Vampire Greek: The Burning King

Aubrey was gone. Vanished in a blaze of light, leaving Roman in shock, burned and broiling on the street. The rain bouncing off his skin did little to ease the fire eating at his flesh.

I’m an idiot. He realized, spots dancing in his eyes.

I’m an idiot for trusting and believing, even for a second.

He decided to empty his mind and stop thinking about her. Burning wasn’t much better than bleeding out, but he got himself into this, didn’t he?

The moment he could stand he planned on devouring the first person in sight. Not because of thirst, out of sheer anger. Sucking Aubrey’s blood was incredible. His hunger was gone, the stomach pains were gone, and he felt completely refreshed. But now, after she struck him down, he didn’t know how to feel.

She better not show up in that bar again. He thought to himself, testing his fingers before trying to close them into a fist.

“Agh!” He cried as he slowly unclenched his hand.

I should sleep. That’ll heal these wounds a little bit, even though I’m practically running on empty.

He gently closed his eyelids, which were unfortunately not spared from being burned. He slowed his breathing and tried to think happy thoughts to ignore the pain before falling asleep. Waving at little children that wave back, barbecuing on holidays and the thought of ripping Audrey’s limbs off. Happy things like that.

He’d almost fallen asleep when he noticed something. Something he could barely hear over the wind. It sounded so familiar, but it shouldn’t. Even worse, he could feel it too. Roman lifted his slightly charred right hand and gingerly placed it over his chest, right above his heart.

It was exactly what he thought it was. But he had no clue what had happened. Roman’s heart was now beating again, something it hadn’t done in over twenty years.

Roman woke up staring at a ceiling, which scared him for many reasons.

Reason number one, he didn’t remember falling asleep. He put his hand against his chest and realized that last night was not a dream. His heart was beating again. Reason two, he was wearing different clothes. Reasons three and four, he was in his bedroom and some random woman was sitting at the foot of his bed, staring at a wall.

“Who are you?” He asked quietly, preparing to fight.

“How did you get in here?”

The woman turned around and Roman’s heart skipped a beat, a feeling almost as foreign as the stranger in front of him. Her eyes were as dark as obsidian, no iris, no sclera, just two dark pools of black staring at him with no emotion.

“I’m Caitlyn. You tried to help me last night.”

“Caitlyn?” said Roman, in shock.

“No, that can’t be... Did I grow this much when I was bitten?” He asked, mostly to himself. She wasn’t a little kid anymore, she was practically the size of an adult. Roman had never seen a vampire grow so fast in that small amount of time.

“Don’t you want to know how you got here?” She asked, monotonely.

“Yea, I uh... Yeah. I’m so confused right now.”

“After you went after those guys, I had a dream. A vision that you were going to lose. It felt like a nightmare, and I was scared when I woke up. I told Audrey, and she told me to stay put while she went to save you. Then, my entire body grew cold. I was freezing, and suddenly, I stopped feeling. My mind just went empty, and I didn’t think or feel anything. I tried to think about my parents, about my friends, about you and Audrey, but everything just faded away, getting murkier and murkier in my mind till it felt like none of it happened. Then I heard the storm.”

“The rain?” Roman asked.

“Not just the rain, the thunder, the lightning. Aubrey’s lightning. I knew she was doing it, I could sense her. I followed the lightning and found you, collapsed in the middle of the street with like twenty degree burns.”

“There aren’t that many degrees of burns, but I get your point. How did you get me to my house though? How did you know where to go?”

“I hear talking!” a deep familiar voice called from outside the room.

“Does that mean he’s awake now?!”

Caitlyn looked over to the door, but didn’t say a word.

“Yeah Barry!” Roman shouted. “I’m awake!”

Barry ran halfway into the room before stopping dead in his tracks, eyeing Caitlyn.

“Caitlyn, this is Barry, the fastest man alive.”

Barry was too busy glaring at Caitlyn to acknowledge the joke.

She ignored him and answered Roman’s question.

“I reached into your pocket and pulled out your phone. It was charred to bits, but the sim card was still intact. I put it in my dad’s phone and called two of your friends. They helped me take you home.”

“Until she spontaneously aged ten years, developed black satan eyes and kicked us out of your room.” said Barry, accusingly.

“Relax Barry,” said Roman, yawning and stretching.

“She’s just a child.”

“Where?!” Barry motioned at Caitlyn.

“Her childhood disappeared last night!”

“Bee, I told you to leave her alone!” said a female voice, coming towards the room.

“Claire?” Roman asked.

Claire walked into the room.

“Roman!” She squealed.

He barely had time to get out of the bed before she smothered him with a hug.

“Look at you! You’re complete healed!”

“Of course Claire, I’m a vampire.”

“I know but you don’t normally heal fast with big injuries like that.”

“You’re right.” Roman decided to keep the heart thing to himself. He still had fangs, and he was still hungry, aching for blood, so it couldn’t have meant much.

“Okay, now give us the full details! We tried asking Caitlyn but she hit puberty like a nuclear missile and went mute.”

Roman studied Caitlyn.

“I can’t speak on her aging process, but she’ll regain emotions after drinking blood again. But before I get into the story, there’s just one thing I need to know.”

“What is it?” asked Barry.

“Which one of you dressed me?”