When we entered the small clearing, the huge black vampire jerked the ambassador up and pinned his arms behind his back, the leather jacket he wore rustling and creaking as he moved. A portly young vampire with thick curly hair held a rifle at his hip pointed at Abdul but was ignored by both Abdul and his captor. A middle-aged vampire with graying hair stood off to one side staring. When we approached the vamp holding Abdul asked, “Where’s Bill?”
“Dead,” vampire with the old body said in a scratchy voice. “This one got him.” He shoved me forward a bit. The graying vamp’s face wrinkled distastefully at the idea before he shrugged. The old one’s eyes were wide and laced with red veins.
“Benjamin’s not going to be pleased.” I staggered backwards and all eyes shot to me. Cold vampiric eyes. I shifted my weight uneasily and prayed that somehow my brother was not a vampire, but that hope seemed farfetched. My anger drained away as his name reverberated through the air. The world I had known my whole life had once again overturned the world I had expected.
“It’s his orders,” said the black one, “besides; it looks like we got a couple of the General’s cronies.” He pulled the ambassador around as if to display him. Abdul bore himself coolly, smugly, despite an oozing ragged wound on his arm and the jerks and twists that he endured.
“I am Benjamin’s brother,” I said as haughtily as I could muster despite the hopelessness that dulled my mind. I addressed myself to the vampire in the oldest human’s body because he moved like he was newly turned but hoping that they would take it as deference to age.
“Yeah, you and a lot of humans,” the old one spat out in the middle of a string of his low-level muttering.
“More like one of the General’s spies,” the middle aged one said glaring at Abdul as he spoke.
“He’ll get his time with the leader just the same. You know Benjamin’s orders” the black one said smiling widely and stepping forward and twisting Abdul around so that he could slap me hard splitting my lip on one side. Their eyes flitted to the bright red drop that fell onto the ground and the thin trickle that ran down my chin but then the one who’d hit me chuckled and they all started laughing and shaking off the scent of my blood.
After that it became clear that they were not going to open up to any kind of talk. The middle-aged vamp pulled what looked like a football helmet; a white plastic head-shaped piece connected to a metal cage and a leather strap dangling from its back. They slid it onto Abdul who stood unresisting as if he were staring at the trees and tightened the strap around the back of his head which pulled the metal cage around his mouth. His eyes flashed widely at me but then returned to their calm. A rope attached to the cage and the large vampire tugged it leading us away through the trees.
Dried pine needles crackled hatefully under our shoes their piles slippery without the use of my arms to steady myself and a crow or series of crows cawed mockingly along our path. The sun shone warmly but in the shade the day had grown chill and I was soon covered with a thin layer of sweat that transformed into an icy blanket whenever there was a breeze. Thin white clouds swept across the pale sky like nets ensnaring their more substantial brethren. Abdul, without ever wavering in his forward gaze, glided over the ground avoiding every fallen branch, every root and every dip and bump in the ground despite the helmet, his bound hands and the rope’s jerking at his neck. He strode along erect with his arms relaxed even though they were bound behind his back as if he were pacing in thought not being led along captive, but his dark eyes searched the trees. The old vampire walked along beside him hunched like a thrall, alternatively staring at Abdul curiously and looking off into the distance. “He’s a Made, Peter,” he said to the vampire who led Abdul. Peter eyes flicked towards Abdul’s neck, but he ignored the vampire who’d spoken keeping at his quick even pace as if we weren’t even following behind him. The third vampire followed skittered along at the rear glancing behind us as if he expected an attack. His narrowed eyes were cold, and his face was constantly twisted into a scowl.
Though I watched the path closely I stumbled as the toe of my boot caught on a small rock I hadn’t seen and with my hands cuffed behind my back I staggered along for several steps before I could regain my balance. After that it felt as if I stumbled and tripped on every branch that caught on my pants’ leg, every dip in the ground that twisted my ankle unexpectedly and sifting piles of dried needles and leaves. At first our captors laughed and kicked me in the back of my legs so that my knees buckled, and I fell but the antagonism only weakened me further and contributed a jittery anxiety to my steps. I fell more and more often and took longer and longer to get back to my feet. Lying on the ground with my mouth filled with musty earth and leaves stuck in my hair I even thought of not rising, of remaining prone on the forest floor. Let the vampires carry me if they want me so badly I thought, the others surely had, but I got to my feet and I stumbled along as the taunts turned to grousing that
