Thirst

by Tapley, Travis

  Summer lay on her back in their bed. The days events repeating themselves over and over in her head. She was trying to be rational. But the fact that he had hidden someone that meant so much to him would not leave her alone. It was obvious to her that this was going to be the deciding factor in her decision to become a vampire, or walk away. Her mind raced around the thoughts of battle, of trying to defeat this Lilith she knew nothing of. She had never even heard of Jewish mythology. Didn’t seem right in her mind. All she thought of when one said Jew was holocaust and they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. Mythology was supposed to belong to the Greeks, not God’s chosen people, not the land of Israel. Holocaust, she didn’t even want to think about that. Could Adolf Hitler been a vampire? No, that could not be true she thought, there was photos of him in the daylight. Could he have been doing the works of a dark one, a puppet so to speak? What better way to torture a good creator, she didn’t even want to think God anymore. She really didn’t know what to think. What Seneca had said was ringing true in her head, if she could believe in her religion, and find out what she always desired to become, but thought it pure fantasy was true, hell, at this point, anything was possible.

  She watched him sleep and wondered how. She reckoned with all he had seen in his life, he had learned to adapt. This was all new to her and especially today. Amaranth and Lilith, Caelina, they all sounded like names from some kind of fantasy world. She needed a drink, she needed more than a drink. She looked at herself in the vanity mirror, laid the rolling papers beside the sink, and took out the bag of marijuana. She had already set the bottle of Tequila on the edge of the tub. The smell of the Mary Jane wafting out of the bag almost made her mouth water, good thing she chuckled, you’ll need something for cottonmouth later. She rolled a big fatty and took three good hits before putting it out. This was the good shit, and she might have been pushing it with three tokes. She had been smoking since she was 15. Her parents would absolutely croak if they knew she was doing “Satan’s Sod” as her father called it. How could it be from below, when it took her to heaven? Her eyes were getting squinty, and she knew they looked like New York road maps. The Te-kill-ya as she called it was strong and hot as it hit the back of her throat. Her mouth was getting dry and she stumbled to the kitchen and grabbed the gallon of orange juice out of the fridge. Who needs a glass and she sat down at the table with the jug and took a big swig. The effects of the pot were in high gear and she started that age old process that all stoner's referred to as getting philosophical. Maybe now some of the days events would make some sense.

  Seneca awoke from his sleep and took a deep breath, he could smell the lingering odor in the air. He got out of bed and saw the light in the kitchen. She had a severe case of closed eye when he pulled out the chair and sat across from her. He had never tried marijuana. Wasn’t sure he ever wanted to seeing the effects it had on the mortal mind. He wasn’t really surprised she would get loaded. He also knew with him sitting there he was about to get a flurry of those questions she asked or statements she made when she got this way. It was usually funny, but he knew why she had done it tonight. If it helped her to find her own answers to the days events, then he had no complaints.

  She looked at him with eyes all squinty, and he wanted to laugh, but thought better of it. How could you laugh at a time like this? If he had it figured right, he had time to plot his strategy. He had no idea what it would be, but he was sure he knew the date Lilith would attack. He had tried so hard to protect his family. They had remained unknown and he thought he had kept his whereabouts hidden too. Somehow, someway, she knew he was back in New Orleans. But how could she not know? Did not his love for the city keep drawing him back there? He had told Summer that he would hang around in the city for a few years, leave and give the mortals he had become acquainted with time to pass and then come back. He had not told her, that on the night he met her, it was the first time he had returned since he had watched Amaranth die here.

  Had it been fate, destiny, or luck that on that night, he would meet her? Someone that caught his eye, drew him in. As long as she was mortal, he could never tell her that he had listened to her thoughts, followed her home that evening and for months after. She would find out soon enough if she chose to become like him, about the reading of the minds. He had vowed to never love again. No matter the mortality of the being, he would remain alone. He tried to reason all those years that had he not made Amaranth a vampire she would not have met the fate she did, but he would also tell himself that she would have died a long time before had he not. He looked at Summer sitting across from him, and wondered if she truly understood the life of forever, or that it was supposed to be. It was easy for the mortal mind to learn of death, experience in watching those they love die when growing up. Accepting the fact that it would one day happen to them too. But when you tasted the gift of living forever, you truly felt invincible. You knew the ability of death was there, but it would take certain circumstances to happen for you to met that end. You also appreciated life, you would see so many changes, and still watch those around you die at some point. Did it make death harder being a creature that was supposed to live forever? He had often wondered about that. It made you see that in your forever life, that death still came. Did not even the creator admit that he was Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end? Did it mean that one day, he would grow tired of it all and just make everything, even himself the end?

  Even he knew that at some point his life would come to an end. Forever was a term that maybe should never be used for his kind. The only thing eternal was soul. This is why Lilith wanted to make the mortals dark ones. The had no hope of ever achieving the heaven they were so fond of reading about. They were just no more than what the book said. Dust. Dirt. They came from it and went back to it. In some way with the hell they seemed to endure here, maybe it was a heaven after all. To be no more, nothing, a part of the ground. To not know, to just be dead. He had thought it must be like nights when you go to sleep and do not dream. There is simply nothing.

  All of the talk and the writings on the resurrection of Jesus and his coming again. He was sent for his mother. Placed among the mortals and to die at their hands because as long as Lilith roamed the earth, they would be evil. This is why his race was created. The reason his mother was chosen to drink that day. The reason the sky was allowed to turn dark for three hours. Summer must never know, just as the Christ had been born to create his kind, so was he born of Caelina to eliminate Lilith. There was coming a day that all hell would break lose.

  Chapter 7

  “Thirst”

  Summer turned up the bottle and took a big swig. By God we are about to get some answers, and ask some questions she thought. “Seneca, what was it like back then? I don’t mean the times and living, I mean your life with Amaranth? I want to know why you chose her. Was it like me? Were we both just something you wanted? I don’t know why you want me. That’s the part I can’t figure out. What purpose in this grand scheme of things do I play? What the fuck is even the grand scheme? Am I to be just a warrior, I thought you loved me for who I was not as some replacement for what you lost!”

  He knew he had it coming. She was not viewing herself as his love, but as a replacement. “I won’t lie to you, even though you probably think I already have by keeping this secret. Our times were good, very good after she got over the deed I had done to her. She was strong, a mighty vampire. I swore never to talk of her again. It was only when you talked and talked about your love of our kind that I decided to expose myself to you. I wanted you to know all of this before I made you one of us. I did not want you learning things unless you knew some of what would happen. Once bitten, all of these things would come to you naturally. I have broken the code of my kind by telling you what I did. I have exposed the secrets of the universe to you. How all things came to be. You know they are true, yet you are jealous over someone I lost two hundred years ago. I cannot change that part, did I love her? Yes, passionately. Do I love yo
u, yes, passionately. I feel for you the same love I felt for her, Why do you think I told you these things today? I have risked it all, and I am sorry. This is more than life and death for you and as well as I. If my thoughts on this are correct, it is a matter of survival of the earth.”

  “What?” She heard herself say much louder than intended. “Are you serious? You want me to become a vampire now to help you save the world? Is this some kind of fucking vampire humor? Because if it is I’m really not getting it! Everything I have ever believed, you have shot to hell, and now I’m supposed to believe WE are going to save the planet? If you don’t wish to talk about your past love, then just say so, you have done a marvelous job of not saying anything for over ten years to me anyway.” He was speechless, he had known this was a bad idea from the start. He never should have gotten involved with another. This was a fight he should have finished alone. Just like he preferred it. If he died, then who cared? It had been a long time since he had meant something to this world and anyone in it, and now when he needed it the most it was about to be gone.

  “I loved you Seneca, do love you, but this is so unbelievable, I mean it is out in left field unbelievable. Even in this stoned out of my mind state, it is not even something I could come up with in my mind at any time. I wanted to be your immortal wife. To spend our lives together and to watch our children grow until they reached the age we could pass immortality on to them. I thought it was simple, get bit, drink blood and live. I didn’t know a vampire was anymore than what a book made them out to be. It all has a dark romantic flair to it, but now it just seems dark. But is there even an option? It seems either way, vampire or not, this is something that is going to happen, and human existence as well as vampire rides on what you do and I don’t have a clue to what that is.”

  He wanted to hold her, to comfort her, and tell her he was sorry. But as much as he loved her, it was her choice and he would have to fight this fight with or without her. “All I can tell you until I give you the bite is, there are dates and times wrong, and the time is upon me soon.”

  Lilith sat behind the cross atop the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson’s Square. It was ten at night and she was scanning the streets for a meal. Did she prefer young or old tonight? Bum, street walker, tourists, cross dresser, gay, lesbian, rich, poor, or just simple male or female straight, just like a good shot of bourbon. She usually took great joy when she drained a man of his life. Isn’t that what all men wanted, to be drained, to be sucked dry by their woman? Her dark humor amused her and decided it was to be a female tonight. She felt like a dirty little girl tonight, and licked her lips at the thought of a drug infested lady of the streets. Maybe save some poor wretched hooker from the dirty clutches of another man, she always took joy in the prostitutes. She loved creating dark ones from them, they always had such a hatred for the men that paid for their services. But tonight was not to be one of those nights, this was not to be an Alexandria moment. The poor soul she bit tonight, would feel her life drain from her. She loved the power she got from feeling the body go limp. It made her feel like a dog with its prey in its mouth, clamping her jaws around its throat tighter, and tighter until all signs of life were gone. Then slowly she could ease to the ground, teeth still deep in the neck, and then with one final shake of her head, it would fall from her mouth and the scent of blood on her lips would fill her with power. It was in those moments she wanted Seneca the most. Then without a sound she was gone from the roof of the church.

  She flew undetectable over the Chef Menteur highway looking for her prey among the many seedy and cheap hotels that covered the area. She had witnessed many nights the presence of New Orleans finest talking the hookers into their squad cars and taking them down the deserted road by the railroad tracks. She had watched the woman do her deed and open the passengers side door to spit, and then the car would drive off and take her back to the place he had gotten her. No wonder they called this road simply The Chef, there was a lot of shady cooking going on and the NOPD was always on the menu. Maybe she should fly over Airline highway and find that hotel where that TV evangelist was busted many years ago with a different kind of lady of the night. If she got lucky she could feed on him.

  Her flight came to an end behind the seediest, nastiest dump she could find. It was dirty blood she was after tonight. She was suddenly feeling extra thirsty, and decided to play surprise visit and pick a room. All the rooms were outside, and the doors were not very secure. She could hear the couple from inside the room in the throes of passion, she touched the door handle and it instantly became unlocked, ah the powers of the night. The couple never saw her coming or the viciousness in her eyes. The girl was on top of the man, and she quickly grabbed her by the throat and squeezed the life from her and tossed her to the floor like a used sex towel. Maybe she wanted the taste of some cold blood tonight too. The man in utter shock was trying to call for help, but his mouth could say no words. It was just open and stammering. She placed her right hand under his jaw and pushed it shut, and evilly placed the index finger of her left hand across his lips, got close to his face and whispered, “shhhhhhhhh.”

  “You don’t know me, and never will, I am about to take your life. Do you believe in the devil? Vampires? What, you don’t know? Well let me tell you, I am both, I am the beginning and the end, your end.” Her white hungry fangs punctured the neck and she drained a couple of pints of nectar from him. She removed her teeth from the wound and tasted his blood on her lips with her dancing tongue. She then leaned into his left ear and said, “In all of your nasty thoughts, did you ever dream of getting the life sucked from you? Isn’t this how you wanted to die? To have a lady taking all of your honey? You really should have been more careful with your thoughts. A vampire lady calls her honey by the name of blood.” Her teeth were back in his throat and as the last shred of life left his body, she bit hard and ripped the side of his throat out. She then reached into his chest, grabbed his heart and bounced it off of the wall. The body of the girl was waiting for her on the floor. Sometimes the taste of cold blood soothed the savage beast. She left the room silently and as she wanted. It was time for Seneca to know she was in town and ready for a good time.

  Michael had found his prey in a silent alley in the French Quarter. He hated the bums, but he had been hungry and finding this one passed out made his feeding even easier. He was surprised to see Lilith on the corner when he had finished his feeding. He knew the look, her black eyes even darker and colder than normal. He knew what ever she had done, it would be in the papers the next morning. He also knew she would make the scene look like a murder. He couldn’t decide what was worse in New Orleans, the scare of a crazed hooker serial killer on the loose, or having the city of superstitions in an uproar over what few believed to exist, vampires. At least they didn’t believe until murders like this happened.

  It had been a long time since he had seen Summer this wasted. He wished he could change the way things had happened, but a decision had to be made. Did she want to be with him as a vampire, or to leave it all and forget she had ever met him? He knew it was a cruel and I’ll be damned thing to do to her, but he had thought it the only logical way, and some times his logic was not the best. He could have taken her mortal life, but he had sworn to never do that again. He would only do it to someone he did not know and seemed to not have much of a life as a human. Picking the homeless, the poor, the single person with no one to hold onto to. There was something about giving eternal life to someone who was ready to commit suicide. He often wondered what the blood tasted like to the dark ones. Did they feel the life of the person, did they taste their thoughts? Could they feel the hopelessness in the puncture wounds, as they licked the life of the lonely good bye?

  “”Yes, I am fucked up, stoned out of my mind and this bottle is helping too.” Summer spoke, amazed at her actual capability to do so without a slur. “I’m so high, I passed God, or whatever in fuck created whatever in hell it is we are living on. It no longer feels like a planet, but
a void. A space where nothing matters anymore. Where those of us born mortal live in a hell and the only heaven we have is to die and return to this shit hole we came from.” Then the reality set in and the tears started to form. “How can this be? How can everything you are taught as a child be so completely wrong? Maybe the Atheist were right all along, there is no God. At least not the one I grew up believing in. The whole story always bothered me. I could never figure out why it had to be that way. The story of a strong man named Samson who was invincible until a woman cut his hair off. Was he real? Was he a mortal? Ah, who gives a damn. Does it really matter? Does anything I am saying right now really matter? I guess the only thing that matters is whether I chose to receive the bite. I never could have dreamed that all those Sunday’s in Bible class would turn out like this. Where do vampires go when they die?” She paused waiting for him to answer. “It is even more for you to understand. Do you really want to know?” He asked back, hoping she did not. But she did and nodded her head yes.

  “You know about the mortal soul, or lack thereof. It is the vampire who possesses the soul. Except Lilith and the Council. They are of something else. Because of the vampires bite on the mortal, it somehow, kind of creates a double being inside. It is the merging of the two that creates a living dead being. If that makes sense. The mortal inside of the vampire becomes that lost soul, it is always seeking redemption. Even though those of us of the light and dark cannot feel it, or even know it is there. These things I tell you, are more secrets that are not revealed and are not to be ever known to the mortal, they only become known to us, the radiant ones. Even the dark ones know not of these things. The merging is why those of the night are always so cold, and I guess you could call them scary. The mortal that was once there is reawakened as a new creature. Once again Summer, search your mind, open it up and you will know all these things I tell you to be true. What happened throughout time in the Old Testament? There were sacrifices to God, the God you believed in. Sometimes these were human sacrifices. The earth was corrupt. Lilith had corrupted it. Something our creator, your God, had made for once pleasure, the human was becoming evil. They were becoming vampires. The creator decided to try and pick a lot of people and to get them to do his will and steer them clear of Satan. As hard as he tried, they had tasted sin in the Garden, and Lilith’s forked tongue always drew them in. Why do you think most of the stories in your book involve men doing evil? Yet once again, an enlightening moment for your eyes is it not? It is all Lilith. But she even does not know the story of why the, your so called Christ came. She thinks because it will not and cannot be revealed to her. My mother was the chosen one, the one sent to save the world, but to save it through me. And I feel like I have failed because in all these years, Lilith is still around. Michael is easy, I can have him gone in no time, but I have hoped to watch him and have him turn on her because she will turn on him when he is no longer useful to her. Of that much I am sure.”