Blaze POV.
I stared at him in shock.
“I’m a what?” I was surprised at how rational I sounded. Inside I was reeling. What the hell is a Dhampire? And how can I be one?
“A dhampire.” Zacky waited a minute, as if assessing my reaction. “A half-vampire.” I blinked, almost unable to believe that I was having this conversation. I was in a worse situation than I thought. Not only had I been kidnapped by a bunch of strange, scary men. They were now expecting me to live with them. And at least one was obviously insane.
“Vampires aren’t real.”
“Yes, we are.”
“No, they aren’t.” I chose to ignore that he was saying that he was a vampire. He sighed again and got to his feet, turning to face me.
“Look, I am not arguing with you about whether I am a vampire or not. I know what I am.” As he spoke his canines grew, getting longer and thinner until they looked exactly like fangs.

I felt my eyes widen and scrambled backwards on the bed until I hit the headboard.
“Wh-what the HELL?!” I screamed, hysteria creeping into my voice. He didn’t move but reached both arms out to me, palms up.
“I’m not going to hurt you Blair. How many times have I promised you that? But you need to see to believe.” As he spoke the colour bled out of his green-grey eyes, which I had always liked, as they turned a deep red. It was then that I knew, I just somehow knew, that what he was saying was true. Something deep within myself was telling me that this was real and that I was a part of it. I barely had time to mumble a warning to Zacky.

“I’m going to be sick.” I didn’t see Zacky move, all I saw was a blur. Suddenly I was in the air and moving fast. Which didn’t help the sickness. Zacky knelt next to me, holding my hair back as I emptied the pathetically small contents of my stomach. When I was done he handed me a glass of water, which I used to rinse the foul taste out of my mouth.
“So have you convinced yourself that I’m not trying to drug you?” I smiled weakly back at him. His fangs had gone again and his eyes were back to their normal colour.
“I have more important things on my mind.” He let me walk back into the main bedroom by myself, staying silent until I was sat back on the bed again.
“So, you believe me?” He asked hesitantly. I nodded.
“What other reason is there for…” I gestured at him, trying to figure out how to word what I had just seen. “…that.” He smiled.
“Logical.” He sat back down next to me.
“So, am I half vampire half human?” I asked, confused.

How could I not know about this? Zacky shook his head and sighed again.
“I wish that it was that simple Blair. For you to fully understand the world that you are becoming a part of is going to take more than one conversation. But I will try to explain the basics to you now, if you will do me a favour.” I nodded. “Close the blinds please. It’s getting too close to dawn for me to be comfortable.” I got to me feet and walked over to the large bay windows, making sure that I got all of the blinds completely closed. I didn’t know what would happen to Zacky in the sunlight and I sure as heck didn’t want to ruin my chance at answers by hurting him. “Thank you.” He mumbled as I took my seat next to him again. He was silent for a few minutes.

I broke the silence.
“If I’m not half human, then what am I?” I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to know the answer, but it was something that I had to ask. Zacky proceeded to answer my question with a history lecture.
“There is more to this world than the Human eye sees. As a vampire I walk in a different world than the one that Humans walk in, but my world overlaps. There are many different names for it; The Otherworld, The Nightworld, The Darkworld, call it what you like, but it is not solely inhabited by Vampires. There are several different races that walk within it, some offshoots of Humanity, others so different that the word Human has no meaning to them at all. There are four or five main races, species, call them what you like, that you should know about. I won’t go into them all in detail, there isn’t the time, but I will outline them all briefly for you.” He glanced at me, smiling. “And yes, I will also answer your question.” I sighed a little in relief, as interesting as Zacky’s history lesson was, it wasn’t the answer that I wanted. “I’ll start with Vampires as you seem to accept us already.” I nodded. “Humans have some things right about us; we do feed on blood and we can only exist at night. We have inhuman powers, speed, strength and the like. Sunlight burns. We can turn people by biting them or taking their blood, but it is rare.” He gave me a firm look. “Very rare. We are related to humans, in a distant way, so we can reproduce normally. Hence how half vampires exist. Now here’s where you are going to have to just believe me until I can show you proof. Werewolves…” I shook my head.
“Nu-uh, no way. I will not believe that there are people out there who can turn into wolves.” He sighed again.
“Well you’re going to have to, because your other half is Werewolf.” I shook my head as his words sunk in. He fixed me with his firm look again. “Yes, you are Blair. Look within yourself. You know, just like you did with the Vampire.” I just kept looking at him, wordlessly refusing to do what he wanted. I was scared enough about the vampire. I refused to look, to believe that I was a werewolf. It wasn’t possible.

He sighed and carried on.
“Werewolves are the most common of the Weres, but you will come across others. Wolves run in packs, although you will find Lone Wolves. Wolf packs are organised in order of dominance, with the Alpha being the most dominant. As a wolf you will either be Dominant or Submissive, but we won’t know which until you change for the first time.” I stared intently at the painting on the wall, determined not to hear him. “It’s the Alpha’s place to explain the world of Weres to new wolves, I’ll leave the rest to yours.” That got my attention.
“I already have an Alpha?” He nodded. “That’s ridiculous, I don’t need one!”
“Yes you do.”
“I’m not a werewolf!”
“Yes you are.” He wasn’t even sounding irritated.
“I would know if I was a werewolf.”
“We’ll argue this tomorrow. But you can’t deny the truth. You’re not going to listen to anything else that I say are you?” I shook my head. Why should I listen to someone clearly talking nonsense? He sighed and got to his feet. “Then I’m going to bed. I’ll talk to you tonight.” He paused at the door. “I don’t have to lock this do I?” I didn’t reply. He sighed again. “Blair, I don’t want to have to lock you in. There’s no way off the property without one of us and to do so would be exceptionally dangerous.” He fixed me with the firm look again. “Sleep for the day Blair, stay in here. I’ll come and get you as soon as it’s dark.” His look turned pleading. “Please stay in here Blair. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Reluctantly I nodded. I didn’t know whether it was dangerous, or if he was just saying that to keep me here, but I wasn’t going to find out. Zacky looked relieved. “Thank you. I’ll see you later.” He stepped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him. I let myself fall backwards onto the bed. How the hell could any of this be even remotely true? How could I let myself believe any of it? It all went against everything that I’d been raised to think. All of this was meant to be a fairy-tale horror story, not real. But I couldn’t think of any other explanation for Zacky’s … transformation, or the strange certainty that had settled in my gut. I lay there for what felt like ages, running over everything in my mind. I’d been taken at night. We’d only travelled at night. There was the hunger that Jimmy had mentioned during one of our motel stays. And the strange conversation when we arrived. Then there was the ‘fangs’ and the eyes. It was the only explanation that fit. Ending up more confused than when I started, I closed my eyes and let myself drift off into a strange, restless sleep.