*Untitled* Chapter 1, Parts 2 and 3

The rich smell of blood was in the air. He sniffed it, seeking his prey. Walking forward cautiously, keeping his eyes straight ahead, he listened with his acute hearing. A twig snapped. He stopped, listening harder, hoping it was just an animal or his prey. Bushes rustled behind him, but he dared not turn around.
Dropping low to the ground, he slowly, quietly turned in a circle. His eyes were alert, watchful. There wasn’t a sound; even the crickets had stopped their soft chirping.
A flutter of wings came, and he turned so rapidly that he almost lost his balance. An owl flew out of a nearby tree and disappeared. Smiling in relief to himself, he stood and began to listen for his prey once again.
Hands, strong and quick, grabbed him from behind and forced him to his knees. The tall woman that walked in front of him had an evil smile on her pale face. Long black hair floated around her face, black eyes looked out at him from behind long eyelashes, and full lips were stretched across pointed, slightly yellow, teeth.
“What are you doing here, Estrie? Did Mara tell you to come fetch me?” He let a small laugh escape before smiling at her. She glared at him. “I am not Mara’s lapdog.” He sighed and looked beyond her into the darkness of the trees. “Then why are you here, Estrie? I don’t feel like playing your little games tonight.” She let out a low growl. “Fine then, spoilsport. Cira wanted me to tell you to hurry up with the girl. She said Laetitia cannot wait much longer before she will come herself for her offspring,” she said, her voice dripping with resentment. He sighed and nodded slowly. “You can go now, unless there’s another message for me?” She glared at him once more, then vanished.
Stefan resumed searching for his dinner. Sniffing the air around him, the intoxicating smell of blood reached him once again. He sprinted east for about two hundred yards, then reached down and grabbed the whimpering human in a bone-crushing grip.
The human struggled and let out a call for help. He smiled, showing off his sharp fangs, which made the human freeze – a look of intense fear on his face. He laughed and pulled his prey toward his eager mouth. Sharp teeth pierced soft flesh, and the human went limp. 1

He was just laying the limp body of the sleeping human in a small clearing close to the edge of the wood when he heard a small gasp. Turning quickly around, he saw a shadowy figure standing twenty feet away. “Stefan…oh my God,” he voice was full of shock and disgust. He held out a hand to silence her, but she turned and ran into the deeper darkness of the trees. He quickly jogged after her, knowing he would be able to catch her easily. 2

Elizabeth ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding. Rushing past trees and looking over her shoulder, she tripped over a fallen log and fell to the ground. Cursing her clumsiness, she tried to push herself up, but a pair of strong hands grabbed her and pushed her back down. “Shh, Elizabeth. I won’t hurt you. Your leg is tangled in this vine here,” he gently unwound the vine from her leg as he spoke.
When he let go of her, she immediately tried to stand up, but fell once more. Her ankle was sprained from tripping over the log. He helped her to sit on the log. She gave him a disgusted look and pulled away from him. “Don’t touch me, you murderer!”
“Elizabeth, let me explain. It’s not what you think.” She shook her head when he said this. “You didn’t kill that man? He sure looked dead to me.”
“No, no. He’s not dead, I didn’t kill him. He’s just…sleeping. He’ll be awake in a few hours as good as new.” She laughed sarcastically. “Then why is he asleep? There has to be a reason. Someone just doesn’t fall asleep at night, alone, in the woods around here.” He sighed deeply. “Alright, do you want the truth?” She nodded and he continued slowly. “I’m not exactly what you think I am. I’m a vampire.”
There was a shocked silence. “You…you mean…you drink blood and stuff?” He smiled wearily. This was a discussion he had had many times. “Yes, a blood-drinker, a night walker, a stalker of the night, one of the kindred, a sooder folley, a bluatsauger. There are many names for my kind. Call me what you like, but there is nothing for you to be afraid of.” He was silent for a moment. “Elizabeth, there is something that I need to tell you, that you need to know.”
He stood up and began pacing back and forth. “I know this will he surprising and hard to digest, but you must listen to everything I say and believe me.” She cracked her knuckles with impatience. “Get to your point already. I can’t stay out here forever, my parents will get worried.” He stopped pacing for a moment and looked at her. “That’s just it. Your parents – they aren’t really your parents. They adopted you when you were a small child.” He held up a hand when she tried to interject and began pacing again. “There’s nothing you can say, because it’s true. Go and ask them, and they will tell you, show you the adoption papers.
“But that’s not the point. Your real mother, her name is Laetitia, she’s a vampire also. Your father, who is now dead and relatively unimportant, was a vampire too. You, Elizabeth, are just part vampire.” She gasped. “You can’t be serious. Part vampire? I can’t be, I don’t have any of those…urges like you do. I’m human, one hundred percent human!”
He sighed again. “Your mother is a vampire, Elizabeth. I know this is difficult to accept, but you’re going to have to live with it.” She gave him a frightened look. “But, I’ve never had the urge to drink someone’s blood, and I can stay out in the sun for hours.” Stefan smiled and shook his head. “You aren’t a full vampire, Elizabeth. This means that you won’t have any urges to drink the blood of another, and of course be able to stay in the sun for long periods of time. Vampires aren’t like you see in the movies, or read about in books. We don’t burst into flames in the sun. We’re just more sensitive to the light than the humans are.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced around them, making sure they were still alone. Positive of that fact, he turned back to her. “This is all I will tell you for now. We must get you home to fix your ankle and so you can think about all that I’ve said.”
Despite her protests, he picked her up gently, and slowly carried her home. Once there, he carefully set her down on the front porch swing. He turned to go, but she called him back. “Wait, Stefan, I have just one more question.”3

There was a look of mild curiosity on his face when to turned back to face her. She looked into his cool blue eyes. “How did you know where I live? I never told you, and hardly anyone knows where I live.” He looked at the ground. “Well, I…I followed you here on Monday.” He quickly looked up at her to judge her reaction.
“You what?!” She was horrified. “Why would you follow me home? Do you know how creepy that is?” She stopped and glared at him. “Why did you follow me home on Monday? And tell me the truth.” His eyes were uncertain. “Well, I…you see, Elizabeth-“ She cut him off. “No. I don’t want to know why you followed me. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” She stood up, wincing at the shooting pain in her ankle. Limping slowly to the door, she ignored his attempts to get her attention. She unlocked her front door with a key from her pocket and opened it. 4

Standing framed in the doorway, facing Stefan, she looked into his eyes again. “Elizabeth, please. Please don’t be angry with me. There’s a reason why I followed you on Monday, why I follow you home everyday…” She shook her head. “No! I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I don’t care about Laetitia, or anyone else of your kind,” her voice was full of irritation and anger.
Desperate for her to just listen to him, Stefan kept the eye contact and tried to enter her mind to calm her. Her eyes were smoldering with anger, and her defenses were stronger than ever. “Goodbye, Stefan.”
“Wait, Elizabeth, I-“ his words were cut off by the door slamming shut. He heard the distinct sound of the deadbolt sliding home. She stared at the door for a moment. Then sighed and turned around. The moon had appeared from behind clouds, making the night glow eerily. Stepping off the porch, he slowly and reluctantly walked away. 5