Remember what I said about not uploading anything else until I had the end written? Well the end is farther away than I originally thought.

SO YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT.

Hmph.

Chapter 23

Everyone, including Gwen and Nat, spent the rest of the night packing everything up. It took longer than Gwen expected to get everyone ready to move. She would’ve thought a troupe of mystical beings with superhuman speed moved faster. However, the task of packing everything up was repetitive and mind-numbing, giving Gwen plenty of time to spend time thinking about everything.

They didn’t finish until the beginnings of the low, soft light of dawn shined over the clearing. Only then did everyone sit, yawning, on the ground to take a rest.

The sleeping bags and tents had already been packed, of course, so they all had to cope with lying on the cold, hard ground that still had a few stains of blood from the gory battle of more than 24 hours before.

The vampires all seemed used to sleeping out in the open and in a couple of minutes Gwen could see that most of them were asleep, ignoring the rising sun. She would have to ask someone later if vampires were really affected by the sun at all, or if that was just a myth.

As if vampires aren’t supposed to be myths themselves, Gwen thought, laughing softly to herself.

She herself was leaning against a tree, not particularly sleepy. She had quite a bit on her mind still, despite the fact that she’d been thinking about all of the same things for hours already. Her old, fairly normal life was about to be lost to her forever. The smiling faces of Welwyn and Tweek overwhelmed her mind’s eye and she closed her eyes, thinking of the days when they were just three great friends.

Now they were all split up with more than a few hard feelings between them. Welwyn was probably joining up with the witches and wizards at that precise moment and Tweek was surely still upset with Gwen for making her decision to trust the vampires.

Gwen smiled at the irony and impossibility of it all. It amazed her that just a few months before, things like wolf people and vampires and witches and wizards were things of Harry Potter. Now they were her life. She had the vague thought for a few moments that she may in fact be having a very long, detailed dream.

Perhaps she was in a coma.

Beside her, a foot or two away, Nat rolled over on to his side and began snoring loudly.

“So I heard Nat’s going to blood you tomorrow,” said a voice very close behind her.

Gwen hardly jumped this time; though she was still startled, this was becoming all too common.

Aden was kneeling on the ground next to her tree, leaning the side of his head against it. Gwen glared at him.

“What is with you vampires and sneaking up on people?? Why can’t you come from in front of me where I can see you, just once?”

Aden smiled, reminding her much of Nat.

“Because it’s in our nature to stalk prey from behind,” he said, whispering darkly.

“I’m getting blooded tomorrow, then? Well it’s nice to know that I’m informed of, you know, things my whole entire future depends on, before complete strangers are,” Gwen said, very annoyed.

“And being blooded into a vampire is going to make you more aggressive…” Aden said, putting his hand to his head. “You know, I’m amazed someone like you can put up with Nat so well.”

Gwen laughed. “He’s not that bad. Sometimes he actually reminds me of…” Her voice trailed off.

Aden watched her expectantly.

“No one you know,” Gwen finished. “My friends. My human friends.”

“Oh.”

Awkward silence.

“I’m glad you came, actually,” Aden said finally. “Not just because of you being an Influencer, I mean. Nat’s never really been close to anyone, besides Eve, but that’s mostly because she blooded him. And the blooded and the blooder always have a strong bond. He and I get along pretty well, but he never really talks to me about anything important. It’s nice to see him finally have a real friend besides Eve. After all, Eve isn’t the best listener, as I’m sure you’ve figured out…”

Gwen felt uncomfortable talking about other people’s personal lives and changed the subject. “So how does the whole blooding thing work?”

“It starts with a short ceremony with a lot of chanting that all of us participate in. No one has any idea what the stupid chanting is about any more, but we do it anyways. The rest of it is pretty much a few private moments between the blooded, the blooder, and Amaya. The three of them go into an empty tent together, where the exchanging of blood takes place.”

“That sounds very dramatic,” Gwen said after a couple of seconds of silence.

Aden laughed. “Yeah.”

“How long ago were you blooded?” Gwen asked.

“About twelve years ago.”

Gwen stared at him. He looked no more than a year or two older than herself.

“We age slower than humans,” Aden reminded her. “I was only about fourteen or fifteen when I was blooded.”

“Oh.”

Gwen thought for a moment. “So are vampires immortal?”

Aden looked puzzled at her question. “No one’s explained any of these details to you yet?”

“No…”

“And you’re going to be blooded tomorrow?”

“Apparently.”

Aden sighed. “I’m all for this group-of-vampires-in-support-of-the-humans thing, but sometimes we get so busy trying to recruit new vampires that we forget we’re changing someone’s life every time we do.”

Gwen didn’t know what to say to that.

“Well,” Aden said after a few seconds, “to answer your question, we’re not completely immortal. We just live a lot longer than humans. The average lifespan for a vampire is about 350 years, but some of us live to be 400 or older. And we can handle more serious wounds than humans,” he added.

“Just like fantasy vampires, in other words.”

“Pretty much.”

More awkward silence.

“I’m gonna go find a nice patch of grass to sleep on,” Aden said, getting up. “You should sleep too and get rested for tomorrow.”

“Ok, goodni-”

Gwen stopped herself. “Um…”

Aden laughed. “And a fine dawn to you too.” Then he was gone.

Gwen rested her head against the tree again. The surprise and puzzlement she saw in Aden’s face when he realized no one had explained the small details to her about life as a vampire worried her. Was there some reason they hadn’t told her everything? Were they trying to keep something from her? Did they not really care about her or changing her life at all? Were they actually more concerned with increasing their numbers than anything else?

Gwen spent the entire day watching all of the other vampires sleep as she pondered whether or not she was throwing away her entire life for a group of cold, uncaring parasites or if she actually did have the ability to save her fellow human beings.