Black Blood

I stumbled around in the dark, still wondering what the hell had just happened. It felt like I was in some kind of gory, teen drama. I stared at my hands, the dead vampires left behind me nearly forgotten. My hands...

There was something different about them. There was something different about me in general, but for some reason all I could focus on was the high detail I saw my hands in. It was amazing.

My breathing eventually calmed, and I looked up and around my surroundings as I started walking. By the lights off in the distance I could tell I was on the outskirts of some town. Probably the town that those vampires had lived in.

The vampires. They were dead. Because of me. Was my blood some kind of poison to them? But how could that be? I was just an ordinary human, as much as Claude had tried to tell me otherwise. I was an ordinary human. The thought circled around in my head for a while until I felt satisfied enough with it.

Even so there was a hazy, green glow to everything. Wasn't it a green-coloured mist that had flowed from that vampire's mouth to mine? And my wounds had healed.

My wounds had healed.

I was just an ordinary human girl.

Who could steal some kind of green-coloured life force from the corpses of vampires. Whose blood had caused those vampires to seize and then die.

All of those thoughts became a rush inside my head. I grew dizzy and unsteady as I walked. Before I ended up tripping and face planting into the ground, I paused and focused, leaning up against a tree for support.

I stared at the ground a while and tried to pull my thoughts back under control. I imagined grabbing at them like they were balloons being blown around by the wind. One by one I reeled them in.

"Claude," I whispered.

Claude. I had to get back to Claude. Regardless of my discoveries it still wasn't safe for me to be on my own in vampire territory. If other vampires discovered what I could do, they'd perceive me as a threat and no doubt have my life ended then and there.

I pushed back off the tree and walked with a newfound steadiness. With this strange new power of mine I could probably defend myself against any vampire attacks for the time being.

But where was Claude...

A slow, but creeping feeling that I was being watched edged its way into my mind. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood up on end. I looked around me, and then I saw them.

The glowing, red eyes of the vampires around me would have startled me back at the beginning of my journey. But by now I was growing accustomed to it. There were five of them, a number far greater than my defense strategy accounted for. So I froze and waited.

One of them stepped forward, his hair long and dark and tied at the nape of his neck. He almost blended with the shadows because of the dark colour of his clothing.

"You," he hissed. "I'd recognize that scent anywhere. You're a Blackblood. And yet you're human. I've never known the Blackbloods to allow a member of their bloodline to remain human for so long."

"Are you going to kill me?" I blurted, my eyes wide as I watched him in anticipation.

He stared at me a long moment, and then looked back the way I had come from. My heart hammered in my ears.

"No," he said finally. "A Blackblood human seems more useful to us alive, rather than dead."

He took a step toward me, and I took a step back. He shook his head and grinned.

"How'd those two back there end up dead? Not that I mind; they were low-born scum," he said.

"I-" I started, but paused. Would telling him what happened put me in further danger? Would they even believe me? The other four began a steady approach.

"You a hunter, little Blackblood?" the dark-haired one asked. "That would be ironic. A hunter in the Blackblood clan."

"I'm not a hunter," I said. "It- it was my blood, so you really shouldn't try anything with me." I held my hands up, palms facing them.

"Your blood?" he asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

"They- they tried to drink it," I stuttered. "They reacted badly to it and- they died."

He studied me carefully then, all of them paused to think. Then he shrugged and closed the distance between us, his hand cupping my cheek. He tilted my head this way and that.

"Where are the bite marks?" he asked.

"Huh?" I said, trembling.

"The bite marks. You say they tried to drink your blood and failed," he continued. "That your blood ended up killing them in the end. Where are the bite marks, if this is true?"

"Th-they healed, after I- I did this thing," I stuttered again. His eyebrows remained furrowed, that genuinely baffled look still on his face. "I don't know what happened, really. It's never happened before. I mean I'd never even met vampires before- but... I just, I guess I stole his life force?"

He let me ramble on for some reason, and I closed my eyes tightly. I didn't try to wrench myself away from him, knowing that wouldn't yield any results. Again I was really hating the super strength vampires had. Eventually he seemed to come to terms with the answer, and he released my jaw, only to cover my arm with his iron grip. I opened my eyes again.

"Hm," he said, studying me more. "Don't try anything like that on me, you understand?"

"I-I don't know if it works on a living vampire," I said.

"Keep it that way," he nodded. "So, blood that acts as a poison to vampires... I believe we can put an ability like that to good use. Edward Blackblood will want to swoop you up as soon as he catches wind of your existence. And then..."

He bent low to my ear and whispered, "We can use you as a weapon against him. As soon as we've got him right where we want him."