It felt strange to think of my family so clearly. I lacked even a basic human attachment to them now that I was dead, but I still felt a pang of longing. I didn’t miss the people, but I would quite happily have returned to the days of contentment I had felt before the murders, the kind of comfort I had lost since becoming a vampire.
I made my way through the crowds, picking out the stronger hearts. Everyone seemed lively and vivacious, and in this small room I could pick up the spectrum of human emotions. A large man to my right was chatting pleasantly with a rather mousy young woman and trying desperately not to look at her cleavage; a teenage girl following her parents was worrying about her boyfriend and the possibility that she was pregnant; a little girl playing alone with a toy impressed me with her emotion. I’d never felt that much pure, unadulterated joy from one person.
As I walked through the crowd, untangling the mass of thoughts and feelings, something else appeared. A cold feeling crept up from the base of my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I looked around desperately and tried to pinpoint the source of my discomfort. I felt as if I was being watched, and not just by the eyes of the humans who found me so attractive. Something else was in this hall.
I stopped and focused all my energy on tracing the source of this feeling, the position of the person watching me. I used my mind to feel out to the furthest corners of the room, brushing past the emotions of the people surrounding me.
A brick wall came thundering up in my line of movement. Whatever this thing was, I knew that it was stopping me from locating it.
All the thoughts, conversations and heartbeats around me melted away and one startling image was left: a young woman was standing in a luxurious apartment. The detail of the image was astounding, as clear as if it was right in front of me.
A man came up behind her, his face shrouded in darkness. He gently kissed her neck and then bit into her flesh with extreme force. At that moment the vision suddenly faded away.
The person watching me had sent that vision to me for a reason. It had left me with a strong thirst and the red cloud of hunger was descending. This strange observer knew about my kind. They had implanted this picture in my head to increase my thirst. They had known I wouldn’t be able to control my hunger when such a strong kill was dangled in front of me.
That left only one possibility of the nature of my follower. He had to be a vampire.
I had no time to think about this strange experience. I had to pick a victim and get out before my thirst became uncontrollable. I tried to calm myself as I looked around the room, stalking the strongest possible prey.
My eyes locked on to a man standing behind the stall advertising the charity chosen that year. He was tall and gangly, but he had a welcoming smile and I knew he’d be easy prey.
This was the perfect opportunity to test out my new control over my victims. I focused on this man, the desperate red thirst strengthening my ability like adrenalin does for humans. He looked straight at me and I mentally urged him to walk towards me. I placed the image of him walking away in to his mind and to my pleasure he did as I compelled him to.
I ordered him to follow me as I left the hall, sneaking out of the back entrance into the area next to the wings of the grand stage. Moments later the young man arrived, completely dazed.
I walked up to him and kissed him gently on the lips, letting the kiss linger just a second longer than that of a friendly kiss.
The red curtain was still lowering, consuming almost my whole field of vision. I felt my fangs jutting out already as I stroked this doomed youth’s face.
I knew it would be crucial to control him as we were in such a public place, so I had to compel him again. I thought back to Gabriel and the girl, Grace, days before and mimicked the tone he had adopted.
“I need you to stay very quiet for me, can you do that?” I asked. He nodded, still confused, and I carried on. “Okay, this will hurt. Don’t shout out, don’t even make a sound.”
I waited until he acknowledged me and then leaned in to his neck, piercing the skin quickly and easily. He followed my demands and not a single sound escaped his lips.
I drank in the blood, lapping it up eagerly. The curtain was slowly pulling back as my thirst subsided. I could feel this young man’s heart beat slowing rapidly, in fact much too rapidly. He was a weak man who hadn’t yet grown into his body, and if it hadn’t been for that extreme hunger I would never have picked him. I felt the floor spin as his heart beat neared the point of death.
“Ben! The stall needs operating. You can’t just walk off like that!” A woman yelled from the wings.
I didn’t need to be supernatural to know the victim in my arms must be Ben. I pulled my head from his neck, suddenly struck by panic. I was alone and a human was nearing me while I was in a very compromising position. I could have killed her easily but Gabriel had warned me not to expose my true nature to humans.
Times have changed since Gabriel was turned. A race that thinks you are just a fairytale can be very beneficial. In the old days people were scared of vampires and knew the ways to best protect themselves, but now they think it’s all a myth. Exposing our existence to humans would put them on the offensive once again, and we couldn’t risk it. That had been Gabriel’s strongest warning during his endless lessons.
I let Ben’s body fall to the floor and left through the fire exit at the back, sensing the owner of the angry voice arriving just as I left. I ran quickly away from the building, the feeling of panic still throbbing through my body.
I heard a blood curdling scream echo out from the back of the town hall. The woman must have found Ben’s body.
I waited under the trees near the town hall, blood coating my face. I wiped it away quickly to try to rid myself of any reminders of what had just occurred.
Gabriel arrived after a while but I wasn’t sure how long as time had ceased to matter. I had no idea how long I’d been waiting. I tried to smile brightly for him and ignore the close shave I’d just had but the atmosphere remained tense all the way home. We reached our nest in record speed and fell asleep soon after, but I couldn’t get that scream from my mind. I spent the rest of the night on edge.
I fell asleep praying that Gabriel would never find out about my indiscretion.
I checked the newspaper everyday. It took three days for Ben’s name to appear in the obituaries, and I read the article with dread. He was just 19 years old, a promising student who was heavily involved with voluntary work. His name was given as Benjamin Robert Greene.
I felt terrible. I felt no guilt about killing Ben. I was made to kill and I could no longer feel guilt in the same way humans did, but I felt ashamed of lying to Gabriel about my rash decisions. I feared that someone, some human being who had knowledge of the supernatural world, would realise Ben had been a vampire’s victim and hunt us down.
I hadn’t forgotten about the unknown vampire who had watched me. I knew little of Gabriel’s vampire past before my arrival, so it was possible that one of his old enemies was using me as a target.
I had no idea if I should tell him about my stalker. Eventually I decided to keep it to myself. After all one more secret couldn’t make me feel any worse than I already did.
After the stress of those few days I was desperate to leave town. I wanted a new life more than ever. The once comforting woods behind my house seemed threatening, and the gentle streets were filled with dark corners for an enemy to hide in. I’d hidden in those corners many times myself but now they weren’t a sign of safety, they were a potential threat.
Gabriel had promised me a new life and this was one promise I knew he would keep. My sanity, and our relationship, depended on a clean slate for the two of us and the first step was to leave town.
I pressed Gabriel to find us a new home, gently at first of course, but my questioning became more urgent. I needed to leave town and I needed to leave quickly, if only to protect my nerves.
Eventually,
5 months after my initial transition in to a vampire, Gabriel decided the time was right for us to leave.
Although I was utterly relieved to be leaving town, I felt a slight sadness about leaving my home. I had lived in the house since I was a little girl, and it had often been a comfort for me. I had grown and developed over my time here. My family had made the home their own, until that night when they had been torn away from me.
I had stayed in this town through thick and thin: the garden had been the place where I had first encountered Gabriel, the one man who managed to change my life; in the bedrooms I had smelt the dried blood as my family lay brutally slain around me; in the living room I had collected my mother’s whiskey bottles to stop any visitors seeing the extent of her alcoholism; the village green had been the place of my first kill, my initiation as a true creature of darkness.
I longed to leave, and yet I also feared a new start. I knew escaping the town was the only way forward, but I resented the fact that my home had been taken away from me by the fear of an unknown creature.
I kept telling myself that this was what Gabriel and I needed. I was becoming increasingly cautious while out hunting, constantly on the lookout for the new vampire in town, rather than focusing on our relationship. I needed to get out to ease my guilt and shame.
Gabriel didn’t seem to notice my change in attitude. I still felt some unease around him now that I knew about the power we could display. Every night I tried to find the old Gabriel in him, but I always failed.
I pushed my unhappy feelings deep down inside and tried to resurrect the simpler days we had shared. Those three months of pleasure Gabriel and I had experienced seemed to take up years at the time, yet looking back the moments of ecstasy had been reduced to second. These precious moments were being washed away as my worry grew and my memory became clouded by my increasing doubts.
I saw something in Gabriel’s expression that worried me. Even his smile lost some of its warmth and began to strain-was it less certain? Were his eyes masking a deeper dissatisfaction? Hundreds of questions appeared in my mind every time he looked at me, and it took all my energy to bury them deep within and put on a happy facade.
It took us a long time to decide on where we would live. Gabriel was a cultured man of the world. He told me once, in a rare example of him sharing his past, that he had travelled all over South America in his early vampire years. I knew almost nothing about this time in his life except from the fact that he’d picked up Spanish while he was over there.
My small English town must have been a departure for him considering his previous life of adventure, and I made a mental note to ask him how he ended up in my back garden that fateful night. He knew my past and it was time for me to know his.
In a way I longed to experience life somewhere completely different: I could see the museums of Paris or the waters of Venice, I could visit the glittering lights of New York and the wild outback of Australia. The truth was that I was a homebody. I had the rest of eternity to travel and make my mark on the world. For the time being I needed to stay at home to ease the transition.
Gabriel didn’t understand. I told him I wanted to stay in England for a few more years and he wrinkled up his brow in a rare moment of surprise.
“I promised to take care of you and so I’ll go wherever you want, you know that, but I had hoped you would want to leave this place. I think I still have property in Germany, and there’s a beautiful village in Luxembourg that’s perfect for...” Gabriel trailed off when he saw my face. I had made my decision and he knew that he couldn’t change my mind.
I know I should have been more sensible. When I really thought about it I should have been eager to leave the country. I could have started from scratch, and hopefully I would have lost the tail of my vampire stalker on my journey to mainland Europe.
I was just too stubborn. I adored Britain and I had hardly experienced any of it with my new vampire senses. I wanted to explore my own country before leaving it for the rest of my life. I didn’t know if we would ever return to the country I had grown up in, and I wanted to make the most of it while I still could.
I touched Gabriel’s face with my hands, letting my fingertips journey over the soft skin of his cheeks.
“Gabe, I don’t want to leave yet. Give me a few years. Please.” I begged him.
Gabriel could see my expression and he knew I was fixed in my desire to stay. He sighed and I saw his beautiful face cloud with frustration.
“Fine” he said in a disturbingly calm manner. “I’ll stay here, but only because I love you.”
He kissed me and for a short time it seemed like we were a happy, well adjusted couple again. It seemed like everything was back to normal. If only it was that easy.
Chapter 11I didn’t really know how to handle the practical side to moving home. I was aware that vampires didn’t pay much attention to the laws of humans but I knew that the house had moved in to my name after my mother’s death. Luckily Gabriel seemed to be an expert on the proceedings.
He told me how easy it used to be back when he first became a vampire. You would find a nest, live in it and then abandon it. There was no complex legal procedure. I could sense how much the modern age annoyed him. For once he seemed to be letting humans get to him.
He told me I should give the house to someone. If I just up and left then people would ask questions about my whereabouts, but a sale process would be too lengthy and complex. Gabriel found a human lawyer for me, a young woman named Dahlia Elton. She helped us to transfer the deeds into my aunt Penny’s name without much trouble. Gabriel had plenty of money to spare and so he easily persuaded Dahlia to make my home the first priority on her list.
Gabriel visited her office several times over the 2 weeks it took for the deeds to transfer. As the house transferred into Penny’s name I was called into her office too. I was reluctant, fearing that I wouldn’t be able to keep up the pretence of a concerned human when Penny was mentioned. Gabriel insisted and I knew I had to go if I wanted to keep the peace between us.
I sat in her office and browsed the legal certificates decorating her wall. She had only graduated a few years before but she was certainly a promising talent. Gabriel had done his research. He sat with me and held my hand, gently stroking my palm with his fingertips. He could sense my unease and knew it would affect my ability to give a convincing performance. I had to be completely comfortable.
Dahlia Elton strode in not long after we arrived. It was immediately clear that she was a confident woman. Her red hair framed her face like a lion’s mane and she had a strong nose to match her powerful persona. Despite her formidable appearance, she also seemed tall and graceful, quite feminine somehow. I could see why she had won so many legal battles. She had to be infallible if she could deal with the requests of a deadly vampire.
To my surprise, I found that I quite liked her.
She took a seat at the other side of the desk and stared straight at me, her face fairly expressionless. I was impressed that she could look at our extraordinary appearance without displaying the usual human reactions.
She cleared her throat in an imposing manner, obviously a method to draw everyone’s attention towards us.
“Miss Reed, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Dahlia Elton, although I suppose you know that by now. Your partner has hired me to handle the transaction of your home into the name of one Penelope Grove. I have spoken to Mrs. Grove myself and she has signed the papers as of yesterday. The home is now hers.”
I nodded as Dahlia finished her very formal speech. I didn’t understand why I had to come all the way to the office. Gabriel could easily have told me all of this from home.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Elton, that’s wonderful but I don’t understand why this is so urgent.” I said. There was obviously something Gabriel hadn’t told me and I was not impressed.
The young attorney sighed and dropped some of the formality from her voice.
“Mrs. Grove is happy to take on the pr
operty but she did ask that I pass on a message to you.”
I perked up. This was not what I had expected.
“Miss Reed, I’m sorry to tell you that Mrs. Grove has decided to write you out of her will. You had previously stood to inherit some personal belongings which were due to go to your parents before their death. Now she has decided that she would like to cut you out of the will.”
Dahlia’s expression was sombre with a hint of sympathy. I didn’t really understand. As a human, the world of law had confused me and even my supernatural nature hadn’t taught me anything about this field.
I got the basic idea behind it: Auntie Penny, the woman who had helped to raise me, no longer wanted anything to do with me. She was just making it official.
Penny had always been a regular fixture around my house, and my cousins Freddy and Archie had grown up beside me. Penny had been there for me when the murders happened and she had checked on me often throughout the years while I tried to control my mother’s alcoholism.
Now she was getting rid of me.
Dahlia handled the rest of the legal details with Gabriel while I sat in stunned silence. I had lost almost all of my humanity when I turned into a vampire but Penny was the last connection I had to that long forgotten time. I had to admit that the betrayal had upset me. I was an immortal creature and I didn’t deserve to be treated like dirt by a human.
We left Dahlia’s office and hunted near the building before heading back to the nest. This was to be our last night in my childhood home. Gabriel and I had already chosen the few possessions we wanted to keep and we decided it was time to leave. Now that the house belonged to Penny we couldn’t risk her stumbling into our sanctuary.
I lay with Gabriel on my childhood bed for the final time. He brushed the hair out of my eyes in his comforting, familiar way.
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