The Embrace

by Jessica Callaghan

  I shook the thought away and smiled brightly at him to stop any worries he might have had. He was suspicious but he knew I was too stubborn to give up my thoughts and so he didn’t press me on the matter. He returned my smile but the tension was still there, unspoken but present. I ignored it and let Gabriel lead me out to the hunt.

  We reached the town within minutes and stopped, just like that first night when we stopped on the edge of the green and listened to the heart beats. Gabriel reached over to me as we rested and brushed a hair from my eyes.

  “I think you must be the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.” He smiled.

  Normally that sort of declaration would be everything I could want, but for some reason his sentiment didn’t make me smile, it chilled me slightly. That sentence was eerily similar to a sentence I had heard three months before, from a time which felt like years ago.

  Gabriel’s face faded and was replaced by a sculpted, rugged face with sweeping blonde hair. It was the face of the man I’d killed during my solo hunt; the man who had caused such friction between Gabriel and I. I had tried for months to force the memory deep inside my mind, covering it and layering our happy moments over it.

  All the terrible moments leading up to our fight came rushing back: the way Gabriel preyed on the young, innocent girls and my desperate loneliness. I was incredibly shaken as that night flooded back to me and the outside world washed away.

  I could feel hands grasping my shoulders but I wasn’t present anymore. I couldn’t feel anything else. Eventually Gabriel’s face penetrated the force-field around me.

  “Louisa! Louisa!” he shouted “Are you okay?”

  I slipped out of my strange trance and felt Gabriel’s strong hands shaking me. He picked me up and ran to a nearby bench with me in his arms. He placed me on the bench and sat down, wrapping his arms around me and enveloping my whole body.

  I gathered my senses and tried to think of a way to explain my odd moment. I felt like my peaceful bubble had been burst, my paradise was shattered. Gabriel wasn’t my knight in shining armour and my renewed feelings of love were shaken by the vivid remembrance of our fight.

  I felt drained and on the verge of tears as I tried desperately to process my two most prominent feelings: disgust and pure love. I couldn’t quite believe I’d managed to sugar coat the memory for so long and I tried desperately to ignore my feelings.

  “I think something’s wrong with me.” I whispered. The hunger of the morning and the resurgence of memories were not normal events, I knew that, and I was becoming worried.

  Gabriel sat with me on the bench, his hand resting on my knee in a comforting gesture. We sat for hours in complete silence. Even the occasional strengthening heartbeats couldn’t raise me from the bench at that moment as I was too shaken to hunt. Gabriel said nothing and let me sit quietly with only my thoughts and his lingering hand for comfort.

  Eventually he broke the silence. “What are you thinking about?” He asked me.

  I took a deep, utterly human breath. I needed to shake off that old habit. Continuing to breath unnecessarily was just perpetuating my weak humanity.

  “That night, the night we argued, I killed that man on my own. It was different from the first kill.” I tried to bring back the all too clear details of that night. “The man I killed, he came to me not the other way around. He didn’t seem afraid of me at all, not one bit. He followed everything I suggested. I told him to tell me things and he did it but it wasn’t because he was intimidated. I’m not explaining this very well.”

  I gave up in frustration. I couldn’t really explain the strange kill and the unusual behaviour of my victim. I had placed it at the back of my mind until that sudden resurgence.

  “It all just came back to me out of nowhere. I meant to ask you about it, but I had totally forgotten it until now.”

  Gabriel gave a soft laugh and broke the serious mood. Since I was a young girl, that laugh had had control over me, forcing me to laugh along even in my darkest moments. It was a pure sound like a musical note and it seemed to grow from nowhere like the sweet noise of a wind chime.

  “I feel like a lecturer” he laughed to himself. I was confused to say the least, and my mind was racing. “I have another lesson for you. I meant to tell you, but this seems like just the right time.”

  I was completely confused. I didn’t think the matter was particularly amusing, and even though Gabriel’s laughter had eased me it didn’t change my opinion. I didn’t want to be patronised and his arrogant ‘lessons’ were frustrating. I slid down the bench from him and folded my arms in annoyance. He didn’t seem to notice however, and he carried on with his lesson.

  “Vampires have extraordinary powers. We can move with unparalleled speed, we have eternal life, we are strong, but we don’t have anything without blood. All of these ‘gifts’ are designed to make us more appealing to our victims and to lure them in so that we can survive.” He paused and moistened his lips.

  I felt my petulant inner child rising up; I knew all of this. This was no lesson to me but I let him carry on without interruption.

  “There are other gifts I haven’t really told you about because, well, they haven’t come up. We have great power over humans as I’m sure you can sense. When we pass them they are drawn to us, but when we start to talk to them and interact with them they almost fall under a spell. We hold the power to pretty much brainwash people. We can force our emotions on them and persuade them to follow us. I mean, I wouldn’t say we make people our slaves per se, but we can influence them and suggest things. If someone is quite suggestible they can be more easily controlled, but everyone is susceptible.”

  I took back my earlier frustration. This was definitely a worthwhile lesson. I knew we had an influence over people. I couldn’t help but notice that as we passed people they would catch sight of us and mould themselves around us, but I didn’t realise it extended so far.

  Something about this gift for compulsion made me uncomfortable. It rang in the corners of my mind and I knew it was important somehow, but I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. I tried to sort through my memories, from being a human right up to my immortality, but nothing connected.

  Sadly I had no time to think. Gabriel grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the bench, almost dragging me with him.

  “Let me show you” he said. The twinkle had returned to his eye and I knew this was a lesson to be excited about.

  He took me through the narrow, winding streets around the green with dizzying speed. Finally we arrived at the door of a quaint hotel. I knew it well from my first life in the village. It was a family run establishment which regularly drew in custom from holiday makers seeking an “authentic” experience. At this time of year it wouldn’t be at the peak of business, but there would still be a steady stream of people who had let their guard down while on holiday.

  Gabriel and I stood under the shelter of a large tree outside and waited, although I didn’t know what for.

  A young woman left the hotel. She was attractive enough, but in a very ordinary way: Her face was round and her chestnut brown hair was scraped back in a high pony tail. She was quite shapely and she had freckles dotting her face as if someone had thrown a handful at her in a reckless moment. She was wearing smart trousers and a blouse, with a burgundy apron clutched in one hand. She was obviously an employee of the hotel in some capacity but she didn’t look as if she knew the area. Although she was roughly my age I didn’t recognise her and I could sense her unease when she saw the darkness around her. She was perfect prey, vulnerable and on edge.

  She stood on the pavement and looked out at the empty street, hurriedly throwing on a jacket to cover up her shivering torso. Her hair swung in the breeze and sent a soft scent out towards us, a typically human scent but pleasant nonetheless.

  Before I knew it Gabriel had leapt across the pavement. I saw him touch the girl’s shoulder and she whipped round to face her intruder. I could almost feel the adrenalin coursing throug
h her veins as her heart sped up, but she calmed down when she saw Gabriel’s face and I took this as a sign that had had put on his usual charming smile.

  He started to speak and his voice carried on the wind towards my sensitive ears.

  “Hi, I noticed you standing here and I wandered if you need a lift somewhere. It’s cold out and there are all kinds of strange people about.”

  He laughed lightly and his approachable exterior immediately set the girl at ease. Even so, her better judgement was telling her to be wary and I could sense her hesitation. Gabriel gestured me forwards and I ran towards him, mimicking his happy manner.

  “This is my girlfriend, Louisa.”

  He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I could feel the woman relax. I sneaked a look at her name tag: Grace. The name suited her perfectly. It was pleasant and traditional, rolling off the tongue in an easy way, but it didn’t shock or offend, much like the rest of this young woman.

  “So, want a lift? I know I always hated walking home in the dark on my own so I told Gabriel here to be a bit more chivalrous and offer to lend you a hand.” I asked in my best casual manner.

  Grace took another look out at the dark streets and finally nodded. She made the fatal mistake of agreeing to accompany two beautiful strangers, like so many others before her.

  Gabriel took my hand and led me leisurely down the pavement with Grace at his side.

  “We parked the car just down the road” he told her.

  I had no idea where this was going. I couldn’t really see much chance of escape for Grace but I didn’t understand how this connected to the compulsion lesson.

  At the street corner he stopped and turned to our new companion, putting a hand on each of her shoulders.

  He looked deep into her eyes and began speaking. His tone was very different from the one I was familiar to. It had taken on a dark quality and it reminded me of the hypnotists on the television who always spoke with a hidden purpose in their voice.

  “Grace, listen to me. I want you to give me all the money you have with you, okay?” He said slowly, enunciating each word carefully.

  I wanted to laugh at this, but astonishingly Grace nodded and withdrew a crumpled note from her pocket, thrusting it into Gabriel’s hand. I could feel my jaw slacken and although I knew I must look simple I couldn’t stop watching this strange transaction.

  “Thank you. I’m going to do something now which will hurt but I want you to remain very, very calm. I don’t want to hear you scream or make a noise. It’s very important that you remain quiet.” He said, still using that impressive, slow whisper.

  He picked up her arm, never losing contact with her gaze. He took her arm to his mouth and bit into it as casually as he would bite in to an apple. I expected her to cry and put up a struggle but she remained so calm and still it was almost unsettling. The blood trickled slowly down her arm as Gabriel drained her life from that single wound. His eyes rolled back in his head in a moment of pure passion and I felt my own fangs surface as the scent of her blood hit my nostrils.

  Gabriel took his mouth away from the wound and licked it gently to begin the healing process. He looked back into her wide, empty eyes and began to weave his compulsion magic again.

  “Grace, my dear, you did so well. I’m going to let you go now and I want you to go home and forget all about this. I never existed and neither did the woman you saw with me. It never happened. You should wrap up this wound and if anyone asks you what happened say you cut it while at work, okay?” He let his smooth words sink in and Grace nodded in agreement, still fully absorbed in his trance.

  He stepped away from her and joined me in the shadows. She began to return to her normal self and we watched her slowly make her way down the pavement. She saw me and exchanged the traditional smile of a stranger before moving on. I was amazed.

  I turned to Gabriel the moment Grace turned the corner to let him see the shock on my face. He laughed for the hundredth time that night.

  “We can really control people like that? My god...” I stuttered

  Gabriel nodded enthusiastically.

  “Oh, we can do that and so much more.” He sighed. “I think that you probably printed some of your desire for attention on that poor man all those months ago. Your emotion was so strong that you sent some of that out to him and forced him to bend to your will. You obviously have a lot of potential.” He held his palm against my cheek and kissed me.

  Something about the kiss seemed cold and hollow. I don’t think Gabriel was changed by his little demonstration, but I certainly was. I still had a shivering feeling deep inside. Something about the power we could yield was suffocating me. I knew it was important but I had no idea why.

  As Gabriel and I kissed in the shadows I tried desperately to recall the things I had spent months trying to repress. Eventually I gave up but something cold still dwelt inside.

  We killed that night as we did every night and returned with our hunger satisfied. I slept in his arms as usual. Gabriel couldn’t sense a difference in me, but for some reason the cold feeling in my bones had changed me. Lying in his arms lacked the affection it had held just one night before. Everything had changed once more as our perfect life shattered around me

  Chapter 10Even though the compulsion trick left me feeling uneasy, part of me was desperate to try it out. I wanted to see how far our control extended, and whether I really had as much promise as Gabriel thought.

  A few nights after his display, we went out to hunt in a town a few hours away and I decided that the time was right to test my newly discovered skills.

  We reached the town not long after sunset, and the pounding drums appeared the moment we touched the border.

  Gabriel kissed me gently on the cheek. “I have some business to attend to” he told me. “I’ll find you, I promise.”

  He smiled and ran away, melting into the shadows as he went.

  This sudden exit did nothing to soften my doubts. Gabriel was hiding something from me, that much was obvious. I worried constantly about our relationship these days, and nothing he did could make me relax. My love for him was still there-eight years of devotion can’t dissolve overnight-but something had changed again.

  Gabriel still smiled at me and kissed me. He still wrapped me up in his arms, and I still fell asleep with him every night, but that didn’t make me feel any better. The uncomfortable feeling still rested in my bones ever since the compulsion lesson. There was something about Gabriel that didn’t sit right, something that jarred in my mind, but I couldn’t place it. I was so frustrated that I was close to giving up completely, no matter how important it might be.

  Although I missed Gabriel the moment he left me, I also felt a surprising flutter of happiness. I was free to hunt alone for the night, and I felt liberated.

  This town was almost alien to me. I hadn’t visited here as a vampire, and I hadn’t been as a human since long before the murders. I walked through the shadows, following the natural curve of the streets as I explored my surroundings.

  The beat in my head wasn’t overpowering. It was a light, tantalising sound that echoed around my mind and pulsed through my veins as if it was my own heart beating.

  I followed the streets for a while, imprinting the layout of the town in my mind just in case we returned. It was a pleasant place, but slightly dull. I would never have picked to live there, vampire or not. Despite that, it’s charming atmosphere was quite endearing and I felt my thirst growing as I rounded each corner.

  I reached a large, Victorian building just at the border of the town. There were dozens of cars parked outside and I could hear the heart beats clearly ringing out from inside the building. I closed my eyes and tried to sense how many people were in there: 90, maybe 100? I guessed it was some kind of town meeting as I could hear beats ranging from the weak, endearing beats of children to the irregular pulse of the elderly.

  This was to be my hunting ground for the night.

  I ran quickly to the building an
d walked slowly up the staircase. As I reached the top, the hustle and bustle of a crowd of people hit me like a slap in the face.

  I hadn’t been in such a densely populated area since my transformation so I had never experienced a mix of sensations quite like this. I could hear the mingling beats of all the people and smell the salty sweat gathering on their foreheads. I could hear snippets of conversation that floated towards me, and I began to get impressions of people beyond their outward appearance.

  At my side, two women were chatting with huge grins on their faces, their conversation peppered with loud, intrusive laughs. They were discussing their children. When I looked at the older of the two women, several emotions surfaced and I struggled to hold my laughter: she was thinking about how hungry she was and how the other woman hardly ever ate anything which explained why she was so skinny.

  I was impressed by my ability. I couldn’t exactly read thoughts but I had developed a radar for emotions and feelings. If I focused enough, some of the stronger thoughts would appear in my head.

  I had never picked up on this before. Anytime I had killed, apart from my first attempt, I had been wishing the minutes away so that I could escape Gabriel’s awkward hunting rituals. Most of the murders had only involved Gabriel and the victim, with myself on the sidelines. They thought of nothing but pain and so I never picked up on anything else.

  I had never known to use this ability before, but now that it was switched on I couldn’t turn it off again. Part of the thrill when I killed my victims came from the terror I saw in them when they realised I was going to kill them. I could never have detected this terror unless I truly understood what they felt. Maybe the power had been with me all along.

  This place was some kind of town hall, probably used most frequently for meetings and fundraisers. The event I had stumbled upon was the annual charity dance in honour of some foundation or other. I remembered my mother talking about it when I was a child, and my auntie Penny describing several pieces of gossip she had picked up from there over the years.