Young Forever

by Lola Pridemore

  I sighed and felt a stab of jealousy. I really wanted a boyfriend. Well, another one. A good one this time. Someone I really, really liked.

  “How long have you been a vampire?” Aloiki asked.

  “About five years,” she said, nodding proudly and smiling widely.

  He laughed. “Five years? Why not say five minutes? You have so much to learn it is not funny.”

  The smile disappeared from her lips.

  “Yes, she is young but valuable. She is more at home in today’s world,” Gerta said. “What else can you teach us?”

  “Well, there’s not much to teach, you know. It’s pretty cut and dry,” she said. “It’s all in the execution. Act like you belong there, you know, in the hospitals and blood banks, and they, you know, don’t care. Everyone’s always so busy.”

  “Impressive,” Gerta said. “Impressive how you have devised this plan.”

  “You’re right, it is, you know?”

  She almost made me laugh. “You say that a lot, don’t you?” I asked, smiling. “You know?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t mean to get on your nerves.”

  I was slightly taken aback. I hadn’t meant it like that at all.

  “I’ll do better,” she promised. “I don’t mean to bug you, Isotta.”

  “But that wasn’t what I meant,” I said, feeling suddenly exasperated. It’s like she was turning this around on me. “Forget it,” I said. “It is fine. I am still a little hungry and I get grouchy when I am hungry.”

  She smiled at me and I was forced to smile back. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something up with her. I sensed these things. For a moment, I thought about taking her out, just to be safe. But then again, I couldn’t succumb to my paranoia. Maybe I was feeling insure because she was new to our group and it had been only Gerta, Aloiki and I for so long. But I couldn’t harm her, not yet anyway. We had to have her. I knew that, in the end, she would prove valuable. We could end up with an endless supply of blood if we played our cards right. And we wouldn’t have to hunt as often, if at all and we certainly wouldn’t have to look for shady doctors to sell us blood on the side. We were adapting to the new world and this was the way to adapt, even if I had to put up with Janelle.

  “The trick is in the mesmerizing,” she said. “That’s all. And you get what you want.”

  Obviously she was right. Over time, we were able to initiate Janelle’s plan and became quite well fed. And because we worked at night, it was easy to get past just about everyone. And we didn’t have to kill anyone. Well, Aloiki got a little too excited one night. But, in his defense, the old man he ate was about ninety years old and probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

  And that’s how I met Otis. He was doing his residency and was working the night shift in the ER. He had just come onboard and was very new to the hospital. Just as I was walking through, an ambulance arrived with some people in some need of some major help. Otis saw me and said, “Nurse! Come on! We’ve got work to do!” And I just, kinda, went along. I didn’t know anything about being an emergency room nurse, but I winged it. While all of this was going on, I kept staring at him, and then he’d stare back, smile slightly, then duck his head like he was shy. His was so handsome, tall, well built. He was muscular and strong. His blue eyes were like gazing into the ocean. He made my heart flip-flop and then race madly. All the while, he made the people better, stitching them up and setting them straight. I was in awe of him. It was a match made in heaven. He saved lives while I took them. Or, rather, like I used to take them.

  I had to admit that I was totally mesmerized by him and not in the vampire sense. And he had rare blood, AB positive. I could smell it whenever he was near me. But never, never did I take a risk and bite him. No. I didn’t want to frighten him away. I continued my charade of being an ER nurse whenever he was on duty. He and I started our relationship off softly, nicely, though I did just want to grab him up and kiss him hard. I wanted him to kiss me back, to hold me tight, to do other things, too. He wanted that as well. I could see the love for me in his eyes, in his mannerisms, in the way he would seek me out for a coffee break. I looked forward to spending every moment with him that I could.

  He loved the ocean and would ask me to join him for picnics during the day. I begged off, saying the night shift made me want to sleep all day, which was true, in a way. But with him, Otis, I could have died he was so perfect. If I had been able to procreate, he would have been the father of my children.

  He and I eventually just started kissing. It happened one day that I was walking down the corridor and he asked me if I knew where some bandages or something were. I pointed to a supply closet and he and I went in. The door closed and we were alone. And in there he was no longer just a doctor, he was a man and I let him take what he wanted and what he wanted was a kiss from my lips. I kissed back, feeling myself falling, falling, falling into the great abyss of true love.

  After that, the deal was sealed. He was mine and I was his. We spent every moment we could together. I don’t know what our plans were but I knew I never wanted him to leave me. I kept my secrets, of course, but did, reluctantly, invite him over to meet Gerta and Aloiki. I had my trepidations because Gerta hated everyone I wanted to date. I just hoped she would like him but I had a feeling she wouldn’t.

  Of course, Gerta hated him. Aloiki just shook his hand and excused himself for the night. He was gambling again so that was typical.

  Gerta treated him with disdain, as she does most humans. But she indulged me a little, letting me have some time with him, though she said he would be “big trouble.” In the end she was right. But that’s how it started with Otis and me. And that’s probably where it should have ended.

  * * * * *

  Young love is something that should be savored. It is something that happens only once to a person, or a vampire. Otis and I had it. He didn’t know I was a vampire. He only knew he was in love with me and I with him. I loved love and I loved loving him. He returned the favor.

  We’d meet late at night when we were off from the hospital. Well, when he was. We’d meet by the ocean and kiss the night away, enveloped in the darkness, away from prying eyes.

  He told me he loved me. I told him I loved him. And so we became lovers. We were going to run away together. That was the plan. I knew I’d have to because Gerta and Aloiki would never allow us to be together. They wouldn’t approve at all and were like those parents who never want their children to leave their house but I knew how to survive now without them. And him? Well, he just wanted to be with me. He’d do whatever I wanted. He told me so. We had plans. I had money. He had time and liberty. He was a doctor. He could work anywhere. And I also had plenty of time. I was immortal, after all.

  And that was a sticking point with me, me being a vampire and him not. How could I tell him? Should I tell him? I harbored the secret, not knowing what to do, not wanting to do anything to upset the perfect balance that our relationship had become. And, mostly, I kept my lips shut because I didn’t want him to run from me, to hate me. This ate at me and made things more than a little frustrating. I dreaded having to tell him my secret.

  But it was not to be. On that fateful night, the night I’d planned on leaving with him, we met one last time as vampire and human. We met by the docks, pulling each other into intense hugs, wanting more and being willing to give it. We had been together nearly six months and it had been the happiest time of my life. We were in love, lovers. We were made for one another.

  But some stories of happiness and love can also have a twinge of desperation, a twinge of sadness. Ours certainly did. Well, ours a lot more than others. That night we were to set off alone together, a group of vampires attacked. Had I been alone and not had the added responsibility of protecting a human, I would have been able to fend them off myself. They were led by a disgruntled Janelle, who had arranged the attack. I knew I should have killed her.

  Vampires can and will turn on you. Vampir
es are like the snake who hitches a ride across the river on the turtle’s back promising not to bite him and, when they get to the other side, bites the turtle anyway. When the turtle asks why the snake bit him he says, “I’m a snake. It’s my nature.” And they were snakes, doing what their instincts told them to do. And what their instincts told them to do was attack Otis and I.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if I was like that. Like the snake? I hoped not. At least I tried not to be.

  I should have listened to my instincts about Janelle. If I had, Otis and I would have been able to run away together and no ended up ended up in the abandoned warehouse that night with a pack of blood-thirsty vampires after us.

  I knew why they attacked. Janelle wanted to exact her revenge for us killing her Butch and she got a group of vamps to join her. Obviously, she hadn’t been as indifferent as I had originally thought. She was out for blood, my blood.

  I studied them, my eyes settling on one in particular and I recognized him with a groan. He was tall, good looking and… He was a vampire who had been my lover, many years earlier. His name was Dane and he was originally from Denmark. (Well, with a name like Dane you just assume so.) Anyway, he had been a film producer. Well, he’d actually eaten a few producers to gain his position but he had the same thirst, if you will, for the movies that I once had. He was here to exact a revenge of a different sort and, let’s just say, he got right to the point.

  “I am so glad to see you again, Isotta,” he said and grabbed my arm, pulling me to him, trying to kiss me.

  I punched him and his face went to the side, then back again to face me. “Leave me alone,” I hissed.

  “Leave you alone?” he asked. “You don’t even remember me, do you?”

  “What do you mean by that?” Janelle asked, obviously getting jealous.

  I stared at her, knowing she was crushing on him, on my ex-boyfriend. Well, she could have him. Well, she could have had him if she hadn’t been a treacherous witch. Now she would just have to die.

  “Oh, I remember you,” I told Dane. “How could I forget?”

  He stared at me with an intense sadness that was hard to look at. “How could you, Isotta?” he asked, almost crying. “You left me for dead!”

  Well, yeah, I guess I did. I guess I also forgot to mention him, didn’t I? Yeah. Him. Oh, brother. We met in the 1920s. I got a bee in my bonnet to get into the movies. It was the silent era and I wanted to be a silent film actress. Gerta, as usual, had been totally against the idea.

  “Are you insane?” she shrieked. “You can’t do that! We’re vampires, creatures of the night!”

  “Well, maybe you are,” I said. “But I like the movies. They’re fun. And I’d look really good up there on the silver screen.”

  “You can’t do this,” she said, shaking her head.

  But I was gonna. Fact was, I was bored. Aside from hunting and eating people, being a vampire can become quite tedious and if you don’t do something different every once in a while to break the boredom, you might go crazy. I’d seen vampires do it, go crazy. I didn’t want to do that.

  Sure, in earlier years, there was always the thrill of the hunt or whatever but the excitement wears off after a while. And then there was always some revolution to take part in or a war. But, even that, after a while, gets old. And, yes, there was the occasional vampire hunter—or huntress—to contend with and that always stirred things up a bit, but they were a rarity, mostly because dealing with vampires is a dangerous business. So, when we were in Southern California in the twenties, I decided to become an actress. Unlike a mirror, where your image is a little blurry, my face could actually be seen on screen. It was terrific and I became a pretty big star, as they say. I absolutely loved the costumes I got to wear, too, all these long, black or white gowns that clung to my body and made me look like a… Well, a movie star. The hair and makeup was divine as well. I had so much fun with it. I also had legions of fans, though it was a bit hard to navigate as I couldn’t do press or what-have-you during the day. But I was quite popular.

  Unfortunately, when silent film went to the non-silent “talkie” variety, so did my career. Many people couldn’t understand my thick Bavarian accent. I tried to transition to a transcontinental accent but they still didn’t want me. Over the years, I had really worked to tone it down but it had been with me a long time and not so easy to get rid of. But that’s the way it goes. I was bored with being a movie star by that time anyway.

  But Dane… Oh, man, Dane! He had been in love with me but I just hadn’t felt the same way. I knew he was a vampire the second I met him and I used him to get into the movies. I never had a problem admitting that. However, he was quite unscrupulous and tried to get me to do some not-so-nice things such as mesmerizing a movie studio owner so he could take over. He, himself, couldn’t do this because the guy’s bodyguards wouldn’t let him past the door. But I refused. Dane didn’t like that very much but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. In addition, he wanted me to go to all these human parties and play the young starlet and be nice and all that to everyone just so he would look good and like he was a big fish or whatever it is called. This would have been fine if he didn’t always want me to do this during my feeding time. I’d inevitably want to eat one of them and that would have been bad for business. Very bad. So, I’d be there, at some glamorous Hollywood party, sitting on a couch with a few of them, listening to their chitchat and all I could think about was what they would taste like. I’d end up running from the room, almost as if I were mad and by mad I mean crazy. Everyone probably thought I was and I think I became known as “Crazy Isotta.” It was quite embarrassing!

  That was the least of it. I also found out he was in cahoots with a foreign studio to have me shipped over there to do some unseemly things. And when I say unseemly, I mean unseemly. These were things I would never even imagine doing.

  Besides that, he gave a plum role to another actress, one that I had coveted for a long time. The role? Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. That was the final straw. Well, one of the last final straws.

  So, no, I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, really do his bidding. When he realized he couldn’t manipulate me the way he wanted, he threatened to expose me, Aloiki and Gerta as vampires. He was that power-hungry. Therefore, he became quite the hassle. We couldn’t have that, obviously, so, after consulting Aloiki, we came up with the idea to… Well, to solve the problem that Dane had become. And I hadn’t killed him. I just tucked him away for a while.

  But now… Now he was in control and I kinda, sorta needed to mend fences. So, I tried to make it right with him. “Dane I uh… I…” Nope. Couldn’t do it. I still couldn’t stand him. That would have been the role of a lifetime.

  Otis asked, “You killed him?”

  “Not technically,” I said. “I did leave him for dead. I mean, he wasn’t dead but if he had of died, he would have died but vampires can’t die, not like that. I was upset.”

  He stared at me then nodded slightly for me to continue.

  “He’s alive now, so to speak,” I said and waved at him.

  “Alive?” Dane hissed. “I can’t believe you!”

  “I can’t believe you, either! You know I wanted to play Juliet!”

  He groaned and shook his head. “You are so irrational!”

  “I can be,” I said, nodding. “But you did other things, too. You are not so innocent nor so nice.”

  He threw his hands up in frustration. “You maimed and dismembered me!” he exclaimed.

  I shrugged. I suppose I did. “But you’re in one piece again,” I said. “Right? That’s something.”

  He was aghast. “You!” he shook his head and turned to me. “I loved you. I mean, I still do. You’re hot.”

  “Shut up!” I snapped. Men! Vampires! They were all the same! It was too much sometimes. “What do you want, Dane?” I asked. “What are you doing here?”

  Janelle shot us a couple of angry looks and stepped forward. “What is going on here?�
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  I shrugged.

  “Were the two of you…?” Janelle started then stopped. “You and Isotta were in love?”

  “Oh, come on, baby,” Dane said. “That was a long time ago.”

  I gasped. He called her “baby.” It was enough to make me want to throw up. Instead, I said, “If I wanted him back, I’d have him. But I don’t so you can have my sloppy seconds.”

  She glared at me and shook her head. “It’s time for you to die, Isotta.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think you’re going to do that.”

  “What do you think we’re going to do? We’re here to kill you. I planned all this.”

  I could have kicked her. I wished I could have. Ugh, she was so dastardly! But I didn’t have a chance. Dane was still very angry with me and Janelle hated my guts. We had a scuffle, as they say and my dear Otis, being the valiant young man he was, tried to defend me. He tried to take a swing at Dane, who ducked, then came back with a hard shove which sent him flying way off into the distance. In a second flat, Dane was over him and had him… Oh, it was gruesome. Basically, He was maimed and left for dead. I managed to take most of them out, staking them and trying not to get any of the goop on my new outfit, but Dane and Janelle were strong and got away, both of them vowing vengeance for the rest of eternity which is, a really long time.

  But nevermind them. I had to carry Otis into an abandoned warehouse and there we hid, him bleeding and me crying. I had no choice and I had to bite him, to take his life, to turn him into what I was, a blood-thirsty vampire.

  Once it was over, I had to put him in the ground and wait. I would wait on him forever, but I knew it wasn’t going to be that long. He was rise up again and become one of us, like me, like Gerta and Aloiki. He was going to make a great vampire, I just knew it. But I had to wait until the process was completed, until he became one of us, until he became young forever.

  Even though Aloiki and Gerta were furious with me, they joined me by the grave I’d dug for Otis. We sat in silence and waited, not speaking. It was a long time before I heard him clawing his way out of the dirt and once he did, once he was finished, I ran into his arms. He hugged me tightly, told me he’d never felt better. He would take to it like a fish to water, being a vampire. But it didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. Not quite. He became a problem because all this new power went to his head. And he became a problem also because of what Gerta had warned me of. He came with people who loved him and didn’t take kindly to the fact that I’d turned him into a vampire. But, in my defense, I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.