A Winter's Kiss

Okay, this bad, this is very bad. They had me the back of my jacket, and it’s not like I’m physically strong enough to break free of two burly looking vampires. One had Pete, one arm wrapped around his neck and the other holding his left arm in a tight grasp.

“Kiss her. Kiss her. Kiss her,” they chanted. Not like actual making-out kissing, no, they meant the deathly kiss, the kiss they all had before their hearts stopped beating.

You see, when a vampire bites a human a deathly venom enters the blood stream, this bite is The Kiss of Death, because as soon as that vampire leaves you with that venom in your system you’re doomed to living as a being whose heart no longer beats. Pete, my brother, is one of those beings, except instead of turning to evil like all other vampires, he chose to stay with me, his darling younger sister, and our friends. We hunt vampires for a living.

Now, these vampires, we call them the “Punks” they’re like…punks the stereotypical standing on street corners scaring old ladies and children punks though. These Punks know who we are – Pete and I – and could somehow tell that Pete hasn’t had his special mix of herbs and garlic today so they could tell he was a bit hungry, and if you don’t already know, vampires eat humans, and Pete kind of got turned into a vampire – I honestly don’t think you can be born as a vampire like that little girl from the goofy Twilight books – and I’m still a human, so you can guess how this turned out.

So as you’re all caught up with the story I guess it’s time to continue it. “You know you want a bite,” oh shut up vampires, we all know he wants a bite, “Just one, go on. See there,” he pointed to a vein on my neck, “that’s where the blood will burst out into your mouth and you can drink to your heart’s content,” Pete’s eyes turned slightly black, starting from the pupils, the blood lust was appearing, “Just a bite go on.” I really wish he’d shut the fuck up.

Pete was growling and moaning now, his mouth open, fangs elongated – they are huge! How does he fit them in his mouth? Wait stop Florence, stop this isn’t the time! Pete was heading for my neck. “Pete, come on stop,” I muttered under my breath, “You know this isn’t right,” the black retreated slightly and the red that appeared on the whites of his eyes faded slightly, it worked. I let out a slight sigh of relief, expecting him to retreat as well, but he kept coming towards me, jaws unhinged.

Before I could blink his mouth attacked flesh. I gasped, surprised, he wanted me to believe he was still in bloodlust so it wouldn’t look weird. He’d bit down on the arm of the Punk that had him, causing him to cry out in pain. The venom of another vampire can cause problems if that vampire wishes to harm them.

The two vampires holding me had let go allowing me to help Pete. He pushed me onto the road however, being protective and not letting me join in. It was then I realised we’d gone out unprepared. We had no stakes or weapons. I only went to shop to get more food, Pete came with for my protection – which I’m incredibly grateful for.

I stood up, my bare legs were scratched – I was in jean shorts, Pete is so lucky I wasn’t wearing a skirt, I’d have kicked his ass if I’d ended up flashing when I pushed me – lucky I was wearing a red leather jacket so it wouldn’t have scratched up my back or arms. I took a wobbly step back – heels really weren’t the best choice, but I did only think we were going to the shop and back to the hideout – keeping out of the fight. Lucky my legs were just grazed and not bleeding, those vampires would be on me like a dog on food. I watched Pete fight for a couple of seconds, he seemed alright, he’d just taken out five vampires in one swing so he clearly didn’t need any help. I calmly picked up the shopping I’d dropped when we were grabbed and ran back to the hideout: an old abandoned house. I entered through the door, into the garage. Joe was sitting at the breakfast bar, all jumpy and jittery.

“Calm your tits Joe, I’m back,” he turned and narrowed his eyes at me.

“You’re late,” he probably expected Pete to walk in straight after me, but by the time I’d past Patrick he realised he wasn’t coming in, “Where’s Pete?”

“We ran into some Punks. I don’t exactly have brute strength and with no weapons on me I couldn’t really help, so I came here while Pete handled them. Besides he’s fine, he took out most of them with one swing,” I’d dumped the bag on the counter, emptying out the items as Andy came to help put the things we didn’t need away.

“Hm,” Patrick made a noise at the back of his throat. We all looked at him, he looked at me with a curious gaze, “How many guys?”

“There was about 12 that attacked us, but Pete bit the one that caught him. And took out seven guys, five with a punch, before I decided he was okay,” Patrick nodded, writing down in that little book of his, “He’s fine, it’s probably just because he needs his shake.”

There was a loud banging as Pete threw open the door I’d came through earlier. “I made your shake,” Andy held out the blender and its contents to the vampire at the door, before placing it on the edge of the counter for him to take and helping me with the shopping again.

“You need to clean up Flossie,” I looked down at my legs, before looking up at Pete, raising an eyebrow, “They could still get infected, and your hands too,” gah older brothers suck…no pun intended.

*

Come on! Just die already! Stupid zombies never dying and always spawning. I threw the Xbox controller to the floor and crossed my arms in huff. Vampires seem to die just fine but when you go to kill a zombie they spawn behind you and eat you. I stood up, taking the bow and arrow from beside me as I stood. Okay, you may be thinking “What the fuck with the bow and arrow Florence, this isn’t medieval times!” But I have to tell you, bow and arrows are awesome for stealth killing vampires. They’re silent so even vampires can’t hear them and once the victim drops to floor you don’t know where the person came from because the angle isn’t as obvious as a bullet.

I made a gap of the distance I wanted between myself and the target. Placed the arrow in the bow and pulled back on the string with three fingers underneath the arrow all the way to the corner of my mouth. I closed my left eye since it was furthest from the arrow, and since I’m right handed and all, took a deep breath in before releasing. The arrow travelled through the air, the only noise being the “thwack” noise that comes with the string if the power was sufficient enough for the arrow to sink deep into the target.

“Flossie,” it was Joe, he was standing by the door, resting against the door frame, “it’s time to leave,” he spoke once I’d fully turned to him.

I nodded, took my arrow from the target and gathered my bow and quiver up, taking them to my room. I got my shoes on (white Doctor Marten boots, I’m never wearing heels again) and threw my signature red leather jacket on. I’d clipped my belt filled with stakes around my waist, which also had my quiver attached to it. My quiver was a hard leather case that had removable straps so I could put it anywhere. I put my bow on my right shoulder so it would be easy to remove it if need be and walked to the exit of the hideout.

Joe, Andy, Patrick and Pete were waiting patiently at the door, Joe and Patrick with guns that fired stakes, Andy had a katana on his back and Pete had his fangs and strength.

We hadn’t planned to fight tonight. Only if Dirty’s job started to go haywire would we jump in. I was laying on a roof at the end of the ‘Hoods and Punks hangout place, where Dirty was supposed to meet me. The ‘Hoods (full name Vampires of the Hood) and Punks were causing a ruckus, pretending to be two human gangs that were trespassing territory or something like that, to make it seem like they were normal people because then the humans – who aren’t as stupid as some may think, they know something goes down at night – will walk right through their territory, just like a take away being delivered to your door. I had my bow and arrow prepared to get any vampire that threatened to harm Dirty if the job went to shit. I heard a fumbling in my ear, I also had a microphone and ear piece in case any vampires snuck up on me.

“Base to Flossie. Base to Flossie. How’s it going?” the others were a few blocks away, couple of minutes at most.

“The job’s going well so far. Travie’s trying to distract the targets from the camera, it seems to be working,” I whispered. Travie was a vampire that stayed in the ‘Hood, but he became a good friend of ours when Pete turned. He was the one who found him writhing in a back alley and took him to a motel while he was going through the transformation. There have been times when we’ve helped Travie out of a sticky situation too so we’re kind of indebted to each other. The fight got a bit more serious looking and Dirty took this as his chance to take a photo that was a bit clearer. This was his mistake because a Punk vampire caught him by the throat, bearing his fangs and snarling, “SHIT!” I said, and fumbled with my bow and arrow, trying to get it targeted on the Punk but the pair kept moving, “Dirty’s in danger. I can’t get a clear shot of the vampire. SHIT!” A bunch of the vampires turned, not to me, no I wasn’t that loud. They turned, looking to the corner of the building I was laying on top. I turned my head, Dirty near the front of my mind, "Guys, the Dandies are coming.”

I turned back to the Dirty, seeing a clear shot to shoot the vampire. I pulled back, but a hand covered mine that rested on the string. “Hello there pretty one.”