The Progeny

The Progeny (Part 1 - The Cure) Chapter 1

     Pretending to be affected by the cold, Evie bunched up her shoulders and shivered. By her side, Eric noticed her discomfort.

"It's a bit chilly out today, what do you reckon?" he said.

"Yeah, it is a bit," Evie replied, matching the tight clench of his jaw.

It was hard to go on day after day pretending to be human, but Evie decided years ago that it was much better than coming out as a vampire. Sure, the humans put on a brave face and tried to treat the bloodsuckers as 'equals' but it was hard to miss the fear and hatred in their eyes.

Eric was a good man, Evie had always thought. She'd been working with him for just over a year now as a bouncer at the club Sourz. It was a human club. Evie thought it would be best. There was much less blood. Although, every now and again a drunk would stumble out after being bottled over the head with blood dripping down from their scalp and smeared over their hands. That was when Eric would step in and Evie would slip into the alleyway beside the club to cool down. She had mentioned to Eric the first day they manned the door together that she had a thing about blood, it made her a little queasy. Eric was very understanding and would always usher her away when any of the red stuff was around.

The night was still young, only nine o'clock. The youths didn't start lining up until around ten so Evie and Eric had some time to kill. She noticed that when he breathed, puffs of white mist came from his mouth so she started breathing too, before he caught onto the fact that the air around her was completely untarnished.

"So, how's things with Clarissa?" Evie asked.

Eric frowned a little, looking ahead. "Not so great."

"Oh? How many dates has it been now?"

"Three."

"You said it was going well."

He sighed. "It was, until the last time we met up."

"Why? What happened?"

His dark eyes flickered to her. "She likes to go to those vampire bars..."

Evie's stomach cramped. "Oh..."

Eric puffed out a heavy breath. "She's into the whole... biting thing... I mean, I have nothing against vampires as long as they keep themselves to themselves. They have blood rations and those blood whores, no need to go around biting others, too."

"But they do go in there willingly," said Evie, hoping to not sound too defensive.

Eric narrowed his eyes ahead. "That's what they make us believe. It's that compulsion that creeps me out. I mean, you could go to one of those bars and they could do whatever they want to you and make you forget the whole thing. For all we know, those blood whores have vampire pimps doing exactly the same thing to them."

Evie pushed her tongue against her teeth to force herself to stay quiet. He was wrong. She knew this because vampires could tell when a human had been compelled and she knew the Dial-a-bite system didn't work like that. But obviously, she couldn't tell him that.

"Anyway," Eric sighed after a short silence. "It has put a strain on things."

"It might still work out..." replied Evie hollowly, squinting into the breeze.

Another silence followed but Eric quickly broke the unsettling quiet. "You think they'll be any fights tonight?"

She shrugged. "Probably. There always is."