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word human ? She would have thought that they were merely delusional, if she had not seen
them stop that bullet in mid air.
Then& the alley. The chase.
And then& . Blackness.
Caitlin suddenly heard the creak of a metal door. She squinted, as a light appeared in the
distance. It was a torch. Someone was coming towards her, carrying a torch.
As he got closer, the room lit up. She was in a large, cacophonous room, entirely carved from
stone. It looked ancient.
As the man got close, Caitlin could see his features. He held the torch up, to his face. He
stared at her as if she were an insect.
This man was grotesque. His face was distorted, making him look like an old, haggard witch.
He grinned, and revealed rows of small, orange teeth. His breath stank. He came within inches of
her, and stared. He raised a hand to her face, and she could see his long, curved, yellow
fingernails. Like claws. He dragged them slowly along her cheek, not enough to draw blood, but
enough to make her repulsed. He grinned even wider.
Who are you? Caitlin asked, terrified. Where am I?
He only grinned further, as if examining his prey. He stared at her throat, and licked his lips.
Just then, Caitlin heard the sound of another metal door opening, and saw several torches
approaching.
Leave her! shouted a voice from the distance. The man standing before Caitlin quickly
scurried away, backing up several feet. He lowered his head, admonished.
A whole group of torches approached, and as they got close, she could see their leader. The
man who had chased her down the alley.
He stared back, offering a smile with the warmth of ice. He was beautiful, this man, ageless,
but terrifying. Evil. His large, charcoal eyes stared at her.
He was flanked by five other men, all dressed in black like him, but none as large or as
beautiful as he. There were also two women in the group, who stared back at her with equal
coldness.
You must excuse our attendant, the man said, his voice deep, cold, and matter-of-fact.
Who are you? Caitlin asked. Why am I here?
Forgive these harsh accommodations, the man said, running his hand along the thick metal
chain that held her to the wall. We d be more than happy to let you go, he said, if only you
would answer a few questions.
She looked back, unsure what to say.
I will begin. My name is Kyle. I am Deputy Leader of the Blacktide Coven, he paused.
Your turn.
I don t know what you want from me, Caitlin answered.
To start with, your coven. Who do you belong to?
Caitlin wracked her brain, trying to figure out if she had lost her mind. Was she imagining all
of this? She thought she must be stuck in some sort of sick dream. But she felt the very real cold
steel on her wrists and ankles, and knew she was not. She had no idea what to tell this man. What
was he talking about? Coven? As in& vampire?
I don t belong to anyone, she said.
He stared for a long while, then slowly shook his head.
As you wish. We have dealt with rogue vampires before. It s always the same: they come
to test us. To see how secure our territory is. After that, more follow. That s how territory shifts
begin.
But you see, they never get away with it. Ours is the oldest strongest and coven in this land.
No one kills here and gets away with it.
So I ask again: who sent you? When do they plan to invade?
Territory? Invasions? Caitlin couldn t understand how she was not dreaming. Maybe she had
been slipped some sort of drug. Maybe Jonah had slipped her something. But she didn t drink.
And she never did drugs. She was not dreaming. This was real. Too awfully, incredibly real.
She could ve just dismissed them as a group of completely crazy people, as some weird cult
or society that was completely delusional. But after all that had happened in the last 48 hours,
she actually found herself thinking twice. Her own strength. Her own behavior. The way she felt
her body changing. Could vampires be true? Was she one of them? Had she stumbled into the
middle of some kind of vampire war? That would be just her luck.
Caitlin stared back, thinking. Had she really killed someone? Who? She couldn t remember,
but she had this awful feeling that what he said was true. That she had killed someone. That,
more than anything, made her feel terrible. She felt an awful feeling of pity and regret wash over
her. If it was true, she was a murderer. She could never live that down.
She stared back at him.
I wasn t sent by anyone, she said, finally. I don t remember exactly what I did. But
whatever I did, I did it on my own. I don t really know why I did it. I m really sorry for whatever
I did, she said. I didn t mean it.
Kyle turned and looked at the others. They looked back at him. He shook his head, and
turned back to her. His glare turned cold and hard.
You take me for a fool, I see. Not wise.
Kyle gestured to his subordinates, and they hurried over and uncuffed her chains. She felt her
arms drop, and was relieved to have the blood flow back to her wrists. They uncuffed her ankles
next. Four of them, two on one each side, got a tight grip on her arms and shoulders.
If you won t answer to me, Kyle said, then you will answer to the Assembly. Just
remember, you have chosen this. They will show no mercy, as I may have done.
As they led her away, Kyle added, Make no mistake, you will be killed either way. But my
way would have been quick and painless. Now you will see what suffering is.
Caitlin tried to resist as they dragged her forward. But it was useless. They were leading her
somewhere, and there was nothing she could do but embrace her fate.
And pray.
*
When they opened the oak door, Caitlin could not believe her eyes. The room was enormous.
Shaped in a huge circle, it was lined with hundred-foot-tall stone columns, ornately decorated. It
was well lit, torches placed every 5 feet, all throughout the room. It looked like the Pantheon. It
looked ancient.
As she was led in, the next thing she noticed was the noise. It was a huge crowd. She looked
around and saw hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women dressed in black, moving quickly
all about the room. There was a strangeness to how they moved: it was so fast, so random, so&
inhuman.
She heard a swooshing noise, and looked up. Dozens of these people leapt, or flew, through
the room, going from floor to ceiling, from ceiling to balcony, from column to ledge. That was
the whooshing noise she had heard. It was as if she had entered a cave full of bats.
She took it all in and was completely, utterly, shocked. Vampires did exist. Was she one of
them?
They led her to the center of the room, chains rattling, her bare feet cold on the stone. They
led her to a spot in the center of the floor, designated by a large, tile circle.
As she reached the center, the noise gradually died down. The motion slowed. Hundreds of
vampires took positions in a huge, stone amphitheater before her. It looked like a political
assembly, like the pictures she had seen of the state of the union address except, instead of
hundreds of politicians, these were hundreds of vampires, all staring at her. Their order and
discipline was impressive. Within seconds, they were all perfectly seated, quiet as can be. The
room fell silent.
As she stood in the center of the room, held in place by the attendants, Kyle stepped off to
the side, folded his hands, and lowered his head in reverence.
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