Vampire
Chronicles: Wolf’s Blood
By Nomar
Knight
My vampire
stalker, Lorraina Sandoval, bit me. The traumatizing event lived on in my
recurring nightmares. On most nights I would wake feeling that my dreams were
real. I’d gasped for breath and pant as if I had been running for my life. The
sound of a chorus of nocturnal creatures hooting and singing, transferred to my
conscious state. The noise echoed around me like a crowd cheering for a
gladiator. I hugged myself, shivering from the cold.
“Why is it so chilly tonight?” I mumbled.
I couldn’t help but notice what a wuss I had become since
moving from New York. I cringed at the thought of how my friends would tease me
if they could see me shivering. The thermostat read a comfortable sixty-five
degrees. The cool Caribbean breeze made my bones ache. My knees snapped,
crackled and popped when I got out of bed.
“I don’t know what you did to me, Lorraina, but I’m
still human.”
When my alleged
fictional character had saved me from getting killed by a mugger, she revealed
that Marie Sandoval, her twin sister, watched over me.
“I don’t believe
you, you egotistical lunatic!”
I waited to see if
my insults would draw her out of the darkness. I hoped Lorraina would appear
from nowhere and show me once again how vampires made love. Unfortunately, all
I got was the continuing sounds of night, followed by dogs barking nearby.
I slipped on a
t-shirt, fetched a bottle of water, and sat on my sofa, wishing for my luck to
improve. Sadness remained an unwanted companion. It appeared my most exciting
characters had abandoned me.
Halfway through
the bottle, I noticed a subtle change in the atmosphere. I didn’t have the
usual tightening in my stomach like when Lorraina would stop by. In fact, I
couldn’t identify what was different, just that something had changed.
I felt compelled
to open the main door. I did and immediately wished I hadn’t. A black wolf
growled, bared sharp fangs and drooled. Its red eyes froze me in place.
“There are no
wolves in Puerto Rico.”
My statement
served to enrage the creature even more. It inched its way forward, ready to
make a meal out of me. I thought about ordering it to be still, hoping that by
displaying authority, it would stand down.
“Sit!”
The sucker leaped
and knocked me flat on my back. It’s teeth lingered dangerously close to my
throat.
I remembered
thinking that I was a goner for sure. A wild beast that was completely out of
place would see to it that my latest vampire book, LOST IN DARKNESS, would
never see publication.
“Heel!”
The wolf got off
me and stood next to a dark shadow. When I managed to take my eyes off the
creature, I spotted a pair of amazing legs encased in tight, black leather
pants.
“Lorraina?
“Guess again.”
Marie Sandoval
sported a soft smile. Her eyes made me feel welcomed. It felt as if I had known
the vampire my whole life, but alas, aside from dreams, we had never met.
“Sorry about
Thunder. He tends to be quite impatient.”
Marie helped me off the floor. Her luscious red hair cascaded
over athletic shoulders. Emerald eyes weakened my knees.
“You’re even more
beautiful than I imagined.”
“I bet you said
that to Lorraina too.” She grinned.
I stepped away
from her as she reached for me. The realization that Marie was a vampire put me
in survival mode. The wolf growled.
“Shush!” Marie
scowled at the beast.
The animal rested
its head on the floor. Red eyes fixated on me.
Marie’s eyes
revealed compassion. She whispered, “I would never hurt you.”
I couldn’t believe
how different she was from her twin sister. Lorraina loved playing power games.
Marie seemed human.
One second she was
standing, the next, she sat on the sofa.
“I’m not human.”
She flashed her
fangs and patted the seat so I could sit next to her. A sudden urge to run to
the bathroom eventually passed as she smiled, hiding her lethal incisors.
“Why are you
here?”
She bit her wrist,
blood trickled down her hand. “Drink my essence and you shall see.”
I smiled and sat
near her. “Will I become extraordinarily strong?”
Marie giggled.
“True Blood is fiction, baby. Drink and take the journey.”
I couldn’t keep my
eyes off her. She put her bloody arm to my lips and I sipped from the ancient
vampire. My surroundings vanished. I no longer sat with Marie in my living
room. Instead, I sprinted through trees and bushes in a dark forest with only a
full moon providing illumination. My tank top ripped from thorny bushes.
I heard voices closing in.
“Don’t let him get
away!”
“No witnesses!”
Shouted another.
The sound of a
firecracker exploded behind me. Something whizzed past my left ear and struck a
nearby tree .
Just minutes
earlier, I had been hiking in the forest, clearing my head for the night, when I had stumbled on to four men. I hid
behind some greenery and saw one man exchange a bag of cash for what looked
like packets. I had no idea if it was cocaine or heroin, but I figured it was
illegal on account the guy counting the money got shot in the chest. The other
man with him met the same fate. He took two rounds to the chest and one to the
head.
Normally, my
cellphone didn’t have a signal that deep in the woods, but as luck would have
it, the damn thing made whistling sounds. I ran as fast as I could because my
life depended on my past skills as a runner. Unfortunately, I was a sprinter,
not a marathon man. Sharp pains nailed my ribs and stomach. Nausea threatened
to make me stop running.
I never saw the
rock so I stumbled and fell. I crashed over more rocks and landed hard on the
ground.
The two gunmen
caught up to me.
“Shoot him!”
A dark skinned man
approached. Cold dark eyes revealed his intent. He pointed a nine millimeter
pistol at my face. His finger was on the trigger, ready to end my existence. In
a flash, I saw a black blur and the man was on the ground. A hairy beast
silenced his cries. Gun shots rang. One of the rounds came within inches of my
head as it took a piece of wood off the tree trunk. The second shooter screamed
for a brief moment, but was silenced. The nocturnal creatures remained quiet.
All I could hear was the sound of the beast gnawing at the dead man’s neck.
My head throbbed
in pain. Blood trickled down my face. The black beast with scary red eyes
sauntered to me. The smell of death inched closer until all I saw was the
soothing darkness.
The gooey tongue
of a canine shook me out of my stupor. When I glanced around my living room, I
noticed that I was alone. Marie and her pet, Thunder, were gone.
I assumed she could still hear me so I said, “Lorraina wasn’t
lying. Thank you for protecting me, Marie. I owe you one, Thunder.”
Perhaps some day I would write
about the wolf that had saved my life. I was
thankful to be alive and welcomed the cool Caribbean breeze with open
arms.
© Copyright Nomar Knight 2015. All rights reserved.
A Knight Chills Flash Fiction Presentation.
