I slumped back to the wall, my mind racing. Rat was dead. Lucas was dead. I’d seen them, pulled under by rabids in the old city, torn apart before my eyes. My throat closed up. Stick, much as I hated to admit it, was most likely dead as well; he couldn’t survive the trek back to the city on his own. It was just me now. Alone. A vampire.
My chest felt tight, and I bit my lip, imagining the faces of my friends staring at me, pale and accusing. My eyes burned, but I swallowed hard and forced back the tears. I could cry and scream and curse the world and the rabids and the vampires later. But I would not show weakness in front of this stranger, this bloodsucker who might have saved me, but about whom I knew nothing. When I was alone, I would cry for Rat and Lucas and Stick, the family I’d lost. Right now, I had larger issues to deal with.
I was a vampire. And, despite everything, I still wanted to live.
The stranger waited, as unmoving as a wall. He might be a bloodsucker, but he was the only familiar thing I had left. “So,” I said softly without looking up. Resentment boiled, an old, familiar hate, but I shoved it down. “Do I call you ‘master’ or ‘teacher’ or something else?”
The vampire paused, then said, “You may call me Kanin.”
“Kanin? Is that your name?”
“I did not say it was my name.” He turned as if to leave, but crossed the room and sank into a rusty folding chair on the other side. “I said it was what you could call me.”
Great, not only was my new teacher a vampire, he was one of those cryptic, mysterious ones, too. I crossed my arms and eyed him warily. “Where are we?”
Kanin considered this. “Before I disclose anything about myself,” he said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, “I would like to know a bit more about you. I will be teaching you, after all, and that means we will be spending a great deal of time together. I want to know what I am up against. Are you amenable to this?”
I shrugged. “What do you want to know?”
“Your name, first off.”
“Allie,” I said, then elaborated. “Allison Sekemoto.”
“Interesting.” Kanin straightened, watching me with intense black eyes. “You know your full name. Not many humans do, anymore.”
“My mom taught me.”
“Your mother?” Kanin leaned back, crossing his arms. “Did she teach you anything else?”
I bristled. I suddenly didn’t want to discuss my mom with this bloodsucker. “Yeah,” I said evasively.
He drummed his fingers on his biceps. “Such as?”
“Why do you want to know?”
He ignored the question. “If you wish for me to help you, you will answer me.”
“Reading, writing and a little math,” I snapped at him. “Anything else?”
“Where is your mother now?”
“Dead.”
Kanin didn’t seem surprised, or shocked at my bluntness. “And your father?”
“I never knew him.”
“Siblings?”
I shook my head.
“So you have nothing on that side to go back to.” Kanin nodded. “Good. That will make things easier. How did she die?”
I narrowed my eyes, about fed up with this interrogation. “That’s none of your business, vampire,” I snapped, wanting some emotion to cross his impassive face. Except for a raised eyebrow, his expression remained the same. “Besides, what’s it to you? Why should you care about the lives of a couple humans, anyway?”
“I don’t,” the vampire said and shrugged. “Like I said before, I want to evaluate my chances of success. Humans have a tendency to cling to the past, which can make teaching them difficult. The more attachments a person has, the harder it is to learn to let go when becoming a vampire.”
I clenched my hands, trying to calm the sudden rage. I would have been tempted to leap up and punch him, ungrateful as that was, if I didn’t know he could tear my head off without blinking. “Yeah, well, I’m beginning to regret that decision.”
“It’s a little late now, don’t you think?” Kanin asked softly as he rose. “Take a moment,” he said, walking to the door on the opposite wall. “Mourn your past life if you wish, for you will not see it again. When you are ready to learn what it means to be a vampire, come find me.”
He opened the door and strode through without a backward glance, leaving me alone.
*
AFTER KANIN LEFT, I sat on the chair, scraped the dried blood off my hands and thought about what I was going to do next.