I wondered what I looked like to a human. The only vampire I had seen was Gabriel and that had been under very different circumstances. For a start I was in love with him. His transition into a vampire had been purely to turn me and let me join him for eternity. It had been a moment of ecstasy rather than fear. Gabriel was predatory and authoritative even in his normal form. Without the fangs he still exuded a sense of power and so his transition into a true killer wouldn’t come as a surprise to his prey.
I, on the other hand, had nothing of this atmosphere. I was small and slim and Gabriel had always described me as being angelic with my white blonde hair. Although my victims would be charmed by my supernatural aura, they would never expect me to be the cause of their death. I saw fear in my victim’s eyes when I revealed my true nature and my fangs, but I saw just as much shock in their eyes as terror.
When I looked at Angus I saw that familiar mixture of fear and shock, the perfect fuel for my hunger. I could tell that Angus was desperate to attract Becky’s attention but his fear made it almost impossible for him to speak. I was willing him to leave Becky alone, to let her discover my true nature in her own time.
“Hey, sorry lady...” Becky turned around to face me. Her sentence stopped in mid air as she too saw my face. She was more vocal than her boyfriend. She began to sob and the tears rolled down her face in a heavy river. “Oh god, oh god...” she said over and over.
She was falling apart in front of my very eyes. She clutched at her boyfriend’s arm for support and tried to bury her face behind his body like a shield.
Gabriel would have been in his element if he could see this pathetic woman. He loved to find beautiful girls and make them beg for their lives, but I had never been a fan of his fetish. I found desperate girls pathetic to the point where I could hardly look at them. This young woman was annoying me already and I knew I had to shut her up or risk losing my lust.
I grabbed her by the neck. My hand was like a powerful vice and I could see her life fading away as I tightened my grip. I took my hand away and allowed her to get her breath back for a second.
My fingers had left lingering purple marks on her throat. As I looked at her I noticed a raised white shape appearing under the bruises. It must have been there before, but I only noticed it as the pure white contrasted with the sickly purple.
I ran a finger over the mark. It was a white-silver colour and the texture was softer than the rest of her skin, as if it could easily be broken through. The mark mesmerised me. The shape was distinctive and if I wasn’t already sure what this mark was, the placement was the last clue I needed. The mark lay right over the thick, pulsing vein in her neck.
I had seen this mark many times. I had seen it on my mother’s neck many years before and I had a very similar mark on my own neck, although it had faded substantially. I could guarantee that Gabriel would have one too, somewhere on his body, although it was probably too old to be seen.
This was the bite mark of a vampire.
Becky didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be desirable to vampires. She had the fake appearance and obvious vanity that was a turn off for most common humans, let alone a powerful vampire, but something had bitten her, and it had been recent. That meant that my suspicion was right, and there was another vampire in town. Gabriel could never have feasted on a weak girl and let her go.
“How did you...?” I began but realised that Becky probably didn’t even know she’d been tasted.
It was impossible for me to stop in the middle of feeding, except the time when I was caught draining Ben. Gabriel had learnt to control some of his desires in the many years he had lived as a vampire and so I knew Becky must have been bitten by one of the older creatures.
The thought of my vampire stalker appeared again. Was it him who had bitten Becky? It was possible that he was sending me a message. I shook the thought away. Surely, I was being too egocentric. He had to feed and he wouldn’t choose his victims just for me.
Still, it scared me a little. If this bite mark was down to my stalker then I was well out of my depth. This creature was powerful enough to stop half way through feeding and then erase the memory of the victim while I couldn’t even hide a body convincingly.
I could have sat there for hours contemplating my foe, but I had two meals in front of me and I had to kill them before someone saw the strange taxi driving back and forth with no real destination.
I chose to kill the girl first. The mark on her neck was almost glowing, taunting me. I didn’t want to look at it anymore and so I decided to kill her as quickly as I could. The mark was on the right side of her neck just on top of the vein, my usual fall back spot, but I had never used another vampire’s point of entry so I decided to go to the other side instead.
I sank my teeth in quickly and drained her of her blood. There was no thrill to it. Her desperation had been a turn off from the get go but now I couldn’t stand to spend any more time with her, knowing she’d been tasted before by someone who might one day lead to my death.
The blood was gone from her body in moments and I turned my attention back to her boyfriend. He was more my type. His body was frozen in fear. I had just killed his girlfriend and he could tell I was going to kill him. Just before the point of death many humans can sense the end, but they don’t scream or try to escape, they just resign themselves to their own death.
I picked up Angus’ arm and bit into his wrist. It felt like biting into an apple with a hard outer shell and juicy centre. His blood streamed out and I lapped it up. It wasn’t spectacular, it didn’t effect me as strongly as the blood of some of my other victims, but it was enough. The stream travelled through my own veins, mixing his warm sustaining blood with my cold, dead veins.
It didn’t excite me or fill me with the feeling of strength and power that comes after the perfect kill, but it would keep me going and that was all that mattered. I had killed two victims and my body was full.
I pushed Angus and Becky to the edge of the back seat and climbed into the front. Luckily this taxi was run down and old so it didn’t have the plastic screen that has become customary.
I had to get rid of the taxi driver next. I wasn’t at all hungry and so draining him didn’t seem necessary but I had never killed anyone without drinking their blood.
“Find a river. I don’t care where, just somewhere quiet. Drive fast.” I said to him. The taxi driver was still under my compulsion and so he obeyed my command. It took us about 30 minutes to find a large pond with no-one around.
The driver pulled up beside the water and took his hands away from the wheel. He sat still in the chair, probably awaiting further instructions. I put a hand on either side of his head and tensed my muscles. On the surface I may look fragile but my strength reaches far beyond any human.
I twisted his head to the side, breaking his neck with one swift movement. I undid the seatbelt and pulled the driver’s heavy bulk into the back seat, sliding into the driver’s seat. I was impressed with myself. I knew I was strong but pulling a grown man into the back seat of a car was still impressive.
I had never learned to drive as a human but I was a quick learner. I positioned the car facing the river. I picked a rock up from next to the car and put it on the accelerator. The car raced forwards and disappeared under the water in seconds.
The water rippled out and then became still again. I imagined the car sinking to the bottom of the water and taking the bodies with it. It was the most successful solo kill I’d ever had and I hoped to God that these bodies wouldn’t be discovered. I didn’t need any more stress on my plate.
I walked up the embankment and back on to the deserted path. I focused my energy and tried to pick up any lingering heart beats in the surrounding area, but no-one was there. The sky was pitch black but the moisture of the rainy period hung in the air. Despite it being Easter, the weather could chill you to the bone. Most people would be tucking themselves up in a warm bed by this time.
As a vampire I coul
dn’t feel the cold anymore. I maintained a steady internal temperature most of the time but even I found something uncomfortable in the humid weather. I wasn’t sure of the time but I could tell that sunlight was approaching faster now that summer was coming. This was bad news for the vampire species. Humans had no power over us, but just the natural changing of the season could expose our weaknesses.
I knew I should return to the nest sooner rather than later.I walked along the path more quickly, enjoying the solitary sound of my high heels clattering along the ground. I maintained my mental exploration of my surroundings. I had a strong internal radar and I could pick up other beings in my vicinity with ease.
As I walked a mental brick wall came thundering down, cutting me off from my psychic exploration. I had only experienced this once before. Most human beings didn’t even realise I was watching them, and they certainly couldn’t see me unless I wanted them to.
Yet someone knew where I was, they were putting up a barrier to stop me finding them. The last time I had experienced this feeling was the night I’d killed Ben. That meant that somewhere in the sprawling grass around me there was another vampire, watching and waiting for me.
It had to be my stalker. Gabriel had told me there were very few vampires in Britain due to it being cut off by the seas around it. I knew I was too young to be of any interest to most of the vampires who chose to live here, so I was still no wiser about who was watching me.
I tried to convince myself it wasn’t the same vampire. Maybe it was another creature, someone who had stumbled upon me by coincidence. It was pointless. It had to be my stalker, there was no way around it. I just had to hold on to the vain hope that he was far away from me.
I carried on down the path, speeding up a little just in case I was being followed. I was confused about my situation with Gabriel, but I had no intention of giving up and letting myself be killed by an obsessive vampire, especially when Gabe didn’t even know where I was.
I guess a part of me still held on to some small sliver of hope: Gabriel would forgive me and we would be back to the way we once were. I knew that was unlikely but I couldn’t surrender just in case, and so I focused on getting back to the apartment before sunrise, or before I was cornered by my stalker.
Finally the large entrance gate appeared in front of me. It signalled the end of the expansive grounds and the beginning of the streets outside which were filled with late night stragglers. It would be impossible to kill me in amongst all these human beings. If I crossed through the gate then I would be safe.
If I’d been alive my heart would have been pounding and I could feel my body tensing up, almost as if adrenalin was pumping around my dead veins.
I stopped at the gates, sensing the heartbeats of the people near me. It soothed me to know I was so close to being away from the unseen threat. I turned around to look at the sprawling grass behind me. The mist was gathering heavily over the expansive green but I could see through it. Like Orpheus from the ancient Roman tales and Lot’s wife from the Old Testament, I realised too late that I should never have turned around.
A silhouette appeared from the depths of the mist. It was still several yards away and I knew I would make it out to the street before the owner of this silhouette could reach me, but it was there. This shadowy figure was watching me and had revealed itself to me on purpose. It wanted me to see it, to know it was following me. It was showing me how close it could get to me.
I wanted to flee. I wanted to scream and run as fast as I could until I reached the nest. I felt like one of my own victims just before they resigned to the fact they were facing death. Even in this terrifying situation, the irony was not lost on me.
Then just seconds later the creature was gone, a blink and you’ll miss it moment. The silhouette was there, watching me and taunting me, and then it was gone.
I stood in shock by the gates. Eventually I tore myself away and started back on the journey to my nest. My feet instinctively carried me back to my home but my mind was elsewhere.
No matter what I did I couldn’t stop thinking about this silhouette. Whoever was following me was getting closer. They had started off trying to push me away, inflicting that hunger on me so that I couldn’t follow them. Then he had let me know he was watching me from afar with the creeping feeling he inflicted on me almost every night. Now he was showing himself to me in person.
That lead me to one thought: What would come next? How far would this stalker go before they were satisfied? I felt ashamed. I was a true monster, but this creature scared me more than I’d ever been scared before.
Yet, some part of me also felt exhilarated. Gabriel no longer spent any time with me. I loved him with my whole being, but I had no idea if he returned my feelings. This stalker may have been waiting in the wings to kill me but at least they showed me some attention.
In a strange way I enjoyed knowing that I mattered to someone again.
Chapter 17When I returned to the nest I decided to sleep in the bathroom again. I didn’t see Gabriel, but I could sense he was in the apartment. I couldn’t face an awkward conversation with him, if he even allowed me that, so I thought it would be best to sneak in quietly.
I didn’t know where he’d been during his night alone. I didn’t want to have to explain myself to him either. Any conversation he initiated would undoubtedly involve him questioning me, implying that I couldn’t be trusted. I had done nothing to show him I was trustworthy, that much was true, but I was sick of being treated like a child.
The next night I woke up with thoughts of my follower still lingering on my mind. I felt groggy, with a dry mouth and aching back. Sleeping in a bath tub every night was not what I’d imagined when I’d agreed to become a vampire.
The vampires of old would sleep in coffins and crypts purely to hide themselves from the sunlight in the most secure place imaginable. Over time vampires developed, or maybe they wanted to be part of something the humans were so proud of. Vampires are now often found in the most lavish houses in the world. Each vampire has different preferences when choosing their nest, but I can guarantee that none would choose to sleep in a bath tub, locked away from their mate. I decided at that moment that I didn’t intend on being there for much longer.
I was feeling empowered after my successful solo hunt and the attention I had received from my stalker. I could detect the deathly silence of Gabriel’s slumber. In my old home town I had always been the first to wake up and I had loved watching Gabriel’s quiet sleep. My heightened hearing meant that everything left a trace, even silence. Even his sleep left a trail for me to follow.
I left the bathroom with absolutely no idea what I was going to do. I’d never been one for planning every detail but normally I had some kind of idea what I was about to do. Instead I felt myself walking towards my former bedroom with purpose, a woman on a mission. My mind was screaming at me: What the hell are you doing? You can’t just barge in like this. What are you going to say?
Despite the little voice niggling at me, my feet seemed to have a life of their own. I threw rational thought aside and opened the door.
He was lying on the bed as I’d expected. His dark hair blending in to the silk sheets. Even when he was sleeping I saw nothing but beauty in his face. There was something so powerful about him. He held a delicate balance between authority and compassion, drawing you in until you find yourself surveying every inch of his face.
My loud entrance was enough to rouse him from his sleep, coupled with the nervous energy I was creating. He sat bolt upright, his eyes wide and alert automatically. I had never been able to shock him before. He was so in tune with my emotions that he could almost predict my every move. Obviously my behaviour had created a new experience for both of us.
I didn’t know what I was going to say until the words actually came out. They poured out of me when my usual filter didn’t come in to play. My voice came out stronger than I’d expected, almosr a shout. I didn’t like this tone but I couldn’t control it.
“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t spend the rest of eternity locked away because I’m scared of you. I love you Gabriel and I’m supposed to be your mate.” I saw him bursting to protest against me but I cut him off with my new found confidence.
“No, we’re doing this now. I can’t leave you. My body won’t let me even think about leaving. I have to stay and I’m sure as hell not staying here with you mad at me. I did something wrong, I admit that, but it’s not the end of the world. No-one has linked the crime to us, and even if they did we could just leave town and no-one would find us. Nothing has changed.” I trailed off. I was running out of steam but I guess my point had been made.
Gabriel’s eyes were still wide and I saw several emotions flashing through him. The chilling look of threat came in his eyes at first. He got up from the bed and started walking towards me, and then something in his eyes softened. The threat, the intent, it was all still there. He still had a passion behind his eyes that told me he was set on carrying out something, but this was something else, something new.
He grabbed me by the arms. I was strong but he was stronger, and I knew that there was no point fighting his grip. I saw his muscles flex as he used all his strength to hold me still.
“Louisa...” he murmured. There was a softness to his voice, almost as if he was purring.
He brushed the hair out of my face. That had been a frequent habit of his over the years. He had always done it with gentle touch of a lover, but now there was something different there.
I don’t know what I expected to happen. I tried to see something in him, to predict what he was about to do, but before I could sort through his murky expression he kissed me.
His kisses had always been able to take my breath away. He could sweep me off my feet with just one touch. It was almost as if his touch erased everything. For the moments when his lips lingered on mine I had no past and no future, just the feeling of that moment.
The Embrace Page 14