Bonded

I guess I should have said this earlier, but I usually only get chapters out on the weekends. Mostly on Friday nights, and maybe halfway through Saturday, depends on what I’m doing.

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I felt a burning pain that was spread out all over my body, which was slowly receding to a point in my neck.

I tried opening my eyes, but they were sealed shut. Eventually I just fell back asleep.

The next time I woke up, it was because I could see light through my eyelids, and even that stung horribly. It was like I had been staring at the sun for too long with nothing to protect my eyes.

Another reason was because my senses where going crazy. There was a vampire nearby.

I finally managed to open my eyes a crack, though it didn’t help much since, even though they were starting to hurt less, everything was blurry.

“Oh, good, your finally awake,” I heard a female voice say from somewhere beside me, and I jerked when I felt a cold, wet rag laid on my eyes. That’s when I realized two things. One, that I was laying on an oddly comfortable bed, and two, that there was something cold and hard on my wrists, keeping them in place above my head, which wasn't too comfortable.

“Your eyes will feel much better soon, if you don’t strain them too hard in the light, and cuffs are just a precaution. It wasn’t my idea, let me tell you,” the woman rattled on and on, and I could hear her shuffling around the room.

I tried speaking out, but all I could do was cough, and then I felt something pressed up to my lips. “Drink,” the woman commanded, and I had no choice when she tipped what must have been a cup with water over my lips, and I had to swallow or I’d choke on it. It felt good on my aching throat.

“Where am I?” I asked, my voice hoarse from being so dry and hurting so much.

“You’ll know soon enough, dear. You should get more sleep, and soon you’ll feel better.” I tried to stay awake, I really did, but before I knew it, I was waking up again a little later. This time, my eyes didn’t hurt, and the wet rag was gone. The lights were off as well, throwing the room in pitch blackness.

What woke me up were muffled voices coming from somewhere nearby, maybe in another room.

A door opened, and light spilled in, blinding me for a minute. I jerked my cuffs for a second, and my wrists began to hurt. I’d probably have rubbed them raw while I was asleep.

I could tell whoever came in was a vampire, but not the woman from earlier. It was a man this time, though I couldn’t see him too well. At least not until he turned the light on.

The man looked to be around late thirties, early forties, brown hair, arms crossed with a pissed off look on his face. He was huge, lots of muscles, and he seemed to tower over everything. Well, that’s what it looked like to me, since I was laying down at the moment.

“First time, and it’s a fucking Hunter,” he grumbled, just loud enough for me to hear him.

“Gareth! Don’t be rude!” The woman from earlier into the room. I knew it was her from her voice. “Besides, what’s done is done, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so quit being grouchy,” she said as if she was talking to a child. The man, Gareth, growled, and looked away.

The woman walked towards me, a smile lighting up her face. She seemed to be about the same age as Gareth, maybe younger. She was about average height, barely making it to the other man’s shoulder. Her hair was the same color as the boy’s from the cathedral.

The boy!

I hadn’t even thought of him while I was laying here until now. He was the reason I was here! Wherever here was.

“Where am I?” I asked again, noticing this time that my throat didn’t hurt, nor did I feel thirsty.

The woman smiled again, still walking over to me, and stopping by the bed I was laying on. I flinched when her hands came toward me, but looked at her curiously when she pulled out a key and started unlocking the cuffs.

When she was done, she stood back, and watched as I sat up slowly, my body feeling so tired, and rubbed at my wrists.

“There you go. I’m sorry about that, but Gareth,” she looked angrily at the man standing behind her who was looking pissed, “thought it would be best to lock you up. You won’t give us any trouble, will you?” she looked at me with a pleading gaze. I nodded, and she instantly brightened up.

Even though I had given the sign that I wouldn’t do anything, I wasn’t promising them anything.

“Good then.” My stomach growled, and she looked at me thoughtfully, “You need human food, don’t you…” She stated, looking up at the ceiling, before seemingly coming to a decision. “I’ll have something ordered!” She walked happily out of the room, but not before throwing the man a glare. Bipolar much?

The door shut, and Gareth leaned against the wall, arms still crossed, and still glaring.

“Don’t even think of trying anything,” he said when he noticed me looking around the room. There wasn’t really anything in here to begin with, other than the bed, a mirror, and two doors leading out of the room. There were also some heavy curtains closed over windows.

“Where am I?” I asked yet again after realizing I hadn’t been answered the second time. It was really starting to piss me off.

“Your in my house,” the man replied after a second. “Outskirts of Brighton.” Finally, an answer.

“What are you going to do with me?” The man sighed, he’d finally stopped glaring.

“Hell if I know.” He answered. Despite the fact that he didn’t say he was going to kill me, like I had expected, it didn’t make me feel any better.

“Why am I here?” The door opened before Gareth could speak. It was the woman again.

“The food will be here soon!” She said happily. My stomach growled again in anticipation.

“I guess you’ll be wanting to know what happened, right?” I nodded. She sighed, “We should probably have Gage in here, but he’s still asleep.” Another vampire, I'm guessing.

“Well wake him up!” Gareth snapped, and the woman turned on him.

“He’s had a hard enough time,” she snapped back, “It’s not his fault!” She looked back at me, “But I guess we should…” She thought for a minute. “Fine then,” she waved at Gareth, and he left the room. Probably to go wake up this Gage person.

“I’m Meredith, by the way,” She said. She was looking at my expectantly.

“Zachary.” I’m not sure why I was telling her my name. It’s not like it really mattered.

“Well, why we’re waiting for Gage to come here, I should probably tell you a little bit about why you’re here.”

I waited for her to continue.

“Well, you see… Oh, how should I start this? Lets see, as you can probably tell, we’re all vampires, and the boy you shot… the one who bit you, well, I guess you can tell he’s one too.” That was what was getting at me. I didn’t sense that he was a vampire.

“And the reason you didn’t sense it,” she must have seen my confusion, “is because he’s never drank blood before now, and wouldn’t have been a complete vampire until then, and you wouldn’t have been able to sense it until then. And even then, he's not completely a vampire.” What?

“Oh, it’s hard for me to explain… You wouldn’t have been able to sense it because, until two days ago, he wasn’t truly a grown up vampire, because he didn’t go through the changes vampires go through after their first blood, and you couldn’t have sensed it because Hunter’s can’t use their Sense to, well, sense them, not yet. Get it?”

“I-I think.” sort of. “What’s this have to do with me?”

“That… Um… Probably not something you’d want to hear, especially since you’re a Hunter, but… well, you’ve been Bonded.”

“WHAT?!” I leapt off the bed, before collapsing on the floor, my legs were still weak.

“I’m very sorry, but it’s true,” she said after noticing my disbelief.

‘How??’ I must of spoken out loud, because she answered.

“You must have accidentally drank some of his blood,” I remembered when I licked my lips earlier, after the boy had coughed up blood.

Then… what she’s saying is true, right? But it couldn’t be. I’m a Hunter for God’s sake. How could I let this happen? I mean, yeah, I’m not the best Hunter out there, and I don’t always do everything right. But still, I’ve never, and I mean never heard of this happening to someone else. I had to get changed back.

“Reverse it.” I told her angrily.

“I’m sorry, honey, but I can’t.” she looked as if she was going to say something else, but I had passed out.

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