The next morning

Gabriela wakes up the next day. She feels exhausted and she has no recollection of getting back home. Downstairs she hears her mom preparing breakfast. She stands in her bed and realizes that she’s not wearing anything except for her socks. That is odd, she hates sleeping naked. On her night stand, she finds a bottle of sun block. It’s not hers. The sun protection factor is completely off the charts and she has never heard of the brand before: Eternico.

“Belle de Jour, to stay on top of the food chain whether it’s night… or day…” says the label.

Just below the closed curtains, Gabriela spots her clothes thrown in a pile. She tries to stand up but she nearly collapses, she feels weak. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she looks at her body… so pale.

A series of double puncture wounds, surrounded by dried blood all over her thighs gets her attention. The wounds make a trail between her legs, crawling all the way up to her flower. They look like spider bites but much larger. She passes a finger over them and her mind is filled with memories from last night.

The girl, Summer… so beautiful… slides the window open violently, grabs her arms and drags her into the room with humidity stains on the ceiling. She asks Gabriela not to make a noise, she says she doesn’t want to share, not tonight. As her lips part Gabriela spots a pair of fangs where her canines should be.

A voice coming from the next room. The older woman.

“Are you all right?”

A finger on Gabriela’s lips.

“Yes, mom. Sorry, I dropped a box.”

“Be careful honey…”

Summer comes back to Gabriela, she is smiling. She gently drops a kiss on the girl’s mouth. Then, the memory becomes blurry again but Gabriela does remember a hickey… Summer sucking on her neck. Deep delicious kiss, a bit painful too.

She reaches for the spot and new memories from last night start flooding her mind. It’s a bit later, Gabriela is back in her room. Summer is with her. They are both naked, expect for Gabriela’s socks obviously. Summer pushes her on her back and slides between her legs. She starts licking her thighs, a powerful pinch like the prick of a needle… no, two needles, slurping sounds, unbearable pleasure. Was this all a dream?

The vision goes away but Gabriela is deeply troubled. She walks to the curtains and looks outside. The sun hurts her eyes. The hearse is still there and the house across the street looks as it has always: old and creepy.

“Breakfast is ready!”

Gabriela jumps into her pajamas and goes back to her family for a semblance of reality. Damn she’s thirsty.

***

Across the street, the new neighbors are also getting ready for their first day in their new town. The mother will run some errands to have a couple of contractors come and refurbish the house. The father will go to work to his new job, he is an insurance investigator, he has been doing it for the last sixty years and he loves it, he has never found a profession more suited to his predatory instincts. And the daughter, Summer, will go on her first day of school.

Bob, Electra and Summer Sinclair are vampires and they have just moved in their new hunting grounds. They were out of their previous one because of the proliferation of thralls and they had to run before the Vatican could dispatch a team. But they are used to it. It’s part of their life, that’s how it works.

Everybody is sipping on large mugs full of smoking blood. Last remnants from the truck driver.

“Please honey, don’t be too greedy at school, remember what happened in our previous town?”

“Yes, mom, promise… but you know how it is, hormones and shit.”

“Don’t say “and shit” Summer, it’s inappropriate. And Electra, please let her be, she’s a teenager after all, and you know how you were when you were 300 years old.