by David Paul
He knew the answer, as did I.
“I suppose so.”
“Before the day of your conception, Fate had a plan for you. Each and every event in your life has affected you. Whether mundane, extreme, or indifferent, each event has shaped you into who you are today. Today, you are a vampire at the cusp of an inter-dimensional war for the balance of the universe,” Capello said. He looked me in the eye with a powerful and convincing stare. “Tomorrow, you find your path and choose your side.”
Capello spoke with undiluted conviction. At no time did he ever seem to have any doubts about what he foretold.
“Capello, you have a great flair for the dramatic.”
I tried to break up an intense moment. Together, we laughed a very stoned laugh, but we both understood the weight of this conversation. Capello offered me some wine, and we sat down and spoke freely as friends. He was truly a great man full of wisdom and insight. His company was much needed because I was alone in this world and needed a friend. The sun came up, and he graciously let me stay until sunset. I showed him the lengthy work of Vermeir.
“Good friend, I want to leave this book with you.”
“I’ll read this when I have a half of a day to dedicate myself to it. I’ve heard of this tome,” Capello said. He held the mighty book in his hands. The fortuneteller touched the cover gently. “I thought it was merely a legend. It will be in good hands my friend.”
“Thank you once again,” I said. I felt like he had more to say, but he didn’t. This bothered me a bit. I would have to figure it all out by myself. “I need to find my path.”
“Find your path well, my son. One way or another, it will find you.” We shook hands, and I walked out into the humid night. Capello watched me walk away. “Davide, eat cloves of garlic. They will burn your mouth and throat, but it will help control your urges for blood. Now I’ve told you everything I could possibly tell you. Keep in touch old friend,” the fortuneteller said.
I waved goodbye and traveled east to my estate.
I had no idea exactly what to make of Capello’s advice. Only time would reveal the answers I sought, and time was all I had in this world. Alone at night, I had realized how peaceful the darkness was to my soul. I noticed how animals sensed my evil presence when I encountered a mature deer on the trail. The creature had froze up with fear and allowed me to walk up upon it. For the first time, I had seen one up close while it was alive.
Pheromones of fear radiated from the animal, but I was gentle to the deer. I stroked its soft fur to sooth it and felt its heart beating rapidly through its chest. I took my time and admired the beauty of this animal. This was a strange closeness with nature that was somewhat beautiful. Being a vampire had some benefits, and this brief encounter gave me some hope to find peace within my soul. I walked away, and the magnificent creature darted back into the woods. Such beautiful moments were far and few between in my new life.
Chapter Eight: An Eye Opener
“I cannot let what happened to Chloe become your fate as well, Fiona.”
David beckons her to use reason.
“David,” she said. “I didn’t know the horrors of the curse. My thoughts have been very close-minded and one-sided.” Fiona seemed embarrassed and humbled. She put up such a good fight with the vampire, and now she feels foolish. “I kind of feel stupid.”
“Focusing on the trivial perks of the curse is a common line of thought for anyone that has not experienced being turned into a vampire,” he said. David massaged her ego. “You have been enlightened, and the decision should be an easy one.” David spoke with confidence. The vampire had an inkling that he may have won the battle. Fiona seemed to be bending in his direction.
“The time is here, my sweet love.” David held her hand. “You have reached the crossroads of your soul. Make your decision wisely, mortal.”
“It is an easy choice,” she said. She smiled and looked the vampire in his black eyes. “I don’t want to bring that curse upon myself, and I don’t want to ruin what we have together.” David smiled. The weight of the world seemed to fall off of his shoulders. The vampire couldn’t handle another deadly mistake to obsess over for all eternity.
“You have chosen wisely, Fiona, and you have made me very happy with your decision.”
“Thank you for setting me straight,” she said. Inside, David felt a huge comforting relief. The whole time, he feared her decision would be the wrong one. He feared her damnation and the end of their relationship. David did not want to have to destroy her like he did Chloe. David takes Fiona in a warm deep embrace.
“I feared losing you. The curse of the vampire affects everyone differently, and I have not had any luck with turning any lover in my entire time as a vampire.”
“I don’t want to lose you either,” she said. Tears fall from her face. Her tears are joyous tears, and David wipes them away gently. She regains her composure quickly and changes the subject. Fiona is a tough cookie. “Have you tried to turn anyone else?” She asked.
“Unfortunately, the answer is yes,” the vampire said. David seemed as if he was almost ashamed. “Over the years, after I gained more experience as a vampire, I tried with several others with similar results.”
“Did you have to destroy them as well?”
“Not everyone,” he said. David implied that there was more to the story, but didn’t elaborate. “Things did not end on good terms, nevertheless.”
“I’m fascinated with your past, and I’d really like to know more.”
“I’ll tell you anything that you want to know,” David said. The vampire was baring his soul. “I have almost eight-hundred years of existence prior to our union.”
“I’ve always tried to avoid questions about your life because I know that you are very guarded about your affairs.”
“Can you see why?” the vampire asked. “My life makes Bram Stoker’s Dracula look like a Disney movie.” He laughs at his own wit.
“I always accepted you for who you are,” she said. Fiona was telling the truth. “I’ll never ask you to be someone that you could never be.” The love in her eyes glows. She knows that their relationship could never be ordinary, and she was content with that. “I know what you do at night without me, and I don’t care.”
“Do you really know what I do at night?” He asked. As much as Fiona knows David, there is so much more that she has no idea about. David kept her in the dark about so much of his past and present life, but Fiona accepted him for who he was, regardless of that. Deep down, he felt that he owed her an explanation for all of the nights away until daybreak. She trusted him and was always waiting for him whenever he got home.
“I think so,” she said. Fiona had her suspicions, but never a solid answer about the vampire’s eating habits. “Don’t you need to feed?” Fiona asked.
“Yes I feed, but it is who I feed on that makes the difference.”
“Who do you feed on then?” she asked. Fiona is hooked as if she were watching a reality TV show. “C’mon babe, tell me everything. I’m not stupid. With you being a vampire, I expect you to feed somehow.” She gives him a look begging for more. “I know that taking garlic only helps you so much.”
“I spend my nights researching and watching people,” the vampire said. Fiona is intrigued, and it is all over her face. “I look for people who have demons inside them, skeletons in the closet, and malicious intentions. I rid the world of filth. Very few of my victims didn’t deserve what they had coming.” Fiona reaches for more wine, but David pours her drink for her.
“That’s a good thing, I suppose,” Fiona said.
“In a sense, I work God’s will inside a demon’s body. At least, that is what I try to do to the best of my ability. Sometimes, the evil of this curse cannot be overcome.”
“That would make you like a vigilante of sorts, I guess… right?” she asked.
“In a sense yes, but I am not bound by laws on Earth fabricated by man,” the vampire said. She tries to follow his logic. �
�I try to serve a higher power than that. My last victim was Theresa Finney. She was a nurse, at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, who I read about in the paper.”
Theresa had five infant children mysteriously die on her watch in the intensive care unit. She was divorced and two of her own children drowned at Johnston’s Pond. She was never charged with anything in any of the cases, and all of her stories checked out without an arrest or legal issues. The vampire is positive that Fiona knows whom he is talking about. They both saw the news special on it together.
“Her ex-husband swore that she was a monster, but he was discredited because he was an alcoholic,” David said. Theresa seemed very cold and disingenuous to the vampire. She had too many allegations to be innocent just like Michael Jackson. “This roused my suspicions, and I followed her to a cocktail lounge. I pretended to show an interest in her to get closer. I sensed so much brooding evil inside her heart that was hidden by a well-engineered facade. I knew that she was guilty.” David didn’t need physical proof. Fiona is listening on the edge of her seat.
“I stalked her at her home,” he said. Fiona’s eyes light up. She loves the detective stuff. “She actually invited me over several times. I noticed that she did not have one picture of her children in the entire house. I found that very odd for someone who cried so convincingly for the camera over her loss.”
Fiona didn’t like that he was at another woman’s house, but she let it slide. Her insecurity was the fear of infidelity. David was guilty of murder, not promiscuity. Surprisingly, Fiona was alright with that. She was a big advocate of the death penalty for violent criminals that are a danger to society. David’s actions cut to the chase, and they weren’t bogged down by legal red tape. In a sense, the vampire was doing the same thing as the courts. That is how she justified it.
“I found out that she was guilty, and I dropped her dead body in the lilac shrubs of Slater Park,” David said.
“Oh my God,” she said. Fiona is thrilled. “We just saw that on that news special! They couldn’t figure out what happened to her. She had all of her blood sucked out. The forensic analysts found what they think to be the DNA of a dead man on her body. They are baffled.” Fiona is so excited.
“That was my DNA,” the vampire said. He laughs. “Good luck finding the origin of my tissue. It will lead them on a wild goose chase.”
Fiona is not put off in the least.
“That is ingenious, David.” The vampire doesn’t take the compliment well. His actions are done out of necessity, not for personal accolades. A part of the vampire wishes that he had just incinerated the body. He cannot afford to be careless like that. So many years of being a butcher have made murder very routine for him. He slipped up. The authorities will never catch David, but he doesn’t want to draw attention to his nighttime activities.
“I am a misunderstood creature,” David said. He holds her hand, and looks at her face. “Most would have run from me already.” Fiona loves David, and she hates when he talks down about himself. She doesn’t play into the conversation. There are other answers that she seeks.
“How do you find all of these evil people to feed on?” she asked.
Fiona knows that the vampire couldn’t feed himself exclusively on people from the news or the paper. David had opened the door to Fiona’s imagination. Her child-like curiosity about David did not bear judgment about who he is or what he is. Most humans cannot comprehend or accept the ways of the vampire. David is a unique form of this beast because he was able to keep himself from giving into the curse completely. Most humans that have the curse bestowed upon them give into the dark side rather easily.
The power is completely alluring, and it overtakes the purest of hearts. Many mistakes over the years were made on his part, but each mistake took a considerable toll on his soul. He can never ignore the hunger of the vampire or the calling of an incantation. If David is summoned and bound by a spell, then he must fulfill the wizard’s request. Most requests are from evil wizards demanding that David bestow the curse upon them. It had been many long years since he was summoned last.
In some cases, a deal with the Devil or a lesser demon was made in which a fool requested immortality or everlasting beauty. The deal became a raw deal when the request for unnatural living expectancy and ageless vanity resulted in being bitten and turned by a vampire. The Devil worked his dark magic to betray even those who followed him, just as he had when he created the original vampires. Aside from that, a vampire will struggle with every other decision that has to be made. In David’s mind, he uses his powers to eliminate as much evil as possible, which is the exact stellar opposite of the vampire’s purpose on Earth.
“Some find me, and some of the others I find by being a fly on the wall in a figurative sense,” he said. Some victims fall right into his lap. “Evil is out there, and it is not too hard to find, Fiona.” It was far easier than she thought. “I could make a living on sex offenders alone.” He joked with her, but was telling the truth at the same time.
“Next time you go out in search of prey, may I come with you?” That question did not sit well with David. He always worked alone, and he feared that having an accomplice would be dangerous to his secrecy. For centuries, he had operated under the nose of society without drawing attention to himself. Angry mobs of villagers or policemen were not in the plan. It would be easier for him to take on a bloodslave for his sustenance or to have Fiona feed him from her open veins, but the vampire didn’t want either.
“I’ll have to think about that one, my dear.” David grins playfully.
“C’mon babe,” she said. She used her gorgeous eyes to her advantage. Even David can feel her natural charm. “I promise to do anything that you ask of me. I know that this is serious business.” Fiona tries to use her cuteness to change his mind.
“It is not as exciting as you think,” the vampire said. Fiona didn’t want to believe him. “I spend more time in bars and restaurants simply observing people. Sometimes, I drive around looking for obvious signs of serious wrongdoing. Major cities are feeding grounds for me because there are so many rotten people in one concentrated area.”
“Maybe, I could help you in a way,” she said. Fiona is genuinely interested. “Being a constant loner at the places you frequent could work against you if there are witnesses.” The headstrong Fiona responded with a credible point.
“You could be correct, darling,” the vampire said.
The vampire fires up a cigarette, and he knows that she is right in a sense. David has never been caught or suspected in any missing person cases. Most of the time, his victims are not missed at all, and that is part of the beauty of it. The police do not waste too much time when murderous felons get a taste of their own medicine. They usually chalk it up to falling victim to the lifestyle that they had chosen.
“Can I ask you something?” David had a feeling something major was coming. “How many people do you think you have killed in your lifetime?” She asked.
“I never counted,” the vampire said. David remembered every single victim, right down to how they tasted, but he hides that fact. “There have been too many to count.”
As much as he wanted to tell her the actual number, there was a part of him that didn’t. David was responsible for practically eliminating entire civilizations and cultures in olden times. In the times of Nazi Germany, he had feasted upon the Third Reich like he was at an all you can eat Chinese buffet. He would have had Hitler himself, but the Fuhrer beat him to the punch when he took his own life. History had a tendency of providing guiltless gourmet dining for David.
“Was that too personal of a question?” She asked.
“Not really,” he said. The vampire has her best interests in mind. “But there are horrors in my past that I do not want to haunt your dreams.”
“Well,” she said, “you’ve told me about some pretty gruesome things already that I am thankful to never have actually seen.”
“I only told you those things so that you wou
ld not make your decision based on what you have seen on television or what you have read in fictitious books.” The reality of being a vampire was far more horrifying than any fictitious work could portray.
“I understand this now, David, and I’m glad that you told me the truth to snap me out of my illusion.”
“It was the only thing that I could do to make you change your mind. I’ve been struggling with the coming of this night ever since I agreed to turn you.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, “because I will never want to be a vampire after everything you have told me tonight.”
“Thank you for trusting me,” he said. The vampire was her guardian, and he would trade in his life to protect hers. “I would never ask you to do anything that would put you in harm’s way, my love.”
An event that could have been catastrophic has actually brought the two closer together. David’s honesty about himself and his past has deepened his relationship with Fiona. She has a far greater understanding of him. She was starting to resent him. Fiona finally realized that his decision to stay emotionally closed off was only for her own good.
David’s inability to reveal more of himself to her was a major thorn in their relationship. Fiona was even more optimistic about their union than ever. They never really had major problems, besides the obvious downfalls of David’s condition. Fiona had dozens of questions to ask David out of genuine interest about him and to satisfy her own curiosity. The night was not over, even though David spent a great deal of time telling his story to Fiona.
“What ever happened with Regina?” She asked.
“Honestly,” he said, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in centuries.” Since the olden days, David had only seen her in his dreams. He hasn’t forgotten about her and what she had done.
“Do you think she’s still alive?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” he said. David would be greatly surprised if she were still alive. “If she is still alive, I know that she has got it in for me.”