"No," I said. "Did you know him?"
"Brilliant man," she said. "Stupid humans."
"I think you just contradicted yourself."
"Galileo was brilliant. The church, however, was narrow-minded and has done so much harm over the years." She paused. "If vampires had accomplished nothing else that was good, I am proud we finally broke the church's stranglehold on free thought."
I began drawing her, first doing studies. I did a rough sketch of how she stood, then another sketch with just her right hand.
"Was he a friend?"
"I wouldn't say that. I was a woman, after all. Of course, he didn't know I was a vampire. I knew him before his arrest, and then I attended his funeral in disguise. But he lived a very full life for a human of the time, and so while I mourned his passing, in my heart, I could rejoice in the life he led."
"Did you know he would be so important to history?"
"No, of course not. His theories and positions on matters of science were very controversial, and many thought he was a crackpot."
"Did you?"
"I thought he was fascinating, even if he was wrong, although I think perhaps I enjoyed him because he defied the church."
"You do not like the church."
"The greatest depravities ever known to man have been perpetrated by men of the cloth," she said. She paused. "Bad topic. I am happy to discuss it another time."
"I am sorry. I do not know what to ask you."
"You have calmed," she replied. "I am, for now, calm as well. Would you like to pick up where we left off?"
"Is my price typical?"
"No. A drug addict or street criminal may sell for a few thousand dollars, or even less than that."
"I should be flattered?"
"There was quite a bidding war for you."
"Is this a safe topic for you?"
"For now," she said. "Melissa, for your own safety tonight, do not intentionally anger me. I won't kill you, but I will hurt you."
"I understand. Why so much?"
I started another sketch.
"You must understand a few things about vampires. We are deeply driven by our needs. You are seeing that tonight."
"All right."
"We also deeply covet what we cannot be ourselves. A vampire can learn far greater control over pencils or a brush than you have, but we cannot produce art. We can only duplicate it. Even a skilled vampire could not draw me standing here, because that requires the ability to translate my three-dimensional image into two dimensions. But a vampire could copy what you draw, down to the smallest mistakes. I couldn't, as I have not made an effort to learn the techniques. But do you understand?"
"I believe so. Will it bother you if I move around?"
"Remain calm and do not crowd me too closely. You should probably not touch me again tonight unless you are ready to offer your throat."
I paused in my chair then decided not to let her rattle me. I climbed slowly and moved to stand along the window near her. It was a bay window, and there was a large sill. "Is this strong enough for me to sit?"
"Yes. I often do."
I sat up, pulling a leg up and watching her for a moment, then I began to draw her eyes.
She shifted her gaze to me. "That does not look like a person."
"Sketches. Little details. Then I assemble them into a whole. Am I taking too long? I should have asked."
"No. Take however much time you want."
"I am not keeping you from anything?"
"No."
"I am going to draw your mouth for a moment, if you don't mind. You will need to be still."
She became deathly still, and it was unnerving.
"Your heart just increased again. Why?"
"You become a statue. Can you breathe or something?"
"You asked me to be still."
"Perhaps not that still. It is-"
"Inhuman?"
"I didn't say it."
"I will be somewhat less still," she said. And she was, moving slightly as she stood still. It was still inhuman, but I looked down at my pad for a moment, sketching randomly, then looked up and concentrated on the set of her mouth.
I did several more sketches, then moved away from her.
"You may talk again," I said. "I am going to do two sketches of you now, one full body and then one of only your face. And then we will see if I can show you what I mean." I switched to a new page and began drawing. "Was my price difficult to pay?"
"I do not frequently buy blood slaves," she said.
"You have a room for them."
"That room has never been used for a blood slave," she replied.
"Where do you normally keep them?"
She turned to look at me. "When I say that I do not frequently buy them, I should say that you are the first."
I stopped drawing.
"Your heart rate, Melissa!"
She turned away.
"I'm sorry," I said. I glanced down at the pad. "You have a fine figure, Lady Dunn."
"Thank you."
"Do you keep your figure from when you were turned, or does it change?"
"Change comes with difficulty," she replied.
"So this is how you looked when you were turned, centuries ago."
"More or less, yes."
"Why do you have my bedroom?"
"For volunteers."
"Excuse me? People volunteer to be a blood slave?"
"No. They volunteer to die."
"Why?"
"Usually disease. Cancer, for instance."
"And you put them in a bare room like that?"
"Furnishings come, furnishings go. In reality, they probably occupy my bed, but my schedule rarely matches a human's, and so they have the room down the hall. It is simple, but it is private and out of the way of the comings and goings of the house."
"And the lock?"
"It was turned around for your arrival."
"I see. Why are there no windows in your guest room?"
"Young vampires do not trust curtains," Lady Dunn replied. "I do not anticipate hosting any vampires that young during your stay with me, and so I can devote the room to your needs."
"And the hooks on the walls?" I asked.
"They were added by the same workmen who turned the lock around," she replied.
I wasn't happy with that answer. I took several deep breaths and concentrated on her sketch, working on the details of her hand at her throat. "You are an easy subject. Thank you. Most fidget."
"I thought you found it uncanny that I did not."
"I find it uncanny when you neither breathe nor blink. You didn't answer my earlier question. Was my price unusual, and was it difficult for you to pay, especially if you can keep me no more than three years? That is a great deal of money per year. If you had approached me with an offer of that size, you could have secured my services as an artist for far less than that."
"Your price is unusual, but not a record. Much more famous artists have had terrible, illegal habits. But of course, theirs have been life sentences. Still, eight hundred thousand a year is not a record."
"And yet you have not answered my question."
"I would have paid any price to have you, Melissa. No, I did not flinch at your price."
Neither of us spoke as I finished the full form sketch.
"I need to manage your expectations, Lady Dunn," I said. "As my client."
She smiled for a moment. "Yes, Ms. Walsh?"
"I am only making sketches tonight. Drawings take much longer, and portraits even longer than that. Furthermore, I am not drawing in my usual style. I am applying nothing I would consider art. I am, in effect, making a photograph of you, although not entirely a true photograph."
"I do not wish you to make a false image to flatter me."
"Do you believe I would bother flattering you after working so hard to anger you earlier?"
She glanced at me.
"I am highlighting the starkness so it is more readily appar
ent. I am making you very slightly gaunter than you truly are, for instance. Anyone looking at this would know it is you, and many might believe the artist had a death wish."
"The artist does have a death wish," she stated with a smile.
"You understand? If you want a completely true drawing, that will take time."
"Another night," she replied. "I understand, Ms. Walsh."
"I am not, at this time, offering my services as an artist. I wish to be clear. I am only making a point."
"You are very precise," she said. "Especially for an artist."
"I am also a businesswoman," I said. "I have learned the importance of precision in discussions with clients, whose expectations nearly always overreach their pocketbooks."
She smiled.
"And no, you do not get credit with me for your two point four million."
"I didn't think I did, but you will learn to offer me credit for other reasons, but perhaps not tonight."
"We'll see. I may still taunt you into snapping my neck."
"It won't happen," she said.
I had been drawing her face for some time, but I needed to move again. "I wish to come closer again."
"By all means," she replied.
I returned to the window seat and continued to draw.
"What happens to the money? Does the judge keep it?"
"Oh, of course not," she said. "Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest. No. You have benefitted from the sale of past blood slaves."
"I have?" I asked with a lifted eyebrow.
"You didn't think that education you have received was free, did you?" I burst to my feet and nearly ran across the room.
"Freeze!" she yelled. "Slowly. Do not act like prey."
I edged away from her, and I knew my heart was pounding.
"Calm down, Melissa. Please, calm down."
I turned away and forced myself to breathe slowly. When I turned around, her fangs were showing. I stared at them.
"Will you hold it together if I approach?"
"If you do not act like a scared rabbit." It was said tightly.
I moved towards her, picking up my pad.
"Can you keep them out?"
"For another minute or two," she said. Her gaze moved to me, and I thought I knew what it felt like to be a chocolate éclair at a chocolate lovers convention.
"If you lose it, is my life in danger?"
"No."
That one word made it easier to calm down entirely, and I stepped closer.
"May I touch?"
She didn't answer right away then nodded. She was shaking. "They are very sharp. If you cut yourself, you will be feeding me a heartbeat later."
I touched one fang with my finger.
"Can you open?"
She opened her mouth, and I saw just how long the fangs were. They glistened and appeared to be needle sharp.
"They look fragile."
She nodded. "They regrow."
"I should be more frightened."
"You are exceedingly foolish," she replied. "You must now slowly retreat to the far side of the room, but stay away from the door and my bed."
I moved away from her, but I took my sketchpad, and I flipped back one page and began sketching her open mouth with the fangs protruding, working from memory. I worked quietly.
"I thought the university came from taxes we all pay," I said quietly.
"It started as a joke," she replied. "Someone suggested the idea of blood slavery as a solution to man's endemic criminal problem. Someone else suggested the criminals be sold as blood slaves and the money used to reduce overall taxes. But then that idea grew to funding education for the humans. In the beginning, there were so many criminals, most vampires kept several blood slaves at the same time, and their life expectancy was often no more than a few weeks, but as the backlog of criminals was depleted, and the rest of you learned we were serious, the inflow of blood slaves has turned into a trickle of what it once was."
"You're saying this all started as a joke?"
"It was phrased as a joke. I believe that was, well, marketing. It let other factions join the idea without giving too much credit to the vampire who recommended it."
"I am sorry for my reactions," I told her.
"These are unsettling things for you to learn. I cannot fault you."
She turned to face me, her gaze piercing me.
"Are you done?"
"No. Ten more minutes, but if you are growing tired or impatient-"
"I am not," she said. "You may return, but move slowly."
I nodded and returned to the window seat, taking a nonchalant position and returning to the drawing. I finished the one I had been doing, but then over the back of it, I overlaid an image of her open mouth as if it was about to bite into her portrait, the fangs ready to pierce the skin of her cheeks. I drew the mouth far oversized, large enough to consume the entire portrait.
When I was done, I looked at it, then at her.
"I did something startling. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it. Do I need to retreat before you look?"
"Only if you seek to anger me."
"No. Where shall we sit?"
"I will take the sofa, and you will sit across from me."
I waited until she was settled, then I moved to the easy chair. It was stiff and uncomfortable. I frowned.
"I know. If you look too comfortable, I may grow too comfortable with you."
"I see." I didn't, but it was all right. I turned to the full body drawing and set it on the coffee table between us. She picked it up and stared at it.
"This is I?"
"You don't recognize yourself?"
"It has been a very long time," she said. She studied it intently. "How exaggerated is the starkness?"
"Mildly. Not exaggerated as much as allowed to stand out."
"May I look at the next?"
I was surprised she had asked permission. I nodded, and she flipped to the next page. Her lips tightened for a moment. "Bold."
"Are you angry?"
"No. It is perhaps more insightful than you realize." She cocked her head. "I see the starkness. It's sharp."
"Yes. Your makeup highlights it."
"Penny is not returning, so I imagine whoever does my makeup in the future will achieve a different appearance."
"What will happen to her?"
"Do you care?"
"I am curious, that is all."
"She will need to find a new position elsewhere. I will offer a clinical reference. She has been a good maid."
She looked up to me, piercing me with her gaze. "You will not do that again to anyone other than me. You will kneel to no one other than me. You will offer no physical affection to anyone other than me. And you will most certainly not kiss anyone's feet but mine. Do I make myself clear?"
"And so you have ordered me to kiss your feet?"
"No." She paused. "I had thought of doing so, and it has been a very, very long time since I have been so insanely jealous as I was watching you kiss hers. She should have known better."
"What made her think of that."
"She used to kiss mine. I never ordered it. She just started doing it, usually when she wanted. Um. Something."
"Like what?"
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"Yes."
"To feed me."
"Why would she want to do that? It hurts."
"I am sorry," she said. "I was impatient. I have dreamed of taking you like that."
I stared at her. "That is twice you have made references to finding value in me specifically."
"Your curiosity will remain unfulfilled," she replied. "I will continue to drop subtle hints that you will never assemble into the whole fabric."
"You know," I said, "if you wear your hair... Hmm. Never mind."
She laughed. "Very good. It won't work. You have asked a great many questions tonight. I would like to ask one."
"All right."
"Did a civilized conversa
tion hurt?"
I looked down, not ready to admit I'd enjoyed speaking with her.
"The truth, Melissa."
"No, it didn't hurt."
"Your situation is unfair."
I looked up, surprised she would say it.
"You are too young to remember the wars."
"I'd say. I wasn't born."
"Oh. I suppose you weren't. Vampires had stayed in the shadows for millennia, watching mankind destroy the earth and prey upon each other. We watched as you overpopulated nearly every corner of the globe. We watched as the great forests were consumed, the great fisheries depleted, and water levels dropped. You have caused the extinction of Atlantic grey whales and severely threaten numerous other whale species. You have destroyed the natural habitat of most land creatures, leading to additional extinctions or at the least, critically endangered species. Passenger pigeons once darkened the skies and were hunted into extinction. The dodo has been extinct since before 1700."
"What has this to do with being sentenced to be your slave for three years because I had one glass of wine and then very cautiously drove on an errand of mercy nearly ninety minutes later after a four-mile run in the park? I was probably the safest driver on the streets, I was so paranoid of making a mistake, and for this, here I am."
"I admitted your situation is unfair. I will get there. Please exercise patience."
I nodded. "All right."
"We watched all of this."
"You were once human. You were once part of the problem. And I believe you were alive when whale oil was used to light your lamps."
"I was. On the other hand, I see very well in the dark."
"Touché."
"You make a fair point, but it is not vampires overpopulating the planet, which is the greatest source of stress."
"And this still has what to do with me?"
"Prior to the vampires enacting the new laws, alcohol was a factor in over half of all motor vehicle deaths."
"There were no laws?"
"There were, but even if the laws had been enforced one hundred percent of the time, which of course, is impossible, the laws were not strict enough. Furthermore, the penalties didn't seem to work. The problem remained endemic. And so, we implemented an extreme response, just as we did for other endemic problems facing society."
"Like obesity."
"Yes."
"I was not a threat."
"No, but half measures did not work. What worked, not perfectly, but worked, was a zero tolerance policy. People who drink believe they are less impaired than they are, and the amount of impairment varies with so many factors. And so, we implemented a zero tolerance policy, and we made the penalty exceedingly severe. The targets were the people who were killing other people."
Blood Slave Page 9
