Siren's Song

I saw the smoke from a far distance. I had waited for the honey-eyed softies to go before checking up on the place. Victoria was, indeed, dead. My creator. The one who had changed me to... this. 1

She had tricked all the others who had so willingly followed her with the lure of blood. Blood had sung the siren's song to them, all the way to their smoky graves. I was glad that I had not obeyed.2

Victoria had told the army members about powers. Even before the excruciating three days I had been very shrewd, calm, level-headed, logical. Now, as a vampire I was the strategist any army would have been lucky to have. And had I been in charge of this particular escapade... I would have said: "Let's not and say we did."3

I turned away from the whole sordid affair, feeling a deep, lustful thirst, a perverse longing, a sickening desire that never died or abated. How had the honey-eyed vegetarians done it? How had they stayed away from the siren? 4

My body quaked with desire and I knew that I could put it off no longer. I tensed my stony muscles and ran. In my head I held a map of the land and my nose landed on the nearest juicy prey.5

I stopped and felt my heart throb painfully. Why hadn't I thought ahead to this?6

I was a strategist. Although I was a vampire, I had a stony control. With this control I had made sure to keep them safe.7

I remembered my mother, just a day before Victoria had ended my life. She had warned me:8

"Now, Celia, I don't want you staying out too late with your friends, okay?"9

Then I never came home. And I made sure that the army never went anywhere near my home either. I still maintained that bit of humanity. Loyalty. Love. But look where I had landed when thirsty. Why did Dad choose a house so close to the forest?10

Despite the fact that I was incredibly cool-headed, a new vampire's thirst is still illogically strong. I would not be able to fight it off for long. I struggled to turn away but I froze in place.11

Matthew had come out with his bike. Sweet Matthew. He had turned eight two weeks ago and that bike was his pride and joy. He rode off. The wind blew back the most mouth-watering piece of heaven I had ever had the chance to smell. I drooled animalistically. That instinct-driven side of me was taking over the cool, rational part. The human part. I was almost all instinct now. The beast inside just needed to drink that thick, warm, gushing rivulet of scarlet milk and honey. Then it would quiet. For a day or two.12

I shook my head. I had to get away before I did something regrettable.13

I finally ripped my eyes off his youthfully plump frame and tensed my muscles to run, using every bit of restraint I had left. It was almost a physical pain and my stomach roared, screaming acid and ulcers at me for denying it such a lovely meal. A meal? My heart throbbed even more painfully at this thought. He was my brother! My sweet innocent little brother with his angelic little smile and shiny blue eyes that made me forgive his every blunder and nuisance!14

I regretted the fact that I had not been the one to kill Victoria. A rough, ripping noise racked my chest and something like a sob came out. It sounded inhuman and I held my chest tight to prevent anymore from coming out.15

"Ow!" I heard Matthew yell, a few yards down. A gust of wind blew back toward me and I knew there was no holding it back any longer. The siren sang all soprano and chimes and angels' choir and everything beautiful. It was the only heaven my kind would ever know.16

I did not do it. My stomach did. I stepped forward and suddenly closed the distance of many yards in one second. I was towering above him. He looked up at me, eyes sparkling with such beauty through a haze of unshed tears. He was grabbing his scraped knee, blood showing through the torn jeans. And I surrendered to the song, dropping to my knees. But I stopped, frozen in a moment of nature versus nurture where my humanity fought the incessant thrum of "Thirsty, thirsty, THIRSTY!" 17

He had grabbed me around the neck shouting:18

"Celia! you're back! We thought you were gone forever!" His voice cracked and he sobbed loudly. My face was buried in his neck. He was so fragile in my arms, a thin little feather. I felt his body shake with sobs and then slowly shudder to a stop.19

After a minute I rose to my feet, looking at the macabre angel that lay there, drenched in blood with a broken neck. I wiped my mouth as another horrible sob racked my chest.20

Sweet, sweet Matthew.21