Gabriel had always had a lot of money, not that he needed much really with his ability to perform compulsion. He could steal the money from the Queen’s pocket without drawing any attention.
I knew he was reluctant to do that unless he had to. He had always shown distaste for stealing money earned by humans, so he must get it from somewhere. When I thought about it a disgruntled business associate seemed highly likely.
I was worrying unnecessarily, of course. I just had to relax and trust Gabriel. After centuries of life as a vampire he knew what he was doing.
The phone didn’t ring again that night and it seemed like my momentary suspicion had faded away. We hunted like old pros. Every little movement we made was synchronised and perfect. We didn’t rely on the easy methods, waiting until a strong heart beat crossed our paths. Instead we focused on finding the perfect victim and then went to seek them out over long distances.
That night we hunted more successfully than ever before. We returned to our nest with the tranquil feeling that comes with a perfect hunt. Nothing could burst through our little bubble, nothing could disturb us.
As we returned to the nest shortly before sun rise Gabriel took my hand in his. This still felt so strange somehow, as if we were in a dream, although of course vampires don’t dream.
My wish had been granted. I had managed to win Gabriel back and now he was mine. We were a couple again, bound by a force stronger than I could even imagine.
In the small window before sunrise Gabriel and I talked again, about everything. We spoke mostly about the future. We had all of eternity to explore our relationship together, every night for hundreds of years to fulfil our deepest fantasies.
Gabriel still wanted to move on to mainland Europe. He said London was good for now but that it was stifling my gift for compulsion. I loved London far too much to leave just yet. The constant stream of tourists provided perfect victims who wouldn’t be easy to pin down. The neon lights entranced me and the thousands of heart beats felt like music in my head.
Gabriel was of course confused by this, as he always was when I spoke about my passion for the vibrant world I had come to know.
“You are the most unusual creature I have ever met.” He told me, laughing as he did. “I’m offering you the chance to go anywhere in the world and you want to stay here? You never cease to amaze me.”
I laughed with him. It felt good to have something to smile about again.
“One day we can go to all of these places, I promise, but I want to explore my own country before I go anywhere else. London is so beautiful. Remember, we have all of eternity together. We can do anything we want.”
He kissed me and as I lay in his arms I thought about that long future. We had a lifetime to figure out what we wanted to do and no-one could take that away from us.
Chapter 21It may seem strange that I welcomed Gabriel back so easily, but he was my true love. When I was with him I felt at ease. I knew that I would be an idiot to let him slide away over something as petty as preserving my pride.
The moment we reunited it felt as if we’d never been apart. We hunted together with the natural flair of wild animals. The nights blended together but it wasn’t due to boredom, rather just an extended lifetime of bliss.
We found a particular spot we liked during one of our nights on the hunt. It was a small, secluded area boasting one of the patches of natural greenery that could be found in London city centre. It was very small but there was a blanket of beautiful flowers which brightened up the scenery even in the darkness. The border was fashioned from tall, thin trees with heavy, overhanging branches.
It may have seemed simple to others, but to us it was paradise. The simple beauty seemed exotic in such an urban space, and the exquisite floral scent enticed us even from a distance.
Sometimes a place simply captivates you. The feeling starts deep in your stomach and not long later your whole body tingles with the thought of what this place could mean. Gabriel and I had felt it once already when we first saw Millingstone apartments. This green heaven seemed to be a new sanctuary for us.
We first saw it during our nightly hunt. It seemed this beautiful area had become a popular hang out for teenagers looking for a quiet spot. As I watched these young lovers with their arms wrapped around each other, pressing their lips together and whispering messages of love, it reminded me of my own relationship with Gabriel, the early stages of puppy love we had shared.
Maybe that was what made this garden special. It reminded me of a long forgotten time when Gabriel and I had experienced no problems, before anything bad had ever happened between us. Although we had reconciled, the bad blood would always be an unspoken part of our past.
We went to the garden almost every night, waiting in the darkness for a pair of young lovers to appear and accidentally wander across our path. We usually chose our victims together, making the decision as the tight unit we had grown to become.
About a week after our discovery of this inner city utopia, I lay in Gabriel’s arms underneath the sprawling branches of one of the trees. We had already fed on an unsuspecting innocent. It wasn’t the usual young lover, just a jogger who had chosen the wrong course. We had feasted on every drop of blood in her veins and so we were satisfied, but there was always room for more.
Gabriel kissed my forehead and brushed a loose hair from my eyes in that old comforting way. My mind relaxed and my muscles loosened. Even after all these years he could make me feel like one of the giddy teenagers who visited the park in the throes of young love.
“I love you.” I whispered. I had never meant anything so sincerely.
“I love you too” he said, gently nuzzling my neck. “Are you still hungry?”
I laughed gently. “Of course. I’m always hungry. If I was a human, I think my stomach would be rumbling.”
He laughed back. It felt wonderful to hear the sound of our laughter mingling together after all that time we had spent avoiding each other.
I turned to face him. There were a few small lights dotted around the garden and the glow shining over Gabriel’s face made him seem angelic. With my pure looks and his shining aura, we probably looked like two angels in the Garden of Eden. The irony was not lost on me.
I kissed his lips gently. “You pick the next victim. Anyone you want, and I’ll go with you.”
His face lit up at the thought. He took me by the hand and pulled me out into the expansive grassy area. The night was nearly over and the couples had slowly disappeared as the hours moved on. Now there were only a few stragglers dotted around the place.
Most of the couples looked the same to me, and none of their heartbeats stood out over the fluttering noises in my head.
“Which one?” I asked him as he looked around the whole crowd before us.
I don’t know how he could tell which one to pick but something drew him over to one particular couple. The boy was tall with muddy blonde hair, his skinny chest clad in a football shirt. Everything about him seemed like a stereotypical teen. The girl was petite and blonde, nothing extraordinary but certainly pleasant. If you asked me she seemed far out of the boy’s league, but I’ve never been a good judge of beauty.
Gabriel nodded towards the blonde. She seemed eerily familiar but I couldn’t place why. I pushed my feelings down and let myself concentrate on the kill. Gabriel and I had worked out a system when killing couples: I would take the boy and distract him while he dealt with the girl.
Our system operated with unrivalled efficiency. I had an undoubtedly strong ability to control humans and it was easy for me to seduce the male of the couple and sink my fangs into his pulsing veins before he even knew what had happened.
Gabriel took longer to seduce the girl, turning her into a quivering wreck before he finally released her into death’s embrace. Usually we would swap as soon as Gabriel was satisfied with the blood he had taken from the female. We would do that a couple of times, gaining our fill of the rich blood of both victims.
&
nbsp; Occasionally we would drink from one source at the same time but that always made me feel nervous. I had developed a new sense of independence since our troubles, although I knew we would never be equal. Gabriel was far stronger and more experienced than me, and I couldn’t yet match up to him. Feeding from the same victim just highlighted the inequalities between us.
After we abandoned the bodies we returned to the nest. It was earlier than normal and I had expected to spend the night talking with him. After everything we’d been through, our nights together were even sweeter now. I’d come to realise that we were both volatile and another fight may be inevitable. That fear made sure that I took hold of ever moment we had together.
As with most of the moments we had together, this one was ruined. I was sprawled out on our bed, feeling the soft sheets against my skin while I waited for Gabriel. He was in the bathroom, cleaning the blood from his hands. He was a messy killer. I imagined that as a human he would have been the kind of person who was always told off for playing with his food. Human characteristics are displayed within the vampire world too, just with a lot more blood.
I felt a shift in the air and I detected his presence. He stood in the doorway, his shadow falling over me. I let my eyes flicker open, expecting him to join me and kiss me in the way no one else could, but there was a look of regret on his face.
He always had that look when he was about to deliver bad news or mention something he didn’t want to talk about. It was then that I saw the black block in his hand: it was his mobile phone. I’d never needed one as a human. The only people I had to call were my distant aunt, my alcoholic mother, or Gabriel, but now I was beginning to hate them. These phone calls seemed to interrupt all of the moments Gabriel and I shared.
“What’s happened, Gabe?” I asked, already sensing the answer.
He sighed. “I have to phone one of my contacts. I’m sorry. They sent me a message while we were hunting and it seems urgent. I’m so sorry.”
He backed out of the room, waving the phone at me as if to prove something. I was furious of course. I had been looking forward to our night together but now it had been snatched away. It seemed something always got in the way of our nights together, but I couldn’t stay mad at him. No matter what he did, or what happened, I couldn’t spend our precious moments together being angry.
I sat up in the bed, straining to hear the conversation. I made out the occasional word but nothing helped me to work out who this business contact was, although it was easy to make out the tone. Emotion was seeping out of him, hitting me with great strength. He was furious, that much was certain, but there was a little undercurrent of excitement. Maybe it was a business venture, like he said, but something about his reaction seemed unusual.
I waited for a few moments, trying to stop myself from eavesdropping. It was entirely immoral for me to spy on him, but I couldn’t help myself. I lay back on the bed until eventually I grew tired of keeping track of him. I felt my eyes close and within a matter of seconds I was asleep.
For the first night in a long while I had fallen asleep without my mate in my arms. It was an uneasy sleep of course. Gabriel was keeping something important from me and I pledged then and there to find out what it was. I knew how destructive secrets could be, and I didn’t want anything to come between us again.
**
It may seem to outsiders that the life of a vampire is monotonous, but it’s hard to describe it’s appeal if you aren’t a part of it. Being a vampire, a creature beyond the mortal realm, feeds every desire a human has to seem powerful. No two kills are the same, yet they can always satisfy your thirst to some degree. Every time you kill you can feel the life of a human slipping away. It almost feels as if their essence, their very soul, is pouring from their body into the skin of their killer. You become invincible and empowered, filled with a confidence that is unshakeable.
It never grows old, and having someone like Gabriel to share it with made the nights seem even more perfect. My life as a vampire had been nearing 9 months yet I never felt as if I was repeating myself, or growing bored of my lifestyle.
Gabriel and I had experienced our fair share of ups and downs but every couple has. As a member of the undead you rarely feel emotion, at least not towards the pitiful humans you encounter. It’s only when you are with your mate that your emotion is heightened, and so fights are bound to break out. Gabriel and I had certainly had difficulties but we had moved past them.
Certain things still bothered me. I was no closer to working out who my mysterious stalker was, and he hadn’t shown himself to me recently so I had no way to track him. Gabriel seemed to receive an unusually high number of telephone calls and often disappeared on “business trips” after we had hunted for the night.
At the root of my discomfort were the victim Gabriel chose. Despite everything I tried I couldn’t shake the feeling that the girls we were killing on a nightly basis were familiar. I couldn’t possibly have met them all but there was something linking them, something important about them which I had to work out.
I tried to push these thoughts away. I had grown very good at that during my time of isolation. It didn’t help to dwell on my paranoid delusions or negativity. Even so, there was something niggling away at me which told me to pay attention, and my instincts weren’t often wrong.
Gabriel and I branched out of our usual spots to make the most of the summer months. We found a busy spot filled with student dormitories and youth hostels, and began to pick off the young residents who were unlucky enough to cross our paths.
I sat in the living room, contemplating our kill of that night. Gabriel had chosen as usual and he had picked a small, Swedish girl who was in London for a semester abroad. She was alone and as we spotted her she was crying quietly to herself. I could sense the loneliness she was feeling and a picture of an older woman appeared in my head, a mother figure perhaps. This girl missed the older woman deeply, whoever she was, and that made her vulnerable.
Gabriel could sense her loneliness too, and we both knew that it made her a perfect target. Those who are lonely or depressed are more susceptible to our gifts, and are far more likely to allow themselves to be separated from a group.
He put on an act, pretending to be a concerned fellow student who had experienced home sickness himself and wanted to lend a helping hand. The poor thing didn’t even see it coming.
She looked beautiful in her final moments. The isolation in her face and mind twisted and distorted in to something undescribable. She wasn’t just living alone anymore, she was dying alone which is a far more intense experience. There was a mask of depression on her face that seemed fragile, doll-like in fact.
Her blood came quicker than most, flowing out of the holes in her neck in a thick red stream. The blood slipped on to her long blonde hair, dying the tips a ghastly red. I took my turn feeding from her. Gabriel stroked my hair as I did, drinking in my passion as I bled the girl dry.
I have to admit that she was a remarkable victim. Her blood had a raw, primal taste which reminded me of the excitement of my early kills. Gabriel had chosen well. I was drawn to certain victims but I had never made by choice the way he did. He would set eyes on a girl and know in an instant that he had to devour her. I had to feel the energy of a potential kill before deciding on their fate. I was envious of his ability, although I told myself it would come with time.
I was sitting by the large, glass panel in our living room, dwelling on the taste of this exchange student. I could still taste the blood in my mouth and there were dried patches of it on my hands. I wondered if the older woman that meant so much to the girl would find out she was dead, or if her disappearance would always remain a mystery.
Despite this tantalising memory something still didn’t feel right. Gabriel’s method of choosing victims was unique and impossible for me to understand. I put it down to experience of course, but he had never explained the reason behind his choices. Even when I pressed him to elaborate he just shrugged or wi
nked before calling his “associate” and disappearing.
The girls he had chosen to kill ran through my mind. Some victims, while satisfying, never really make their mark the way the first kill does, or the way this Swedish girl would, but I could usually remember sketchy details.
Girl after girl flew through my head like a movie reel. Each one represented a different night and nothing seemed to draw them together. They had each possessed their own unique taste and scent; they had worn different clothing and had varying emotional states.
The blood stained blonde hair of the Swede passed through my head, and then it clicked. I’d never really understood the feeling of an epiphany before. I knew what it meant but I’d never been able to apply real world experiences to the concept. This was as close as I had been.
They were all blonde. Every single one. Not just blonde either, but pale skinned with beautiful, glossy locks which highlighted their beauty. They had all been small in stature, often quite skinny, and they had possessed a willowy quality which seemed elegant. They all looked like me as I had when I was a human.
I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to piece this together. Every time we went to hunt I had let Gabriel pick the victim, trusting in his taste more than my own. With every kill I had felt something was wrong, and I had been confused by how Gabriel had such a strong intuition that they would be a good victim.
Now I knew his method. He was picking girls who looked like me, that had to be it. It couldn’t be a coincidence that these girls possessed such unique characteristics, all of the things which had given me my distinctive appearance.
I may have connected the motivation for Gabriel’s odd choices but I hadn’t come any closer to working out the reasons behind it. Maybe I should be flattered: it might be his love for me seeping from his subconscious and imprinting itself on his choices.
I doubted that. Vampires don’t pick people without good reason. They may not be the most desirable kill around but they always serve some purpose, and Gabriel must know why he chose these women.
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