Playing With Fire by Jordan Mendez Page A

people would want to protect their rulers, unless they were like me and
they didn’t really care what happened to them as long as it didn’t effect what
they did care about.
    “None
of us chose her, especially not me,” he said darkly. “She took my entire family
and anyone else in the castle and turned them into vampires. None of us wanted
to be vampires, but she didn’t give any of us the choice. She attacked us one
by one and changed us into monsters. She locked my family away because we were
rebellious. We would not drink blood from the humans she lured, because they
were always good people, and never people who deserved to die. We chose to go
and hunt bandits or murderers instead, sometimes even sickly people who were
about to die anyway only to end their suffering. Everyone else was too afraid
of the queen to join us, but no one is serving her by choice. When she locked
my family away, I was out feeding, and when I returned I was attacked and
almost forced to the same fate as my family. As we speak they are being starved
to death, and if the queen isn’t killed soon, they will be dead.”
    “How
do I know that when you free your family, they won’t be so hungry that they’ll
eat me and my brothers?” I asked. Don’t get me wrong, I was sympathetic to him
and his situation, but I was more concerned about my own family than his.
    “Because,
dear Scarlet,” he began happily, “at that point, we will no longer be vampires.
No one inside the castle is a true vampire except for the queen. If she is
killed, we will all turn back into humans.”
    “Wow,”
I said in disbelief. “Is it really that easy?”
    “Well…
no,” he said. “Since none of us are true vampires, we only have immortality, no
super strength or speed, and when we bite people and don’t kill them they do
not become vampires. We can bleed too. But the biggest advantage we have is that
we can withstand the sun, while the queen cannot. I’m not asking you to kill
her on the spot, but the to just keep her busy until morning, and when the sun
comes through the windows of the throne room, she will turn to dust and we will
be free. But I’m also telling you it will most likely be just the two of us
fighting a queen whose strength matches up to one thousand.”
    I
didn’t ask any more questions. It was a lot of information to process in the
first place and if I didn’t think my head would explode from too much
information, I’d ask about a million more questions, but I didn’t want to risk
it.
    I
followed Gabriel for about an hour before we stopped. The greyish tunnel walls
with the little blue stones scattered randomly around were slowly leaving, and
the tunnel started to get darker. Though I could hardly see at all, Gabriel
seemed just fine. The tunnel continued in front of us and was completely
lightless. The vampire motioned for me to wait as he advanced into the
darkness. The sound of metal scraping against metal tortured my ears as golden
light flooded the tunnel.
    The
sudden light stung my eyes and I threw my arms up to shield them until they
adjusted. When I dropped my arms, I saw Gabriel standing in front of a doorway
of golden light, waiting for me to follow. I took a deep breath before going
after him. From this point on it would be like entering the lion’s den, like my
brothers did. However in their case, they didn’t do it by choice. I was really
starting to rethink the whole thing, but Gabriel didn’t give me the chance to
come to a conclusion. A look of alarm flashed across his face, and he snatched
my arm and dragged me in to the golden lit room.
    Gabriel
threw me behind himself as he flipped around and shut the door. It sealed
easily enough, and when I looked for it I couldn’t find it again. It looked
exactly like the stone wall that surrounded it. A faint line in the expertly
cut stone was all that signified the door. No one could simply stumble upon it
by accident; they would have to be searching specifically for it,