The Gift.

1

Jesse comes to a stop at the edge of the glade. He looks to see if they brought the sacrifice, they usually don't wait until the last day which is tomorrow. He looks confused when he sees the human child crying and curled up into a terrified ball. Her terror makes it hard for him to remain in control and he hasn't lost control in well, forever. He can't remember one time when he lost control, not even when he was newly turned.

"Carlo? What the hell is this?" Jesse speaks just loud enough for his brother and fellow vampire to hear him. All four of them are vampires and they all owe him allegiance and they are all his brothers.

"Apparently she is our sacrifice." Carlo tells him just as softly.

Jesse gives his brother a hard look before kneeling down beside the terrified child. "Little one, look at me." He needs her to stop being scared or she'll have all the monsters of the forest after her.

The child looks at Jesse and once he makes eye contact he orders. "Hush your fears."

"I don't want to die." The girl tells him as she does her best to stop crying.

"Jesse, we claim her," Carlo says just as softly as before and the other two nod showing a unified front to their brother. Jesse gives them an irritated look. They want to bring home a child, a human one at that.

"Little one, are you lost? Where are your parents?" Children from the villages are warned away from the forest for very good reason. The monsters aren't allowed to go after the human villages as long as they provide one sacrifice between them all every year. Jesse has enforced this ruthlessly and rather cruelly when necessary. The monsters that live there are terrified of him and his brothers. So are the humans in the villages, but perhaps it's time for another demonstration of what happens when the accords are not fulfilled?

"I don't know where I am, but it was my parents and the elders that brought me here. They told me that it was a great honor that I am to be sacrificed to save the lives of my village and all the other villages."

With those words Jesse becomes furious and he looks towards his brothers. He smiles coldly at their reactions as well. They are just as angry as he is, he can feel their rage. It is most definitely time for another lesson.

"Come, Little one, the forest is no place for a child. We will return you to your village." And demand a proper sacrifice by the next evening or they will be killed, Jesse thinks that last part to himself though.

The girl cowers away from him, "I can't! I have to stay here for the monsters. If I'm not here then they will kill all the village people and not just mine."

Jesse takes a minute to study the cowering child. He calms down even as he studies her. "What is your name Little one?"

"I-I don't have one any more. My parents told me as they left that I'm no longer their child and therefore don't have a name." Jesse narrows his eyes in anger at her words. They didn't even leave her that much. 

"How old are you, princessa?" Carlo asks softly. The girl takes a quick look at him before returning her attention to Jesse.

She addresses her answer to Jesse, "I-I'm nine just today."

Jesse hides the anger her words give him. They dare to give a nine year old child in place of a proper sacrifice? "You are not the sacrifice, you coming with us or staying will make no difference in what happens to the villages."

Jesse watches the girl become terrified once more and also more than a little confused. "But the village Elders paid my parents for me to take my sister's place. She was chosen, but when she got with child by the headman's son they released her and so my sister is getting married instead."