I sniffed at the air around her head.
“Bring them forth, Adelie. Bring them.” My voice gave out at the end. I could smell… life.
More life than just her.
I peered toward the entrance of the cave. “Thirst—”
“They’ll be here in a minute. They’re all here for you. All of them, all of their memories, all of their blood.”
“Lambs…”
“…to your slaughter.” She grinned, her fangs gleaming and healthy. “Stay here. Stay hidden. Until I come back for you.”
I watched, unmoving.
Adelie moved to the cave entrance and enthusiastically waved outside, at someone. No,someones. I could feel them, more than one. A moment later, the first of the humans climbed in and looked around, and they began making quick work of filling the cave.
I started to tremble.
I needed them, and I needed them now.
“Someone opened the crypt for us,” Adelie said, cheerfully. “We can set up camp right in this cave.”
“Was it cranked open or broken?” said one of the hikers. The individual…looked strange to me.
“It’s in one piece. Let’s go in. We’ve been running ahead of that storm for hours. The rain won’t hold off much longer.” Adelie turned and called to the group that had assembled. “Into the crypt, everyone! There’s going to be a storm, and we want to be as far away as possible.”
Without question, the whole group walked in. Smiling the whole time, my wonderful best friend had brought me nearly twenty-five warm bodies full of blood, of life. I stayed dead still until she walked over to me and offered me a hand.
“They are all yours.”
“All?
“Yes. All of them.” She wasn’t taking any.
I darted into the crypt with the last of my energy.
Adelie shoved the door closed behind me.
Not one of those humans would be able to open it.
The high-pitched shouts started right away. The humans couldn’t see a thing. There was no light. There was only blood pumping and shaking breaths and screams and terror. It was beautiful. My lambs—all mine.
I started with the young boy, barely this side of puberty with a scraggly beard and rich, rich blood. I held his throat to keep the shriek quiet and drove my fangs into his neck. With the first swallows of my first meal in nearly three hundred years, the fog in my brain started to lift. The knowledge this child held was siphoned off with his life, and it was all mine to take and remember. I discarded his personal crap. I took only the history and events of the time during my Rest.
Time and again I struck. Draining all I could from the first six victims, I then took just enough to render the rest unable to fight me. I was going to enjoy the rest of my meal.
Blood is life.
* * *
Dripping crimson stained my face. And it couldn’t be any sweeter.
I stared down at the lambs brought before me. My mind churned with the memories I had stolen from each human. So much knowledge. So many differences in the world since I had lain down for my magical Rest two hundred years ago.
Correction.Almosttwo hundred years ago.
‘Almost’ was the keyword there.
