Chapter Seven

HE stood there dumbfounded, not believing his eyes.

This had to be some sort of a joke, he thought.

He turned towards Fred, in hope of some explanation but Fred pushed him out of the bedroom they were in and directed Zac to the previous bedroom.

As soon as Fred pushed him into the bedroom, the former shut the door and leaned against it.

Zac stood there groping for words to paraphrase all the thoughts swirling in his head but found none.

Fred must've noticed that Zac was too stunned to speak and so, Fred said, "I'll explain."

"Is this a joke?" Zac asked,"I mean the fangs." He explained.

"If this is some sorta joke, then this is the wrong time." Zac finished.

"No, it's no joke Zac. Calm down and I'll tell you what I know."

"I wanted to explain it all to you before you saw her, but -" he sighed, "you were hell bent on seeing her and now that you got what you wanted, I'll do my part of telling you.

Yesterday, when Cristina left the restaurant, she was probably on her way home, when a vampire attacked her and drained her blood-"

Zac buried his face in his hands.

Fred continued.

"- I did the needful. But I don't know why some vampire would attack an innocent person. She never knew of their existence. It just doesn't make sense to me. It'll be sorted out soon enough. I've got a few people involved."

But Zac hadn't really processed what Fred said after he heard the part where she was bitten. By a vampire.

Until a few minutes back, vampire's existence was merely a fairytale. A fable. A story, he thought.

"Umm..hello? Off to dreamland?" Fred asked, snapping Zac out of his thoughts.

"Sorry," he said, not feeling sorry at all, then continued,"I just don't understand what's going on. This isn't supposed to be real- the vampire thing." He said helplessly.

Fred sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I know that this must be quite a shock for you but you need to understand that all this wasn't suppose to happen- the whole Cristina- turning-into-a-vampire thing. No sane vampire would drain an innocents blood. The penalty is death. I have reasons for thinking this was done on purpose. And we need to figure out who did it." Fred said.

"Oh" was all Zac said in reply. Why would anyone want to hurt Cristina? He thought.

"What are we supposed to do now? Interrogate every vampire alive to find the guilty one?" Zac asked sarcastically, coming back to the point.

"No," Fred said seriously,"that'd be inconvenient and time consuming. We have a few suspects, so we're hoping we'll figure this out soon." Fred said with determination.

"Wait a second," Zac said,"you said 'we' have a few suspects. Who's the 'we'?

"You're gonna meet him soon."

***

She let out a long yawn and sat up on her bed. She looked around. She was in her bedroom although she couldn't really remember how and when she'd gotten here.

She closed her eyes ,trying to recall last nights' events. She remembered walking home and- weirdly- being bitten on her neck. She remembered fainting.

But did that happen? Or was it all a dream? She thought.

She could taste blood in her mouth for some reason. Was she imagining stuff now, she thought.

Maybe Zac wasn't in LA , maybe all of this was one big stupid dream, she thought.

Her hand went up to her neck where she'd supposedly been bitten in her dream but found no wound.

This was all a dream.

She let out a frustrated groan because all of it had felt so, so real but instantly went silent when she heard someone talking in hushed tones in the adjoining bedroom.

But who could it be, she thought.

She tip-toed out of her room and went towards the next bedroom. She could hear the voices a bit more distinctly now. Though she couldn't make sense of what they were saying. Something about vampire's, suspects and being guilty.

Confused, she thought maybe a book club was meeting here or something.

She leaned in closer to the door but just then the door swung open and Fred gestured for her to enter. She stepped inside wondering if Fred knew she had been standing outside the room for a couple of moments eavesdropping.

Wait a sec, she thought. What's Fred doing here in the first place?

She was about to ask him just that, when she noticed something at the corner of her eye. More precisely it was a someone.

How could she have not noticed someone sitting there, she thought. Her brain seemed to be lagging like an outdated computer.

But it wasn't just any someone, that someone was Zac. It was Zachariah. Zachariah Mattson.

Her hand went up to her mouth as she gasped.

"Ohmygosh, this wasn't a dream?!" She squealed, but didn't move from where she was standing, too afraid that Zac would disappear with a puff into thin air and then it would be a dream.

She wanted to reach out and capture the happiness she was feeling right now so that she could hide it away, away from the sorrow and wickedness of the world outside.

"What wasn't a dream?" Zac asked, confusion clear on his face.

She was about to reply but then it hit her. If Zac coming to LA wasn't a dream, what about the part of someone biting her, she thought.

Did that really happen? She thought, confused.

Fred must've sensed the sudden change in her behaviour and so, he led her to sit beside Zac on the bed.

She looked over at Zac, hoping he'd say something to cast away the doubts and fears clouding her mind.

But his eyes said it all. They were filled with sadness, confusion and...anger.

"What's going on?" She asked him, desperately trying to keep her voice steady.

Deep down she couldn't stop the sick feeling gnawing at her insides.

She felt something was terribly wrong.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" Zac asked, his voice lacking its usual cheeriness.

"Which part of last night?" She asked, confused.

"When you were on your way home.." he said, his voice quiet.

"I think I was bitten..I don't know by what. But I couldn't find a wound, so I thought it was just a dream. Why?" She asked, her eyes huge and scared.

She didn't know where this was heading.

"Let me see." Zac said.

She tilted her head and he looked closely at the spot where she pointed at, on her neck.

All he saw was two small faint dots on her skin which indeed looked like puncture wounds.

"They're faint," then nodded to himself and continued,"But they're there."

"Oh.." she said.

She remembered hearing something about vampires when she had been eavesdropping on Fred and Zac's conversation.

But this can't be, she thought.

She'd read quite a few fiction books to know what a vampire's like.

She slowly slid her tongue along her upper set of teeth and her heart literally stopped when she felt a pair of long pointy teeth in place of her incisors.

Fangs.

And then she realised something. She couldn't feel her heartbeat.

But this isn't possible, she thought, worriedly.

Fred who had been watching her closely, in silence, broke it to her, "Cristina..yo- you're a vampire."

***