• Chapter 1
    Because Vampires Need More Than Just Blood.

    Hello. Over the next few days, I will record everything that has happened to my friends and me over the last few months. Fortunately, none of it was a complete disaster. But first things first. My friends and I are not exactly what you could call normal teenagers. We are a coven. And a flock. I will take the time to explain.
    We are a coven of vampires. And we can fly.
    However, it’s not what you think; we can’t fly because we’re mutants, or because we fell into a vat of radioactive goo. But we were bitten by a vampire.
    It all started when my friends and I were taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I had stopped to use a restroom at a local truck stop. I walked into the ladies room and into a trap.
    I walked into a stall and when I was done, I came out and the entire restroom was empty. So instead of just going back to my jeep and using the hand sanitizer that Shelby always kept stalked in her truck, I stopped and took the time to wash my hands in the restroom sink. That was a big mistake on my part. I didn’t even here him come in. But all of a sudden, there was another reflection in the mirror and it wasn’t mine.
    He quickly hit me on the head, and knocked me unconscious .The next thing I was being put into the trunk of a car, or at least I thought it was a car. All I knew was that it was dark and cold. So very, very cold. My head was drifting in and out of consciousness at the time so I really can’t be all that sure. All I wanted to do was go to sleep, but I forced myself to fight the feeling. I didn’t want to die.
    By this time, my friends were getting worried. Really worried. I should have been out by now. Sam went in to check on me. She had just opened the door a crack when she saw a stranger hit me on the head and jump through the skylight with me draped over his shoulder.


    Sam ran back out to the jeep. “Shelby!” she shrieked.
    “Where is she Sam? It‘s been nearly half an hour!”, Shelby replied, clearly annoyed.
    “I don’t know! I don’t know!”, Sam said, half gasping half sobbing.
    “What,”, Shelby screamed, “She has to be!”
    By now, they had gotten the attention of the rest of the group. Matthew was the first to ask questions,” Sam, calm down. Breath. What could have possibly led you to believe that Taylor isn’t in that bathroom? And if she isn’t in there, where is she?”
    “There was this guy, I didn’t see his face, but he hit Taylor on the head, then he put Taylor on his shoulder and jumped through the skylight. And then he was gone. I know it sounds ridiculous, but go check out the bathroom . I’m not kidding. Taylor is really gone!”
    Wait a minute there Sam, why would he take Taylor and not you?”, insisted Mystien.
    “Just follow me, I’ll show you.”, replied Sam, insisting that she was right. Then Sam grabbed Shelby’s hand and led her off into the bathroom. And all the others followed.
    “Wow.”, that was all most of my friends had to say.
    “You really weren’t kidding, were you Sam?”, implied Brooke. “If you don’t believe m check the freaking stalls!”, Sam shouted in hysterics.
    “ Wow, Sam chill, we know that you’re not joking anymore. Just calm down.”, Matt insisted in a calm voice. Sam sat in a huff on the glass covered floor. By this time she had tears streaming down her face. Brooke pulled Shelby and Matt aside and left Mystien to investigate.
    “I don’t think Sams lying. I have never heard he yell like that. And when was the last time any of us have ever seen her cry? She’s not lying. She really did see some guy jump through a skylight with Taylor on his shoulder. Taylor really was kidnapped.”
    “By what? Superman?”, Matt asked sullenly.
    “Matthew this is not a time for jokes! Taylor’s has been kidnapped! And the glass on the floor, along with the broken skylight proves that!” Shelby said harshly.
    “But it just seems a little far fetched, I mean come on! Jumped through a skylight? Sam threw a rock at the skylight and Taylor snuck out through the back door.”, Matthew replied skeptically.
    “Matthew Lashare! Does Sam look like she’s lying! And even if she did through a rock where did it go? And even if it did go high enough to even touch the glass I doubt that it would have enough force to even crack it. And the girl’s bathroom doesn’t have another exit. You have to enter and exit through the same door genius.”, Shelby said while punching him. They walked back over to Sam.
    They all sat down and engulfed her in a group hug while she cried.



    “So let’s get this right. He jumped through a skylight in the ladies bathroom?”
    “Yes officer. With my friend on his shoulder.”
    “How far off the ground was the alleged skylight and ceiling?”
    “About eighty feet officer.”
    “And how old did you say you were young lady?”
    “Sixteen officer.”
    “Hmmmm. It sounds to me like you and your little friends down at the truck stop are trying to pull a prank.”
    “Excuse me officer?”
    “Young lady, down here at the station we take missing persons reports seriously. And we do not have time for a couple of minors trying to pull a fast one on the local police while on vacation. If you try and call here again I will have to come down there and arrest you.”
    “But this isn’t a prank…”
    “Good day miss.”
    Sam snapped her cell phone shut, “The police are out of the question.”
    “How do you know that?”, Matt questioned.
    “Well Matthew if you really must know, the Sheriff just informed me that they don’t have time for pranksters.”, Sam replied harshly.
    Shelby intervened, “Let’s just get a hotel room and figure things out. We should stay in town while we get things situated. Then we can find a way to help Taylor.

    “Owe.”, I whispered as I gingerly touched the wound on my head.
    It was what felt like a bruise. And from what it felt like there was a matching bruise on the base of my neck. It was then that I began to remember what had happened in the bathroom, I bolted upright. Or at least I tried to. There was a bar holding me down. I started to squirm.
    “Please don’t do that. It makes it much harder to hold on to you.”, said a sickly sweet voice behind my ear.
    “Let go!”, I shrieked at the voice as loud as I could.
    “Now now, there will be no need for shouting. I will in turn let you go at the site if you promise not to run away.”, the voice whispered in my ear.
    “Fine.”, I whimpered to the voice.
    “No need to worry. We’ll be there in a matter of minutes. Just keep your head down and hold still till we get there.”, the voice proclaimed.
    “Why?”, I asked in a small voice.
    “Well because if you look up now you might get frightened. And the last thing I need is you freaking out.”, the voice answered calmly.
    “So in other words, we’re not in a car, are we?”, I was terrified of the answer.
    “Why no we’re not and we haven’t been the entire time I’ve had you. Now please be quiet so I can concentrate on where I’m going. I will gladly answer your questions once we get to the site.”
    By this time I was really getting worried about getting to that site. I really didn’t want to get there any time soon.
    Those next few minutes were possibly the worst in my life.
    “Has anything come up on the Google search yet?”, Mystien asked impatiently.
    “No and if you ask again in the next fifteen minutes, I will rip your mouth off and burn it at the stake.”, Matthew replied angrily.
    “Hey going at each others throats is not going to solve any of our problems. No more fighting or I will put you both in separate corners and I’ll do all of the googlimg.”, Brooke broke up the conversation before it turned into a full fledge fight..
    “Fine.”, was Matthews only response.
    “Whatever.”, was Samantha’s chosen input.
    “I would love to see what you two would act like if you were dating since this is what you act like as friends.”, teased Shelby
    “Hey, what did I just get through telling them? The rule applies to you too. So be nice.”, Brooke said firmly. She was clearly getting mad.
    “I’m just saying.”, were the only other words that came out of Shelby’s mouth. The conversation was now officially over. The entire room was silent except for the quiet tapping of the computer keys. Suddenly Matthew spun around in the swivel chair and stated, “In every awkward silence a gay baby’s born!” The group broke into laughter and for a few seconds every one could pretend nothing was wrong.


    Chapter 2


    Suddenly, the sweet voice spoke again, breaking the silence, “I’m going to let you down now, as I promised, but no running.”
    “No running. Got it.”, I whispered back.
    And as promised the voice lowered me down and let me go. Now it was time to put a face to this mysterious voice.
    “I’m freezing.”, I whispered, not sure in which direction to speak. There was almost no light. I wasn’t even sure where I was.
    “One second, I apparently have forgotten what it’s like to have a live guest.”, said the voice.
    A live guest. That gave me two ideas. Either the person who came with the voice is a cannibal who needed food, or a hermit who wanted company. Frankly, I would rather go with hermit.
    “Why a fire?” Don’t you have electricity?”, I asked, determined to keep talking.
    “Why, I’m afraid not. Most abandoned campgrounds don’t.”
    Great. Campground. Abandoned. No witnesses.
    I heard the scratching hiss of a match being lit. I turned to my right and saw a small patch of fire moving toward what must have been a pile of firewood. The kinder quickly caught fire. And then I saw the body that belonged to the mysterious voice and gasped.
    “Oh dear, I probably should have warned you beforehand about my skin.” I saw the lips moving, and I heard the voice, but I couldn’t put the two together. I nearly fell flat right there. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I then remember blacking out. What I don’t remember, was hitting the ground.
    I woke up next to the fire with a blanket drawn up over my shoulders.
    “I’m sorry. And after all I did to keep from frightening you out of your wits, I forget to cover my skin. It was very stupid.” I could not believe my ears. This beautiful creature was apologizing to me.
    “It wasn’t your fault. I overreacted.”, that was only half the truth. It was just all too much to take in. I could see the boy sitting on the other side of the fire with a blanket wrapped around him. But I had a feeling that he was hiding his from me.
    “No, it is my fault. You had a perfectly normal reaction. My skin sparkles. It freaked you out. You fainted. Anyone else would too.”, this guy was determined to take the blame.. And I was going to let him. Sure he was beautiful, sure his skin sparkled in the firelight to add to the beauty, but he still kidnapped me.
    “I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but if you don’t mind me asking, why does your skin do that?”
    “I will answer that simple question with a simple answer. But I will only tell you if you promise to not freak out and faint again.”, it seemed like he was making a feeble attempt to poke fun at me for fainting.
    “I think I can agree to those terms”, ignoring his attempt.
    He took a deep breath and chuckled. It was a lovely sound.
    “I was bitten a long time ago.”, he baited me. And I took it.
    “By what? A radioactive bug.” , I made a little joke, hoping that it wasn’t true.
    “No.”, he said solemnly.
    “Then what?”, I didn’t like the tension that was building up around the fire. He took a long, deep breath, “You’re not going to like me if I tell you.”, he said sadly.
    “I shouldn’t like you in the first place. You kidnapped me from the ladies bathroom at a truck stop. But so far I do your nice. Or at least I hope you are. I can’t hold anything against you except for the kidnapping. I promise not to judge.”, I don’t know what had come over me.
    “Alright, I’ll tell you.”
    “Well get on with it then. I want to know.”
    “No you probably don’t, because I could do this to you. I was bitten by a vampire.”
    Well, that gets everything out in the open.
    “Wait. If you get bitten by a vampire, and live, doesn’t that make you a vampire?”, I wish I had never even asked
    “Why, yes, yes it does.”, he answered as if it was the easiest question in the world.
    “One more question. Are you going to kill me?”, I just simply wanted to know.
    “No. I brought you here so I could have some company. And unless you want me to kill you I won’t.”, he stated simply.
    “But what if you get thirsty or something?”, even I heard my voice crack.
    “Then I’ll go hunting. There’s no reason to for you to be so worried. I know how to control myself if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not going to kill you while you’re sleeping.”
    “Okay this is my absolutely last question. What is your name?”
    “Nathaniel. And what , may I ask is yours?”
    “Danielle Taylor.”
    “That is a lovely name.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Well, Miss Taylor, may I call you Taylor?”
    “Maybe.”
    “I do believe that we shall be the best of friends.”
    Friends! This was coming from the guy who kidnapped me.
    “What about my other friends? The ones who were with me on our trip to the Grand Canyon? The ones I should be with right now.”
    “Oh I didn’t realize. You were alone in the bathroom. I’m sorry. But you can’t go back tonight that’s for sure.” Great a vampire with feelings.
    “But they need to know I’m safe..” for now anyway, I thought to myself.
    “I said no. and we can figure the rest out tomorrow.”, Nathaniel stated.
    “What are you? My mother?”, I asked, taking a chance.
    “No, But I’m old enough to be your grandfathers grandfather. Though I might not look it.”




    To Be Continued...