The Undead Heart

by Tate Jackson

  “Coffee?” Bev asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, Potter made a pot of coffee just a few minutes ago. You two go get some, and I’ll go get the children,” Jenny said as she headed out the door.

  “Children? Did I miss something” Bev inquired, puzzled.

  “No, it’s just an inside joke. Come on,” Beck said, leading the way into the kitchen, where she found a bottle of aspirin waiting for her on the table.

  Potter was also in the kitchen. He had two cups of coffee waiting for them and a cup of his own in his hand.

  “You can drink coffee?” Bev asked while Beck tossed down a couple of aspirin.

  “All day long. Didn’t you and Leso talk at all?” he asked smiling.

  “We hit some of the finer points, I think, but we didn’t talk much about you. He said Beck could tell me later,” Bev stated, blushing.

  “I’ve had dinner here. You’ve seen me eat and drink. I can’t believe you thought that I was the vampyre,” he said, shaking his head at her but still smiling.

  Bev stuck her tongue out at him as Leso burst into the room, followed by Richard. Leso stopped inside the door to stare at Bev. He walked more slowly across the kitchen to Bev’s side.

  Bev looked up at him and jumped. “I wish you wouldn’t do that!”

  “Do what?” Beck asked confusion..

  “Just appear like that,” Bev said.

  “Huh?” Beck asked, still confused.

  “He was by the door, and then he was here,” Bev explained as she pointed at Leso, but now she was the one that sounded confused.

  Potter’s laughter drew their attention.

  “That would be the mesmerism. It’s the vampyres preferred weapon of choice. They catch a human’s eye, and it kind of hypnotizes them. They see nothing but the vampyre. Then, the human is theirs. They could lead them across the world, and the human would follow them without question. They could chase a human down with no problem, but why do that if you don’t have to?” he said, and then looked at Beck “I heard that doesn’t work too well with you, though.”

  “No, not at all,” Richard said from the door. He walked to the table, pulled a chair up next to Beck’s, and sat down.

  “You’ve tried that shit on me?” she asked him, kind of pissed.

  “Oh, many times, but it’s a no go,” he said, smiling at her.

  Potter laughed again. “It isn’t his fault. He can’t help it. If they see a human they want, it just happens.”

  “But, we can do it intentionally. I can catch any other human’s eye and stun them into silence. Not you, though. You just keep right on yelling at me,” Richard explained.

  “Good,” Beck said.

  “How come it works on me and not on her?” Bev asked.

  “Beck is unique,” Potter stated simply.

  “Yeah, she always has been,” Bev said smiling at her.

  Potter laughed. “That particular effect will probably fade over time, though.”

  “I hope so. It’s a little disorienting to have him just appear like that,” Bev said.

  “Okay, now we need to get serious. For just the immortals in the room, please raise your hand if you think that the extra vampyre last night just happened to stray into this particular yard,” Leso said. Not one hand went up. “No, I didn’t think so either. So, anybody want to weigh in on what’s going on?”

  Jenny spoke first, “Well, we know who’s behind it, but not how or why.”

  “Who are we talking about?” Bev inquired. Richard was the one to answer her. “Elderson.”

  “No. That can’t be right. He thinks I’m dead,” Beck said. “He didn’t just think it. He was right. You died, I was there.”

  “So, why would he be after me now?” Beck asked, more confused now than she had ever been.

  Potter shrugged. “I don’t know, but what I do know is we can’t stay here.”

  “Why?” Bev asked. “It was just one vampyre.”

  “It was just one last night,” Leso said. “We don’t know what else may be coming. So, we best not be here.”

  “I don’t like running,” Richard said. “Nor do I, brother, but we’re only four strong, and we’re flying blind. Until we know more, it’s prudent to leave.”

  “But go where?” Beck asked.“Back to Clarksville,” Richard said. “That’s where you’d be going soon anyway.”

  “Home?” Bev questioned. Richard shook his head. “Not exactly. We’ve had a few years to setup other living quarters. We didn’t think you’d want to stay with your parents.”

  Beck shuddered at the thought. “Absolutely not!”

  Richard reached over and rubbed her shoulder.

  “We’ll be fine,” Richard said.” This is just a precaution.”

  Potter took Richard’s cue and directed his remarks to Beck, although he was speaking to everyone, “Well, if we’re leaving, there’s no time like the present. Grab just what you can fit in a bag. Jenny and I will take our truck. You, Richard, Leso, and Bev can take Richard’s car. We should leave you and Bev’s cars here. Maybe if they see them, they’ll think you’re coming back. That will give us some running time, just in case we need it.”

  “Would you mind too much if Leso and Bev take your truck and the two of you ride with us? I have some questions I want to ask you.” Beck asked Potter

  “Sure, whatever you need,” Potter agreed. Beck went and grabbed some clothes, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, makeup, and a few odds and ends. She also had a large box prepared that needed to go with them.

  When everyone was ready, they pulled out of Beck and Bev’s driveway, stopped by Potter and Jenny’s for them to get whatever of their things they wanted to take, and then hit the interstate.

  When they were about 200 miles outside of Durham, Potter asked Beck, “So, what do you want to know?”

  Beck glanced over at Richard, not sure how he was going to feel about her plan.

  “How did becoming a hunter affect you?” she asked Potter.

  “Physically or mentally?” he asked without skipping a beat. “Let’s start with physically. How long did it take for you to change?”

  “About three hours.”

  Surprised, she said, “I thought the change took days?”

  “For vampyres, not for us. Our essential makeup didn’t change. Like I said before, we eat, drink, and process food the same way you do. We still sleep, though we don’t have to. For all intents and purposes, I’m still human. We got the vampyres heightened senses, strength, speed, and longevity, but not their downfall, the thirst for blood. We didn’t get the ability to mesmerize, but vampyres can’t sense or scent us.

  “Also like them, we have skin that can only be cut by silver, but we heal just as quickly, and to kill us, you have to take our head. But I’ve told you most of this before.”

  “Yeah, but I need to make sure of some things. Okay, now, how did it affect you mentally? I know that you wanted to die for a long time, and you suffered from depression. That sounds reasonable for any human that was put through what you were. What I need to know is how it affected your higher mental skills?”

  “You mean to ask, did I get smarter or dumber?” he laughed.

  She nodded.

  “Neither, all of that stayed the same. Obviously, the longer you live, the more you have the chance to learn. After I found Jenny, my depression vanished. We’ve had to move away every ten years or so, but I don’t mind. I have Jenny, and that’s all I need,” he said, and smiled at Jenny. “What’s with the questions all of a sudden?”

  “Because, I’m going to become what you are, and I’m betting Bev will want the same thing,” Beck said.

  “I told you before, hunters don’t carry the toxin. I’m sorry, Beck, but I can’t help you. A vampyre could bite you and change you, but I can’t.”

  “No, it would kill a vampyre to bite me.”

  “No, it would kill them to drink your blood, but they don’t have to drink to release the toxin,” Potter explained.

&nbs
p; Stubbornly, Beck continued, “I think you can help me. You don’t carry the toxin in your mouth, but I believe you carry the altered toxin in your blood. See, I think vampyres and hunters are essentially the same. You were made with vampyre blood, and I think that it’s not so much a toxin, but an infection, nothing I could find in the lab, but still there.

  “The infection you were given was modified. That’s why you’re still on the human side, but it was still part of the vampyre strain. I still had your blood at the house, but it was frozen, so I destroyed it before we left.”

  “You stole my blood?!” he exclaimed, sounding irritated and impressed at the same time.

  “No, you gave me your blood. I just saved some of it.”

  “Where’d you get that silver needle anyway?” he inquired. “I had it made. It’s in a box in the truck,” she answered simply. “I don’t think the original vampyre strain would work on me anyway. If my blood would kill them, then I’m willing to bet that their ‘toxin’ would kill me, as well. Have you ever been bitten by a vampyre before?”

  “Many times. Their teeth can get through our skin, but their toxin has no effect on us.”

  “Can you starve?” she asked, genuinely curious. “No, but you can get miserable damn hungry.”

  Richard exited the interstate and found a hotel for the night. Beck had told him that he could drive through the night, but he shook his head. Hed maintained a good poker face, but she could feel his displeasure, though he had not said one word to her yet. He got out of the car and came back with three room keys. He pitched one to Leso, one to Potter, and proceeded to lead her to their room.

  When he shut the door behind them, he turned and asked incredulously, “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR EVER LOVING MIND,WOMAN?!!!”

  He sat on the bed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers like he had a headache.

  “Are you thinking at all? Potter’s blood could kill you just as fast as mine. No. Absolutely not! You’re not doing it! NO!!”

  He actually sounded like he thought that settled it. It was kind of cute, but unfortunately for him, it wasn’t going down like that.

  “You don’t tell me what to do. I’m a grown-ass woman, and I don’t take orders from you!” she yelled at him. “The only reason you know about it at all is because I didn’t think you’d let me ride with just Potter.”

  “And you would have been right. I won’t let you do it,” he said firmly.“You can’t stop me. You’re not even going to remember this after I step into the past. Your future is going to change. I’m the only one out of any of us that will remember this.”

  “If you remember it, then I can too, or did you forget that?” he shouted at her.

  “Only if I let you see it, or did you forget that!?” she mocked him. His jaw dropped. “You wouldn’t do that to me. You wouldn’t take the time we’ve spent together away from me, would you?” he asked quietly, the shocked look still on his face. He looked as if she had slapped him, and she instantly regretted mocking him.

  “No, I’d show you most of it,” she assured him. “All of it.”

  “Do you really want to remember the fights?” she asked quietly. “I want you to show me everything you remember. I want every second we’ve been together, but I’ll take whatever you got. Please?” he nearly pleaded.

  She looked at him and nodded. He walked across the room and put his arms around her.

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand why you want to do this. Are you trying to kill me?” he asked, burying his face in her hair.

  She sighed. “I’m not doing anything to you. I’m just changing me a little.”

  “No. If you kill you, then you kill me, too. Don’t you understand that, Little One? I have only come through all these years on the chance you would be born again. If you had not been, I would have been finished. I have already gotten the promise of death from Potter if you don’t come back to me this time,” he explained softly.

  “I told you, you’re not going to remember this, and I won’t show you your plan to die,” she told him pointedly.

  “I don’t need your memory to remind me that there is no point to life without you. That’s a knowledge I carry within in my very soul,” he mumbled into her hair.

  “Well, thank God you have Jenny and Leso. They’d never let you do that.”

  “They know about it. They understand. They know they wouldn’t want to live if their mate was gone forever.”

  “That’s crazy! Please don’t do anything stupid over me,” she begged. “I exist today because of you. It would only be stupid to attempt to continue on without you. Do you really want to be an immortal, Beck?” he asked, pulling away from her and lying back on the bed.

  “No one is really immortal, not really, you said so yourself. You can be killed and so can Potter,” she repeated his words back to him playfully as she yawned.

  “Go to bed Beck. We can talk about this later.” As she pulled the blanket down and climbed into the bed to lay down, she asked sadly, “How long are you going to stay with me this time?”

  “I’m not leaving you again.”

  “Really?” she stammered. “Truly,” he promised.

  She smiled at him and settled down for the night.

  ***

  When he heard the steady breath of her sleep, he left the room and went to knock on Potter and Jenny’s door. “Come in, Richard,” Potter said from inside the room.

  He entered the room and closed the door behind him. “Don’t do it! Don’t give her your blood.”

  “Think about this Richard,” Jenny said. ‘If she’s right, and Potter’s blood works on her, then she would be with you for your lifetime instead of just her human one. You do want that, right?”

  “You know I do, but not if it puts her life at risk. I can’t watch her die again. I just…I can’t.”

  The wind had kicked up outside so much that none of them had smelled Beck approaching. They all jumped slightly as she yelled through the door, “Get your ass back to our room! Now!”

  He left Jenny and Potter’s room with the belief that he was going to get cussed out… again, but she didn’t say much except to ask him to please stay with her while she slept. After he agreed, she went back to bed. He sat through another night watching her sleep.

  He didn’t know what to do. The thought of losing her again was impossible to consider. He wanted to be with her until the planet died and turned to dust, but even the slightest risk of it hurting her made it not worth it. He would gladly just take her lifetime for them to be together, but humans were so frail.

  What if something else happened to her? He had watched her die once, and she had nearly been killed again less than twenty-four hours ago.

  He could now see how Potter’s creator could become bitter enough to create the hunters. He himself had already gotten a promise from a hunter for his death if she didn’t come back to him. He had not lied. He needed no memory to tell him that his life would be over. The guilt of losing his family never compared to his guilt of watching Beck die.

  He’d been right there and could not stop it. Was it right for him to stop her, if being an immortal was what she truly wanted? Could he stop her even if he wanted to? He knew that if she really wanted this, she would find a way. Would she still want him if she had more than this lifetime to look forward to, when he was no longer faster or stronger than her? It was selfish for him to even think about that, but he couldn’t stop himself.

  What if she only loved him because of the fascination she has for what he is? That fascination would be gone if she became a hunter. She would be the same as him. No. She would be better than him. She would not suffer the thirst.

  What would he do then? He didn’t know. He loved her, only her, and had been consumed by the thought of her for more years than he wanted to think about. Could her love for him be erased by one drop of hunter blood? He knew she would say no, but could she be certain before the change? These thoughts chased through his mind until the sun cam
e up.

  During the rest of the drive to Clarksville, Beck questioned Potter. She finally got down to the bones of her plan.

  ***

  “My blood,” Beck said.

  “Say again?” Potter asked.

  “I think we can kill Elderson and his clan with my blood.” They were driving down a wooded road, and Richard nearly put them into a tree when she said this.

  “What are you talking about!? How much of your blood!?” he shouted.

  “I’m not sure yet, but it shouldn’t take a lot,” she said, her eyes daring him to argue with her .

  He got out of the car and leaned his legs against the fender, staring off into the woods.

  Jenny patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. He’s a bit touchy when it comes to you. I think the thought of any of your blood leaving your body greatly disturbs him.”

  “Well, I am a woman. A lot of my blood leaves my body every month. So, he needs to get over that.”

  “Yes, he couldn’t watch over you during your time of the month. When you were a teenager, it was hard for him, but once you had gotten to college and your body had fully matured, he had to be restrained. One of us would watch over you and the other two would stay with him. I’m glad you found us so soon. I don’t think Leso could have handled Richard on his own,” Jenny explained.

  Beck asked incredulously, “He wanted to eat me when I was on my period?”

  Potter laughed, “Not at all. We’re all animals, Beck. When you’re on your period, you’re in heat. He could smell it from over a mile away, further if the wind is right.”

  “But, he has to have been around thousands of women in ‘heat’. Why didn’t he jump on them?”

  “They weren’t his mate,” Jenny explained. “You are.”

  “Regardless, you’d think he’d at least want to hear my idea, especially if we can kill Elderson,” Beck said.

  Potter smiled. “He can hear you. I think he’s just trying to not start another fight with you.”

  “Well, come on. We’ll talk about it when we get to wherever it is you’re taking us,” Beck said a little louder.