“Ah yes, you didn’t fill yourself up. Strong yes but not energy efficient, The younger we are, the more we need.”
Lauren ignored his gleeful remark, instead focussing on the place where she could get more blood: Matt.
“Oh no,” Julian said, sticking his foot out and flipping her on to her back. “Can’t have that. If you feed again, you’ll kill him. I need that one. It seems you’re in quite a pickle. You can’t walk in to any other home and I can comfortably stop you from going inside here, where you are invited.”
Julian knelt down over Lauren, slowly running a hand an inch above her body. “Oh yes…” he breathed. “I can feel your hunger. It burns you from the inside. You need more don’t you?”
Lauren could barely answer, her body was convulsing. Her very image of him was shaking. She felt her head being lifted. “I can help you,” Julian said. “If you’ll help me.”
Lauren opened her mouth several times, managing to get out the first word, “What…”
“Simple. Stay away from your friends for two nights. They must feel things are as normal as possible. Feed but make sure no one notices you. In two nights, Delavega will be gone and you will have your chance at revenge on your flatmate, or whatever you’re after,” Julian said with an uncaring wave. “Agreed?”
Lauren hoped she gave what could be constituted as an agreement, as he disappeared yet again, leaving a dark cloud residue. However he was back about a minute later, tossing a body down to her.
“The homeless are just too easy,” Julian muttered.
Chapter Sixteen
What’s The Story, Morning Glory?
Dawn light was pouring through the living room window. Alex sat with her knees to her chin and a blanket wrapped around her. She had gotten home at just after midnight but could not remember having had a more restless night’s sleep and called in sick for the first time in over a year.
She could feel the raw dryness of her eyeballs, drained from hours of tears the night before. For what she’d seen, what she’d experienced. Also for what that monster would have done to her if Dante hadn’t…done whatever he did. She didn’t really want to think about what Dante had done. Just saying his name made her shudder like a screwdriver poking her spine.
Those eyes, those teeth. He looked demonic. Evil. Primal.
However many words there were, they did not accurately convey how much he had terrified her. Yet she remembered the man she’d met before any of this. How sweet and kind he was towards her, a gentleman. Even in the street last night. Was it all an act?
Her head jerked around as her mobile rang. Michelle was calling, and Alex remembered guiltily that she hadn’t even bothered asking Dante how she was. But then again, she was probably a…one of those too.
She let the phone ring out and it immediately started up again. Alex pressed the answer button wearily.
“Don’t hang up,” Michelle said, a slight strain in her voice.
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“Can we talk?”
“I don’t really—”
“I’m human, Alex. Just so you know. Please just shut up and listen to me.”
Alex sighed. “Fine. Okay. What do you want to say?”
“Not on the phone. In person. I’m hoping you’ll say yes, ‘coz I am right outside your door.”
Alex inhaled a sharp burst of air and looked at the door as if trying to see through it.
“Alex, come on. Have you seen what time of day it is? Day? It really sucks having to come up three flights of stairs with a bruised rib, by the way.”
Alex hung up and walked over to the door. She took a deep breath and opened it. Michelle stood before her with two plastic bags of groceries and what looked like a laptop bag slung over her shoulder.
“What’s all this?”
“You have had a rough night, I thought you could use some lunch. This-” she said, indicating with her head towards her shoulder, “Is research I’ve got for all your questions.”
Alex leant against the door and tapped her fingers against it absent-mindedly. “So you know?”
“You mean…” Michelle used two fingers from her free hand to form fangs in front of her own bared teeth. “Yeah, I may know a thing or two.”
Alex couldn’t help but soften her stance as she let Michelle pass. Alex watched Michelle for a few minutes, putting on a pot of water to boil and pulling some fresh pasta and chicken out of her grocery bag.
“Is he really a vampire?”
Michelle did not stop chopping the chicken. “Yes.”
“I just can’t bring myself to believe that.”
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to bring yourself to anything. Deep down you know it’s true. What’s more, you have probably met a few of them without even knowing,” she said, running her hands under the cold tap. “Anytime the sun goes down.”
“How many have you met?”
“Too many,” Michelle replied.
“Wow,” was all she could say. “So…is he sleeping now?”
“Yep.”
“So, what about you? Are you—”
“Human, like I said. As human as you are,” Michelle replied, gingerly tipping the chicken pieces into the frying pan, already sizzling with onions. She began chopping up the ham as she added, “I have just been trained really well by him.”
“So, what are you to him, really?”
“A friend mostly. I am probably the only one he has.”
“Does he kill people?”
Michelle winced before adding the ham and stirred it together.
“He has done, yes. Mostly in his early years after he was turned. But then he learned how to drink from humans without killing us, so that’s how he went on before he met donors.”
“Donors?”
“People who volunteer to let him feed on their blood. He has had a few over the years. Right now it’s me.”
“He drinks your blood? You let him?”
“Yep,” she said, as if such a thing was the most normal situation in the world.
Alex stared at her. “You’re not lying to me, are you?”
“Alex, I think it’s time for you to stop pretending you don’t know what’s going on, just because it’s less scary then admitting the truth to yourself. There are things that go bump in the night. You met two of them yesterday. Believe me, though, I know how you feel. I had dealings with vampires before I met Dante. One in particular called Julian. That guy is a scary motherfucker. Thankfully, someone upstairs was looking out for me and I found Dante. Or he found me, I guess. It’s complicated.” Michelle shrugged.
“Can you try and un-complicate it? Please, I want to know how you met him.”
Both girls sat down at the kitchen table. Michelle cleared her throat. “I used to be with Julian, who always wanted another vampire called Melina. It’s a story that goes back and back,” she added, as if she had heard this story over and over. “She denied him for decades apparently, but out of the blue she said yes. So when he got her, he suddenly had no use for me. I had been his for three years, since I was fifteen. I was an eighteen-year-old with no money, no job, and I had lost touch with all my friends, and my family thought I was dead. They had even held a service for me.”
“Really?” Alex asked.
“Yeah. Dante found one of the funeral programmes last year. I’ve got it at home. Kinda freaky,” Michelle replied. “Anyway, I despised vampires more than you could ever imagine, but I had nowhere else to go. The word went out that there was a human available, and Dante bought me.
“I swear, had it been any other vampire, they would’ve killed me within a week. I was a total mess and just wanted it to end. We never spoke for the longest time. I didn’t want to let him near me, even though I knew I had my duty. But he never tried anything. Day after day, I would wake up and there would be food on a tray next to my bed, with a credit card. Was I game enough to use it though? Of course not. I knew vamps had their tricks, so I left it alone. Eat yes, spend no
. Night would come, and he would walk in, replace my tray with more food and drink, only to walk back out again.”
“It sounds like he thought of you as a dog.”
“Well, I thought so too at first. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I thanked him one night just as he was walking out of my room. He turned around and gave me a little smile. He only said, ‘You’re very welcome’ and then he left.
“It was the most genuinely nice thing I had heard for so long. It was around then that I realised it had been days and I hadn’t fed him. I knew if I wanted him to keep being so nice, I had to let him feed on me. So about an hour later I knocked on his door.
“He told me to come in, so I did and waited for him to speak. He was sitting at his giant mahogany desk looking at me. Now that I got a chance to study him, the first thing I noticed was how pale he had become. Now Dante is rather tanned. This is because they stay the way they were made. Like, if you’re a black human you don’t suddenly transform into an Albino. But it’s when they don’t feed they get shade of pale, like off milk. They look sick. He had bags under his eyes, slow eye movement. Imagine someone who has the stomach flu and you’ll have an idea.”
Alex nodded, waiting for Michelle to continue.
“I stuttered and stammered, and finally tried to indicate that I knew he hadn’t fed yet, and did he want to, and he just politely calmed me down and told me I didn’t need to concern myself with that.”
“What’d you say?” asked Alex.
“Nothing. Dante stood up and took both my hands and held them. He told me he wanted me to get better, healthier again after having been in Julian’s ‘care’ and that he’d be fine. He didn’t look fine, and I told him so, but he just laughed and kissed me goodnight. I’ll remember that kiss for as long as I live.”
The meal was ready. Alex brought both plates to the table and sat down with Michelle. She twirled some pasta and took a bite, not surprised to find it delicious.
“What can you tell me about them?” Alex asked. “The real stuff, not just in stories.”
Michelle unpacked the laptop and set it up, plugging a USB modem into a slot. “I downloaded and copied a few things you might find interesting. They are like vampire history books. Dante has the hard copies at his penthouse, so I know which ones are good.”
“Why does he have copies?” Alex asked.
“Dante often does research about vampires. He is very curious about where they come from and other…beings.”
“There are others?”
“Oh yeah,” said Michelle eagerly, turning the laptop around to Alex. “Here, read from page ten.”
…According to ancient histories, the Sidhe (Celtic word for what today we know to call vampires) once dominated Ireland, existing in such great numbers that there were armies of them. Existing in relative peace and harmony with various other people that passed through their land, these people opened their territories freely to the Tuatha De Denaan, a race of powerful human magic practitioners and warriors. Conflict arose between the two races, and war broke out. The Tuatha De Denaan used their powers to place four curses upon the Sidhe. Only two of the curses are known, subsequently because they are known to have been associated with vampires ever since. The first caused the light of day to scorch their skin and burn their eyes, making them sleep during the day. The other allowed no water to quench their thirst.
The Tuatha De Denaan won the battle, but they lived in fear that they had created monsters that would eventually destroy them. They fled from the land, and the descendants of Scota, the legendary Gallic queen who took the island to create a kingdom, became the current residents of Ireland. Some believe the Sidhe made a deal with Queen Scota to take the island for her in exchange for being allowed to live there in peace and solitude. Later-era legends describe the Sidhe as a tall, powerful and beautiful people. Their fair skin earned them the name “fairies” and they were most seen strolling along the beach or dancing in forest clearings in the twilight hours.
“Seriously? Fairies?” Alex asked, passing the laptop back.
“Apparently. Read on,” Michelle said, twisting the laptop around again.
…The peoples of the region of Eastern Europe near the Carpathian Mountains are known for their folktales, the most famous of which are about vampire-creatures they call the Strigoi. The Strigoi Vii, sometimes called Moroii, are thought to be a race similar to humans, but different in their need to consume human energy through blood. According to the travelling Roma people, the Strigoi Vii were a tall, beautiful, pale, strong, intelligent, well-mannered, regal and often wealthy people.
The Strigoi Vii primarily fed upon the life energies of humans in their social circle, picking a single volunteer to feed from for a length of time. The gypsies and vampires of the region practiced a tradition they referred to as lording, whereby one gypsy, usually a female volunteer, would be chosen to go live with the Strigoi for the time her family was on the land. The vampire was allowed to feed upon her at his leisure, and her family was protected in return...
“So that’s where the donor tradition began?” Alex said.
Michelle nodded. “Anyway, that’s what I meant by myth and legends. These people they are writing about existed thousands of years ago, but still some of the basics are there. Fairies, demons, ghosts, all the things our parents told us didn’t exist are in here. There are heaps of examples and explanations, all offering a slightly different view of vampire origins and where their power came from. No one really knows, but a few of the stories are similar.”
“Carpathian Mountains…” Alex said, thinking. “Romania? So, like Dracula?”
“Yep. Not only was the character of the ‘original vampire’ based on a knight who impaled his victims and drank their blood, but there were legends about vampires there long before Vlad the Impaler was even thought about.” Michelle took some more pasta before continuing. “It goes on about ceremonial blood drinking in hundreds of cultures too, tribes who would drink the blood of the dead because they believed they inherited strength. In those days there was no such thing as sterilisation or acceptable hygiene. Some people believe a disease would’ve been inevitable, which would’ve changed the mentality of those who drank, perhaps making them crazy, turning them beastly. Or something else.”
Alex poured over the information. The texts were fascinating. Vampires seemed to be everywhere throughout history. In Ancient Rome, one in particular had heard about the planned assassination of Julius Caesar. Neos Victus, who loved Caesar, informed his wife Calpurnia Pisonis to keep him away from the senate during the day, a time when he could not protect him, but alas she failed.
King Henry VIII had brought an unknown vampire into his circle towards the end of his reign, when his mood swings became terrible. This vampire was known to hypnotise, and influenced Henry as an advisor on many unusual choices.
There were even Nazi sympathisers that began a vampire civil war in Europe during the rise and fall of Hitler.
“Jeez, how far back do they go? What about Australian history?” Alex asked, checking through the titles of the other books.
“Oh you don’t need a book for that, just ask me. You can even find it on Wikipedia if you know what to look for.”
“Wiki doesn’t have stories about them in Australia, surely?”
“No, but if you understand the history you can read between the lines and see for yourself what went on. As you know many Europeans, particularly the English, came over here on the convict ships. Most though came decades later, when news was brought back to England that Australia was a decent place for a fresh start.”
Alex nodded, remembering the history she taught to her students. “Right. There was a massive increase in population at the time.”
“Both in terms of human and vampire,” continued Michelle. “That’s where the whole smallpox epidemic started.”
“Yes, that’s right. This is in the curriculum for my class this term. The settlers gave it to the Aborigines,” Alex said.<
br />
“But they didn’t,” Michelle replied. “Not that you’ll be able to teach your kids that.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked as Michelle took over the laptop.
“Hang on,” Michelle said, beginning to click away. “Here, like I said. It’s all on Wikipedia: the god who answers your questions,” she said, pointing to the beginning of a paragraph and grinning.
In April 1789, however, twelve months after the departure from Botany Bay by the French expedition led by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a catastrophic epidemic of smallpox (or possibly chicken pox) spread through the Eora people and surrounding groups, with the result that local Aborigines died in their hundreds, and bodies could be seen in the water in Sydney Harbour and lying on beaches and in adjacent caves.
Author and First Fleet officer Watkin Tench, whose accounts are primary sources about the early years of the colony, never suggested that the epidemic may have been caused by Aborigines disturbing the grave of a French sailor who died shortly after arrival in Australia (supposedly of smallpox) and had been buried at Botany Bay. However, in his memoir A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales, Tench wrote that he had never heard of the existence of smallpox among the French sailors.
“Aborigines disturbing graves?”
“Exactly. Why would they dig up a dead soldier? So what that’s saying is, something killed the Aborigines and something killed that French sailor. He wasn’t sure, but Tench didn’t think it was smallpox from the French,” Michelle said. “Did you know the early settlers, the few who knew the truth from the Aborigines or just from their surroundings, had a method of killing vampires? It’s a practice that lives on today.”
“And that is?”
“Burning them alive. But it has to be a huge blaze so there is no chance of them recovering before nightfall,” Michelle answered. “They used to dig up graves or storm into houses during the day. If they found people asleep and unresponsive, they would drag them out into the bush and light them on fire, as many as they could find in one go.”
Night Walker (Undeadly Secrets Book 1) Page 15