by C. L. Quinn
Nature, raw, and ravenous…teaching everyone she ruled this world. No one would be out in this. She wouldn’t be going to work. There would be no one to serve.
So she would stay home and sleep. She sighed as she stoked the fire in the large fireplace before she went back to bed. There was no peace to be found there either, but the unconsciousness helped. When the dreams didn’t come.
She had noticed, though, that she was sleeping less than she used to, and the other night at work, someone remarked that he saw her smile for the first time.
Eillia pulled the plush blankets up and climbed onto the rickety couch she’d pulled right up next to the now roaring flames. It felt so good and smelled even better. Then she realized…she actually was smiling right now in pleasure. She was warm and comfortable and she had one of the Blue Star’s huge chocolate cakes in her fridge. A young girl in town had insisted she had to see a new movie that had come out last year, some silly sci-fi about aliens, and had loaned her a disc.
Wrapped in the blankets, the fire crackling, a huge piece of chocolate cake on her lap, watching a current movie, Eillia smiled. She lowered her head. Was it okay that she was smiling so much again? And looking forward to creature-comforts? She drew a deep breath. She thought it was. It felt good to feel good again. Yes, she was healing.
Daniel was losing it. He stood at the window and stared out, and although he couldn’t see anything through the white-out conditions, he still stood there searching for any sign it would stop and let him out of his prison. There had to be a way to get to the Wooly Bully. He could last a little longer, but if this went on for a week…oh, fuck!
He turned and paced. Then returned to stare again, and paced some more. All along he’d thought he was in hell. He was wrong. This. Being trapped with only his own company and tortured memories with no way to filter them. This was hell.
Eillia was getting bored. And hungry. For food and blood. She looked out the window at the endless flakes of snow building up minute by minute. The wind had let up a little. It was no longer howling, and she kind of missed it. Soon, she would be able to get out and head into town. Of course, she couldn’t go to work yet. She couldn’t advertise to the humans that little things like four feet of snow wouldn’t even slow her down. If no one else made it to work, then the lone small woman who cooked in the cramped kitchen shouldn’t either.
She realized she’d made a mistake in not securing a blood meal two nights ago when she’d accompanied Starla to that bar. It would have been a perfect time to do it. But the sexy stranger she thought she might have known had thrown her a curve, and she hadn’t even thought about anything but him that night. Or since. It was offensive to her that his face was carved into her memory now, while Hamid’s was fading away. And she didn’t know why.
Assuming there would not be anyone around in town this late in the middle of a blizzard, she decided to hit the general store for some supplies. She should be able to find someone she could compel for a blood meal. After pacing a few moments, she went to get her snow gear. If nothing else, it would get her out of the cabin for a while and get her mind off her libido that seemed to have been reignited. And this cabin was feeling claustrophobic suddenly. Funny how for the past year it had just felt safe.
When she’d found this place a year ago, she had been looking for a place to hide…a hole to crawl into and disappear. She’d known she couldn’t return to her normal life without Hamid, who had been there almost forever. Now, she was ready to crawl out and see the light again. Not, of course, sunlight, but to begin to repair her shattered life. It seemed right. It was time.
Several layers of sweaters preceded her parka. The gloves didn’t match. And that didn’t matter. Her favorite, however, was a heavily furred head wrap one of the kind Inupiat ladies had given her last month. It was warm and reminded her of one she owned that now lay in a drawer outside her home in Paris.
Now well wrapped up, she pulled the door closed tightly. The air was refreshingly clear and pure, the snowflakes now large and pillowy, but still falling at a fast rate. If it continued much longer, everyone would be snowed in for about a week before they could dig out. Eillia just stood there for several long minutes with her face tilted up, immersed in the sensuous experience of falling snow and cool air. The snow had reached a good three plus feet, so she cleared a large path in front of the cabin. With vampire power and speed, it took mere seconds. She knew it would be too suspicious to do it all the way to town, so she revved up and glided across the remaining distance until just outside the town proper, where she noticed someone had already begun snow removal.
This time of year, there were no real daylight hours. The polar twilight created when the sun just skirted the horizon brought enough light to move about freely during the day, yet posed no danger to vampires. Tonight, though, it would have been pitch black if snow-filled clouds hadn’t covered what was normally a star studded sky. All the reflected whiteness was picture postcard perfect. No one was around anywhere, so she hurried to the general store, easily found by the red neon sign that said “beer” lit in one of the windows. Vampires could go through locks like they weren’t there at all, so she entered quietly and turned on a small desk-side lamp. That was all she would need to see her way around.
A display of Jack Daniels caught her eye and she grinned. Good start. She popped open a bottle and downed the entire thing, feeling an almost immediate buzz. Felt good. Now, more shopping. Food, definitely, lots of it. Books.
She heard a door slam and saw movement. Bernard, the store owner, came from the darkness in the back with a shotgun. He whistled when he saw her and lowered the gun.
“Lady, you are the last person I would have expected to be out in this shit. Lia, you aren’t here alone, are you?”
“I am. A few feet of snow is nothing.” Normally, she would stop right there. She would have to compel him to forget her presence here tonight, so nothing she said would matter anyway. And tonight, she was a little drunk and feeling naughty. She sidled up to the kind old man and glanced around.
“We’re alone?”
He frowned. “Well, yeah. I’m here because I live above the store. No one else has been out today. Or tonight. Until you. And how the hell did you get in here anyway?”
“Door was unlocked.” She paused with a sly grin. “Wanna see something neat?”
Now he looked a little worried. This playfulness from a young woman he had never seen smile or even hold an outright conversation with anyone for very long, was too strange.
“Umm, sure,” he said uncertainly.
“Okay. Watch. Now you see me.” Eillia zoomed to the back of the room. Bernard did a double-take. His head spun around the room, searching, to find her walking back with a bottle of whiskey in her hand and a grin.
“And here I am again. Neat, huh?”
“Yeah…” He drew out the word. “How the hell did you do that?”
She zipped to his side in a movement he could not see, the air whipping the hair on both their heads.
“I’m special, Bernard. No one here knows it. But I’m vampire. An incredible, powerful, ancient race. Beautiful people who can do things that would cause your mind to explode. Beautiful people...” She caught her reflection in a mirror behind the counter. “…who I miss,” she finished.
He looked around the room, too, as if searching for someone to verify what he had just seen and heard.
Eillia laughed. “Oh, sweetie, you look shell-shocked. I’m sorry, I’m just playing with you. I shouldn’t. Anyway, just here for a few things and then I’ll be on my way. I need some books, and a somewhat recent paper. No, instead, do you have any tablet computers? That have internet access? I think I need to look at the world again. I’m not ready to go home yet, but maybe before that summer sun claims the sky again. Oh, Bernard, I’m sorry. Have I frightened you? Here.” She pushed him into a seat and caught his eyes with hers.
“Relax.”
He did so.
“Good. I’m
getting a few things, but you just close your eyes and rest.” His eyelids dropped and he didn’t move. So she looked around the shop and chose some pastries that were probably stale, an iPad that was still in the box, and several books. She filled another bag with several frozen pizzas and two bottles of whiskey. That should do her for a few days.
She came back, sat down beside Bernard and woke him back up.
“I really didn’t mean to worry you. You’re a kind man, and you don’t deserve it.”
“Well, you said you’re a vampire. You’re either crazy or dangerous. Either way, I think we can get help for you.”
Eillia shook her head. “No. You can’t. I really am vampire. I can do things humans can’t. Let me tell you. I am more than vampire, one of only a very few on this world. I am one of the first bloods. An original vampire. I was born vampire. Vampires aren’t evil, Bernard. We’re just like you. We aren’t dead, or the undead, we’re just people with special talents. Not all vampires are born, like me. Most are made. From humans. A virus, when introduced into a human being, rewrites the original DNA and makes that human stronger, faster, sexier. And we are nearly immortal. I am well beyond a thousand years old, Bernard. Look pretty good for that, don’t I?”
Bernard’s eyes moved across the woman leaning in front of him, her hand on her cheek, her luminous amber eyes staring into his. Were they glowing? Couldn’t be. Her skin was as perfect as he’d ever seen, and at his age of seventy-four, he’d seen a lot. Full breasts pushed up past the low neckline of a sweater she hadn’t removed along with several others. This woman was beyond gorgeous. If there was ever anyone he’d met who could be an immortal supernatural being, she would be it. But they were not real.
He snorted and laughed. “Funny. Good story. Yeah, you’d be the best preserved woman who’d seen her millennium birthday.”
“You bet your ass. You see, Bernard, I have had a fucking bad year. I happen to be one of the most powerful beings on this planet…no, really, I’m not bragging. I just am.” She poured a glass full of whiskey, and a second one she sat in front of Bernard. He downed it quickly. Liquid courage. Human or vampire, it was good stuff.
“And yet I couldn’t save him. My man…the love of my life…of several lifetimes. I couldn’t save him. Now you tell me how a woman can live with herself if she lets that happen? You see what I’m saying?”
Eillia wasn’t noticing Bernard’s silence. “And…and..how could I go back to my normal life when Hamid was dead forever? I…I just…Bernard, I just didn’t know what to do. So I disappeared. I came here.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure, a…” He hesitated, and took another healthy swig of the whiskey. “A vampire’s gotta do what a vampires gotta do.”
“Yeah! Right?” Eillia scooted in close. “You’re a good listener, Bernard. Now. I normally wouldn’t do this, but it seems like there aren’t any other choices tonight. I need a little drink. Not whiskey. But it won’t hurt. Sweetie, I’d never hurt you. But, well…”
She looked directly into his eyes and said, “I’m going to get a little blood from you. It’ll sting for a second and then you’ll actually enjoy it. Then I’ll fix it so you will never know it happened.”
She moved in closer and he looked frightened, but she struck quickly and in seconds he moaned and relaxed in her arms. It had been a week since she’d fed, and she was pretty hungry. Especially now that she was feeling better. She moaned, too, the blood delicious, mixing with the alcohol, and creating a euphoria. She had to be careful not to lose control. And she wished he was a little closer to someone she might be attracted to. Blood meals deeply heightened a vampire’s sexual desires. But Bernard, well…she would never. He was a sweet old guy. So she finished quickly, sealed the puncture, and set him back into his chair.
“I appreciate that.” It wasn’t unusual for humans to have a sexual response, and Bernard might be older, but he was still a man. He reached for her again and tried to pull her closer. She could feel his erection through his loose-fitting khakis.
“Oh, you naughty. Sorry, Bernard. I haven’t had sex in over a year and I don’t plan to anytime soon. I’m still waiting for someone who won’t ever come again. But thank you for the hard-on. It’s flattering. So, I better move out of here and let you get home. It’s late for mortals. Let’s see. Ah, there are my bags. Okay. Let’s fix this place.”
After doing cleanup, she laid a hand on his cheek and looked into his old, tired eyes. “Bernard, I’m taking a couple of bottles of whiskey, and frozen pizzas, books, some other things. A massager. You won’t notice anything is missing at all. You’ve had a quiet night, and you’ll go home and dream a stunning blonde woman rode you hard and you had the best orgasm of your life. You’ll awaken with a vivid memory that’ll make you smile all day tomorrow. It’s my gift to you for yours to me. You won’t remember seeing me at all, or anything I told you. If anyone ever even says the word vampire to you, you’ll chuckle and say, “Vampires don’t exist.”
She picked up her three bags of items and vampire-raced out of town. She had the night ahead of her and was actually really looking forward to the pizza and a book. And although there was a sense of guilt, there was also excitement that she was finding her pleasures again. It’s why she took the little battery-operated massager. It was time to start being a vampire again. Last night, she’d felt the first real stirrings of sexual need since Hamid died. And then, with her blood meal, she’d ached to feel a man beneath her. She’d pictured the stranger at the bar naked and coming to her. The little frog shaped massager would have to do.
Daniel couldn’t take it. Two days sober. He couldn’t sleep…the dreams came back with supreme violence…reminding him he was never free of his monstrous past. No matter how he did it, he had to get down to the Bully. Even though he realized how dangerous it was, it didn’t matter. How the hell he let himself get caught in a weeklong snowstorm with no booze he sure the hell couldn’t figure out. That boring ass VCR just didn’t cut it for taking the edge off. Well, he had snow shoes, a useable snowmobile, and an intense motivation to get to that bar. So he put on nearly every piece of clothing he had and headed out. The snowmobile did not want to start, but he begged and prayed and eventually it did turn over and stay running. He made a quick thank you in the sign of a cross. He wasn’t religious, it just seemed he could use all the luck he could get. He didn’t plan to try to make it back. If he could just get there, he’d stay until he could make it home after the storm. And hey, he wouldn’t run out of booze.
The snow was still coming down, and although the wind had lessened considerably, visibility was still poor. Once he got the snowmobile out and on some of the harder pack, it went pretty smoothly as long as he was heading downhill. But as soon as he needed to travel uphill, the machine began to bog down, the engine started to sputter, and Daniel wondered if he might finally end up dying out there in the frigid snow. As he struggled to get the ancient machine up the incline, he promised himself that whatever the outcome, it would be okay. He’d already lived beyond his sell-by date. But if he survived, he really needed that whiskey. As he rode along he admitted that anyone in town who knew him thought he was an alcoholic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Daniel had always had strict protocol on mind-altering products, chemicals, pills, dope, anything that left a person less than sharp. It was practically his mantra. But now… Now he just didn’t want to remember. If they had a pill that could erase his memories, he’d down it with a fifth and never have to look back. He’d actually be able to think about looking forward.
Right now, he was clinging to his sanity as tightly as he could. It wasn’t enough. So. Booze. And lots of it.
He headed the machine toward what he thought would be the road now buried under several feet of snow, and once he reached it, he expected the rest of the journey to be uncomplicated. But after about ten minutes of slow going, he heard an ominous crackling sound, and before he could react, the snow beneath him gave way and collapsed, and the heavy snowmobile be
gan to drop and roll. Daniel tried to pitch himself off the machine, but it was too late and several hundred pounds of metal crashed down on his airborne body, trapping him beneath it. He lost consciousness almost immediately. As he felt himself go out, his last thought was that justice was finally done. He would end as nothing more than a dark stain on snow somewhere near the top of the world. It was alright.
Eillia super-speeded through the continuing snowfall toward her cabin when she found a wrecked snowmobile. Some idiot had probably gone out for a joy ride. Humans could be such idiots, considering how fragile they were. She called out, but didn’t see anyone around. Well, not her concern. She was just getting ready to kick it back into high gear when she heard a low moan. Moving closer to the trashed machine, then to the other side, she saw a man’s head partially buried in the snow. Oh, for fuck’s sake, she thought.
She gently raised the snowmobile, and then, when it was completely clear of the victim, she pitched it away. Too hard, though, as it sailed through the air to thump softly in the snow a good thirty feet away.
The man was starting to come around. He rolled up, his face partially covered with a hideous green scarf and frozen snow. Being careful again, she lifted him up and supported him above the cold snow. He was pretty out of it, and would never know a small woman used one arm to lift his entire body.
“Are you alright? Can you speak? Can you tell me where you’re hurt?”
He moaned and stared up at her, his skin deep blood red from frostbite. As soon as she saw his eyes, she knew who it was. Her mystery man. The one that she thought she might have known. He tried to speak but he couldn’t. She had no idea how long he’d been there, but he was dying.