by Day, P. J.
“I’m assuming this murder is responsible for eliminating the truce?” I asked.
“Ever since China adopted market reforms and has turned away from its communal past, it has become more superstitious—I wish I knew why. The local, provincial government, in return for appeasement, has given in to their constituents’ fervor. Based on fragmented cultural history, they contracted the Ling clan to hunt us down—who were struggling at the time economically. The Ling in the newspaper was actively hunting the Jiang-Shi at the time and was killed and made an example, to let the Ling Clan know that war would soon return if they did not back off.”
Lucretius sat down on his wooden chair and looked at the box of papers he collected throughout the years, staring at them in deep thought. I could tell he was overwhelmed with everything that had been going on. He wanted the pills so they could escape the Guilin District and start fresh somewhere else. I felt a sudden and deep urge to help.
“Lynwood, California,” I said. I picked up one of his plumes and a piece of paper and scribbled on it. “Here.” I handed Lucretius the address to Schnell’s West Coast manufacturing facility. “The trucks arrive Thursday mornings at 3 a.m. like clockwork for the past two years to pick up Zeo.”
Lucretius took the piece of paper, put it in an envelope. “Thank you, Jack. Our time is running out as well as the history of our kind. I’ll make sure Milton gets this.”
“So, Havens Ling, is he?” I asked.
“Yes, he is a refined hunter, and now the Ling clan have the backing of the entire country for our elimination and the capture of our kind. I brought you here to see if you recognize we have a common enemy now. One who is bent in our destruction.”
“What do you intend to do with the pills?”
“Our main goal is to move out of Guilin City to somewhere a little more remote, someplace which hasn’t been touched by the advancement of growth. We will use Zeo to feed on the living, willingly, of course. I need to leave to relocate my studies. It has become too dangerous over here. Before the market reforms, we lived in isolation. Now, I fear the world encroaching on our sanctum.”
I looked around seeing if I could pick up more clues on Lucretius and the Jiang-Shi. I had a funny feeling that time was running out if I wanted to find out more about the Jiang-Shi, Lucretius, and vampirism.
“How old are you?” I asked.
Lucretius smiled. “I knew you’d ask me that.” He stood up and had me follow his tall, lanky frame into his bedroom. A myriad of paintings adorned the walls, all framed and hung without uniformity. Scattered beautifully on the walls were paintings from Renoir, Picasso, Rembrandt, and old frescoes, which looked straight from an art encyclopedia. He had three walls stacked with books. Some new, some old, and some that looked as if they’d turn to dust if anyone so much as blew on them with a puff. “I’ve lived through every period of life which this art was created in.”
I decided to take a wild guess. “You are...600 years old?”
Lucretius shook his head.
“Less?”
He rolled his right wrist into an upwards motion.
“More?” I said, with humorous surprise. “1,000 years old?”
He shook his head again.
“No? Lucretius...Lucretius...Lucretius...are you Greek?”
“Roman,” he said.
“Two thousand years old? What the hell?”
“You’ve heard of my work?” he asked, with mild elation.
“Sorry, no. I have heard of your name, but you know, television, internet...no time to read,” I said, with a slight shrug. “They don’t show history on the History Channel anymore, hell, they don’t even show Hitler. Just trucker shows and rednecks who manage to find old valuable guitars inside marshes which they can sell at an auction and use the proceeds to build motorcycles.”
“I am envious of your life, Jack. You have been very successful in managing to live with humans. But you are some sort of a nomad, too; you have managed to successfully drift, it seems,” Lucretius said.
“Yeah, I kind of escape from the world. But you seem to be doing the best you can up here,” I added.
“What I do, which you seem to have done somewhat yourself, is isolate myself from the world, enjoying nature, and enjoying solitude. Letting time slow down. I know that sounds antithetical to a life of longevity, but if life is moving too fast, you know you are living life to the fullest, and that is usually accompanied with wants which are being fulfilled, but all wants eventually lead to a feeling of loss. Loss is painful, loss leads many to their deaths, whether self-inflicted or as a result of loss.”
I began to think deeply about Lucretius’s words. I’d had my share of loss with relationships throughout the years with people who eventually drifted away or passed away. They hurt like hell. In the end, they shaped me to become a more “humanized” vampire. But I’d never really felt love. Holly was the first woman I’d met who had made me feel that all or nothing approach to developing and maintaining a relationship. According to Lucretius and Chuck—that scraggly vampire I met in Louisiana, years ago—my feelings of wanting love could only lead to horrific things for someone of my nature.
“Jack, we live long lives. Humans and vampires have similar brains. Loss is a tiring and draining exercise in futility. A shorter lifespan gives an illusion of adaptation to loss. They say it makes them stronger. For us, a life of reoccurring loss can only mean enduring a long, drawn out life of torture.”
“What do I do with my life then?” I asked, trying to make sense of Lucretius’s endorsement of complete detachment.
“Live it to the fullest,” he said, with a glowing smile.
“Love is living to the fullest, though.”
“No, knowledge, learning, fucking, eating, sleeping, and killing is living to the fullest. No commitment, just living.”
“Killing?”
“Of course, our lust for the kill is no longer practical, but we can revel in it when the right opportunity presents itself.”
“What opportunity would that be?” I asked.
“When a cretin is trying to pierce your heart with an arrow, stake, sword, gun, or dagger. You may revel in his death, then you can quench your natural state.”
“I don’t like to kill,” I said. “I don’t eternally punish temporary states of being.”
“Again, your will is commendable and strong. You’re very unique, Jack.”
“Thank you,” I said. “So, what was the deal with that test down there in the forest. I could’ve killed those men, you know?”
“Pardon our prejudice, but we’ve never encountered a vampire like you. Vampires, like humans, tend to not trust what is different. It’s a cursed trait from our evolutionary past which is rooted in tribalism. We saw you and thought that someone as effeminate and urbanized as you wasn’t up to the rigorous tasks of being a Jiang-Shi. You proved your worth, and proved our ignorance wrong.”
“Effeminate, huh?”
“More like dainty,” he said.
Lucretius walked out into the large opening in the temple and sat on his pillow, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. I followed him reluctantly, as I became somewhat attached to the artifacts, art, and the books he had in his room.
“You may stay in there if you like,” Lucretius said.
“How did you know I wanted to stay in your room?” I asked, surprised at his intuition.
“Get some rest, you need it,” he said, as he seemingly went into a trance-like state. “Tomorrow, I will teach you the way of the Jiang-Shi.”
Chapter Fourteen
I woke up to Milton’s voice again. This time, he was giving his report to Lucretius in the common room of the temple. I stood up from the bed and hurriedly walked into the middle of their conversation.
“The scouts came back with no information. They covered 20 square miles and there was nothing out of the ordinary,” Milton said.
Lucretius stood pensively, his finger on his chin. “I don’t know if we should l
eave this place or wait it out. I don’t think they know we are here. If we all leave in a group, we risk suspicion.”
“I don’t think they know we’re here,” Milton said confidently. Milton made eye contact with me as I leaned against the archway of Lucretius’s room. “You decided if you want to stick around with your own kind?”
“Maybe,” I said. “I want to do the crazy shit you do in your dreams and maybe I’ll change my mind.”
“It ain’t easy,” Milton said, with a mischievous smile. He turned to Lucretius and asked with a smirk, “Did he spill the beans?”
Lucretius slowly walked to his study and grabbed the envelope with the location of the pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Milton grabbed the envelope from Lucretius’s hand and proceeded to give me a playful bow. “Thank you,” he said, a smile from ear to ear, revealing his long, ivory-colored fangs.
“Have you heard from Jenny about Holly and Ted?” I asked.
“They are doing fine. I told them to wait a day or two while I made arrangements for Holly’s return to Hong Kong; from there I can arrange an export company to take her back.”
“How do you intend on doing that?” I asked, more concerned than curious.
“We have contacts, don’t worry.”
“Are they trustworthy?” I asked.
“Look, quit worrying. You really don’t have a choice in the matter, do you?”
Lucretius intervened between our childish pettiness, “Jack, it will be okay. Holly will be taken care of, we’re not scoundrels.”
“It’s not you that I don’t trust you, in particular. This guy over here has already gone back on his word a few times.”
Milton rolled his eyes and refused to snap back. “Okay, I’ll let you two bond a little more. I promised the guys a real hunt tonight. I’ll be back in the early morning, hopefully, you’ll be able to at least say hello in someone’s dream when I’m back.” Milton turned his back and exited through the drapes, disappearing down the moonlit, stony steps with an energetic hop in his step, happy to have in his hands the one thing that was dear to his heart: Zeo.
“That’s it, huh?”
“What?” asked Lucretius, as he leaned back into his study.
“Giving Milton what he wanted. All that work...getting me out of Guangzhou, trying to meet with me in Hong Kong...stirring a possible hornet’s nest. Lot of trouble for a silly pill.”
“It’s been 20 years since that vampire has felt the sincere touch of a woman.”
“Wow,” I said, genuinely taken back. “Hell, that’s all he had to say.”
I proceeded to sit on the floor. I asked Lucretius, “I’m ready, let’s get this started...”
Lucretius crossed his arms and stood up straight, with a young man’s posture, which was surprising because he was older than the rocks surrounding the mountain. “What do you wish to accomplish with this ability, Jack?”
“To talk in dreams...”
“You make it sound like you want to do is learn a neat bar trick.”
“Well...” I was at a loss for words. I thought, why did I want to learn to talk to other vampires in their dreams? Come to think of it, how would it be useful?
Lucretius rolled his eyes at the back of his head.
“What are you doing?” I asked, letting out an uncomfortable chuckle.
Lucretius began to hum softly as if trying to pinpoint pitch. The sound of his hum ceased but he maintained the same facial expressions. His cheeks spasmed with subtle twitches, his mouth would alternate between a grin and a scowl. I could see the small, wayward, gray strands of his beard vibrating, but yet, still no sound.
Why do you want to learn this technique? asked Lucretius’s voice.
“What the?” I wasn’t asleep, yet I heard his voice echoing inside my head. Toward my forehead, in fact. I shook my head and stood up from the silk pillow. “Stop, please...”
Why do you want to learn this technique? His voice asked again.
“Will you quit? How the hell are you doing that?” I looked around the room seeing if there were speakers in the ceiling. “If you don’t stop, I will push you until you quit doing that, old man.”
Why do you want to learn this technique?
“Are you trying to drive me mad?” I asked, yelling in frustration. I grabbed my head and began pounding it. “Get the fuck out of my head, will ya!”
Calm down, rest your mind, just talk back...
“No!” I exclaimed. “Can you hear me?” I said out loud. I went up to Lucretius and began shaking him, desperately trying awaken him from his trance. He continued to keep his eyes closed. “I’m going fucking crazy! I give up, I don’t want to do this, please!”
Lucretius opened his eyes. He stared at me with his cold, deep, blue eyes. “What’s the matter?” he asked, with a cackle.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Practice, how else?”
“But I was awake...” I said, somewhat questioning my sanity.
“So?”
“So, you can talk to other vampires while they’re awake, what good is that?”
“We are a warrior class, Jack. In fact, every hominid on Earth has evolved for battle,” he said. “I am the only one of my kind, that I know of, which can telepathically speak to other vampires, but you, Milton, every Jiang-Shi down there is capable of it as well, it just takes decades of practice as it took me.”
“But what good does torturing your fellow vampires do by tapping into their brains like you just did?”
“Not one single boar has escaped our hunting party when I was alongside the group. I can strategize a corral technique quietly. I can order other hunters to position themselves in the optimal position to spear a boar on a critical spot of its body, silently—without spooking the creatures who have themselves evolved amazing listening abilities.”
“You mentioned every hominid on Earth has evolved for battle, what exactly do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Humans have harnessed the ability to manipulate and every resource on the planet to intimidate, maim, or kill. I’m afraid to say what they lack in longevity, they more than make up in ingenuity.”
“What about the Ling clan? You mentioned that they have suffered greatly due to the technological changes of modern society, aren’t they humans as well?”
Lucretius raised his bushy, white eyebrows and stretched out a fatherly smile, all the while giving me a congratulatory nod. “I don’t think they are, Jack. There are Jiang-Shi who think the Ling clan are just a group of oafish, semi-handicapped people—inbred, which they may very well be, but not stupid. They definitely live by their own rules and aren’t deviating too much from their true nature.”
I grabbed the newspaper he had shown me in the early morning and pointed at the slain Ling on the front page. “Havens looks almost exactly like this guy. Prominent brow, stocky build, muscular, large hands, wide mouths. There is something rather off about these two guys. Do they all look like this, even the women?” I asked.
Lucretius laughed and winced, “What you and I find attractive may not be what others find attractive.”
“Good diplomatic answer.”
“I have my suspicions about the Ling clan. I think they might be descendants of another type of hominid,” he said. “Jack, have you heard of Alfred Russell Wallace?”
“Wasn’t he in Braveheart?”
“No. Alfred Wallace thought of evolution long before Darwin, but they published their similar theories around the same time. He lists me as one of his influences, as I wrote about the indestructibility of matter. He wrote of hybridization, and how there were some evolutionary barriers which led to speciation, or the lack of the potential of hybridization in species.”
“Huh?” I asked, completely dumbfounded as to what Lucretius was trying to express.
“Can an elephant and a giraffe fuck and create a eleraffe?” Lucretius quipped.
“No, or yes, of course not—that is preposterous,” I said, wit
h mild confusion.
“My research into hybridization has revealed a possibility of intermingling of traits between humans, and vampires, and possibly other species of hominids that we yet don’t know of. Basically, there has been the possibility of interbreeding, which is why Guangzhou captured you, Jon, and others. They know it’s possible for humans to have vampire traits in them, and quite possibly, other hominid traits as well.”
“Again, forgive me Lucretius, but laymen’s terms, please.”
“There might be half-vampires, half-humans, half-who-knows-what else walking the planet, and I have a suspicion that the Ling clan might contain genes that are neither human nor vampire, or contain both, but, for whatever reason, Guangzhou wants vampires.”
“How have you come to this realization?”
“Take for example, Kai, who, by the way, is an expert swordsman and has been able to harness ‘dream talking’ very well. He was dropped off in the forest when he was seven years old. He states to never having had fangs before being dropped off. He ate a regular human diet of roots, nuts, vegetables, and meat. Then one day, he didn’t want to eat what his mother made for him. At six years old, he was found feeding on his little brother. His family was shamed in their village for harboring a child who had been consumed by a bad spirit. They heard of us through folklore, myths, legends and abandoned him in the forest where we supposedly lived in isolation. I have a strong feeling that Kai is a hybrid.”
I began touching my face, looking at my skin, I even wiggled my fangs with my fingers to see if they moved slightly. I ran the fingers through my hair. I lightly brushed the hair that curled in waves on my arm. I looked up at Lucretius. “I don’t remember my childhood, I don’t remember my past, could I be a hybrid?”
“Other than observable, delayed, and atavistic traits coming through later in life, I can’t make a scientific determination whether someone is a hybrid or not. You should let your mind rest, though. You should be happy to know you are more vampire than not—you are content that you’re a vampire, right?” he asked me, keeping his eyes connected to mine, hoping for the correct answer.