BAM - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Dizziness flooded through me, sudden and unexpected.

I was in my senior French class, copying the notes my teacher had written on the blackboard.

The feeling of dizziness wasn’t mine, of course, but nevertheless, it was strong and overwhelming.

In less than a second, I knew what was going on and I was already planning a way to fix it. So I closed my books, put them in my bag and walked up to my teacher.

“Excusez-moi, madame. Je me sens un peu malade. Est-ce que c’est possible pour moi de rentrer à la maison?”

“Mais bien-sûr, Brianna. Je vous souhaite un prompt rétablissement!”

After I left the classroom, I hurried towards the bathroom where I could feel Ayra and Moira waiting for me.

They were my best friends and we shared a connection. Our souls were linked with a bond. This way, I was able to experience their every feeling and thought.

Right now, they were both feeling very sick and weak.

When I reached them, I looked at them. I had already made a tight plan.

“You should have told me,” I accused them off. “But, it’s too late to do something about that. So what we’ve got to do now, is get out of here. I can’t feed you and then go back to class. Fortunately, you both look sick enough for the janitor to believe you are ill. I’m going to tell him it was food poisoning. Don’t say anything. You’re voices will betray that you’re not ill. Now, let’s go.”

I led them out of the bathroom and to the janitor. We were lucky. He believed the story immediately. We hurried out of the school at once and went to the car.

My friends and I had fled from our world 5 years ago. We were part of the Brádu, also known as the Vampire Society. We’d all felt more comfortable while we had lived there, but it soon became obvious that Ayra was being threatened. Once we’d figured that out, we left as soon as possible.

We’d been living in the human world ever since, living in an apartment we could rent, driving a rented car. Right now we were staying in Amsterdam. We all had part-time jobs too, to be able to pay the rent. We went to human schools and learned the human ways. However, I’d made sure that we all kept studying the ways of our own world as well, so that if we were to return, we could still fit in with the society.

Ayra was a Hurma, and a royal princess. One day she would be able to take her rightful place in society.

Moira was a Tiruca, a human who was turned into a vampire.

I was a Vartija. That meant I was half human and half vampire. Therefore I was the perfect one to protect my friends from the dangers that existed in our world. And I was glad to protect them. I wouldn’t be able to live without them. This made that I’d gladly die for them if it would keep them safe, like I’d done once before.

It had happened during a shoplift. Moira, Ayra, Ayra’s parents, brother and aunt and uncle, a couple of Guardians and I had been in a jeweller in a big city. Then a group of shoplifters had entered, carrying guns.

They’d been a threat and the Guardians and I had been trained to take away any threat. So, we’d attacked the criminals.

It had turned out into a huge fight, for they had the upper hand.

In the end everybody in the shop was dead. Except for Ayra, Moira, one Guardian and I, we were still alive.

However, I’d been shot in my stomach.

During the race home to the Academy, I’d died, telling Ayra to tell my parents I was sorry not to have met them and Moira to take care of Ayra.

Then Ayra had called upon her healing skills to bring me back. Moira had supported Ayra by giving her some of her own strength. They managed to bring me back to life. And this had created the bond which made me able to experience everything they felt, saw, heard, tasted, thought, etc.

It was the bond that made me the perfect choice of a Guardian for both the girls. Even though, technically, I wasn’t a Guardian yet.

When we got to our car, I noticed something was off.

We were being watched.

It was fortunate that we always kept our stuff in the car we would rent, in case we had to run at a moment’s notice.

Once inside the car, I said: “Girls, we’re being watched. There’s one Guardian on the roof, and two more behind the garbage cans on the other end of the lot. We need to leave. Now.” I was already pulling out of the parking lot, gaining speed.

“Are you sure?” Moira asked. She was always more practical. Ayra had more trouble with breaking the rules and running away and all of that.

“Yes. They move too swift to be human, and they can’t be Paha since it’s light outside.”

Paha were the evil creatures of the night. They were the ones humans think about when they think of vampires. Paha killed while feeding and they burned in sunlight. They were the ones humans noticed every once in a while.

“We’ve stayed too long,” I concluded.

“Where will we go next?” Ayra asked, anxious yet troubled.

“I don’t know exactly. I’m going to drive to the airport as fast as I can. Then we’ll board a plane to America or something. I’ve worked enough that we can afford it. I’ll keep you safe.”

“We know that, Bri. We trust you,” Moira told me.

We were at the airport in a blink.

We were lucky. A plane to New York would leave in fifteen minutes, and there were still tickets available.

So, we bought them, and boarded the plane.

About eight hours later, we landed in New York. As soon as we left the airplane, I led the girls to an empty bathroom.

“You need to feed,” I told them.

“What? Here?” Ayra asked, incredulously.

“Yes, here. We have to go outside and the sun is still up. You need your strength, ‘cause we’re going to have to walk. We don’t have enough money for a cab, when we might need to buy a small house, in case there’s nothing to rent.”

“You need your strength as well.”

“She has a point, you know,” Moira told me.

“It’s better if you can walk yourselves. It’ll take less time then. And it doesn’t matter. I’m strong enough. Just don’t take too much.”

“But-” Ayra started.

“It won’t have any effect on my protecting skills if you don’t take too much, and you know it. So stop questioning me, and just feed,” I interrupted her.

Then I pulled my hair away to clear my neck. I let them feed.

As soon as I their fangs broke my skin, their saliva created the usual high. It made it pleasant for both the drinker as the feeder. It was wonderful.

But, as always, over too soon.

For over the last five years, we’d done this every two or three days. This way, they would be healthy enough, even though, in our society, they would feed every day, sometimes even more than once. And I was still as strong as I had to be to keep them safe in any kind of situation.

“Are you okay?” Ayra asked, concerned, when I swayed a bit on my feet.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just not used to standing while you guys feed. But, I know something that most definitely would help; coffee.”

“And you need something sweet to eat. The sugar will make up for your blood loss,” Moira added.

“Sure, the coffee shop around the corner had doughnuts.”

They kept close to me when we walked out of the bathroom, both pretty worried about me.

But when we’d all eaten some doughnuts and had some caffeine in our systems, they felt better.

Then we left the airport to look for a cheap hotel where we might be able to stay until we found an apartment. The stop at the coffee shop had taken more time than I had anticipated. The sun had already left the sky and night surrounded us.

A couple of streets away, I suddenly sensed we weren’t alone.

“Damn!” I cursed.

The girls hadn’t expected that, and they looked up at me, an unspoken question on both their faces.

“We should have stayed at the airport,” I told them, through my teeth. My brains were already trying to make an escape-plan.

“What? Why?” Ayra asked, confused.

“They’re here as well. Give me a minute.” I closed my eyes, still walking on, and focussed on my surroundings, trying to find out how many there were. “No! Damn! These aren’t Guardians!” I grunted.

“What?! How are we ever going to outrun Paha?!” Ayra’s thoughts screamed in my head. On her face, the fear showed, as well as on Moira’s face.

“Okay. Here’s the plan. I’m going to fight them, stall as long as I can. I have no idea how many there are. All I know is that there are at least five of them. You must run. As soon as you see an opening in the fight, you run. Run as fast and as far as you can. Then, mingle with humans. I’ll find you. But, if I haven’t shown up an hour after sunrise, you leave. You’ll get on the first plane and get your asses back to the Academy. It’s safer there, then it is out here.  Just promise me, you will look after each other and trust the Guardians that will be assigned to you. They’ll keep you safe. Take care of yourselves if I don’t come back.”

“But–”

“No, just do it. I’ll keep you safe. I swore I would. So, just keep yourselves safe.”

“We–”

Just then, a shadow appeared next to me.

I spun around and had the stake I’d stolen when we’d left the Academy out so fast that the Paha had no time to react. He was dead in a second, the corpse dropped on the ground.

“Do what I told you to do!” I told my friends before turning my back on them to face the approaching danger. They needed to run and leave me behind. They needed to take care of themselves for a change. They needed to forget about me for a while.

And breaking their hearts with the idea they might never see me again, they did what I told them to do.

In the mean time, I was fighting off the Paha. They were 5 strong, not counting the one that lay dead at my feet.

From all sides, they attacked me. And man, they were strong! I was almost a fair match to one Paha, but five Paha at the same time was a whole other story.

I was able to stake one and dodge an attack from another. But I couldn’t dodge the blow that came from yet another one and was directed at my stomach. I could only turn so that it would hit my side instead of my stomach.

The impact threw my body in the air until it collapsed into a wall. It hurt. It hurt a lot. But I wasn’t going to give in, I couldn’t. I had to keep Ayra and Moira safe. So I jumped up from where my body had dropped to the ground and attacked the four remaining Paha.

I was hit a lot of times, I had a few bite-marks on my neck and shoulders, some on my arms, and I had many scrapes and there were tears in my clothes. But I’d managed to kill them all. And the sun was coming up, so I dragged the corpses into the sunlight, where they immediately began to dissolve. In a few minutes nothing was left of them.