The Nectar of Eternal Life

by Michael Coles

  After a brief grin to acknowledge Megan as she approached, the woman’s face turned concerned. “Really? That’s bad luck. Hopefully it’s not serious.” She walked around to the far side of her truck. “This one?”

  “Yes, that’s the one.” Drake answered as the woman ducked down to inspect the wheel.

  Glancing at Megan he gave her a nod of confidence and proceeded to assist. “So, how does it look?”

  “I don’t know. It seems pretty solid…no wiggle or movement, and it seems straight,” she said looking up at Drake and shading her eyes.

  Drake stooped down on one knee. “Let me give it a try,” Drake said and the woman made way.

  Drake shook it vigorously enough to show the strain on his face. The woman smiled at his effort while admiring the contours of his face.

  “Well, it feels a bit loose to me, but nothing serious,” Drake talked in a slow relaxed cadence while he looked deeply into the woman’s sparkling brown eyes. Her hair pulled back in a ponytail gave way to a beautiful olive toned face. “Do you live far from here?” Drake asked, never breaking his gaze.

  Her answer came after some subconscious urging, and Drake at once knew he had her. Just take your time, don’t rush, he reminded himself.

  “Just up the road,” she finally got out.

  Those are the last words you’ll utter my dear, Drake thought.

  “Well, the way I see it, you can just drive it slowly home and check it out more closely there or, if you like, I can give you a hand to jack it up and tighten those lugs down. It’s up to you,” Drake continued to talk in a slow deep relaxing tone and just rambled on intently looking for the signs of total surrender. He felt his gums swell and he ventured a look to her throat all the while talking in that mesmerizing tone. Feeling his fangs unsheathe, Drake slowly moved towards the lush, pink landscape. Just then a vehicle pulled up.

  Megan felt her heart jump and walked out from the front of the big truck where she had stood, terrified. “Hi. How are you today?” Megan greeted with a smile.

  “Not bad, not bad. Do you need any help?” the man asked from the driver’s seat of his car.

  Megan looked over to Drake’s victim-she was silent and stationary and Drake now had a mental hold on her. Megan took control, “No thanks. This nice truck driver alerted me of a problem with my vehicle and he’s underneath it right now trying to repair the problem. But thanks for stopping-that was nice of you.”

  “No problem. Best of luck to you,” the man said before gunning his engine.

  The commotion disturbed the relaxed environment. All that noise interrupted the Vampire woman’s sublime relaxed state. How dare it, she seethed from inside her once glorious state of mind…she came out of it with a start and cleared her vision to the sight of two glistening white fangs. Her strength and effort caught Drake off guard and she kicked and fought free. Drake rushed to his feet but she was so quick. She darted around the front of her truck, jumped in, and hit the gas before Drake could get his hand on the door handle.

  “Into the truck,” Drake yelled to Megan.

  Drake hammered the gas pedal and feverishly worked through the gears. It took awhile to get the big truck rolling, but once top speed was achieved the big rig was faster than the little pick-up, and luckily, this section of the highway was a long downhill. He would need to catch her before she pulled off the highway or caught up to another driver. Rounding the next curve she came into sight.

  The terrified Vampire’s eyes darted from the road to her rear view mirror. She saw the lumber truck round the curve behind her. If I can just get to that other vehicle before he catches up, her panicked mind urged her. Her heart leapt when it came into sight. She closed the gap quickly and pushed hard on her horn. The man was oblivious to her; his music loud in his soundproofed cab and not concerned about what was behind him. The woman pulled up beside him and gestured at him to pull over. He noticed her and recognized her truck as the one stopped on the road a piece back, but the woman looked different, not even the same colored hair. He obliged and pulled over, much to the relief of the woman. Just as she pulled over, Drake went screaming by and her vehicle shuddered from the wind of his passing.

  “Damn it!”

  Drake looked at the road ahead. The long downhill was coming to an end followed by a brief level stretch and then a long uphill climb that turned gradually turned to the right.

  Drake’s mind raced. “I wish I knew if that dude was a Vampire or not.”

  “He was.”

  Drake’s head snapped. “How do you know?”

  “The way he looked at me,” she paused. “I can tell now. It’s a look that I can’t describe, but I can tell it when I see it. And now that I know the secret of the Empire…I understand it. It was always supervisors or visitors and it’s a look that I saw a lot more often once we were moved up. Believe me, I recognize it and he had it, big time. He’s a Vampire, guaranteed.”

  Drake ventured a smile through all the calamity. “Okay, that’s good enough for me.”

  The shaken Vampire woman exited her car and watched Drake’s truck speed down the hill and up then next grade, slowly disappearing around a curve on the far side of the valley. She breathed a sigh of relief and went back to talk to the kind gentleman who she figured had just saved her life. His face looked very puzzled as she approached.

  Drake wheeled his truck off the road and jumped out of the cab. Megan watched him in the mirrors as he ran from one tether strap to the next, adjusting the tension on the straps that secured the load. It only seemed to take him a couple of minutes and he was back in the cab of the truck, carefully wheeling it around. He gunned the engine once the truck was straight and used the ascending grade to pick up speed quickly. He felt his load shift slightly as he negotiated the long sloping turn and got a bit of a rush of anxiety because of it. Megan looked over at Drake, tense in her seat.

  “Tighten your belt and brace yourself,” Drake said to her, his hands tightly gripping the wheel.

  “Well, it looks like he’s gone now. I’ll phone it in and then I’ll stay with you until you get home. We’ll wait for the authorities there and make a statement at that point. What a harrowing ordeal for you. It was lucky I came along when I did,” the Good Samaritan said.

  The woman felt better, but she still constantly looked to her left and up the hill. She gasped, “That’s him!”

  “Don’t worry, I’m here with you-surely he won’t try anything now. He’s probably just sizing up the situation and maybe his destination lies in that direction. After all, the commercial lift is in the other direction. They watched intently as Drake’s truck rounded the corner and picked up speed on the downhill grade.

  Once around the turn Drake pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor, pressing on it as hard as he could. The truck screamed down the hill. Drake now had them in his sights. Megan looked over and saw a look of grim determination. She tightened her seat belt and braced herself. Drake veered the truck towards the two stopped vehicles and at the last possible moment, jerked the steering wheel to the right and hammered on the brakes. The truck spun, the bindings snapped and the colossal tree shafts continued on with a tremendous destructive force as they tumbled and flipped end over end down the road.

  The Vampire girl saw the truck veer and turned to run. Her breath was short and panicked. She gasped at the sickening sound of screeching tires and the loud cracks of load-straps snapping in rapid succession. Looking back brought the terrifying sight of a wall of timber bounding down the road. She ran as hard as she could but was slowed by her stumbling panic. A careening log smashed into both parked vehicles and continued on its path; the Vampire man’s last horrific sight. The windows exploded outwards as the roof crushed. The wall of trees was quickly upon the woman and she fell to the road and cowered as the thundering logs bouncing all around her.

  The truck squealed to a stop.

  “Holy crap,” Megan said, collecting herself. She looked to her right and watched the logs continue
to lose momentum until the only movement was a swirl of dust above the disaster.

  The vehicle had stalled and Drake re-started it. He slowly righted the truck, keeping his eyes alert for a sign of the girl. The truck crept closer to the carnage.

  “Help me look for the girl,” Drake told Megan.

  Jumping down from the truck, they both scoured the wreckage. The broken glass crunched under Drake’s feet as he walked by the wrecked vehicles. A short way down the road the girl was visible. Megan saw her, too.

  “There she is,” she called out.

  Drake ran over to her. Blood leaked from her nose and head. Drake quickly kneeled down, his eyes on the blood. “Keep watch back there. No one can get past the logs from the other direction.”

  Drake hurried, and hoped that her heart was still beating. His hands slipped on the slick hair as he leaned over. The situation was too rushed, too panicky, his fangs weren’t cooperating. He licked the blood on her face to try to get a response from himself…it didn’t work. He closed his eyes and remembered her as she was, moments ago when she was so warm and beautiful. He bent down and licked the fresh blood, the mixture of human and Vampire blood fuelled his desire and he felt that familiar engorging of his fangs. With no time to be wasted, Drake plunged in, only managing one or two draws. “What the hell?” He suddenly realized that her heart had indeed stopped.

  Drake pumped deep into her chest. “Come on! Beat!” he demanded as he feverishly performed CPR. Blood oozed from the two wounds on her neck. Drake licked it up and re-entered the main artery. One last little drink. “Damn it! What a lot of risk for two sips.”

  Looking at the bloody mess of his hands Drake walked back to the truck and Megan followed briskly behind. Drake wiped his hands on a rag he found in the truck. With a gesture to her mouth Megan alerted Drake of the blood around his own. He wiped at it quickly and looked at Megan for secondary inspection. She took the rag, moistened with her saliva and rubbed some still pink areas on his face-then nodded her approval.

  “Well, at least we got two more of them,” Drake said.

  Megan nodded and grunted. “Now what?”

  Drake fired up the truck and accelerated away from the scene. “We need to dump this truck. We’re in a tough spot right now, Megan. We have to assume the authorities are hot on our tail. They’ll suspect we’re heading home, which we are; all the while leaving a trail of bodies behind us. I feel my need for revenge sometimes clouds my judgment and I’ll have to be more careful to be on guard for that. We’re pretty close to home now and I think we may be better off on foot so we can enter the area more stealthily. Urgency to get there before the cops do is paramount, but this truck is just so obvious around here; it’s not even timber country, and we’re driving an empty timber truck with our load all over the freeway.” Drake shook his head. “So stupid!”

  “Whatever you think is best, Drake. I trust your judgment.”

  “We can live off the land for a few days if we have to…kind of a mini-vacation.” Drake smiled, as he turned off the main road.

  “How will you-feed?”

  “I’m going to have to tighten my belt, and endure a little bit of aging, I guess.”

  Chapter 15

  Everybody’s Heading For Plesston

  Drake drove the truck deep into the woods on an abandoned logging road. The truck was well hidden when ditched and the fugitives set off on foot.

  “It’s still a day or so by foot to Plesston,” Drake said to Megan as they exited the truck. “We’ll be losing time, but I feel much more comfortable away from that vehicle.”

  The woods opened up into a lush green meadow and for the first time the two of them felt home again. The meadow represented big wide open freedom. It was familiar, it was comfortable and it brought with it a feeling of relief.

  “Maybe we can just live off the land for the rest of our lives. I can watch you and our child grow. And once you two are gone, then I can continue with my work. We deserve the lives that were stolen from us. Right?”

  Megan took in a breath of fresh air and let out a big sigh. The open country side was a much needed therapy and she basked in all of its glory and the wonderful feeling of liberation. “Can’t we just take it a day at a time? A moment at a time actually.”

  Drake looked at his love’s beautiful contented face and felt a warmth in the depths of his soul. “I love you so much.” Drake felt the sting of tears.

  Megan looked over and smiled. It was taking a long time to accept the new Drake, but there he was, just as before, the same gentle loving person she had fallen in love with so many years ago. “I love you, too,” her response was not as free and comfortable as she would have liked, but it was slowly coming.

  Drake noticed every little hesitation in her voice, and although it still cut him to the heart, he did notice a lessening uncertainty in her voice during personal moments. “I’m all for that! And right at this moment we are in the most beautiful place we can be. Care free, just like the old days!”

  Drake had a backpack full of food and supplies and sleeping outside in the dome’s controlled environment was never a problem. They had learned as youngsters how to live off the natural bounty of the land. The pair walked for hours through wood and meadow, enjoying every moment of their freedom with each other. Megan felt a little guilty when they stopped and she ate, but she was ravenous after a few hours of walking. The life growing inside of her was demanding a lot of the food energy that would normally be reserved for Megan alone. She didn’t like when they passed close by a farm or mill and Drake altered their course and delayed their progress. Not that she was in a hurry to get anywhere; she just knew the reason why, and it still made her uncomfortable to be reminded of Drake’s burden.

  Megan continued to enjoy the feeling of freedom. Running for her life had become such a part of her existence that any kind of respite was considered a gift. Drake was a joy to be around. There was no talk of the future, not even of the baby; although, both treasured the thought. Walking for hours across the beautiful countryside didn’t even seem like a chore. Waking up in the morning to singing birds was a priceless therapy. They skirted villages to avoid being seen, and pausing while Drake prowled for victims. Megan noticed when it was time for him to feed he became restless, and after a successful outing, he was more relaxed and easy going-twice now she had noticed this pattern that would become a way of their life. It was so wonderful to be together and away from the overwhelming oppression and constant fear of the Empire. Down here there was room to breathe and live and dream…it was glorious.

  Drake was up early. He didn’t seem to need as much sleep since he had been converted. He watched Megan-her cute face looked content as she lay curled up. Her hand clutched the blanket up under her chin. The thought of her carrying their child comforted him and intensified his resolve to spread a revolt. His pleasant thoughts and feelings of being alone with Megan always drifted to reality, and Drake resented it. She was so beautiful and Drake longed to experience the intimacy that they had once shared. The love and trust had returned, but there was a physical disconnect that Drake felt cheated out of.

  Megan stirred and opened her eyes to see Drake peering at her. It was such a comfort to know he was there for her again. They had been separated for so long-and when they were reunited, she still felt an estrangement. But she longed to live within a human community again and wondered how Drake could possibly fit in. She loved him so much, a tear came to her eye and her face quivered.

  Drake smiled and shook his head. “No. Don’t do that.”

  “I can’t help it. I’m just so happy.”

  Drake moved closer and lay down beside her, opening the flood gate to allow her emotions a welcome release. His face was so close, she wanted to kiss him, but instead buried her head in his shoulder and wept freely.

  ***

  It wasn’t long before Detectives Genn and Lang came across a road block.

  “What the hell?” Genn said as he slowed the vehicle an
d pulled over.

  The road was littered with gigantic shafts of once mighty trees. Already on the scene were motorists unable to get by.

  “Ulah?” Genn asked, not really believing that Drake could have been responsible for such calamity.

  “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Lang responded.

  Walking around the carnage, the Detectives noticed a group of people standing around one spot.

  “We’d better get a cleanup crew in here right away. If it was Ulah, he’s managed to buy himself some time,” Lang said.

  Just then local police arrived from the other side of the mishap.

  “We’re Detectives. Please step aside.”

  “She’s got the fang marks of the devil dog on her neck,” one of the bystanders said.

  “There’s no such thing as the devil dog,” another said as he rose from the battered body on the road.

  “Then explain those two marks on her neck,” the young woman countered.

  Lang looked around at the group and could sense a combination of human and Vampire. Furtive glances amongst the Vampires of the group spurred Genn into action. He noticed a uniformed officer walking towards the scene.

  Genn flashed his badge. “Officer! We’re detectives on special assignment. Could you clear the area, so that we can examine the body?”

  The cop immediately noticed the two fang marks and alertly picked up on the presence of the humans. “Okay folks, step away please so the Detectives can do their job.”

  “I’ve heard about this. The devil dog attacks and sucks out your soul and takes it back to hell with him,” the woman repeated the legend. “How else do you explain those marks?”

  “Alright, alright, please clear the area,” the cop repeated.

  Genn did a quick DNA scan of the wound. “It’s Ulah alright. Or at least it’s the same DNA we’ve been chasing for weeks.” Genn scanned the devastation. “All of this just for a meal?”

  “He’s obviously desperate. But, why. He just fed a short time ago. He seems to be trying to top himself up; as if he knows his next meal may be a ways down the road. I think he is finding it a lot more difficult to find meals down here.”