by Aiden James
“Well, I guess I should count my blessings, huh?” I released a low sigh as I considered the continued craziness my life on the run had become. “I believe I’ll take you up on the sleep aid in a little bit.”
“I’m feeling the same way, sister, about what this next leg of our journey is gonna be like,” said Tyreen. She came over to where I sat and handed me an ebook reader that Raquel gave to her earlier.
“There’s some great Anne Rice stuff on it, and I thought the vampire stories gave a realistic portrayal about us,” she said, her smile a hopeful one. “I’d give those first three books a definite five stars. The first one’s the best, in my opinion, since I can really relate to Louis de Pointe du Lac’s struggle with wanting to maintain at least some of his humanity despite being a vampire. I think you’ll relate to him, too.”
“If that’s the case, then perhaps you’ll think of me as a dark haired Lestat de Lioncourt, no?” Armando whirled around in his seat to face me. He seemed much more lucid, as if the imbibed performance from a short while ago was all an act. “Lestat and I have the same cavalier nature, and who’s to say that my older, legendary adventures across Europe and your homeland did not inspire such a character!”
He flashed his gorgeous smile in all of its seductive and arrogant beauty, confirming once more that no one loves himself as much as Armando. Even his deep blue eyes seemed to glow brighter from his immodest self-appraisal.
“You are so much more like Ms. Rice’s Armand and not Lestat!” said Garvan, snickering contemptuously. The glint in his brilliant green eyes said it was just the next jab in an ongoing contest of one-upmanship. “Really, who else compares to Armand for an inflated view of ones’s self? Truly, he is like you, my friend. Besides, your name is nearly the same anyway. It makes for a more logical assumption that you inspired Armand’s character—and not the great Lestat de Lioncourt!”
“What…are you next going to say that you are like Lestat?” said Raquel, with even more contempt in her jab. “You might look the part, but you’re too much of a ‘pussy cat’ to be the ‘lion’ that is Lestat!”
“I think I’ve got an interesting take on this,” said Chanson. “Why don’t we let Txema read the damned books and decide for herself as to who or what inspired such controversial characters? Perhaps, like me, she will see the books as wonderful literature by an exceptionally talented human author, and not the ludicrous biographies that our European brothers and sisters think they are!”
If delivered as sweetly as the words are laid out here, maybe there would not have been a passenger cabin full of scowls. But, there was no mistaking my ancestral cousin’s irritation with this conversation, since to her it had absolutely no value. Yes, she can be quite fun at times. But Chanson is always a vampire centered on the ‘here and now’ with an eye on what’s coming up next. I can hardly wait to see what sleep deprivation does to her infinite patience and syrupy disposition. Yes, that’s a little more sarcasm on my part.
“Let me know when you finish the books. By then, I should have figured out how to share Raquel’s Harry Potter collection onto that device,” said Tyreen, once she reclaimed her seat. She used casual sign language to tell me that none of her peers had a clue how to share their ebooks, or for that matter, mp3s with one another.
“Okay, I’ll do that.” I offered her a grateful smile.
It was obvious that Tyreen’s heart still cared deeply about others, and I wondered how things were progressing for her as a vampire. I hoped at some point we’d both be in the mood to talk about what had taken place the past several months in my absence from her life. Such a conversation hadn’t been possible yet, since I wanted it to be private without any other vampires listening in.
Our business jet taxied through the deserted tarmac, and soon we were back up in the air. The only clue I had about our next destination was from when I glimpsed the shrinking moon through Kazikli’s window to my left before he closed the blinds. It was in the same spot from where it had been earlier that night when we departed Kathmandu and headed west. But I couldn’t recall where the pilot had veered to in order to reach the fuel depot once we landed in Frankfurt. So, despite my best intuitive efforts, there was little I could determine about where we headed next.
Maybe that was just as well since Ralu certainly knew by then that we had touched down in Frankfurt before taking off again.
While immersing myself in the book that launched Ms. Rice’s illustrious career—Interview with a Vampire—I kept an occasional eye on Alaia and also on my vampire cohorts. I wanted to see first hand what would happen when sleep deprivation got the better of the undead. Call it cheap entertainment for the young ‘vampire blood’ mother and her precious daughter who had no permanent home yet.
But at least it sure as hell beat out any dream visitations from the vampire demon, Ralu.
Chapter 14
The plane trip to our next destination took exactly nine hours and twenty-seven minutes. Luckily, I had plenty of excellent reading material and Franz shared his personal Ipod that had a ton of my favorite bands and solo artists’ tunes on it. I was in semi-bliss! Especially since one of Racco’s chefs had prepared a fabulous cordon bleu dinner for me, along with a real bottle of merlot from Racco’s private collection. It wasn’t quite the same as having his sexy presence nearby, but it did make me believe he still thinks about me sometimes.
So, yes, it was a decent start to the final leg of our overnight journey. My cheerful mood lasted longer than I expected, and didn’t begin to sour until we reached the halfway point of our flight.
By then the effects of no sleep for my wicked friends had begun to catch up with everyone, and it started with a general irritation flowing amongst the vampires. Every little thing suddenly was a big deal, and it wasn’t just Garvan and Armando fighting over some ‘I’m better than you’ bullshit issue. It was Tyreen and Raquel snipping at each other over petty fashion preferences, and then Chanson acting like Mommy Dearest to keep order. Even Nora didn’t seem quite like herself, although her reaction was to become almost listless in her movements as she huddled in her chair.
I should add here that the normally subdued ‘mix’ of vampire scents was also disrupted by the volatile mood. They infected the air around me with a barrage of nauseating olfactory combinations, the likes of which I hadn’t experienced since I was first pregnant with Alaia.
If Franz hadn’t threatened to kick Garvan’s ass after a ‘brotherly’ wrestling match turned ugly, Kazikli might’ve waited until we reached our destination to pull out a tray of shot glasses filled with blood. Blood that was laced with a sedative, although surely not one you or I am familiar with, dear reader—unless you, too, are a vampire.
The calming effect was immediate. As they all returned to their normal harmless eccentricities, he came over and sat next to me after Chanson excused herself briefly from the passenger cabin.
“I suppose it’s a good thing they care about you and your daughter’s welfare as much as they do,” he said, smiling tiredly. His spice scent seemed weaker, almost like an old air freshener that needed to be replaced before it ran out. It didn’t seem as if he had taken the same elixir as the others, since the strange attendant smell of eucalyptus wasn’t present with him, and I could smell it wafting toward me from the blood concoction he handed everyone else. “Some vampires respond with an instinctive orneriness when faced with taking a tranquilizer or anything that feels unnatural to our bodies. Like when we were human, it takes time to build up a tolerance for foreign substances.”
“I guess it’s sort of like how Gustav could spike his blood drink with alcohol at the Christmas Eve party last year and be fine, where a younger vampire like Armando might not hold it together as well, huh?” I observed, considering again how similar in many ways the undead are to the living. “I suppose you’re pretty experienced with how to keep things from getting out of hand, like Gustav, too.”
“Exactly…on both counts,” he said.
His
blue eyes twinkled, and for a moment, I glimpsed how much knowledge, power, and decency were all wrapped up into one package with this ancient vampire. I also sensed that Kazikli would make an exceptional vampire king, although I detected his reluctance to hold such lofty responsibility. I had no doubt he read these thoughts of mine verbatim. But rather than address any of it, he told me a little about what to expect upon our arrival at the next destination.
“When we reach our next city, I’ll give you your itinerary for the day,” he said. “Everything has been planned for and already taken care of. All you have to do is follow your instructions and try to have as good a time as is possible.”
Lots of intrigue and a ton of vagueness. The only thing I gathered from this was something potentially fun had been arranged for me. That narrowed things down to everything from a day at an amusement park to sticking my head down a hungry alligator’s throat. It just depended on how ‘fun’ was defined. With vampires, such a thing is especially hard to determine.
“You are such a silly girl at times, Txema,” said Kazikli, smiling tiredly as he studied my face. “I suppose you will simply have to trust that we have something special planned for you amid all of the violence and craziness going on in your new vampire world, as well as the steady disintegration of the human world you used to roam freely in. Alaia will be joining you, so another clue is that you both will be participating in an event we’ve carefully arranged to take place in broad daylight—far from the reaches of any vampire.”
Sounded better…until I thought about the Chinese dragons. They seemed quite fond of ‘broad daylight’.
“Ha! I suppose that could be possible, but not in the country we’ll be visiting next,” he said, chuckling for a moment. “There are only a few areas of the world where vampires have evolved to where they can freely shape shift like what you experienced back in December and January.”
“Does that mean you can’t shape shift where we’re going either?”
Honestly, I couldn’t help myself. My own tiredness left the mouth gate that sometimes works completely disabled. If a thought touched my mind, then most likely I’d send it on through my mouth unchecked.
“Yes, I can always shift,” he said, “And, so could any other vampire that has the ability. It doesn’t matter where we are for it to happen. Having said that, I can assure you of this: no one with my ability, or Xuanxang’s ability—or any other shifter resides in the land where we’ll soon arrive. There are reasons for this I can’t go into, without starting a conversation that will likely still be going on when we land the plane. You need your sleep, Txema, to avoid serious jetlag. You should retire soon, and I can provide a safe sleep aid should you need it.”
As much as I thought a sedative would be nice, I decided against it. The other vampires were steadily becoming calmer, so Kazikli’s elixir was working. However, the biggest reason I turned it down was on account of Alaia. I didn’t want to be dead to the world should she need me. Her feeding times were becoming more spread out instead of the ‘every three hours’ routine she had previously settled into. But, still, I couldn’t bear the thought of not being there for her if something went wrong. After all, our shared birthmark had already enacted a prolonged version of Murphy’s Law…at least for me, it had.
Which brought to mind something that had haunted me since shortly after Alaia’s birth.
“I think I’ll pass on the sedative, Kazikli,” I said. “But I do have a concern that’s been on my mind the past few days…. When will vampires resume feeding on my blood?”
He grew serious for a moment, as he considered my question, which only added to my unease concerning the subject of my blood and how it affected the immortality of more than three hundred vampires. Frankly, the notion that an entire breed of vampires could deteriorate into an army of Nosferatu vampires if deprived of my red corpuscles was an extremely heavy burden to bear. Not to mention it came with many terrifying considerations. Like, what if there wasn’t enough of me to go around for everyone? Would I be rationed off until I died? Or, worse yet, suppose a vampire like the one who had threatened me with violence back in December desired to literally drain me dead while gaining several centuries of virtual youth for only himself. With as many hateful looks as I endured back in China, and along the Kosi River in Nepal, that fear especially seemed well founded.
“It’s true that many are ready to begin the ‘restoration plan’ of invigorating our perpetual youthfulness by taking very small amounts of your blood, and to do this every few years instead of every few decades,” he told me, meeting my worried gaze head on with his solemn one. No bullshit here, so far. “In that way, we can more carefully monitor how much is taken at one time and prevent an accidental death.”
“By draining too much of my blood at one time?”
“Yes,” he said. “And that can also happen if too many feedings take place without allowing enough time for your body to recover adequately.”
Oh joy.
“What about someone taking more than they should—what protection would I have against that?”
“The same protection you have now.” He motioned to the other vampires, and although they all seemed preoccupied with one another, their magazines, and their electronic gadget distractions, I assumed they were listening to our conversation. “The bond that we share with you and your kind is an eternal one that we not only wish to protect from extinction, but it goes much deeper than that—especially for you and even Alaia. I’m sure I speak for all of us gathered here tonight in saying ‘We love you, Txema’. We will do whatever it takes to keep you out of harm’s way. Even if it comes down to killing comrades we’ve been close to for hundreds of years. Yours and Alaia’s well-being must always come first.”
Small pinkish tears formed in the corners of his eyes, and he suddenly looked away.
“Well, if you decide you do need something to help you sleep, let me know,” he said, after abruptly standing. “I need to check on our progress and call ahead to our associates at our landing point, in order to ensure that everything is fully taken care of for us and you upon our arrival.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond, and he suddenly disappeared. I assumed the soft double-clicking noise I heard was the door to the plane’s cockpit opening and then quickly shutting as Kazikli visited with the pilots. I glanced around me. Everyone else was still preoccupied with whatever they were doing before he exited the passenger cabin. At least there was cohesiveness, and the strife I witnessed earlier had truly dissipated.
After taking care of Alaia, who was ready for a diaper change and to be fed, I held her close to me. We smiled at each other and she seemed very much at peace, cooing a little more than usual as if she were trying to converse with me. I gently stroked her fine, dark brown hair that seemed to be getting noticeably fuller each day. Finally, she nodded off and we both fell asleep.
***
When I awoke, the vampires were busy moving about the plane, talking hurriedly amongst themselves. At first I thought this was due to the effects from the elixir they drank wearing off. But then I realized we weren’t moving.
The plane had landed.
“Is everything okay?” I said to Chanson, who seemed the busiest. One moment she was checking her laptop, and the next she had disappeared to some undetermined location…and then back again.
“Yes, everything is fine,” she said, pausing to offer me a wan smile. “Or, maybe I should say that everything is going according to plan.” Her smile widened and she disappeared again.
“Why are you all running around like this?”
Every time I tried to focus on one individual, they’d disappear like Chanson had. It seemed like they all had assigned chores. As I sat observing this craziness, I heard heavy thumps in the section behind the passenger cabin. The thumps were loud enough to awaken Alaia, whose gaze soon mimicked mine as she tried to follow the movements of one vampire after another flitting about.
“Okay, the caskets are all in a
row now, so once dawn gets here we can all jump into our beds and put an end to this marathon nonsense!” Armando announced, and then he looked over at Alaia and me. My daughter’s smile widened, and she kicked her legs as if she wanted to run over to him. “Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee, lil’ darlin’!” he drawled.
“Nashville?!!”
“Uh-huh, that’s what I done just told y’all,” he continued, and walked over to us with the bull-legged strut made famous long ago by John Wayne. He gently picked up my daughter while continuing his antics. “That’s why I’ve been busier than a fox in a goddamned hen house gettin’ our beds ready for sun-up. Even though you can’t see nothin’ yet ‘cause it’s two-fifty-five a.m. and dark as hell out yonder, you damn well know that ole rooster’s gonna crow his lil’ ass off sometime in the next two and a half hours…at least by my reckonin’ that’s what he’ll do!”
If not for the shocking news Armando had told me, I might’ve joined Tyreen and Raquel as they paused to laugh at him. But despite our Armando’s seemingly limitless bag of impromptu jokes, I had far too many questions as to why this city had been chosen above all others as our plane’s destination. I mean, we had been traveling for damn near nineteen hours straight without a break. So why in the hell ‘Nashville’ over anyplace else?
“Because of what’s here,” said Kazikli, reminding me once more that my thoughts were an open book to any vampire on the plane. I had been unaware of his presence in the room with everyone else, although I doubt he ever moved from his seat in the back corner to my right. I just hadn’t noticed him yet. Like Chanson, his laptop was also open and he appeared to be reading something important upon the screen. Something with serious implications, I gathered, since he wasn’t smiling and looked worried. “Or, I should say who’s here.”