Chapter One
Bella
Something was very wrong it must be, I knew how the transformation was supposed to go, God knows I'd seen enough of them over the years and although I hurt all over and my guts felt on fire I could still think and that wasn't right. I could hear screaming somewhere, loud screaming and I knew it wasn't me. That wasn't right either, I should be the one screaming in agony, not someone else. I tried to lose myself in my memories rather than try to figure out what was happening to me. First to come to me were my parents although it must have been at least ten years since I saw them last. We were together at the picnic site, dad was firing up the barbecue while mom and I sat together making daisy chains and laughing as I told her my dreams. I was going to be a Princess when I grew up but not just any Princess, I would be a Super Princess, a kick ass Princess like Shrek's Fiona. I'd pass on the ogre looks but I thought she was a great person. Of course, thinking sensibly I wanted to be a vet. I loved animals and wanted to help them if they were sick or in pain.
Pain, the very word brought me back to the present, this pain was bad, I felt like my insides were simmering like mom's casseroles did but it wasn't the furnace type pain I should be feeling. The screaming I had heard was still there and sounds of panicked voices. This really wasn't how it was supposed to be. My dad's face came back to me then, just as he turned and looked at us smiling to see me with the daisy chain around my neck but then his expression changed. I didn't want to remember the rest of that day but I was stuck in the memory as the three people stepped out of the trees still in their shadow and stared at us. I felt terrified as mom pulled me close and my dad left the smoking barbecue to join us.
The next thing I remembered clearly was the sight of my dad flying across the picnic site like superman but unlike Superman he hit a tree and there was a horrible cracking sound then he flopped to the ground and I can still remember my mom's screams and the way she held me tight against her. One of the men walked slowly over to my dad and knelt down beside him then pulled him up like a rag doll and started to do something to his throat. Mom screamed again and the other man pulled her up grabbing me in cold hard hands and almost throwing me to the third figure who took me and held me struggling as the other man said something in a whisper to my mom then opened his mouth and sank his teeth into her neck. She began to scream but it didn't last long, soon she was limp in his arms and he turned as I continued to scream for him to let her go. I stopped suddenly as I saw his mouth was red and my mom's neck had been ripped open, he had drunk her blood! The realization of that was too much for my child's mind to accept and I passed out. The trouble was I had to wake up again and when I did the three creatures, monsters, in reality, were still there and I was their captive.
I had been with these creatures, murderers, monsters for many long, years now, and he, Diablo, made sure I understood that one day I would become one of them. I had seen others drained of their blood to feed the vampires which was bad enough but worse was the plight of those they chose to become vampires like themselves.
I had seen many transformations over the years which is how I knew that mine was not going according to plan. If I had been truly transforming then I would be writhing in agony, screaming and hoping to die to escape the pain. I wouldn't be able to think as clearly as I was and I wondered what had gone wrong as well as what Diablo and the others would do when they discovered I was not becoming a vampire like them.
My worth had been in the gift they said I possessed which would become apparent when I became a vampire. Something had stopped them from changing me as a little girl. They had waited until I was "old enough" and now the time had come but it hadn't worked. Diablo had told me he would be changing me, he counted the days down enjoying my fear as it intensified, he loved nothing more than to torture people, to hear their screams and his girlfriend La Rossa was only too happy to go along with him. I think she was crueler even than him but she was also nervous around him, he had a terrible temper. I'd seen him rip another vampire to pieces for arguing with him and both La Rossa and Serpiente were very careful around their leader. Of the three who has become my "Family" Serpiente was the least cruel and horrible although he frightened me just as much with his hair like snakes and vivid red eyes.
I tried to remember my home, my real home but through the stabbing pains which were slowly becoming less severe all I could see was the place I had called home for the last eight or nine years. I lived in a cabin with one small window too high up to see out of unless I stood on the chair and a door that was locked most of the time. It was cold and dusty, there were no pictures, no rugs on the floor only a small rickety table to eat on, a chair, a wooden chest to store my clothes and a bed with some dull gray blankets and a sleeping bag. Serpiente had bought me a few books, Roald Dahl, Charles Dickens and assorted comics which were my only friends.
I had some colored pencils and plain paper and started writing all my memories of my life with mom and dad but had to stop when they made me cry. The only thing I had from that life apart from my memories was my bracelet they had bought me for my birthday, my eighth birthday and I held on to it tightly like some magical talisman. That would prevent me ever forgetting them.
At first, I had tried to run away but I couldn't get away, they could run much faster than me and even smell where I had gone. Diablo would play with me, allowing me to get fast enough to think I might make it before appearing nonchalantly in front of me, and then grabbing me and dragging me back screaming and kicking. After he became bored with that I was locked up, it was less trouble for them but it gave me time to brood.
I vowed that one day when I was older and stronger, maybe even a vampire myself I would hunt down my three captors, these demons who tortured me day and night with their violence and blood-letting and I would make them pay dearly for all they had done. But not only them but every vampire in this world. I had wondered at first if these three were just the evil side of vampirism but Diablo had assured me all vampires were the same. Over the years, I had seen he was telling the truth. I had been forced to watch as new vampires hunted down humans who had been captured and thrown into the arena he had built here. I heard their screams as they were pursued, played with like a cat torments a mouse and smelled their blood as they were pulled limb from limb or drained.
They all hunted and tortured humans and enjoyed it so every vampire I could hunt down would die screaming in agony, I would find a way to do that, to save other humans from the life I had been forced to endure.