Created (Book 1 of the Created) (18 page)

Taking off my shirt, I reached down, to wipe away the blood
on her face just in time to hear Darby cry, "Don't!"

Chloe sprang from her fraudulent sleep swinging wildly.

The tips of her nails, long as a knife blade and just as
sharp, barely skimmed the surface of my bare chest. The move opened three long,
tightly aligned cuts that refused to bleed until I started to move. The wounds
spread open as I flipped back over the seat behind to get away from her wrath.

She crawled over the seat as I righted myself in the aisle.
Chloe was smiling as she feasted upon her own blood that was running down her
face and into her open mouth. No matter how long I will be a vampire, I will never
get use to that.

Backing up, I knew I had to end this game before I got
really hurt.
 

Taking to the aisle with me, Chloe cleaned my blood from her
nails. Reveling in the taste, she seemed crazed as she taunted me with her
provocative licking of the sharp extensions. Cutting her own tongue
accidentally only seemed to make her more incensed.

Darby begged Chloe, "Stop it Chloe. Why are you so mad
at Ethan?! Please stop before one of you gets hurts!"

Finishing with her taunting, she paused and returned to her
human appearance. "Darby shut it! He put us in jeopardy. He put our chance
to be outside the fence at risk and for that he must pay. I will not be a
captive to the base because Ethan wants to do the right thing or worse gets a
hard-on for some random girl. Don't worry
Darby,
I am
only going to hurt him a little. There will plenty of him left for you to play
with when I am through."

Darby crossed her arms, made a sour face then plopped down
hard on the seat.

Logan worked his way toward her from behind.

Chloe whirled on him. "If you want to play too then
come on, but this is not about you. This is about him learning how things work
in our world and why it is so important that he doesn't screw things up."

Logan stopped. I think in his heart he knew she was possibly
correct.

Running out of space as I neared Liam, who had been silent
the whole time, I knew it was time to go on the offensive. Glancing over my
shoulder, I noticed Liam with his hands behind his head, feet in the seat
across the aisle. He was enjoying the spectacle. I was sure he even thought it
was funny.

Focusing, I watched her approach again. She neared quickly,
reverting to her other form to fight.

I felt myself phase as she drew within reach. It was an
automatic process that was nearly painless. Ready as I was ever going to be I
swung with force and a speed I did not know was capable. I missed which allowed
her to connect with a couple nails, driving one deep into my shoulder as she
pivoted then rolled across my back to dodge the punch.
 

There was a burning sensation and the smell of fresh blood,
but I did not slow. Collapsing into the seat where I had landed, as did she
into her own seat, we faced each other.

Without giving away her moment of attack, Chloe lashed out.
She was on me before I could prepare myself. Quick thinking was my saving grace
as I caught her squarely with a kick to the chin which drove her hard into the
bus wall, denting the side.

She tried in vain to shake out the cobwebs that must have
been flooding her head. Chloe started wobbling then fell into the floor.

Leaning over in agony as my shoulder began to throb, I
dragged her from the wedged position between the seat and the rear of the other
seat and into the aisle.

Her eyes and features were once again human, but her eyes
were constantly shifting from one color to another. Often each eye contained a
different color than the other eye. This lasted for about fifteen seconds then
she blinked awake, acted startled,
then
attempted to
slide away.

Grabbing her nearest arm, I held her in place. "Oh, no
you don't. I am not giving you another chance today."

Looking up at me from the floor, her eyes focused to a
golden green combination before she spoke, "You have won the right to be
unencumbered with having to worry about me. I will let it drop."

She knew she was beaten, but I didn't trust her.

Slinging her down the aisle toward the now seated Logan so I
could keep an eye on her, I spoke, "Damn right you will or next time you
might not live to make it back to the real world."

Chloe raised the floor on her elbows, looked alarmed at my
threat then settled back to the floor.

I found my shirt in the floor and used it to help clean the
blood from my body. The wounds were healing slowly and most of the blood had
stopped flowing.

My threat had been real, but I hoped that Chloe thought I
could carry it out because I wasn't sure if I was capable of doing it.

Resting, but ever vigilant not to take my eyes from Chloe
lying in the floor, my mind turned to Veronica.
  

I knew there would be hell to pay with someone for all that
transpired during the day so I made a promise to myself to take it in stride.
When the bus finally stopped at our houses, I half expected an armed military
detachment waiting to arrest me, but nothing, not even Veronica. I remained
seated until Chloe, Darby and Logan had exited the bus.

Liam strolled to my seat, stopping to speak. "Don't
forget tonight is the feeding. It is going to be epic."

Staring up at him I asked, "Which pen is ours again and
what time?"

He laughed, "Dude, the doggies get fed at the pen. We
are Gods among the mortals. We dine in style. You will see. Be at the Tortured
Rabbit around nine."

Having not been able to venture into town much I wasn't sure
what the hell he was talking about in regard to the location.
"The Tortured Rabbit?"

Liam looked confused which was possible, but of course he
did look confused a lot.

You could tell he was thinking about what to say next.

Shit, I broke him was all I could think.

Finally Liam responded to my question. "Stay on Main
Street until you get to almost the end then on your right will be an old pet
store. It still has the old sign hanging up, but someone decided to paint the
bunny red years ago as a joke. We just call it the Tortured Rabbit as a
nickname. Get it?"

I shook my head yes and Liam moved on. I didn't want to get
off the bus and might have stayed had it not been for the bus driver.

"Hey kid," he called.

I didn't bother answering.

"Hey kid. I need to get going sometime this year so if
you don't mind."

I replied, "And if I do?"

"Then I might have to have my men do really unpleasant
things to you until I get tired of hearing you scream."

The voice was not that of the bus driver, whom I had still
not taken the time to learn his name, but another man.

Opening my eyes slowly, the scene inside the bus had
changed. The driver was gone and standing in the aisle was a rather upset
Walter.

Strange, he sounded different today.

Before I could answer, he began to rant harshly. "Do
you know how much damn trouble you caused today? Any idea at all what could
have happened if John and his unit decided to make the fight a less than human
one? Can you fathom the possible carnage that could have occurred if a human
had an injury that bled in the presence of any of you? All I need is just one
vampire or damn wolf to get bloodlust and wipe out the whole entire school
population."

I had no response. I knew he was right. It was time to take
my punishment.

Continuing as he agitatedly scratched at his chin, he delivered
news of John's termination from the program. "You are so lucky that you
are so green or so help me God I would wash you from the program like that
asshole wolf. There won't be many more chances boy."

He shifted tones. Walter seemed to be less pissed, but more
calloused as he talked. "We generally don't get involved in events that
are part of your world, but your elders have asked for us to come watch the run
tomorrow night and at my suggestion they have graciously made the decision to
include you as a teammate to Veronica."

I still didn't know what the run was, but I was sure it was
bad, very, very bad.

He waved his hand and the bus was no longer surrounded by
guards. "If you survive, consider yourself still in the program, but of
course if you don't then...well."

Walter laughed under his breath then departed the bus.

Getting up from my seat, I knew this was a second chance and
one I wasn't going to waste by dying.

Standing in the afternoon sun felt good, though my skin did
harden and gray. The warmth of the sun kept the chill of being dead away.
Basking in the light, I noticed a truck pulling away from down the street. I
was curious about it being in the Town, but not enough to investigate further
so I proceeded down the street to my house.

The night seemed to come so fast. There was no homework, no
television, no phone ringing and no radio. No distractions to quiet my mind. I
found myself at peace with everything. I was going to make it a night to
remember because in fact it could be my last one.

Redressing after an attempted sleep, I found a vintage
t-shirt and jeans that fit my mood. Sitting on the edge of the bed putting on
my shoes, I realized I missed Chuck. Since there were no
Zs
on the weekends guarding us, it would be Monday before I saw him again. It
wasn't like I was fond of him. It was more or less about knowing he was there
as a distraction.

Veronica yelled out, "You dressed?"

I was happy to hear her voice, but all I could think about
was that I really needed better door locks.
"Yeah."

She replied, "Good, now hurry up because we don't need
to be late if we want the best ones."

Walking into the combined living space, I tried to
apologize. "About today..."

I stopped speaking when I saw here outfit. Veronica was
dressed in another corset. This one was pink with darker pink accents.
Completing her look was tight leather pants and black boots that laced up to
her knees. This was all cover by a long leather jacket of black. Even her hair
matched. It was loose and black.

The outfit was over the top, and I could now understand why
we had to be talked to about dressing appropriately. That kind of attire
definitely won't work at school though I was sure all the boys would think she
was hot as did I.

She was a vision of sexiness. Veronica was almost too
beautiful to look at without staring.

I told myself that I had to find out why she dressed that
way if we survived tomorrow night.

Veronica returned my stare as a sly grin was exposed.
"Cat has your tongue I suppose?"

She knew why I was speechless. Damn tease.

I managed, "I feel like all I have done is apologize
for screwing up since I was created."

Veronica was kind, but honest. "You did the right thing
at the school. It is just, as I know the others have explained as well, there
are laws of both the human world and ours we must obey. Tomorrow night we have
a chance to repair the damage we have done and move forward. Fortunately, the
human world is much more forgiving as long as they think we are like them, but
when we attempt to cross that line, like you did today,
then
we run the risk of being exposed. The price we pay for exposure is extreme, and
I do not really want to die anytime soon. So, stop apologizing and move on
because tonight we feed."
       

With a turn, she proceeded to the door and into the street.
Shutting off the lights, I followed obediently.

The street scene was amazing. It was my first real adventure
into life in the Town. Even though I had been confined to the assigned
governmental housing, what was happening before my eyes seemed strangely
familiar.
     

There were creatures from all of the remaining generations
of vampires. Not all seemed to be anything close to resembling the GV16s that
were my family. The world was so new to me still and the generations, with the
exception of my own and that of the GV1s, were foreign to me.

Bayne and a small cadre of the GV1s were gathered outside of
the pens barely outside of the lights. The others were probably near though I
couldn't determine how close. There was more noise further away from the light.

Other GVs huddled together in their own familiar groups.

There were GVs that were short with the features of their
faces making each appear to resemble bats. Some were missing body parts such an
arm or a leg, possibly something as small as a hand or a foot. A few had facial
deformities. These had faces that were short eyes, ears, faces that sloped to a
side or bones that jutted outward. A few had exposed bones or overly large
hands, eyes, ears, fangs. Most of these were not scary, some were down right
comical.
 

The scary vampires were the ones that were close to
mimicking the humans, but lacked a critical detail. This critical detail was
subtle with the GV15s. The GV15s had no conscience. It was not that a vampire
does, but these were unique. Later, I would find out these were called upon to
be assassins. The 15s could not be allowed around humans because if one was
hungry enough, the vampire would feed without regard for safety or situation.
The zone in which they lived was one of the few zones where the handbook had
expressly said needed to be avoided because they were indiscriminate about
killing anything in their immediate vicinity including vampires. Only a few
were allowed into the town at any given time as a measure to keep them in line.
If too many were allowed to congregate, the fear of mass murder was a
possibility or civil unrest as groups would retaliate for loss of their
own.