World of Azglen (Full Moon Series Book 1)

by P. Mattern

  Cass handed Mitzi a glass of deep magenta liquid that perfumed the air with the heavenly odors of raspberry and cherry.

  “Look at him.” he answered, shrugging a shoulder in Charley’s direction. ”What do you think? My guess would be its even more intense a transition for him - like coming out of a fog into blinding sunshine!”

  Mitzi glanced over again at Charley, seated languidly on an overstuffed sofa, one arm thrown over the back of it; seemingly hangin on to Fress’s every word. He looked alert, and vital, and – normal - that word again. And for a split second Mitzi didn’t recognize him. He was the son that she had secretly longed for-yet in many ways a stranger to her now. Slowly she smiled.

  “You know, Cass, I may have finally found my son. For so many years who he really was and what he was thinking about was locked up inside of him. He couldn’t tell me. Now he can.”

  Cass patted Mitzi’s forearm and reaching over, bumped his glass against hers as if toasting.

  “To the new Charley and Mitzi, long may they live”, he said in a low voice. Mitzi lifted her glass to her lips and swallowed.

  “Hmmmmmmmmm”, she said, ”Not too sweet, not too dry. Very nice!”

  * * *

  They were sitting on the elegant patio swing that graced Mitzi’s backyard deck, holding hands. Mitzi was sitting, as she usually did, with one legs tucked under her. Her companion was turned toward her with his arm across the back of the wooden swing, talking.

  “OK - wait a minute - bracing myself - what are some of the other questions you mentioned that you still have a burning desire to ask me. Fire when ready, Lady!”

  Mitzi sputtered, ”It’s not an inquisition, silly. Of course I have more questions!”

  “Excuse me”, her companion intoned, ”But didn’t it cross you mind to ask any of them BEFORE we became - how can I put this delicately - ‘close’?

  Her mock punch landed on his raised arm instead of his chin as he deftly defended himself. A high blush was starting to creep up Mitzi’s neck and onto her cheeks.

  “Don’t say that – aloud I mean. Someone might overhear us.”

  He leered at her, taking a slow visual tour of the lush body hidden under her lacy top and linen capris.

  “You know no one else is here. Charley and Fress went to Celeste and Ariels for a cookout. My brother will be there too, with Merilee and Byron. Seems we have the entire place to ourselves.”

  “Stop changing the subject!” Mitzi commanded, somewhat halfheartedly, dodging his kiss.

  “But it’s always the same subject, isn’t it really?” He began to sing an old song, ”Your body’s calling…”

  Mitzi snapped her fingers in his line of vision. ”Snap out of it! Faites attention! I want to know if silver bullets kill you?”

  He sighed, giving into her stubborn and relentless focus.

  “Used to. Until an antidote was developed. Now it’s treated like a snake bite.”

  Mitzi continued her line of questioning.

  “What about garlic?”

  “An irritant, that’s about all.” was the answer.

  “Stake through the heart?”

  “Geez”, he replied,” Are you trying to get rid of me? Unfortunately that one, albeit an effective measure according to Vampire folklore, literature and grade B movies, was never effective. A little awkward wiggling to get the stick out, a moment to heal, and we’re good as new.”

  “You have a pierced ear-how can that be?”

  He laughed and gently brushed her bangs away from her eyes. ”If I took it out the hole would disappear, so I keep it in. It’s healed around the stud, just as in humans. But if I removed it the hole would disappear in 15 seconds.”

  Just then the wind picked up in the right direction so that her scent enveloped him. Looking into her eyes he saw her mood change in an instant.

  “God you’re gorgeous.” He said, a lump rising in his throat. ”I think I’m falling in love with you, Mitzi Rabbit.”

  “I know what that means to me” Mitzi replied carefully. ”What does it mean to you I wonder?”

  “Fair enough question” he answered soberly. ”Let me take a stab at answering it. It means I am besotted. You are in my thoughts constantly. Being away from you kills me… IS killing me. Everything you are and everyone you love is important to me. I worship you. You are a goddess and when I behold you, see your smile, I topple and crumble and become your creature. Your attentions give me life - more life than I ever believed possible… even immortality pales in comparison.”

  She reached over and placed a finger on his still moving lips. Her eyes shown deep blue green and her pupils were liquid pools.

  “No more questions now.” she whispered.

  Bodies intertwined they slipped inside Mitzi’s house. The only sound was the staccato ticking of the grandfather clock in the foyer. And though there were three comfortable beds on the upper landing - Mitzi’s huge one, Charley’s and the one in the guest bedroom, the lovers never made it up the stairs.

  * * *

  Chapter 12: Wine Tasting

  They were all seated around a low Japanese style table at the cottage - Mitzi, Charley, Fressenda, the twins and a pale young man Fress introduced as “Byron”. Mitzi was beginning to feel queasy-Lux caught her eye and wordlessly communicated, ”Be peaceful, it will be okay.” Charley seemed to be concentrating on the dozen or so identically stoppered crystal decanters lined up across the highly lacquered table. Each held a liquid, and the liquids ranged in color from deep vermillion to blush colored to almost clear. In front of each decanter were stacked several diminutive plastic wine glasses. Cass seemed to have orchestrated the event. Tapping the side of one of the decanters with a spoon to get the attention of the group he smiled broadly and began.

  “Greetings to all of you! Welcome to the first annual blood tasting event at chez Cass. The purpose of this event is to acquaint the twice - bittens among us to the subtle flavor nuances of their new favorite-and necessary – beverage. For the veterans in the group this may serve as a refresher course, and an encouragement to expand your culinary horizons.”

  Lux smirked and muttered in a low voice that carried enough for everyone in the group to hear, ”Show boater!”

  “That I am!” Cass agreed happily, ”Especially on such an auspicious occasion. Welcome to our version of ‘blood tasting for dummy’s’. Anyway gentle folk, you have spread out before you some of the finest, locally produced organic refreshment. Are there any questions before we begin? Yes, Mitzi?”

  Mitzi eyed the decanters suspiciously. ”Where did these ‘samples ’come from?”

  Cass nodded approvingly. ”Good question Mitzi! All of the samples before you came from donated stock – Blood Donation issue primarily. Tested rigorously to ascertain that it is indeed disease free. Kept frozen fresh until use.”

  Mitzi swallowed, hard. ”When you say “donated” you didn’t – um - didn’t mean…”

  “Please!” Cass gasped in mock horror. ”You don’t really think that I’d pop open a random human vein for this little tutorial, do you? No ma’am, no worries! Charley, do you have any questions?”

  Charley had been examining the decanters intensely. ”I think I can smell some of them through the bottles - like the bouquet that they are giving off.”

  Cass, Lux and Fress seemed to sit up straighter. Cass responded, ”Oh really? What is it that you smell, Charley?”

  Charley closed his eyes for a moment.

  “Cherry, a woodsy scent, tea… strawberries… chocolate. ”When he finished speaking he opened his eyes and found all three of his friends staring at him. Lux was the first to comment - he gave a low whistle.

  “Charley, that’s phenomenal. Apparently you have some gifts in this area. Mitzi, how about you? Do you pick up anything?”

  Mitzi regretfully shook her head. ”Sorry. Nothing - but my sinuses go crazy around this time of year anyway.”

  “Okay” Cass replied, settling back on his oversized floor
pillow. ”Then let’s begin. Oh - and no spitting. But you may admire the ‘legs’ if you like.”

  First he poured several samples of the intensely dark red one, describing it as “Full bodied, with overtones of plum and chocolate. This is a very good representation of a type ‘O’ - the most prevalent and widely available of our imbibements - and similar to a merlot in my opinion.”

  Mitzi looked distrustfully at the tiny glass in front of her. Her stomach was churning but she forced herself to take a tiny sip. It was exactly as Cass had described - the rubelite liquid tasted like non-alcoholic wine. Encouraged, she drank until the glass was empty. Almost immediately a warmth and calm settled over her. Automatically she held her glass out.

  “More please!”

  Her companions laughed. Cass replied, ”Hold on there little lady, we have a few others lined up. You might as well pace yourself and learn your preferences.”

  From there the group went on to taste Type ‘A’ (“aromatic with vegetal and black current undertones and likened to a Cabernet Sauvignon”), type ‘B’ (“light bodied, sweet, crisp, fruity and flowery like a Riesling”) and a rare type ‘A’ negative - which Cass described as “a cross between a Pinot Noir with its mélange of berry flavors, but with the low acidity and fruitiness of a Spanish Tempranillo.”

  Plasma was offered as an anticlimactic finish (“slightly citrusy but very low key - really a subsistence choice if blood is unavailable”).

  Everyone agreed that the A negative was the best tasting except for Lux who preferred the type B. Cass teased him, saying that Lux’s taste was all in his mouth and that if there was a blood type that tasted like Strawberry Coone’s Farm Lux would probably prefer THAT.

  Mitzi alternated between feeling as if she were among old friends and feeling anxious-the strangeness that she felt she had allowed herself to fall into still made her intermittently question both her sanity and her morals.

  There was so much she liked about the changes. Not just for her sake, but for Charley’s. Still, her skin had taken on a new luster-her crow’s feet wrinkles seemed to be disappearing. She felt easily ten years younger than she had a scant 3 months ago.

  Yet somewhere in the back corners of her mind she felt a knowing, primitive, ”monkey’s paw” sense of superstition that while things seemed to be better, there might be a terrible price to pay for all of it.

  But then she would think of Charley knowing that he was experiencing even more dramatic changes… and knowing that she couldn’t bear to be separated from him in any sense. She wanted to be included in this journey that he was on, not left behind.

  Even if the journey ended up in the mouth of hell - or worse.

  Lux and Byron were chatting as Lux drove the young vampire home. Byron was talking about Charley.

  “Somehow I feel drawn to him - as if he were my long lost little brother or something. He’s been transformed recently, correct?”

  Lux nodded as the black Dodge Helix idled at a stoplight. ”VERY recently. And he’s an unusual case - the first of his kind that I know of. Before he was changed he was disabled - brain damaged. He’d been that way all of his life.”

  “And Mitzi is his mother? That’s amazing. She’s kind of hot. Those almond shaped teal eyes… I wouldn’t mind tapping that!”

  Lux chuckled, ”It’s always the quiet ones with the horniest thoughts. She’s kind of the unofficial “mom” of our group - very nurturing. But don’t repeat what you just said in front of Charley or Cass - they might take offense. Especially Charley.”

  “How did Charley get changed?” Byron asked his thoughts still on his prurient interest in Charley’s mom. ”And who would think to do that? I thought changing the weak - minded was verboten.”

  Lux sighed. ”Generally speaking it is - or at least frowned upon. But my sister is the unofficial Mother Teresa of Vampire kind. Her compassion will be the undoing of her .She felt sorry for him, sensed what he could BECOME, and decided to change him. She didn’t even consult with Cass or me first - just acted on impulse. We didn’t find out until afterward.”

  Byron clucked his tongue. ”She needs to watch that. Although I could tell that she was a sweetheart when we first met. And bossy. A take charge kind of lady.”

  “That would be our Fress. Well Byron, have you decided to stay here for a while?” Byron smiled. ”I like it here. Not so much pressure. Nice town. Plugged nicely into the Vampire - net… what’s not to like? Now I just have to find a lady friend to comfort me in my lonely nights. I was hoping that you could hook me up.”

  Lux grinned. ”I’m sure that I can - we have a decently sized network here.”

  “You know I’m only looking for “twice - bittens”. I don’t do drama. And I don’t want to be involved in changing anyone permanently. And “thrice bittens” can go either way so I’m not interested in that scenario either. I just want to settle down for all eternity with a good old - fashioned lady who adores me as much as I adore her. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

  “It’s not, my bro’. Don’t worry, stick with me - You’ll connect with someone.”

  * * *

  It had been months since Mitzi had visited her husband’s grave, located in a far corner of the local cemetery euphemistically named “Pleasant Ridge.“ She was sitting on the bench opposite the item that marked his final resting place, an ornate concrete marker engraved with Sam’s date of birth and death and the phrase” beloved husband and father”. Sam’s favorite Bible verse was inscribed on one side of the bench and on the other part of a song Charley had begun singing after being told that his dad had gone to heaven. It said ”I want to walk on a path of stars. To be in heaven where you are. ” At the time Mitzi had been stunned that Charley had come up with something so original - but Charley had long ago demonstrated” idiot savant “skills in his speech that were beyond what one would expect from someone with a low I.Q.

  The falling rain suited her mood, and although she was partly sheltered from it by the protective branches of an ancient overhanging elm, she was getting wet. She had come to the cemetery to talk to Sam about everything that had happened in the past few months and thought that being near his body would somehow ground her and give her strength.

  “Help me Sam” she said quietly. ”Help me make good decisions. Help me figure out what I should be doing now that everything is so different.”

  The odd fact that she was sending her prayers to Sam rather than God did not escape her. She was almost afraid to address God given what she had become. And even though the “once bitten” part hadn’t involved a decision on her part, becoming “twice - bitten” HAD been her deliberate and premeditated decision. Mitzi wasn’t completely sure even a kind and loving God would appreciate her reasoning. She hadn’t wanted to be separated from Charley - that was her main reason. The second reason was that her life, at that point in time, had ceased to have any meaning.

  Now she found herself relating to the axiom, ”In for a penny, in for a pound.” It was one that had been repeated often in her childhood growing up in the South. Her happy childhood had become a carousel blur of loving arms, birthday parties, horseback riding, picnics and meeting her husband at the Minor Ivy League University they both had attended.

  Then the too busy, too happy productive years with her husband, starting a family, motherhood - even discovering Charley’s disabilities had strengthen her family and her marriage because they were united with a sense of courageous purpose to be a support for Charley.

  Then Sam’s sudden death. And the following years in which she still had loving family support that gradually faded into a “making do” life as her relatives and even some of her closest friends - always unexpectedly and too soon - joined Sam in the afterlife. Contemplating this feast of losses she began to sob wrenchingly, as though the raw emotional wounds that she had kept sutured closed all these years were suddenly and agonizingly ripped open. Being human was so brave after all - no guarantees, no security that you could rely on. Jus
t a faith that what you were going through would end in the best job you could have done – that, and the idea that there might be more life beyond the finite familiar, and often disappointing one.

  And then, impossibly, a new life had found her while she was still on the earthly plane. One that she could not normally have even guessed at the existence of - another universe that silently coexisted brilliantly organized and undetected on the same planet. Mitzi now thought she knew what the catch was - the ‘monkey’s paw’ twist that was part of the price tag for this new existence: once changed, you were condemned to this earthly plane for eternity.

  Maybe her choice had been to stay with Charley on this earthly plane, simultaneously making an unrecognized choice never to be reunited with Sam –wherever he was now.

  Well she’d made that choice. And it was what it was.

  All cried out, Mitzi fished in the pocket of her trench coat for tissues. She was thinking that she must look a fright. Then she laughed shortly as she remembered.

  She was a vampire. She was beautiful. She would never look a “fright” again.

  * * *

  Chapter 13: Promotion

  Charley and Fress were having a serious discussion at the locally owned coffee shop in downtown Fort Hunt, which had been revitalized through the efforts of the local Gay Community and now boasted a small theatre, several boutiques, two art galleries and an equal number of antiques shops.

  They were discussing Charley’s progress, and his options for becoming ’twice - bitten’. ”What’s wrong with waiting a bit?” Fress asked, idly stirring a straw around in her Green Tea Frappe. You are STILL getting stronger and smarter daily. You may not know this, but for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, some ‘once - bittens’ NEVER change back. Maybe because you were brain damaged to begin with your change is already permanent.”