Blood Virgin: Blood Flame

***Author's Note: All comments pointing out errors have been addressed as of July 2, 2022. Also, Chapters 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 22, and 26 have been updated. Thanks for reading, and keep the comments coming. I always welcome suggestions and corrections to messed up grammar/characters/word usage etc.

ESME

“We can’t let them get away with this!” Bellamy growled, frustrated with the state of our home, or rather, lack thereof.

Sighing, I take his hand and tug him to the rocks along the shore of the oasis in which we were hiding.

“What do you propose we do, Bellamy? The whole encampment was taken. We’re just two humans, what do you expect us to do against a whole empire of super-human, blood-drinking monsters?”

He runs his hands through his hair, blowing out a frustrated breath.

“I don’t know… I just don’t know… If we could find the resistance, then we might stand a chance! We have to, Esme! I can’t let them get away with this! Not again!” his voice rises to a shout.

I wince at the elevated volume, fear snaking through me at the thought of being found by the Reapers. This is the second home Bellamy has lost to the vampires, so I try to be gentle with him. He’s a few years older than me, his soft brunet hair tied back and hanging down his back. Bellamy joined our reservation after his home was raided one night by the vampires. They left him for dead after feeding on him for several nights, and now he’s losing another home to the vampires’ greed. He was only ten then, but now, at twenty-nine, it must be much harder to realize how powerless he is in the face of the vampires.

“You need to be quiet, Bellamy, you know they can hear way better than us.”

Sighing, he nods and rakes his fingers through the loose hair falling in his face, then turns and paces back to the tree. I watch with worry as the sun sets, dread curling in my stomach. It used to be that we were safe from them during the day, when the sun shines… but something must have changed, because our encampment was raided during the day, when the sun shone high in the sky, and our defenses were at their lowest.

“What was that?” ask Bellamy, whipping around abruptly, my growing panic reflected in his gaze.

“Esme, look out!” he shouts as I feel a cool breeze on the back of my neck.

Bellamy lunges for me, but before he reaches me, I’m yanked backwards, the air forced from my lungs as my back collides with the rocks.

“Not so fast, little ones,” croaks a gravelly voice.

Terror freezes me for just a moment before I regain my footing and look fervently around. Bellamy reaches my side and tugs my arm just as I spot the source of the sound. Just as I feared, a Reaper stands near where I was just pacing, a manic grin on his face.

“Mikhael, dear, stop playing with the cattle… we have a job to do,” breathes a sonorous voice.

I cringe, recognizing the voice of one of the Reapers who attacked the encampment three days ago. Bellamy tugs my arm again as she steps from the foliage to our left. I stumble along as he guides me, running as fast as we can away from the creatures that haunt our nightmares. Dread makes my steps heavy as they cackle behind us, but I refuse to just give up, no matter how hopeless escape seems. We got away from them once, I know we can manage it again.

Focusing on Bellamy, I run until a stitch forms in my side and my breathing becomes labored. And still, the laughing is no further away than when we started. Suddenly my head is yanked backwards, my scalp burning as claws dig into it, tugging my head to expose my neck. The sting of a blade across my throat startles me, and I cry out.

“Esme! No!” shouts Bellamy, as the man… no, the monster… tackles him, baring his fangs at him.

“Run, Bel, run!” I shout as the woman licks my blood from her blade.

“Mikky, leave the welp, this one’s a fresher…” Grinning, the other vampire kicks Bellamy in the side before stalking back to where I’m being restrained.

“We’ll get a pretty penny for you, little one,” he cackles.

He pulls out a rag with practiced movements, pouring something on it, and shoving it over my mouth and nose. I struggle, but the futile effort stops quickly as my mind goes blank, everything fading from my awareness…

_

_

Groaning, I roll onto my side and vomit. It feels like I’ve been caught up in a tornado, and my head is pounding.

“Gross,” says a breathy voice to my right.

Frowning, I crack my eyes open carefully, looking in the direction of the voice. The sight of a raggedy little girl greets me, her nose wrinkled as she glares at the spot on the floor where my vomit is puddled. Flopping back on the fabric supporting me has a groan escaping my lips as the motion aggravates the pounding in my head.

“Where am I?” I ask between clenched teeth.

The sound of the girl moving precedes the feeling of a cool touch on my cheek. Opening my eyes, I see that she’s holding out a cracked cup to me. Gingerly sitting up and taking the cup from her, I sniff it, wrinkling my nose at the musky scent of stagnant water.

“It’s that or nothing,” she tells me, “They won’t bring more for at least another day.”

Frowning, I rinse my mouth out with the semi rancid liquid, spitting it out into the puddle of puke.

She glances at the puddle before quickly looking away, a little green in the face. Smirking, I hand her back the cup before getting to my feet. She reaches out quickly to steady me as I wobble, before finally answering my question.

“We’re at the slave camps… or as our vampire overlords’ propaganda calls them, ‘Enlightenment Camps,’” she says with a grimace.

I feel the corners of my mouth pull down as I try to recall how I got here.

“How’d they get you?” she asks, but I just shake my head, unable to recall anything beyond the pounding in my brain.

“I don’t know… my head…” I groan.

Her frown deepens as she leans closer.

“That’s the chloroform… They use it to knock BVs unconscious,” she tells me matter of factly.

“What’s a BV?”

“Blood Virgin… y’know, someone who’s never been bitten? Apparently, Vampires don’t like the taste that other leeches leave behind, so they look for people who have never been bitten and sell us to the highest bidder… The hunters, Reapers, I call them, cut us to taste our blood, so they don’t risk tainting someone who could sell for a high price…” at her words, the memories come rushing back.

The reservation… fire... everything burning, everyone screaming… and Bellamy. When the vampires attacked, it was daytime. He got me out, and we ran for days before finding a secluded oasis, where we hid. They found us, the reapers. One of them caught me, and ran her blade carefully against my neck, tasting it before telling her partner to leave Bellamy because I was a ‘freshie.’ She must have meant that I was one of these Blood Virgins, since I’ve never been bitten.

“You remembered?” asks the girl quietly, looking at me with disturbingly perceptive eyes.

Dragging my hand down my face, I purse my lips and shake my head in disgust. They caught me so easily. Years of training to defend myself, and they took me in seconds.

“They keep us separate from the others… We’re considered too valuable to risk being tainted by those who have already been fed on,” she tells me without revealing a hint of emotion.

The sound of a heavy door opening makes me jump, and I frantically look at the little girl as she silently retreats to her cot in the other corner of the cell. I breathe rapidly as panic begins to consume me. After a moment, the door to our cell swings open, and a tall, pale man, dressed in robes, enters the small space, the door clanking shut behind him. He watches me carefully as I glance between him and the little girl, who’s now curled into a ball on her cot, shivering. The man smiles, showing a set of razor-sharp fangs. Chills snake down my back as he begins to speak with a mesmerizing voice.

“Welcome to the Enlightenment Center, young one. I am your Shepherd, and I will be guiding you on your road to enlightenment. You have the honor of being one of the pure, and have been hand selected to train so that you may one day serve the upper echelon of The Empire.”

I just watch him, shivering, afraid to move a muscle as he drones on and on about how wonderful the vampires are and how lucky I am.

“You will come with me now, to join the rest of the flock…”

He reaches a hand out as we make eye contact. My headache worsens as I hold his gaze, and he frowns slightly before shaking his hand at me.

“Come, my child.”

The little girl watches me with a terrified look on her face. Steeling myself, I glance away from the girl and back to the vampire and brace myself for retaliation.

“What about her?” I ask, voice shaking as adrenaline shoots through my system, recognizing the threat before me.

The vampire frowns, glancing at the girl before resuming eye contact with me. My headache intensifies as we stare each other down. Finally, moments, or perhaps centuries, later, he responds, a frown marring his face.

“She will be escorted to her new flock shortly.”

“What do you mean, new flock?”

“Never mind that, just know, The Creator tolerates no disobedience from His Enlightened…” he says, flashing a chilling grimace, which I take as a warning.

The vampire extends his fingers again, and I hesitantly take his hand, fear racing down my spine as his cold fingers close around mine tightly. The frail looking vampire tugs me out of the cell and up a set of stairs with surprising strength, though I probably shouldn’t be surprised, since he is a vampire.

_

_

I thought that my father had prepared me to face the vampires in their camps should I ever be captured, but the next days showed me how wrong I was. Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer torture they inflict upon us in the name of ‘enlightenment.’ My vampire ‘shepherd’ led me from that cell and into a gilded cage designed to give me a false sense of security. I moved from the dregs of a dungeon to relative luxury. My new room is small, but it has a padded bed, nicer than any I’ve ever slept on, and a closet full of fancy gowns and demure dresses. They fed me roast duck with carrots and green beans over a rice pilaf, the meal one of the nicest things I’ve ever eaten. It didn’t take me long to find out why they take such good care of us.