Blood Currency

| Chapter 2 |

It's been about a week since that nice, well, sorta nice vampire lady with her disinterested husband treated me to a meal. It had been the only one that I had that day, I tried to save my leftovers for the next few meals. The shake was the only thing that I had to finish the same day. But during the next few days, the burger went first, the fries slowly after that. They weren't as good cold as they were fresh, but I can't complain too much.

I stayed mostly hidden away in my box house in case that lady called the Trackers, or the vampire police force, to, well, track me down. I didn't want to be auctioned off like some prize-winning cow. How humiliating would that be? So for the next week, I stayed hidden, munching on my stale fries, avoiding even the nice old lady that lived in the apartment building that had given me not only warm soup, but a new jacket, gloves, hat, and shoes. I kept the old ones just in case. They were already broken in. Great for running if needs arise.

See, Trackers are the vampires that have the best sense of smell. They can detect not only a person's whereabouts, but some can even detect blood types without drawing blood. They say that different blood types have different smells about them. O-negative blood, who they call Omegas, have the best smelling blood. I wouldn't know, but I don't want to run into a Tracker to find out.

I took my pencil and doodled on the inside of my box as I thought. The world had changed so suddenly that humans hadn't seen what the Council of Twelve was doing until they came into power long before I was born.

I groaned softly in the back of my throat. I would hate to be the blood donors for a member of the Twelve. And why is there twelve of them anyway? What if there is a tie down the middle and they need a tiebreaker? The vampire world was so confusing. We were fine until they showed up. At least then, no one was being used as someones personal sow.

I looked at my doodle to see that I had drawn a very poor rendition of several different types of animals. These were worse than those cave paintings that I had seen in some picture books at the library. I didn't want to use up my eraser erasing them though. This bo isn't going to survive much longer anyway. It was already pretty damaged from the rain. I know that it's not going to last until winter. The snow will crush it or make it far too soggy to live in and keep me warm. Not that it does that decently anyway.

I crawled out of my box to head to the library in hopes to get more pads of paper and pencils so that I don't run out. I try to stock up on them when I can and when the librarians let me take some extra for the road since they know I don't talk.

The walk to the library was slow since the streets were bustling with people heading to work. The light was just starting to change from early morning pink to its all day light blue when I made it to the library. It had just opened. I hurried inside and went to the director of the children's section. She was an older lady, very grandmother-y. I waved to her when she looked up to see who had walked in. She didn't say anything, but she gave me the warmest smile. I pointed to the small notebooks that were on the desk. They weren't spiral bound, more like they were those ones that had the glue holding them together just enough to have the easy torn out pages.

She nodded in understanding before I grabbed several. I tucked them into my pockets since I didn't have a bag or anything for my stuff. That had all been seized by the government when my mother died. They had tried to put me into foster homes, but I ran off from every single one of them until I turned 18 almost a year ago. No one even looked for me. Not that I cared or anything. I was a free woman now because of it. If the foster system had known I was O-negative, they would have called the Trackers before I even knew what hit me.

I also silently asked for more pencils. The director gave me unsharpened ones and a small portable pencil sharpener. My eyes widened at that. I never had a pencil sharpener before. I always came here to sharpen my pencils. I nearly cried as I stared at the stupid plastic container that was the pencil sharpener. I hugged the woman and tried not to cry into her shoulder.

I left the library staring at my pencil sharpener, ignoring the painful tug of my empty stomach. I didn't want to go begging right now in case Trackers were called on me. They only want to help, they say. They'll put you in a good home, they claim. It's all propaganda to keep people under the vampire's pale thumb.

I am not going to fall for it though. I would rather starve to death before I went into a vampires home as his blood bag.

~^-^~

I drink water from public drinking fountains since, well, they're public. The one that I'm drinking from now is in a little park not that far from my home. It tastes a little like metal, but I shouldn't complain since fountains like this are my only source of food. I looked around the park as I drank from the tap. Vampires and humans walked around, laughed, played, overall having a good time, but the humans didn't seem to realize that though they weren't put into farms and into cages, they were still the cattle for those vampires holding their black umbrellas as they milled about with them.

There were a few vampires that stood out amongst the crowds of people. They wore all white almost military looking attire with a patch on their shoulder that labeled them as Trackers. I didn't want to draw attention to myself by running, but I was hoping that none of them were able to tell that I had O-negative blood. So, as calmly as I could, I walked away from the fountain, keeping the Trackers in my peripheral vision, headed away from them and hoped that I could lose them before they had any clue how close they were to be able to catch me.

I had seen Trackers before. It was right after my mother passed away. It was at her funeral. While The few friends that my mom had made over the years were wearing black clothes, they had worn their white uniforms, though they carried their black umbrellas with them. They spoke with a couple that I had only met a few times. They appeared to be questioning them to see if I was indeed AB. They must have realized at the time that I could have the same blood type as my father. Though they were correct, it was still disrespectful to come to get me at a time like that since I had just buried my mother.

Just like now, I didn't stick around to see if they noticed me. I left my own mother's funeral just to save my own skin. If that made me a coward, I didn't care. I didn't want to be caught by the Trackers. It was shortly after that that a family friend of my moms placed me into the foster care with the paperwork saying that I was AB. It was a lie, but I doubt that anyone but me and my mom knew that those documents were forged.

I weaved my way through the bustling crowd, hoping that I wasn't being followed. I didn't go back to my alleyway. I had gone to another place that would hopefully hide me pretty well. The soup kitchen. There were tons of homeless children and older folks that were always there. Hopefully, their combined stink would through off the Trackers if they were in fact following me.

I hid among two really old men that were clearly homeless a lot longer than I have been. They smelled terrible, not that I could blame them.

I had been here a few times, but I knew that there were lower ranked vampires here, and we actually had to pay with blood to eat here, so while I had been here to hid from potential trackers, I had never eaten here for obvious reasons.

I ducked my head when I saw the two Trackers that were following me. They scanned the rows of homeless people eating their meal, but they didn't seem to see me in the crowd. The room was deadly quiet, enough that I could hear the one on the left talk into his walkie talkie from where I sat in the back of the room.

"The potential Omega was lost, sir. She was small, young, and frail looking. I'll put out an APB on the Omega for everyone to look for. I'll contact the witness who talked to her again to see if we can find her. I believe the woman said her name was Sawyer," The vamp said. His voice was deep with a heavy accent that I couldn't place, but when I peaked up, I saw that unlike other vampires, he had dark brown skin and black eyes.

The two Trackers left shortly after that. I unfroze from my seat and nearly sank to the floor. The men beside me looked at me funny.

"They're after you, little lady. You know that, right?" The man on the left said. He was older, all grey hair and big bushy beard. I nodded and looked down and my hands.

I pulled out my notebook and quickly wrote him a message. I was glad that I did a few more English lessons on my own at the library. My English isn't very good still, but it's steadily improving.

I dont want to be found please dont let them catch me

The man nodded. "Of course. My wife and daughter were Omega. But I hid it from the vampires. That's why I'm sitting here today in fact. All the advice I can give ya is to lay low. stay with someone that you trust and tell no one where ya are." He winked and me, causing me to smile and tear up. I nodded again and knew exactly who I could stay with.

~^-^~

I tapped on the woman's window that gave me the soup. It was well after dark, but nowhere dark enough for everyone who was human to be asleep. The elderly woman came to the window in a nightgown that went past her knees. She pulled on a pair of glasses to see me holding up a note.

I need help

She quickly unlocked her window and let me in. I smiled gratefully before writing out my situation. I told her everything. Including my blood type. She gave me a very sympathetic look as she read my chicken scratch. She pulled me into her arms and hugged me.

"I know."

I pulled away and looked at her quizzically. She smiled softly and pulled me to her living room. She sat us down on the couch and faced me.

"I had known that you were not AB like you told me. There would be only two reasons that an 18-year-old like yourself was homeless, living in a cardboard box. One, she was related to someone who was O-negative that hid it. And two, she was O-negative. I figured that if you were related to someone who was O-negative, it would have been a child or a parent. Either way, you would most likely be O-negative too." She had my hands gripped into her soft brittle ones. She rubbed her thumbs across the backs of my hands.

I couldn't ask any questions without my notepads, but I didn't want to speak nor break the moment to retrieve my notebooks from my pocket.

"Let me get you something to drink," the elderly woman said before standing up and walking towards her kitchenette. While she fetched me something to drink, I looked around her apartment. It was clearly just a single bedroom with one bathroom a living space that was separated from the kitchenette simply by the carpet ending around the tiled floor of the kitchen area. There was a small TV, the couch I sat on, a love seat to the right of it, and a single reclining chair to the left.

She came back with a cup of steaming tea. It smelt delicious as it had the first time. I would love to ask what type this was, but I didn't have anywhere to brew it myself anyway, so I didn't waste my paper.

We sat in silence for a long time simply drinking our tea which warmed us from the inside out. I felt safer than I had in a long time. Yet I didn't take off my jackets or anything just in case I had to run. I had never tried to escape the Trackers actively chasing me before so I didn't know if I could. Especially with how little I have eaten in the last few years. I knew I was most likely malnourished. I had simply gotten lucky in the last couple of days. That's all.

"Sawyer. I know that I said that you could stay here as long as you wanted. But, I'm getting older in age. I don't know how well I could protect you on my own," The woman said, breaking the silence. I looked up at her confused. She looked mentally torn. I had never seen her like this. The only person I had seen looking like this was my mother when she was on her death bed. She didn't know at the time if she wanted the Trackers to take me away to make sure I was always fed and taken care of. But at the same time, mom had wanted me to keep the freedom we had worked so hard for me to keep.

I grabbed my pad of paper and a pencil.

what do you mean

"I'm so sorry, Sawyer. I really don't want to do this to you, knowing how you feel about the Trackers," she stood up and walked to the front door that was right next to the kitchenette. I stood up and backed away towards her bedroom door. I didn't like where this night was going. I placed my hand on the doorknob in case I had to bolt.

I shook my head in disbelief as she opened the door. I didn't bother to look who was there. I knew that I had been betrayed. I threw open the bedroom door, slamming it shut, and locking it behind me. I ran to the window. I lifted it as quickly as I could. I could hear the Trackers trying to breakdown the door.

"Sawyer! We won't hurt you. Please just come out," one of them called. I recognized the voice from the Vampire that spoke earlier today when I was almost caught. I didn't bother to stay any longer. Once the window was open enough for me to crawl through, I did. I ran down the stairs of the fire escape and climbed down the ladder. I had never done anything that fast in my life. Adrenaline coursed through my body, not only making my reaction times a bit faster but also warming my body. I was sweating. I ran from the alleyway and didn't bother looking back.

I knew that they were still following me though. I heard their shouts as the gained on me. I knew that I couldn't outrun them for very long. Not with how weak I had grown over the years. I remember being able to outrun all the children on my block when my mother and I still had a home to live in.

I huffed in the night air as I continued to run. I heard the heavy steps of the vampires as they gained on me. I didn't want to look back and see how close they had become.

"Sawyer!" One called. My wrist was grabbed. The one vampire that had spoken pulled us to the ground. Snow puffed up around us. He had twisted us around so that he could take the brunt of the fall. I screeched at him and I tried to fight my way out of his arms.

"Stop it. We are not your enemies, Omega." I didn't listen. I just wanted out.

"We have her, sir. We need the truck," the other said as I still struggled in the arms of the other. He didn't even seem to be bothered by this as he stood up, arms around me, pinning my arms at my sides. My attacks grew weaker the longer we stood in the snow. A white vehicle pulled up. The Trackers logo was embellished on the side of it. I glared at the dark tinted windows.

The vampire that wasn't holding me opened the back door and I was gently placed in. I tried to bolt out of the other door, but I saw that there was another vampire already there. He was unimpressed by my attempt. He didn't wear the suit of the Trackers. Instead, he wore an old styled three-piece black suit that had a thin tie, but large flaps that formed his collar.

"Captain Sebastian. I didn't know that you would be joining us tonight," the tracker that tackled me said. This Sebastian fellow glanced behind me towards the two trackers.

"Just get in the truck. I don't have all night. She is in serious need of a bath and fresh clothes," he said, an accent heavy in his words. He turned away from me and stared out the window. One of the trackers sat next to me and pulled the seat belt across me. I struggled against this as well. I hope we crash so that I just die.

Its better than potentially becoming that asshole vampire's next meal.

"Where to? Back to HQ?" The driver asked.

"Might as well. We have been trying to find this one since her mother passed away a few years ago. She went missing several times in our hunt for her. She's a slippery one. The few foster families that she was placed with until she was supposed to turn 18 all reported that she ran away until humans found her. Once she turned 18, she fell out of the system's radar but didn't tell us." One vampire pulled out a manila folder and started reading from it.

"It says here that her father was an Omega like her, but has been placed in a home," he said. Sebastian seemed at least slightly interested in hearing this.

"Captain, what are your thoughts about this?" Someone asked. I just simply stared at my lap, praying that someone t-boned us.

"She has been the thorn in my side for quite some time. But once she is placed in a home, I will be able to sleep peacefully knowing that she is in good hands," he said, not even bothering to turn away from the window.

I peeked up at him from the corner of my eye. He was just as inhumanly beautiful as all vampires were. His black hair was mused in a playfully messy way, his pale skin didn't seem as unhealthy as other vampires could be at times. He must be well fed. Not that I cared, but I felt a pang of sympathy for the bastards 'donor.'

"Sir, are we going to sign her up for adoption once we get to HQ? I know several vampires that would love an Omega as pretty as she is." An inhuman hiss filled the truck. "Uh, sir?"

"Just f*****g let me handle it. Don't question your captain. You are so annoying." His sharp gaze fell over the rest of us. I noticed that his eyes were red in color. I shivered in fear. I would hate to have those eyes focused on me solely.

~^-^~

The Trackers HQ was a simple brick building that looked as if it had once been a police station. Which was fair since the vampires took over policing years and years ago. I was taken by the arm once the car was parked so that I couldn't try to run again. I was led into an interrogation room that had one of those one-way mirrors. I glared into my own reflection.

My oily hair had once been the prettiest strawberry blonde color. My green eyes held a forest fire as I stared into them. My cheeks were almost hollowed at how underweight I was, but I knew that I was not far enough along to not be salvageable. Captain Sebastian sat down in front of me, blocking my gaze from the mirror and whoever was beyond it.

"Hello, Sawyer. It's a real pleasure to finally meet you."