me and she was my sworn enemy, the very thing I had been incarnated on earth to kill.
“I’ve been searching for you for a while you know,” she said. “You and Archer are part of our legend.”
Smiling, I wondered if I should be worried or flattered. I’d been a bit naïve to think no one would know about us. Of course they would, vampires had mouths the same as humans. The thought just never entered my mind.
“I’ve always felt lost,” she continued. “From the day I was made I knew I was different. When I found out how different it was quite a shock, and they have been chasing me ever since.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a while. I watched as the hot February sun shone down on our surroundings. Magpies were swooping through the trees, and the cicadas were humming their monotonous song.
“Who are they? ” I finally asked.
“The vamps that know my secret. Matthew and his crew, Cain and Tyler, are the most recent to try and get to me. Seth hooked up with them shortly after I came to Hopetown Valley.”
“So that’s who I met last night.”
“Oh, you’ve had the pleasure then?” Charlotte chuckled. “I chose Hopetown Valley because I’d finally figured out you and Archer lived here, and I’m sorry, I didn’t know who you were the first time I saw you. I was frantically trying to get away; I guess I would have staked anything that moved.”
“No hard feelings,” I said.
“I heard about you, the Protection Angel and the Hunter, through my creator. He seemed to think you would help me.”
I may have been able to hear Charlotte’s thoughts, but I could only read what she was thinking at that moment. There was something odd about her, though. She seemed to have a dull spot in her mind, like a box with a lock on it. I didn’t think much of it, she was a bit of a jumbled mess so it was hard to piece things together. All I could do was wait for her to tell me.
“Arch isn’t too happy about the whole idea,” I said, offering her a weak smile.
“I understand that, but you need to hear me out.”
Nodding, I shifted on the lip of the fountain and made myself more comfortable. Charlotte took a deep breath and launched into her story.
“Vampires of my kind are known as the Blaze. I’m not the first but right now, I am the last.”
Charlotte told me about how she had come to be what she was today. She was only sixteen and had snuck out with friends to meet up with a group of boys. There was one that caught her attention. His name was Lucas, and he became her creator.
“Lucas was so charming, and very hard to resist. He was handsome and polite, and had me under his spell. I know now that he had good intentions,” Charlotte sighed. “He promised me a life I couldn’t resist, one that would count for something, one that would make a difference, so I agreed to go with him. He drank my blood until I was almost dry, and then fed me with his own. I can still remember the sweetness of it, so much richer than any blood I’ve ever tasted. He stayed with me throughout the transformation. I don’t recall much of it, and I couldn’t tell you how long the change took.”
As I listened to Charlotte, my heart went out to her. Here was a girl who never asked for this life, coerced into a situation she could do nothing about. Once turned, Lucas took her to his home in the city and trained her to fight. He was nineteen when he’d been created and a hundred and twelve when he turned her.
“We fought other vampires on a regular basis, like you,” Charlotte continued. “We are the Blaze,” she said proudly. “Lucas and I were the last in our line. We believed our purpose was to fight the dark vamps, someone has to, right?”
Nodding, I agreed. The world would be a sad and sorry place if no one was there to keep the balance.
“And what is more perfect than fighting fire with fire,” I said. “Have you ever wanted to, you know, eat someone, or turn someone?”
“I have never fed from a
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