Distract my hunger

by X. Williamson

  Just when I started to think that this guy was perhaps ranting a bit or that I must be in some kind of comatose dream a strange thought popped into my head. I had a very odd and cloudy memory about a few moments before I passed out. I remembered his voice talking to me; I was quite sure he spoke to me inside my head.

  My new teacher seemed to be quite excited with the whole subject of crazy mind reading. I could see that he was just dying to tell me all about it but was trying to restrain himself for a few moments to add some suspense or to let me settle a bit everything he had just said.

  He fidgeted with his hands like a child and almost danced on his feet while adding silent momentum to his lecture on vampires when he seemed to restrain himself no more and continued:

  “Mind-reading is such an interesting topic; we could go on for days discussing this and always discover something new about each other or about our kind. Not all vampires have the same telepathic ability. Some of us are powerful mind-readers while others can barely communicate with their nearby clan members in moments of crisis.

  Adrenalin in life threatening or stressful situations seems to enhance any telepathic gift. Even if it is not something that a given vampire can use at will, it seems to be a response triggered by adrenalin-filled situations. Because of this I would even dare to say that even though it is not a homogeneous trait of our species like blood-feeding is it is still one of our main characteristics.

  I’m an average mind reader myself. I would love to be better at it but I could never fully develop my emitting abilities. I can receive without mayor concentration but I must concentrate fully to emit the slightest thought. My son on the contrary is a very good mind reader. Since very young, even before his awakening he could emit and receive messages to vampires who were nearby. He definitely got that from his mother, she was also an amazing telepath.

  With practice any of our skills can be developed a little bit further but our genes seem to mandate our bounds. We must all discover our potential and develop it to its fullest, for those are the gifts we were given and finally who we are.

  You will know how strong a mind-reader you are within the next few days probably, but from what I have seen so far you might be the strongest emitter and receiver I have met in my long life. I’m truly honoured; I never thought the day would come when I would meet a vampire like you. I had heard rumours of those with such a strong ability but I always thought they were old lore.” With that sole revealing and puzzling piece of information he smiled and went silent.

  When he finished I could sense how wide-open I had my eyes, but could do nothing about it. It was all so much information, and the worst part of it was that even though the whole thing sounded so crazy and impossible, I knew it was true. I knew deep inside me that I was a vampire.

  Why did he think I was one of the strongest “emitter and receiver” he had ever met? I didn’t think I was emitting anything, or was I? Could they all listen to my thoughts? Was I just crazily broadcasting them like a tuned up radio? I couldn’t imagine things getting any more embarrassing . . . my guy probably knew all the hot feelings I had for him, and his dad probably heard everything I thought of the whole time!

  I felt like a total klutz, I had been possibly shouting out my innermost thoughts and didn’t even notice. Would I ever learn to stop doing that? Or would I be forever transparent for everyone to always know what I thought and felt? Could they even hear me when I was asleep? I wouldn’t like to have all vamps near me prying in my sleep. As if “normal” life wasn’t complex enough, I also had to worry about mind gossip now . . .

  During those first moments of silence when I was still trying to digest the truth about my identity, my eyes met one of the most intriguing beings I would ever meet again.

  She was standing within the small group of vampires but somehow she stood out. Her eyes burned like molten silver in their sockets while her nostrils barely quivered with her breath. Even though she was not moving I could almost feel her predatorily walking in the night and trying to mimic the pace of another being.

  A certain dignified sense of sovereignty reeked from her charismatic self. She stood like a royal figure motionless looking at her subjects. Don’t ask me why, but I knew she was dangerous in ways I wouldn’t even dare to imagine.

  She knew I was mesmerized with her and waited patiently while I continued absorbing her. She seemed delighted, as if she had waited for that moment patiently and now finally she got things her way. Her manner proud and royal, her looks completely astonishing, and her voice something cold and husky, she was something I could have never imagined. Then, without uttering a word, she spoke to me:

  “I see you’ve discovered I’m quite different little one, perhaps you truly are special, quite special indeed.” She said and never once moved her plump cerise-coloured lips. Her lips were two perfect cherub bows too exquisitely chiselled to make anyone think of something other than divine.

  Her husky voice felt like a caress within my mind (huskier yet smoother that I imagined) and without ever knowing what I was doing I answered her in the same manner as she spoke to me and asked her:

  “Why are you different? Who or what are you? I know you mean no harm to me, but I can sense true danger, there’s something . . . lethal about you. You seem the same as the rest of the group but I can feel you are quite different. What makes you so different? I cannot truly grasp it, but I can imagine you are something I wouldn’t completely understand right now. Am I treading on the right track?” I said to her mind and wondered if I had succeeded.

  She seemed quite pleased with my mental retort and even smiled in her regal manner. Her response this time was spoken and not telepathic.

  “Baby-girl you are innately wise for you are by far the youngest of us. Many of us are much older than what we appear and years made us very perceptive but you are different. You where born that way.” She said and struck the attention of the others with her words.

  Gazes jumped from her to me and back making them look like spectators of a complex tennis match. After a while of this they slowly started looking at me in awe. They appeared open-eyed while they watched me astonished as if a prophecy had just been fulfilled.

  She remained silent for just a few seconds that felt like years, as if letting her words settle. This vampire was the master puppeteer and was gathering momentum to continue her amazing show. She wet her perfect lips with the pink tip of her tongue and wording every small sound with her perfectly sensuous mouth movements continued to address me:

  “I’m the oldest one of us. Our clan never met one as old as me, and I might as well be the very first of our kind, I honestly don’t know.

  I’m the only one besides you here that is not linked by blood with the rest of the clan as far as we know. I’m over 723 years old, for that old is my oldest memory, and I still don’t know why I’m the only one who has survived so long.” She said with a soft sigh.

  Listening to her was something out of a fairy tale; just like I imagine listening to Queen Elizabeth I must have been like ages ago. Every word she uttered was filled with sensations; she spoke and made coloured shivers run down my spine. I could imagine the air separating us become thick and full of electricity just as if the Northern Lights were bursting with colour within the room.

  “Most of us die by the time we are around 300 like James told you; they age at an accelerated rate for a few months, and like old humans, they die.

  Death for every living creature is a natural process for without death there is no life and without life there is no death. Together they go full circle. Death finally sets the natural order of things.

  Vampires, just as humans, are born and grow up till they bloom with their full splendour. We can procreate and we are blessed with very long lives to live, it can be a blessing or a curse: they are whatever we make of them. We can enjoy a deep and rich life or endure the hardships we set upon us. Remember little-one, you always reap what you sow until the day the reaper comes to take you back.


  I’ve heard of vampires living till they are nearly 400 years but I’ve never known many to live past that. In fact, many vampires live about one hundred and fifty years on Earth. It all depends on what kind of vampire they are.

  We tend to separate our kind into two main branches depending on how pure we are. We can breed with humans if we choose to, and our offspring would be a vampire too to a certain extent. Depending on how much human blood a vampire has in his background it can be what we call an inheritor or an ancient (or primal) vampyr.

  Most vampires you’ll know will always be what we call strong inheritors, all of the members in this clan are strong and very strong inheritors. They have some human blood and therefore some human ancestors in their family tree, but generally not that many. Their human ancestors also tend to be quite a few generations back and therefore that makes their vampire traits strong. This kind of vampyr is the one that lives for about three hundred years.

  Mild inheritors are more towards the human side. The strongest of these are the ones who have one parent who is a vampire and the mildest of all are the ones that have a vampire way back in their family tree such as a great grandparent or even further away in their bloodline. Some of them don’t even know they have a vampire origin and live their whole lives in ignorance of their inheritance.

  No mild inheritor will live to be more than a hundred and fifty years old at the most and instead of displaying a full range of vampire traits they display only mild characteristics.

  We can always spot them from a crowd. For us they stand out, but unless they were brought up with their vampire family and knew about it, they will never spot us. They can feel things and sense there is something odd but they will never quite put it into place. I believe it is better for them in a way since generally they live in the human world and not in ours.

  Mild inheritors feel the hunger, the need for something they cannot manage to put into words, but unless they are taught about it they will probably never understand that they crave for blood. Without taking blood, they will not live to their full lifespan and will die like most humans. Many of them feel the hunger and succumb to certain excesses such as alcohol or drugs trying to distract it. It is very sad indeed. They think they satiate an insatiable hole by numbing it.

  Some groups of mild inheritors are deducing finally some things for themselves. I’m not completely sure how, but they started discovering the basics about awakenings and hunger needs, and they started finding one and other.

  The internet has worked marvels for these people. You would be amazed of the size this new rising “vampire community” has! They tend to call themselves sanguinarians, and they find human donors to feed once in a while. Luckily for them they don’t actually need to feed, but it makes their life just easier and healthier so to speak. I’m sure that just feeding about once a week helps them live to their full lifespan . . . though I’m not really sure since I’m not the one that keeps direct contact with them.

  Some of those new communities are starting to establish links with the wider vampire community, and that is quite good because they are very linked to simple humans. Clans like ours never know when we will actually need their help . . . Still, don’t let me get all wrapped up in vamp-politics and let me finish telling you about the different kinds of us.” She paused for a very short moment, burning me with her penetrating gaze and only making me want to know more. I wanted to know everything she had to tell, I wanted to drink this new knowledge as if it was squeezed from a lemon.

  “The other kind of vampires I mentioned earlier is the ancient vampires or primal vampyr. These are the oldest and purest of all, no human blood can be spotted in their bloodlines. Some don’t even know exactly where they came from since they don’t remember much from before the awakening process since it was such a long time ago.

  There are very few of these since humans and power thirsty inheritors killed many of them and most ancients decided not to breed (at least that’s what I always heard). Ancients also wither and die but this process tends to happen about two centuries later than for the inheritors I believe.

  I met many who died when they were about five hundred years. Their skin ages fast and their systems start shutting down and over a period of about a few months, they dry up and die. Many ancients never get to live that process for they meet violent deaths before. Vampire quarrels always leave their body count.

  The strongest gifts are those of the ancients. That is why most inheritor vampires feel as if they are in the presence of royalty when near them and in a certain way they are the closest the vampire world has to it. Since most will never breed to prevent excessively strong vampires and therefore possible wars in our world, it is very rare to ever meet one. Most try to live solitary lives or if not, at least unnoticed and try to pass as very strong inheritors if they can. I’ve been trying to do so century after century for I might be the oldest one alive.” she said and smiled faintly at me.

  I could not believe my eyes. Her fair skin was as smooth as rose-petals and her body was firm with youth. Her golden hair tumbled down her waist like a wavy cascade of glitter, with not one single silver hair. Her argentous eyes blazed with life, so bright and wise that they could be both the beginning and the end of the world.

  Beautiful and powerful, this unique female vampire could be someone that escaped from a front-cover photo-shoot. She looked not a day older than twenty-five.

  CHAPTER 5

  Welcome To The Family

  My awakening as you see was full of surprises and discoveries, by the time the strange female had talked to me my head was swirling with ten thousand more questions than ever before. How where they all related? Where they all a whole family? And how old was each one of them? They couldn’t be as old as she was but I expected that none of them was as young as they appeared to be. And perhaps even most intriguing than that was her. When did she join them and why? Was she some kind of protector? Or were they protecting her? My brain twisted looking for answers even though I knew that without asking little would be revealed.

  I decided to start interrogating the man who first spoke to me, James. He was an easy person to speak to, so warm and inviting (and perhaps if it wasn’t too much to day-dream about, he was going to be my father in law some day). OK, so I could now be a vampire, but I could also be a girl, right? I gathered all my courage and started talking to him:

  “Hmm, could you answer me some questions please, James?” I uttered shyly.

  “Of course, we are here to provide you as many answers and support as we can.” He said to me in a soft, kind voice. His sweet manner reminded me of those really nice teachers you get to meet sometimes only once in your lifetime and leave a mark on you. They become the model of what nice, caring and wise should be like; James was a perfect match to this model.

  “She said that most of you here are family, I would like to know your names, how you are related and your ages if it is not too rude of me to ask.” I asked in such a shaky voice that even I pitied myself for it. I was so embarrassed of asking questions that I could imagine how red my cheeks should be. Flushing was definitely one of my specialties.

  With a puzzled yet almost delighted look he answered, “Oh! I’m so sorry that we didn’t introduce ourselves already; we were so excited when Jonathan told us he was finally bringing you here! Within less than an hour of his call he brought you.

  You were already in the last stages of your awakening and we were so thrilled that we omitted such an important part! You must understand, it has been quite a while since we shared someone’s awakening, and it is such a very important moment in any vampire’s life that we were ecstatic. I got all worked-up with explanations about the awakening itself that I omitted all introductions; we should mend this awful mistake in no time.” He uttered and as soon as he finished speaking the golden-haired ancestor who spoke to me before took a step forward. Her silver eyes swept through the room and landed intensely on me. Her hair just like golden feathers seemed
to float around her with every step.

  She smiled at me displaying a perfect line of even, pearl-white teeth and took my hand in hers. At here mere touch I felt something odd, just as if some kind of pulsing energy ran through her to me. Her hands were cold, not freezing but they reminded me of marble to the touch; she held me tight and then with her silk-like husky voice began to talk:

  “My name is Lucrecia, I’m not quite sure of where or when I was exactly born. As I told you before my oldest memory is from 723 years ago. It takes place in Italy, sometime in the middle ages. I recall being at a noble’s household as the companion of a rich baron’s daughter. We were staying in the noble’s house that summer because Francesco, the noble’s only son, was wooing my mistress.

  Francesco was nothing out of the ordinary, he would not make any maids sigh or feel repelled by him either. He had a simple, hooky nose and a set of simple unremarkable eyes. His hair was worn short and simple and he wasn’t extremely well built or tall, in every aspect just average. He was just plain as my mistress was, not handsome, not grand, not even attractive yet not disgusting either. He was . . . just plain.

  My mistress, lady Antonella was just as insignificant as he was. No man would turn to watch her on market-day, nor did any male decide to recite her poems in account of her beauty. She was no one’s muse I’m sure. If any man decided to court her it was simply because of her dowry, she was a rich baron’s daughter and that was the only thing that made her desirable. If you ask me today about her looks, I must confess I don’t even remember her much.

  On account of her lack of attributes I was made to accompany her in a hooded cape at all times. Since her father decided that having men look at me and not at his daughter was atrocious, I had to keep myself away from most eyes. Nobody would woo me for my dowry, I had none; but I was quite admired for my beauty those days. Summer was the only season I was allowed to change the heavy, dark cape for a light and translucent veil. I used to love that season for it made me feel carefree.