I never know that they could move so fast. Sebastian went from being on the other side of the room to walking past me and finally leaning on the car, arms folded, in fifteen seconds. Salem dropped Dava on her butt, and grabbed me by my arm, pulling me out the door. Dava reached for my hand, and I held it for as long as I could before I was forced to let go.

“No, come back! Stop” She screamed, trying to run after us. Salem turned to her and in one quick motion back handed her, making her hit the floor, knocked out. I looked up at him, slightly confused, and angry. Salem threw Sebastian the keys to the car and as Sebastian unlocked it and Salem opened the door for me, shoving me in, I yelled: “You didn’t have to do that, you know!”

As Salem got in the car, he turned to me with narrowed eyes, and for the first time that night I was scared. His eyes glowed, the same way that a cat or a dog’s would in darkness. It made him look less human, though his extremely pale skin-which was very uncommon here, in California-had him looking slightly suspect. “Would you rather have had me kill her? I could go do it now, would you prefer that, Eddie?” He smiled, and along with his glowing narrowed eyes, he looked like a devil. I wanted to be out of this car, away from them. They’re enjoying this, I thought, as my eyes met with Sebastian’s as he looked in the rearview mirror while backing out of the parking space.

“We could’ve just left, is all I’m saying. You didn’t have to hit her.” I crossed my arms, saying: “And why are we driving a car? I thought…I don’t know that we’d fly or something.” They both laughed, and the sound of it made me sick. I sighed, and Salem looked back at me.

“What were you expecting? Anne Rice’s vampires who can take flight like birds and never have a need for a car? Well, maybe we can fly, but we are not so dumb as to think that because we move faster that you mortals that we won’t be noticed. We’re probably going to ditch the car somewhere…or maybe we’ll keep it, it’s very…homey.” That laugh again.

“It’s a Ford Focus, for God’s sake. I just thought...”I turned and looked out the back window, as foot after foot and mile after mile put me further away from my sister. I leaned my head back, and a wave of exhaustion came over me. I could feel someone looking at me, but I didn’t care. I was drifting into sleep.

“I don’t care if she was going to expose you why the hell is she here, in my house?!” Was the first thing I heard when I woke up. I sat straight up, scared because I didn’t know where I was. I realized I was in a bed, under a blanket. I was only wearing my shirt and underwear, making me wonder what happened to the rest of my clothes. The room was painted black with a black ceiling. I felt claustrophobic, because the black paint made the room look smaller. The light was on and the window was open. I got out of the bed and looked out to see a mass of trees. Once again, I had no idea where I was.

I opened the door and heard more raised voices. One of them was Salem’s, and there were two more, one which I had heard when I first woke up and the other sounded Latin, very thick and heavy with an accent. I sat down on the third step and listened to them argue. “Listen Gillian, you maybe the oldest out of all of us, but you are not stupid. You know as well as I that there are people that would’ve believed we are vampires. We could’ve gotten out of there quick and fast, but she would’ve known what we look like.”

“So why didn’t you kill her when you ditched the car?” The other voice said. I could tell by the way that they were talking to Salem that they thought he was either too soft or too stupid, and he had possibly brought humans back here before. “You could’ve easily killed her then. And besides, if you brought her here, why didn’t you kill her? We would’ve loved to share.”

I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from breathing too hard. I was about to get up and go back into the room when the man named Gillian said: “ Well, Salem, what is so special about this human that you would think it would be ok to bring her back here and risk exposing us all?” I could hear the hesitation in Salem’s voice when he sighed, like he didn’t want to say what he was about to say to them. Then I heard footsteps on the hardwood floor behind me, and slowly turned, fearful of who it might be.

“Enjoying the conversation are we, Little One?” Sebastian said, picking me up by my arm and twisting it behind my back. I cried out, regretting it as he led me down the stairs and to the three vampires awaiting my arrival. He threw me at the feet of Gillian, who I assumed to be the lead vampire. I looked up to see an extremely tall man with waist length black hair and a beard. He picked me up and inspected me one eye brow raised over his cool violet eyes. He turned me around a tilted my head to the side talking over my neck.

“What are you doing down here, human?” I shook with fear and fury, as Gillian rested a hand on my stomach. I looked over to the other vampire in the room. He was leaning against the fire place in a way that only an extremely lithe person could. His curly copper-colored hair rested atop broad shoulders. He looked at me with cool brown eyes. Finally I said:

“Well, I fell asleep in the back of a car and woke up in a room painted in all black, I got scared...” Gillian twisted my arm the same way Sebastian had, thought I was actually afraid that he’d break my arm. “That and I woke up without pants on, I was just wondering where they are.” With that I was tossed again, only to Salem, who grabbed me and held me.

Gillian rolled his eyes and placed both hands on his hips. Sebastian went into the kitchen and came out with something that looked like blood in a couple of bottles. He sat on the couch and drank out of one, and the other vampire who had been leaning on the fire placed joined him, a bottle in his own hand. “Well, we are going to keep her;" Gillain stated flatly."After all, she now knows enough to expose us all.” He turned and grabbed my pants and threw them at me walking out of the room. Salem looked at me and sighed.

“Well, let’s get you back to the room then, shall we?” He said, pushing me towards the stairs. “Aurey I need the keys.” The Latin man named Aurey threw the keys over his shoulder. Salem pushed me up the stairs and into the black room, closing the door behind him. I put my pants on with him eyeing me, leaning against the door with folded arms. “Are you hungry Edenne?” Salem asked.

“Why do you care?” I replied, matching his stance with narrowed eyes. “You’re all going to kill me, aren’t you? I bet you’re just fattening me so you can tie me up and stuff my mouth with an apple.” He laughed, then walked towards me, making me fall on the bed. He stood above me saying:

“First off, we are vampires, not cannibals. We don’t take anything from you humans other blood. I am asking you because we don’t have anything here to eat, unless you’d like some blood?” I looked at him repulsed, when finally he finished: “Look, I have no intention to kill you. If the others were going to they’d have done it by now. That doesn’t mean that they still won’t, it just means you had best do as I say and don’t try to escape. Then you’ll be fair game to them. Now, I am going to go and get you some food. What do you want?” When I didn’t respond he turned around and snapped: “Fine, you’ll just starve.”

“No-I-could go for Chinese food?” I sat up on my elbow, and watched this gorgeous creature as he turned slightly to look at me, his strawberry blond hair resting at the middle of his back. He nodded slightly and walked out the door. I could hear the lock turn and I knew that I was to be kept under lock down, prison-style, only allowed out for bathroom breaks. I sighed and fell back on the bed.