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kajones_writingPart 1
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When Alice looked at Sam again their eyes met. He raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. Crossing the reception, even though it was full of people, was easy, because everyone knew that she’d need to talk to Sam. No one else else in the house had got to know him the way she had. They didn’t have a reason to. If it hadn’t been for Cate Alice never would have bothered either and she was beginning to think that would have been a big mistake. Maybe a hunter couldn’t be friends with a vampire, but they could at least work together to make sure that none of the wrong vampires entered Bognor.
As Alice crossed the room she pulled her phone out of her pocket and text Garion. *Nd ur hlp. Srchn 4 vamp. Dnt kno whthr enmy or scrd nwbe.* Moments later a reply came: *Will do wot I can.*. Breathing a sigh of relief she put her phone back in her pocket. The more people she had out there looking for the vampire the sooner they’d know whether she was someone who needed help or if she had visited the donor house to complete a task for the auction vampires.
“What happened?” Sam asked, once she was close enough for them to talk to each other.
“All we have are theories.”
“That’s enough.”
Alice shook her head. “No, it’s not.”
“I need you to talk to me.”
“Sam…” She sighed. “I appreciate you coming here, but right now isn’t a good time.”
“The hunters know that we have a rapport and they asked me to come here to find out what happened. If I don’t go back to them with something then I know they’re going to go after the vampire who killed. After that…” Sam shook his head. “They may go after innocent vampires.”
“You never believed in innocent vampires.”
“That was before I met you.”
Alice couldn’t help smiling at him. “Right now we have two theories. Either the vampire is with the auctions or she needs our help, because she’s a new vampire thrown in at the deep end in an attempt to close the house.” She shook her head. “If we find her then we’ll know.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Staying in Bognor for any time at all means that she doesn’t have a quick way out. An auction vampire would.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Keep the hunters out of town for a night. There are two vampires and, hopefully, one police officer out searching. She’ll hide if she thinks that anyone is out looking for her, but we might have a chance if she doesn’t know that there are people out there searching for her.”
“Once I’ve talked to them I’ll help look too, if you give me a description.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t.” Sam smiled. “I want to.” Their eyes met again. “Maybe the donor house isn’t perfect, but even we’ve seen a change. Vampires don’t feed from members of the public, humans and vampires seem to be getting on, and there are some of us who are beginning to think that maybe living with the vampires is better than trying to kill you all. It’s not as though we’ve been getting very far.”
“If it’s really want you want to do, then we’d appreciate the help.”
“Be honest, Alice. You’re not going to tell them that I’m out looking for your vampire. It’s you who appreciates my help, because you’re the only vampire in this place I’ve actually had a conversation with.”
“We’re not without our prejudices, Sam.”
“I never did thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for.”
“Yes, there is. I thought, after my first visit here went wrong, you’d give up on me, but you didn’t. Instead you took time out to spend time talking to me and show me who you were, which has helped me see the vampires here as…” Sam smiled. “Innocent victims who never had a choice whether they became a vampire or not. Maybe they did do some not so innocent things to survive, but I’m not without my flaws.”
Running a hand through her hair Alice thought for a moment about the question she wanted to ask. “You don’t have to answer, but how many vampires have you killed?”
“Will you hate me?”
“I know what you are, Sam. I’m standing here talking to you now, even though almost every vampire in this building has tried to convince me that I shouldn’t, because you’re going to kill me some day.”
“I will never hurt you.” Sam sighed. “I don’t know exactly how many I’ve killed. We keep a group count rather than a personal count.”
“How many has your group killed?”
“Alice…”
“I was honest with you.”
“In the time since I joined the group we’ve killed about fifty-six vampires, but we stopped killing in Bognor town when the donor house opened.”
“You’ve been with them for six years?”
Sam nodded. “Things have changed. I’m not the same person I was when I joined them and I’m working to create another group of hunters who work with the house.”
“Just be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
Alice couldn’t help laughing. “You’re a group of humans going after vampires. If you come across the wrong vampire then nothing you do is going to keep you alive.”
The look Sam gave her told her that he knew how dangerous it was hunting vampires, but at the same time she knew he wasn’t going to stop. He just wanted to do the right thing and hunt the right vampires, which was something Alice couldn’t hate him for. It scared her more, because going after the right vampires meant going after the more dangerous vampires. She knew that the vampires the hunters had caught would have been those who were loners, probably animal blood drinkers, and wouldn’t have a chance against a group of humans. Drinking from humans made a vampire stronger.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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Date: 2013-07-23 03:07 am (UTC)