A New Kind by Dee Carter (year 7 reading list txt) 📕

"You shall be one of a kind... Or perhaps the first of a new kind. A new race to rule the world, more superior than any before."

Pinned beneath the larger man, the young hunter was glad that he could not see his attacker's face. Then he felt the man's face move to the side of his, the cold breath against his ear, and shuddered involuntarily. A slightly longer than average tongue licked the side of his face gently and made him whimper. The calm, soft voice murmured to him, "and you shall be mine. You shall be the first."

A whimper that wasn't his own made the hunter look up slowly, fighting against the pressure of the hand on the back of his neck, to see the girl that had led him here. Huddled against the side of the white-sheeted bed, dressed in the appropriate long white clothing of a girl destined to be rescued from a vampire kidnapper, she watched the scene with both hands over her mouth.

The heavy vampire was evidently following his gaze. "You're no doubt wondering if the beautiful maiden was truly in danger. Maybe she was simply a way to lure you here. Of course, maybe she was on my side all along." A pause, as the long-haired creature surveyed his prey. "And maybe she was in danger, once, but no more. How would it feel for your entire effort to be in vain..."

At those words the hunter started to struggle again, thrashing around in some hopeless effort to dislodge the weight on his back, crying out as the vampire simply adjusted the distribution of his weight and placed an unbearable about of pressure on the small of the panicking man's back. Exhausted again, he slumps against the soft carpet, gasping for breath.

The vampire rearranged his weight again, until he was laying full-length down the hunter's back, and whispered softly to him, "and you thought you could beat me? A creature as old and powerful as I, and you thought you could simply run in and act so heroically: slay the evil vampire and rescue the frail princess and live happily ever after?" He laughed, a cold and grating sound that made the hunter cringe back. "Such a naïve creature!"

The hunter was unable to do anything as the vampire trailed a slim and white finger down his pale cheek, then suddenly caught hold of his chin, pulling his head round so the young man could just see the creature's composed face out of the corner of his eye. The angle his head was at also made it very difficult for him to breathe, much to his attacker's amusement. Stroking the hunter's cheek gently with his thumb, the vampire smiled almost beautifully: the look containing none of the anger, malice or pure cruel intention of previous humourless attempts. "Yes... You shall be the new one. It would, after all, be so poetic, although not entirely unexpected. In your 'line of work'," the phrase was spat out with sudden disgust, "such ... mishaps ... are not entirely unforseen, are they?" The smile turned to something sour. "And no doubt you will simply roll over and die nicely for your previous associates, wasting all my hard work and setting it back decades. That would just be your style." He moved his hand from the hunter's face to his hair, giving it a sharp tug that pulled his head up and back. By now, the young man was looking terrified.

The vampire surveyed his face, his expression now calm again. "Unusual that one so young and attractive should become a hunter.

Did they not tell you how your body - and soul - would become disfigured after years of work? How you would become as twisted and cruel as those you hunt and kill so mercifully? ...No, I doubt they would. After all, they are the honourable ones, the noble ones who do the world such a wonderful deed by wiping out those who have lived far longer and know much more." He abruptly let go of the boy's hair, and smiled cruelly as, surprised by the sudden absence of pull, the hunter's head fell against the carpet with a soft thud.

"Well, my friend, I now tire of this talking. It seems your time has come."

The vampire moved again, still using his weight to keep the slimmer, smaller hunter pinned to the ground while his hands travelled to the hunter's belt. The young man's eyes widened as he left the vampire withdraw two long silver knives, and he gasped a little.

"Surprised that silver doesn't hurt me?" The vampire sounded amused. "You really know nothing of my kind, pitiful little human." With one swift move, the vampire lodged both blades through the back of the hunter's palms, intrinsically nailing him to the floor, ignoring the howls of pain the young man promptly started making. "There... this should keep you still while I finish..."

The vampire leaned back a little, putting all the pressure on the gasping and whimpering hunter's legs, and slid both hands under his chest, pulling him into a crawling position which the hunter was in no state to object to and unbuttoning the now-dirty white shirt swiftly. Then, slowly, the black-haired creature withdrew a larger knife from his person and placed it under and in front of the human. Larger than the ones being used to hold down the brown-haired hunter, and wider, it was covered in arcane symbols, the center dominated by a large pentagram surrounded by runic shapes. 'Sinister' was the word that flashed through the hunter's mind, before the vampire picked it up again, holding it almost lovingly by the polished wood handle. The human barely had time to register the sudden movement, however, as the vampire abruptly swung the blade up and into the hunter's stomach: up through the ribcage and piercing the heart.

The hunter barely had time to choke out a scream before death stole over him.

The vampire sat up, resting easily on the dead hunter's legs, and smiled humourlessly at the girl. "You can stop acting now."

The young blonde removed the hands from in front of her mouth and the scared look from her face. Beneath the façade, her expression was cold and cruel, her smile curving upwards at the corners. "If that all humans were so easy to lure, my pay would be better."

The vampire viewed her with obvious contempt: a human that revelled in leading other humans to their deaths at vampiric hands. One that wished to be a nightwalker herself, but was lacking in the mental strength and was far too addicted to serving her inhuman masters. He gave her one final, disgusted look, and busied himself with the dead hunter.

Light. Horribly bright light. The red-brown eyes opened a little, squinted and shut again before curiousity got the better of him. However, on hearing a soft chuckle, his eyes snapped open in an instant and he sat bolt upright, head snapping around from left to right as he looked around himself. Sitting off to his right was the long-haired vampire, smiling calmly.

The hunter went from sitting to running in an instant, drawing a knife to plunge into the vampire's neck without registering the speed he was moving at. Yet when he reached the vampire, blade poised to pierce the soft skin of the neck, he found he couldn't move even an inch forwards, as if all forwards momentum was halted by an invisible shield around his killer. The creature's smile widened and he stood, each step towards the hunter forcing the young man back a step, then two, then three.

"You cannot kill me. No matter how much you wish to and no matter how hard you try, you cannot kill me."

The hunter snarled angrily, his eyes narrowing, before he cast the knife aside unceremoniously. "What did you do?" His tone was harsh.

The smile never left the vampire's face. "Are you ready to commit suicide? Or will you lie down and die? Or will you find you enjoy living - and your new life - more, I wonder?" Without another word, he turned from the hunter and jumped out of the open window.

The hunter blinked, once, then ran to the window, leaning out of it and looking around almost frantically. There was no sign of the vampire. However, as he scanned the area desperately, searching for the slightest glimpse of the black-haired creature, he heard a small, almost imperceptable hysterical giggle, and span round.

The girl he had fought so desperately to rescue from the evil and cruel vampire was sat on the bed, watching him, her eyes filled with insanity. She giggled again, balling both hands into fists and putting them over her mouth to cover the grin. "You're a new one!" She laughed in a sing-song voice. "You're a new one and you're powerful. Clarissa has nothing to fear from you, however, you said you'd do anything to save her!" He simply stared at her as she continued, "and you're fast and smart and you said you'd protect her no matter what! You'd save her from any nasty vampire that would want to hurt her, you said." Then she pointed to his chest. "You're a marked one! A new one! Powerful."

He looked down at himself, his eyes widening when he realised that not only was he was now completely bare-chested, he had a large grey marking on it. Shaped as a diamond, the top point at his heart and the bottom at his navel, it was a delicate filigree pattern, combining arcane shapes into something so powerful it has resurrected him without the need for the blood of his creator, and giving him the powers of, and maybe even beyond, that of an old vampire. However, he realised as he looked at it, it didn't stop him from needing, and craving, blood to survive. His tongue ran lightly over his now sharply-pointed canine teeth, then he looked up at Clarissa, who was still giggling at him from her seat on the bed. She had led him to this, and knew fully what she was leading him to. She was one of the lowest human scum, not only a parasite but one who delighted in feeding parasites herself. A wave of revulsion flowed through him as he realised that this had simply been a trap, a way for the vampire to gain what he wanted: an unwilling human.

He smiled at her, forcing down his true feelings, and walked towards her. She looked up at him from the bed and smiled back, her eyes showing now what he had been blind to before - her total insanity. "Yes...

I'll protect you, Clarissa, I'll save you from all those cruel and evil vampires who would seek to hurt you..." He stroked her hair gently, and she smiled more.

"...Those would would seek to use you for their own ends, to use you to lure poor men to their death, men who only were doing what they thought was right..." Her smile faded, and the insanity in her face became fear as she looked up at him, as his own smile faded and a different look surfaced. He placed both hands on her shoulders and looked at her seriously. "It's a bad thing to do such cruel things to unsuspecting humans, you know. You should know better."

She nodded a little, too frightened to speak now.

"I can make sure you won't do it again... Would you like that, Clarissa?"