Funk's the Chocolate Loving Vamp

by Jamie Ott

  Vampires dropped dead as they passed them.

  After it became apparent that Credenza intended to say nothing, Starr asked, “I thought we needed to talk?”

  “I figured you needed a minute; you seemed surprised to see me.”

  “Well, yeah, it’s a shock. The Fleet’s been looking for you, and then all of a sudden you show up and you’re fine. They thought you were dead, and who were those vampires in the sky?”

  “They’re the last Primordial; the first vampires.”

  “The first vampires? But I thought the first were like these species, here, crazed by the virus?”

  “The first humans, bitten by vampires, couldn’t stand the infection; it was they who went crazy. Centuries went by, and humanity adapted, passing along an antibody along with the virus.”

  At first, she didn’t’ get it, but after a moment, she asked, “You speak of the Primordial as if they’re not human?”

  “The real vampires were an ancient race that’d begun to die out back during the Bronze Age. Later, what was left of them, were sometimes depicted in ancient Greece’s tragedies, but they mistook them for gods.”

  “If they’re so superior, then why did they die out?”

  “Every species goes extinct; it’s nature. Groups live and then they die, and especially if they run out of options for breeding, as nearly every primitive group, on this planet, has. Every culture, and every race and ethnicity, has, at one time, belonged to several others.”

  “So the Primordial are not immortal?”

  “Yes, they’re immortal, but some of them destroyed themselves because they were ready to die, and others ebbed away.”

  “What do you mean by ebbed away.”

  “Meaning they receded, slowly, from the physical world. As we, vampires, age, our bodies harden and our minds grow weary; eventually we slip into semiconsciousness, and finally unconsciousness.”

  “How long does it take?”

  “It takes millenniums to get to that point, but there are ways to prevent it from happening; one needs to stay active, and to stay involved, for that, one needs to desire life.”

  “Why didn’t they just do that? Why didn’t they stay active?”

  “As you’ve already surmised, in the past, living forever is like having the same nightmare over and over again. Life isn’t easy, and living it, repeatedly, is even harder. To quote you: ‘each time – each life - with the same painful punch lines.’ Nothing changes, not really.”

  Starr remembered back to the contemplation she had of her closest friend, Marla, who was the softest vampire of them all. To live forever, you need to be hardened. With all the pain, and all the love lost, and this cycle repeated again and again, it was certain that some vampires would never make it to the point of ‘ebbing away,’ as Credenza said. The loss of feeling, caused by the virus, was a benefit to their survival, only it didn’t affect everyone the same.

  “Are you a real vampire?”

  “Half,” she answered.

  She wanted to ask more questions, but they’d approached a large hill. Credenza signaled that they should jump, but Starr wasn’t strong enough to jump so high, and had to levitate.

  When she landed, she said, “Well, tell me what it was that you intended to.”

  She was relieved that Credenza invited her to speak, and wasted no time in saying, “I want to be left alone; I want to go to school, to see my friends, to have a normal life.”

  “And you should have it.”

  “I should?”

  “I thought you’d be thrilled to join us. We are warriors. Once, a warrior was the pride and envy of nearly everyone born. Heroism meant riches, rewards, honor, respect, a grand marriage…”

  Completely baffled, she asked, “What in the world would make you even think that I want to be a warrior? This is not the Middle Ages.”

  After another moment of silence, she said, “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us, and, from here on out, you will not be bothered.”

  She turned to walk off, and signaled Starr to follow.

  “I’ve just one more question. What happened on the night you rescued me? Why did you leave me in that house, alone?”

  She followed Credenza in the direction of a dark house that was up ahead.

  “I healed you, and now you’re powerful. Now you can protect your kids.”

  “I could always protect them. I never needed you, never,” she repeated. “You know that, so why?”

  When Credenza said nothing, an alarm went off, inside her brain. It was a simple question, and there was no reason for her not to answer, unless she was hiding something.

  As they got closer to the house, Credenza walked faster, making it hard for Starr to keep up.

  “Why won’t you answer my question?”

  She followed her inside the dark house. In the dusty, moldy living room, Lucenzo and Amir were pinned to the floor by invisible bonds.

  “Why did you make us fight, if capturing them, yourself, would have been so easy?”

  “Because I have better things to do. Besides, I’m trying to retire. I’ve been handling small matters, like these for centuries. I’m done, unless it is absolutely necessary that I participate.”

  “You call a vampire apocalypse small matters?”

  “Yes, small. If this is a war, it is the pettiest I’ve ever seen. We suffered way more casualties when the Mongols came to our city.”

  “Enough chit chat! Let’s get this over with,” said Amir in a thick Ukranian accent.

  “Oh, let’s not rush things,” Credenza mused. “Starr has something to ask.”

  “Where’s Lily?”

  “She’s gone. Don’t worry, she has enough antidote, and she knows how to remake it. As long as she follows my regimen, she’ll be fine.”

  “But did she rejoin the kids from the clinic?”

  “I don’t think so, sorry. She seemed to think that no one wanted her, there, and I thought it best she not tell me anything, in case we were caught, after she departed. No doubt, some would insist on her destruction.”

  “The Primordials are getting impatient; they are calling me. We will go now.” said Credenza.

  “Do we have to do this? Do you have to kill him?”

  She wasn’t sure where her sudden compassion came from, but she knew that Lily would have wanted him spared. Starr was angry with Lucenzo, but she wasn’t sure that she wanted him dead, either, and especially after all they’d been through.

  “Amir, yes; Lucenzo, no. His father is Vidar, one of the Primordials, and he’s ready to take him home.”

  Starr looked at Lucenzo and it all made sense. There was always something pure about him, and about his scent: it was sweet and pleasant, unlike others who barely had any scent at all, after being turned – except in extreme cases. Several times, she’d mistaken that sweet air for attraction, but it was his natural animal pheromone.

  “Where’s home?”

  But Credenza was silent.

  She won’t tell you, Lucenzo whispered into her mind. It is a hidden peak, in the north, that no one has seen in millenniums, since the shifting of the Earth.

  “Funny, I thought you were turned after World War II, after you came to America.”

  “I never said that. In the forties, I was posing as a human boy, at the academy where I met my friends; it was my first time away from home.”

  “Are they safe? Nico, Kris, and your brother, Fernand?”

  “Yes, they’re fine; they’re hiding.”

  Finally, Credenza said, “Alright, we gotta go.”

  “I won’t fight you, but you are not to kill Amir; he is to be spared. He only acted under my control. I forced him to do everything.”

  “Fine,” she said. “We’ll let your father decide.”

  And then, like an invisible hand held them, they floated through the air, behind them as they made their way back to the road.

  As they walked back, Starr wondered how long it would take for them to b
urn up all the dead bodies and distribute their ashes?

  When they got back, the ancient vampires stood on the road, with heads high, in a line with their hands behind their backs. Just like Emil, their skin gave off a hazy, glowing aura, only brighter, making her wonder if Emil was part Primordial as well.

  The Black Fleet stood some feet away from them, in a semicircle, looking perplexed. On the ground, their assailants, from earlier, lay dead. Starr noticed they had no evidence of bodily harm, the Primordials, likely, told them to die, the way Credenza did just moments ago.

  As they approached, Starr noticed how one particular vampire with blazing orange-red hair and the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, looked Credenza direct in the eye; they were communicating telepathically.

  Briefly, his eyes averted to Starr’s, and, for a moment, she felt like she was under the burning ray of a laser.

  Lucenzo and Amir floated toward them. Without a word, the Primordials ascended back into the air, and, just as they took off into the sky, Lucenzo whispered into Starr’s mind.

  Whatever you do, don’t trust Credenza, she has plans for you, and they aren’t kind. I’d start with the Necro-Grimoire, if I were you. I’ll see you soon, and I hope that we can be friends, again.

  Next, Credenza disappeared without a goodbye. She left so fast that Starr wasn’t sure if she walked away or flew.

  Starr felt in her pocket to make sure the Necro-Grimoire was still there.

  Good to Be Home

  Chapter 7

  It took a whole week to burn all the bodies. Though she scrubbed and sudded and soaked, she could still smell the sickening cinnamon, burnt flesh and bone, and char and ash.

  After they’d burned their last bodies, they took the evening to feast on the opposite side of the bank, where the air was fresher.

  Saying goodbye was sad, because she would have liked to have spent some time with Emil, but the last thing she wanted was to spend more time doing Fleet stuff. The best thing to do was distance herself.

  A tingling sensation shot down her neck and chest when he kissed her lips and told her to call him as soon as she got another phone.

  Starr knew that if she bothered with getting another phone, it would only be so that she could talk to him, as she hated talking on the phone normally.

  Chanler, of course, scowled.

  As she watched them levitate into the blue sky, she tried to think of what to do next. Should she try to find the kids? Or should she find a cabin and have some alone time?

  She was always torn between the next thing that needed doing, and relaxing in peace and quiet.

  Starr walked along the bank, thinking about everything that had happened in the last few weeks. Every once in a while, she’d pull out the Grimoire and flip its pages.

  By late afternoon, she sat on a bald, sandy spot of the bank and stared at the water.

  Making her jump, from up the bank, came the sound of laughing and talking.

  She stood up and turned around.

  Facing her was Misaki, Misty, and Lucas, from the clinic; they were both rescued and abandoned kids that Starr, and her friends, had vowed to look after. They stopped, still, and stared in silence; their eyes wide.

  Starr felt a smile spread her face. An emotion she hadn’t felt in a long time struck her: happiness.

  “Is it really you?” asked Misaki.

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile before; it’s almost ghastly, like Wednesday Addams-ish,” said Lucas.

  “Why aren’t you dead?” Misty asked.

  “I was rescued.”

  “How? The cabin was completely caved in. There’s no way you could have survived.”

  But before Starr could explain, the rest of the kids from the clinic showed up, including her best and closest friends Marla, Mica, and Shane who couldn’t have looked more shaken by the sight of her.

  “I knew you were alive!” shouted Shane. “Haha, didn’t I tell you. I kept telling you, I felt her; she’s alive! You were here, a while back, I felt it!”

  With tears in her eyes, Marla grabbed Starr and nearly choked her to death. A second later, the arms of several others closed her in, tightly.

  “If you’re alive, then where the hell have you been all this time? Why did you not tell us?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry; I would have if I’d known where you were.”

  “We were just, here, on the other side of the bank. You, being what you are, should have found us with little difficulty!”

  “I got sidetracked. Listen, I can’t explain it all now. Have any of you seen Lily?”

  “No, isn’t she with Lucenzo?” asked Mica.

  Starr looked at her, and then looked at the kids, and then at the dirt.

  “Well, let’s talk about it as we walk back to the house,” she said, and then walked back up the path; Starr, Marla, and Shane followed.

  In as concise a way as she could, she proceeded to tell them everything; how she woke in Louisiana; how she found Lily in Lake George; about the CDC and how they betrayed them.

  But then her speech slowed, when she got to the part about Credenza, the Primordials, and Lucenzo’s warning.

  Instinctively, she felt for the Grimoire in her pocket.

  “So the first vampires were a completely different race?” asked Shane.

  “Yep.”

  “And Lucenzo was one of these?”

  “And so is Credenza; well, she said she’s half.”

  They walked up the sandy bank and through a cluster of trees. Next, she followed them several miles up a steep incline and found herself atop a four square mile mesa top.

  “It’d be hard for vampires to sneak up on us here,” said Marla.

  “Wow,” said Starr, eyeing a large white three story house complete with white stucco walls, fencing it in.

  They opened the wrought iron gate, and passed a pretty flower garden.

  Inside, the house was cool with wood floors and a large living room. They gave her a tour through the back, which had a swimming pool, hot tub, and gas grill.

  Then they led her upstairs to the last room at the top.

  “This can be your room,” said Marla. “Oh, and I have something for you.”

  She walked out and came back a moment later.

  In her hands, Marla held her favorite ruby studded sliver moon-shaped sickles.

  Lost and wanna play catch up?

  Vampin is now available in box sets 1-6, 7-9, and 10-15.

  Series to Date:

  Year 1

  Vampin #1

  Vampin Out #2

  Boston #3

  Her Last Days #4

  Demon Chase #5

  Bloody Delights #6

  Demon Sprawl #7

  Beheaded #8

  Black Fleet #9

  Year 2 (Scheduled to release 2012; check website for further information)

  Other works include:

  Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer

  Funk’s the Chocolate Loving Vamp

  Maternal Absence

  Misguided Trust

  Blackthorn: In the Tween

  A Very Blakely Christmas

  https://vampinofficialsite.com

  administrator@vampinofficialsite.com

 

 

 

  About the author:

  Jamie Ott is passionate about the fantasy genre of young adult literature. Currently, she is the published author of young adult novels, Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer Volume I, II, and III, and Maternal Absence. Last year, she published her first romance novel, Misguided Trust.

  To contact the author: ladysonoma@americamail.com

  For other information: passionateprose@mail.com

 

 
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