Would you shut it? You know I have a crush on her. Damn.”
“Alright I’m sorry, honestly, and yeah maybe you’re right, maybe she’ll come to her senses but while you’re waiting you should focus on another girl, someone less superficial, self-centered. I mean really, you’re a good looking guy who made QB. Sure our school isn’t too popular for football but it’s still a sexy title to girls. Hang onto that bud.” With those words of wisdom he gave me a pat on the shoulder and made his leave.
“I guess he’s right…” I thought to myself with my eyes still focused on the ceiling panels.

“Ulrick you’re late to class, I’m sure you have a good excuse.” Mrs. James bellowed. Mrs. James was a middle aged, fat, peach fuzzed faced, all knowing woman who hated me for being late to class, but that wasn’t the biggest reason for her dislike of my being. I was her star student. Every test she gave our class, I aced. Every project she gave us, I went above and beyond. Why? All to make her hate me more, and it worked.
“I have an excuse, but it isn’t good.” I smirked at her.
“Is your excuse that you get rejected once more?” She gave a victorious face. I sneered at her and took my seat in the back of the class.
“Bitch…”
“Say that a bit louder why don’t you.” I turned my head to look at Alex, who unfortunately was placed next to me as one of Mrs. James’s punishments. It made me laugh inside how happy she got when she thinks she’s won.

Pg. 4
“Why don’t you go practice drowning yourself in the school pool?” I suggested. He gave a look and sunk into his seat. Alex made good grades as well, but only because he was the star soccer player of the school, so he doesn’t even bother with homework or school work. Halfway through class, Mrs. James assigned us to research our given mythical creature. We were all broken up into groups of two, and lucky for me I was paired with my friend Jeremy.
“What were we assigned J?”
“We got the best one on the list, vampires.” He answered reluctantly.
“How did you manage that? I was certain Alex would’ve gotten it.”
“Well, Alex would have gotten it if Mrs. James hadn’t already given him an A, so she went to the next person she loves most. Good thing her fondness for me is greater than her hate for you.”
“Yeah, good thing.” I chuckled.
“Oh, congrats on making QB by the way, hopefully you’ll make it a popular sport for us since our last QB failed at it.” At least my friends cared about my summer achievement. Aside from making quarter back, I never really was a popular kid, but I wasn’t on the bottom either. I guess you could say I was caught in the middle of the chain. I was only messed with by a select few which consisted of Alex and people who were bigger than me. I’m six foot one, medium length black hair, tan skin, and the football training gave me a good build as well, and weighing me in at 200lbs. Jeremy has been one of my friends since middle school.
“Thanks J.” I smiled.
Class felt endless with each minute feeling like an hour. I swear if you watch the second hand go around once, it feels like more than one minute has passed during. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the circular device. The anticipation of being released from class grips its claws into my mind and refused to leave until the bell had rung.
“Ulrick!” Mrs. James Shattered my focus.
“Yes Mrs. James.” I politely replied. It always annoyed her when I was nice.
“The clock is not teaching you history, I am.”
“Not my fault the clock is more interesting than your lessons.”

Pg. 5
“Well maybe I’ll seem more interesting when you’re staring at the wall in the timeout room.”
“Well the timeout room has clock so I doubt it.”
“Then you know where the door is. Leave.”
“Well didn’t want to be here anyway. Hey J, I’ll get to the library as soon as I can ok?”
“Well alright, just look up vampire history and folklore and you should be ok.” I gave a nod and gathered my stuff. On my way out, Alex decided to sneak his foot into my path. I stopped, looked at him and shook my head.”
“Amateur.” I muttered.
Instead of going to the timeout room as directed, I took a jog to the country library to get a head start on my research. I was going to over achieve once more on yet another project that Mrs. James gave us. I always thought if she secretly liked me only from my grades and that were just having friendly competition on who has more wit amongst us, but the way she gives me dirty looks in class doesn’t really support that theory. I ran up to the white concrete building and trotted in through the front door. I shook my head and caught my breath. The library from the school is about two miles, so it was only a warm up run for me. I walked up to the front desk.
“Excuse me ma’am, where do you think I would find information on vampires?” I asked the desk attendant. She gave me an odd look from my presence.
“Its noon, shouldn’t you still be in school?”
“I got permission to leave class to get a jump on my project early. I’m kind of the star student.”
“Well alright, but I better not be getting any angry emails from your parents.”
“You won’t, its benefiting my education after all.” I gave a sly smile. The lady laughed and began typing on her computer.
“Well you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for in either the fiction center, science fiction center, or history center. Your best bet is history; it has all kinds of folklore and legends hidden away there.”
“Thank you very much.”
Pg. 6
I searched the shelves, and pulled out anything that fit my standards. I must’ve pulled out over a dozen books and stacked them all on a small table near the back of the library. I couldn’t risk anyone familiar noticing me. Hours passed by as I got more in depth with my research. I filled pages amongst pages of notes on vampire stories, types of vampires, their weaknesses, and ways I could possibly defend myself against one. I even checked out the movie “Fright Night.” I didn’t even notice the storm that effortlessly made its way over Harrisman County and drenched the community. The power even flickered, but I barely noticed. When I checked my phone it turned out I missed a couple calls from Jeremy. Eventually he texted me that the storm was too dangerous to go out in and he would meet me over the weekend here in the library. Late evening quickly dawned on me, pushing the storm onward and away from the county.
“The library will be closing momentarily, please gather all checked out material and return any that isn’t. Thank you and have a good night.” The desk lady announced. In my focus on research, I took a break and ended up falling into a deep sleep on top of my scattered papers and books. I was at the library for countless hours for the one project. I must have done a week’s worth of research within the given amount of time I remained at the facility. Mrs. James had better be proud of my work.
“Your research is quite impressive.” Came an unfamiliar voice. I quickly awoke, raising my head with a pencil holding onto my cheek. I took a deep breath in waking.
“Hm?” I moaned.
“Are you doing this for a project?” asked the voice. It didn’t take me long to figure out where the voice was coming from, and when I found out who’s it was, it blew me away. Sitting next to me was a girl with un-parallel beauty in which I’ve never seen before, her long, flowing black hair which draped down her back on one side and cascaded over her shoulder on the other, and her pale smooth skin bringing out her icy blue eyes and blood red lip stick. She wore a tight black sweater with a low cut V-neck which showed off her cleavage. Along with it was a matching black tight mini skirt which wasn’t shy on showing off her flawless legs. Her face was one of a goddess with a body to match, and her eyes froze me up in a trance.
“Are you ok?” She asked playfully with a tilt of her head.
“I…I…” I stuttered helplessly. All she did was giggle.

Pg. 7
“What, it’s not like there’s anything to be afraid of.” She placed the palm of her hand on my left cheek then trailed her pointer and middle fingers down my jawline, my neck and my chest, hooking her two fingers onto my white T-shirt.
“You’re adorable…” her hands felt cold against my sternum, without any warmth, but I didn’t care. Her eyes kept their grip on me, pulling me in more as she gave a sly smile.
“You’re research is what brought me over here… While you were asleep, I couldn’t help but go over them. You see, I’m big on vampires and I know what I’m saying when I say your research on a certain vampire isn’t accurate.” She whispered into my ear, bringing her chair closer to me. My breathing became more nervous when I felt her cold breath against my neck causing me to shake.
“It isn’t?” I peeped softly in my hypnosis.
“Not quite.” She smiled, moving pages from under pages and setting them across others.
“You wrote down certain types of vampires and their weaknesses, which are all true, but you’re wrong about my type.” She put her finger on the word “bezvadný”
“I bet you don’t even know what that means.” She licked her lips and looked at my neck. I shook my head to her observation.
“It means flawless in Czech. You see we were discovered by the Czech Republic in the 1930s. Its people created a legend on the bezvadný, how we were born as the first beings to watch over mortal life and as the mortals grew in numbers they were too much for us to handle for the bezvadný vampires and we fled into hiding. They called my kind flawless for our amazing beauty and imperviousness to death itself. We were immune to the sun unlike most vampires, our hearts weren’t our death target to a wooden stake, and holy water, crosses, and garlic didn’t do a thing. We found this out after they tried it on us when they found out what we were, then word got out. You have here it will affect them, so I guess the legend has been changed by the humans to rally more people to kill us.” I gave her an odd look. I was so in depth with her knowledge that I ignored that she stated “Her type.”
“Tell me more…” I begged
“Well, if you insist. We began learning about our capabilities not long after we were born. Our teeth could grow even larger to tear out larger chunks of flesh. Our sight was greater than any predator out there by tenfold. Our smell was greater than that of a bloodhound by
Pg. 8
miles, and our strength is yet to be unmatched by any living creature. Our appetites grew lustful for human flesh rather than animals. The smell of human blood makes us go wild like a swarm of sharks. It’s very hard to resist unless you’ve already fed.” It quickly dawned on me what she was saying.
“Wait… so you’re saying you’re thousands or millions of years old and the Czech republic named you in the 1930’s as the over watchers of mortal kind?
“That’s right.” She nodded. I gave her a cold blank stare.
“Are you a psychopath?” I accused.
“I’m a bezvadný vampire.” Her smile quickly vanished.
“You’re nuts.”
“But I have the fangs and everything to prove it.” She opened her mouth. I denied her fangs to be real.
“They’re just fakes.”
“You’re hurting my feelings.” She smiled once again, but bigger.
“Why are you looking at me like that…?”
“Well I was hoping to be your friend. Living thousands of years tends to get lonely.”
“Why? So you can drink my blood whenever you supposedly crave it? No thanks. I have to go anyways.” I quickly began gathering my books and papers, and making for the exit. I took a look back at her to see her leaned back in her chair with my pencil, the eraser resting on her lips. She gave me a wink and waved with her fingers. I hid my blushing face from her and kept walking. As soon as I was out of sight, she held up my wallet and laughed.
“He didn’t even notice. Ok let’s see what we got here…” She opened up my wallet and scattered the contents on the table.
“Driver’s license… School ID… What kind of name is Ulrick Dare?” She asked herself.
“Twelve dollars… house key… Oh what do we have here?” She pulled out my picture of Alicia I cut out of a year book.
“Looks like he has a crush…” She smirked
Pg. 9
“Never talking to her again…” I muttered to myself.
“Czech Republic… Immune to basic vampire bane… Thousands of years old…” I grumbled. My grumbling was quickly interrupted by a man grabbing me from the shroud of the night and stuffing me into a narrow ally off the street. I was so focused on the craziness that I had heard earlier I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was even going. I accidentally made a wrong turn into the wrong end of town.
“What’s a little school girl like you doing in these parts?” He insulted. I kept my stare into his eyes.
“Shouldn’t you be at home with your mommy?” He mocked.
“Shouldn’t you be educated on good hygiene?” I waved my hand in front of my face.
“Shut that smartass mouth of yours up before I blow it through the back of your skull.” He threatened, pulling out a silver 9mm. pistol and backed me deeper into the ally. All of my comebacks were over shadowed by blistering fear for my life.
“There isn’t any need for the gun…” I said quietly not to provoke him any further.
“Give me everything you got, now.” He demanded. I nodded and followed his order. To my shocking astonishment, my wallet wasn’t on me.
“Are you playing with me?! Where is it?!” He screamed in my face.
“I… I don’t have my wallet.” I actually began to tear up.
“No loss I guess. They won’t be able to identify your dead corpse as they peel you off the walls.” I heard the gun click off its safety.
“I’m going to die…” I kept repeating in my head as I eyed the copper coated bullet as it rested in its chamber, with my name engraved on its point. My body shook like a leaf in a hurricane as the seconds passed by. I cherished those seconds knowing they were my last. My breathing stopped and all I could do was wait for the bang.
“Yoo-hoo!” Came the girl’s voice.
“You forgot your wallet.” She stated. She instantly targeted the man with her icy blue eyes, and he targeted her.
“What are you doing to Ulrick?” She asked calmly.
Pg. 10
“Run!” I screamed. She tilted her head in confusion as the man changed his aim from my head to her heart. I heard the bang I waited for followed by a fleshy impact of the bullet penetrating through her chest and out her back. Her eyes didn’t change focus and remained on the thug. Blood spilled from the hole, only to be soaked up by her sweater. She smiled.
“What the fuck…” I uttered on top of labored breathing, sliding my back down the wall and taking a seat on the ground. The man was just as stunned as I was. His response was to fire two more shots at the girl, the first bullet tearing through her left leg and the other grazing her neck. She began to laugh. The bullet wounds healed in seconds leaving no trace of there ever being an injury. My eyes somehow widened even more than they already have. I stopped shaking due to pure shock.
“My turn.” She licked her lips and advanced toward the man slowly. He fired all of his remaining rounds into her which resulted in immediate repair. As she got closer, I pressed myself more against the wall, my nails grinding against the asphalt beneath me. I never blinked, keeping all attention on this creature of darkness. The man grabbed the barrel of his pistol and attempted to strike her with the gun itself. She grabbed his arm before it even got close, and with a simple squeeze, snapped it like a twig. He bellowed in pain as the pistol dropped to the ground, clacking on the hard surface. She threw him effortlessly to the end of the ally at the dead end and turned to me with a grin.
“Close your eyes… you’re too young to watch.” She laughed as her fangs grew twice as large and her pupils narrowed like that of a predator. I didn’t heed her warning. My eyes refused to shut as she disappeared into the shadows.
“Oh god! Help! Please!” The man cried in terror. I heard another snap which transformed his calls for help into gurgling gasps for air. Next, there was another crunch and then the spilling of liquid on the road. I turned my eyes away from the violent mess and forced them shut.
“It’s going to be ok… It’s going to be ok… This is only a dream…” I cried harder burying my face in my palms. Footsteps approached and stopped in front of me.
“Don’t cry baby…” She gently moved my hands away from my face and looked into my swollen eyes. Blood stained her jaw and chest against her satisfied status. She put a bloody palm on my left cheek and gave me an innocent smile. The blood began sinking into her skin until all of it disappeared from sight.
“You look tense.” She examined. I started to break down again right in front of her.
Pg. 11
“Please don’t kill me… I’m sorry for what I said… Have mercy…” I begged. She bit her lip and covered it with her own blood, sat on my lap and brought me to her, kissing me deeply and plunging her tongue within my mouth. The taste of iron filled my mouth, my face burned from blushing, and my shaking slowing calmed. She lifted her head and once again pulled me into her eyes.
“Nnn…” I moaned as my vision began to blur, and words were impossible to form.
“You’re mine now…” She smirked, kissing her new pet deeply once more, but for her own pleasure. I blacked out.