by Bell Stoires
Ari smiled appreciatively up at Larissa, placing the icepacks on either side of her pillow so they rested against her face.
“Maybe everyone is right; vampires and humans shouldn’t be together?” asked Ari.
Larissa and Sandra exchanged worried looks.
“Well, I don’t know. I have never dated a mortal,” said Sandra, directing a long glance at Larissa and prodding her in the arm.
“But I have,” said Larissa.
“What?” asked Ari, sitting up before feeling her injuries pull her back down so that her head was once again rested on the pillow. “But I thought you and Cambridge had been together for ages?
“We have, but he wasn’t always a vampire, not until I decided I couldn’t live without him and turned him,” said Larissa.
“Tell me everything,” said Ari, hoping like hell that the codeine would kick in soon and take away some of the pain.
Larissa smiled warmly and said, “Well it was the late 1780’s, and my father was the owner of a large tobacco farm in Minnesota. I was only six years old when the first black slaves came to work the fields. Black labour was cheaper than any other sort and I had been forbidden to converse with the Negro men and women. I still had my governess, her name was Mary, but her thoughts were the exact opposite to that of my fathers. She spoke of black and white equality; she was what you might say, a forward thinker. In hind sight, had I told anyone back then how she thought, she probably would have been hung.”
Ari gaped at this and then slowly closed her mouth, while Larissa continued.
“So it wasn’t until my eighth birthday, when I was playing hide and seek in the grounds with friends from neighbouring estates, that I had my first conversation with a black person. He was about my age, although he was much taller and larger, having been bred for hard labour. I had been hiding behind one of the less used barns when he found me; I can still remember his disjointed English. I had ignored him at first, my father’s warnings swimming in my head. But looking closer at the boy, I couldn’t see anything dangerous about him. For over two hours we spoke, until finally a large search party, headed by my father, found me. The boy had managed to get away without being seen, and I had lied and told them that I had fallen asleep in the sun. It was two full weeks before I saw him again. This time when we met, we talked for almost half of the day and I found out his name- Cambridge. For the next few years we continued meeting in secret and going on adventures. I would spend the day with him, and the night talking to Mary about him. He was the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had. He told me about Africa, and the animals there and the arid landscape. It wasn’t long before I dreamed of his home land often, seeing what I imagined to be lions, giraffes and elephants,” explained Larissa.
“Cambridge was a slave?” interrupted Ari.
“You just can’t wait for the good parts, can you?” said Sandra.
Ari smiled back and Larissa continued.
“By the age of fifteen I stopped seeing him as a friend, and began dreaming about the two of us someday living in Africa. My mother had died the previous year, and almost as soon as my father was re-married, his new wife wanted to send me to the city for boarding school. I screamed and cried, but my father was deaf to my requests and spoke only of how it was the premier school for young ladies. On the eve of my departure I decided to meet with Cambridge one last time. I knew that I might be followed, that it was stupid to go out at night, but I had to risk it. I can still remember trailing through the black people’s camps, calling his name. His people didn’t want us together either, and I could tell by the way they looked at me, that they despised me. But I didn’t care if they saw me that night; I had to say goodbye. For a few blissful hours we talked; I promised that as soon as I could, I would return to him. He laughed at me, and called me a silly white girl, but I didn’t care. I think even then that I loved him. Maybe an hour or so later one of Cambridge’s friends found us. He told us that my father was looking for me. I moved robotically over to Cambridge, desperation overpowering my innocence, and did the one thing I had wanted to for years- I kissed him. For the first time in my life I felt free. Moments later and I heard a man scream, and felt myself being ripped from Cambridge’s arms.”
“Was it your dad?” asked Ari.
Larissa nodded and said, “I was packaged up and sent away that night. Very few females were privy to education in those times, not that you could really call what we learnt education, but back then it was the elite. The school in the city was full of snobby girls. Each competed with the others for the latest fashions, the tightest curls, largest estate, whatever was coveted at the time. For four horrible years I was stuck there, with only the memory of Cambridge’s lips on mine to keep me company. My father, who had by now had two sons with his new wife and had not forgotten of my betrayal, probably saw me as a mistake. He did not ask me to return home for the summers, and every holiday I remained at the school. Still, my father did not entirely abandon me. He had left me a tidy sum of money, which I promptly invested, eager to run away at the first chance. I was eighteen years old when Mary, my old governess, came to visit me one night. She was still just as lovely as before, and asked me about Cambridge and if I still thought of him. When I told her that I was in love with him, she said that she knew a way we could be together- forever. At the time her promise had sounded like the best thing in the world, and I agreed instantly. She told me the cost would be great, that we would not be able to live among normal men and women, and that we would need to be creatures of the night. These terms seemed acceptable; after all, it was illegal for mixing of black and white people in those days. Of course we would have to keep our lives together a secret.”
“Mary was a vampire?” asked Ari, connecting the dots.
“Yep,” said Larissa. “She had been turned a year earlier. That night she made me her fledgling. As soon as I woke I felt a hunger within me, and commenced feeding on anything in my path. Desperate to leave my old life behind me, we lit my room on fire, and left the corpse of a girl I had drained in there, so that my father would think I had died in the fire. I was completely different, not just in my abilities, but in my thoughts too. I still craved Cambridge, but not as much as I craved blood. Perhaps my upbringing had left me resentful and bitter? Anyway, Mary described my appetite as insatiable. It took her months to get me to calm down and kill with style, and even then, I couldn’t drink from a mortal without killing them. Needless to say, I wasn’t going to be able to see Cambridge in that state. Three years after my transformation I decided I could wait no longer. I was gradually getting better and better, and had even managed drinking from sources without ending their lives. I had also learnt how to disassociate them afterwards, which made life a hell of allot easier. Mary had spoken to me about the risks of creating a fledgling, and how they could betray you, but I was determined to be with Cambridge. That night Mary and I commissioned a carriage, and fashioned it so that no light could get in. The trip from town into the country took two days hard riding. Mary had the foresight to bring a donor with us, some young man from one of the villages we passed through, who directed the carriage during the day, and we feed off during the night. It was late one night when we rode into my father’s farm. I was tense with anticipation. I prayed that my father had kept Cambridge on, but even still, I had no idea what now looked like, or how he would respond to seeing me.”
“This is the good part,” said Sandra.
Larissa laughed lightly and said, “You can’t imagine how happy I was when I saw him. He was still young and handsome, with full lips and long black dreadlocks that were slightly golden at the edges from all his hours of work under the sun. I asked him to leave with me and he agreed. It was as if no time had passed, and we picked up things right where we left off. That night we said goodbye to Mary and boarded a boat to South America. There were very few options for a black and white couple back then, let alone a black man and a white vampire. For a while I hide what I was from him. It wasn’t eas
y, not being able to go out into the sunlight. I pretended to have caught some mysterious illness on the voyage over. But eventually he worked it out. I thought for sure that he was going to leave me, but he didn’t. He just told me that he needed time to think. You can imagine the late night conversations and screaming matches. He wanted to be with me but not as a monster; he had to die to be with me; he was too young to die; he would keep aging while I stayed the same; we could be together forever. There were so many points, for and against, his becoming a vampire to be with me.”
“So,” said Ari eagerly; the ibuprofen had started working and she could already feel the codeine starting to take away most of her pain, “what happened?”
As she had listened to Larissa’s story, she had leaned closer and closer towards her. It was absolutely insane to conceive that for a time, Cambridge had contemplated not being with Larissa, vampirism or not; they were such a perfect couple.
“You know what happened,” Sandra said smiling, “can you, or can you not see two vampires, madly in love in front of you today?”
“Yea, No I know, I mean-” Ari began to say.
“It’s ok,” said Larissa, “I know what you mean. Well for about six months we continued like this. We were living in a small fishing village off the coast of Columbia. Cambridge had commissioned a job on the docks. From only being there for those few months my activities had drawn much attention, and there was talk of something biting people and draining their blood. I disassociated all my victims afterwards, and only took what I needed to survive, but in a small village full of superstitious natives, my hunting did not go unnoticed. Finally one night the villages had had enough, and set a trap for the blood drinker. They cut the wrists of a sacrificial lamb and left the girl outside. When I smelt her blood I was consumed with hunger. I ran straight for her without thinking. As soon as I heard the first scream, I knew I had been discovered. The villages surrounded me, holding large flaming torches and yelling in their native tongue. They were spitting at me, and calling me a ‘demon’ and ‘witch’. Cambridge, who had heard the commotion, came over to see what was happening. There was blood all down my dress, and my lips were stained red from where I had tasted the girl. Without thinking I leapt over the torches, running as fast as I could into the night. I dared not return to our house, but went to ground for the night. The next evening I left a note for Cambridge, explaining that I was leaving for Latvia. I had heard from Mary that there were colonies of vampires there, and that the weather made it possible for us to come out during the day. I had enough wealth from my investments to buy two tickets for the voyage. I left one ticket for Cambridge and wrote for him to come with me. Two days later the boat left. I spent the entire first night looking everywhere for Cambridge. Just when I had convinced myself that he had decided to let me go, I found him! He was sitting at the edge of the boat, his shoes were off and his eyes were closed. ‘I’m ready’ was all he said to me. And the rest is history.”
Ari had listened to Larissa and Cambridge’s fairy tale intently, comparing it with her own three hundred year later version. Still a few questions remained.
“But the first night I met Clyde, after we had played Sources, Ragon told me that you and Clyde had a fling?” she said, staring at Larissa.
For a few moments Ari thought that Larissa would not answer, and she instantly became worried that she had stretched their friendship too thin, too quickly.
“There was a time, shortly after I made Cambridge that we separated. It’s easy for fledglings to lose their way, and become interested in nothing except blood and the hunt. For a few months he went off on his own, killed a hell of a lot of people, and tried the solitary life. Being his maker, I could sense him the whole time, and I waited for him. What I had with Clyde was nothing more than a one night stand. I was lonely, he was bored- end of story.”
“What Larissa means,” said Sandra sweetly, “is that it’s not uncommon for newly turned fledglings to be an entity entirely of their own; vampirism changes you, and not just in the obvious way. Everyone adapts to it differently; some become blood hunters, others mass murders, but rarely are they the same person they were before they were turned.”
“Do you think you and Cambridge would have stayed together if he decided he didn’t want to become a vampire?” asked Ari.
Larissa frowned for a moment, and Ari knew what she was thinking. A mortal and a vampire couldn’t be together. It was impractical. In twenty years’ time, Ari would be forty-four, and Ragon would be as handsome and perfect as ever. For a few years she could get away being a cougar, but what about when she was seventy or eighty or older; that’s if she even lived that long with Kiara trying to kill her. But was that her answer? If she didn’t want to become a vampire, could they really not be together? Ari shuddered at the thought. Only hours ago she had been in utter heaven in his arms, and now all she could think was Ragon not being there when she had been attacked, and how they must be apart. Perhaps being a vampire wouldn’t be so bad? It would defiantly suck not being able to go into the sun for the rest of her life, and it might take her a while to get use to the whole drinking blood thing, but look at Larissa and Sandra. Apart from being over two hundred years old, they seemed to be normal- or at least normal enough. They were certainly able to sit here and have a conversation with a human. But did she want to be with Ragon enough to give up her life? And what if the vampirism didn’t work? What if she died?
“If you had the choice again, would you decide to become a vampire?” Ari asked both girls.
This was the question she needed answering the most. Even though right now all she felt was pain, she still couldn’t help but feel a true connection with Ragon. Still, it seemed crazy for Ari to start a relationship with someone that she ultimately couldn’t be with. But perhaps, if love were enough, she would give up everything to be with him.
Sandra spoke first, ‘In a heartbeat,” she said, before adding with a small laugh, “or rather without one.”
Both Ari and Sandra turned to Larissa, who shook her head, saying, “I don’t know...”
Sandra’s jaw dropped.
“What?” Sandra asked, in a high pitched voice.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t want to be with Cambridge, but I think I would have wanted to have one lifetime with him, and…” she paused, chewing her bottom lip, as her eyes went glassy, “and gotten to have children and be a mother.”
Shit, Ari thought to herself. Was she so completely thick? Until now she did not realise what becoming a vampire meant for women especially, no children- forever. Ari had thought that the worst part would have been watching all the people you loved die, but she supposed that after a while, those wounds might close; but what about all the people you never got to know? The children and the grandchildren you never got to have?
Ari had lots to consider when Larissa and Sandra finally left her room. Ragon had not come to see her yet, and to be honest, after the conversation with Larissa and Sandra, she wasn’t too sure she knew what she would have done if he had. Crawling under the covers, Ari thought about Larissa’s story and what she should do with her own. She was just about drifting off to sleep when there was once again a soft knock on the door. For a moment Ari considered pretending she was asleep, and that she hadn’t heard.
“Come in,” she whispered.
Trying to sit up slightly, Ari waited for the door to open. She had guessed that it would be Ragon, and was utterly surprised to see Clyde.
Instantly a wide small broke across her face, and she laid back against the pillow, instantly at ease.
“How’s the patient?” he asked, moving over to the edge of her bed and sitting down.
“Better,” she lied.
She could tell by the sideway glance that Clyde shot at her, that he didn’t believe her in the slightest. Instead of confronting her about this however, he immediately looked down at his feet, before inspecting the bed sheets, apparently greatly interested in the pattern printed on them.
“You can’t blame Ragon for Matthew’s actions,” he said suddenly.
Ari was so utterly shocked by these words, that she felt her mouth drop open in surprise.
“Do you have any idea just how much he cares about you?” asked Clyde.
Ari shook her head.
“The moment he heard what Matthew had done, he went out into the sun to try and make the pain stop,” said Clyde, not breaking eye contact.
Ari couldn’t help it, but let a few tears fall from her eyes. She had heard Ragon go outside after seeing her last night and heard him scream, but had no idea why.
“Sometimes when you’re immortal, you forget how precious life is. Ragon has not had to worry about death for over two-hundred years. And when you spend that long killing and losing your humanity, it’s hard to go back. It’s not easy falling in love with a mortal when you’re a monster, but sometimes it happens; you can’t choose who you love. You need to give him a chance… he’s trying his best.”
Ari stared at him as he left her room. At Clyde’s words, she was unravelled. Ari had only known Ragon for a short time. It would be crazy for her to think that she loved him already; wouldn’t it? Still, she couldn’t help but remember the look in his eyes when he had reached for her, saying that he wanted her. How was she supposed to ignore how her heart had jumped at that moment? These thoughts were put on hold however, when she heard shouting outside her room. She remained quiet; listening carefully, desperate to know what was being said.
“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” said Sandra. “You’re supposed to be his friend, and the second his girl is having doubts, you’re riding in on your horse to rescue her. Well I have got news for you Clyde; Ragon is twice the vamp you will ever be, and Ari knows that.”
There was a long pause, during which Ari contemplated going out and telling Sandra what Clyde had said to her, but then Sandra spoke again, and Ari remained frozen.