Vampire Rug Rats

Hello, my pretties.
Well, since I've been busy writing along in this newest book, Dhampire Legacy I've come across the old manuscript (sometimes there were 2 drafts), I used some, discarded others, depending upon my need for the new version. You know how it is there's always something you have to discard, even though you loved it when you wrote it.

The following is from a chapter I won't be using at all. Everything had changed up to this point.

Oh, and just today I got to 85K words on this baby! I'm chugging along. I hope to be done with it by the end of this month.

Well, let me get you in the mood.
In the following Lucy, who is 15, has become a vampire. She's in a mansion where a lot of vampires have been living, and to her surprise she comes across some little vampire children.

Glittering eyes peered hopefully up at Lucy out of the dank gloom. Seven or eight, she counted, all pale children's faces attached to small frail looking bodies. They pressed together in a tight knot. Some wore only rags, indicating they'd existed far more than only a few weeks as a vampire. The little girls wore ballerina dresses, which were not quite as worn, but soiled by their activities and by living in squalor in the basement. Lucy stared at the dirty face, caked and soiled from their repeated blood feasts, and never washed. Their hair, un-combed, unwashed and ratted. They were the sorriest motley group of un-kept rug rats she'd ever seen.

Understanding what she was—that she was one of them, and not quite an adult—they gathered at her feet, the closest ones grasping her legs in desperation, something like a stray cat or dog might do. Huge hopeful eyes imparted their unspoken need, until, all at the same time they said “Food! Feed us!”

Lucy hushed them, suddenly feeling like an older sister, or babysitter to them all. Some might have been only five. Others were six and the rest maybe seven or eight, boys and girls.

She sat on the steps so that she could be closer to them. They huddled around her as though she were about to tell them a story. Small, cold hands wrapped around her bare arms or legs. A few had climbed up above her to cling to her, arms or hands touching her.

“You killed him, didn't you?” One asked.

“We're happy you did that!” another added.

“I hope you chopped his head off!” a boy, the oldest one next to her said.

“Yeah!” Came their cheers.

She realized they talked about her killing Erik. “I did,” she said.

“Yeay!” They all cheered and some clapped and others simply hugged her. She was their hero. She understood that many, if not all, had been Erik's victims. He took only the blood of children or babies. Now he could do this no more, and could not add to their numbers.

“Will you help us get to our food?” one anxious boy asked.

“Food? Where? What do you mean?” she asked.

“They're hiding inside the secret room,” said a girl with flaming red hair, wearing a pink tutu.

“Where? Show me,” Lucy said.

“Behind the big door.” this one pointed to the large door. Lucy looked past the kitchen table and to the heavy wooden door.

“We can't go in there,” the blond boy said.

“Were aren't allowed to go in there,” the red-headed girl said, rolling her eyes.

Lucy scrutinized the door, noticed the flame thrower on the floor, next to the door. That was why the men hadn't taken care of these smallest vampires. She was sure Phil would have cooked them all without hesitation. She didn't know how the men had gotten down here, past the starving waifs, but they weren't going to let them back out. The men were trapped. Even if the men managed to kill the first few who attacked them, these starving little things would manage to overwhelm them in time.

So, it was up to her. She decided to handle things her way.

“First I have to ask you something,” she said.

They all scooted even closer to her, faces eagerly waiting.

“Did Zaylik, the master, come through here?”

“YES!” they said.

“Which way did he go?”

They all pointed toward the large, heavy door. “In there!”

“Okay. Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. You must listen carefully, though,” she spoke low, looking into each of their little faces. “You no longer have to stay here.”

After a silent moment of exchanging glances, one boy in worn out, faded and filthy jeans said, “But we like it here.”

“You do? Why?”

“There's lots of toys to play with.”

“And we can play house, and have tea parties,” a little girl said.

“And, we're ballerinas,” one of the other little girls in a tutu said. The group of them jumped up and pirouetted on their tip-toes.

Lucy smiled. “That's very good,” she said. “But it's no longer safe for you to stay here.”

“But why not?” the red headed girl asked, fists to her little waist.

“There's going to be a big fire, later. If you stay you will burn up.”

That got their attention and their eyes went wide, one girl made an 'o' with her mouth.

“But where can we go?”

She paused in thought. “I know of a place where all of you can hid, at least for a while.”

“Where?”

“Outside there's a large tower. There's no one there, now. You'll be safe there for the night.”

“What about our food?” asked the older boy.

“Yes. We're hungry!” the red-headed girl said, holding her stomach.

“You'll have to hunt whatever night creatures you can find outside,” she said.

They all looked dubious about that.

“Can we take our toys?” one asked.

“Sure, but take only what you can carry,” she said. “Hurry, now. Go and get your things.”

With excited little screams they dispersed and disappeared through the other doorway.

©2005 Lorelei Bell from Vampire Legacy