Waking
“Ah, finally, she awakens. Took long enough, didn’t it?” a man said, his dark voice grating on my sensitive ears.
My eyes blinked open slowly, my head cloudy and throat parched. “Who are you?” I hissed out, seeing his blurry figure standing in front of me.
The man looked to be about 5”9, with close-cropped black hair, the smell of dye wandering its way to my nose.
“Who am I? I think more importantly we should know who you are. A young girl, in the hands of the Fae, and the Unseelie ones at that! Taken a bullet to the head, why you should most definitely be dead. Dead, gone, no one can handle something as that. Your brain should have been splattered into pieces, billions and billions of pieces. But no, no, no, you are healing, even faster than those of my own. Even faster than my own experiments.” I felt myself start to shake, fear building in my body. This man was in obvious need of a mental hospital, one that could provide for his obviously serious mental problems.
“I know what you are though. I know who you are. Tammy Maynard, the Queen of the Amatores Sanguinis. Beautiful, young, strong. Just wonderful, such a find. I haven’t gotten my hands on one of you in years, many years. Dozens of years. Such a find, a wonderful, beautiful find. Not very smart though, falling for a Faes’ charm. For Anesshygra Herwedsef Lwersy’s charm to be exact. The Unseelie Queens daughter, such a feisty one she is. Worming her way into your kingdom, stealing you away, just as we asked. Just as we demanded. Though we told her to do it discreetly, very discreet, quietly, painless. She didn’t listen, oh why didn’t she listen?
You look thirsty? Are you thirsty? I would give you something, but then there’d be no control. No control. The Directors, the Heads, they want to see you though. They want to meet you. They cannot meet you in this condition, oh no, not in this condition. I will help; I will make you worthy enough to see them. I will calm the thirst, I have that. I have that. My invention, my prize,” the man went on, his dark grey eyes looking lost and confused as he stumbled around pulling out steel-drawer after steel-drawer.
It looked as if I was in a hospital room, everything made of steel from the walls to the bed I was lying on, or rather, chained onto. I don’t really think that would be counted as lying on it.
“I found it!” he exclaimed, and I looked up to see him holding a syringe filled with a thick red and gold substance. All I saw was the red. Blood. The burn started up again, taking ahold of my entire body as the need for what was in that syringe felt too much to handle. “No, no. Cannot go, cannot leave on me. Here, here. I will give you it. I will help.”
He pushed the syringe into my skin, injecting the blood into my system. Immediately I calmed, feeling a drug-like haze begin.
“Good, isn’t it? Very good, very, very good. It’s human blood mixed with Fae blood. That’s what the gold is. The beautiful gold. Fae blood, taken from a powerful Fae. Proven to be like a drug to Amatores, a drug. A wondrous drug that brings peace to you. That brings a momentary rest to your thirst. Now sleep, my dear Tammy. Sleep so I may bring you to the Directors.”
I yawned, my eyes starting to close of their own accord. “I need to-to-to leave,” I slurred, and tried to fight the sleep. It was too strong though, too inviting. So of course, I gave in.
---
“-so disgusting. Why the Directors even want to see her, I have no idea. I mean really, an Amatores? They already have us, aren’t we enough Amatores for them?” a girls voice said, and my eyes snapped open.
“Gracia, please be quiet. The Directors wanted her, that’s enough. You’re not supposed to complain, just comply.” My eyes immediately drifted toward the sound of that voice, a boy. He was beautiful, looking maybe seventeen, with spiked up blond hair, and sharp eyes that I couldn’t decide if they were blue or green. He was wearing a tight fitting t-shirt, showcasing a lean, muscled build. And his blood…
I don’t think I’ve ever smelled something as heavenly as what wafted from him. It was like sunshine and stars all bottled up into one person. Tugging at the Red inside of me, begging to let me taste.
“Who is the Director?” I heard someone say. Someone who I realized too late…was me. The boy stiffened, turning his view onto my body, still chained to another hard bed.
A whimper escaped from the girl behind him, a blonde whose grey eyes looked haughty and angry, but her heart shaped face set in fear.
“You’re awake,” the boy stated. Pursing his lips, his lips that looked so delicious, frown lines appearing on his tanned forehead. Everything about this guy was perfect. I swear he was like...a Greek God. That was the only explanation.
“Yes, I’m awake. Obviously. Now that we have the obvious out of the way, will someone care to answer my question?”
The boy stepped toward me, his eyes turning sharp as he looked over me, probably checking to make sure I was still chained to the damn bed.
“We’re not here to answer your questions; we’re here to bring you to the Directors. Plural, if you noticed. As in, more than one,” the girl, Gracia, said. She had followed the boy as he walked toward me, the earlier fear wiped away from her face.
“Gracia, do not talk to her. The Directors specifically said-”
“Oh screw what the Directors said! Screw it! We should just kill her now, this abomination, this demon. Kill her.” Gracia looked at me with contempt, the disgust almost like a smell emanating from her.
“Gracia, we do not speak like that. If anyone but myself heard you uttering words such as those, and in front of our guest! They wouldn’t hesitate to kill you, to lock you up, to torture you. We are just as much of an abomination as she is, maybe even more. Now stop complaining, stop talking, and let’s continue bringing the Amatores to the Directors. Alright?” the boy said, making it obvious that he was probably the one in charge between the two. Making it obvious that he was the more powerful one, the one who would put up more of a fight.
Obviously I’d be swaying Gracia then, she looked easier, her mind frailer. Although her blood smelled darker than that of the boys, but it was blood nonetheless...and I was starting to get really pissed and terribly hungry.
I mean really, I was a ‘guest’? What kind of guest was treated like this? Shot in the head, drugged, then dragged off to see the so-called ‘Directors’. I needed to get myself out of here, and now.
“Gracia is your name? Gracia, such a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl,” I purred, my voice turning into velvet as it wove a spell around the girl. The boy barely noticed, walking ahead of Gracia at a swift pace.
Gracia swayed slightly, leaning towards me as if my voice was a magnet for her body. ’Let me out of these chains, now.’ forced the thought into her brain; glad Duke had been able to teach me this before the damned Fae stole me away.
Her eyes turned glassy, then cleared, then turned glassy again, as if she was waging a battle within herself, a battle to listen to me, or to not. Finally though, it seemed I put enough power in my thought to her, and she produced a key from within her jeans. With shaking hands, she unlocked the chain that held me to the bed, beads of sweat forming where her hair and forehead met.
“Gracia, what are you-” But it was too late for the boy to interfere, as I hopped from the bed, my world turning a hazy red.
The Red boomed within me, targeting the boy instead of Gracia. His scent grew thick around me, calling me to take a bite. To taste this heavenly looking boy, no not taste, drink from him. Drink heavily until his body lay cold upon me.
I pounced, barely registering Gracia who just stood stock still beside my former bed, and locked onto the boys’ neck. He barely had time to react before I bit, the blood flowing freely from his neck to my mouth.
I thought Luke tasted good, but he was nothing. He was just a human, filled with human blood. This boy though, he was different. His blood tasted like beauty, like light, love, happiness, as if everything good in the world was packaged in this one boy. Our bodies grinded against one another, his hand searing every part of me t
hat he touched. That wasn’t enough though, I needed more, I needed to be closer.
I ripped his shirt off, mine following, and pressed my bare top against his. I had to get close, the need was even worse than when I was feeding from others. Something about this boy-
‘Grant, my name is Grant.’ voice. His voice. It sounded so perfect as his voice whispered to me in my head, Grants voice.
All too soon though, the pleasure ended, as a sharp pain erupted in my chest. I let go of my hold on Grant, snapping my body to face the threat. My body had healed seconds ago, the tingling having come and gone with Grants blood rushing throughout my system, but that was no matter. The Red still had pieces of me in its grip, and it was pissed at its feeding having to stop.
Gracia stood before me with a red-stained knife, blood dripping off it and splattering on the floor. Blood. My blood.
Once again I pounced, ripping into Gracias body with my teeth, the Red taking over my vision completely. My blood, I had to protect my blood.
“Stop!” a voice yelled out, but I ignored it, continuing my ravage on Gracia’s body. “STOP!”
I felt my body flying across the hallway, landing in a crouch feet away from a teal painted wall. That wasn’t possible though, it wasn’t possible for me to see Grant standing over me. Grant who I just fed upon, Grant who should be lying on the floor right now from blood loss.
“What are you?” I whispered, feeling the Red creep away from my vision.
I turned at the sound of a groan, watching as Gracia slowly stood from where she’d collapsed after my attack. Standing, as if I didn’t just tear at her insides. Standing, her body stitching itself back together right before my eyes.
I backed against the wall, feeling fear start to take over where the Red had left. Fear of these things who weren’t Amatores Sanguinis, but also weren’t human. Who didn’t smell like shifters, Fae, or witches. Who didn’t have the cold perfectness of an Expletus, or the orange boxiness of a Fatum. Whose blood smelled so enticing, calling to me, begging for me to take another bite.
“We’re Hudas,” Grant said calmly, as if I was supposed to know what the hell that was.
“Uh-explain please?”
“Hudas, we were made by Lewison, the brilliant scientist who I believe you met earlier. He’s gone a bit to the crazy side as the years passed, but he’s brilliant nonetheless. We’re a mixture of Amatores, Human, and Fae. Lewison combined the genetic code of the three after years of experimentation, and we came to be.” Grant smiled coolly, his eyes burning their odd blue-green mixture. “We have the healing and heightened sense of Amatores Sanguinis, the intelligence of the smartest Humans, the ability to travel within worlds taken from the Fae, and the magick.”
There it was again, that word. Magick. It sparked something within me, a need, a want...a...something unnamable, at least it was unnamable to me. “What do you mean the magick?” I asked, my voice hesitant as I looked over this odd mixture of a person, this Hudas.
“I think I’ve told you enough for now, the Directors will tell you the rest. So if you would please?” Grant pointed down the hallway to a metal door I’d somehow failed to notice, and started walking at a quick pace to it. “We don’t have time to stand here and dawdle, if we make the Directors wait anymore, I can guarantee that they will fail to be happy. Come along please, and don’t even think of trying to escape. You do that, and I can promise the end result will not be good. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if it means you won’t listen.”
I sighed, knowing he was right. Obviously it was stupid to underestimate these Hudas, but it annoyed me how Grant failed to even acknowledge what happened between us. I mean that bite was crazy; I’d never felt anything like it. Even now, I could feel the warmth of his blood coursing through my veins. Even now, I could feel the connection between us two that only appeared after I bit him. After I drew his blood into me.
Walking forward, I approached the door with Grant on one side of me, and Gracia on the other. She looked almost red with fury; probably fantasizing different ways she could kill me if allowed.
The doors that led to the Directors creaked open, the sound grating at my frayed nerves. Who the hell were these ‘Directors’ anyway? And what did they want with me?
I stepped into the open room, hearing the doors close behind us, leaving us in pitch black. Darkness that even my enhanced sight had a hard time piercing.
I heard a click, then bright lights erupted on above us, lighting up the whole room, blinding me for a second before my vision adjusted.
“Tammy?” The voice was soft, but I would recognize it anywhere. My eyes locked on the two figures sitting on the long wooden table that stood in the middle of the room, and I felt the world go black.
---
My eyes opened to what I immediately knew was a dream. I was standing in a field, a beautiful, colorful field. Standing in the middle of the field, was Dracul.
“Tammy, there you are. I’ve been searching for you since you were shot,” Dracul said, his face contorted with worry. “Where do they have you?”
I smiled, feeling light among all the beauty. “I don’t know, I wish I did...the place is so terrible. They have these things called Hudas, have you heard of them? They’re basically mutations...terrible...so terrible...why do they want me?”
I swatted at the tears that fell, angry with myself for being so weak. Always so damn weak.
“Have you not figured out yourself already? You’re in the home of the Ater Council. I distinctly remember warning you about them coming to find you. This is my fault. It didn’t even cross my mind that they’d team with the Unseelie Fae and kidnap you. I apologize Tammy, I have failed you.”
Draculs head bowed down, sadness etched deeply in the planes of his face.
“You’ve failed no one Dracul, put your damn head up and explain what the hell is going on,” I demanded, my voice soft as I looked at Dracul.
“The Ater, you’re in their home right now, as am I. This is terrible, so terrible...they must know that your Transformation will happen soon. Your eyes have already begun the color changing process, and the pain will soon start. The pain and the need, and wait-Tammy, your aura-who did you last drink from?” Dracul looked at me in terror, still making absolutely no sense.
“Uh-I don’t know, this Hudas named Grant. Why?” I asked him, chewing on my lower lip in worry.
Dracul’s eyes widened, and he put both hands up to his head. “Oh no, this isn’t good, this isn’t good at all. How I didn’t see this coming, I don’t know. What am I to do, what do I do?” Dracul stammered, something I have never seen him do.
“What the hell are you going on about?”
“You drank from a Hudas! Do you understand what that means? No, obviously not since you did it. You will become bonded to the Hudas, bonded! If an Amatores drinks from a Hudas, they bond to them. Do you know what that means? It means that the Hudas will be present in your thoughts, and you in his. You will grow sexually attached to this Hudas, and you will start to crave his blood. Crave it to the point of madness. And he will begin to crave yours, until both of you end up together, drinking one another’s blood.
Do you remember what happens when someone attempts to drink from you? It ends in a bloodbath, that’s what happens. And do you know what happens when an Amatores kills a Hudas they have bonded to? They become a vampire. Their soul follows that of whom they’ve bonded to.”
I fell to the floor, my hands covering my face. Basically what he was telling me, was that if Grant didn’t drink from me...we’d go mad, and if he did drink from me…we’d both die. Either way, neither of us were winning.
And that wasn’t even the worse part. “Dracul, uh...I need to tell you something...” I whispered, seeing their faces in my head again. The faces I was so familiar with, I mean how could I not be? “I saw the Directors...and well...they’re my parents.”