None of us had our own Facebook accounts or used much in the way of social media - sites devoted to posting pictures and details about our lives would only draw attention to the fact that we never aged. Milo did have an Instagram account, but he only used it for posting pictures of the food at his restaurant, and I think both Jack and Ezra perused Reddit.
"It's strange," Jack said. "Because she's in her forties, and she looks like she's in her forties. For some reason, I'd expected her not to age because I hadn't. I mean, the last time I saw her, we'd just gone out for her twenty-first birthday, and she was wild and reckless, and I remember worrying that she'd turn out a drunk like my dad."
He let out a heavy sigh before continuing, "And maybe she did. I don't know. Facebook seems like it's a lot of people pretending to be happier than they are, but she really looks happy and healthy. She looks like her life is okay."
"That's good, right?" I asked.
He didn't say anything right away, instead staring off into space with so much pain in his soft blue eyes.
"Yeah, it is," he said finally. "But I was scrolling through her timeline, and I found a post dedicated to all the mothers in heaven. And she commented on it, talking about how our mom had died suddenly of an aneurysm three years ago, and how she was upset that she never got to say goodbye and still missed her daily."
By the time he finished his story, there were tears in his eyes.
"Oh, love, I'm sorry," I told him helplessly.
"I just didn't expect to feel this way," he said, his words a mixture of hurt and irritation, and he wiped at his eyes. "You always know your parents are going to die before you, and then with my dad's death and me becoming a vampire, I was really certain she was going to die long before I did. I knew it."
I rubbed his back, trying to comfort him. "I don't think it matters if you know it or not. You still loved her."
"She hadn't said a nice word to me in the last decade of my human life," he said angrily, sniffling. "When I was little, she was better. Before she left my dad. She'd read me bedtime stories sometimes, and she cut the crusts off my sandwiches. Normal mom stuff. But then it all changed, and she started hating me, and I started hating her back."
He breathed deeply, sounding as if he'd barely suppressed a sob, before saying, "We said a lot of terrible things to each other, and I never fixed it. I never wanted to fix it, but now she's gone, and I can't. I can't tell her how much she hurt me. And I can't tell her that somehow I loved her despite everything she'd done."
"I'm so sorry, Jack," I said again, because there was nothing better that I could say.
"No, I'm sorry." He rolled over onto his back, so he could look up at me. "I shouldn't have looked them up. I feel like I'm turning my whole birthday into a huge bummer. It just didn't occur to me that I would find anything like this or anything that would make me feel this bad."
"You don't need to apologize," I assured him. "This is your day, and it's your family, and you have every right to feel the way you do."
"I suppose." An unpleasant smile twisted on his lips. "It's just sort of hitting me that I'm an orphan now."
"You're not an orphan. I mean, your human parents are gone, but you haven't been human for a long time. And you have a big, immortal family that loves you so much." I put my hand on his cheek, gently forcing him to look me in the eyes, so he could see how much I meant it when I said, "And as long as I'm alive, you will never, ever be alone. I promise you that."
He put his hand over mine, "This is probably going to sound like a weird thing to say, but thank you for loving me far more than my real family ever did."
"Always. I just wish there was some way that I could take away your pain."
But then I realized belatedly that there was something I could do, something that could erase all his hurt - even if it was only a temporary fix, he would at least feel happier on his birthday.
I laid back on the bed, pulling my long dark hair to the side to better reveal my neck.
"Come here," I commanded gently.
Jack seemed confused at first, but he moved up the bed toward me. He propped himself up on his arms, his body hovering over mine, and then he leaned down and kissed me. Tentative at first, but then he parted my lips, growing hungrier and more excited.
I arched my back, exposing my throat to him more, and his mouth trailed down, peppering my skin with soft kisses, until he landed on my vein. His lips lingered there, warm and wonderful against my flesh, and then I felt the quick sharp pain as his fangs broke through.
And then it was an explosion of heat and pleasure. Our hearts beat together, fast and loud, pounding in enthusiasm. Even though he was the one biting me, my mouth filled with the taste of blood - sweet and thick like honey, with a delectable copper finish.
I could feel my blood pouring into him, my energy and warmth seeping out of me and flowing into him. Our blood mixing together and coursing through his veins, filling him with all my love, letting it pour through him and over him and consuming him.
And I felt it in return. His unbridled love, raw and passionate, burning through me. There was this wonderful innocent quality in the way Jack loved, so uncomplicated and pure.
I buried my fingers in his hair as he lifted me off the bed, pressing me as close to him as I could be.
Feeing him like this, letting him drink from me, caused waves of ecstasy to overtake me. Even as I grew weaker, and the world around us seemed to fade away, my sense of pleasure remained as heightened as ever - so I could feel his love and desire setting every nerve, every part of me on fire.
Then, when he'd drank so much I was about to pass out, falling into the black stupor that came after letting another vampire drink from me - he stopped.
The jolt of separation never stopped shocking me. We had been so close, with our blood intertwined and our hearts beating as one. And now I was alone, separate, and the air felt cold as it filled my lungs again.
Jack collapsed on the bed beside me, gasping for breath, and he took my hand in his hands. "I do feel so much better now. I'm so glad you love me."
I laughed softly, more of a murmur than a true laugh, and the world had taken on a dreamlike quality, so it would only be a matter of minutes until exhaustion pulled me under. When I awoke, I would need to feed immediately to keep from getting too hungry and out of hand, but for now, rest would be enough.
"Hey, Alice," Jack said, his voice sounding far away and drunk. "I never told you this but... thank you for picking me."
"What?" I asked.
"You could've picked Peter, but you picked me. And I'm grateful every single day."
THE REST OF JACK'S BIRTHDAY went okay. We both took a nap after the bloodletting, and I woke up ravenous, so I had a couple blood bags while he put in a movie. Most of the evening was spent cuddling on the couch with Jack and Matilda, watching The Lost Boys, Silver Bullet, and any other horror movie from the 1980s that struck his fancy.
When I asked him why that particular theme for this birthday, he replied, "Because my birthday fell on Friday the 13th this year, but I think Jason Voorhees is crap, so we'll substitute those slasher flicks with something I actually like."
Despite the way the day had started, it ended up being rather nice. With Milo and Bobby both gone, we had the place to ourselves for a change. Neither of us were working - although my job was always subject to change. We had a whole weekend just to relax and be together.
The next day, I woke with the intention of extending my relaxing weekend with Jack. His high from drinking my blood was starting to come down, but he still didn't seem as upset as he had been when he first found out about his mom's death.
I'd only just gotten out of bed and was about to ask him what he wanted to do for the day when my phone rang. I thought about ignoring it, but then I saw the ID said Abner Driscoll, and I'd just told him that he could call if he needed me.
"Hey, Alice, I hope I'm not bothering you," he said when I answered.
"No, no, it's fine," I
said, only half-lying as I sat back on the unmade bed. Matilda came in from the other room and climbed up the stepstool onto the bed beside me, pushing her big head under my hand so I would pet her.
"I was wondering if you were free tonight?" Abner asked.
"Why? Did something happen?"
"Not exactly," he said, sounding uncertain. "Ottaline Rebane says there's been some odd activity around Darah Merah the last few nights, and she just wanted someone to come by and check it out."
"Odd activity? What does that mean?" I asked. I tried to stop petting Matilda, but she was having none of it, pushing her fluffy white head on my lap so I had to pay attention to her.
"Mostly real juvenile stuff, like knocking on the door, then running off. But she also felt that some of the johns have been getting rougher with the girls."
"Has anyone been hurt?" I asked.
"Not seriously, not yet," Abner said. "I was planning to head out around eleven tonight, and I'm sure that I could handle it on my own. But I've been having a rough week, so I thought that if you weren't busy, you could go with me."
I hesitated only a second before replying, "Yeah, of course. That should be fine." The dog whined in protest, as if she somehow knew I was ditching out on her and Jack. "You wanna just meet there?"
"Your place is on the way to the Singelgebied district, so I can stop by, and we could walk over together," he offered.
"Sure. I'll see you at eleven then."
I hung up the phone and went out to tell Jack about my newfound plans for the evening, but like most things in his life, he took it in stride, and said that since my job involved literally saving people's lives at times, it had to trump our plans of doing nothing.
When eleven o'clock rolled around, he and Matilda followed me down to wait for Abner and give the dog a chance to do her business. We stood on the sidewalk outside the complex, and the chilly air was filled with the sweet fragrance of flowers from the Bloemenmarkt across the river.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" I asked Jack again, as he waited beside me with Matilda's leashed looped around his wrist and his hands in his pockets.
"No, I'll be fine," he assured me. "I planned on doing really exciting stuff tonight like working on some accounting stuff for the comic book shop."
"That does sound thrilling. I'm really sorry I'll miss that."
"When you get back, we could always balance the books together, if you know what I mean." He waggled his eyebrows at me, then laughed at his own joke.
Matilda let out a friendly bark when she spotted Abner approaching us from the down street. He'd been over to our apartment a few times, mostly for game nights at Bobby's behest, and since the dog liked most people, she'd liked him.
"Hey, Abner. How are you doing?" Jack asked.
He nodded at Jack from under his homburg hat. "I'm quite well. And yourself?"
"Can't complain, but that doesn't stop me from trying," Jack said.
I rolled my eyes. "That joke is older that you are. It's probably older than Abner."
"Almost," Abner agreed with a light smile. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, of course." I kissed Jack quickly before walking off with Abner. "See you later."
"Be safe," he called after us. "Take care of my girl, Abner."
The red-light district with Ottaline's vampire brothel was only about a twenty-minute walk from my place, and Abner and I walked briskly together, so we would make it there even sooner.
It was a nice night, a bit on the chilly side, but for once the sky was clear, without any fog or rain lingering in the air. There were a few people out and about, riding their bikes or walking to a pub, but it was quiet enough that I felt comfortable talking with Abner openly about vampire business.
"So you said you've been having a rough week," I said to him as we walked. "Anything other than finding that dying girl the other night?"
He let out a sour laugh. "You would think that one dead girl would be enough on its own, but sadly, in our line of work it isn't."
"What happened?"
"Earlier this week, I got a call," he began. "There was quite a disturbance in a nice row house on the edge of the city, but I had to get there fast because neighbors were calling the police. So, I went down there, along with Ettie, but she was mostly dealing with the public, using her charms to placate them and convince them that this was not anything to get worked up about."
I didn't have the same skill as Ettie or Ezra or some of the other vampires I'd encountered, so most of my interactions involved criminals or victims and not the public. But someone like Ettie could use her beauty and her supernatural charm to convince humans of just about anything. It wasn't exactly hypnotism, but it wasn't that far off from it, either.
"I went into the house, and it was just a bloodbath," Abner continued. "I suspected as much, because I could already smell the blood two streets down. But it was even worse than I imagined.
"There had been four vampires living in the home - the oldest was a man named Simon who was well over three-hundred. Another vampire was a friend of his, close in age, but the other two were his progeny. The older of the two - a stunning Egyptian vampire called Rana - had been with him quite some time, over a century, if she was to be believed. But the younger one had only been turned a few years"
He kept his head down, his eyes occasionally darting around as he spoke, and his voice was low, so a nearby human wouldn't be able to pick it up, not unless they were right on top of us.
"And that's where this all goes off the rails," Abner went on. "Rana had a purely platonic relationship with her maker, which she swore up and down was just as she wanted, and he did, too. But then Simon had fallen in love, and he'd turned this younger vampire to be his lover. At first, everyone involved seemed happy with it.
"But over the course of the last several years, little things had built up and up." He paused before going on with it. "A few days ago, Rana finally snapped. She killed the younger vampire first, hacking off his head with an ax, then went at the poor friend who had nothing to do with any of it.
"When I arrived, she had cornered Simon in an upstairs room, and as I went up to mediate, I had to step over several of his missing body parts - a foot here, a finger there, a whole arm at the top of the steps." Abner grimaced, and his expression made me certain I was happy that I hadn't been there to witness it.
"He was this limping, bloody, mutilated body by the time I saw him, but he was still alive - barely," Abner went on. "Rana was mad, and I tried desperately to reason with her. It was during this time that she confessed everything that had transpired, spelling out their whole history, with Simon only chiming in to apologize profusely.
"Eventually, she charged at me with the ax, and I had to stake her - to save my own life." He looked over at me. "That's not even the worst part of the story. Once she was gone, I went over to do supportive care to the elder vampire, to see if I could maybe save him, and he told me, 'Leave me. If life is without her, then I don't want to live. Let me die.'"
"So what'd you do?" I asked.
Abner's tone turned very matter-of-fact. "I stayed with him until he died, which didn't take that much longer, and once Ettie had gotten the police and onlookers to leave, she called a crew to come clean up the mess, and I'm sure they disposed of the bodies."
"Wow," I said. "That is pretty insane."
"It is," he agreed, sounding weary once again. "The bond between a maker and progeny usually precludes any kind of petty differences. I've only dealt with murders between them a handful of times in my entire career, and this was by far the most brutal case of it. But I swear, something is making everyone act crazy."
I arched an eyebrow at him. "You think things are getting crazier?"
"I do. Don't you?" He looked down at me. "There's something in the air, something electric." His eyes turned up to the sky and the fat moon shining brightly above us. "Maybe it's the full moon. When I was a child, my mother used to tell me the moon brought out the madmen."
"I don't know. But she is the one that told me not to go out alone at night, or the vampires would find me." He smirked. "And we can see how that turned out."
We rounded a corner, away from the warm glow of downtown to the dark red lights of the adult area. Darah Merah was on the far side of the district, so we still had a little way to go. Here the streets were busier, mostly with male humans looking for a good time, but I spotted a vampire walking ahead of us.
Her back was to us, with her chestnut hair swinging in a ponytail, but when she glanced over her shoulder, looking back at us, I recognized her instantly. It was Iris Emmanuel, the crazed young vampire I'd dealt with at Darah Merah just over a week ago.
When she saw me, she smiled, then turned and started jogging away. She wore thigh high boots with heels that clacked on the concrete, and everyone around turned to watch her.
"She's trouble," I warned Abner, and without expounding further, we both gave chase after her and followed her into a dark alley.
She stood in front of a dead end, but when she turned back to face us, a wide smile spread out across her face. "Look at this. A pair of hunters out on a date to a whore house, perhaps?"
"Iris, you've been warned to stay from these premises," I reminded her.
"By who? You?" She cackled. "Who put you in charge? Nobody. There was no committee. No vote. You put yourself above me, and expect me to bow before you?"
Iris snarled, "Well, fuck that. I have friends now, and I don't need to listen to anybody."
In her hand, she had a small metal pipe, and when she flicked her wrist, it extended out to three times it's length - becoming a long stake with a razor-sharp point at the end.
IRIS RAN AT ME, PROBABLY because I was the one speaking to her, but that was a mistake, since Abner was the more experienced hunter of the two of us. She had a lot of pent of up rage, but I ducked out of her way easily.
Abner grabbed her stake from her, and bent it backward. She refused to let go, and I heard her bones snapping, and she emitted an agonizing growl.
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