“Drink it, love. If you don’t, you’ll die. I can hear it inside you,” she continued to speak gently to him.
Reluctantly, he began to swallow all the blood that she was pouring into his mouth. She put her wrist up to his mouth and commanded him to suck on it, to which he obliged. Within minutes he began to feel stronger and the pain was quickly fading away. Once she knew he had enough, she pulled her wrist away and licked it clean while the holes sealed up. Emma retracted her fangs as Todd sat up, still slightly weary, but healing with each passing second. She could hear his heart beating strong again and the gurgling had gone. The swelling of his face rapidly diminished and the cuts healed over with fresh skin.
There was a long silence, neither knew what to say to the other. Todd was in shock, but the realization of what she was began to sink in. Once he felt strong enough, he stood up and was amazed at how great he felt. It was as though nothing had happened. The only reminder that the attack occurred were the five dead guys scattered around them with broken necks. Emma stood up as well, but didn’t say anything, she wanted him to be the one to speak first. She knew he was going to start asking a lot of questions once he found his words.
“So…what are we going to do about these guys?” He awkwardly asked.
“It’s taken care of, that guy that I let go is going to be sitting in prison for a long time,” she spoke softly.
He slowly began to walk in the direction they had originally come from. He slightly turned around and said, “Should we go get the car and head home?”
“Sure,” she said as she did a little jog to catch up with him. The ‘date’ part of the evening was definitely over. She so badly wanted to link arms with him as they walked, but she didn’t think that would be welcome right now as his hands were jammed into his pockets.
They carried on in a long, awkward silence along the lakefront even though Todd had a thousand questions screaming in his head. His long legs took lengthy strides, causing him to subconsciously speed walk with Emma practically trotting next to him. Once they were on Michigan Avenue once again, he felt the light was at the end of the tunnel. He just wanted to get in the car and go back to the Manor. He thought about packing up his suitcase and staying in a hotel, but he didn’t want to be that guy. All he knew was that he had had enough ‘weird’ in the past 24 hours that could fill a lifetime.
They got in the car and once they shut the doors all the sounds of the bustling city were silenced. It was too silent.
Emma couldn’t stand it anymore and had to speak up, “I know you’re in shock right now, but I hope you’re not afraid of me. I’m the same person on the inside, I’m just…”
“A vampire?” Todd interrupted with raised eyebrows.
“A vampire,” she bluntly repeated. She put the car into drive and drove toward Interstate 94, which would ultimately take them north to Davenport.
They were on the highway for several minutes when Todd finally spoke again, “This explains a lot of things…”
“Like what?” She was curious of what out-of-the-ordinary things he had noticed.
“You’re cold all the time…I have never seen you eat…” Suddenly a light bulb turned on in his head. “That’s why you always ditched me during meal times!”
She couldn’t help but chuckle and nod her head. “I almost had to choke down human food this morning. You know, feel free to ask me questions, I don’t mind.”
Now Todd was beginning to feel fascinated and slightly more comfortable with her. He knew the question he wanted to ask, but he hesitated. She could feel him wanting to ask her something, so she waved her hand at him to bring it on.
“How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Anatomically or biologically?” She replied.
“Both…”
“Anatomically, I’m twenty-five years old.” She took in a deep breath, “Biologically, I’m two-hundred and twenty-two. I was born in 1790, turned vampire in 1815.”
Todd sat silently for a moment while he absorbed that information when he suddenly had flashes in his mind. He recognized the years from the Davenport crypt in the cemetery, he remembered the portrait of the original Emma Davenport and the uncanny resemblance, and her distinct knowledge of the history there. “You’re the original Emma Davenport, aren’t you?”
She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at him and with a shrug she sweetly answered, “I am.”
He shifted in his seat and ran both hands through his hair. He was captivated at the thought of sitting beside someone who was a piece of history, someone who had seen so much. His brain created several more questions to ask. “And Daniel?”
“No, Daniel is human. He is my sixth-great nephew, a descendent of my brother, Christopher. But, out of all of the generations that I have come to know through the years, I have never been as close to any of them like I am with Daniel. I dare say I am closer to him than I was my own brother.”
Todd thought some more as he pieced the puzzle together. “You’re ‘history’ with Zachariah…” he said using air quotes with his fingers.
Emma’s face turned solemn before she answered, trying to think of a delicate way to explain his story. “Zachariah is vampire as well…I turned him in 1839. He lived in town and was orphaned by the age of sixteen, so we allowed him to live in the little house that used to be next to the stables. Remember I showed you where it once was? Well, he was our stable boy. I was oddly attracted to him, something I had never felt for a human. For several years we courted; he never knew what I really was until the night I turned him.
“He was the only human I have ever been in love with; the only one I have ever pursued. When he was twenty-five he was dying from pneumonia and I made the selfish decision to turn him. I just…couldn’t let him go.” She spoke quietly as she always felt guilty about making Zachariah immortal. She came back to the present and added, “That’s why he behaves the way he does around you. He doesn’t dislike you…well, he’s a little jealous, but that’s only because he remembers what happened to the last human I had a relationship with…him.”
Todd was not expecting that response and it took him by surprise. He was beginning to feel uneasy with her again now that he knew what had happened to Zachariah, whose words were now echoing in his head. “I noticed you seem a bit smitten by Emma, it’s not a good idea to pursue it…Emma is a lot more complicated than you think…You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into…Take it from me, you do not want to go down that path.”
As they walked in the back door, Emma muttered under her breath so only the vampires could hear, “He knows.” They continued down the corridor that led to the foyer where Zachariah was standing like a statue with his hands in his pockets. His face was expressionless as he stared a hole through Todd.
He dramatically perked up and with a snarky tone he asked, “Have a good date?”
Todd looked at Emma and simply stated, “I’m going to bed. Good night, Emma.”
As he started to walk up the stairs, she called after him, “Todd! Please don’t think differently of me. I’m still the same person…”
He nodded as he continued his way up to his room without replying to her.
She turned to Zachariah with a huff and rolled her eyes. “That went well!”
They sat down by the fireplace in the parlor where she told him everything that had happened that evening. He agreed that she had no choice in what she did, but reminded her that she could have charmed Todd to forget everything he had seen. Of course she knew that, but she didn’t use her charming abilities unless it was an emergency situation. Todd finding out that she was a vampire certainly was not a matter of life or death, instead it all came down to if he still liked her or not.
Vivienne and Declan walked into the parlor, each carrying an extra glass of blood for Zachariah and Emma. They couldn’t help but overhear everything that they had talked about.
“You know it’s for the best, Emma,” Declan said as he handed her
a glass. “But, you know you’re going to have to charm him a little bit before he leaves. You shouldn’t risk him running to the press and telling them that Daniel Davenport’s ‘sister’ is actually a 200-year old vampire.”
She knew he had a point. It was easier to charm the source instead of having to do damage control once it went viral. She hated doing it, even though it was in her nature. “There has been talk of us coming out in the open, but it has to be carefully planned. It can’t happen because of a human going to the press. Although, they’d probably laugh at him.”
Zachariah sensed her hesitation with the idea of charming Todd and spoke up, “I’ll do it.” He didn’t want to sound like he was overstepping her and held her hand, “That’s if, you don’t want to. I can do it for you.”
Emma decided to think about it since they still had time before he left. She reminded them that Todd signed the contract before coming to the Manor and that she could easily put the legalities into play if it came down to it.
“Whatever you decide, we’re behind you.” Vivienne said before tipping her glass back for the last drop of blood.
They heard bare footsteps upstairs that were walking into the portrait hallway. Emma got up and motioned for everyone to stay put. She sprinted up the stairs, but when she got to the top she walked at a human speed. She turned the corner of the hallway to find Todd standing in front of her painting, his arms folded in front of him.
He jumped when he saw her from the corner of his eye and opened his mouth to speak, but closed it shut again. She strolled over next to him and looked up at her picture along with him. He looked at her once again, then back at her image that was painted over two-hundred years earlier.
Todd slightly shook his head, “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. It’s hard to believe.”
She reached out to take his hand, which twitched at her touch, but slowly relaxed and wrapped around hers. “Look at me, Todd. I’m the same person on the inside. The ‘me’ that you have come to know…that’s me. I know it’s hard to look at me the same, but if you look beyond me being a vampire, you’ll see that I’m the same inside.”
His mouth twitched into a small smile, his eyes could only be read as forgiving. “Come on,” he said as he began to walk and lightly tugged her hand.
He led her back to his bedroom and motioned for her to sit on the couch. He was forcing himself to relax around her even though his senses were telling him to be fearful. She was dangerous. He saw what she was capable of tonight; she snapped the necks of five men so fast it happened in a blur. The screaming growl that came out of her mouth when she was furious was downright frightening. The strength of a single kick sent a man soaring back twenty feet. He knew that if there was anything on this Earth that should be feared, it was her.
The fact of the matter: she used her speed, strength, and inhuman rage to save his life. With that realization he knew that he no longer needed to fear her, but to immensely thank her. If it wasn’t for her, he probably would have been lying in the morgue at that very moment.
He poured two glasses of wine, then stopped while pouring the second one and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She politely shook her head “no”. He sat down on the other side of the couch and said, “Okay, let’s have it. Tell me everything.”
“What’s to tell? I’m a vampire, that’s pretty much it,” she responded with a shrug.
“Do you kill people often?” That question was high on his list.
“No, besides self-defense, I have only killed one person from feeding on them, which was my first prey. I didn’t mean to, but the urge to drink was so overwhelming, I just couldn’t stop.” She hung her head, ashamed by the memory she had of her first kill. “We’re not what movies and books make us out to be. We don’t have to kill in order to feed, most of us don’t. Of course you’ll get the occasional rogue vampire that will do it anyway, but if the high vampires find out about it, they’re dealt with.”
“High vampires? Like the vampire police?” He laughed.
She chuckled with him, “No, we don’t have vampire police. We have kings and queens on each continent, except Antarctica. The King of Europe is ancient, the rest are close in age to me. They are all his offspring.”
“They sound ominous…”
Emma shook her head fast, “No! They’re not at all. The kings and queens are actually the most respected and fair vampires that are on the Earth. They’re not at as scary as they sound. They maintain the peace with the vampires living amongst humans—we try to live quietly alongside you. Up until now, you never knew we existed, so we must be doing a good job.”
Todd sipped his wine and eyed her skeptically. Up until now she was this sweet girl that he was falling for, now he felt deceived by her.
“What did you say to that guy you let go tonight? Aren’t you afraid he is going to run to the police?”
This was the best time, if any, for her to come clean. “He is going to run to the police, but to turn himself in for killing his buddies. Vampires have this gift we call charming; we are able to manipulate the minds of humans to do whatever we tell them to. I told him to forget he ever saw us and to go to the police station to turn himself in.”
Todd’s mouth fell open as he was fascinated and disgusted at the same time. “You manipulate people? Have you charmed me?”
“No! Of course not! There are plenty of vampires who use that ability freely, however I don’t like to use it unless it is a dire circumstance. I think tonight fell into that category. Before we had private resources for blood, charming was our only mechanism for surviving in secret. We would charm someone first to forget everything that was about to happen, not to scream, and such, then we would feed on them. We would then rub a bit of our own blood on the puncture wounds. It instantly heals them and after charming them, they would have no recollection of what happened.”
“Can your blood heal sick people?”
“No, just injured people. Our blood only heals the basic makeup of the body—a broken bone, cuts, things like that. Illnesses and infections are considered foreign organisms to the body, something our blood cannot heal.”
“Couldn’t you donate some of your blood to hospitals to heal injured people?”
“That’s not the first time someone has asked that question and we have even asked ourselves that question. It is definitely a possibility in the future. Vampires are evolving and the kings and queens have been discussing coming out into the open and donating our blood for the greater good. Not only would it help humans accept us, but we would be helping them as well,” she explained.
Todd’s brain scrambled to come up with more questions for her. As freaked out as he was by her revelation, he was also intrigued. How many people could say they had a relationship with a vampire? Or even knew a vampire for that matter.
“The ghost I keep seeing, Elizabeth…is that your sister?” He asked.
“Yes, that’s my little sister. You’re the second person I know of that has seen her, but the first that has communicated with her,” she responded with envy. “You don’t know how bad I wish I could see her, too.”
“Why does she say that you know the truth and that you need to make it right?”
Emma looked off to the side and shook her head, “I don’t know.”
The painting of Elizabeth that had securely hung on the wall for years came crashing down to the floor with a slam. Todd jumped and Emma spun around in attack mode, her fangs instantly appeared. His attention quickly turned to her and was suddenly more afraid of her than he was of the picture falling. He stared at her as she composed herself and retracted her fangs, slightly embarrassed. She walked over to where the giant portrait laid face-down on the floor, picked it up as if it weighed one pound, and hung it back up onto the wall.
“Who turned you?” He asked, spitting out the next question lingering in his mind.
“Do you remember when I left for Scotland to visit my friend, Aidan?” Emma asked as she came back to
the couch to sit down. “Well, he’s not just my friend, he’s my maker. I had met him in town one day in 1815; he was so charming and easy to talk to. Apparently he was taken with me and saw a spark in me that made him think I would be a good immortal. He found me in the woods as I walked to Elizabeth’s cottage that night and after idle chit chat, he began to scare me with his questions. He chased me down, eventually caught me, and struck. Got me right in the neck.”
“What was it like turning into a vampire?”
“Awful, but fairly fast. We have small holes on the tips of our fangs where we can release venom if we choose to. When he bit me he had every intention to turn me. Feeling every organ in your body rapidly shut down was the most excruciating experience—ever fiber fights to survive while the venom takes over. It only took minutes to complete though. Toward the end, I accepted that I was dying and once the pain was over I thought I was dead. But, when I opened my eyes everything was the same, yet different. The first craving for blood was a feeling I could never describe in words.”
Todd remained silent while he processed everything, but Emma’s impatience got the best of her. “Say something, Todd. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
He leaned forward and set his glass down on the coffee table, then relaxed back into the couch as if he was preparing to interrogate her. “Tell you what I’m thinking? Okay, let’s see—the girl I began to fall in love with is a mythical creature that I should be afraid of…”
“Obviously, not mythical,” she interjected.
He continued to speak over her, “You never told me! This isn’t like some silly little trait like one foot is bigger than the other. You’re a vampire! You’re not even alive!”
She nodded, clearly perturbed with his tone toward her. “Now you tell me, Todd…I’m sure you have some secret of your own. Do you announce it to every person you meet?”
He understood where she was coming from and they sat in yet another awkward silence.
She quietly asked, “Did you say you were falling in love with me?”
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