Forbidden Pursuit

The Vampire in the Village

Vampire POV

I was in big trouble. I wondered if coming to this miserable village would be a bad idea. I should have listened to my brain. Business called me here, or so I thought. My second in command told me it was a trap, but I brushed him off like the arrogant i***t I can sometimes be. Nothing good ever comes out of this superstitious, degenerate village. They don't know better than to bite the hand that feeds them. Now here I am trapped in a silver cage with no powers and no means of escape. My long, boring, lonely life flashed before my eyes, and I feel miserable just knowing how little joy my one hundred and seventy-nine years of life had given me. I turned my attention to the loud crowd glowering at me. At least they had trapped me in the shadow of one of the buildings. They had planned this, obviously. I'm such an i***t.

"Vampire!" The leader bellowed in my face, unconcerned for his safety since I was trapped. "What have you to say for your crimes?"

"Innocent," I sneered to angry dissension from the crowd. Truly, I hate this village. It's so antiquated.

"I say you're guilty!" Some random voice called from the crowd, stirring up a furor from the others.

"Guilty of WHAT?!" I demanded. Seriously, what is this town's problem?! I gave them a better life with my financial support for their struggling economy. I built several small businesses here and gave funding to most of the businesses still in operation, which were few, once I heard a major interstate would have an exit one mile from this place in another year or so. It was a financial venture my second-in-command thought was a bad idea. Nobody else would touch this town. Now I know why. These people would never give me credit, but I made their lives better.

"Guilty! Guilty!" The crowd chanted wildly. They were beyond reason. They now just wanted blood.

"What are the charges?" A strong female voice rang out in a moment of pause. That voice didn't sound as feverish as the crowd. It sounded like an incensed demand. I directed my attention to the part of the crowd the voice came from. A sea of eyes were on the man standing closest to me, their mayor.

"Two of our young girls disappeared into the woods last week. When we finally found their bodies, they were drained of blood. Only a vampire is capable of that evil!" Spat the mayor at the crowd. The crowd went wild with hissing and yells for my execution.

A young woman pushed her way forward out of the crowd. I could not see her face from my vantage point in this blasted silver cage that had me on my knees, but I could sense she was different from the others, even in my powerless state. She was facing the mayor directly, her stance strong, inner strength radiating from her.

"And you know without a doubt that THIS vampire is responsible for these crimes? You know based on evidence that he slaughtered two girls and feasted on their blood? Because you have indisputable evidence? Eyewitness testimony?"

The mayor stood stiffly before her. He was obviously shaken and at a loss for words. He wasn't expecting his claims to be challenged. Indeed, he had gotten the crowd prepared for 'justice' without considering that there would be any opposition. The woman moved closer to my prison and turned her back to me, standing boldly between me and the raging crowd. She was beautiful. I couldn't see more than her ankles and shoes, but I could already tell she was a beautiful person. She was certainly brave for standing in between me and the crowd and shouldering their impatient blood lust. 

The mayor recovered from his surprise. "There are no other possibilities! It was a VAMPIRE! THIS VAMPIRE! The vampire must be punished! His life for their lives," he roared into the crowd, working them back up in response.

"Stake, stake, stake!" They chanted as the mayor brandished the most convenient weapon of choice: a wooden stake. Of all the strengths that a vampire has, our dumbest weaknesses are holy water and wooden stakes. Whatever devil created the vampire had a horrible sense of humor. Invincible...except for the sharp end of a stick. Undefeatable...except for some kind of church water. Or priest spit. Or whatever constituted 'holy' water. 

I was lost in my thoughts and missed the exchange between the girl and the mayor. The crowd was chanting loudly, and I was trapped anyway. What would be the point of listening in on a hopeless conversation? I was staring in resignation off into the distance when snarling, growling, and screaming reached my ears and broke through my senses simultaneously. I snapped to attention right as a wolf so black it was almost blue went on the attack.