The elders sat at the table discussing the current state of the world. The Chinese government had reased a deadly virus, in hopes it would wipe out the vampiric race.
This virus quickly became known around the world as the COVID-19. The Chinese hoped it would effect the human race like the common flu and pass only killing vampires, but they were so wrong. The virus quickly spread killing half of the humans it effected. It went on to to harm vampires as well, it was new and nobody knew what the virus was capable of.
The world as we knew it was coming to an end both humans and vampires alike were frightened. The oldest of the sang tribe stood before the congregation as the rumble of whispers slowly came to an end.
"My dear brothers and sisters," he began as the room went silent, "as you all know clean blood has become very scarce in recent times. These are very trying times for both vampires and humans alike. Many of you are out there afraid that the humans might turn on us out of fear to protect their species. Though the concept of of our kind may be new to the humans, I can assure you the counsel is working diligently with the human government to come up with a solution. It took a common enemy to unite us but now that our Alliance to humanity is strong our laws on non consentual feeding will be tightened. Any vampire accused of non consensual feeding will stand trial and if found guilty sentenced to death." A roar of whispers clouded the entire room.
"So what, we just kneel before the humans and become some kind of subservient pet to them. With all due respect counselor, we need to face the facts. The humans will never see us as equals, we will never see justice in this trial system because to them even if we are innocent, we are to be found guilty." A man shouted standing up in the crowd.
"That may be but this virus effects us more than it effects them. The number of Sang are dwindling down lower and lower with every passing day. Time is no longer a luxury to us people! So I stand by my decision if it means gaining an alli in these darkest of times." the counselor rebutted passionately.
"You think we need them to win a war they created?" the man argued.
"No, I know we need them to win. Right now there's more of them than us, and those of us who have been infected. It's becoming much more difficult to quarantine them. If we do not work together to find a solution, both sides are sure to lose." the counselor answered confidently as the man sat back down.
"I know you are all scared right now, nobody knows what comes next. We need to transform our present to guide us into our future." the counselor continued.
"What about the supply of clean blood, what do you intend to do about that?" a woman shouted standing up in the back of the room.
"We are working on a donor list with the humans officals." the counselor answered not missing a beat.
"What do we do about all those that have been infected that are still out there? Alliance or not if the humans get to them first they will surely annihilate them. Some of those infected are our own tribe." she said.
"We have been working round the clock to keep the infected neutralized and contained, until we can find a cure. So far we have been successful in keeping the truth about what the virus does to our kind under tight wraps and until we learn more about it I intend on keeping it need-to- know information." he assured her and all the people in attendence.
"How is it going finding a cure and creating the vaccine?" She fired back.
"Both sides have their greatest minds hard at work and with every passing day we are that much closer. Someday I hope we can live openly and freely in a world free of disease but that day is not today. For today we must look onward to the future and stand united as one." the crowd cheered him on as he nodded and waved. "Don't forget to sign up at city hall to be on the list for a donor, and for those of you that have a source for clean blood. Please encourage your donor to feed multiple vampires and sign up to be a donor. Everyone stay healthy and stay safe." He smiled stepping down off the bench as the crowd cheered him on.
I walked up behind the bench to greet my father. My father was the head of the Sanguine Council and held the power of making all the final decisions for our tribe.
"Great speech, Sir." I teased mustering up a warm greeting.
I hadn't seen my father for a year prior to the COVID-19 epidemic, so to say the least our relationship was slightly strained.
"Jezebel, is that you?" he answered with genuine joy to see me. "It's been so long since your last visit, I look forward to hearing how you have been. That is if you care to join us for supper this evening."
"Name the time and I'll be there." I couldn't believe I was agreeing to this.
"Excellent, say midnight? We have an excellent supply of clean blood from before the epidemic." he encouraged.
"Sounds great." I openly lied, but being lied to was the least of what he deserved.
He then smiled pulling me in for a hug, "It's great to see you kiddo." he said kissing me on the head.
I just forced a smile and nodded as he took his leave. My father was a very busy man and it helped me to keep away from him, well most of the time. I dreaded the image in my head of sitting in his perfect house with his perfect wife, it could all just make me puke.
Deep down I truly hated him, but facing reality he was all that I had. An eternal soul can be a lonely one, and even if he was a complete bastard it was better than facing this alone.
I ducked my way out of the theater doing my best to dodge my dip shit step mother. If I were to be completely black and white though, I would have to say there was nothing wrong with my stepmother. She may not be the brightest bulb but she genuinely loved my father for whatever reason.
Some would say it's ridiculous to hold a four hundred year grudge but I still had every intention of holding it another four hundred years. What my father put me through is unforgivable.
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The evening seemed to fly by so fast and before I knew it, I was standing at the great big white door that led you into my father's castle of a home. I raised my arm to knock and the door flew open.
"Did you find the place alright?" My father asked towering at the door.
"Yeah it was pretty easy." I answered feeling intensely awkward.
"Well come on in." He urged me to come in.
The place looked exactly as I had remembered it. The white walls match the ceiling as well as the marble floor tile. It all just made me literally want to vomit and leave a nice stain on their perfectly kept floor. Instead I forced a smile as my stepmother came to greet me.
"Darling, you made it!" she said enthusiastically while simultaneously squeezing the air out of me completely.
"Nice to see you too, Romona." I replied patting her on the back awkwardly.
"So we have some catching up to do, let's take this party to the parlor room." Ramona added waving us on.
It seemed like the longer I stayed there the more awkward and forced it felt. I knew I didn't belong in this picture, their picture perfect family. As much as I shared genetics with the man we had absolutely nothing in common. I was grateful for it though, if I shared even an ounce of common ground with him it would make me a monster just like him.
I knew I could never forgive him for what he had done, the single act that ruined my life forever but over and over again I tried. I don't know maybe somewhere inside myself I was craving to be more like my mother, strong and confident unafraid of my past. I couldn't lie to myself though my past terrified me almost as much as the thought of my future.
"So anything exciting in your life lately?" my father asked pouring three Champaign glasses of clean blood and distributing them evenly.
"Not really, still getting used to the way the world is right now. I mean I was used to living in secret and I thought that was bad, living like this is just waiting for a war." I answered honestly.
"I know it's scary right now but I assure you the world will go back to normal soon enough. You see I asked you here for more than just to be sure you were fed tonight." he began confirming my suspicions, he did have an ulterior motive all along.
"What's that?" I asked trying to pull off a good look of confidence.
"Follow me," he said pulling down a book from the shelf to reveal a secret door way before heading off down the dark hidden stairwell. "Don't be afraid everything down here is completely contained." he assured me and I blindly followed.
He flipped some switches on the wall powering up the industrial strength lights. I was briefly blinded by the title wave of light but when my eyes finally dialated I realized I was standing in a giant freezer. There was a glass wall in front of us but it was dark inside the glass room and I couldn't make anything out.
"What is all this?" I asked confused.
"The cold keeps them sedated." he replied.
"Keeps who sedated?" I asked nervously.
"Our future as a race." he replied hitting another switch on the wall to light up the dark glass room and I was appalled by what I saw.
I covered up a scream as I came face to face with the most hideous monster I had ever laid eyes on. It had no skin, pointed teeth like a shark, long black claws, and big black alien eyes. the creatures arms were crerpishly long and the sight of it sent a shiver down my spine.
"This is what becomes of a vampire that has accidentally ingested infected blood. There have only been about 800 cases so far, barely a fraction of our population. We have been capturing and containing them as fast as we can but with the lack of clean blood, many of our kind are going primal. Vampires are losing it and blindly attacking humans out of pure hunger, the problem is even the healthy humans could be carriers. It takes a few days to fully manifest itself within the humans, as well as it takes an equal amount of time for one of our kind to turn into this after contamination." he explained.
"Oh Goddess, this is what will become of us?" I asked stifling a vomit for real this time.
"It's a dark future ahead of us without your help." he replied.
"My help?" I laughed out loud before realizing the straight face he wore. "Oh your serious." I gulped as my mouth quickly began to dry out. "How do you expect me to stop all of this? I can't even stop my landlord from trying to evict me every month." I asked confused and frightened.
"Well you see I have this theory that I can use your blood for a cure." he said.
"How do you suppose that might work?" I asked.
"Jezebel, there's something you have to know." he began with a sigh. "The life you think you know isn't at all what it seems."
"What are you talking about?" I asked nervously.
"Clair, she was not your real mother and I think somewhere deep down you know that." he said and I began to feel enraged.
"You have no right to speak her name!" I snapped. "I've tried over and over again to forget that night, put it in the past and move on. I've tried to rationalize the situation in my head so many times, but I just can't. Just like I can't forgive you for what you did to her, to my mother!" my words came out of my mouth like venom as I turned to storm out.
"The cure is your blood, because of your real mother." he blurted and I stopped in my tracks partway up the stairs turning to face him.
"You murdered my real mother." I spat the words as I slowly came back down.
"Jezebel, what I did to Clair was all to protect you. You are so special and you don't even realize it. Clair was threatened by the truth of what you are and she wanted to hurt you, I had to stop her she gave me no choice." he pleaded.
"What's so damn special about me that my own mother would want me dead?" I asked.
"That is a truth you are just not ready for, your just going to have to trust me." he said trying to elicit empathy.
"Your out of your damn mind if you expect me to trust you." I replied.
"If not for me do it for the future of our people." he pleaded. "Look behind that glass and tell me if the world would be a better place with millions of those running around?"
I pressed my lips together as I looked through the glass at the giant hideous monster. I could barely believe my eyes, was this really the end of the world for humans and vampires alike? Was I staring into the future of this world?
"That was once one of us?" I asked feeling guilty and selfish for trying to leave.
"It's worse than that, he's of the sang people." he replied.
"That's one of our own behind that glass and you think my blood can cure him?" I asked.
"I sincerely do." he assured me.
"I can't turn my back on my own people if there's even a sliver of a chance I can save them. Let's do this." I agreed.

(Thanks for reading part1 of my #coronaviruschallenge the story will continue in "The Last Sang II".)