She then bit me. She took her fingernail and made a cut in her
neck, offering me her blood. My first vampiric memory was waking up in a forest at night. I opened my eyes and the sensory overload clouded my thoughts, but I couldn’t worry about that. Through the haze of ants in the dirt and birds in the trees, I heard larger footsteps somewhere in the underbrush; four others were watching me. They slowly approached and I didn’t know what to do. They bore their claws and teeth; a low growl echoed off the trees. I looked around and there was my friend as always, watching me from behind a tree, more solid than ever.
I took peace in that and closed my eyes, thinking that maybe it was finally my time to die. I waited for them to act. Two of them lunged at my back and my friend wanted me to move. I turned, not knowing what I would do, but both fell with a sickly cracking sound, overshadowing the other’s growls. I turned to the other two and growled; I had no idea where it came from. They turned and began to run, but I chased them. Catching the first by jumping on his back and pinning him down, I ripped out his throat with my teeth. I quickly caught the last, snapping his neck so easily in my hands with blood splattering my face. I stood back and looked down at the vampire I just killed as his eyes slowly rolled back into his head. Lilith spoke, standing at my left, placing me on her right.
‘I knew there was something about you,’ she said. Instincts took over and I took a swipe at her. In one motion, she ducked under my arm, turned, and then grabbed me. ‘Too much power; you throw yourself off balance using all your force like that; it shows what you will do.’ I attacked her again and found myself kicked through two trees. ‘I guess it would be astounding if you had done any better,’ she stated, sounding slightly disappointed while tilting her head.
‘How am I alive after that?’ I asked her, confused, sitting up with only the slightest soreness which was quickly fading.
‘You aren’t. I told you that I would ally you and your friend, didn’t I?’
She told me what I had become and who she was; I thought she was just crazy until she took me to feed for the first time. I killed a
young girl and the girl was happy I did it. Lilith charmed her with unearthly charisma and for the first time, she introduced me as her son. I didn’t know what it was that I had felt, but I took the young girl’s hand and looked into her eyes. She blushed and smiled, her eyes glinting in the light. It was so easy to just leave her laying there, the cold smile on her bloodless face still showing the pleasure she felt in death.”
I wasn't looking at Vanessa when I finished; my eyes were on those two guys still taking pictures.
“I still don’t understand,” Vanessa said, confused.
“I don’t even think about it most of the time. That old man behind you in the brown hat: it would be so easy to simply snap his neck. Or the woman in the green glasses two booths down: one little bite and she would be powerless and then dead in minutes. Or how about those two teens three booths away? How hard do you think it would be for me to get one, or even both girls, alone and far away from here with my fancy car? I bet I could kill the guy in front of them and they would still come with me. You saw people when we walked in here; I saw targets, meals, and blissful idiots. I give their lives no more meaning than roaches. When I see vampire, I constantly assess what order would be best to kill them. Enemy and allies have very little bearing for me.”
I looked her in the eyes so she would know just how serious I was. “Angelo della morte: the angel of death is my friend. I will not share you with him, you’re the one light I have in this dark world, I don't want to snuff that out.”
I think she was shocked by my confession, but she didn't show it, but I did feel it as I looked into her eyes.
“What about the other girls Lilith mentioned?”
“There are some people who I’d rather not spend eternity with.”
"If you don't change me, you will only get maybe sixty to seventy years?" “It’s not that I wouldn't want to make you vampire. Ask
and I will do it. My fear is that being vampire around me, all you would be remembered for is death. Others shouldn't fear someone like you."
“Why me, does it have to do with this connection we have?”
“No, my mother felt it too and she does not have our connection. You radiate a presence that I desire in every way you move, speak, and even breathe. I’m such a selfish creature that despite all my reservations about changing you, I will be here waiting for you to ask and when you finally do I will make you vampire, and protect you always.” despite that being maybe one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, or one of the cockiest. Taking it as cocky, I responded in kind.
“When? You are awfully sure I will want to be a vampire.”
“Don’t play with me Vanessa, I can feel when you’re bluffing. It’s a type of lie after all.”
Vanessa Stanton
Chapter 17.0
He smiled and I hated it. Still he was right, but I wouldn’t tell him that.
“Oh, shut up.” I finished eating; Alik paid for the food and the chef gave us a friendly wave with the same smile Alik had on his face. Alik then drove me home slowly, taking a much longer than necessary route. When we got outside, he walked me to the door and turned to look at me right in front of the door. He placed his cool hand on my cheek and leaned closer. “You know, my mother and somehow Sam are trying to watch us,” I whispered.
“Yes, I can hear them.”
“Then what are you doing?” I said, leaning back and looking into his eyes.
“Giving them a show, what does it look like I’m doing?” He meant that.
“Your mother is right, you do have a high opinion of yourself.”
“Are you going to stop me?” I hesitated and he took that chance to kiss me. I couldn’t stop myself from going along with it; I had never kissed anyone like this. The low squeals from behind the door were just a faint noise in the backdrop. All my senses focused on my lips and the small of my back where his hands were sending an indescribable sensation racing up my spine and out to my fingertips. When we pulled apart, I looked into his eyes with a dazed look. “Did you like that?” he asked.
“This isn’t a TV show. The kisses on the porch after the first date won’t win me over, you know?” I felt a low tug of longing to kiss him again and he smiled. However, my words were somewhat weaker as my voice slightly shook, giving me away as well.
“I’ll think about it and see if I want to try any harder then,” he said, the smirk still on his face as he stood back.
“Maybe I will let you."
“I never thought human would be my thing,” he whispered, leaning back in.
“I’m still not sure vampire could be mine.” I placed a finger against his lips to stop him and he closed his lips around it.
“May I have a taste?” he mumbled.
“No, behave,” I reprimanded, taking my finger back. Not that I would tell him, but it took all the self-control I had to do so.
“When do you move into Cornell?” he asked, changing the subject.
“In two weeks.”
“Want some help?”
“Of course, but in between those two weeks, I expect to see you. If you want to win me over, that is.”
“I’ll think about that as well.” He started to walk back to his car.
My mom and Sam opened the door, seemingly unable to hold their excitement anymore and pulled me inside. As they attacked me with questions, I could hear Alik outside laughing as he drove away. Stupid vampire, he knew this would happen.
After what Sam and my mother thought was a date with Alik, I was bombarded with questions. Maybe it was a date, or even a little more. It seemed that Sam and my mother had taken a liking to Alik more than anyone I had ever gone on a date with. My mother wanted to know about the date itself: where he took me, what we talked about, and whether or not he was polite?
Sam ended up spending the night and when we got to my room, she hit me with another set of
questions. Sam was much more interested in whether he had held my hand, if he tried stay close, and the details on "the kiss". I lied through all of this and I thought I did well, considering that I hadn’t really been on a normal date if it was a date. Then Sam asked me one last question, “So, do you like him?”
Did I like Alik? I didn’t know. This was the fourth time I had seen him and I just didn’t know what about me he liked and what was some abstract vampiric effect. The only time where I had ever remotely felt anything like this was that time with Seith. I’m still not sure what I felt then. With Seith, I was mad, comfortable, doubtful, and depressed when I had to leave for a while. Whenever I saw love, it was smiles and hugs. When my parents expressed love, I smiled and they smiled and we were happy. I can’t remember looking at Seith and smiling just from love. Thinking about my night with Alik, I hadn’t once just smiled and felt happy, or gave him a loving hug. I don’t consider the kiss a hug.
“I don’t know,” I answered Sam honestly.
“Yeah, I guess it’s still too early to know. Right now, it’s all about those amazing eyes and that tight ass.”
“I hope that’s all it is.”
Alyon Alik
Chapter 18.0
I had just two weeks before Vanessa would go off to school and she could possibly be so far out of my life that I would no longer matter, and my mother could be intrusive to no end or silent as a ghost. I couldn’t rely on my mother intresion into Vaness's life to possibly keep me in her thoughts. I had to think of something. I brooded over this singular idea that entire night after I dropped her off at home. My mood somehow snaked its way up to my mother’s penthouse and pulled her down to my rooms four floor below.
“I think you did good, why are you moping?” she asked, taking a seat and making herself comfortable in my room without invitation.
“Really?” I sighed, not looking at her.
“Well, that is unless you went off on some horrible tangent and became your usual morbid self.” I didn’t respond. “You did, didn’t you...” She then sighed and mimicked my posture with her arm over her eyes, head leaning over the back of the chair.
“Can I help you?” I said, annoyed that she was still here.
“No, but I think that I can help you. I know that I haven’t given you much advice over the years apart from the many ways you know how to kill men and vampire or seduce women with your charms. So I will give you some advice on how to make a woman love you.”
“What is that exactly” Despite myself, I was interested.
“Gifts and jewelry will not win you a woman’s heart, just what’s between her legs. In the days of the knights, it was their promise that won them a maidens favor and their actions captured hearts. They would quest for the maidens they desired. It could be anything from picking a flower that only grew near the mouth of a dangerous beast lair to finding her lost father stolen by bandits. You need to figure out your quest.”
“Vanessa,” I said in a deep voice trying to sound gallant. “I am here to serve you, please bestow on to me a singular quest so that I may win your fair heart,” I mocking, moving to one knee in front of my mother as I took her hand. She gave me an exasperated look and kicked me with her foot so hard that I slid the few feet between us. “Oww!”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. I’m trying to be a mother for once and you're not helping me out much here.”
“Okay, okay. So you’re saying that I should do something specifically meaningful for her?”
“Yes, you need to find out her likes and dislikes, dreams and passions.”
“That would take time, I have two weeks before she starts her first semester of college.. In Ithaca.”
“What is she studying?”
“I don’t know, I only know that she is going to Cornell as she mentioned it to a guy at Masteria.”
“Do some digging,” was the last thing she said before she
stood. “Brooding here isn’t going to help you.”
I called Vanessa the next day to ask if she wanted to get lunch.
“I’m not going to be on the menu, am I?”
“Only if you want...”
“No, I would like pizza.”
“Done.”
“See you in thirty minutes?”
“See you then.”
New York was the easiest place to find a good pizza place so I was feeling confident. When I got to her house, Vanessa wasn’t ready yet but her mother Mariee and Sam were cooking downstairs in the kitchen. I felt bad for a moment, taking her away from what her mother was cooking, but then I found out that Sam was cooking under the watchful eye of Mariee. The end result wasn’t pretty...
“So Alik, do you have a brother?” Sam asked and I smiled.
“No, I only have a sister. We were both adopted by our mother.”
“Oh,” she said like she might have made a mistake.
“Have you ever tried to find your real parents?” Sam continued with renewed boldness. Nothing kept her back for long I saw.
“No, Lilith is my mother now. Whatever situation my real parents were going through doesn’t matter. I like my life. Everything that has passed led me to sit in this kitchen and wait for the most beautiful girl I know.”
“I thought you were here for Vanessa, not me...” she said, shocked, and Mariee laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh, too. She looked so genuine when she said it.
“I hope this doesn’t sound insulting, but I don’t see how you and Vanessa are friends, you are just so different.”
“We get that a lot,” smiled Sam.
“Sam actually gave Vanessa a black eye when they were in elementary school,” Mariee stated, trying to salvage what Sam had tried to cook.
“Really?” I asked, shocked.
“I got a bloody nose in return,” Sam informed, smiling at the thought. “I knocked my juice box over on a picture she was drawing. All around kids were drawing their mothers and fathers, Vanessa was drawing the Empire State Building.” Vanessa’s mom laughed.
“She has always been fascinated with buildings,” Mariee finally said. “Ever since she could hold a crayon. Some of her work is very beautiful, and I’m not saying that from a mother’s perspective.”
“She has designed stuff before?”
“Oh yes, she has tubes all over her room full of designs she has done. You should get her to show you.” She sounded very proud. “I wish I had the means to build one of her homes. They are so beautiful.”
“What are you talking about in here,” Vanessa chimed in as she walked into the kitchen. “What died...” she gasped as she caught a smell of Sam’s cooking.
“Shut up, I’m still learning...” Sam pouted. “But let’s show Alik some of your work.”
Sam took my hand, pulled me from the table past Vanessa and up the stairs to Vanessa’s room. I think Vanessa was shocked at the turn of events as it took her a moment to realized where we were headed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. No.” She ran after us, managing to pass us and block the way to her room.
“Move Nessa, this is good for boyfriend here.”
“One, he isn’t my boyfriend, he is just a boy. Two, what about what is good for me?” she shouted.
“It will be good for you as well.” Sam picked Vanessa up off the ground, locking her arms next to her. “Go on,” she told me. My next action would damn or save me, but I decided to go and open the door.
Vanessa’s room was simple: a bed, a dresser, mounted TV, and a mirror all in a corner. However, about two thirds of the room was taken up by three bookshelves and two glass drafting tables. The two walls without windows were covered in artistic sketches of homes and actual blue prints of those homes.
“Wow...” I said as I looked around. There was one in particular I really liked that was hanging up. It was a one bedroom, multi-level, of mainly steel, wood, and glass. The artistic sketch of the house colored in showing how light would reflect off the glass walls.
Vanessa managed
to wiggle out of Sam’s arms, pushed me out, and slammed her door. “Okay, you’ve seen enough,” she shouted, pushing Sam and me back down the stairs. “We have pizza to eat,” she said to me. “You have slop to fix,” she glowered at Sam.
Sam stuck her tongue out as Vanessa pushed me out the front door, slamming it as we exited. We were in the car for a moment before I was brave enough to ask.
“So you’re going to study Architecture at Cornell?”
“Yes,” she said, stiffly. “Just how much did you see?” her tone now timid.
“Everything out on the walls. I can still see it. It was all beautiful. You have a gift.” She didn’t even say anything about me looking her in the eye as I drove.
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