by Lillian Grey
“Is it painful?”
“There is a small amount of pain. The bite, for instance, may hurt a little but for the most part our saliva creates a sensation of euphoria in the blood stream. It’s why humans don’t get away; they like our bite. The sensory overload when you first wake up is a little troubling, but you are unconscious for the most part and feel very little. Also, since you don’t have to breathe, you might catch yourself wanting to speak and find that you've forgotten to breathe. I’ve seen a few mild panic attacks over that; you’ll be fine once you remember to breath." She smiled, I didn’t know if I should take that last one seriously or not. “Are you considering my offer?” she asked.
“I don’t know really, it’s a lot to take in.”
“That’s true. Do you have any other questions?”
“Actually, how many humans work alongside vampires and actually know it?”
“There aren’t that many; we like our secrecy as I’ve mentioned. June and Alik showed you the lengths we go to remove vampire who will not follow the rules. I am in contact with a few notable human figures that I have allowed to know about us, a few world leaders and high-ranking business officials, but that’s it. I like useful company. Oh, and you and Alison of course; the other two Elders also have a few humans in on the secret as well. Of course, they consider their contacts to be servants or pets along with the other coven leader who are allowed to keep their company. I like to keep friends.”
“Before you get her closer to agreeing, I promised her father I’d have her home alive. I can’t afford for you to kill her tonight,” Alik pointed out, setting down his glass a little harder than needed.
"Really, he specifically asked you to bring her home alive..." she questioned in mock surprise.
"You know what I mean," glared Alik.
"You can never take a joke." She stuck her tongue out at him. "Still, aren’t you just my little gentleman.”
“Ha ha.” His tone was harsh.
Lilith stood and walked over to a shelf and came back holding out a small crystal square wrapped in cloth for me. “Please place each of your fingers one at a time on the surface,” she instructed, and when I did, it beeped and glowed into life. “This is a phone that will only work for you now. This is a very special phone; very few of them exist and it will work anywhere in the world. Programmed in this one are the numbers for me and the other Elders, Alik, June, Alison, and a few others I thought could be useful to you in some way. They all know you have it and will be willing to help you with whatever you need. Do not take this lightly please; all you have to do to use it is run your finger along one of the edges. Try it.”
I took the small crystal square, no larger than an iPhone. Now that it was closer, I could see thin black beads aligned into the shape of a rose. I slid my finger across the top and it turned black and a dial display appeared. A normal smartphone layout appeared and lit the space. “Wow,” I said in awe.
“Good, you look through that when you have some free time, and please keep it with you at all times. It will let us keep you safe.”
“How?”
“We aren’t going to track you or anything, but the rose will tell the major covens that you are under my protection.”
“Won’t the battery die?” I asked, looking up from the phone.
“Just keep it in the sun when it’s not in use.” I smiled at the irony. She walked me to the elevator where Alik was waiting. We stopped and she turned to hug me one last time. “Please don’t be a stranger, Vanessa. You can nearly always find me here,” she said, letting me go.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I smiled back.
"Good."
Then I stepped in the elevator and Alik and I headed back to the lobby.
Vanessa Stanton
Chapter 15.0
Alik was silent in the elevator as it descended to the lobby. He gave Alison a dull wave as we walked out. She still seemed annoyed at him and turned away. The valet already had his car waiting, and as he shook Alik’s hand, he released it with a bill clutched in his fingers. As usual, Alik opened my door, shut it, got in, and drove off. Soon, I noticed that we weren’t heading to my house as he drove along silently. He stopped at a small diner in a shady area near some raised subway tracks. He parked across the street and we walked inside; it felt like I stepped into the seventies. Posters and memorabilia lined the walls; even an old section of a Cadillac sat in a corner, its headlights still working to light the entrance. A kind-looking woman greeted and sat us at a booth and left us with menus.
“What’s this all about?” I asked, tired of the silence.
“I’m not going to take you home hungry. What would your father say? This diner’s owner is an old friend; he’s waged a war on germs for year.” He took the sleeve of his jacket and wiped it across the table; it was still spotlessly white. “It’s very clean. Your new sense of taste shouldn't bother you here.”
I ordered some pancakes and sat at the booth while Alik talked with the chef, who I assumed was the owner. I watched him talking with the man, laughing and joking about something they did a long time ago. As I watched him, my only thought was whether or not Alik could really be a vampire? There was so much human in him.
With a pat on the back, a smile, and a wink toward me, the man handed Alik a plate, which he brought over. I hadn’t eaten all day and was starving. Alik just sat there, staring out the window at two guys who had come along and were admiring his car, with a distant look in his eyes.
“You know, you don’t have to let her bite you,” he stated, still not looking at me
“I know, she told me so.” I was more worried about my food than his strange tone that matched his distant look.
“It’s just… your questions; you seemed interested in our existence.”
“I might be.”
“Oh.” He was silent for a moment. “How come, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why would you want to be vampire?”
“You’ve been describing it like you’re in some tragic novel. You sound a lot like Edward Cullen as Lilith said. Alison is looking forward to it.”
“Alison doesn’t know what she is doing.” He said flatly.
“Lilith wouldn’t hurt Alison?”
“Not intentionally, no. Still, vampire who are close to my mother more than often end up burning in the sun after a cold nights struggle. My mother is cold and ruthless; do not be fooled by her human act.”
“Is that what you are doing right now? Just acting?” I asked and he looked so hurt that I felt guilty for asking.
Still he answered, “about some things: yes; about others, no.”
“Then why don’t you explain?”
“All you have to do is ask the questions, and I will answer.”
“Do you regret Lilith creating you?”
“No, I don’t. I enjoy my… situation.”
“Then I don’t get it? Does it even have something to do with Lilith?” I asked, making a leap in logic.
“In parts yes, it has a lot to do with her.”
“What has Lilith done?” I tried to sound concerned I realized I had been very accusatory.
“She created me for a specific purpose.”
“What purpose?” I asked, putting down my fork.
Alyon Alik
Chapter 16.0
"I suppose I should finish answering the question you asked earlier in the car. Just, the thing is I have never had to explain this to someone before so I don’t really know how to put this. It’s almost like there is this shadow that hangs over me..”
“Does it have something to do with how Jean reacted to you that night I came for Sam?”
“Yes,” I said quickly, I hoped I was hiding it well but I was desperate for this to not come out as crazy as it might seem.
“He was clearly larger than you but he was scared of you almost in that moment,”
“Almost all Vampire look at me in the same way,”
“Including Lilith?”
“No, she saw this in me as a human and knew it would work in her favor, but it is more than just fear, death comes naturally to me. I don’t mean just being what I am, but to cause death and avoid it myself.”
“I dont understand.”
“How about I just start a little before Lilith found me, I want you to really understand who I am when it comes to what I am. I was eleven when I first tried to kill myself this was around the early 1000’s. I jumped into a river during a flood. I thought death would be better than the endless hunger, living off of the scraps thrown onto the ditches of dirt roads. The raging water scared me at first as it bubbled and frothed in anger. Too bad I woke up on the riverbank the next morning, shivering and sore, but still very much alive.” Vanessa’s eyes were wide as she couldn’t help but stare. I wasn’t sure if I was scaring her or not, but I still went on. “I tried to cut my wrist once when it became too much again.” I pulled back my sleeve and showed her a thin dark line running above a vein on my arm. “This is the only scar I carry from when I was human. Normally the transformation heals all old scars, but this one stayed with me. I woke up in a small house; a young woman with a kind smile was sitting over me. Her husband found me as he was walking home. He brought me back to his home and they took me in and watched over me until I recovered. However, the old man owed a lot of people money. His home was burned to the ground; both he and his wife were killed in their sleep by smoke. No one knew a small boy was in the house. I thought about lying in the fire and letting it end me when I heard the whimper of a puppy trapped by the flames. We both somehow made it out alive.” I couldn’t help sighing as the memory of the missed opportunity still annoyed me.
“Alik, you don’t…” Vanessa started reaching across the table to touch my hand, I turned mine over her fingers ran across my skin warming me. I held on grounding myself in her warmth.
“Have to tell you my somewhat pathetic story?” I smiled, turning to watch two guys who were taking pictures next to my car. “I don’t mind, but if I’m boring you, I can let you eat.”
She took my face in he other hand leaning over the table and looked in my eyes. “I can tell you want to tell me this. Just don’t hurt yourself doing it. I don't know how I feel about you yet and this feels very personal.” she said, I ignored the warning and went on.
“I found Lilith the night of my nineteenth birthday. She was a defenseless woman on the surface, easy prey for a thief. I didn’t know she was actually baiting me. I followed her into an alley that ended at a brick wall. All I had on my mind was easy money. She turned and smiled at me.
‘So what now?’ she asked calmly while my voice shook.
‘Give me your pouch and anything valuable you’re wearing, I will let you pass then.’
‘If I were to say no?’
‘I will take them by force.’
‘And if I said you’re the victim here?’
‘I’d laugh.’ I had been in many fights by this time and I had lost enough of those to learn how to win. Those beatings were life lessons in how to survive. I had no fear in losing to this woman. I approached her with a small knife held out in one hand and the other balled into a fist. ‘I will ask nicely again; hand me your valuables.’
‘You’re the nicest thief I’ve ever met, asking me so politely and so many times.’ She smiled.
‘If you have met many, then I pity you.’
‘You are sweet, but I’m going to say no.’ I lunged at her and she made a graceful twist and easily ended up behind me. I quickly turned to attack again, but she blocked my hand with her arm. It felt like my hand was broken as it cracked against her arm. She then punched me in the chest, and it felt like all the breath was forced out of me. I stumbled back, but she then kicked my feet from under me, following me down to the ground where she held me by my throat with her fingers digging into my skin, slowly cutting off my air. She looked into my eyes while I was looking up, it could have been that I was slowly blacking out but it was the first time I had ever seen the shadow. It moved as if anxious over her shoulder, a few times it jutted forward as if you attack Lilith but thought better of it. It was strange because she followed my line of sight and smiled again. ‘There is a presence of death about you, an impatient yet protective presence. Why aren’t you dead? she asked like it was a problem that I was still alive.
‘Believe me, it’s not from a lack of trying.’ I choked out.
‘Perhaps you have just not died the right way.’
‘Then kill me and be done with it.”
She then bit me I felt the blood being sucked from my body as she drank.. She took her fingernail and made a cut in her wrist offering me her blood, no words, just a look, commanding me to drink, so I did. My first vampiric memory was waking up in a forest at night. I opened my eyes and the sensory overload clouded my thoughts, but I couldn’t worry about that. Through the haze of ants in the dirt and birds in the trees, I heard larger footsteps somewhere in the underbrush; four others were watching me. They slowly approached and I didn’t know what to do. They bore their claws and teeth; and low growls echoed off the trees.
I took peace in that thinking maybe it was finally my time to die. I waited for them to act. Two of them lunged at my back and I moved without thought. I turned, not knowing what I would do, but both fell with a sickly cracking sound, overshadowing the other’s growls. I turned to the other two and growled; I had no idea where it came from. They turned and began to run, but I chased them. Catching the first by jumping on his back and pinning him down, I ripped his head from his body with my teeth. I quickly caught the last, snapping his neck so easily in my hands. There was blood splattering my face and the smell of the earth deep in my lungs. I stood back and looked down at the vampire I just killed as his eyes slowly rolled back into his head. Lilith spoke, standing at my left, placing me on her right.
‘I knew there was something about you,’ she said. Instincts took over and I took a swipe at her. In one motion, she ducked under my arm, turned, and then grabbed me. ‘Too much power; you throw yourself off balance using all your force like that; it shows what you will do.’ I attacked her again and found myself kicked through two trees. ‘I guess it would be astounding if you had done any better,’ she stated, sounding slightly disappointed while tilting her head.
‘How am I alive after that?’ I asked her, confused, sitting up with only the slightest soreness which was quickly fading.
‘You aren’t. Werent you the one asking to be killed? By drinking my blood and killing the four Vampire who were after me you have entered my service.”
“Those were vampire?”
“Yes,”
“What does that make me?”
“A Vampire,” She explained to me what I had become and who she was; I thought she was just crazy until she took me to feed for the first time. Its hard to not kill your first, I found that I wanted to and the young girl was happy I did it. Lilith charmed her with unearthly charisma and for the first time, she introduced me as her son. I didn’t know what it was that I had felt, but I took the young girl’s hand and looked into her eyes. She blushed and smiled, her eyes glinting in the light. It was so easy to just leave her laying there, the cold smile on her bloodless face still showing the pleasure she felt in death.” I wasn't looking at Vanessa when I finished; my eyes were on those two guys still taking pictures.
“I still don’t understand,” Vanessa said, confused.
“I don’t even think about it most of the time. That old man behind you in the brown hat: it would be so easy to simply snap his neck. Or the woman in the green glasses two booths down: one little bit, very discret to the wrist maybe a finger and she would be powerless and then dead in minutes. Or how about those two teens three booths away? How hard do you think it would be for me to get one, or even both girls, alone and far away from here with my fancy car? I bet I could kill the guy in front of them and they would still come with me. You saw people when we walked in here;
I saw targets, meals, and blissful idiots. I give their lives no more meaning than roaches. When I see vampire, I constantly assess what order would be best to kill them. Enemy and allies have very little bearing for me.” I looked her in the eyes so she would know just how serious I was. “Even you, you’re the one light I have in this dark world, and I am seriously considering snuffing that out.”
I think she was shocked by my confession, but she didn't show it, but I did feel it as I looked into her eyes.
“What about the other girls Lilith mentioned?”
“There are some people who I’d rather not spend eternity with.”
"If you don't change me, you will only get maybe sixty to seventy years?"
“Ask and I will do it. My fear is that being vampire around me, all you would be remembered for is death. Others shouldn't fear someone like you."
