by OL Ramos
Chapter 8
“Am I some kind of monster?” I ask, stammering my way through the question. Vincent tilts his head to the side in mock offense.
“Am I some kind of monster?” he asks back, still pretending to be hurt.
“Yes, you are,” I reply hatefully. “You’ve killed people haven’t you? You feed on people’s blood for sustenance! If that’s not enough to qualify you as a monster, then what would?”
“I have killed people, many people,” Vincent confesses coldly. He doesn’t seem to have any regret over the lives he’s taken. “And yeah, I suppose having to drink blood from people is pretty macabre and dark. But essentially, all vampires are doing are what regular humans do in their everyday lives.”
“What?!”
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he says in a halting tone. “Think about it. Most humans eat meat; it’s part of a healthy diet. Yeah, you have your vegans and vegetarians or whatever, but they end up having to get things like protein and other good stuff found in meat from peanuts or whatever they eat. Vampires basically bypassed the entire process and went right to the source. Whereas a normal human might have an eight ounce steak, we can drink a couple mouthfuls of blood and survive off of that for days or more at a time.”
“And the older you get, the less you need?” I ask, trying to look at it from Vincent’s perspective.
“Yeah, as vampires age, everything we do becomes more efficient,” he answers as he pours himself more wine. “I only need a few drops to hold me over for several months. It’s still nice to have it every once in a while, though. The experience you feel while feeding is pure ecstasy; it’s downright sensual, even for the victim. Maybe you’ll give it a try sometime?”
He gives me a cocky smile and holds up the bottle as if to toast me before taking another drink.
“So what am I, then?” I ask after gathering enough courage.
“You’re a keeper,” Vincent says as he avoids my stare, instead choosing to look straight ahead. “A keeper, as in keeper of the blood. You are the rarest super there is, custos sanguinis. Your kind comes around once every few generations, if at all. And when your sort does show up, all hell breaks loose. Which is why I’m so thrilled you chose to know the truth. It will make protecting you that much easier.”
“All hell breaks loose?” I ask as I near the point of hyperventilation. “Why? What do you mean? Does this have something to do with the ring?”
“Something to do with it, yes,” Vincent says as he stares at the bottom of the glass bottle. “Your kind is one of the most unique supers there are, Izzy. You ever sleep with anyone?”
Vincent turns to face me with a sly smile. I slap him in the face as hard as I can, especially now that I know I can’t physically hurt him.
“You really should stop slapping me,” Vincent suggests with another smile. “I might start liking it.”
I slapped him again; maybe the third time is a charm.
“We’re getting there,” Vincent says with a chuckle as he begins to eye me up and down. “Yeah, I think I like it.”
Growing tired of his rudeness, I try to slap him again, but he catches my hand gently and places it on his cheek. His skin is flawless, but it lacks heat. I wouldn’t say it’s cold, like I expect it to be. It just isn’t warm.
“Listen here princess,” Vincent says as he places his hand over mine. “The reason I ask about your virginity is because that’s what keepers are for. Mating.”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t try this cutesy routine, you heard me,” he says as he holds the bottle upside down and frowns when he sees no more wine coming out. Vincent stands up and heads to my kitchen, presumably to take liberties with my food. “I said that’s what keepers are for, they’re for mating. Keepers ‘keep’ the bloodline of the super intact. They’re the only ‘natural’ way we can procreate. And that’s not even the best part of this party.”
I stand up and walk towards my kitchen to hear him better. I find him going through my pantry.
“What are you doing?” I ask in an irritated tone. “Are you looking for food? I thought you only had blood?”
“No, we can eat,” he says in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s more like a pleasure. We don’t need to eat. We can do everything a human can do, except with our superior senses, everything is enhanced. We can taste subtle herbs that are placed in our food and smell little things most people wouldn’t even know where there. Do you really have no more alcohol in this joint?”
I shake my head no, making no effort to hide my frustration from Vincent. He looks at me for a moment as he takes his attention away from my pantry briefly. He sighs and walks towards me with a sympathetic expression on his face.
“Look, believe it or not, I care,” Vincent assures me. “But you’ve got to understand something; when you’re almost 1600 years old, there’s literally nothing I haven’t seen. I can understand that this is earth-shattering news for you. For me though, this is nothing new. It’s just another day. I told you I would answer your questions, and I will. I just want a little bit of a buzz if I’m going to get hassled with questions all night.”
“My father has a bit of a drinking problem,” I say reluctantly. “He usually leaves bottles of stuff around when he visits. I pick them up when he passes out and I store them. I’ll find you something to drink. Do you have a preference?”
“I’ll take vodka if you have any,” Vincent says as his mood lightens. “Do you have tonic water?”
I nod slowly and I go to my father’s secret stash. I bring Vincent back what he requested and he smiles with childlike glee as he rushes to make himself a drink.
“Now, can you tell me more about my condition, you drunk?” I ask with a slight smile.
Vincent looks up at me from his drink and takes a sip from his plastic cup. He winces and twists his face in disgust.
“Yuck, that’s disgusting,” he declares. “What kind of cheap, third rate vodka is this? Is this a bootleg brand or something?”
“I’m sorry, it’s all I have,” I say in embarrassment as I reach for the bottle of liquor. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I can put it away.”
Vincent snatches the vodka bottle back and cradles it like a prized possession.
“No, it’ll do,” Vincent says with a disappointed look. “I suppose it will have to. What a buzz kill.”
I look at him oddly as an idea sparks in my mind.
“Hey wait a second,” I say as I verbalize my thoughts and curiosity. “You and Michael have unnatural healing, don’t you? I saw Michael’s wounds close immediately. Twice. Remember when you punched him? If you guys heal so fast, how can you get drunk? Or do vampires not heal as fast as werewolves?”
Vincent smirks at me as he turns his face away, as if I’ve just insulted him.
“No, that’s not the way it works,” Vincent says condescendingly as if this is common knowledge. “Vampires heal much faster than humans, we can even re-grow limbs almost instantly. Just like everything, the older you get, the better this ability becomes. But it’s a survival thing. I’m willingly lowering my defenses so that I can get drunk. I told you, there’s a lot I have to tell you. If I were to tell you everything I know, it would take years. This is boring, I need the amusement. Besides, I don’t know how you’ll react or how Michael will react. The point is, by the end of it all, I know I’ll need a drink.”
“Oh, that’s good, I guess,” I reply with uncertainty. “I thought you were some sort of alcoholic. But you’re just drinking to have the courage to tell me about myself?”
“The courage? I don’t need courage to deal with you, Goldilocks,” he says to me with an unconvincing expression. “Well, maybe a little. And Michael is going to be mad, real mad. Might even slug me for telling you…but hell, you asked, right? Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“You’re still not done telling me you know,” I point out as I gently try to steer the conversation back to the topic. “Tell me more about th
e keepers. You made it sound like there was a bigger part to my…biology.”
“Biology? That’s an interesting way to put it,” Vincent says with a low cough. “Keepers mate with other supers, supers they have strong feelings for. The mating always results in an offspring being conceived and eventually born. So, obviously, all keepers are females. During the mating, a keeper is basically keeping a piece of the super she is mating with. This causes a transformation in both the keeper and the super she’s mating with. The super becomes extremely powerful for bonding with a keeper, even if the bond is only a temporary one. The keeper then changes into whatever she mated with. So if you and I were to fool around and knock boots, you’d turn into a vampire and I would become even more powerful than I am.”
He smiles at me before hiding himself behind his plastic cup.
“I can still slap you behind that cup you know,” I announce as I try to take all this in.
“Yeah, but if you do you’ll have to clean up the mess from your kitchen floor,” Vincent replies. “Anyhoo, you can see why keepers are so valuable. You have the potential to be any super; all you have to do is sleep with them. After that, you become pregnant and just as powerful as the super you mated with. The super you did the deed with becomes even more powerful and his bloodline is continued with the child you will eventually have. That child will be just like the two parents, but more importantly, it’s a real child. A keeper is the only way a super can really have a child of their own, biologically. Plus, everyone becomes stronger in the process; I really can’t stress that enough.”
“I notice you keep bringing that up,” I say cautiously. “I get the feeling a lot of supers would die at the chance to get a keeper to mate with them. Is that why you said all hell breaks loose?”
“Bingo,” he answers instantly. “Keepers are notoriously hard to find. It’s almost like you guys are born with this ability to be invisible to us. I bet some keepers live their entire lives and are never found by the super community. I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”
“And the ring?” I say, wondering what it could have to do with me. “You’ve been hinting at them wanting me or needing me. At Jack’s you told Jack that I have everything to do with this. What did you mean by that?”
Vincent shakes his head and carries the bottle of vodka and tonic along with his plastic cup back to the living room.
“You’re a keen one, aren’t you?” Vincent says with a less than serious tone. “Do you honestly know what the ring is? Please, keep in mind, I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“How would you know if I’m lying?” I ask playfully. I have no problem trying to beat Vincent at his own game. “Is that another vampire trick?”
“No, not at all,” Vincent answers honestly. “It’s an ‘I’ve been around the block fifteen hundred times trick. I tried to charm you earlier, at Jack’s. It didn’t work. That’s when I knew for certain you were a keeper. I wasn’t sure before that. As I said, you keepers have some real nifty abilities to avoid the rest of the supers. A jealous type might even say you’re trying to avoid us.”
Vincent begins to laugh again in his usual carefree manner, but I wasn’t about to let him evade my questions.
“Charm me? I’d hardly consider you charming,” I say to him casually trying to play off his surreal good looks. “By the way you’re using it though, I suspect that’s a vampire trick, isn’t it?”
“I think I’ve told you more than enough,” Vincent voices to my dismay. “What if from now on, I only answer you if you answer me? I’ll start. You really don’t know what the ring is, do you, Izzy?”
I pause, dumbstruck by this new development. Vincent did enjoy his mind games and true to form, he isn’t about to let me just have every piece of information I need without messing around with my head first.
“No, I just know that it’s not a thing, it’s a who,” I admit frankly.
“Those don’t sound like your words,” Vincent says as he places his fingers to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. “If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d say Michael told you that. All right, fair enough. Yes, I tried to charm you. And yes, it’s a vampire trick, if that’s what you want to call it. Some call it domination or compulsion. Blah, blah, blah. It’s all the same thing, you make a human do whatever you want them to do. That something can be anything, even something that goes against their very nature. I tried to charm you when I asked you to sit down next to me at the restaurant, yet you didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, that made it obvious to me you were a keeper. You keepers give off a certain scent, you see. But you only give it off when you’re truly feeling love or lust for someone. You’re apparently stitched together at the knees and don’t feel lust, so that scent was really hard to find. When my powers didn’t work on you, I knew you could only be one thing, a keeper. Keepers have the nasty ability of being immune to all of the supernatural powers any supers possess. I suppose you all are born that way so that a vampire or a siren, or anything else for that matter, can’t just entice you to mate with them. You have to mate with them willingly or else it doesn’t work.”
“Completely skipping over the part where you said I was stitched at the knees,” I chime in, more than a little offended, “you still haven’t told me why the ring needs me or what they are.”
“Yes, well, if you’ll remember, I referred to you as keeper of the blood,” Vincent reminds me sarcastically. “That’s not some fancy term. That’s literally what you are. You’re a blank slate for supers to write on. The ring is actually a group of witches. They’re here looking for you, I imagine. A witch is powerful enough alone, but sometimes they unite their magic and form a ring. Humans normally refer to these as covens. When a ring is formed, they permanently dedicate a portion of their magic to the ring, weakening them as an individual witch, but making them unbelievably strong together. There are all sorts of things a group of witches can do, but with a keeper as a sacrifice or functioning as a totem of power? Forget about it. They could literally destroy this entire town without breaking a sweat.”
“A group of witches?” I say with a deep exhale. Everything keeps getting worse and worse.
“Yep, see, even being as powerful as I am, I couldn’t find you as quickly as Michael could,” Vincent confesses with a hint of sadness in his voice. “Werewolf senses are superior to vampire senses, that one I’ll give him. He found you and is probably trying to destroy the ring. I am too, while we’re on the subject.”
I ponder the matter even as all of these thoughts threaten to shred my mind. I’m broken out of the trance as my front door swings open and I see a furious Michael standing in the doorway. He stares at me first, then at Vincent. He maintains his menacing glare on Vincent.
“You idiotic, pretentious, arrogant, know-it-all fool,” Michael growls as he begins his slow walk towards Vincent, who is still enjoying his drink without a care in the world. “How could you do this? I trusted you on this and this is how you repay me? You just ruined this girl’s life!”
I stand up in protest and push myself between Vincent and Michael. Vincent however, seems completely unaffected. I put my hands on Michael’s chest and hit him as hard as I can. I’m positive that I hurt myself worse than I hurt him.
“If anyone deserves to get a scolding it’s you!” I declare in outrage. “You knew I was a keeper and you said nothing?! Aren’t I enough of an adult for you to let me choose my own life? If this is what I truly am, why hide it? I was going to find out the hard way when these witches came looking for me!”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Michael replies sternly as he looks at me. His gaze now demands obedience even from me. I’m sincerely intimidated. “I was born for this role. To protect the people. And if you didn’t want this life, you would have had that option, but he took it away. You’ll never be able to forget about what has been said this night, and that’s Vincenzo’s fault. He is the one to blame; he took away your innocence!”
“You were spying on me?” I question in o
utrage. “What gives you the right to spy on me?! I’m not a child!”
“Classic Michael,” I hear Vincent say behind me in calmly. “I told you, it’s those werewolf senses. They’re like supersonic or something.”
“Vincent is drunk,” I announce, trying to bring some laughter into the room. I fail miserably. “He knew you would get this way, so he got himself a little…hammered.”
“Of course he knew I would get this way,” Michael replies angrily. “This might be ‘classic Michael’ but this is also ‘classic Vincenzo.’ He played with you, just like I told you he would. I told you and you didn’t trust in me.”
I turn to see Vincent pouring himself another drink, not even bothering to serve himself ice.
“What do I say about you then, Michael?!” I ask in frustration. “You’re outside my home, prowling like some sort of stalker. You didn’t trust me enough to let me be alone. If you knew all this about me, you should have told me. I deserved the truth; I thought you respected me at least that much. Did you ever think that withholding the truth would endanger me more than it would protect me?”
Michael loosens his balled-up fists and sighs deeply before leaning on the wall. He looks at me. His green eyes are watering up with what I can only imagine is anger and regret.
“There’s something Vincenzo left out of his explanation,” Michael begins slowly. “He conveniently left out the part about how keepers and other supers are chemically attracted to one another. You know all about pheromones, right? Well, the pheromones you give off and receive from other supers…it’s a hundred times worse than any junkie’s addiction. It’s intoxicating, even to you. I wanted you to love me, for me. Not because you were chemically predisposed to loving me.”
“Oh, what a romantic,” Vincent says sarcastically, still sitting on my sofa. “I swear Michael, you always know what to say to get me to forgive you.”
Michael looks at Vincent menacingly before relenting and turning his attention back to me.
“It might have been selfish,” Michael continues, the sorrow clear on his face and brow. “But I had to be sure. Besides, I know you Liz, you would have wanted in on this. And after all the research I’ve done, I think only Vincenzo and I together can stop these witches without any collateral damage.”
“Oh please,” Vincent says as he rises drunkenly from my sofa. “You should know me better than that at least, Michael. You know me, the information broker? I got my hands in everyone’s pockets, everyone owes me a favor. There’s not a piece of information I can’t get. I’m a jack of all trades, baby.”
Michael scoffs before he turns to address Vincent. “Yeah, so?” he asks, his patience clearly running thin.
“Yeah so? What is that supposed to mean?” Vincent asks as if he’s surprised by the question. “It means I already know what and how to take these stupid spell-slinging witches out of the picture. They’ve put up all sorts of protective spells over themselves. Not even my witches can break the barrier. There’s only one option to it, really. We have to use Izzy here as bait.”
“I knew you were going to do this,” Michael hisses as he switches his attention between Vincent and me several times. “This is why I always try to fix things before asking for your help. We can’t risk Liz’s life. If the witches get her and complete the ritual, we can kiss all of North America goodbye. I’m not willing to risk her life, or all the lives of everyone on the continent, on your reckless gamble.”
“It’s not a gamble, you rabid chipmunk,” Vincent slurs. “It’s very simple. I’ve been briefed on what the ritual is, and it’s long and boring. But whatever, they sacrifice the keeper at the end. We’ll have hours to find her and the witches doing the ceremony and stop them. And, if Izzy is in on it, she can help us. She can leave a trail for your dog nose to sniff out, just like in the movies. She can like, rip pieces of her clothing off as she goes by and stuff.”
Michael exhales before bending over and resting his arms on his knees in frustration.
“That’s the best you can come up with?” he asks after staring Vincent down thoroughly. “Let’s just risk this innocent girl’s life? It ‘should’ work? Vincenzo, what the hell, are you deluded?”
“You know what one of your biggest problems is?” Vincent asks, his words slippery with alcohol. “You think of the world in black and white. Balance and chaos. There’s a whole lotta gray, big guy. This might be our only chance at getting a clear shot at the ring, without endangering the local populace. If the ring has to search to find Izzy, who knows how many humans are going to suffer for it? Are you fine living with that? It’s either endangering one life or endangering dozens, maybe even hundreds of lives. So, are you fine with that?”
“I don’t want any humans dead, that’s the point!” Michael yells back in anger. He tenses his body up before turning to me. “There has to be a better way than just tossing you to them.”
“Does this poor, defenseless girl have a vote at all?” I ask as I grow increasingly angry at Michael. “You can’t coddle me. I would rather live in the real world, no matter how ugly it is, than live in a world that doesn’t exist. Eventually, I would have learned about ‘the world behind the curtain.’ If things went your way, I wouldn’t have been ready. This is my life, and I should live it however I choose. Do you have a better idea than what Vincent just came up with? Because if you do, I’m all ears.”
“Liz, I was your age once,” Michael says, trying to calm his demeanor. “But then the decades kept rolling by, so fast they became centuries. And before I knew it, even the centuries felt like nothing. Your entire lifetime up to now, I have lived more than twenty five times over. So please understand, while I admire your courage and your spirit in wanting to help others, I am not just about to hand you over to the ring. If I did I’m risking your life and the ring could still succeed in their plan, making your sacrifice useless.”
“You know something that’s really cool about being a super?” Vincent asks out of the blue. “When I was turned into a vampire, I lost like fifteen or twenty years off of my face. I changed back into my physical prime. Mikey here went and became like ten years older, into what would become his physical prime. If you end up mating with a super you’ll be super hot forever. Just thought I’d throw that out there as a selling point. Mating with a vampire sounds better now, doesn’t it?”
Michael and I both share an expression of disbelief as we take in the sheer randomness of Vincent’s statement. Vincent can’t stop his laughter as he tries his best not to fall over onto the floor. It’s Vincent himself who stops the awkwardness of the moment by breaking the silence.
“You know what, Izzy?” Vincent asks, almost as if he himself is incredulous at our expressions. “You’re going to grow old real fast if you let Michael’s moodiness influence you. And Mikey, you need to stop acting like such a worrywart. You and I are two of the most powerful beings on this planet. What do we have to worry about?”
“Is that true?” I ask Michael in earnest curiosity. “Are you both that powerful?”
“Yes,” Michael answers after a long pause. “Most vampires don’t get to live half as long as Vincenzo here. There is only one vampire who is reputed to be more powerful, and he might even be an urban legend.”
“Don’t even talk about that punk,” Vincent says as he staggers his way towards us. “No one alive has seen him. He’s probably just that, an urban legend. Just tell your girlfriend here the truth. Tell her how powerful we really are, stop the whole humility thing. It makes me want to barf.”
I look to Michael with concern. He swallows nervously and refuses to return my gaze.
“Michael, are you both that impressive?” I ask, carefully choosing my words. “If it is true, then I have nothing to worry about. We can go through with Vincent’s plan. But I need to hear it from you, the man I care for. The one who promised never to lie to me.” I stare Michael down hard. I am hoping to see weakness in his display, but can find none. He turns his eyes back to me and narrows t
hem.
“Vincenzo and I by ourselves are undefeatable, regardless of the odds,” he says, as if this is a well known fact. “Together, fighting side by side, no one on this planet stands a chance against our combined might. But I don’t want you to be challenged with such a risk. We have no idea how long the ritual might be. For that matter, we don’t have any clue as to who is pulling the strings. These witches cannot be acting alone, Vincenzo.”
“That’s true, my little brother,” Vincent muses jovially as he drapes his arm around Michael. Vincent almost has to get on his toes to reach Michael’s neck. “But does it really matter? For all we know, this could be a trap to lure us out. I know I would use this as the perfect moment to spring a trap for my werewolf nemesis if I had to. You do have your enemies, you know.”
“Yes, that I do,” Michael says as he removes Vincent’s arm from his neck and places Vincent close to the wall. “But my enemies know I have you as a best friend. And with a best friend such as you, who needs enemies?”
“Whatever,” Vincent scoffs as he tries to balance himself on the wall. “Don’t be surprised if they are behind all of this. We can only hope the Coronam does not know about little Izzy’s existence here. If they do, she’s dead.”
“Mind your tongue Vincenzo,” Michael warns.
“What’s the Coronam?” I ask, nervously afraid to hear more bad news. I thought this night couldn’t get any worse.
“The Coronam are a group of individuals we might have to deal with,” Michael says, mindful of his words. “But if we do deal with them, it won’t be any time soon.”
“How do you know that?” Vincent asks as he looks at Michael with disbelief. “You’re really naïve and optimistic if that’s what you really think. Izzy, the Coronam are a council of ancient vampires; they supervise the entire vampire kingdom. They’ve been wanting a keeper so that they could breed a race of enhanced ancient vampires. They’d do anything to have a keeper in their ranks. Last I heard, about a century or two ago, their plan was to see if a keeper was capable of multiple births. They wanted to pass her around like a breeding hound. Just one of the many reasons why I hate the council, bunch of wannabe sophisticates. Not the real deal.”
Michael sighs in anger before covering his face with his hand. He pinches the bridge of his nose and stares at the ground.
“Is this true? Would they really try to turn me into some sort of baby factory?” I ask Michael with increasing desperation.
Michael doesn’t look up or change his demeanor. “Yes,” Michael answers plainly. “If they had their way, they would ravage you.”
“And what about what Vincent is saying? Why is it likely we will have to deal with the Coronam? Are they probably manipulating these witches into doing whatever it is they’re doing?”
Michael finally removes his hand from his face as he looks at me. “Yes Liz,” he says with despair heavy in his voice. “The vampires have been trying to make a move to take complete control over the world. Having you would hasten their plan exponentially. It is most probable that they are the ones behind this…witches are usually in tune with nature. Originally, all witches were one with the balance. They’ve strayed over the years and decades…some keep to themselves, some work with other supers, but many… more and more it would seem these days, are aligning themselves with the Coronam.”
“And if the Coronam succeeds in their plans?”
“We don’t know what the Coronam wants,” Michael stresses. “But we do know that it would decimate the human population. And it would most certainly revolve around you. You are the world’s only keeper at this moment. Their attention is most assuredly focused solely on you.”
“So, how does it feel to know that the world will live or die depending on what you decide, Izzy?” Vincent asks jokingly as he takes another drink straight from the bottle.
“The world…?” I stammer as I struggle to put my thoughts in order. “Will live or die by my decisions?”
