Vampires Vs. Humans (Part 1)

It was late by the time Eli returned from the party. It was about midnight by the time she started up the front steps to her skinny, two-story home. It was 12:01 when she heard the scream.
Eli turned just in time to see a boy, not much older than herself, fly through the air and crash into an old oak tree across the street in Central Park. A gigantic bearded man carrying a large sack on his back walked quickly across the deserted street, pulling out something sharp from within his old leather jacket pocket. A knife? And he was heading straight for the boy who lay unconscious at the base of the tree!
“Hey!” Eli yelled as she started across the road. The man turned quickly to face her, pulling out a crossbow from the bag on his back. What speed! It was almost as if he had been trained to fight enemies from every direction. He lowered the gun slightly, once Eli had stepped into the street light.
“Only a silly human girl,” he sighed as he replaced the crossbow and bent to pick up the sharp object he had dropped. It wasn’t a knife, like Eli had originally guessed. It was merely a thick stick with a point at the end. “Go back to your safe bed in your safe home, child. This is no time for humans to be wandering the streets.” And he turned back to his prey, raised the stick high above the skinny body, and brought it down with such force that he would have succeeded in killing the boy… had Eli not rushed him, knocking the big man off balance.
“Why you little…”
But he stopped dead in his comment as a gust of wind swept through the park. The heavy-set man looked up into the dark sky.
“They’re here,” he said. He turned his gaze back to Eli. “Foolish girl! You should have let me finish him while I had the chance! Well, now your fate is theirs for the taking! I have pity on your soul.” And with that, he spun away off into the center of the park. The wind grew stronger and stronger with each passing second, twirling Eli’s long brown hair into a crazy mess. She ran to the nearest group of trees and hid, watching in horror as a group of teenagers dressed in blacks appeared out of a terrible guest of wind. There were twenty or so, all following behind a bald, burley guy.
“CANINE!” The leader of the group yelled. He ran over to the limp body, cradling his head. “Batty!” a scrawny boy with messy black hair loped over to the duo on the ground.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Find some food for Canine!”
“Yes sir.”
As Eli watched, the scrawny servant left his masters side in a blink of an eye. Eli hadn’t noticed which way he had headed, he moved so swiftly. She looked around, trying to find him when she noticed someone breathing on the back of her neck. She slowly turned around, meeting the black, laughing eyes of Batty.

It took a while for Eli’s eyes to focus. She noticed that her hands were bound and her mouth gagged. Someone was behind her, holding her upright. And her head hurt tremendously.
The burly leader, who had been talking to a girl with red hair, turned and walked toward Eli. She could just make out a tattoo of a white viper on his head from the light of the moon. He was tall, so he had to bend down to Eli’s level to look her in the eyes.
“My brother is weak.” He gestured to the boy sitting, eyes closed, against the base of the tree. “He needs you… your blood.” Eli’s eyes widened at these words. “My brother thanks you for your assistance.” And he leaned in, mouth open. Eli could see the sharp teeth aimed for her throat, could feel his warm breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, screaming in her mind. She felt the tips of his fangs…
“STOP!”
The cool feel of tooth on skin raced back. The warm breathe, gone. Eli peeked open one eye, looking to see who her savior was; the boy at the base of the tree.
“Don’t be a fool, Canine. You’ll die if you don’t drink.” The big man walked over to his brother, looking down at him in disgust. The boy slowly pushed himself up, glaring.
“She’s already saved my life once. I can’t ask her to do it again.” He was finally standing, breathless from the effort.
“What’s the point of saving you once, if only to let you die shortly afterward?”
“I won’t let you hurt her.”
The older brother laughed. “What are you going to do? Fight me?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
His smile faded into a scowl. “You idiot. I can kick you ass when you’re in top condition. I’ll slaughter you now.”
Canine put his fists up heavily, willing to take the chance.
“You asked for it.” And the bald man put up his fists too.
The group gathered around the fighting brothers, chanting and rooting. But they fell silent when another gust of wind flew between them. Two people had appeared at the rear of the mob, a man and a woman, in there early thirties. Those closest to them bowed down, tugging at their neighbors to alert them of the new arrivals. Slowly, the whole teenage mob was down on their knees. Except for the two fighting boys in the center.
“What is going on here!” Bellowed the man in a deep voice. The two boys finally took notice of the new couple, and the bald one sank quickly to his knees.
“It’s Canine, father. He’s being a complete moron. He’s been attacked by Mourglock, near death, yet he still refuses to drink from this mortal.”
“I’m not going to kill the person who saved me,” Canine said in a weak voice. He tried to kneel like his bother, but lost his balance and toppled to the ground. Grunting, he pushed himself upright.
The man looked towards Eli, his piercing eyes drilling deep into her mind. He walked gracefully over to her, followed by the woman, He cupped Eli’s chin in his cold hands, still gazing into her eyes.
“Did you save my son’s life?” he asked. Eli glanced over at the weak boy on the ground, remembering the quick movement of the stick in the old man’s hands, and how it would have pierced the boy’s heart had she not intervened. She shook her head yes.
“Would you have saved him, knowing what he was? A creature of the night?” Eli looked back into the man’s dark eyes. Would she have saved this thing’s life, had she known? She shook her head yes again.
“There is honesty in her eyes,” said the velvety voice of the woman. She smiled at Eli, then touched the arm of the man. “We have plenty of nourishment at home. No need to force Canine to do something he wishes not to do.”
The man let go of Eli’s chin, turning to look at the golden haired woman. He took her hand, kissing it lightly, then both turned and walked back the way they had come.
“Father! You can’t be serious!” The burly teenager cried out.
“Your mother has a good point. If Canine doesn’t want to drink from the girl, then we’ve got plenty at home.”
“But…”
“Let the girl go, Viper.”
“But!”
He turned to look at his son, eyes glaring anger. “I said, let her go.”
Viper turned, disgusted, to Batty. He smiled slightly as he said, “You heard my father. Let her go.” And Batty too smiled, releasing Eli, letting her fall towards the hard ground. The ground rushed up to greet her, and Eli braced for impact.
But something caught her, something fast.
“Wow Batty. Now I see why you can’t keep a girlfriend. You keep letting them down!” The little boy who held Eli laughed, as Batty chased after him. But no matter how fast Batty tried to go, he couldn’t catch the boy.
“When I catch you, Lunar, I’m gonna kill you!” Batty wheezed.
“Let it go, Batty. He’s just a kid.” Viper clapped Batty on the back before motioning for the rest of the group to head out. Again, that ominous gust of wind hid them from view as the left. The little boy put Eli down gently next to Canine. His pale blue eyes were lighted with laughter as he waved goodbye to Eli and scurried over to the couple a few feet away. He called back over his shoulder “See you back at home, bro.” And then he took his mother’s hand and the trio were engulfed by another gust of wind, vanishing from sight within seconds.
Don’t worry, said a voice inside Eli’s head. I’m not going to hurt you. Canine stood, bending over Eli. He picked her up, looking into her scared brown eyes. Sleep. This is all just a bad dream. And Eli felt herself slowly slipping from reality, into a dark, quite slumber.

The web page said it was the ultimate guide to vampires. VampiresVsHumans.com. And boy, did it have anything and everything that you’d ever want to know. Vampires drank the blood of humans to survive. They couldn’t go out into the sun. They were afraid of crosses and hated the smell of garlic. They couldn’t cross running water or drink the blood of the already dead. The best way to kill them was with a wooden stake.
Eli sat, scrutinizing every word typed on that web page, piecing them together with the events that had happened a few days ago. Vampires weren’t real. She had always thought they were monsters told in children’s stories to keep them in at night. But everything that had happened to her… maybe she should have listened to those stories more carefully.
Suddenly, two small hands gripped around Eli’s neck. She let out a terrified scream, jumping out of her chair. The laughter of a child replaced her screams, and Eli realized it was only her younger brother. Her face filled with rage.
“Danny!” She gabbed him by the collar of his orange shirt, dragging him out of her room. She slammed the door shut behind the still laughing brat, and leaned up against it, taking in deep breaths. On the other side, Danny slammed on the door a couple of times, saying “Mom’s turning on the air conditioner so SHUT YOUR WINDOW!” He walked away, still laughing, and Eli tried to pull herself back together as she walked over to her window and shut it.
In the bushes across the street, a figure watched as Eli slammed the window down. She hadn’t seen him. He stepped out from his hiding place and strode quickly across the street, hands in his pockets. He took the stairs in two and rang the doorbell, waiting.
An older lady in her late forties answered the door with a smile.
“Can I help you?” she asked, but before she could say anything else, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she started to fall. He caught her just before she hit the brown carpet, and carried her over to the old sofa in the corner.
“Mom, what’s for dinner? I’m starvin’” a young boy walked into the living room, reading a comic about Dracula. He looked up and saw the boy dressed in black standing over his mother. His mouth dropped an inch and he quickly put the comic back in front of his face.
“You’re that vampire my sister saved, aren’t you?” he asked
“You’re a very smart boy.” Canine walked over to where the boy was standing.
“I read my sister’s journals.”
“She must hate that.”
“Of course!” he said with a laugh.
“Danny?”
“You know my name?”
“Of course. I’m a vampire. I’m going to have to ask you to do something for me.”
“What?”
Canine pushed the flimsy packet of paper down below Danny’s face.
Sleep.
Danny wavered a bit before dropping his comic and collapsing on the ground. Canine moved him in front of the television set, popping in a Dracula video before he headed up the winding stairs.

The door to her bedroom creaked open.
“Danny, how many times to I have to tell you to stay out!” Eli turned angrily to her intruder, but the instant she laid eyes on the figure that stood her doorway, all her anger turned to fear. She grabbed the cross she had stolen from her mother’s room and ran to the opposite side of her room, holding the cross out in front of her like a shield.
“If I was going to hurt you, Eli, I could have done so easily the other night. You have nothing to worry about.” He glided across the small room in a couple of large steps, grabbed the cross from Eli’s hand, and held it in front of his face. “Besides, these don’t do squat.” He lowered it slightly to look at Eli. “I would have gone with garlic.” He smiled a perfect smile and handed the cross back to Eli.
“Alright. If you’re not here to hurt me, then why are you here?” Eli asked in a quavering voice. She still held the cross firmly in her hand, ready to throw at him if necessary.
“I never got the chance to thank you correctly. So, um, thanks.”
Eli eyed Canine suspiciously. “You’re, uh, welcome.”
They stood in silence a moment more, looking at each other, before Eli said, “You should probably go, before my family finds out…” Her family. “How did you get in my house?”
“I rang the door bell. Your mother’s a very nice woman.”
A rush of realization hit Eli, and it hit her hard. “What did you do to them?” She pushed passed Canine, stumbling down the stairs. She could hear the television on, Danny’s favorite movie was playing. But Danny wasn’t watching Dracula suck the blood of the fair maidens. He lay on the ground, motionless.
“Danny!” Eli leaned next to her brother, checking for a pulse. She found a steady beat.
“They’re both just sleeping. I didn’t want any distractions when talking with you.”
Eli looked up, angry tears in her eyes. “Get out.”
“They’ll wake up in a few minutes.”
“Get out!” She pointed a shaking finger towards the door. Canine held up his hands in surrender, and backed up toward the door. He pushed it open and started to head out when something tripped him. He stumbled slightly, but did not fall. He whirled around to see Lunar, glowing up at him.
“Canine” he said in a singsong voice. “You know mom and dad don’t like you to communicate with day dwellers.”
“Lunar…” Canine reached out to grab the boy, but he was too fast. He zoomed over to where Eli was sitting.
He spoke fast, almost too fast for Eli to understand. “Hi! Do you remember me? I remember you. You were the girl that saved my big brother Canine. He likes you, did you know that? He hasn’t been able to stop talking about you since that night. I like you too, but at least I know when to shut up! Hey whose this?” He pointed at the sleeping Danny. By this point, Canine was racing towards Lunar. Lunar jumped around, avoiding his brother’s grabs.
“Is he your brother? Does he like vampires? I’d bet he’d like me. Everyone likes me. Except for Batty. And sometimes I annoy people, but not much. Hey! Would he like to play with me?”
“NO!” Canine finally caught the bouncing boy, holding him tight so he couldn’t break loose again. “It’s too dangerous!”
“Aww, Canine. You know me. I play safe.”
“I don’t care. We’re not risking it.”
Lunar skulked a bit before his eyes lightened. “I’ll tell mom and dad where you were tonight if you don’t let me play with him.”
Canine hesitated before answering. “N-no. It’s not my decision anyway.” He looked sideways at Eli, a little bit of plea in his eyes. He started towards the door very slowly. Eli knew he was hoping she’d stop him, saying that it would be all right for the two to play. He had broken some kind of rule by coming to see her, whether she had wanted him there or not.
“Wait,” Eli sighed. “Stay.”
Lunar’s face exploded with happiness as he jumped from his brother’s arms. “Thanks Eli!” He sat down in front of Danny’s face, waiting for him to wake up.
Canine walked up behind Eli, whispering in her ear, “Thank you.”

Slowly, Danny’s eyes opened.
“He’s awake!” Lunar yelled. Danny’s eyes bugged out when he realized that he was not alone. He sat up, startled, looking from Eli to Canine, to the bubbly boy in front of him.
“Hi! I’m Lunar, Canine’s younger brother.” He glanced around and then said in a whisper to Danny, “I’m a vampire.”
“Really!” Danny’s eyes lighted with excitement. “I didn’t think there were any young vampires.”
“What? Humans are the only ones allowed to have families?”
Danny smugly pulled out his Dracula comic book. “According to this, yes.”
Lunar snatched the book and flipped quickly through the pages. He ripped it down the middle after a minute of reading.
“Hey!”
“No need to thank me. Let me show you what being a real vampire is like.” He reached down and grabbed Danny’s right wrist, dragging him out the back door and into the small back yard where the trampoline was. He jumped up onto it, hurling Danny into the air, Danny screaming the whole time. Then Lunar took a gigantic bounce himself, catching Danny on his way up. The two boys screamed with laughter as they went even higher on the second bounce.
Eli and Canine raced after the two, and after making sure they were safe, sat down on the little cement porch, watching the boys jump and talk and laugh.
Eli turned to look at Canine, who was watching the two kids anxiously.
“Why wouldn’t you drink from me?” she finally asked.
Canine snapped his gaze away from the boys and to Eli’s. “I didn’t want to hurt you after what you had done to help me.”
“But you’re a vampire. You’re not supposed to care about that kind of stuff.”
“Says who?” There was anger in his voice.
“Well, every web page I’ve read about vampires.”
“Let me guess, that’s where you got the idea with the cross, right?” he smirked.
Eli glared at him and turned her head sharply away from him, making sure that her hair flicked in his face.
Canine sighed. “The truth is… I refuse to drink from anyone like you. It’s just hobos for me. I don’t like being what I am.” He looked down at his hands. Eli dared a glance back at him, her eyes soft.
Suddenly, Lunar stopped bouncing. His smile faded into a frown. “Someone’s coming,” he said.
Canine was standing. “Is it him?” Lunar shook his head yes and jumped down to stand by his brother. “You two should go inside.”
But before Eli and Danny could reach the porch door, the bearded man who had attacked Canine the night before rounded the corner of the house.
“My dear friend, I’m so happy to see that you are well,” the man said to Canine.
“Sorry I can’t say the same for you,” Canine sneered.
“Canine, do you still hold that grudge against me?”
“Nah, I don’t hold grudges against people who try to kill me.”
The man smiled, showing hideously crooked teeth decaying in black-spotted gums. Finally, he noticed the others.
“I must say, I’m surprised to see the girl still alive.”
“Eli! Danny! Get inside!”
“Oh, but what’s the fun in that? Don’t they want to play with us anymore? I’ve created a very fun game for the little ones.” He pulled out the crossbow from his black bag. He aimed it at Lunar no more than a second before firing. Luckily, Lunar was able to dodge the arrow.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, you old fart!” Lunar yelled, sticking out his tongue.
“Oh, I think I have.”
Lunar turned around and sucked in his tongue as the arrow turned and headed back towards him. Lunar took off around the yard, followed closely by the arrow.
“Lunar!” Canine yelled.
“Like my new toy?” the fat man asked. “The arrow has a target lock system, making it impossible for the little brat to out run it. It’ll follow him no matter where he goes. And once it catches him, a garlic-lined bag is set in the tip of the arrow to deploy. Let’s see him get out of this one!”
“Canine! What do I do?”
Canine looked around, trying to come up with a plan. He noticed Eli and Danny huddled near the back door, watching and waiting.
“Head inside with Eli and Danny!”
Lunar veered off his course around the yard, heading for the back door. Eli had the door open by the time Lunar had reached it, and she slammed it shut once he was safely inside. He and Danny pressed their faces up against the glass watching as the arrow drew closer and closer to the glass door. Eli leaned against the kitchen wall, catching her breath. Nobody thought that the arrow would be able to pierce the thick glass.
But it did.
A crash and then the screams of two little boys brought Eli back to attention. The bag had deployed and engulfed both Lunar and Danny. Eli kneeled down on the broken glass, cutting her knees, trying to untangle the mess and get the boys out. Moments later Canine was next to her, tearing at the bag, hissing in pain as the garlic touched his skin.
And then, he was there, standing over them, laughing. He kicked the two struggling siblings of his captives away from the bag, then lifted the bag as if it weighed nothing.
“Two for the price of one. That was unexpected. Well, I’m sure the human will make an excellent snack!” And with an evil laugh, he flicked a note onto Canine’s still body then turned, his boots crunching over the broken glass, and walked back into the night, leaving Canine and Eli unconscious on the kitchen floor.
“Eli! Eli!” a feminine voice called. Her mother was shaking her awake. Eli’s eyes popped open, looking around the tattered room. She saw Canine a few feet over from her, still knocked out. “Oh, darling! You’re all right. I must have fallen asleep while watching a movie with your brother, because one moment I was lying on the couch, and the next I hear this awful crashing coming from the kitchen.” She was in hysterics.
Eli sat up, ignoring her mother’s concerns, and crawled over to Canine.
“Canine.” She shook him. “Canine!” She shook him harder. He groaned and slowly came too.
“Whose this, darling? He seems so familiar.”
“A friend,” Eli said quickly to her mother, then all her attention was back on Canine. “Wake up! We’ve got to my brother back!”
“Get your brother back? What happened? Where’s Danny?”
“I’ll explain everything later, mom. Canine WAKE UP!” She had his shirt in both of her hands, shaking him hard.
“Uh, I’m up.” He said groggily. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
“He took Danny and Lunar! What are we going to do?”
“Be quite and let me think.”
“Who took Danny? Who’s Lunar? Who are you?”
One swift look from Canine was enough to knock Eli’s mother out again.
“How do you do that?” Eli asked.
“It’s just one of the advantages of being a vampire.” He stood up, noticing the tiny piece of paper falling to the floor. He picked it up and read the sloppy writing.
"Send one of your finest warriors to the junkyard of 27th Street at midnight in three nights to retrieve your young prince. Any more, any less and he dies."
“I’m going home to talk with my family.”
“All right. “ Eli picked up her car keys from the counter. “We can take my car”
“We?”
“Hey, that freaky guy didn’t just kidnap your younger brother!”
“No way! You are not coming with me! They would never allow you in the hold!”
“Well, they’re going to have to.” And with that, Eli walked into the garage, and got into the car. Turning the car on, she rolled down the window and looked back at Canine standing in the doorway. “Well, come on! I don’t know how to get there myself.”
Canine walked to the passenger door and stared at it for the longest time. Finally, Eli opened the door. “Getting in?” He looked down in confusion at the leathery seats, then carefully sat down. “Shut the door,” Eli said. “Haven’t you ever ridden in a car before?” Canine looked up at her with confused eyes. “Oh, um, well. Buckle up and tell me where we’re going.”