by Diana Graves
“So, without further ado, shall we begin tonight’s lessons?”
No one made a sound. In fact the room was deathly silent. Charley and his gang of vamps were leaning forward over their table listening intently. I found myself not immune to the appeal of what Damon might teach us. The life of vampires is all mysterious and scary.
“The first thing I want you to get out of your heads is that vampires are foreign and mysterious things you could never be, because if you’re in this class, you are either on your way to become a vampire, or you’re one already. And, to live successfully as a vampire you need to admit to yourself that those vampires out there are just as much human and feeling as you are.”
Damon was a passionate teacher. His voice was charging and his very presence demanded respect and obedience. Our faces followed him about the room as he lectured. I was almost mesmerized by the void of his dark skin, and the muscles that worked under it, and how he moved his arms when he made important points. I had brought a pen and a note book, but they sat on my desk with not a single note taken. I could never write fast enough to keep up, why even bother.
I noticed that many students had recoding devises on the table in front of them. Damn, what a good idea. I would have to remember that next time and maybe repeat this class.
“Now that you understand that vampires are people and that becoming one doesn’t make you less of a human, I must tell you that this class isn’t a philosophy class. I won’t be lecturing you about morals or anything of that nature. If you want to throw around ideas after class, that’s great, but my class is about practical life as a vampire. The belief of your innate goodness is essential to being a productive member of society. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as philosophical as I will get during class hours, God willing.”
For the first hour of the class he went on to explain the vampire’s economic place in America. He handed out career placement quizzes to the class, at least, those of us who hadn’t taken this class before. Apparently many of his students simply came back for his good company and to hear his lectures. There were only three of us that were completely new to the class, and there was one more that never took this particular class. The quizzes were short and done quickly. Once the quizzes were all taken Damon gave us a ten minute break while he evaluated them. As we came back into class Damon handed us our quiz results and asked us to move the tables to the side and make a circle out of the chairs.
“Now,” he began, standing in the middle of the circle as we sat in the chairs. “I want you guys to go around the circle and introduce yourselves to each other. I want names, interests and how you became a vampire or why you want to become a vampire. If you feel comfortable sharing, go ahead and tell us about the quiz you just took. If you’ve taken it before and you want to share your quiz or your current career, feel free to share. You have an hour, go!”
Squeezing through the circle, Damon walked back to the front of the class and sat behind an old oak desk, which was cluttered with papers and old knickknacks.
“Okay,” said a girl wearing a powder blue sweater. She had a real down to earth look to her. She wore no makeup or jewelry that I could see. She seemed utterly plain until she actually spoke. “Let’s get it on bull shitters!” she announced and half the class laughed, including me. I think it was not only the vibe she gave off, but also the tone that made me think, “Vampire comedian perhaps?”
16:
THE GIRL IN the blue sweater was Judith, stage name, Boots. She loved to dance, and she was so not a comedian. She was a stripper at a joint called, Cloud Nine.
“When I took that quiz, it told me that I’d be a perfect entertainment vampire, eager to please and all that jazz. At the time I was working at the local grocery store, so I thought, why wait? You know? Starting my new life early just sounded right.”
“Why are you becoming a vampire?” asked a vampire in the circle. She had lily white skin, sandy brown hair, big blue eyes and a sort of judgmental air about her.
Judith seemed to think about her words for a moment and then said, “I guess it’s a cliché reason. I’m afraid to die, and becoming a vampire is better than watching yourself slowly rot day by day.” There was a lot of nodding around the circle. I guess it was a common theme.
The majority of my classmates had either just become vampires, or were in the middle of doing so. Their petition to join the collective had been accepted, and all they had to do was wait on the paper work to go through before they could be turned.
Only two others were accidently infected, like myself. One was attacked. He was fresh out of the VCC, and recently received the ashes of the vampire that had attacked him as a gift from the vampire hunter that tracked it down. The other vampire got her disease from her vampire boyfriend. I got the feeling it wasn’t an accident that she became infected, but she couldn’t admit that. Unsanctioned infections are big time illegal.
I was all ears as everyone in the circle took their turn to introduce themselves. I wondered if they did this every night, because some introductions sounded well rehearsed, especially Charley’s.
“I’m Charley,” he said in a monotone. “I play W.O.W and I am a vampire.”
I stared after him, expecting more. Most people talked in length about why and how they became vampires, but Charley didn’t say anything else. And, after Charley’s short intro all eyes were on me.
“Hello,” I said shyly. “I’m Raina. I was recently attacked by a newly turned vampire in a blood rage—Oh and I like to read mystery novels.” They gave me silent dumb stares. “Seth Kirkland is my uncle. Some of you may know him.” I bit my lip. I could feel my face growing warm under their attentions. I looked down at the paper in my hands. It had a bar graph with my interests and skills measured out, and a couple sentences about what career would be best for me. The bar graph showed that I had a moderate interest in most things, but the bar that represented my interest in justice was almost full. That didn’t surprise me after the camping trip from hell. I wanted justice more than anything. The paragraph said my best career would be as a Council Member or Seeker. I didn’t know what those were. “Council member or seeker, whatever those are,” I said. I kept my eyes down in my lap.
“How did you get attacked by a new vampire? They’re in VCC’s?”
I looked up to find Judith looking down at me. I didn’t realize how tall she was until I had those eyes on me. What was she, six-two?
“Oh, I don’t know if I can say. They’re still investigating.” She gave me a suspicious look, like she didn’t believe me. Why would I lie about that? What would I gain? Silly cow.
Damon’s voice boomed over the thick awkwardness that had built. “We’ve gone over the time we’re allowed. If any of you have questions, I’m right here.”
He sat back down at his desk after shaking hands with a few students on their way out the door. I stayed behind to help put the chairs and tables back. Other then exercising my habit of being helpful, I was waiting for Damon to not be busy with other students so I could ask him about what happened at The Natural Kitchen. Now that I had time to think about it, I would say it almost felt like mind control.
“You’re waiting Damon,” Charley said after we were nearly done putting the tables and chairs back.
I looked at him. “Yeah?” I asked. “How do you figure I’m not just being helpful? Maybe I’m a nice person.”
“You probably are, but you also keep looking at him. I figured you’re waiting for that crowd around him to thin out. It takes a while, trust me. I’ll wait with you.”
“Oh, um, ok—.”
When the room was tidy, Charley and I sat on the table nearest the door. The crowd had thinned considerable, but there were still four young vampires huddled around Damon.
“So, you were attacked?” Charley asked.
I rolled my sleeve up to show him what was left of the wound, but it had healed completely. I was more than a little shocked that that much damage could heal so perfectly in three d
ays.
“Wow, you can’t even see the wound anymore. This morning it was shiny scar tissue but now—it’s like nothing happened. It healed so fast.”
“They do that,” he said. He pulled back his sleeve to reveal deep red scars. It looked like a wild animal tried to bite his arm off. Before I could stop myself, I was tracing the edge of the scars with my fingers.
“Shit,” I whispered.
“Yeah, my arm was almost completely bitten off,” Charley said.
“Who did you piss on?” I asked. I seemed to have misplaced my tact, but Charley laughed. He might have answered me too, but Damon appeared in front of us. The other vampires had left without me noticing and I had Damon’s full attention at last.
“Are you two waiting for me?”
“I have a personal question,” I said. I waited for Charley to excuse himself, but he didn’t.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Charles,” Damon said, and Charley jumped down from the table and walked out the door.
“See you two lovelies mañana!” he yelled without looking back. I heard him walk down the hall, and get in the elevator.
“Okay, we have privacy now,” Damon said.
“I don’t know how to ask this, so I’ll just start talking. I’m an empath. Before I was infected I could sense people’s emotions, but only sometimes. That’s changed. Now, I can know most people’s emotions whenever I want to. Can you explain that?”
“Vampirism enhances the senses. It makes sense that it would also enhance your empathic abilities,” Damon said. He seemed to settle in, as though he knew this would be a long conversation. I hoped it wouldn’t be, I hoped for a simple answer.
“That makes sense, but—” I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to have this conversation at all. Mind control isn’t something people take kindly to, but I needed answers.
“What is it?” he asked when I was silent too long. “Raina, you can trust me. I’ve been your uncle’s closest friend for over twenty-five years. I would not harm his family.”
His words were kind, but they brought little comfort. An uncomfortable length of time passed, and just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to say a word, a mad case of verbal diarrhea hit.
“It’s not just emotions anymore. I’ve been getting snippets of thoughts. And, this evening I became angry, I mean really angry. I felt betrayed and attacked and I wanted to fight, but I couldn’t. I pushed it away. I pushed that violent urge away, and not even a minute later a huge fight broke out in my mom’s store! It was insane! And then I stopped it all with one word, one command. I was in shock at the time, but now that I’ve thought about it, it felt like mind control. In those few moments after I stopped the brawl I had complete control over those people—but not everyone in the store was under my control. My mom, my aunt and some other guy, it was like their minds were just too stubborn to listen to me.”
And, there is was, all of it. Damn near every thought that entered my head came out my mouth. I felt Damon’s shock. A spike of panic hit his mind, and then it calmed. He thought, “She’s only a child.” He was right of course. I’m nothing to be scared of, I guess.
“Is mind control a common ability for a vampire?”
“No, but it isn’t unheard of. A master vampire has control over its subjects, but only after a ritual is performed. Almost any vampire can capture someone with their gaze, but that takes practice. You couldn’t have done it on accident.” He looked at me in silence for a moment. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, Raina. It sounds like mind control, but—,” he continued to look at me thoughtfully, as though he was trying to gain the answer simply by the look of me. “Having red eyes means you’re a witch in part. Empaths are common among the craft, they also have a version of mind control, but the person they’re trying to control has to drink a potion for it to work. You’re uncle says you’re elf kin as well. I don’t see it, but elves have no control over people’s action—besides their natural charms.”
I bit the sides of my cheeks and took a deep breath. Not looking elfin is a sore spot for me. Everyone in my family had something elfin about them. Elf traits are supposed to be genetically dominate. That’s why you can see elf heritage in a family’s bloodline for generations.
I stared at the floor for a moment. It seemed surreal to be having this conversation. Hell, everything that’s happened since Saturday has been like one long nightmare: the attack, my brothers, Darkness, Adia, Alicia, and now this. How much more of this could I take? “I don’t understand. You’re saying that nothing explains what I’ve experienced.”
“No, I’m saying nothing that we know about you so far explains mind control. We’ll have to look deeper. Maybe it’s your human blood that contains the answer. I’ll look into it. In the meantime I suggest you don’t tell anybody about your condition.”
My eyes widened at that. Keeping secrets was my mom’s thing, not mine. “Why do I have to?”
“You can’t predict how people might react. Nobody likes people poking around in their head, let alone taking the wheel.” I nodded. “Have you told anybody?”
“I mentioned something to my friend, Alicia, but she said it was a fluke and my mom and aunt witnessed the fight and my ability to stop it. They think it has something to do with being a vampire.”
“The timing is too coincidental for vampirism to have nothing to do with it. At the very least it was the catalyst. Vampirism is rapidly evolving. This could simply be another evolutionary jump. Not even twenty years ago you had to be a vampire for hundreds of years to become a master vampire, now you can be born one.”
“That sounds bad.”
“It seemed that way at first, but I’ve found that younger vampires are more compassionate, more level headed.” I nodded, but my mind was already somewhere else. I was feeling hopeless.
“Seth told me the doctor in Darkness believes there is a part of you that is immune to the vampire disease; holding it back from killing you like it did your brother, Michael. He said the doctor can’t tell what it is, but that you can’t have inherited it from your father because Michael turned. Which means either your mother is more than just a witch and an elf or your father’s not your real father?”
“I know,” I almost whispered. “That had been bothering me too.” I wasn’t worried about losing some tie to Dan, because he never treated me like a daughter. I was worried because if I had a real father out there somewhere then that meant he didn’t love me enough to stick around either. The only thing worse than being shunned by one father figure, is being shunned by two.
17:
BEFORE I REACHED the elevator my phone began to vibrate from somewhere deep inside the Bermuda Triangle that was my purse. I dug in and fished around until I found the hunk of plastic. There was a picture of Tristan picking his nose in the background, and a text message from him in the foreground.
The message read, “Nick’s awake.” I wondered how I would feel at this moment. I watched Nick die two days ago. His insides were exposed. I could still hear his screams; still see the look in his eyes. He didn’t want to die then, but I’m not sure he’d have preferred vampirism. I settled on a mixture of joy and sadness. Joy for Nicks return and sadness for his predicament.
With speedy digits, I texted back, “I’m @ the Bastion. Where R U?” I pushed the button that would bring the elevator to me. My arms tingled with want. I loved that jerk-face, and watching him die was the most painful experience of my life. I never wanted to hug that bastard so much as I did then.
“No Ray. I only TM U 2 tell U he’s awake. U don’t need 2 come down 2nite, maybe 2moro, K,” he messaged me just as the elevator arrived. I grimaced at my phone. What was he playing at? Of course I needed to be there!
“WTF Tristan, OMW ::poof::” I typed hurriedly before walking into the elevator. Though, on second thought, if Paul was what the newly undead are like, I’m not entirely sure I should go down there—oh well.
“Where are you headed?” asked the elevator atte
ndant.
“The VCC.”
“Are you Raina Kirkland?” he asked. I nodded with a raised eyebrow, and he pushed the button marked with a red V.
“Why does it matter who I am?”
“Normally only kiss members of the Bastion are allowed to go down there. However, Master Alistair has made an exception for Seth’s family.” The elevator doors opened to darkness. I looked back at the man. “Go on miss,” he said.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Raina,” said Tristan, before he stepped into the elevator with his eyes shut tight, as though the light was blinding. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Well, I’m here,” I shrugged. “Why’s it so dark?”
“Nicholas is especially sensitive to light this night,” said a masculine voice from the dark. I nodded and walked into the dark with Tristan.
The doors shut behind us, and the room became darker, if that were at all possible. I was completely blind, and staring widely into the dark, trying to see anything at all. “Tristan?”
I heard him sigh from my right. “I'm here,” he said. I reached out to the voice with both hands.
Someone grabbed my elbow hard. “Owe!” I yelled.
“Sorry,” said Tristan. He let go of my arm. “It’s not as dark as it seems. You’re eyes just need to adjust, just give it some time.”
While I waited for my eyes to adjust I took in my environment the only other ways I could. I listened and I smelled. I could hear Tristan breathing and the footsteps of two other people, one was barefoot and one wore dress shoes. The stench of bleach almost overpowered the smell of Tristan’s cologne and vampires.
“Why so much bleach?” I asked.
“It’s the trend these days for young vamps to have their skin carefully bleached before they awaken,” said the same masculine voice as before.