I just had to be a vampire slayer by Tiffany Wallace (smart books to read TXT) 📖

say, "If this is some REALLY late April Fool's joke, you got me okay? Now could you all laugh and bring out the secret video camera from wherever it was hidden?" I ask.


But nobody moved or said anything. What the hell?


"A freakin' leader? NO WAY! I'm the slayer! The freakin' slayer! NO WAY!" I screamed.


"Remember, I told you to listen," Chris says.


"I'm listening," I managed to whisper.


Chris went on to his story.


" A few centuries back, there was a young woman named Esmeralda, she was the first vampire leader, actually we think she might be your great-great-great-great-great ... put a few more greats in there, grandmother," Chris started off.


"Whoa, wait, back up, if she's my great times a million grandmother, does that mean my mom or dad might be in this too, without them even knowing??" I asked. I was past hyperventilating and now was just really curious.


"No, to be honest, we don't really know anything of how it works, in fact, after Esmeralda, we think you might be the next leader," Chris explained.


"Anyways, continuing on-So Esmeralda fell in love with a vampire, and well vampires weren't so common back then, and so that was a huge surprise all on its own, Esmeralda knew perfectly well what he could do and that he was practically a murderer, but yet she wasn't afraid," he paused. "Kind of like you,"


I stared at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"


"Well, it's just that, think back to the day of Jesse's murder, sure you were there, and you witnessed it and probably didn't want it to happen, but were you scared?" Chris asked.


I forced myself to think back to that dreadful day. It made sense though. I did feel helpless, but I wasn't scared. Why?


"So now you're wondering, why?" Chris said.

"The reason for that is even if you didn't know about vampires, it's that feeling of you being surrounded by vampires," Chris explained, "Esmeralda was surrounded by vampires pretty much her whole life, and when that got passed down to you, it made you feel the same way; in other words, vampires to you Mariah, are just like any other human being," Chris went on.


"But... I HATE them," I whispered.


"No, Mariah, you just might not, we made you think that, we fed you everything you needed to know about them, plus Jesse's attack, just made you more vulnerable to being pulled over to our side," Chris said.

"How did you even know that I wasn't scared of them?" I asked.


"Because when we had first met you, you told us about what had happened that day, and yet becoming a slayer never scared you, you never thought of the possibility of ever dying, slaying is hard stuff, you could easily get killed in an instant if you're not careful and that never seemed to cross your mind, no matter how many times we've told you, besides that, when we had that therapist come in to examine you, he informed us that there wasn't even an atom's worth of fear in you," Chris explained, " We became very interested in you, after that."


I continued to stare at him. So I did that mean I didn't really hate vampires?


"Anyways, Esmeralda was only fourteen years old when she found her vampire, his name was Alexander, and well soon after he fell in love with her, he devoted his life to her, he wanted to stop feeding off humans, and went to feed of animals in order to be able to live a civilized life with Esmeralda," Chris further explained.


"But animal blood wasn't cooperating with him, and became weak, close to the point of dying, which was when Esmeralda, who couldn't bear the thought of her lover dying, offered her blood, he did decline it of course, but her blood was intoxicating, which is what vampires say about your blood too right?" Chris asked.


I mumbled a yes.


"Anyways, when he bit into her, they discovered something; other than the fact that they were soulmates but something special about Esmeralda, to this day we don't know what that something special was, since it could only be felt by her and her lover, and so they went to their vampire elders and they confirmed it, Esmeralda was indeed the leader," Chris said. "The elders didn't believe that there were any leaders, sure they'd heard stories that were passed down, but nothing to prove it, until they had come upon Esmeralda. And so they performed a ritual that bound her into their leader,"


"I'm sorry, what is a soulmate?" I interrupted. .


"Well, we don't know, people don't think it exists anymore, but it's this bond between two beings, that holds them together for eternity, if in the case of a vampire I mean, since they do live for a very long time, we've never heard of cases of that happening in humans, but it could be possible," Chris said. "Anyways, your great something grandmother, began to turn her ways into the ways of a vampire, she lead them through change, even to one point where vampires AND humans learned to live together, she was willing to do whatever it took in order for her to be with Alexander."


"How did the ritual work?" I asked. I was too intrigued.

"It's a bit complicated..." Chris slowly explained.

"Right, like nothing else is at the moment," I rolled my eyes.


Chris sighed. I knew he was thinking that I was an impossible case.

"It has to do with the transfer of blood from vampire to leader, and some other processes as well.


"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" I asked.


Chris sighed again.


"Anyways, Esmeralda proved that if vampires were civilized which they are capable of since they were humans, one point in their lives, then they can still associate themselves with humans, she did live a happy life, even though she was still human, the vampires still accepted her, until her death that is..."


"How'd she die?" I asked.


"She was killed, a vampire by the name Giorgio, didn't like the fact that vampires and humans were now cooperating, he wanted to wreak havoc on them, not be their friend, so a few years after, he had gotten closed to her, made her believe that he was her friend, compelled her, and then killed her, her body washed up on shore the next day, where a few humans had found it."


"This started the whole feud of vampires and humans all over again. The humans believed the vampires had killed her, they had been playing them the whole time, and the one person that wanted some peace between both sides was now killed, and so the world became bitter again."


"How tragic... poor Alexander," I said, "What happened to him?"


"Oh, he's still around, after Esmeralda's death, he became vicious, human attacks became more frequent and more messy," Chris explained.


"How old was he?" I asked.


"Alexander? Twenty-five, I recall," Chris said.


"Whoa! Twenty-five? She was fourteen!!! Talk about pedophile..." I say.


"That wasn't anything unusual back in those days, remember, did you forget all your history lessons?" Chris said.


"Oh yeah, so why me?" I whispered.


"It's not something we can question, we're almost certain that you are the next leader, we just don't want that to be the case, I mean okay sure, it's amazing, but we feel that then the vampires will turn you onto their side, and things just might get more messier, which is why we recruited you onto our side," Chris said.


"So that's why you people were so adamant about me becoming a slayer? You had a reason all this time?" I got mad.


Leon stepped in. "No, we were trying to protect you, Mariah, who knows what they would do to you, as the centuries go by, vampires have changed, they think differently, they're more strategic, there's no telling what they could do, with an actual leader on their side, the world could be destroyed, it was all with good intentions."


"What does the leader do?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that they were using me all these years.


"We're not sure, all we know is that if the leader ends up in the wrong hands, it's not good... as of right now, Damien's father is the king, and you rightfully belong on his side, we don't know what their plan is, so we can't be too sure... or safe," Leon said.


"Why does the king need a slayer? Don't they pretty much have everything covered?" I asked.


"Well... no, the royal family is pretty much that, 'royal'... they have authority and power but not actual powers, the leader on the other hand is very powerful all on their own," Chris explained.


"Wait... does that mean I have powers?" I asked, stunned. I did not want powers. Way too much responsibility, as if I didn't already have enough on my hands.


"We can't be too sure... we just recently found out about all of this and we wanted to tell you sooner... but everything that's been happening these days, with you and Damien..." Chris said.


"Uh huh, so why do you think they're trying to kill me then?" I ask.


"Because they don't know that you are anything other than a slayer," Chris cut in.


"How do they even know that I am the slayer, nobody knows!" I exclaim.


"The royal family always have their ways," Chris said.


"By the way, how do you know all this? I thought you didn't have anything, and now you have a whole encyclopedia's worth of stuff!" I say.


"Research-- library, internet, plus all the extra research of Leon's, we've managed to come with all of this in two days, with the help of our entire team," Chris said.


"I'm impressed, I think this is the hardest you've ever worked," I say.


"That's because this is the hardest case we've ever worked with, plus you're involved, so it matters," Chris said.


I smiled up at him. I felt flattered but also betrayed in a way. I guess I didn't really have time to think about that. I had to work out a plan now.


Leon cleared his throat. "So, Mariah... about Damien..." he started.


Oh snap, Damien. I had forgotten about him. That meant that he was using me, he was getting ready to kill me, and he was doing that by playing with my feelings...


I've never known what love felt like, and the one time in my life I had the chance to maybe feel it, it got snatched from right under me.


"I'll deal with him," I sa