“Our people?” she asked snidely.

“Yes! Our people. You are one of us now, Rachel,” Benji said looking confused. “I thought you’d be happy about that?”

“Yeah? Well, I’m not happy about this. I’m not happy about anything that’s happened to me since that night at Lyndvia Castle. In fact, I wish I’d never met you, then none of this would have happened,” Rachel said, feeling her anger surge.

“What are you saying, Rachel?” Benji asked, sounding hurt. “You asked for this. You asked to be turned.”

“Well, I didn’t mean it. I want to be turned back. I don’t want to do this anymore,” Rachel snapped.

“Rachel, please don’t forget what we have. We have something so special, you can’t run away from it. And besides, you are not the same person you once were. You’re a vampire now and you can never go back to your old life,” Benji said, trying to persuade her.

“I want to leave, I don’t want to stay here anymore. I don’t want to do any more of this stupid training and I don’t want to stay in this sucky castle!” Rachel yelled.

She was beginning to feel bad about how she was treating Benji. She had really missed him this whole time and she couldn’t understand why she was being so rude and mean to him. She was letting out all her pent up anger and aggression out on him, and she knew he didn’t deserve it. She wanted to be happy that he was finally here with her, she wanted to respark the passion between them, but for some reason her body wasn’t letting her. Instead she was set into this rage that she couldn’t get out of.

“Listen Rachel. I understand this is a hard transition for you, but I promise you, you will grow to love it here. These people will become your family, you have to give them a chance,” Benji said.

“I won’t! These people are not my family. My family is back in Westchester. Remember them? Those are the people I love, not these VAMPIRES!” Rachel yelled. “Please turn me back, I can’t do this anymore.”

“I can’t turn you back. It isn’t possible. If I hadn’t turned you in the first place you would have died from the bullet wound. Don’t you remember? Your life was ending and I brought you back,” Benji pleaded.

“I wouldn’t have died. You’re being dramatic,” Rachel said knowing very well that she could have died that night.

“Listen, you need to calm down. I love you, Rachel, and I need you. I need you more now than ever,” Benji said.

Rachel looked at him and waited. She didn’t know what to say to that. She loved him, too, but wasn’t ready to say it again.

“I need you for a mission. We need to go at this together, it’s our only shot,” Benji said.

“I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to go home,” Rachel said.

“You can’t go home, Rachel. You are not the same person,” Benji replied.

“Yes, I am. I will be fine. As long as I am not here at this castle, things will be fine,” Rachel said.

“I can’t believe you are saying this,” Benji said. “This castle is providing you a great protection. Without it and the people inside, you would be dead!”

“I just want to go home. Please let me go,” Rachel begged. “I need to see my family again. I can only imagine they’re worried sick.”

“You don’t understand. You CANT go back home. This is your new home,” Benji repeated. “You are not the same person, you’ve changed. And besides, it’s way too dangerous out there for you anyway.”

“Stop saying that!” Rachel yelled.

“I promise, when this is all over things will calm down. They will go back to normal and it will be just us again. The way it was before all of this happened. We can be together, with no worries or fears. Our lives will be perfect together,” Benji begged.

“NO! I don’t want any part of it,” Rachel retorted.

“Please, Rachel. Come with me, I need you,” Benji said as he held his hand out for her to grab.

Rachel looked down at his outstretched hand and quickly weighed her options. She knew if she left, she’d be leaving the one man she truly loved, but if she stayed, she’d be saying goodbye to her family forever.

“I can’t. I’m sorry,” Rachel said.

With that, she picked up her satchel off the rampart, turned her body and without thinking, jumped off the peaked roof into the nighttime sky. Her wings opened smoothly as she sailed off towards home without looking back.

Chapter Eight

In what felt like minutes, Rachel was circling above her town of Bedford, New York looking down, trying to zero in on her house. She could not believe it: she was really flying. At first it had been rocky, and she was afraid she would fall again. But then her wings stabilized, and since then, she had been OK.

It was the first time she’d approached her house from above, which was a weird feeling for her. But then, she spotted it. It looked even tinier from the sky but she knew inside, she would find the people she loved the most.

Before she got too close, she knew she had to find a safe place to land. She couldn’t land in the front yard, just in case anyone was looking, it would be way too obvious. How could she explain the flying thing? Instead, she decided to land in the woods down the street from her house.

As she approached her landing ground, she saw a raccoon, in the brush, rummaging around. Her eyes opened wide as she felt a surge of hunger strike her. It was almost uncontrollable as she swooped down like an owl. Using Mind Control to hold the raccoon in its place, she snatched it up with her large fangs and sucked out its blood. Feeling completely like a vampire, and less human, she wiped the blood off her face and looked into a stream at her reflection to make sure she didn’t have any residue on her face that would raise questions when she went inside her house. She cupped her hand and took a sip of water and then stood up and began to walk out of the brush.

It had gotten pretty chilly and she felt a chill run down her spine. The leaves crunched beneath her feet as she took one step after another through the front lawn of her house. Her front door was within reach. She looked at it as she took a deep breath, not stopping to think about how she should be feeling, and opened it.

“Hello?” she said, as she stepped into her house, waiting to see if her family was home.

“HELLO!” she said again, louder.

She heard footsteps coming out of the kitchen, and then her mother came into view.

“Rachel? Sweetie, is that you?” her mom cried.

“Yes! I’m back. I’m home!” Rachel said in excitement.

“Darling, we’ve been worried sick. We missed you so much!” her mom said, and she ran over to give her a hug and hold her in her arms.

Rachel needed this. She felt secure again. She longed for this feeling of love and comfort.

“John! Come here, she’s safe, she’s back!” her mom yelled into the other room for her dad.

In seconds her dad came running out and without a word, gave her a huge hug and held her tightly. The three stood there hugging for a few minutes before they let go.

“My baby’s back!” her dad said joyfully. “Are you ok?”

“Yes! I’m fine. Everything’s ok now,” Rachel said.

“Come into the kitchen, let me give you something to eat and get you cleaned up. You look a little ragged,” her mom said, looking her up and down and then reaching out to run her ringers through her ratty looking hair.

“We are just so happy that you’re OK,” her mom said. “Aren’t we Honey?”

“Yes, thank God she’s back,” her dad replied, holding his hands in prayer position and looking up into the sky.

Rachel had never seen her dad that spiritual before, but figured he’d turned to God during this hard time.

She could see in her parent’s faces that they were happy and relieved to see her back home. She could also tell they’d been through a lot and that they looked run down and exhausted.

“Are you guys ok?” Rachel asked. “I’m sorry to worry you like this.”

“Worry us?” her dad replied. “We were sick over this. We thought you’d died.”

The three of them walked into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table. Her mom handed her a granola bar and a glass of water and then said, “Where were you anyway?”

“It’s a long story,” Rachel said back. “The thing is that I’m here now and that I’m safe.”

“You know the police have been looking for you for days now. It’s on all the news channels and in the papers. Our family is famous,” her dad said, beginning to sound upset.

“I know, I’m sorry. It was stupid of me. I will never do it again,” Rachel said.

“That’s what happens when you sneak out,” her dad said. “And besides, what happened at Lyndvia Castle anyway? Were you there?”

Trying to recap that night, she felt guilty and ashamed. How could she tell them what really happened? She knew they would never believe her and if they did, they’d probably have her committed for insanity, or severe psychotherapy.

“I did go there,” she said, trying to downplay it. “Luckily I got out of there before it got bad,” Rachel said, trying to be as vague as possible.

She looked back at her parents who were both staring at her with suspicion.

“Who were you with anyway?” her mom asked.

“That Benji character?” her dad asked, knowing full well the answer.

“I did go to see Benji, but he saved my life. He protected me,” Rachel said.

“He protected you so well, that he got you into this mess in the first place,” her dad snapped back.

“You have to trust me,” Rachel said. “He’s the reason why I’m sitting here right now, alive.”

“What happened there anyway?” her mom asked.

“Yeah? What happened? It looked like a real death trap,” her dad said, firmly.