"Vampires... okay...sure. You suck people's blood, of course." I got off
the bed and moved towards the door again. "That's really nice, but you know
what? I think I'm just going to leave, and go back to my normal life, and
let you and your little blood sucking pals get back to yours." I spotted my
coat on a nearby dresser and grabbed it, heading towards the doorway.
"Jennifer, you don't understand, you can't just leave." Jay was saying
this so gently it scared me even more than I already was. He said it like
he cared what happened to me, which I knew he didn't. If he had, this would
have never happened.
"And just why not?" I said, my hand still on the door knob.
Jay took a deep breath. "Because you've been bitten. If you leave, you'll
die."
The room was spinning around me again, and I felt as if my entire world was
crumbling around me. He was telling the truth, I could tell by the way he
said it. So this was how my life would end. I would die at seventeen,
never knowing what it was like to go to college, or drink, or hell, even to
vote! And why? Because vampires had chosen me. Out of the billions of
people on the planet, they chose me. "Die?" I was shaking so much the word
barely escaped my mouth.
"You have a choice." Jay whispered. "Stay and become one of us. Be
protected from life's pain and agony, never know what illness or aging is."
I heard his words, but they did little more than rattle through my head.
"Aging." I said softly. "I thought you said you could die."
Jay moved closer to me. "We can. But only if something bad happens, like
a steak through the heart, or sword through the neck. We have no aging
process, if we go through life without people trying to kill us, we can live
forever." He brushed away the tears that were now streaming down my face
with his thumb and straightened up. "How about I take you downstairs to
meet the others, and then you can decide what you want to do about this."
"The others?"
"There are five of us living here. All vampires."
Jay led my down a winding staircase and into a living room, where four
other men were sitting.
"You were expecting to see them torturing people, weren't you?" Jay said
with a smile, after seeing me let out a breath of relief. "You see,
vampires don't have to be horrible, violent people.
"Then how do you explain Vlad the Impaler over there?" I asked, pointing to
a guy with spikey blond hair who was sitting in the corner of the room,
stabbing a rat with a stick, and watching the blood pour out with delight.
Jay laughed. "That's Ryan. He's just f*cked up."
He introduced me to the three remaining men in the room, Amir, Bobby, and
Paige, whom I suppose I already knew.
"Staying with us means protection." Jay said gently.
"And leaving means dying." I said bitterly.
"Yes. So what's your choice?"
I sighed and looked at the five men, their faces showing anticipation.
"What choice do I have? I have to stay." As I watched all five vampires
grin with happiness, I couldn't help but wonder what I'd gotten myself into
now.
