"Where are they taking us?" A panicked voice called out over the clanging of the truck. Amara scrambled to the edge of the mass of bodies, feeling like she was suffocating in the tight, claustrophobic space. Once she got to the edge, she leaned against the slats in the transport vehicle, taking a shaky breath as the wind whipped past her through the gaps on the side of the truck. They were being transported like cattle, and it made her furious, but there was little she could do about it. Everyone in the back of the truck, including herself, were vagrants, homeless people without anything or anyone to support them. She'd been on the streets ever since her parents had passed, and she'd made it pretty well so far, but this last sweep had finally managed to grab her. That was just how life was for those down on their luck; government-sanctioned sweeps of armed soldiers would go through all the major cities once a month, seizing certain ... undesirables under the cover of darkness. Homeless people, addicts, criminals, hell sometimes they would just grab anyone they came across depending on if they were getting paid per person or per truck. No one knew where the people were taken to, but it was just assumed to be a death sentence, as the people taken on the trucks never returned. Amara had done her best and had already dodged so many sweeps, but her luck had finally run out, and here she stood, with dozens of strangers who were all likely on the way to the end of their final day. A sudden jerk in the truck made Amara fall forward, knocking her into the person in front of her. " Fucking potholes. " She hissed under her breath, doing her best to steady her feet as the transport lurched around on the road. They could at least drive a little smoother. She thought to herself bitterly, turning to look out through the slats of the truck, holding onto the sides with her hands to keep her footing steady. There were still a few scattered voices in the convoy, idly asking where they were being taken, some yelling angrily about how they can't do this, and some just sobbing into nothingness, but mostly it was just silent as the people quietly contemplated their fates. As the truck skidded to a stop, however, all the voices fell silent, each person turning to look as the sounds of feet and voices outside made their hearts race. Suddenly, the back door was thrown open, and

everyone near the exit flinched, covering their eyes as a large spotlight was focused on them. Some even tried to hold their hands up to block the bright light, until an aggressive voice from outside began barking orders at them, " Everyone out! If you try to resist, you will be killed on the spot! Now move! " She slowly shuffled with the group, jumping down from the back of the truck and stumbling slightly as her feet hit the gravel. As she got away from the truck and wasn't in threat of getting pushed forward by the people exiting, she tried to look around, turning her back to the spotlight so that she could look out into the darkness. Even with her eyes adjusting, however, she couldn't make out hardly anything, just the vague outline of buildings in the foggy distance and a few people who looked like soldiers standing with guns around the transport truck. Once the last person was off the truck, the gate slammed shut and it pulled away, leaving an unsettling silence in its wake as it kicked up a cloud of dust. She had a very bad feeling, and she couldn't help but start inching away from the group, her stomach in knots. " Get over there! " A voice snapped harshly at her as she was shoved from behind back towards the other captives. She hardly even had time to get annoyed at the rough treatment before a shrill siren rang out, making her and many others jump and twist around towards the startling sound. The siren only rang for a matter of seconds, and the hollow silence it left behind made her hair stand on end as she waited for something to happen. She quickly realized that the soldiers that had been circled around the group had suddenly vanished, and instead there were what looked like other people steadily walking towards the group. One of the braver men near the front of Amara's group stepped forward, peering through the darkness toward one of the people approaching. " Hello? Can you help us? We just got dumped here and- " The person who had been approaching suddenly became a blur, and before anyone could react, lunged at the man, choking his words off with a sickening crunch noise as he bit through the man's neck. Everyone stepped back in horror as the man dropped to the ground with a scream, reaching up to try and pry the attacker off of himself, but to no avail. As if set off by the noise, suddenly all of the people who had been steadily approaching turned almost feral, bolting forward in an unsettling, inhuman way, grabbing anyone they could get their hands on. The silence suddenly erupted into a cacophony of screams and fighting as people trampled over others in a wild bid to escape, only to get steadily and methodically picked off one by one. Amara scrambled away, panic welling up in her chest. What the **** was happening? She turned toward the group as she ran, watching as a woman was tackled to the ground right behind her. For just a split moment in the low light, she saw the person that tackled her rear up, baring its fangs in the moonlight before quickly sinking them into the woman's shoulder, causing her to shriek in blood - a curdling scream. Amara watched in horror, stumbling to the ground and freezing at the sight before her, and finding it hard to breathe. Is that ... a vampire? She thought in panic, feeling like she was trapped in some kind of sick nightmare. As the creature looked up at her, she found herself paralyzed as her eyes locked with his; its eyes were as thin as slits, and they glowed slightly in the night as it looked straight through her. The woman on the ground was already still, and Amara could only assume she was dead, or worse. She scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, turning and

running as tears streamed down her face. What the **** is happening? This can't be happening! She'd already assumed these transport trucks just took less - desirables off to be killed, but the thought that they were packed up and delivered like farm animals just to be eaten made her feel like she was going to be sick, and as the realization slowly caught up with her, she found herself feeling faint with fear, growing dizzy as she ran until finally, she had to stop, slumping against a wall in an attempt to catch her breath. She looked back towards where she'd been dumped, listening as the sounds of screams and violence slowly grew fainter. Was everyone dead already? Was she the only one left? As the thought drove through her brain like a stake, she was suddenly grabbed by the arm, and she turned on reflex, kicking out towards her would-be assailant. As her foot connected with flesh, the creature released her, letting out an angry hiss and looking up at her with those same glowing eyes from before. " G - get away from me! " She shrieked, wrenching away from it and sprinting away. She wasn't sure where she could go, but she knew she had to get away from here, but before she had even made it a few steps away, she was again grabbed, this time being slammed against the building by the creature. The grip it had on her was iron-clad, and she felt no give to it at all as she struggled; it may as well have been as strong as the brick wall she was pushed against for as much as it moved as she fought against it. " Stop- " She began, but before she could barely even finish the word, she felt the sharp sting as its fangs sank deep through the meat of her shoulder, cutting her words off as she cried against the pain. Her agony had only just begun, however, as suddenly the creature's weight was lifted off of her and the vampire's fangs were violently yanked from her skin, tearing a deep hole into her shoulder as it was wrenched away from her. She couldn't even fathom what was happening, and she merely fell to the ground, rolling and clutching her shoulder as she sobbed, the warm wet feeling that greeted her hand making her stomach lurch. Was that blood? Or something worse?

She looked up towards her attacker, seeing another person there instead, the head of the creature held firmly in his hand. The sight was too much for her, and she turned with a sickening heaving sound; had she been able to eat before she had gotten caught, she would have certainly been sick, but as her stomach was empty, she merely choked and coughed before desperately raising to her hands and knees and trying to crawl to safety. " Where are you running off to? " The man called to her, making her freeze and turn towards him. Was he another human? The man tossed down the vampire's head before stepping over to her, squatting down so he was on eye level with her. The man was tall and muscular, and his hair was black on the sides but white on the top. His clothes looked clean and neat which starkly contrasted against his arm which had blood going all the way up to the elbow. As her eyes locked with his, she saw that same sickening red glow that her attacker had. Vampire. " G - go away! " Amara snapped, swinging her arm at him aggressively. He caught her by the wrist with little effort, looking at her with a bit of a bored expression, " Ooh, you're rude. Not a very nice way to treat the person who just saved your life, now is it? " She glared at him, pulling her arm to try and get free of his grasp, " I don't care! Let go of me-! " The man ignored her, pulling her arm forward and peering over her shoulder at the large gouge marks the other vampire had left behind. " Hmm, that looks pretty bad, you know. But hey, " He dropped her arm, standing with a shrug, " If you want me gone so badly, I'm sure they would appreciate me leaving too. " Amara was confused about who ' they ' was until she realized that she could see the faintest specks of red glowing in the fog behind him. Her stomach sank as she realized that each set of red specks were hungry eyes glaring at her from the dark, and as the man took a single step away, she reached up towards him, panicking in her chest, " W - wait, don't leave me! P - please. " The man looked down at her with a smirk, stepping back over towards her. " Being out here with an open wound like that is really asking for trouble. I could help you if you want? " He reached his hand out towards her, and she reached for it with desperation. No way in hell she trusted him, but what choice did she have? As the man helped her to her feet, he glared out into the fog threateningly, and Amara watched in amazement as each of the red specks slowly withdrew until she could no longer see them through the haze. " Why are they all so afraid of you? " She asked shakily as she walked with him, almost afraid of the answer she would get. The man shook his hand, flicking a bit of blood off of it, " If you had just watched me rip off a human's head with my bare hands, you'd probably be a bit skittish too, I think. "Amara's face twisted into a disgusted grimace which only made the man laugh before he continued, " Though I guess seeing me rip off a vampire's head doesn't put you any more at ease, does it? " She didn't answer him, but he could tell by her stiff posture that he had hit the nail on the head; she was terrified of him. " My name is Xander. " He offered, hoping to have a name might put her more at ease. " You can call me Six but my real name is Amara " She muttered, wincing slightly as she walked, blood pouring down her arm and dripping onto the ground. Xander watched it with interest, the glow in his eyes intensifying slightly as the strong scent of fresh blood filled the air. " Six, eh? Seems fitting, because it's definitely your lucky day, Six. " As her hand grazed across the exposed flesh of her shoulder, Amara had a hard time agreeing with his sentiment, but she couldn't deny that she was lucky to still be alive. " Yeah, thanks to you. So thanks, I guess. For saving me back there. " Xander waved his hand as if to say don't worry about it before turning to look over his shoulder at the decapitated vampire he had left sprawled across the ground. Slowly as they gained distance, the other, weaker vampires started to move in, tearing at the corpse-like vultures, filling him with a sense of disgust. She followed his gaze, but in the low light she could see and hear nothing, and he was silently thankful that human vision was so poor in the dark; the last thing he needed was her fainting or freaking out. " You can thank me later. " He said casually, leading her towards his home with a thoughtful expression on his face. She wasn't quite sure what he meant, but she wasn't about to ask either. She just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, following him into the unknown, unsure if she'd even be alive long enough to regret her decision.

A Separate Species

" Would you be still? " Xander huffed impatiently, his hands are red with Amara's blood as he tried to stitch up the large gashes in her shoulder.

" I'm trying ... But it hurts! " She whined, leaning to try and look over her shoulder as the vampire worked on her wounds.

" Ugh, stop! "Xander ordered, grabbing her head and turning it back forward. " This is hard enough without you moving around, I promise you don't want to see this anyway. " He continued to pull the stitches through her skin, his eyes narrowed into slits as more and more blood flowed from the deep gashes and down her back. He'd had her take her shirt off so that he could see the extent of her injury, and already the towel that she had wrapped around her torso was thick and heavy as the blood continued to flow. Xander's breathing was shallow as he tried to ignore the heavy scent that filled the bathroom, and he paused for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Amara's eyes flickered to the reflection in the mirror in front of her, her expression nervous as she could see how tense the vampire looked.

" Wait ... " She said suddenly, blinking at the mirror in confusion . Xander looked up at her in the mirror, a questioning look on his face. " Why can I see you ...? " She said slowly, confusion in her voice.

" What do you mean? " He asked, looking back down at her wounds and slowly trying to pull the stitches through her skin again.

" I mean, you're a vampire, right? " Amara watched as he looked up at her, slowly nodding and trying to figure out what she was getting at. " Vampires don't have reflections in mirrors I thought ... "

Xander stopped what he was doing, leaning back as he looked at her with a speechless expression. " You're kidding, right? " He asked incredulously, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Amara's face suddenly flushed red, embarrassed and confused, " Is that not true?" She said flatly, and finally Xander couldn't stop himself, laughter pouring from him as he pulled his hand up to wipe his eyes. She turned and watched as he doubled over with laughter, narrowing her eyes at him in annoyance, " Hey, I didn't even think vampires were real this morning okay!? That's a really common myth for them! "

But Xander couldn't stop himself from cracking up, "What, did you think I couldn't eat garlic as well? Were you planning on running and hiding in a church earlier so the scary vampires couldn't reach you? Were you just going to wait it out until morning, thinking we can't go out in the sunlight?"

Amara huffed at him, turning back to the mirror in embarrassment.

" Will you just focus on what you're doing? " She muttered grumpily, fidgeting with the towel wrapped around her chest.

He laughed a bit, taking in a deep breath to steady himself before pulling his hands back up towards her shoulder.

" Yeah, yeah. " He snorted, still chuckling every now and then as he thought her words over. After a few minutes, she could feel the air get tense again as Xander glared down at her injury with irritation, and as she watched in the mirror, he sighed heavily, leaning back with blood dripped all over his clothes and his arms.

"This isn't going to work." He said gruffly, narrowing his eyes at the four large grooves cut into her back. He slowly leaned down, looking closely at the wounds, while Amara looked at the mirror in front of her, watching the vampire behind her with an unnerved expression.

"What do you mean- Hey! what the ****!?" She yelped, jumping to her feet and pulling away from him as she felt the unsettling sensation of his tongue against her skin. "The **** are you doing?" She demanded, pulling the towel tighter around herself as she spun around, glaring at the vampire who looked at her impatiently, her blood smeared across his lips.

"God, you humans are so fucking touchy." He said, rolling his eyes, standing and grabbing her before she could pull away from him.

"Look," He ordered, twisting her sideways in front of the mirror so that she could somewhat see her shoulder. The movement made her wince in pain, but she did as he said, fear gripping her at how easy it was for him to just grab and move her with little resistance. But as she looked in the mirror, her expression softened slightly as she looked at the wound; already the bleeding had slowed nearly to a stop, and she couldn't help but watch in amazement as the skin healed over slightly, giving her a slightly unsettling feeling as the skin regenerated before her eyes.

"W - what did you do?" She gasped, getting more and more creeped out as she watched the injury heal over. She watched in the mirror as Xander sat back down, lifting his hand to his mouth and licking the blood from his fingers with a bored expression.

"Did you know that vampires are poisonous?" He looked up at her with amusement, watching as her face danced between confusion at his statement, and disgust at how casually he cleaned the blood from his hand. "Or rather, I guess the correct term is venomous, really. Vampires have three different types of toxins." He pointed his finger at his teeth while he spoke, "Our teeth are hollow, like snakes and our mouths are coated in whatever venom we're using at the time. So by licking your wound, it covered the injury in the venom I had at the time."

She continued to look at him with an incredulous expression, unsure if he was messing with her or not, and sensing her doubt, he continued, standing and gesturing for her to follow him. He walked into his room as he spoke, "The venom I used on you can heal surface wounds, and it also has a numbing agent in it. The bite you suffered is too deep to be healed completely, but at least the bleeding stopped finally." He stopped in front of his closet, rummaging through a couple of different shirts before finding one and tossing it to her.

"Here. There's no point in you putting your old shirt back on, it's shredded and covered in blood."

She took the shirt in hand, looking up at him with an expectant expression. He was confused at first until he realized she was waiting for him to look away so she could remove the towel from around her chest.

"Ugh, you humans are ridiculous." He said, rolling his eyes as he turned around away from her. Once his back was turned, Amara shot him a dirty look, but quickly put the shirt on, already feeling better once she was dressed again.

"What are the other two types? " She asked curiously, folding the bloodied towel up as she spoke. He gave her a look like he didn't understand her question, making her roll her eyes, "The other two types of venom. You said vampires had three? So what're the other two types?"

He laughed a bit, leaning forward to take the towel from her hands,

"Already getting curious?" He asked smugly, getting great amusement at the annoyed look she shot at him. "I'm glad you've lost some of your fear at least." He mused, turning and gesturing for her to follow him as he walked out. "The most common one is generally used when we're fighting. It's incredibly painful, even to other vampires. Imagine injecting yourself with acid. On humans, it's pretty much paralyzing if you get enough of it into them. It stops blood from clotting as well, so I imagine that's the kind you got hit with earlier. But luckily for you, the vampire who bit you was not only weak, but it had already been feeding before it attacked you, so it probably didn't have much venom left in its bite." He wiped his hands on one of the clean corners of the towel before tossing it into a basket of clothes.

"I couldn't even taste it in your blood."

She made an uncomfortable face and he put his hands up in a shrug, " What? It's the truth. Other vampires' venom tastes awful. I definitely would have tasted it, had it been there." Amara just shook her head, trying to ignore the thought,

"And the third kind?" She asked, trying to change the subject away from her blood.

"The third kind is the kind we use to change humans into vampires." He answered casually, only looking up when she remained silent after his answer. Her face was twisted in revulsion, and he just raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" He said flatly, unsure what the problem was.

"You can turn people? " She asked fearfully, and he just nodded as if it was obvious,

"Well, yeah. Where do you think vampires come from?" Amara threw her hands up, completely done with the day's events.

"I didn't! Yesterday vampires were just myths, things that people dressed up as on Halloween, creatures that bad horror movies were written about!" Xander scoffed a bit, pulling a chair out as he watched her go through her mental breakdown,

"Speak for yourself, I would've watched vampire movies if they'd had them when I was human. " He muttered under his breath, which just elicited more distress from her.

"And now you're telling me that you used to be human too? And you're just cool with licking blood off your fingers like it's no big deal? Have you lost your mind? How did you even become a vampire?" Xander had been moderately amused at her outburst, but suddenly his eyes narrowed and his body language grew a bit tense.

"That's... a very impolite question to ask a vampire." He said harshly, finally snapping her out of her daze as she realized that she'd just been yelling at a creature that could easily end her life.

"I ... I didn't know." She said softly, finding it hard to maintain eye contact with the slitted eyes that watched her from across the room. As his body slowly relaxed back down, Amara found her voice again, trying to move past the touchy subject, "So what all is right about vampires then? What myths are true?"

Xander sighed and leaned his head on his hand, "Honestly, mostly none of them. The movies, books, they basically got the blood drinking part, and that's it. It'd probably be easier for you to just think of vampires as a separate species than for you to try to compare them to the legends of previously turned humans. Vampires aren't just stronger, tougher humans, they're.... Different. Their society, their physiology. It would take all night to go over the differences with you."

Amara walked over to the couch next to where he was sitting, taking a seat and crossing her legs. "Well, I don't exactly have a schedule to keep?" She offered, but when he gave her an annoyed look she quickly leaned back, holding her hands up and changing her suggestion,

"Can you at least tell me the important stuff? Vampires being venomous seems like a pretty big deal. They seem fast too, at least kind of ..."

She thought back to the vampires that had attacked the group she arrived with. They didn't seem to run fast, rather when they were close they could jump like a blur. Maybe they could only move like that for short distances?

"It hurts to move like that." Xander said as if reading her thoughts. She glanced up at him, and he continued, a bit impatient, but still willing to share, for now at least. "You're talking about when we move in the blink of an eye? Most vampires can't keep it up for very long, it hurts. We might not be humans anymore, but our bodies are mostly made the same way, they're not meant to move like that."

She slowly nodded, setting her hand on her chin in thought. It made sense, but she wasn't sure why he was so insistent on saying they were so different from humans. Apart from his eyes, he looked completely normal to her, and he acted pretty normally too, aside from being a bit of a blunt asshole. But somehow she doubted that was something he picked up when he was turned.

Her thoughts were cut off as he stood up, walking into a back room and returning after a few minutes with a pillow and a blanket, tossing them onto the couch next to her before turning away.

"As for the venom thing, you don't need to worry about it. The only time it matters is when a vampire bites you, and if a vampire manages to get their teeth in you," He paused for a moment, looking at her over his shoulder, his eyes narrowed and glowing dangerously,

"You're already dead, venom or not." He walked away, flicking the light off as he went into his room, and she swallowed nervously in the silence he left behind. She wasn't sure if he meant it this way, but something about his words and tone almost felt like a threat. She pulled the blanket up around herself, laying down in the dark as she felt her blood pounding in her ears. Could he hear that? Her blood racing, her breaths coming rapidly? Could he sense her fear? The thought made her chest tighten, but she did her best to force it from her mind. You are alive. You are alive, and for now, you are safe. She repeated over and over, closing her eyes tight and begging sleep to take her. But for how long? She thought mournfully as her consciousness slowly faded from her.