The Soul of a Vampire #3

by Rachel E Rice

  Standing near Sebastian she raised her head as if she was being crowned queen because she was standing near my king. The vampire king who would never make me his queen.

  Chapter Two-Sebastian

  I didn’t want Zoey to know the whole sordid truth about me when I met her in front of her school which began with deception, a lie, and the changing of her life and my existence in my dark world.

  It was my relationship with Samantha that was despicable as any lie I had told Zoey.

  Trying to conceal the truth from Zoey had proven easy until now because she remembered some of the things I dared tell her, and the rest had come back slowly, but I thought I would never have to explain my relationship with Samantha. I tried to cover up the truth and I hid the truth from Zoey with more lies because I never wanted her to know that I had once loved someone like Samantha.

  At the time I would have done anything for Samantha including kidnap people for her to carry out her schemes and make potions she used on me.

  Yes, I had told an unspeakable lie and committed unforgivable harm on Zoey by kidnapping her.

  It wasn’t my father’s sins I wanted to hide from her, but mine. I had been enamored and bewitched by Samantha and at the time I would have done anything to get the feelings I thought I could never experience again, or do without. But the feelings weren’t real. It was because of something she was giving me and because of the potions she wore in her lipstick that drove me to do unheard of things I’m not proud of.

  Then I traveled around with her without feelings for what I had done to capture her attention. A coldness apart from being an immortal had settled over me. I had no soul. I possessed little or no caring about the feelings of anyone but myself and Samantha.

  When one night she suggested to me about the experiment she had been conducting and she said the formula would keep her beautiful, young, and vital forever so she could be with me, I thought of nothing and wanted nothing but that.

  She had said to me, “I want to be with you your lifetime and beyond, Sebastian. Just you and me traveling and conquering the world. Having our taste of mankind and making everyone who came into our space a slave to us. Humans and vampires.”

  When she proposed those things to me, we had just made love and had been lying in bed drinking the blood of humans which would keep me strong, and her beautiful, and alluring.

  I looked to her and said, “Let me change you, and you don’t have to worry about having enough blood to keep you beautiful and youthful. If I change you now, you will be as you are forever and we can hunt together and go and do whatever we want in this world. We will be unstoppable,” I remembered saying to Samantha.

  She refused me by saying, “I enjoy being who I am, and I enjoy you hunting women for me. That’s how I want you to show your love for me. Charm these women and then bring them to me and I will draw all the essence from them, and you can savor them as part of me,” she said.

  At the time I didn’t see anything wrong with that. After all I was a vampire. That’s how I existed, on someone’s blood, but when Samantha would disappear on me and I couldn’t find her and I needed her to satisfy my lust, I would go to a human to fill my desire for Samantha, and then she would show up as if she had never gone, and demand that I hand the woman to her for her experiment, and I would. I didn’t know why I did it, it was as if I was her slave and I had no choice but to do as she instructed me.

  I was hers and she owned me body and soul. And I would do anything she wanted even if I was in love with a woman. If she wanted me to kill the woman I would.

  Some of the women she demanded that I not turn into vampires, I thought I loved them. But I didn’t know what love was as a vampire. I had committed so many horrible acts in the name of love, that I didn’t know the difference until I met Zoey.

  It was through Zoey that I got my humanity back, and it was because of her, that I finally got my soul back and fell in love.

  “Women are so easily fooled by that beautiful face of yours. I enjoy seeing you seduce them and know that you belong only to me, but if I let you change me and become as you, I will be subjected to your father’s rules. I can’t live under anyone’s rules. I am my own person and I’ve lived years like this. I can’t change now,” she would say to me when I would press her and when I was no longer controlled by her because of my love for Zoey. And then she would kiss me and I had sex with her, and once again I thought I couldn’t live without her.

  When Samantha made love to me, I didn’t think I could ever feel the way I did then. She was human without being human. She could bring my cold body to life like no woman I had ever experienced living or dead, and so it was the sex I thought I could never have with anyone but her, which put me under her spell, and her potions which kept me lifeless and soulless.

  But it wasn’t entirely the sex. She had indeed put me under a spell without me knowing, and I began to leave my family to wander the world with her. It was then I discovered the relationships with humans. It took one human female to make me feel what I did was wrong.

  But it was my love of mindless sex that turned me into this soulless animal doing Samantha’s bidding, and that’s when I stopped and became celibate. I no longer needed her body to satisfy my needs and that’s when I decided to hunt animals instead of humans.

  When Samantha discovered that another woman held my attention she would kill her and use her blood to keep herself beautiful. Woman after woman throughout the ages I lost to Samantha, until one day she devised this serum from a dead child Aare took.

  Aare had begun to fill the void that I once occupied.

  After several experiments she found the key to forever staying young. It would be the kidnapping of young girls. And so it began that I searched for the right child. Before Aare took my place, I wanted to please Samantha because my lust and need for sex had become more insatiable than my need for human blood. It was my desire for Samantha that I abandoned my father and mother, and stole Zoey from the streets of Seattle.

  Never had I been more aware of what I had planned to do than when I took Zoey from her school. When she looked into my eyes and said, “My parents said that I shouldn’t talk to strangers or go with them anywhere, but you are so nice and I trust you. You wouldn’t lie to me. If you say my father is sick I believe you,” she said with wide eyed innocence.

  From that moment I felt sick, but I wanted to please Samantha, and I wanted the sex she promised me and therefore I did the unthinkable. I kidnapped Zoey from the steps of her school and whisked her off to Italy and gave her to my mother as a pretext that she would be her child.

  I arrived in Italy with Zoey, just in time to see Aare with Samantha. They were in an embrace and I watched as she took him to bed, and that’s when I realized that I was something for her to use and it wouldn’t end with one child, but she needed more children.

  At that time I didn’t have sex with her anymore, and I hid that I no longer fed on humans but animals. I finally woke from her spell to comprehend all that I had done and that she didn’t love me, she couldn’t love anyone. And to have sex with Aare proved to me that she was as diabolical as he was and equally as dangerous.

  It wasn’t then that I hadn’t planned to give her Zoey, but soon after Zoey was in my possession she looked into my eyes, and I felt the warmth of her little hand. She ignited something in me and I could no longer be who I am. I could no longer be a slave for Samantha, and a brother to a hideous monster, and a soulless creature stalking humans for their blood.

  I weaned myself off of human blood and began hunting at night in the forest for Elk’s blood. Even then I couldn’t harm a female deer or her fawn, and I knew I was returning to something close to being human which I desperately desired.

  Leaving Zoey with my mother, I knew she would be safe because Aare wouldn’t dare take Zoey from my mother. And my mother wouldn’t allow her to be changed until she had become a teen. She relished the child and their development because they were something she could never
have. It was when Zoey became a teen that I began to worry.

  Samantha spent all her time with Aare. I pretended not to notice and utilize my time with Zoey. It was hard for Aare to give Samantha what she wanted. He relished hunting for women and children if she asked him. But when their relationship began to wane because of their self-indulgence, she turned to me again and demanded Zoey.

  Then I realized that she had Aare under her spell and I knew sooner than later Aare would present Zoey on a plate to Samantha, just to get what they had together, and I wouldn’t be able to stop them because together they were stronger than I had been. I was strong, feeding on animal blood but it was less potent than human blood.

  If they dared try to confront me, my father and mother could stand in their way of whatever diabolic plans they may have had for me.

  When I left my father and mother to watch over Zoey, it was then Aare and Samantha took over, and I suspect Aare killed them. He wasn’t smart enough and strong enough but with Samantha coaching him, they were able to pull it off.

  Samantha couldn’t convince the vampire council that Aare would be a fit king. After all she was only a witch to them and an outsider and they would never commit to having Aare take my place, and so she began to look for me and with the help of her werewolves they were able to find Zoey and me.

  That was how Aare first found Zoey. He waited until that night she was out with Terry where he would take her, but I was there waiting at the bar. Samantha knew if Zoey would be around so would I. But she hadn’t counted on the outcome and she would have to come to Seattle if she wanted me and Zoey.

  Chapter Three-Zoey

  “I can’t leave you, Sebastian,” I said holding on to him.

  “Save yourself and our child.” He passed his hand over my hair and it was the first time I felt his hand tremble. I looked into his eyes, they were wavering about, as if he was thinking beyond this moment. When Samantha turned for a second to acknowledge a vampire guest, and give her an air kiss, Sebastian passed his cool hand over my stomach and looked at me, then dropped his eyes away from me.

  His hand felt warm. It had never felt that way before. I turned to him and I thought I saw a tear. I knew what that meant. He would never see me again.

  My heartbeat accelerated. I became anxious and my mind drifted. What will I do without Sebastian in my life? He had been everything to me. He was the only one that made sense to me and kept me sane. I knew he loved me and I thought he would never leave me.

  Leaning my head to the side and laying it on his chest, with my hand holding on to his muscled arms, he took my hand and placed it in Ryan’s hand. “Take her,” he said his voice choked. “We can’t be together. It was a stupid idea to think I could be with a mortal. You are not good for me, Zoey, and I’m not good for you. Can’t you see it won’t work? You have to be with one of your kind.”

  “I am one of you,” I said resisting.

  Ryan glanced at Sebastian and looked at me and said, “We have to go.” His voice composed and determined.

  “Go with him, Zoey. Be happy. My car, jet, and driver are waiting to take you and everyone back to Seattle. You won’t have any problems from her.”

  “That’s what you said before, Sebastian. How will I live without you? You will forget me.” And he touched my face and closed his eyes. I will never forget him. I turned around and headed to the foyer with Ryan.

  “Go with her, Lauren and Terry. Take care of Zoey and my baby,” Sebastian said as he leaned in and whispered to Lauren through the shouts and whispers of the crowd surrounding him wishing him well.

  I looked back to see Samantha surrounded by her ghastly friends as she smiled and embraced them as if she was a blushing young bride waiting to be taken to her virgin bed of white sheets.

  “I will,” Lauren said as he watched at Samantha. “She makes my skin crawl,” he said to Terry.”

  “If she frightens you, what do you think she does to me,” Terry said taking Lauren’s hand and marching through the crowd of onlookers with Ryan waiting at the door with me still watching Sebastian.

  Robbie turned to speak to Sebastian.

  “Will you be alright, Sebastian?” Robbie questioned. “If you say the word, I’ll come back to get you.” Sebastian glanced at Ann who never left Robbie’s side and held on tight to his suit coat. Her eyes told Sebastian all he needed to know and that Ann feared for Robbie’s life and she too was pregnant and didn’t relish having to raise young werewolves alone.

  “I’m a vampire,” Sebastian said trying to gather a smile in the midst of his heartache and mine. “What can Samantha do to me she hasn’t already done? Just take care of Zoey. Help her to forget me. Please remind Zoey I did everything for her and our baby,” I heard him say.

  Then Samantha after hearing her name turned and pushed away her crowd of vampires and humans to march over to Sebastian and take his place beside him. Tears formed in my eyes and I couldn’t help but let them flow. Sebastian raised his head high when Samantha looked back at me with a smirk. Then he took her hand and she led him through the middle of the joyous vulgar room.

  Ryan stood at the door and the doorman opened it, and when all of us had walked into the cold dark foggy night, the door closed behind us, leaving us standing on the stone pavement under a portico waiting for the arrival of the limo that brought us here.

  Looking up, it appeared darker than usual and the moon somehow disappeared out of sight behind a once cloudy sky. Maybe there were stars up there, and maybe the tears reigning down my cheeks were causing me not to see clearly. Everywhere I looked it appeared dark but I knew it wasn’t because there had been lamps along the driveway.

  It was that dead emotion that came over me that shrouded me in the darkness, and the thought that I would feel this way forever as long as I didn’t have Sebastian in my life.

  The chill of the night had left my body. I felt nothing. I didn’t feel Ryan’s hand holding mine. I didn’t hear him saying something to me. There was a numbness that had taken hold of me and covered me like a blanket.

  I was a wreck and now I was pregnant with a vampire’s child and no husband.

  “You will be fine, Zoey, as soon as we get away from this cursed place. Give it a few days and you will be a new person. You will have forgotten all of this,” Ryan said. I turned to him and glared at him after hearing his voice for the first time since I stood outside of the mansion.

  What he had said to me didn’t make any sense. How does he know how I feel? I looked up at him with a blank stare. The car finally came and the driver drove around and stopped at the steps. We climbed into the limo and the rest of my family climbed in with me. I say my family because they were all I had now.

  Ryan glanced at Robbie. “Just wait until I tell the press and the guys at the station house what I just experienced. The guys in my station-house thought I was crazy,” Ryan had a look of exhilaration over his face. He was smiling and talking fast, “well I thought so too, but it looks like that’s not the case,” he said his eyes full of excitement. He reached for a bottle of liquor and poured him a tall glass. His hands shook as he placed it to his mouth. We turned and looked at him.

  “You can’t do that, Ryan,” Robbie said.

  “What the fuck do you mean? I have to tell someone.”

  “You can’t do that not just because of me, but because of Zoey.” I looked to Ryan. He had to make that decision on his own. “Zoey is pregnant,” Robbie said.

  “I just thought that was a joke. I thought Sebastian wanted Zoey out of that hellish place. It can’t be. How can that be?” Ryan said his face searching around from Zoey to Ann to Terry to Lauren and back to Robbie. “You mean to tell me that it’s true?” Ryan questioned me with a smile and then his smile turned downward. His eyes narrowed and then shut for a second. He put his head down to his fist and shook his head in disbelief.

  “Do you know what it will do to all of us? Once the humans realize that we exist they will find some way to destroy us,” Lauren
said holding on to Terry’s hand.

  “Some of your kind need destroying,” Ryan raised his voice to Lauren. All eyes turned to

  Ryan. Terry glared at him and I couldn’t help but notice her incisors were longer than usual. Lauren touched her arm and she turned to him and gave him a small closed smile.

  “But how do you determine which ones should live or die,” Robbie said his voice dry, his expression still and hard. “Is it Terry and Lauren, or me, and perhaps Zoey’s baby you think should meet this fate? And by whose hands, yours?”

  I listened as Robbie presented Ryan a dilemma. He couldn’t answer that question. Only he knew which he would choose and for now he wouldn’t say.

  Ryan watched at us and decided to pour himself another drink, and when we arrived at the airfield to depart for Seattle, Robbie had to take Ryan off over his shoulder.

  As we departed the limo and Robbie was holding Ryan, he said to us, “Maybe I should kill him now and save us a lot of trouble.”

  “You can do that,” Ann and I said as if a chorus. Robbie stopped and looked at Ann.

  “Tell me why not. Didn’t you just hear him? He fancy himself some kind of vigilante who plans to rid the world of beings not like himself.”

  “But you aren’t a killer,” Ann said.

  “I used to be.”

  “Don’t talk about that Robbie. It will just make you sad. You know you never killed anyone who didn’t try to kill you.” He looked at Ann and walked on to the jet and we walked in and took our seats.

  “How do you know that, Ann? I had a life before I met you,” he said and his forehead furrowed and his voice cooled. Ann touched his arm and his face smoothed out.

  “I know you. I couldn’t love a man like you if I thought you were a natural killer,” Ann said.

  “I’m not a man,” Robbie said turning his seat to face Ann. At least I wasn’t always one. I was a werewolf foremost. I knew little of being a man until I met you.”