I Hope They Taste of Me Forever

The night was far from silent. Friday night means lots of drunks. And lots of vampires. And lots of drunken vampires. Matt always did well on Fridays. The vampires were usually too intoxicated to fight him properly or their priorities were focused elsewhere. Not the Dandies, though. Oh no, they were too sophisticated, too special to act like regular street vamps and throw their focus away. Conceited, much?

Not that he admitted it, but I could tell Matt was hoping to kill some Dandies tonight. He always wanted to kill Dandies. Honestly, I was hoping he would too. It terrified me when he was fighting them, but he was always more satisfied afterwards. Unfortunately, the chances were about one in a thousand. Dandy vampires don’t just show up. They’re either sent after you, or you accidentally find them by luck, or lack thereof.

Matt and I were walking along the dark sidewalk, illuminated dimly from the street lights. He walked a step or so ahead, eyes peeled for any sign of the night creatures. I was on the lookout too. I glanced behind us often just in case we were being followed, but sometimes I got a little distracted by the weapons my brother held. Tonight a gun hung from his belt. He didn’t usually bring anything like this. Every now and then I saw a glint of silver from his belt, and putting two and two together I figured that he had silver bullets. This confused me. Weren’t silver bullets supposedly used against werewolves? Then again, according to all the mythology there was some sort of unexplained bond between vampires and werewolves… Wait. 'What am I thinking?' Werewolves? Come on. Vampires are one thing, but werewolves? I don’t think so. But maybe that’s why Matt has silver bullets. Maybe he’s experimenting. Trying to figure out if they’d have any effect against vampires...

This is my train of thought. I’m pretty sure the track broke a while back.

“Elle!” Matt hissed, holding his arm out to stop me walking further.

“What?” I whispered back.

“I’m pretty sure that group ahead are vampires.”

I looked ahead as inconspicuously as I could, and I instantly agreed. There were around ten of them. Most of them looked like street vamps, but one or two could have been hoods. They looked pretty shifty; probably dealing blood. But that’s not what worried me. They were all very big. Not fat, but really muscley. This was kind of disturbing to me. None of the vampires I’d come across were like this. Sure, Matt was well-built, but some of these vampires looked like serious body-builders. If I didn’t know they were vampires, I would have guessed steroids. I thought that Matt would probably beat them. He usually did. Renowned vampire hunter, remember? But still… they looked like they could easily snap my neck off… and they could.

“Yeah,” I agreed quietly.

“It’d be easier to kill them in the alley,” he told me, motioning towards the alley just beside where the group were ‘hanging’. I gulped and nodded.

“Do you want me to get them in there?” I asked him.

“Of course I don’t want you to,” he snapped. “But I think I might need you to.”

I nodded again.

“Be careful,” he told me seriously. “I won’t let anything happen to you, but just be on your guard.”

I nodded at him yet again and stepped out of the shadows that had hidden us and began walking forward.

'Arrogant jerk.' I thought. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” I mocked in my mind. “I’m so big and brave, vampires fear me, I…”

“Hello there.”

I was shaken out of my thoughts by the deep, scary voice of one of the vampires that would have sent chills down anyone else’s spine. I turned my head to see evil, excited grins on all of their faces except one, whose face was bowed and hidden under a dark grey hood, but I assumed he shared the same sadistic smirk. I couldn’t tell which one had spoken. I nodded my head stiffly in their general direction, and when I passed all of them I ran into the alley. Less than a second later, the vampires were in the alley too, surrounding me.

One of them appeared right in front of me, way too close for comfort. If this didn’t happen so often, I’m sure I’d have a more entertaining reaction for him.

“You’re a pretty one…” he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

His eyes flickered from my neck to my eyes, and I’m pretty sure the strange expression on his face was surprise. I guess he couldn’t find any fear in my eyes. Well, I wasn’t afraid. Now that I think about it, a bunch of inexperienced street/hood vampires are no match for my brother, no matter how buff they are.

“And you’re not,” I hissed at him venomously.

It was a half-lie; vampires are all attractive to humans, no matter how un-attractive they actually are. His face contorted in fury but then – and prepare for me to get a little graphic here – a sharp wooden stake came hurtling from behind the vampire and embedded itself in his back with so much force that it pierced his heart from behind. Any expired blood that the creature had in it spurted out of his chest, splattering my cheeks. Can you spell DISGUSTING?

“Who’s next?” Matt grumbled at the remaining vampires as the one he had staked crumbled to a pile of dust.

Some of the remaining vampires looked scared. 'As they should.'

Some looked angry. 'They’ll go first.'

Unexpectedly, one of the vampires grabbed me by the waist from behind, snaking his arm around me and holding me close to him. Yuk. As if it wasn’t bad enough having vampire blood all over my face, now I’ve got a vampire holding me. Gross. This was so not a good night.

“You next?” Matt raised an eyebrow at whatever one was behind me.

I turned my head slightly to get a look at the vampire. It was the one whose face I couldn’t see before, but now his hood was back and I could see him. As much as I hated to admit it, he was probably the best looking of all of them. He was a ‘hood’ vampire, obviously. Hence the reason his face was hidden before. He had dark skin, dark eyes, a good build but not overly muscley like some of the others, and dark curly hair that can be described in no way other than wild. The vampire grinned mischievously and pressed his nose and lips against my throat.

“Has anyone ever told you how good you smell?” he murmured into my ear. I rolled my eyes. I had been told this by pretty much every vampire I’d ever run into. I guess it’s just their way of trying to spook me.

“Once or twice,” I told him bitterly. The vampire inhaled heavily and breathed out a cold breath on my neck that caused me to shiver slightly.

“I’m Travis,” he said again, a smirk evident in his voice.

“Elle,” I said through gritted teeth.

Matt looked absolutely furious. Not just at the vampire named Travis, but at me too. He hated it whenever I spoke to the vampires he was hunting. Maybe that’s why I did it. Regardless of our situation, I’m still his younger sister. I’m supposed to piss him off. That and the fact that Travis could bite me at any moment, and the only way I could think of to prevent that was by playing along with his little game.

In the blink of an eye, Matt pulled a small vial of holy water out of his belt and pegged it at Travis’ heart. But Travis was one step ahead of him and caught the vial swiftly with an outstretched hand, his eyes never leaving my face. This was unusual. Travis was smarter than the average hood vampire. He was almost as quick and smart as a Dandy.
Unexpectedly, Travis handed the vial of holy water to me. 'This guy was just full of surprises.' I took it from him, confused.

“Until next time, Miss Williams,” he smirked, probably reading my confusion on my face, and removed his arm from my waist. Matt violently threw stakes at Travis as he climbed quickly up the alley wall behind me and ran across the roof, but all of Matt’s stakes missed.

Fuming, Matt easily finished off the eight vampires left before grabbing my wrist and practically dragging me all the way back to out apartment.

“You stupid kid!” he yelled at me, once we were in the safety of our apartment. “Why the fuck did you talk to them? You told them your name!”

“Relax Matt. He knew exactly who we were. He called me ‘Miss Williams’.”

“Only after you told him your first name!”

“Shut up Matt, we both know that there can’t be many people like us and probably every vampire in the country knows who you are anyway.”

“But now they know who you are! And he got away, Elle! He fucking escaped!”

“So I realized,” I said calmly. “Come on Matt, I’m sure he’s not the only vampire who knows of my existence.”

“He’s a hood vampire! And he escaped! What does that do to my reputation?”

“You egocentric jerk! You know as well as I do that he could’ve passed for a Dandy if he wore the stupid clothes they wear!”

It seems Matt kept changing his point.

“And he was flirting with you, Elle! And you just let him!”

“It’s not like it’s the first time, you’re just pissed because he got away with it. And what the hell was I supposed to do? Politely tell him I’m not interested?” Oh wow. It’s been a while since I voiced my sarcasm.

“So why did you take the holy water from him?”

“Jeez, if I’d known you’d make such a big deal over a stupid vial of holy water I wouldn’t have taken it!”

“You…”

“No,” I cut him off. “I’ve had enough of this argument that’s clearly going nowhere.”

And with that I stormed off into my room.

“Elle!” I heard Matt calling angrily. Apparently he didn’t like being walked out on.

I paid no attention to him as I bolted my door and got ready for bed. As I lay there awake, the morning sun beginning to shine, I realized. That was the first big argument I’d had with my brother since before our parents were killed. He’s always gotten angry at me, but I’ve never cared enough to fight back. Was I… no. It couldn’t be possible. I threw the covers off me and switched on the light as I ran over to the mirror on my dressing table. My eyes weren’t grey. They were sort of a dull blue, halfway between grey and bright blue.

Was I beginning to care again?