Created (Book 1 of the Created) (26 page)

She shut her locker and departed before I could get in a
word.
Sunnie
looked back over her shoulder almost
running into another student then disappeared in the mass of last minute
rushers.

I laughed to myself then sped a little too fast for a human
to my own class. I didn't care because inside I was soaring at least until
sitting down beside Veronica, who mockingly inhaled deeply to show her distain
for my recent company. She never said anything, but the action unto itself was
enough to get her point across.

There was a feeling that this was more than a security
issue. My status as a vampire was only a few weeks removed, but something
inside of me said that if my best friend doesn't approve then this might be a
problem.

A promise.
I wasn't sure how such a
simple thing could cause so many damn problems, but the week had been hell
since the promise to see
Sunnie
away from school. The
three days since had been long, with a lot of cold shoulders by Veronica, and a
lot of questions to the point of obsession from
Sunnie
.
 

Sunnie
had been pestering me daily
for details about when I could come over or when we could go somewhere in town
and hang out. Veronica had been standoffish since Tuesday. I was glad that
today was Thursday. Well, I only thought I was glad it was Thursday.

The school day was uneventful enough. The highlight was
bumping into the wolves at lunch. Haley wanted to growl under his breath until
I promptly reminded him that there was already one wolf dead at my hands and
there could just as easily be two. The power of subtle gestures will never
cease to amaze me. The others of his group bore holes through me with their
eyes, though each was silent. As soon as the accidental confrontation had begun
it had ended with the meat eaters getting lunch and finding a place far away
from us.

Lunch I remained with my group as always watching
Sunnie
and her small cadre of friends from afar. The day
turned when she strolled across the room and sat down between Veronica and
myself. It seemed the whole lunchroom grew hush. This was either a chance to
bridge the gap between my vampire colleagues and this human girl with whom I
had become a little infatuated, or allow them to size her up for dinner.

Veronica was the first to crack. "Ethan, aren't you
going to introduce us to this young lady that we have heard so much of nothing
about, or should we do it ourselves?" Her eyes cut to mine as a smile
graced her face, but her expression was one of fake approval.

The door had been kicked wide open.

Sunnie's
show of bravery had taken
her to our table, but surrounded by my group, I detected a change in her pulse
rate since she had seated herself. Her heart was racing before Veronica had
spoken and now it was the fastest I had heard a human pulse.

Wrapping my arm uncomfortably around her, I pulled her close
enough to reassure her that everything was alright. The drastic down tick in
her pulse happened as soon as I touched her shoulder. The air was let back into
the room as the human teens busied themselves again with eating and discussing
their trivial lives, leaving us to conduct our business with as much privacy as
a public school lunchroom could provide.

"Everybody, this is
Sunnie
Vass. She is a, uh, friend of mine. You may remember her from the incident with
John." I was at a loss of what should be said and what shouldn't.

There was no reaction.
Sunnie
shifted
closer to me. I was sure she could have felt the cold shoulders she was getting
if she had been in the next state, though it wouldn't take a genius to figure
out when no one looked at you or gave a hint of a smile that you were not
wanted. Even Darby followed the actions of the others. Her act of betrayal was
not as obvious as she timidly looked at her hands folded in her lap. The rest
looked the opposite direction taking cue from Veronica.

Continuing, "
Sunnie
these are
my friends from the base..."

There was a reaction now. Veronica started the exodus before
I could finish what I was trying to say. The last one out the lunchroom door
was Darby who acted as if she wanted to stay, but like the rest she proceeded
to disappear down the hallway.

"The assholes were my friends." I finished.
"I am sorry. They don't take to outsiders too well. Maybe they will warm
up eventually and if they don't, it doesn't matter."

Sunnie
nestled into my arm.
"You are right about that, their opinions do not matter, but you are wrong
about one thing."

"What is that?" I asked.

The reply came swiftly. "I may be new here, but the
outsiders here are
ya'll
."

The comment resonated with me. It was the truest statement I
had heard about our situation. No matter how human we became or how well we
were able to hide our true selves we would never be anything, but outsiders.

Friday night had become the time to let loose on the base
for our generation of vampires, as well as the rest of the creatures. This
Friday night was different and thankfully I was glad. Since the issue of
Sunnie
had blown up in my face, the group had been less
than friendly. So a night locked in my house guarded by zombies sounded like a
great alternative to having to dance around the issue as we all played nice.
There was longing for contact with my family of vampires, but a single one
night off wouldn't kill me.

I thought about sitting down in my green living room chair,
taking a handful of the Inhibitors I had been hoarding recently since I had
effectively gotten over the intrusive rush of being surrounded by humans, and
seeing how high I could get. Or I could go to bed and start over on Saturday.

Damn, I needed to request a television since staring at the
wall was getting old. I knew some of the rest of my troupe had them, so I
should at least try. What was the worst Chadron could do right? I had already
been dead once. I laughed at the thought.

Why are we locked in I wondered. The call had not been
issued until we had been back from school a few hours. Since the call had been
issued, the base was fully activated. Soldiers roamed between the house and
helicopters hovered overhead with lights searching the darkness that had
overtaken the base.

A noise in the bedroom alerted me to the fact that I was not
alone. A smell wafted across the room.
Limes.
I could
smell limes, that meant only one person could be in my house.

"Darby? Darby is that you?" I questioned playfully
as I walked toward the bedroom.

A muffled giggle was audible through the closed door.

Slowly, I eased the door open to find Darby sitting on my
bed dressed a little differently than she was at school.

Darby was wearing white knee high stockings, plaid skirt, a
white blouse that showed her midriff, and her hair was pulled back into a pony
tail. Sitting with her legs crossed provocatively. If she was trying to be
tempting, then she was doing a great job.

"Darby what are you doing here?" I found it hard
not to be distracted by the shortness of her skirt as she slid further back
onto the bed.

"Visiting a friend."
She
laughed and patted the bed beside her.

"Thanks for the invitation, but this is not you Darby.
I thought we agreed that we would be friends and this appears to be about
something more."

She looked at me with a serious expression. "What do
you mean this is not me? Am I not as pretty as the human
Sunnie
?
Can you not desire me as much?"

Anger was welling inside of me from frustration. I wanted
her to know she was beautiful without making her think that I wanted more.

Moving to the glass, I thought about how to proceed. Looking
out the door into the small alleyway, I noticed that Chuck was still on patrol,
oblivious to me standing inside the room only three feet away. He scanned his
surroundings then slunk forward then repeated. He paced back and forth,
dragging his chain ten feet in one direction. When the chain pulled tight,
Chuck would be thrown around to start in the other direction. The clanking had
become reassuring. This was distracting.

Darby complained, "Undoubtedly, I am not even as
alluring as the zombie outside the window."

I spun, "Dammit Darby! You are very beautiful, but I
think of you differently! Besides, I thought you had been seeing Logan!"

It felt good to yell, to vent. I wasn't really mad at her,
but she was going to get the brunt of my anger since she was near.

She blushed and adjusted her outfit to not be as revealing.
"How did you know about him?"

Responding as I approached the bed, "We are vampires. I
can smell the difference in you since you have started being together. You also
act differently around each other since it started. Oh, and Logan has been
telling us. You have made him very happy."

Darby bowed her head and started to cry. "Please don't
tell him. Please Ethan you can't tell him. I think I love him."

I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder. "I
won’t, but why are you here? What could have brought you here if you love
him?"

She leaned in close enough to me than her lips lightly
grazed my ear as she spoke, "They made me. I was told to distract you while
Veronica was called to a meeting about how to handle
Sunnie
."

I wanted to pull away, but she held me tightly in place as
she told me the plan. "The other vampire groups are thinking you are
endangering us and instead of dealing with you, they decided to remove
her."

My mind was spinning. I grabbed Darby from the bed and
lifted her into the air, shaking her "What do you mean remove her?! What
do you mean?! Tell me Darby?!"

Darby was shaking without my aid as she sobbed
uncontrollably, her voice rising and falling as she pleaded. "Please don't
hate me Ethan! Please! They only want what is best for us."

Throwing her onto the bed, she bounced off and landed on her
feet then ran toward the door at full speed. I caught her around the neck.
"Don't make me hurt you dammit! What have they done?! Tell me or I will
kill you."

Darby tried to scream, but my grip was too tight around her
throat for a sound to escape. I fought with my anger because it was driving me.
It was pushing me closer to the edge. There was a real chance that Darby was
going to die if I didn't get the anger under control soon.

"Darby, I will kill you. You need to tell me the
truth."

From behind me Veronica called, "Put her down Ethan,
and I will tell you what you want to know."

I released the grip around Darby's neck and cast her roughly
to the ground. She clutched at her throat as she skittered away into the open
closet, cowering in the corner.

I didn't want to look at Veronica because I was afraid of so
many things that were going through my mind, including my connection and
friendship with her which I didn't want to erode, but might be irreparable. I
growled, “Veronica what did the group do?"

Veronica slowly approached from the bedroom door.
"Ethan, listen."

"Quit stalling Veronica," My reply was caustic.

She sighed, "The group decided to eliminate
Sunnie
through the use of a surrogate. After the vote was
decided to have her killed, two of the group volunteered to release a trained
GV6 hunter to take care of the problem. Chadron detected the base departure of
one of the GV6s and locked the base down. There is nothing that you can do to
help her. What is done is done Ethan."

I was already out the door before she had finished.

Dodging Chuck was easy enough. It was then I realized the
truer reason the chained zombies were used. As I sprinted past, he screamed a
loud piercing noise that was unlike anything I had ever heard. The zombies in
between the houses were sentries that were used to alert other guards. The
soldiers were already on alert and would check out the source of the screaming
within seconds. How Darby had slid by without Chuck noticing was an avenue I
needed to explore when, and if, I was allowed to return. I wasn't sure what my
punishment would be for going AWOL, and I didn't care. I had to get to
Sunnie
before the hunter found her, and I was already
behind.

The base was a blur as I used all of my speed to get to the
training center to which Veronica had recently taken me. Crossing the base, I
had sped by many of the inhabitants of the Farm. Some had acknowledged my
presence with a moan or scream, though most ignored me as they tried to stay
out of the sight of the military patrols. I, however, did not give a shit if
the security forces saw me.

I had believed when I left my home to rescue
Sunnie
, since Veronica and Darby had been concerned enough
to occupy me, they might have chased me down. A cursory glance behind me proved
that they had decided to let me go.

The complex would be in view in less than a minute as I
tried to formulate a plan to get off of the base. I was well on my way when a
single shot ran out then a barrage of shots. The initial shot had been a
warning not intended to strike a particular target. The barrage was another
issue. The shooting was off the mark by a fraction of an inch at first.
Quickly, I located the sources. The shooting was coming from two automated
Browning machine guns that were hidden in a clump of trees two hundred yards
away from the main approach to the base. These either had not been active the
other night or had been recently added as extra security. Either way, the guns
were causing me serious concern. There were a few instances where I could feel
bullets creasing my skin opening shallow cuts. The cuts would heal quickly, but
what if I took a direct hit. Could I survive multiple penetrating wounds from
large high velocity rounds?