Tainted Love

Chapter 16

Rose's POV

~ flashback ~

Stars dimly lit the night sky. I was freezing. Why was I so cold? Then a rush of memories came back to me. The mob. The witch. Reynold.

I sat up, my head spinning. What happened?

I finally focused on where I was. All around me, people I knew - my father, Minister Charles, and everyone else that had joined the mob - were lying unconscious on the ground, with to bloodily holes in the sides of their necks.

I hastily crawled to my father, pressing my ear against his chest. He was breathing. How was he still breathing? He was as white as snow.

"He's not dead," I raspy voice said, followed by a weak cough. I whipped my head around. The old woman - the witch - was lying in a pool of blood by her doorstep, barely visible by the dying embers of her fireplace.

"What did you do to them?!" I yelled. I didn't care that she was close to death. She didn't deserve mercy.

She only cackled. "Why don't you ask your sweetheart? Don't you worry, they'll wake up, and they'll bring terror onto everyone in their path for eternity. Like you, they will never age a day, and they will forever live with a thirst for blood."

"What do you mean? What did Reynold do to them?" I asked desperately.

"Welcome to the world of being one of the first vampires in existence," she sneered.

*******
Vampires? Like the ones my mother would tell me about to behave? The fanged devils that were practically immortal, only killed by a stake to the heart. My breath quickened. I couldn't be a vampire. They were a myth, just like werewolves and dragons. But if a witch could exist, does that mean a vampire could?

"Vampires are cursed, Rose, the only way to save them from hurting so many others is to kill them," she explained, growing weaker by the second. She took out the dagger she had used to threaten me. She held it out to me. I stared at her, wide eyed.

"You want to save humanity? End these demons."