Love in Troubled Times

by Gayle Riley

  I took her into the bedroom and laid her down on the mattress that sat by itself in the middle of the floor. It was the only comfortable place I could find in the whole unit. It served to make me even more curious about her.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. “I’m Rhea.” Her name was so unique, it surprised me. The world had become obsessed with Heathers and Sarahs over the past three or so decades.

  Her eyebrows raised as she tried to sit up, and she studied me. I felt strange as she did, but I couldn’t put a name on the feeling. I was too far removed from such things to remember what they were called. “You’re a vampire.” It wasn’t a question. She knew it, and yet she didn’t scream or try and find a Bible or cross to throw at me. It was the most interesting reaction I had ever seen.

  The right thing to do was to make her forget about me. Humans couldn’t handle the information, but I didn’t know if I could stand for her to forget about me.

  “Yes, I am,” I confirmed for her. “My name is Maurice.”

  Chapter 3

  ***Rhea***

  There is a vampire in my house. That was my first thought as I surveyed the man who had saved me from my attackers. I was trying to navigate the situation very carefully because I realized that vampires obviously didn’t go around just saving anyone, otherwise, humans would know they existed. But I couldn’t deny that I was more than grateful; I was fascinated.

  His speed was otherworldly, and he had a beauty to him that no human did. His hair was a deep red, coming down to his mid chest, and his eyes were a brilliant green like a cat’s. His nose, lips, eyebrows and chin were arranged in perfect symmetry and were the color of skim milk. I knew it was crazy, but I was attracted to this creature who didn’t exist in my world until moments ago. I also knew he could easily dispose of me if he wanted to, and instead, he had chosen to bring me home to safety.

  “It’s nice to meet you Maurice,” I told him with a smile. I didn’t exactly know the etiquette for conversing with a vampire, so I stuck to general niceties, though I could easily fantasize about him crushing me into his impossibly strong arms and placing those soft, bow-shaped lips against mine. I had never met a man who made me feel this way, and maybe this was the reason why. There was no man who could satisfy the image in my head of what a man should be. “I don’t imagine you get tired or thirsty, but would you like to sit down and have a cup of tea or something?” I asked awkwardly. I didn’t like the way he was just standing there with one foot in and one foot out my bedroom door. I had so many questions, and I wasn’t at all ready for him to leave. I had to make sure he was real and not something I made up in my distress.

  “I actually do enjoy tea,” he said. I stood up carefully, the shock of the attack wearing off to reveal quite a bit of soreness, and I took his hand. It was cool but not freezing like books would have made me expect. I led him into the kitchen where I sat him down in the corner, at my sad excuse for a table. He looked so strange, sitting in my mostly bare pitiful excuse of an apartment as I brewed tea in my old, hand-me-down coffee pot.

  “How much sugar and milk?” I asked politely, trying not to lose my senses. I wondered if he had the same effect on others, or if I was the only one who felt the need to touch his skin and get to know every story he had to tell.

  “Two scoops of sugar, no milk,” he said, with a thoughtful look upon his brow. I assumed by scoops he meant teaspoons, so that’s what I did. I sat down across from him with my own tea, sipping at it as I watched him stir his own with his finger a few times before taking a sip.

  “Why do you keep looking at me like that?” he asked, meeting my eyes with his own. I felt frozen to the spot by his burning gaze.

  “Well, it’s not every day I have a vampire in my house,” I joked lightly, causing him to cock his head to the side much like a dog trying to catch what you’re saying.

  “I would certainly hope not. That would be quite dangerous,” he added, seeming to have no sense of humor to speak of. “You don’t act like other humans, am I right in that assumption?” I was startled by his question, and I wasn’t quite sure what he was referring to. “I mean in regards to your reactions to me,” he clarified, seeing my confusion.

  “Oh, I guess I’m probably not. I’m not scared of you, if that’s what you mean. I’m mostly scared you aren’t real,” I admitted, not sure as to the why. “I actually have questions.”

  “That’s only natural,” he stated, sipping at his tea like a proper gentleman. “I suppose I can answer a few.

  Instead of sticking to just a few, I found myself grilling him for the next hour on everything from his age to his weaknesses. I was surprised to find that not only did he answer each question, but he was easily amused by my curiosity. His laugh was like nothing I had ever heard, though. It just made me want to know even more.

  “You know, I should make you forget about me,” he finally said. “We have this power called glamour, and we can use it to influence others; humans and younger vampires. We don’t let humans walk around knowing about us, so this is what we do when we make a mistake.”

  “Please,” I begged, putting my hand up. “Don’t make me forget. I’m not going to tell anyone or try to hurt any of you. But I can’t imagine not knowing this now.” His brows furrowed again, and I focused on those deep creases it made in his forehead. They were like some I’d seen in a painting rather than the imperfect ones I made when I frowned.

  Before I could stop myself, I leaned over the table and kissed him. Maurice’s body was stiff at first, but then I felt it relax into me. His hands tangled in my hair, and I knew I had made him feel something.

  “You make me feel more alive than I have in a long time, Rhea,” he said in a whisper, as if someone might be listening in. “But I do not know how anything between us would ever work.” I didn’t either, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t willing to try.

  “Just don’t make me forget. We can worry about the rest later.” He suddenly scooped me up and took me back to the bed, laying me down and giving me a kiss on the forehead. I suddenly felt groggy. I tried to cling to consciousness, but it was fading fast. My last thought was a tiny prayer to the universe that I would wake up and still remember Maurice.

  Chapter 4

  ***Rhea***

  I woke up the next morning, and Maurice was gone. But the fact that I knew he was gone, meant that he hadn’t erased my memory. I remembered every moment about him saving me and about our kiss. I was star struck and wondered when I might see him again.

  As the day dragged on, though, I realized I had no guarantee that I would see him again. As night fell, I found that I was wide awake, unable to go to sleep with the thoughts racing through my head. I hadn’t thought it through when I had asked him to let me keep my memory of him. I hadn’t asked for a guarantee I would see him again, or how I might find him if I wanted to. All I had was the memory of his red hair and green eyes to keep me company, and I began to feel both naive and completely insane.

  This wasn’t something I could call a friend to talk about, even if I had one. This wasn’t something I could get on Facebook and share with my sometimes friends. It was a secret I would hold until the end of my days; the secret that I had met a beautiful vampire who saved my life and who kissed me so passionately. And I would never get to tell a single living soul, even if the memories began to fade and I never saw him again.

  A certain panic landed on my shoulders like a heavy weight, and I fell into a pattern of hoping and wishing Maurice would show his face again. As the week passed me by, I had lost all hope of him knocking on my door, or meeting me on the way home from work. Part of me thought I could feel him in the shadows, making sure I was safe after work, but it was the other part of my thoughts that became more frightening. I was beginning to worry I really had made him up. That Maurice did not exist. I was some raving lunatic who belonged locked up and medicated. I was sure of it.

  The thoughts were getting out of hand, and I knew I had to do something about it. So, I l
et any rational part of myself go on the way home Friday night, exactly one week after Maurice had taken out three men who had meant to do me harm. I took the most dangerous route home possible with no protection of any kind on me. I was wearing some of the most expensive jewelry I owned under my uniform. It wasn’t much, but it might have been enough to attract more of the same trouble I had encountered just a week ago. The human side of me knew I was being crazy and possibly suicidal, but the part of me that desperately needed to know Maurice was out there waiting and watching had been much stronger.

  For the first time since being on my own in this desert city of debauchery, I wanted someone to attack me. I was counting on it.

  I braced myself as I felt myself fly up against the side of a building. I was sure a bad man had me in his grasp and would pull a gun to try and get me to give him all my money and jewelry. I closed my eyes and braced for the blows that would come if Maurice really had abandoned me or didn’t exist. Instead, I heard a familiar voice in my ear. It was furious.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing, Rhea?” he growled. I opened my eyes to make sure I hadn’t imagined it to find myself pinned against an old building by Maurice. His green eyes were blazing with fury, and he looked like he might be mad enough to take me as his prey. I couldn’t care less.

  “You’re real,” I wondered out loud. “You’re here.”

  “Rhea, this is why I wanted to erase your memory; why humans are not supposed to know about us. Your brain can’t fathom a thing like me. You’ll go crazy.” He shook me in anger before pulling me tight to his chest.

  “I think it’s my heart that can’t take this,” I breathed as he held me there under the cover of night.

  Maurice pulled back and looked at me, a new wonderment in his eyes that matched mine. “You are the most interesting human I have ever met, and that includes those I met when I was human myself,” he admitted, a drop of blood cropping up in his left eye like a tear drop. I reached up to wipe it off and examined the drop of blood on my hand. I knew where the blood came from; the blood he needed to survive. He was a dangerous thing, and yet I wanted to get that much closer.

  “What does it feel like to have a vampire drink from you?” I asked, looking right into his eyes. He looked like he was debating something before he moved my blonde hair away from the right side of my neck, bringing his lips down to touch it. Maurice kissed the skin gently before sucking on it. I felt a surge of electricity shoot through my body at the sensation, and then, his razor sharp teeth dug into my skin. It was like needles that went way too deep, but then the pain was replaced by something else. I felt a pure ecstasy in my body that was similar to having an orgasm. When Maurice pulled away, I found that I was disappointed that the feeling had ended. I realized that Maurice could make people die in pure pleasure the whole time, begging for more, but he had stopped. I knew that I couldn’t let him leave me again after that.

  Chapter 5

  ***Maurice***

  I was on a high I couldn’t explain as I returned to my clan. I had Rhea’s blood running through my veins, its sweet taste and scent keeping my body going strong in the undead life. What I felt for her was perplexing, even as one of the least vicious of my kind. Vampires did not truly love, not very often. Obsession was a strong and common feeling, and so was attraction, but that didn’t keep a vampire from killing someone whose blood they had a taste of. Yet, I had no desire to drain Rhea. Instead, I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to please her and give her the world. It was so human that it scared me.

  My boots clanked against the concrete as I made my way through the underground tunnels and pipes that my vampire clan called home. But I was stopped in my tracks when our leader, Lawrence, appeared in front of me. I bowed to him with respect, even though I had little for him. It was often that a vampire would be stuck serving another he or she didn’t get along with every couple of decades. But it was safer to be part of the community and follow the rules, so that’s what I had done.

  “I heard about that little toy you acquired,” he said in his snake-like voice. As far as vampires went, Lawrence was probably the most selfish and reckless one I had ever met. I didn’t like the fact that he had seen me with Rhea. Nothing good was going to come from this conversation.

  “She’s not a toy to me, Lawrence,” I said as calmly as I could muster. I didn’t want to anger him, but I also wanted to make it clear that I would keep her safe.

  “Yes, I suppose we don’t often let toys in on our little secret.” He rubbed his hands together and bared his fangs, making me take a step back in shock and worry. Lawrence didn’t know Rhea, and neither did the clan. If he let it slip to anyone there was a human out there running around with intimate knowledge of our kind, they would surely hunt her down and kill her.

  “Now, calm down, Lawrence. We can trust her. She’s different. Let me handle it.” I was in a panic, wanting to save her life at all costs.

  “Calm down, Maurice. I don’t want to kill her. Interestingly enough, I find her about as interesting as you do. I have seen these differences in her that you speak of. I have grown weary of my current bride and would like a new one. I want you to get her for me.”

  I felt the order come down on me like a weight. Unfortunately, when you made a pledge to a clan, it was with blood. The blood of the clan leader could glamour even the strongest and oldest of his subjects into doing his bidding. The only way out was for his reign to end somehow or for me to die, unless he agreed to release me form the contract. As long as he wanted Rhea, he wasn’t going to do that.

  “No!” I begged, grabbing my stomach and trying to fight against the impossible order. “I love her. You can’t have her. Take anyone else, please. I’ll get you three brides just as beautiful by next nightfall. Just don’t take her.” I knew that as his bride, Rhea would be hopelessly addicted to his presence, his blood, his body….It was the way Lawrence made it. And then his brides lived in utter torture once he discarded them. I couldn’t let that be her fate.

  “You will obey me, Maurice. It is in your blood to do so. But I will grant you this one reprieve, since you say you love her. We can all be together; the three of us, so that you can still have a piece of her. Otherwise, I will have the clan seek her out and kill her for what she knows.” Tears of blood flowed freely from my eyes. The only way to keep Rhea’s life from being cut short was to surrender her to Lawrence.

  Chapter 6

  ***Rhea***

  My dreams were filled with images of a world that was wholly changed. If vampires existed, what else was out there? My brain ran liberally with the idea and filled my nighttime wanderings with images of werewolves and vampires locked in an epic battle. Witches and warlocks, trained dragons. It was both frightening and amazing at the same time.

  I was soon startled out of my dream by the sound of knocking. I shot up out of bed with a start and looked at the time on my alarm clock. It was around four in the morning, and I had no idea who would be at my door or why. I didn’t live in the nicest of neighborhoods and was wary about a visitor at such a strange hour.

  I went into my closet and dug out an aluminum baseball bat I had bought the minute I moved out here, before approaching my door with caution.

  I opened it and immediately dropped the bat, seeing Maurice covered in water droplets that made his bright red hair and pale skin dance and shine like precious stones.

  He let me pull him inside, and I gave him a strong embrace. I wasn’t sure what had brought him to me for the second time that night, but I was grateful to have him in my home and arms again. His presence had enchanted me and made me feel a need for him immediately, and my world felt strange and cold when he wasn’t there. Could he be feeling the same for me?

  I got up on my tip toes and kissed him, but his response wasn’t as I expected. His hand stroked my hair, but the kiss felt almost sad. I pulled away and looked at him. That was when I saw the stains of bloody tears he had been crying at some point before the rain
washed some away.

  “Maurice, what’s going on? Why are you here?” I backed away slowly, not sure what to expect. My life had been thrown into a tornado of sorts from the moment he stepped into it, and I knew anything could come out of his mouth.

  “I wish I could tell you I was here of my own free will,” he cried, sitting down and dripping on my sad excuse for a chair. “But I am here on an order from my clan leader; an order I cannot resist.”

  I kneeled next to him, unsure of what he could mean or why he was so upset by it. “What do you mean you can’t resist an order?”

  “When you’re a vampire who joins a clan, you make a blood promise to the leader. He can glamour me in a way and make me do his bidding, even if I don’t want to,” he explained with his head in his hands.

  “What is it he ordered you to do?” I felt myself shaking. Surely Maurice wouldn’t hurt me, would he? But then again, I only knew about vampires the things I had asked about. This clan leader stuff was new to me.

  “He ordered me to bring you to the clan so you can be his bride. He told me that the only way I’d ever be with you again is if it was with the both of you. You need to run so that I can’t take you there. It’s not a life you want; being under his influence.”

  My mind was reeling, thinking of a way to get out of this. It wasn’t the worst news. It didn’t mean death. “Maurice, I have nowhere to go. Besides, it may be a good thing in the long run.”

  “What in the world do you mean by that, Rhea? You cannot possibly want to be basically a slave to another man; another vampire.” I shook my head at him. He wasn’t understanding.

  “Maurice, if I become his bride, it means eventually, he will turn me. It also means he won’t kill me and neither will any other vampire. In the short term I’ll be safe. Once I’m turned, I am sure we can find a way to escape him and be together. There must be a way. It’s better than staying like this and getting old and just dying in your arms one day.” That was something that had been a feature of my deepest darkest nightmares as of late. Maurice would surely leave before he watched me rot.