“Who are you and what are you doing out here?” he asked in an annoyed manner.
“My name is Jora and I live in Salem. I came out for a walk, but I seem to have gotten lost. Can you help me?” she asked meekly.
The man walked toward her and Jora wasn’t frightened at all. In fact, she almost felt drawn to him. As he approached her, she began to notice that he was about six feet two inches tall, and even though his hair was almost black his skin was a milky white. When he got into clear view, she looked into his eyes and she realized that they were an icy blue. They were kind of hypnotizing.
“Yes, I can lead you back,” he said while staring into her tired eyes.
He noticed she was shivering and he covered her with his cloak. It swallowed her up and for that moment she was immune to the pain of her father’s death. She didn’t know why, but it was like a big weight had been lifted from her heart. She felt no fear whatsoever towards this man.
“Excuse me, sir, what’s your name?” Jora asked.
“It is Blaine Acopolis. You?” He replied.
“Jora Feildsby,” she replied while staring up at him.
They were quiet the rest of the way. Blaine led her to the edge of the forest and then turned his back and disappeared back into the forest.
She scampered home ducking behind houses and praying not to be seen. Any girl caught outside at this time of night would be punished and thought of as a witch. A woman’s job was to cook and clean, not to wander throughout the night. Jora snuck into the backdoor and shrieked as her mother popped up from behind the door.
“Where have you been? Do you know how much trouble you could get into?” Her mother said.
“I know, but I got lost and a man led me back, but I’m fine now. I just want to go to bed,” Jora said while walking up the stairs to the loft where she slept.
It was two weeks before she saw Blaine again, but she had thought of him all the while. She was walking through the forest again during the afternoon when he walked up behind her and put his arms around her. She was frightened at first and jumped a little, but she relaxed when she saw who it was.They spent all afternoon together talking and getting to know each other. Jora didn’t want to leave, but the sun had started to set and she couldn’t be late again or her mother would kill her.
“Well, I better be going. My mother will get angry if I’m late again,” Jora said while staring into his icy blue eyes longing her to stay.
“When will I see you again?” Blaine asked hopefully.
“I’ll meet you here tomorrow afternoon.” Jora said while standing.
“Okay, I’ll be waiting,” he said while bending down to kiss her on the forehead.
Jora practically floated across the ground for the next month while she and Blaine began to see more of each other. She practically knew everything about him. He was twenty, lived in a small shack in the forest, and the Indians had killed his family. But there was still something he wasn’t telling her about himself. Jora didn’t care though because she was in love. Whatever he hadn’t told her couldn’t make her love him any less. Or so she thought.
It was a beautiful, autumn evening when Blaine told her the truth about himself.
“Jora, I have something important to tell you. Something that’s very hard for me to tell you because I love you so much, but I can’t hold it back anymore. I’m a vampire. I’ve been a vampire for about one hundred years, but I’ve never found someone that I could love so much,” he said while searching her eyes for acceptance.
Jora’s eyes widened with fear. Was he serious, she wondered? He couldn’t really be serious. Vampires didn’t exist. She’d always heard about them as a child, but never thought they could be real. She got up to run but couldn’t budge. She stood with her back to Blaine for what seemed like an eternity. She turned to look at him and he had a look of shame on his face. It all made sense now, the meetings in the forest where the sunlight was blocked and how he never came into town.
“I love you,” she whispered in his ear as she bent down to hold him in her arms.
Surprised he looked up. This wasn’t the reaction he was expecting. He was waiting for her to run screaming into the village that she had seen a vampire, but she didn’t. For the next two hours Jora held Blaine in her arms.
“How did it happen?” Jora asked.
“I was walking home one night from town when I came across a man laying on the road. I walked up to him, and as I helped him up he lunged at me and I was knocked over. I was horrified as he sunk his teeth into my neck. I awoke the next morning in this forest and have been too scared to leave. I’m ashamed of what I am,” Blaine said while looking away from Jora.
“Don’t be ashamed. I love you because of who you are inside. It’s not your fault that you’ve become a vampire. I know that you would never hurt me, my family, or my friends,” Jora said while embracing Blaine.
“There’s something else I must tell you. The man who infected me with the virus was your father, George Feildsby,” Blaine said.
“Well, then that would make me one, too. Wouldn’t it?” Jora mumbled in a daze.
“Technically yes, but since your mother was a mortal when she was pregnant with you, you won’t turn til your eighteenth birthday. Also you’ll have some symptoms of a vampire like the thirst for blood, but you won’t be affected by sunlight, silver, or garlic.
Jora was horrified and confused at the same time. She had so many questions about what to do and about her father. If he was a vampire then he couldn’t be dead, but she saw him herself. They had had a funeral and had buried him. He had faked his death. But why?
“Have you ever seen a wolf around the hills? Blaine asked.
“Yes, the day my father supposedly died I was on the hill crying when I looked up and saw the wolf. It had the same green eyes as my father, and I wasn’t scared of it,” Jora replied.
“ It’s your father. Vampires are allowed one animal to morph into that makes them immune to sunlight. Your father’s is the wolf,” Blaine replied
Blaine explained to her that her father left because too many people in the village were beginning to suspect something odd about him. He didn’t want them to find out and punish you and your mother for it so he faked his death to protect you.
“And my mother?” Jora asked.
“She’s a vampire now too. Just like you,” Blaine said.
Jora rose to her feet and began running. She ran to her house and burst into the door to find her mother sitting at the table sewing.
“Why didn’t you tell me I was a vampire? Why didn’t you tell me you were a vampire?” Jora asked gasping to catch her breath. “How did you find out? Was Blaine in the forest? Is that who you’ve been seeing in the forest?” Her mother asked with sympathy.
“Yes, it was Blaine, and I love him, mother,” Jora replied
