1 Ch 1
Late in the night as the wind whips around the trees, shaking them to their roots. A loud bang from the front door awakens the sleeping girl. Lavender eyes fly open; she slowly sits up, doing a slight stretch with her arms in the air. Then, with her heightened sense of hearing, she hears hushed whispers downstairs and an unknown voice groaning in pain.
“Quite now, or you will wake Zadie.”
Hearing her name, she makes her way out the door, being quiet as falling snow. Then, heading down the staircase where she peeks around the corner to the living room.
Zadie recognizes Cree from his tall, lean figure; a hand skims through short spiky blonde hair. Angie stands beside him as her short, bobbed dark brown hair bounces as she moves her head. With their backs turned, staring down at something between them and the fireplace where the fire continues to burn brightly.
“Why did you bring him here?” Angie looks at Cree with confusion written on her face.
“He attacked me, trying to kill me,” Cree explains to her before sitting down on a nearby chair.
“I would have too if you hadn’t noticed me at the last second.” The tied-up black haired boy boasts with a smirk.
Zadie instantly knows he’s a human from the sound of his racing heartbeat. Zadie has only ever seen one other human before, who happens to be the lady who takes care of her during the day while the others sleep. Curiosity mixed with excitement well up inside her.
“Shut up.” Angie orders slapping the boy across the face, the force of the slap turning his head.
As he spits blood out of his mouth, Zadie comes out from behind the wall.
Underneath his long back hair, the boy's Carmel eyes widened seeing her, “You have a kid here?” He declares, staring at Zadie.
Cree and Angie turn, seeing her, “What are you doing up?” Cree moves to her side within a second.
“I heard some noises, so I came downstairs; why is a human here? Is he staying with us?” Zadie questions as she peers around Cree at the boy.
Zadie smiles at him with happiness. The boy watches the short petite girl with long curly light brown hair in the pink nightgown.
“We’re not sure what we’re doing with him yet. He’s a vampire Slayer.” Angie states as she glares at the boy with pure hatred in her eyes.
Zadie puts a hand to her mouth in horror, “Why would he try to kill you, uncle Cree?”
She calls him uncle not because they’re kin by blood but because she has known Cree and Angie her whole life practically, making them family in her book.
“Because he’s a bloodthirsty mon-“ before he can say any more, Angie ties a gag around his mouth. All you hear are unrecognizable muffled words.
“I’ll take him to the basement, for now. The sun will be rising soon; we can deal with him tonight.” Angie picks the boy up with ease throwing him over her shoulder walking out the other doorway through the kitchen. The boy tries kicking to get free, to no avail. Zadie removes her hand as she watches them disappear into the kitchen. Cree crouches down slightly, placing a hand on each of her shoulders, giving her a sweet smile. “Don’t worry about him; Angie and I will protect you with our lives.”
Zadie wasn’t worried about her safety; she was almost sure the boy wouldn’t hurt her. She was more concerned about the two full vampires in the house; instead of saying any of that, she smiles back with a nod. Cree lets go of her, standing upright.
Cree yawned heavily before trudging sleepily upstairs and making his reply. “Now, I must be off to bed. Mrs. Greenhouse, however, will be here within the hour to take care of you.”
Reluctantly Zadie sat down in her favorite chair by the fire upon hearing his reply. She then grabbed her favorite book from the end table that she had been reading all day and flipped it open to where her bookmark was. Yet only minutes later, Angie walked in, “Reading as Usual, I see.” Angie scoffed
Zadie glances up from her book seeing Angie with her hands on her hips. “I don’t want you going down to the basement with the Slayer down there, got it?”
Zadie nods in response. Angie crosses the room going upstairs to join Cree without another word. Zadie listens as Angie makes her way to the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
Zadie slowly sets the book back down; even though Angie just told her not to go down there, she can’t help her curiosity. Once something piques her interest, she needs to know more about it.
Using her silent ninja skills, she makes her way to the basement door located through the kitchen at the end of the hall. Her hand hovers just over the doorknob, knowing if she gets caught, there will be consequences. Probably along the lines of locking her in her room for a month. Not caring what the outcome might be, she takes a deep breath for bravery before letting it out and opening the door.
Blade tugs at the rope binding his wrists that lay behind the pillar, in the middle of the darkroom. It’s no use, though. The vampires had stripped him of all his weapons along with his phone. His head still throbs from getting knocked to the ground by the disgusting blonde Vampire. He’d been stalking this vampire for a week now, waiting to catch him in the act, and he finally saw him drinking from an unwilling human woman. Finally, he made his move.
Blade had gotten too cocky, though, and things didn’t go as planned. He ended up losing the new stake he had just bought as a result. He hears the basement door open again and quickly shut. The light flickers on; Blade closes his eyes for a few seconds as they adjust. When he opens them, that small girl is squatting down in front of him with her head tilted slightly as if she’s studying him.
“Hello, I’m Zadie.” She introduces herself. Zadie smells fresh blood and notices the boy's hair is matted with blood sticking to his forehead.
The boy remains silent with a stern look on his face.
“What’s wrong with you? Does your head hurt?” Zadie inquires, unsure why he’s not speaking to her when he spoke freely just a few minutes ago.
Zadie races out of the room with inhuman speed and is back again seconds later. Zadie has a wet cloth in her hand, moving it towards the boy's injured head. Blade flinches, “You're a vampire, aren’t you.” Blade says more of a statement than a question.
Zadie pats the cloth against his head, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” She assures him with a friendly smile.
“I can’t trust a monster's word.” He growls, arching away from her touch.
Zadie rolls her eyes, unfazed by his harsh words. “I’m no monster. I’m simply a young adult like yourself.”
She continues to clean off the blood from his head. Once it’s all off, she sets the rag down, pulling a jumbo square band-aid out of the first aid kit she brought down with her.
“You look no older than 15,” Blade argues as he scrutinizes her small framed body.
“Thank you for the compliment, but I’m eighteen.” Zadie brushes his hair away from his forehead to reveal the large gash.
Blade turns his head away, “Don’t touch me!”
Zadie frowns out of disappointment. “Be quiet, or they will hear you.” She points a finger to the ceiling indicating the two sleeping vampires. ”If I don’t patch it up, it’ll get infected, and I’m sure you don’t want that.”
Blade hesitates but reluctantly turns his head back to her without saying a word. Zadie places the bandage on and smiles, “There, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”
Zadie kneels. “Why are you helping me anyways?” Blade asks, thinking there has to be an ulterior motive.
“Because you are the second human I’ve ever met...I also want to ask you some questions about the outside world,” Zadie responds with a twinkle in her lavender eyes.
Blade’s never seen a vampire with purple eyes before. Nevertheless, he’s somewhat curious about this girl.
“Wait, don’t you go hunting for humans?” Blade demands, confused. She shakes her head.
“No, I’m not allowed to leave this house...besides, I only need human blood once a week. I’ve never drunk from a human directly.” Zadie closes the first aid kit, gathering up the leftover trash from the band-aid.
“How is that possible? Vampires need to drink blood at least every two days; otherwise, they go wild.” Blade insists with an unconvinced look on his face.
“That’s because I’m not like most Vampires.” Zadie silent a moment, “Why did you try killing my uncle?”
“I wasn't trying to kill him, just embolize him,” Blade confesses with a sigh.
Zadie wants to ask him more questions but doesn't want to risk getting caught down here. She stands, “I have to go now. I’ll try to sneak you some food later.” Zadie heads for the stairs. “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure my aunt and uncle don’t kill you, I promise.” Zadie walks back up the stairs. Blad catches sight of her bright blue socks just before the light turns off.
As soon as Zadie locks the basement door, she hears the front door being unlocked and opened. Using her vampire speed, she gets rid of the rag, the band-aid remains, and the first aid kit then races to the front door to greet Mrs.Greenhouse just as she’s shutting the door behind her.
“Good morning.” Zadie greets her as she begins taking her purse and jacket off.
Zadie never met her birth mother, so Mrs.Greenhouse is the closest thing she has to a mother. She has shoulder-length brown hair with bits of gray in it from age.
“Want some French toast and bacon this morning?” Mrs.Greenhouse puts her black purse and coat on the coat rack beside the door.
“That sounds wonderful.” Zadie agrees as her stomach growls; She blushes slightly.
Mrs. Greenhouse makes her way to the kitchen to start breakfast. Zadie draws open the curtains in the living room. Allowing sunlight into the room. She stands there soaking in the warmth for a moment, enjoying it before sitting back down in her comfy red chair to reread her book.
Zadie makes her way down the stairs of the basement with a plate and water bottle in hand. “I don’t have much time. You will have to eat quickly.”
Zadie tells the boy as she sits down in front of him. Blade notices the girl has changed since he last saw her. She now wears a long purple dress.
“I heard someone else up there; who was that?” He questions, taking a bite of the sandwich Zadie offers to feed him.
“That’s Mrs. Greenhouse; she takes care of me while the others sleep during the day.” Zadie had asked Mrs. Greenhouse to make her an extra turkey sandwich, saying she was starving at lunch, but in truth, it was for the boy in the basement.
After she made Zadie lunch, she went to the nearby store to pick up a couple of things that they were out of.
Blade swallows his food, asking, “You don’t sleep during the day like regular vampires?” He then takes another bite of the sandwich.
“No, I don’t, now less talking and more eating.”
Five minutes later, Blades devoured the entire sandwich. At last, Zadie offers him a drink of water to which he takes without complaint.
Once he’s done, Zadie puts the cap back on, grabbing the plate.
“Leaving already?” Blade asks not that he cared; he just hated being alone down here in the dark and needed to get as much information out of her as he could.
“If I get caught down here, I’ll be grounded to my room again, sorry.” Zadie stands up and heads back upstairs, turning the light off behind her, leaving him in the dark and cold once more.
“What’s this one about?” Mrs. Greenhouse asks as she takes a sip of her hot tea from across the room on the couch.
Zadie looks up from her book with a smile on her face. Mrs. Greenhouse is the only one who seems interested in what she reads. “It’s about a boy who finds out his father is a God and goes to a camp with other kids who have parents that are Gods.”
Zadie takes a drink of her own sweet tea Mrs. Greenhouse had made for them. It warms her throat as it goes down, giving a soothing feeling.
“Hmm, I think one of my own children has read a book like that before.” She blows on her cup of tea.
Zadie's eyes widened in surprise; Mrs. Greenhouse never spoke about her personal life.
“How many kids do you have?” Zadie closes the book with interest, giving her full attention.
“Just the one, she’s about your age, in college now.” She takes a drink of her tea.
“What’s college?” Zadie questions not entirely familiar with the term.
She had seen the word in a few books but never understood its meaning.
“It’s where some people go after graduating from high school so they can get degrees to follow their dreams.” She explains, setting her cup down on the small black coffee table in front of her.
Cree had taught Zadie to read, write, some math and science. But, other than that, she didn’t know what else there could be to learn.
“What’s your daughter's name?” Zadie says, eager to know.
Mrs. Greenhouse jolts up, “I should get dinner started.”
She walks into the kitchen, ignoring Zadie's last question. In turn, Zadie sighs with disappointment. She doesn’t blame Mrs. Greenhouse for not telling her, for she has been put under a spell. She was unaware of the vampires who live in this house. Still, she did know there is something strange about this family and didn’t want to put her family at risk, so she doesn’t reveal any personal details. She does her job and leaves. Zadie goes back to reading her novel.
