The Truth

"Are you ready to speak yet?"

Caleb sat next to me, his arm wrapped around me.

I sat quietly for a moment, the images of it all coming back to me.

"I went looking for you tonight, I was upstairs and I saw something."

"whatever it is I'm sure I can handle it." his tone was sincere as he looked me in the eyes.

"well...your father was..err. He was with one of the maids tonight, At first, I thought they were just being, intimate." I blushed slightly as I looked at him. "But then it was clear, there was blood dripping onto the floor."

Caleb's expression changed now, his arm stiffened around me but he never seemed surprised by what I had said.

"You know...Why was he biting her?!"

Standing up he walked over to the edge of the water, for a while, he never spoke but seemed to be lost in thought.

"It's difficult to explain. This is what I was afraid of, It would have been better if you stayed away from us."

"Then why did you invite me here in the first place?"

"I didn't." He looked defeated, his head slumping to the floor.

"My father insisted on inviting every family that sits on the council."

"That still doesn't answer my question, why was your father biting that girl?!" my body trembled with what could have been fear, or anger.

He turned towards me now, his brows frowned as he pressed his lips tightly together, sighing with frustration.

"If I told you why I don't think you would understand. You'd never look at me the same way..."

I stood up slowly and walked up to him, reaching out my hands I took his hand in mine.

"Please Caleb, I want to know."

"My father, well my family.. we aren't like you. we're not...human."

I took a step back, releasing his hand, "What do you mean you're not human?" my voice came out in a whisper as I struggled to speak.

"We don't survive the way you do, the only thing that sustains us is blood. We need to feed on it in order to live."

I couldn't speak, unable to believe what I was hearing. How could what he was telling me, be possible? Why would they need blood, it made no sense.

If they weren't human then what were they? I had never heard of anything needing to feed on blood in order to survive.

But when I looked up at Caleb I knew he was telling the truth and that only frightened me even more.

"What are you?"

He stepped closer now, his expression serious.

"I am a Vampyre."

"What does that even mean?!" I shook my head in frustration.

"We are beings that appear human but are much more than that. We don't age, We don't get sick... we have incredible strength and speed. We have the ability to influence animals, although it's a bit difficult with humans, they have to have a weak mind in order for us to have influence over them..."

As he spoke I felt myself shrink away in fear. Not of him but of what he was saying, how could any of it be possible?!

He stopped speaking now and approached me slowly, he held me to his chest for a moment trying to comfort me, I stood frozen in place, his hands on my waist. I could feel his breath on the nape of my neck as he whispered into my ear, "You have no reason to fear me little bird"

He held my face gently as he looked down at me, "I will never harm you. I won't let anything happen to you."

Something inside me knew that he was dangerous and that I was an idiot for not running away from him the first chance I could, but when he spoke those words, my fears seemed to fade away.

"I tried to keep you away from it, I wanted to stay away from you to protect you. But you just kept coming back into the picture and now it's unavoidable. now you know the truth."