by Joe Fowler
“I got married when I was fifteen, remember it was common then to get married as early as twelve or thirteen. Anyway, my husband was part of the city guard. We didn’t have much but we were happy.” She started speaking more softly as she continued. “He didn’t come home when he was supposed to one night. There had been some trouble and he had been killed. I started making baskets and doing laundry like my mother had taught me. I made a decent enough living but I was running late one night. I had spent too much time talking to some friends and I got attacked on my way home.” Rosalyn was quiet for a moment. “She liked how pretty I was. She turned me into a vampire and took me away from my home. I was her little prize to be shown off to her friends. We traveled to Greece and stayed on the outskirts of large cities until the locals would get suspicious. Then we would move on. We were found out about twenty years after I had been turned. She died but I was fast enough to get away. I returned to my home in Italy to find that my parents had died. I lived in or close to that area for the nearly three hundred years before I started traveling.”
“Wow. The things you must have seen. I have trouble wrapping my head around two thousand years of life.” I shook my head in wonder. “So have you been traveling the whole time or did you settle down some?”
“Mostly traveling. I stayed in Europe. I had heard so much of Africa and Asia from other vampires that I didn’t want to go.” She must have seen my puzzled look since she followed with her explanation. “The deserts were told to be seemingly endless and the sand a constant pain. That left North Africa and the Middle East areas out. It was common to hear that you could go weeks through Asia and never see another person. Unless you were with someone who knew where the cities were, a vampire could easily starve back then. I liked Europe well enough anyway, so that’s where I stayed.”
“When did you come over here?” I hoped she wouldn’t get too tired of my questions. Her life was fascinating to me.
“In 1752. I was constantly hearing how beautiful it was here, so I got on a ship and came over to see for myself. I loved it. I’ve been here since then and I don’t plan on going back.” She was smiling again.
“Were vampires already here?”
“Oh yes. There were more than there needed to be to tell the truth. Most vampires grow tired of an area and will search out anything new. So once the population here had grown enough, vampires started making their way over. I say most vampires because in Europe there are vampires that have lived in the same place for a thousand years or more. Who knows why? I certainly couldn’t.” She sighed. I felt like she was growing tired of talking so I let her have some peace.
We lay there in bed just holding each other the rest of the time until sunrise.
Chapter 7
We settled for a quickie when we rose the following night. We both knew we needed to get an early start in case the vampires remained hard to find. We began driving around looking for a bar we had not tried when we saw a shopping mall.
“Let’s try the mall. Some vampires like to have more to choose from.” Rosalyn said this next bit with disgust. “They like the younger blood more than the old. Even after you gain control, never bite a child. That is just wrong to me.”
I wasn’t going to argue with her about that even if I had disagreed. She looked angry at the thought of it. I had seen what she could do and knew better than to piss her off. She was right though, biting a child was just wrong.
We walked around for a while looking for vampires and ended up shopping, unfortunately. I hate shopping, always have. I was standing around looking like an idiot while she was trying on clothes when I smelled them. A deep musky, woodsy odor. Damn! Werewolves!
“Rosalyn? You may want to hurry up in there.” I said it quietly but knew she would hear it as well as if I had shouted.
“I smell them. I will be right out.” She sounded calm.
I started looking around trying to see them. One man and three women walked towards me. He did not appear thrilled to see me. All three women were beautiful and walked with the confidence that they were safe. Whether they thought so because we were in public or because of the man, I couldn’t tell. I felt Rosalyn’s hand on my arm and was somewhat reassured. Something about the man was disconcerting though he looked plain enough. I was extremely frightened and excited at the same time. I wanted this man’s blood so bad I could taste it. Even with Rosalyn near I was afraid I would lose control. As it turned out, I was the one thankful we were in public.
“Hello. This seems bad but you may end up thankful for finding us.” Rosalyn said as they approached.
“I can’t imagine a reason that would make me thankful. What is it with this town? I have killed so many of you these last few months and still more of you show up.” He wasn’t happy. The women with him stayed back a few feet. I didn’t think he would try anything inside of a crowded store but I began to wonder.
“There is a reason. This is, or was, one of three cities where vampires have been gathering. If you will listen, I will tell you why there are only two cities now.” Rosalyn’s words seem to hit home for him. I couldn’t tell if Rosalyn was having the same desire for his blood or the fear of him as I was feeling.
“I will listen but this better be good. Let’s find a place with less people.” He said that with a meaningful look at a woman and her kids that were only a few feet away.
“Let me pay for these and we can go outside.” She started walking toward the counter with me by her side. The four wolves walked over and stood by the door leading to the parking lot. We paid for the clothes and all six of us walked outside together.
“This should be good enough.” The male said. We formed a makeshift circle by the wall of the building away from the doors.
“Some vampires got together and decided that if they did it right, humans would accept them if they went public.” As the words left Rosalyn’s lips, the man’s face paled.
“Are they really that stupid?” Was his response.
“Apparently so. We stopped the gathering in Jackson, Mississippi.” Rosalyn pointed to her and me as she said that. “We killed nearly one hundred and fifty vampires. We went to Memphis but the situation there is more than the two of us can handle on our own. Chattanooga is the third city. We decided to come here and see if we could handle the vampires here on our own. If you can restrain yourself, we can work together on this. If not, we can go fight it out and let the winners deal with the vampire problem.”
“Josh, we should listen to what she can tell us anyway.” The tiny little blonde one spoke up. She was adorable.
“Wait, did she call you Josh?” Seeing him nod, Rosalyn continued. “We met Seth a week or so ago. That is the biggest damn werewolf I ever saw and that is saying something.”
“You met Seth and lived? Sorry, but that is very hard to believe.” Josh looked like he still wanted to kill us.
“He killed three of my traveling companions and came after me. If I had been your average vampire, then yes I would have died too. I am twenty-four hundred years old and like wolves, I have gotten faster and stronger with age. I saw that I couldn’t beat him so I ran. I just barely got away.” Rosalyn’s words made sense to them. They were more believing now. “Please feel free to call him. We met him a few days after that at a casino in Biloxi. His wife Anna was there. We shared an enjoyable night more or less as friends.”
“I miss them so much.” Even as the tiny one was talking she had pulled out her phone and was dialing the number. Since we were standing fairy close, we could all hear the answering click as well as the other side of the conversation.
“Hello?” I recognized Seth’s voice.
“Hey Seth. We may have a little situation here.”
“What’s going on? Is it another demon?” Seth was asking about demons? What the hell was going on here? I looked at Rosalyn and she was as shocked as I was. Who the hell were these people?
“No, this is just vampires. Did you and Anna meet two vampires a week or so ago? A man and a really beaut
iful woman?”
“Yes, Rosalyn and Austin. Are they there? What’s going on?” Seth was chomping at the bit wanting to know what was happening. Rosalyn reached for the phone. The tiny one looked to Josh, who nodded, before she handed the phone to Rosalyn.
“Hey Seth. This is Rosalyn. After we left your area, we ended up in Jackson, Mississippi. There was a huge gathering of vampires there. They had started running a distribution center and were planning something we all have to worry about. I met with the man in charge of the warehouse. He told me that the vampires there along with groups in both Memphis and Chattanooga were working toward going public. They want to tell the humans about us. Austin and I killed the vampires in Jackson and set fire to the warehouse to hide the rotting corpses. We ran into a situation too big for just the two of us in Memphis, so we came to Chattanooga to check out the situation here. We just met Josh in a store.”
“Damn, this isn’t good. Thanks for telling us. Please, give the phone to Josh.” Rosalyn handed the phone over. Everyone seemed to calm down a bit since we appeared to be on the same team now. I was still very afraid of Josh and being around him much was going to be hard considering how much I wanted his blood.
“Hey Seth. What do you think about all of this?” Josh had calmed now that he saw we weren’t a threat.
“I think that if these vampires do go public, we are all screwed. I saw the news story of the Jackson warehouse fire. Listen to what she says and help her. She is nearly as tough as you are and if Austin is as strong as she says then the three of you can probably handle the Chattanooga group. I will be on my way to Tennessee tomorrow if you would rather wait.” Seth took a moment. “I don’t think they will be a danger to you or the girls. We all have too much at stake in this to screw it up. I need to get things rolling on this end, but I will call you in the morning.”
“Okay, thanks Seth. It will be good to see you again.” Josh sounded relieved.
“Same here. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” Seth hung up.
“So, you are Rosalyn and you are Austin?” Josh asked.
“Yes.” I said.
“This is my wife, Alicia.” Josh introduced the tiny one. Then turned and pointed as he said their names. “This is Sarah and Crystal. This is my pack.”
“Only four, but then Seth said that you were just turned last year. Still, I would have thought you would have added more.” Rosalyn seemed curious.
“I haven’t met anyone else I wanted to turn. I wouldn’t mind having more wolves but I want to be sure of the people I am giving this much power to.” Josh made sense to me.
“Should we go somewhere without the humans? We need to find out what you know of the vampires here. We rode through town last night but didn’t find a vampire to question.” Rosalyn was ready to get down to business.
“We can go to the house. Where are you parked?” Josh asked.
“We are on the other end of the mall. We only came here to see if we could find a vampire. I just couldn’t pass up the chance to shop.” Rosalyn smiled. I saw the two girls, Sarah and Crystal smile at that as well.
“I can go with you two and let Alicia drive the girls home.” With that said, he handed his keys to the tiny blonde and motioned for us to lead the way.
“It might be tight in my little truck, but we should fit.” I started walking back into the store figuring it would be faster to go through the mall than it would be to walk around. Rosalyn and Josh followed. By the time we had reached my truck, I could tell Josh and Rosalyn were strangely cautious with each other. “Look you two, it doesn’t matter which of you is the strongest or toughest. I can see that you both are behaving like you want to be the big man on the block. Just know that we are on the same team as weird as that might sound with the whole vampire-werewolf thing. So would you guys quit before the pissing gets started?”
“Nice way of putting it.” Rosalyn said with a playful slap on my arm. “It just seems so unheard of for a wolf that’s only a year old to be as strong as a vampire that’s over two thousand.”
“There’s a reason behind it. I can tell you on the way.” Josh seemed like he was going to try to be friendly.
We got into my truck and headed out with Josh giving me the general directions. He kept looking at the truck and I knew he was thinking we wouldn’t make it. I don’t care how bad everyone thinks my truck is, I like it. It has character. He waited until we were on the highway to tell us his story.
“I was completely normal until two weeks before my eighteenth birthday. I started having visions when I touched a human. It started one morning out of the blue. A friend and I had already decided to skip school that day, which was a really good thing. I was a nervous wreck wondering what was happening to me. We talked and decided to go bowling to clear my mind. Of course we didn’t know that a werewolf worked at the bowling alley. As it turns out, I no longer smelled human. The werewolf that worked there called Seth, his alpha. Seth had never smelled anything like me before so he bit me.”
“Wait, Seth’s pureblood. His bite could have killed you.” Rosalyn said, confusing me.
“What do you mean? I thought being bitten is how werewolves turn a human. Why would it kill him?” I asked.
“A pureblood’s bite will kill most any supernatural creature, like vampires. Since I didn’t smell human, Seth bit me. He told me I would become a wolf and be on their side, or I would die and couldn’t pose any threat to his pack. He made it clear that he hoped I survived. I could tell he was a good man. He had to put the safety of his pack first.” Josh got quiet for a minute. I was about to ask what was wrong when he started talking again. “Seth is as good a man as there is. Even after I found out why I smelled different, he still accepted me into his pack.”
“Why? Why did you smell different? I know all of the non-human smells and those would have meant you would have died from Seth’s bite.” Rosalyn was intrigued.
“I am half demon.” Josh gave us a moment to let that sink in. “My mom was part of a cult that summoned a demon. She had sex with him to create me. It was their plan to summon the demon again on my eighteenth birthday. He was going to take possession of my body. It would have made him even stronger and meant that he could stay on earth forever. Normally a demon can only stay topside for twenty-four hours after being summoned. If they try to possess a human, like you see in the movies, they are weakened and can be cast out. The bodies of a possessed human can’t stand the strain anyway, so they can only stay a short while like that.”
“Wow. I have never heard of such. If it were that easy why haven’t other demons tried that before?” Rosalyn asked. I was still stuck on ‘wow’.
“This was the culmination of over two hundred years of rituals by the cult my mom had joined. It wasn’t something that is easily done. I had a vision of what was being planned by my mom and told Seth. I won’t go into detail, but between Seth, me, and a special friend of mine, we managed to kill the demon.” Josh took a moment to give me directions since we were nearing the turnoff to his house.
“What was that on the phone earlier? Seth asked if it was a demon when your wife mentioned trouble. If you guys killed the demon, how could there be a problem now?” Rosalyn was asking great questions. I was still stuck on ‘wow’, but was making progress toward ‘holy shit’.
“Any demon who can possess me will get stronger and live forever. I’ve had to kill another demon who tried. Seth probably figured that a demon would be the only thing we would need to call him about.” Josh smiled and looked at Rosalyn. “You know how it is being as powerful as you must be. There aren’t many things that would even cause me to work up a sweat. Seth, of course, is the heavyweight champ right now. He knows I wouldn’t call him in unless it was something big.”
“I like the way you said that. Heavyweight champ. I won’t argue, I am still shocked I survived that first night. I never imagined any creature as powerful as he is.” Rosalyn was smiling. I could tell she liked Josh. I guess I did too, come to think of it. �
��Your story explains your smell, at least somewhat. I am proud of Austin, he hasn’t even mentioned how mouthwatering you are to us. It isn’t something I’ve ever come across.”
“It usually makes my job easier. If there is a vampire around, they come after me on their own. I don’t have to follow them or plan a way to get them away from humans. They take care of that for me. You can start slowing down. The turn is just ahead on the right. My house is at the end of this road.” Josh sat back in his seat and looked at my truck with a smile. “This old truck runs better than I thought it would.”
“This truck will still be running ten years from now.” I said, bringing a smile to both Josh and Rosalyn.
Josh’s driveway became a dirt road after the first few feet. The trees grew in close to the road giving an almost claustrophobic feel until you got to the house. His house was two story with a huge front porch. The house was set in a field with at least fifty yards of open grass between the house and the woods in every direction. This was a really nice place. There were three cars parked out front. I parked beside them and we unloaded.
“Nice house.” I couldn’t help but admire it after living in a trailer for the last few years. “How much land do you have with it?”
“A little over five hundred acres. The demon cult my mom was a part of had tons of money. She died when we were fighting the demon and left me with a decent amount of money.” Josh stopped and looked at Rosalyn. “Can vampires see ghosts?”
“No. I never have. Why?” She sounded a little wary for some reason.
“My mom comes around sometimes and visits. I am the only one who can see or hear her, though. I wanted to warn you in case you could see her. She redeemed herself at the end so I told her she was welcome to hang around when she wanted.” As Josh said that, Rosalyn looked like she was going to panic.
“What’s wrong?” I was worried. I put my hand on her arm and she flinched.
“Sorry, Austin. Don’t laugh. I am afraid of ghosts. I have been since before when I was a small child. I don’t know why.” She was shaking.
