Vampire Greek: The Burning King

Roman had no choice but to throw her away from him to get some distance. She slammed into the grocery store next to the restaurant, though it didn’t look like it hurt much. She got up and screamed, attacking him again and again, but this time he was able to keep her at bay.

“Is she a vampire?” asked Aubrey, who had hidden behind Roman.

“Close,” he grunted, clearly struggling against the fiery little girl. “She’s a fledgling. She must have been attacked before we came. This was probably her mother.”

In hindsight, Roman realized he could’ve worded that a little bit better. She overpowered him and punched him in across his face, sending him flying backward into Aubrey, and her crashing through the restaurant wall.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Roman stammered, trying to get to his feet.

“Are you okay?” He turned to ask her, but she was already standing. He noticed a slight shimmering light around her, and she looked like she was ready to kill.

“Hey, um... she’s just a kid, so don’t get too-”

They both ran at each other full speed, grabbing each other’s clothes and tearing at them.

Roman jumped into the mix pulling the kid off Aubrey only to get elbowed in the face. His jaw made a little click on contact and he went down for the count. Seeing Roman dazed, Aubrey was done messing around. She grabbed the kid by her throat and held her arms in place. The little girl’s eyes flooded with tears as she struggled to get free.

Roman finally picked himself off the ground, testing his jaw. He looked over to Aubrey and pulled the girl away from her. The little girl fell to her knees, gasping for air.

“Stop it!” He demanded. “She’s still a kid. I can fix this.”

“Show me how then,” Aubrey snapped. “Because she just knocked the daylights out of you.”

Roman slowly bent down to talk to the girl.

“Hey... I’m sorry. Are you okay?” He asked softly.

Her weeping turned to heaving, she was breathing quickly.

“She doesn’t sound okay.” Aubrey called out warily.

“We didn’t mean to hurt you, we just came looking for answers. Can you tell me what happened here?”

Her crying got louder, she curled up and recoiled from Roman’s touch.

“Who did this to you? What happened to your mother?”

The crying stopped. She rose her head and looked at Roman with extreme hatred.

“Get the hell away from me!”

She screamed and launched to attack Roman, but he didn’t flinch. He raised his right arm slowly and she sunk her fangs deep into his hand while ripping into his shirt. Aubrey stepped forward to help but Roman put up his left hand to stop her. After a few seconds, the little girl released him and pulled away.

Roman stared at his right hand, wiggling all his fingers, slowly watching the wound heal to nothing. Looking back at the girl, her eyes were now completely back to normal, besides the redness from crying. She didn’t look angry anymore, only sad.

“What just happened?” asked Aubrey.

“I calmed her down. Fledgling vampires often lose control, especially if they haven’t fed yet. The blood of a regular vampire can calm them down, if and only if the vampire willingly gives their blood. If she just slaughtered me without my permission she’d still be rampaging right now.”

“So she’s okay?” asked Aubrey, still nervous.

“Yes. What we just saw wasn’t her at all. She’s just a normal kid. She didn’t ask for this. It’s okay now.”

He looked back to the girl, who stood up and gave him a hug. He rubbed her back gently and kept comforting her. Judging by the wetness of his shirt, he could tell she was crying again. Aubrey inched closer and rubbed the girl’s hair.

“I’m sorry.” she whispered to her.

The kid wiped her face and looked at her.

“It’s okay.” They hugged, and Roman crouched down to be eye level with the girl.

“Can you tell us your name?” He asked her.

“It’s Caitlyn.” She replied with the smallest of smiles.

“That’s a really pretty name Caitlyn! My name is Aubrey.”

“And I’m Roman.” He wanted to ask her so much, but didn’t want to upset her.

“We want to ask you a couple of things okay? If you aren’t able to tell us, I could get answers another way, if that’s okay with you.”

She sniffled. “What do you mean?”

“I can... uh...” Suddenly he realized how perverted this sounded. Aubrey also looked confused.

“I can read your mind. With your permission, that is. I can see your memories of certain things, like the things that just happened. But only if you want me to.”

“Do you know what I’m thinking right now?” She asked him.

“No. It doesn’t work like that. I have to touch you, and you have to let me into your mind. Do you want to do it that way, or can we just ask you questions?”

“Questions.” She answered.

“Okay. Good.” He was kind of relieved, because reading her memories would put him in her point of view, and he didn’t want to experience the trauma of becoming a vampire all over again. He tried to think of what to ask her but didn’t know where to start.

“Aubrey...?” He motioned for her to go first.

“Okay, so Caitlyn, what did you do today?”

Roman looked at her like she was an idiot, but she didn’t notice.

“No.” Roman interjected. “What were you and your mother doing it here, in this alley?”

“We weren’t in this alley. We went to that restaurant to eat. We were celebrating my graduation.”

“Oh, congratulations!” squealed Aubrey. “What grade are you going to?”

“Sixth grade.” said Caitlyn, smiling. “I’m about to go to middle school.”

Aubrey gave her a high five like she was a toddler, and Roman decided to get them back on track.

“Okay. So you were here celebrating with your mom?”

“And Dad. We were going to go to the movies are this.” Caitlyn answered, quieter.

“And Dad..” Roman repeated softly.

“Can you tell me where you think he went?”

Caitlyn looked at him for a moment before tears came flooding back.

“It’s okay.” said Aubrey. “Tell us when you’re ready.”

Caitlyn wiped her tears away and b began to speak.

“We all left together, but we ran into a bunch of big guys. They kept trying to get our attention, but my mommy told me to walk faster. Then they said something about her, and my dad turned around. He punched one, then they all attacked him and my mom screamed and-”

Caitlyn choked up and starting sobbing. Aubrey pulled her in close and held her tight. Roman doubted she’d be willing or able to explain further. Unless...

He put his hand on her head and closed his eyes. Focus. He whispered to himself. First the sight goes, then the sound goes, then I’m there.

He opened his eyes again and he was two feet shorter.