I picked up on this as I gave up looking for another target and realized that he had been gazing at me for some time.
“Looks like he got away. Lucky him.”
I went to respond with something witty, but instead, and before I knew it, I leaned in and kissed Matt.
His body melted into mine, filling in the crevices that the outline of my body created. His mouth was warm and wet in all the right ways, and his hands went straight to my ass and thighs.
I didn’t care if anyone in this place saw us.
I put my hand into his hair and felt his scalp. I grasped some of his hair firmly, even painfully, and the thought occurred to me that I could break his neck in a second.
The kissing stopped and I looked in his eyes as I was just inches from his face. There was the look.
I hadn’t wanted to do this. From the moment I saw him earlier, I hadn’t wanted him. But now he was my only choice. I would give him one last chance.
I opened my mouth and bared my teeth, revealing to him the fangs that were beginning to descend. Whether or not he saw them, and I’m not sure, but he kissed me again, pushing his tongue into my mouth desperately.
I had given him the chance, and he had denied it.
I got up suddenly, and he looked horrified at the space that was now between us. Without a word, I walked out of the bar and onto the street. I couldn’t see, but I knew that Matt was following behind me, just as he had done from the last bar.
I was looking for the best place to take him, and finally I diverted off the street and into an alley with a dead end.
In a nook to the left side were some garbage cans and discarded cardboard boxes. I turned myself around just in time to grab Matt and pull him into the nook with the refuse. There I kissed him.
I kissed him like I wanted to pull the breath out of his body, and he did the same. My body temperature started to rise and I felt my fangs fully form in my mouth.
Standing, I couldn’t quite reach his neck.
“Kneel down,” I said and was surprised at how gently it came out.
Matt obeyed and I got down too, kissing him on the lips first and then kissing and licking his neck.
Just as they always were, he was putty in my hands.
I bit down hard through his skin and felt the rich liquid enter my mouth and go down my throat, filling my stomach.
Relief washed over me as his blood pumped out of his body and into mine. I was halfway through when I felt his arms go around my waist, in the most tender way I’d ever been touched. That had never happened before.
I continued drinking, but I was distracted by his arms. Finally, I couldn’t help it. I pulled away from his neck and looked at him.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a breathy voice that indicated how weak he was getting.
“I told you. I’m a vampire.”
Matt smiled up at me in a tired way, trying to find enough voice to speak.
“I didn’t believe you,” he said, and smiled like he had just gotten the joke.
“I know,” I said, watching the blood trickle out of the little holes in his neck. If I didn’t finish the job and kill him, if he had any blood left, he would become a vampire too.
“Am I going to die?” he asked, beginning to slump over.
“Yes,” I said in a gentle hiss.
Matt sort of nodded at me then, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he exposed his neck to me once more and accepted the inevitable.
I stared at those two little holes for what seemed like years and thought of the decades, the centuries that had passed since I became this way.
I knew I needed to kill him. Not just for my sake, but for his too. I had brought him to the brink of death and I could bring him back from that brink, but at a terrible price.
He was practically limp in my arms, though he shouldn’t have been there quite yet considering how much I had already drunk.
If I didn’t bite him again soon, the holes would close up and I would lose my nerve.
Matt’s eyes were closed, and I could tell that he had given himself to death.
I let go of him and sat back against the cardboard box that was behind me.
I watched him for some time. Watched his neck wound as it healed, leaving behind just smeared blood, which dried rapidly. Watched him as he opened his eyes a little and then closed them again, as if the darkness of the alley was too bright.
I knew that right then, inside of his body, the enzyme that my fangs carried, the one that healed the bite marks on any vampire’s victim, was circulating through his veins, carried by his own blood, and was transforming him this very moment.
It wouldn’t cause him any pain. He was so sleepy and calm right now anyway. He probably felt fuzzy headed and warm, just like I had on that night three centuries ago.
When he finally regained full awareness, the transformation would be complete, and he would feel nothing more than what a mild hangover would have given him. I remember.
Death by vampire is a pleasurable death, if that even makes sense. Victims fade away, our enzyme slowly working in their body. Death envelopes them like a warm bed full of thick blankets and soft pillows. Only they never wake up.
I have sometimes thought of this as I killed, placating my guilt with the thoughts that this person’s last moments on Earth were some of his best, some of the most serene. But even without that thought, I would have killed, as feeding, for a vampire, is an unbearable ecstasy.
So why had I not killed Matt?
I didn’t know, and it disturbed me. But what disturbed me more was the problem I now had on my hands.
I waited a while. A half an hour, maybe, until Matt could stand, although his eyelids still drooped.
He had to lean on me a little to walk, and to others on the street, it looked like he had simply had too much to drink.
People watched us go by and some yelled out to us as we passed, mostly comments about Matt having to lean on me. Matt was fairly tall, and I’m average height, so I guess we did look kind of funny.
“Your girlfriend’s a saint, man,” one guy yelled out. And then, “Dude, do you know you’re bleeding?”
Matt didn’t respond, but probably wouldn’t have been able to if he had wanted. I looked over at the guy with a knowing look and he left us alone.
It wasn’t too far to my apartment, but it was far enough that I was starting to struggle having to pull Matt along. His eyes were open a little more now, but he still wasn’t able to talk.
We made it to the front door of my building, and I dreaded going up the flight of stairs ahead of us, but at least we just had to go up one. It could have been worse. It could have been four.
In front of my door, I rested Matt against the wall as I got my keys out and put one into the lock. It clicked open and we were in.
Matt walked through the door on his own and I guided him to the couch that was straight ahead in the living room.
He lay down without a word, stretched out so that his shoes hung over the arm rest on one side. I thought about taking them off, but ultimately I didn’t worry about it. He had much bigger problems now than sleeping in his clothes on a strange girl’s couch. He hadn’t realized it, but today had been his last day in the light.
I sat down in the chair to Matt’s left and looked out the window from which I could see the lights of the city. It was dark now, but dawn would arrive in just a few hours.
I wasn’t entirely sure when Matt would awaken, but when he did, I knew he would be ravenous. It would be a long day.
PART TWO
1
I had done the one thing I said I would never do.
Create another vampire.
Vampires cannot be born. They can only be made, and generally out of two things: anger or pity.
I knew which one had compelled me to create Matt, only now I had more pity for him than I had before.
It was hours before he woke up, and I sat the whole time in the chair to his left, watching
him sleep and knowing I was watching the humanity leave his body.
Finally, Matt opened his eyes and sat up onto his elbows. I knew what the first words out of his mouth would be before he even said them.
“I’m starving.”
“We’ll have to wait until it gets dark for that.”
He turned his head and looked at me. I think he was trying to piece together what had happened. I was curious if he would remember.
Matt suddenly sat up all the way and put both of his hands on his chest, making sure he was still solid.
“Am I dead?”
I had to laugh at this.
“No, you’re not dead.”
“But you bit me. I remember, and everything went warm and dark...You’re a vampire.”
He looked scared for a moment, and then he waited for me to fill in the gaps for him. I wondered if he had already figured it out.
“And now, so are you.”
He went still and stared at me.
“Is that why I’m not dead?”
“Yes.”
Matt stood up, way more unsure of his own feet than he needed to be, and walked around the room.
“I don’t feel different,” he said, looking at his own hands. “Except I’m hungry.”
“That would be it,” I said, not having moved from the chair.
Matt moved quickly toward the kitchen, which was open to the living room.
“Can I make something to eat?” he asked me with the refrigerator door already open.
“You can, but I don’t have much.”
He rummaged through the fridge, mostly through carryout containers, which contained leftovers I brought home from restaurants.
“Matt. Human food—food that humans eat—it’s only for pleasure. It won’t sate you.”
He didn’t care.
Matt pulled out three different containers, looked briefly at the contents and began dumping them onto a plate that he had pulled from one of the cabinets. I stood, watching on the other side of the pass-through near the dining room table. Not that what I had could be called a dining room. There was just no room for the table in the kitchen.
When the food was warm from the microwave, Matt dug in, devouring every last bite, and then he went for the other containers that were still in the fridge.
After a while, he had cleared out my leftover food and was now staring at an empty fridge. He looked up at me, desperate.
“You won’t feel better until you’ve fed, but we can’t do that yet.”
It was like having an infant on my hands. Weak, unknowing, not able to care for itself, except that this infant was over six feet tall and had just developed a serious craving for human blood.
When I had been transformed, I was left to my own devices. First, to even figure out what I was and, second, to begin feeding. It was hell. Suffice it to say, I had not been created out of pity.
“You mean—blood?” Matt asked, looking at once horrified and lustful. His expression brought me back so clearly to those first few times that I began to feel tears well in my eyes.
“Yes. You need blood. When it gets dark, we’ll go out. It’ll be quick. Not like what I was trying to do last night. I can rope a victim fast if I need to. I’ll find someone, you’ll feed, and then we’ll come right back here.
Matt would need to feed at least once a day for the next week or so. Then the cravings would clear, and his appetite would be normal.
I could go two weeks easily without blood, especially if the last guy had been big. Four weeks was my upper limit, and by that point I would really be starting to feel it. Once, I went for seven weeks, and I don’t like to think of the frenzy that occurred when I finally fed. It was a desperation no creature should ever feel.
“How will I...?” Matt asked as he pushed his hair back on his head with his hands and walked over toward the window.
I watched as he looked out over the city and wondered how he would ever begin to live this new life. I communicated back without words that I would do the hunting at first, and he would learn from me. He turned around with a faint smile on his face.
“Okay. Good.”
He turned back toward the window then, and I smiled to myself as I realized he didn’t know what he had just done. He would soon.
My phone rang. It was Lola.
I hesitated picking it up. I didn’t want to tell her what I’d done. I had the feeling she was calling because she sensed that something hadn’t gone right, as normally I’d still be in an after-feeding languor. We usually didn’t talk much at this time.
I picked up the phone and hit decline, sending her to voice mail. I had now made it certain that she would stop by. Frankly, this would probably be easier in person.
An hour passed while Matt alternately paced the living room and then lay on the couch and closed his eyes. I knew his restlessness was his hunger making itself known.
There was a knock at the door. Lola was here.
I opened it and she started talking immediately.
“Vic? What’s—”
She stopped as soon as she saw Matt, who was pacing again.
In an instant, she knew the entire story of what had happened last night, and she entered the room very slowly.
“He hasn’t fed yet?” Lola said, directing the question to me as if Matt would not understand her or couldn’t hear or something.
I shook my head, and Matt looked afraid.
“You too?” he asked Lola, and she finally addressed him as if he were a real person in the room with us.
She didn’t respond in words.
“I’ve never been so near one,” she said and walked right up to Matt and touched his arm. “How do you feel right now?”
“Hungry,” he said and laughed a little.
Lola smiled at him and I could see the pity on her face also.
“Well, that will be taken care of tonight,” she said and turned back to me. “When are you going out?”
“As soon as it’s dark. We’ll go alone though, just Matt and me. It’ll be easier that way.”
Lola nodded in agreement.
“Well, Matt,” Lola said. “Welcome to your new life. I hope you like the dark.”
Matt smiled at her but didn’t say anything, and I realized he had communicated back to her.
I do now.
2
It was a hot night, and it was Friday.
I had always liked Thursday nights better, but I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t about me. I needed to find someone for Matt, lure him in and then let Matt finish the job.
It was still early, as it had just gotten dark, but at least this meant that whoever I picked wouldn’t be too drunk.
Matt walked beside me, a little shaky from hunger but otherwise looking pretty good. We would need to keep some distance between us as we got closer to where we would hunt. Me being with a male would make it just a teensy bit harder.
I knew exactly where I wanted to go.
I communicated to Matt to fall behind me several paces, and I knew that he had done so by the sounds of his footsteps.
I turned off the street we were walking on into this sports bar, and immediately felt like a fox in a hen house. Though I was definitely not looking for hens.
Groups of men, and some women, sat together drinking beer and watching big screen TVs. I bypassed most of the groups and looked toward the bar for singletons drinking alone. There were several. Like taking candy from a baby.
I walked over, and just as I had hit my stride someone grabbed me. I turned and saw it was Matt. I was momentarily shocked at his speed. I thought he had just entered the bar, which would put him across the room from me.
I looked quickly at the people around me to see if they had noticed anything odd, but all I saw were people glued to TV screens.
I communicated to Matt that we shouldn’t be seen together in this place, and he communicated to me that he needed to talk—like, actually speak—to me outside.
Annoyed, I walked back out ahead of him and he followed behind me.
“What?” I said when we were both back outside. I walked a little way down the street and into a doorway where the door didn’t appear to be in use to the public.
Matt looked distressed and I thought the hunger must really be getting to him. But then why had he stopped me? Frankly, he could be feeding by now.
“I can’t...,” he said and then looked around unnecessarily. “I can’t feed on a dude.”
For a moment I didn’t understand what he was saying. And then I broke out laughing. Matt looked offended.
“Matt,” I said between chuckles, “it’s fine. All vampires feed on both men and women. Even male vampires.”
I continued to laugh but stopped when I saw the pained expression on his face as he contemplated what he was about to do.
“Matt. I don’t know exactly how to explain this but—when you bite someone, when you start to feed, that person automatically becomes food to you. Like when you were pulling things out of my fridge earlier. You saw things you could eat. Not whatever that thing once was. When you have a victim and your fangs descend, you have...like, a human cheeseburger in your hands. Any guy I select—or any woman—they’re dinner, and nothing else.”
He still looked worried, but I knew that as soon as we had someone and he could begin feeding, he would feel differently.
“And anyway,” I said gently, “you need a lot of blood right now. A male will be better for that. Trust me.”
Okay. Let’s just get on with it, Matt communicated, and he got out of the way for me to walk back into the sports bar.
When I was back inside, I was a little concerned that I had laughed at him. Being ridiculed on your first night as a vampire certainly didn’t make things any easier. I just hadn’t been expecting that.
I walked with purpose to the bar, eyeing four men who sat alone, and allowed myself to choose on the fly. I was almost never wrong.
The man I sat down next to pulled his eyes away from the TV, fixed his gaze on the back of my head and then on my body. I normally would have waited for him to talk to me—which I was sure he would—but I didn’t have time to waste.
Bored To Death Page 3
