For The Sake of Revenge: An Alaskan Vampire Novel

by Atha, DL

  “I had promised him a quick death, which I had delivered. I had also promised to deliver his body to his people so that it could be burned. I lifted my head to the wind and sucked in a lungful of air, tasting the flavors that flower across my palate. Once you smell blood, you will never forget the fragrance, and it was easy to recognize the small band of humans that lay ahead of me in the dark. Probably a hunting party that wanted something different than the usual seafood fare of their diet and had come looking for black-tailed deer.

  “Or perhaps they preferred the taste of settling old scores with the Russians. The human I had killed had been traveling in the general direction of the fort before he stumbled onto my gravesite. Perhaps he had been bent on vengeance.

  “Not that I was concerned. I had no care for the humans at the fort, although I did not wish them any particular harm. That part of my previous life was gone, and my humanity seemed a faraway notion, a quaint idea that had once weighed heavily on my mind. I was beyond that. Their schemes and affairs had no bearing on me now. Except Ivan of course, who had been my friend, my one true ally despite my vanishing humanity, and for Irena, who owed me a debt of human blood.

  “Finding the small encampment of humans posed no difficulty, as the stench of the human excrement surrounding the camp acted as a beacon for any predators—including me. Stretched across the front of the small camp were two smoking racks which proved a couple of their hunts had been successful. Only partially smoked, the meat meant that the natives had no plans to move their camp immediately. Three brush lean-to’s stood a few feet to the south of the meat racks. Each one was small, approximately six feet long and three feet tall and the open ends of the structures were covered by the thin wool blankets that the trading company was so fond of handing out as gifts.

  “There were three men and one woman asleep in the shanties. None woke to my presence as I positioned the native’s body beside the small fire that gently burned, releasing smoke to preserve the meat. I deposited the corpse, shying away from the fire as I did so as even the dim flames evoked a deep fear in my core.

  “I backed a respectable distance away and crouched low to the ground as a human stirred inside the tent. The young female turned restlessly in her sleep, her breath sliding out in a long sigh. As she twisted, her pulse naturally increased for a few seconds before falling as she succumbed to deeper sleep.

  “I could not leave once I had listened to the utterances of her heart. I pressed myself against the damp ground, bits of leaves and moss digging into my skin as I listened to the woman. Desire finally overcame the logic that I had taken enough blood for one night. I was merely greedy as I crept to the brush shelter and gently swept back the skin curtain just far enough to allow my form. In one step, I crouched over her sleeping body.

  “Black hair in a tumble around her head, the native woman lay with her lower body turned towards the sleeping man beside her, her upper body turned slightly away from him. Both hands rested on her abdomen, flattening the material of her dress to her body, her breasts tugging on the material with each breath.

  “Lust coursed its way through me like lava filling my blood vessels, and the air on my naked skin felt even cooler in contrast to the hot air rolling off of hers. I leaned ever nearer to her. Her dark skin clashed with my paleness as I traced the smooth skin of her neck with one icy finger.

  “A slight flutter of dark lashes was her only reaction to the vampire that knelt beside her. Feeling a power rise up in me, I pressed my will upon her, forcing her further into sleep as I trailed cool fingers down to massage a limp nipple. I applied more pressure, twisting it gently in my fingers. A stiff peak formed in my hand and her legs parted slightly beneath the blankets.

  “As her pulse rose, my desire grew rapidly until my erection lay thick along my leg. I would take this woman tonight; there was no reason not to give in to my wants. The dawn was hours away yet; time remained on my side, and I could spirit her into the darkness and no human would be the wiser until morning. I would be safely in the ground before they awoke.

  “I slipped my arms underneath her sleeping form as I whispered deep sleep into her subconscious and lifted her to me. She was very beautiful, or perhaps it was simply that she was the first woman I had beheld with my new eyes. Her dark hair lay draped across my arms. Her lips were red with youth, and her body corded with muscles from hard work. How different from the soft and lazy Irena.

  “Irena. Just the thought of her name cooled the need for the woman in my arms. The grip of revenge was stronger than my physical need and I decided to savor my ardor, the peak of my wanting for Irena. In her unwilling arms, I would slake my all-consuming lust.

  “I took one last look at the sleeping woman and found her inadequate for what I really wanted. I would find no satisfaction in her body, and so I placed her back in her sleeping blankets, untouched and unmolested.

  “The native men I killed and consumed before heaping their bodies into a great fire that would usher them to their afterlife. The woman I left alive. No doubt she would return to her people with stories of a murderous Kushtaka that had spared her life. I had given her a gift actually, for she would be considered blessed and be regarded as a powerful shaman.

  “Turning from the camp, I lifted the last tendrils of my control from the woman’s mind and slipped into the darkness. Dawn was coming, and I could feel the paralyzing power of the sun. The very thought of it created in me a longing for the dirt I had been created in. I could no more have ignored the call of that ancient tradition than the cry for blood.”

  Chapter 12

  The gruesome images rolled to a stop as Adrik stopped thinking of the past for a moment, and I was glad. Seeing those innocent men die was painful to watch, and worse yet was the flutter I felt in my abdomen while he talked. It reminded me of watching one of my cousins pull the wings off butterflies as I kid. I was mortified and yet I couldn’t look away.

  “Why are you judging me?” he asked, sifting through my thoughts. “It is simply my way. Besides, I see the same blackness in you. I know the things you wish to do to Joel.”

  “I’m not judging you, but those native men were innocent. They had done nothing to you. Joel, on the other hand, is an asshole and deserves everything I want to do to him.”

  “Ahh, I see. You think there are degrees of murder. Perfectly legitimate to kill for the sake of revenge, but hunger, now that is another thing entirely.”

  He was mocking me, his eyes narrowed with sarcasm.

  “Not that I care, Tamara. I can hardly stand in judgment over you for wanting revenge. I certainly sought it out and I would do it all over again.”

  “Then what are you saying?” I asked hatefully.

  “Recognize your actions for what they are before you do them. The consequences will be much easier to accept if you do not think yourself falsely accused.”

  “Like you, Adrik?”

  “No. Nothing like me. Just advice from a man that could not take his own counsel.”

  “Tell the rest of the story please,” I urged, wanting to put an end to our tense conversation. “But first can you tell me why you had to return to the grave. Why couldn’t you go somewhere else?”

  “I cannot explain the tenets of vampirism, only tell you what they are. From the time of our rising, we cannot leave our gravesite for six months. We are bound to return to it at daybreak. It is a calling that we feel in our bones, and even if we try to ignore the call, we cannot. Our body will, of its own volition, return there. Perhaps it is nature’s way of providing protection for our friends and family since our whereabouts will be known for that time period. Just like the crowing of the cock, I think. He crows not to tell the vampire when to go to ground but instead to tell the humans when it is safe to open their doors.

  “But there was no protection for Irena when I came for her the evening following my rising. Daylight was a long-lived hell, but as the final rays of the disappearing sun lost their clutch on the landscape, my muscles awakened.
I was renewed. Fresh blood coursed through me, and I licked my lips. The taste of the men I had killed the night before lingered still and I savored it.

  “Certain the world above me stood in darkness, I closed my eyes and let myself fall apart. I passed through the layers of my grave and stood, whole, above my crypt.

  “I flexed my muscles, not out of any need but simply because it felt good. I took in a deep breath, and my chest expanded as the air passed across my vocal cords, spilling down in lungs that no longer needed air. The sweetness of newly fallen snow danced across my tongue, a sharp contrast to the earthy rot of the grave.

  “In the breeze, my skin cooled, and looking down, I took note of my nakedness. Pale, I would appear the alien, the outsider. Clothes were a necessity, and at first, I thought to dig to the depth to my coffin and retrieve the burial clothes.

  “It had been two weeks since I had awoken, and each night I had dug a fingernail through the wood of my coffin lid to mark the time. The outline of the grave had begun to fade as leaves, stained dark with rain, blew across the turned earth of the crypt. I did not wish to draw attention to the gravesite by disturbing it, and so, unclothed, I walked towards the fort with thoughts of blood on my mind.

  “My movements were silent, and in only minutes, I stood on the outskirts of the fort. Approaching from the northern end to avoid the sea, I melted to the ground where the tree line met the cleared land of the fort.

  “Becoming part of the landscape, I lay in the shadows as the smells of the fort washed across me. I could see the garrison atop the Round Hill, the most secured portion of the encampment. A soldier stood lookout in the blockhouse, smoke from his cigar hanging neatly around his head, making his fur hat look like a round, gray blob. He gazed out at the ocean and paid no attention to the ground at his feet.

  “From the middle of the fort, cattle stamped their feet nervously. A sheep bleated, its fearful noise unnoticed by the sentry standing atop the Round Hill. The soldier in the garrison had pulled out another cigar, and another young corporal had climbed up to join him. They talked quietly of fur prices and the rising cost of fresh meat.

  “To my left, the cabin Irena shared with her father stood alone. The surrounding buildings were not currently in use, and only the light from Irena’s lamps broke up the darkness. I could hear her laughter mixing with the deeper voice of a man. She had a caller, and I was not surprised at the smell of lust leaching out from the interior of the cabin. The beat of their hearts was thick and full as they recovered from their activities. Another human, a woman, walked softly around the front room of the cabin, her steps quiet but sure.

  “The sound of those three hearts was almost more than I could bear, especially that of Irena’s. Their very vibrations shimmered the air around me. My body pulsed with each beat. Pulling me forward, like strings on a marionette, I rose from the ground to my full height and soundlessly I walked towards the cabin where she lay.

  “I studied the entrance to the small cabin before I drew too close. On the small porch, a wet, muddy rug covered the lowest step; the roof had been freshly swept of spruce needles. Lamplight flickered in the thick glass of the south-facing window; a curtain wavered in the slight breeze that found entrance through a crack.

  “Inside the cabin, the human male prepared to leave. He slid his legs into his trousers, donning a well-worn shirt. It rustled against the hairs on his chest. Outside, I licked my lips, my tongue running across sharp fangs, and backed away from the porch.

  “I waited as the man’s heavy footsteps thudded from the bedroom and passed through the living space, out the door and into the yard. Reaching the bottom step, the human pulled a cigar from his coat pocket. The match he struck on the sole of his boot illuminated his face as he lit his smoke.

  “He crushed the match underneath a heavy boot and inhaled deeply of the cigar. The smoke he blew out hung about his head briefly then twisted away on the breeze. He adjusted his crotch with his other hand and softly laughed out loud as an amusing thought crossed his mind. He kicked a small rock around with the toe of his boot as he studied the ground in front of him.

  “He had lifted his hand to his mouth to take another draw before he realized his fingers were empty and the cigar gone. ‘What the h…’ he began, spinning quickly around on his heels to study the darkness around him.

  “His words died into my hand as I clamped one across his mouth. As a man, I would have been stronger than him. As a vampire, he was putty in my grasp, and I pushed his head back so that our eyes met. I studied the human as I inhaled deeply on his smoke. The warmth of the tobacco felt good as it spread through my lungs.

  “Blood pumped harshly from his heart and fear colored the lustful scent that clung to him. He sweated in my hands; he shook, and it colored his cheeks. He began to fight, and I crushed him against the hardness of my body. ‘Sshh,’ I whispered, blowing smoke into his ear.

  “But I did not want him to fight. I wanted to look at him, to see the way his pupil crushed his iris when it dilated. I wanted to watch the fluttering of his eyelashes and study their deep yellow color as they swept across his green eyes. I wanted to listen to his heart and feel the fine hairs of his arms lift against my skin.

  “The night before I had killed the native man quickly and efficiently. I had been too hungry to enjoy myself. Tonight was different, and I was mesmerized by this human I held in my arms. It was illogical since only a handful of days ago I had been a human, but still I could not help but marvel at the beauty of such a delicate creature and how utterly alive he was.

  “He was studying me as well, and I could see that he recognized me. He knew who I had been, and he knew what I was. And I had known him. I cannot say we had been friends, but we certainly had not been enemies. It was no matter; I had every intention of killing him.

  “But first I had questions. ‘Whose footsteps do I hear in the house besides Irena’s?’ I asked. Lifting my hand from the man’s mouth, I wrapped long fingers round the human’s throat, keeping his body close to me lest he cried out.

  “‘The… the maid,’ the words whispered from his clenched vocal cords.

  “‘The same maid that testified against me?’ I questioned him. He nodded his ‘yes’.

  “‘Irena’s father is drinking with the Baranov?’ I asked. Again another yes.

  “He started to beg then, and I shushed him with my thumb on his lips. How soft his skin was under my hand. I stroked the fullness of his bottom lip with my thumb before replacing it with my lips. A good night kiss, so to speak, as I sucked the air from his body, crushing him against me and squeezing the remainders from the bottoms of his lungs.

  “His ribs cracked under my hands, and I could taste his fear in my mouth. I wanted his blood, but I could not risk making a child and so I let him strangle.

  “He ceased to struggle after only seconds, and when his heart had made its final sound, I pushed his neck back and drank until blood dripped from the corners of my mouth and wet the ground under my feet. His body discarded in the ocean, I returned to Irena’s home with only minutes lost.

  “The house, although poorly lit, stood out in the darkness, its far corner only a stone’s throw from the forest. Behind the curtains, I could see the shadow of a human roaming the room. It did not belong to Irena, as it moved with too little fanfare.

  “I knocked at the window and was happy to see the shocked expression of the maid who had accused me of rape as she opened the door. Her face flushed despite her dark skin; her breath caught in her throat. Quickly, her hands formed the symbol of the cross against her chest and nausea rolled through me. But I was not deterred.

  “’Let. Me. In.’ I hissed the words through the semi darkness of the porch into her face. Hatred rolled across my body as I stared at my accuser. I lifted one foot to cross the threshold, but it caught in some ancient tradition, held eerily in midair. The woman laughed at me.

  “‘Do you plan to hide behind these walls forever?’ I asked her. I promised her death wit
h my undead eyes and smiled with my inhuman lips.

  “‘If that is what it takes then the answer is yes,’ she answered.

  “‘And what of your children? You, who will not live forever. Who will protect them from me?’ I asked.

  “She spit at me now words of intense hatred and anger. ‘You have already cursed my child. Why do you think I have done these things to you? Why did you think I sided with this she-devil?’

  “Looking at her in a new light, I stepped back slightly from the door, my hands falling limply to my sides. ‘He was yours. The native boy I killed was your son.’

  “She studied me with eyes as cold and dead as mine. The air changed around me, a cool chill wrapped around my form. I had felt these emotions before, the day the child had died in my arms.

  “‘You buried him in the ground. You damned his soul, and now he can never enter paradise because you put him in the dirt,’ her voice broke. She stared into the distance. ‘I cursed you that day.’

  “‘I meant to honor him. I did not want to see his body burned in a mass grave,’ I argued. ‘I buried him so that he might have peace.’

  “‘You cursed him,’ she hissed at me. ‘We are Aleutian. We are not of your kind. Our ways are not your ways. We do not put our dead in the ground to rot. You interfered with what you did not understand, and now my son is a slave to death for eternity. He can never walk in paradise. And so, I cursed you.’

  “‘I have cursed myself,’ I answered.

  “She eyed me defiantly, unafraid momentarily of what stood before her.

  “‘You do not give me enough credit. You believe in your own power but not of mine. My power traveled here with the sun when it first spread its light upon the earth. The Tlingit tell a story of your kind. They met ones such as you before my people. You see, many years ago when the earth was young and fresh and still covered in sheets of ice, a monster followed the trail of winter’s path to a village full of mighty warriors. But the warriors were safe and warm in their homes, their baskets full of dried fish and venison for the winter. The monster could not reach them, and it paced the mountains gnashing its teeth. Finally the snows melted and spring arrived and the warriors went out to find fresh meat and fish. The monster was hungry, and many warriors did not return home. Women disappeared from the village. Their empty bodies were found scattered in the forest. The remaining warriors stalked and killed the beast; its heart burned upon the fire. But the monster was strong and did not want to die. It wanted to drink the blood of humans forever, and so its heart, when thrown on the fire, burst into uncounted mosquitoes which flew away. And so the beast lives on and cannot die, for who can slay all the mosquitoes? Now, you are the mosquito. You will never die, and you will drink human blood forever. You cursed my son, and I have cursed you. We are even.’