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© Copyright 2015 by Diane Queenston - All rights reserved. In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Vampire Preference
Vampire Romance For Adults
Diane Queenston
For millennia vampires have run the events of the world from the shadows- shaping events and sculpting the world the way they want it. Even the obsession with them in the media is their doing. They figured if they could win the teenagers over then the rest of the world would quickly follow suit. Many of the things people know about vampires are wrong. Garlic is just some crazy notion that someone cooked up. A vampire can’t see themselves in a mirror, but it is because to the vampire the mirror is a doorway; not because it doesn’t have a soul. The stake through the heart most certainly kills them, but then again apart from zombies what wouldn’t a stake through the heart kill. One thing the books and movies got absolutely right is the crucifix, but a cross only works if the person wielding it has undeniable faith in his Lord. Otherwise the cross holds no power. Some things are never mentioned and with good reasons. Only male vampires are immortal. That is to say that they will live forever until the world ends or they are killed. Female vampires on the other hand only live five hundred years and then their bodies shutdown. It has something to do with the pact the first vampire made with Satan, but the specifics have been lost over time. In their time together a vampire couple will only give birth to one child and the child is always a male. The child takes a hundred years before they are fully grown and able to function completely in the world on their own.
Every five hundred years a male vampire must choose a new mate to turn from the current populace of women. He has a week in which to do so. If he does not find a woman in that week, he must wait another five hundred years to try again. Some choose the first woman they see while others like to shop around a little first. Most just take and turn the woman they choose whether she wants it or not, but a few vampires like to let the woman decide for herself. For Tomas that five-hundred-year cycle has just begun anew and he must pick a new bride.
Tomas walked down the street with his long black trench coat dusting his heels with each step. Underneath his long silver hair his violet eyes roved back and forth in search of the woman he had been dating for sometime now. He had picked Sammy out months before his old bride had expired. She seemed to be a lovely girl. Her short, petite body and close-cropped blonde hair did something for him that he enjoyed. He spotted her as she stepped out of her apartment building and walked down the steps. Tomas quickened his pace and caught up to her as she turned to go down the street.
She never heard him until he was walking right along beside her with a smile on his face. A gentle nudge from his elbow and she turned to look at him. A smile broke out on her own face as she saw who it was. She hadn’t known Tomas long, but she thought he was a great guy even if there was something a little off about him.
“Hello dear.”
“Hi Tomas. What brings you to my part of the neighborhood?”
“I thought I would take you out for supper this evening. How does Pescalero’s on 54th sound? Say nine o’clock?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll pick you up after work.” Tomas took her hand and kissed the back of it lightly. “Until then my dear.”
Without another word he turned on his heel and strolled away to blend into the thickening crowd on the sidewalk. Sammy’s best friend Jen appeared beside her from out of nowhere and took her arm. Sammy watched for a moment to see if she could get another glance at Tomas in the crowd. She hadn’t known him for long, but she really liked him already. Jen tugged on her arm and they started for the restaurant.
“What do you see in him girl?” Jen gave her a serious look. “He talks funny, his hair is grey and he gives off a creepy vibe. I mean come on Sammy.”
“I think he’s cute and he’s a perfect gentleman which is something that is more than rare to find in this town and you know it.”
“Yeah, but I like my men wild Sammy. I like ‘em really wild.”
“I know Jen.” Sammy rolled her eyes and thought back to some of the men that her friend had dated over the years. “Remember the skinhead you dated a few years back. That one was wild and it went really well as I recall. Didn’t it?”
“Okay that one was kinda bad.”
“Kinda?”
The skinhead had taken both Jen and Sammy hostage in a store when Jen told him that she wanted to see other people. He just kind of lost it and pulled a gun out of his waist band and pointed it at both of them. It turned out to be a twelve-hour hostage thing with the SWAT and police.
“Okay it was a disaster, but what are the chances of that happening again?” Jen asked as the waited for the crosswalk light to turn green.
“I’d say pretty likely if you keep dating those ‘bad boys’ like you always do.”
“Whatever.” Jen dismissed her comment with a wave of her hands. “Did you see the news this morning that . . . ”
Sammy zoned out as her friend went on to describe the hot actor she saw on the news that morning. In her mind she went over what she should wear tonight for her date with Tomas. He usually wore that black trench coat with a black vest and white long sleeves underneath. Now that she thought about it, she realized that those clothes were all he wore. She had never seen him in anything different. Maybe he just liked those colors and has a wardrobe of those same outfits, she thought.
They reached the restaurant they had both worked at since their big career as stage actors withered and died beneath the spotlights. As Sammy thought about her life, she realized that she was a walking cliche. She was a failed actress in New York, whose career had dried up, no love life to speak of, and a friend who was wild and dated even wilder guys. All she needed was a cat and she would fit the role perfectly. You know I’ve always wanted a cat, she thought with a chuckle as she tied on her apron.
Tomas watched the hundreds and hundreds of people as they moved around him in a wave on the way to who knows where to do something that to them in that moment seemed like the most important thing in the world. As he watched the daily races of the homo sapiens he could almost see why most of his vampire brethren hated them with a passion and saw them only as cattle to be turned- but then a man stopping to give hard earned money to a homeless woman changed his mind. These people only lived long enough to barely grasp life, but they still somehow found the time to be kind to others. Sure there were those who did more harm than good, but every now and then some shining example would make him think that maybe this species should be in control. It wasn’t like the vampires were doing a great job so far. Wars, murders, deaths by the thousands from diseases- no, the vampires weren’t doing so good at all.
He thought all of this as he walked along 54th street to where he was supposed to meet Sammy at Pescalero’s. He thought that tonight would be the night that he told her what he was and asked h
er to be his bride. He found that he hoped more than he ever had that this one would say yes. He had married hundreds of brides over the centuries, but this girl was something special and something that he had never encountered before. He had never had feelings for a bride like he had for this one. In short, he was in love with Sammy.
He rounded the corner and there she was standing beside a newspaper kiosk with a little black dress on. He grinned and picked up the pace. As he touched her on the shoulder, she spun around with her big, blue eyes open wide. She smiled when she saw it was him and the smile lit Tomas up inside.
“Good evening dear Sammy.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it.
“Hi Tomas,” she laughed. “You’re such a weirdo. Kissing my hand like it’s the thirteenth century or something.”
“Actually they didn’t start kissing the backs of women’s hands until the mid-fourteenth century. Before it was just kings and men of god who got that treatment.”
“How do you know these things? Do you live in books?”
“You might say that,” he grinned because she didn’t know how true that was. He had been at the battle of Hastings, fought in the American Revolution, battled Huns during the middle ages, and fought Christians during the Crusades. Tomas liked to fight for the underdog. “You look ravishing this evening my dear.”
“Thank you,” she looked over his usual attire, “you look good too.”
“Nonsense. This is what I always wear. How about we get something to eat?”
“Okay.” Sometimes when Sammy was with Tomas it was like he could read her mind. When he said that about the clothes her chin almost hit the floor because that was exactly what she had been thinking at the time.
Inside the waiter sat them at their usual table in the back and out of the way, but where they could observe the other people as they came and went. That was one of the things that Tomas and Sammy had in common. They both loved to watch people and wonder about their lives. Who they were and how they lived? For Tomas it was less of a guessing game and more to keep his mind reading skills sharp, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.
Sammy ordered the linguini like she almost always did and Tomas ordered his usual-spaghetti with extra garlic and meat balls. He liked garlic, but Sammy joked with him about how it made his breath smell. The meal went quite well and they sat afterwards with a glass of wine each and watched the people in the restaurant as they went about their day.
“I bet that one has at least three dogs and she calls all of them her babies.” Sammy pointed to an elderly woman with her hair done up in a severely tight bun. Her clothes were an immaculate white. A strange choice for an Italian restaurant, thought Tomas.
“I bet she does and their names are probably something like Timothy, Jonathan, and Harold, but never Timmy, Johnny, or Harry. Not ever.” It wasn’t probable in the least. That was what her mind told her.
Sammy laughed and moved on to her next choice. “And that one right there is a business man to the core. Look at that suit and tie. Look at the bags under his eyes. I bet he hasn’t taken a vacation day in five years and wouldn’t take a sick day unless he was paralyzed.”
“Sounds about right.” Tomas agreed with a laugh. In fact he hasn’t taken a day off in more than twelve years, he thought.
“Your turn.” She sipped her red wine and waited from him to make a selection.
Tomas scanned the room for a while knowing that he could know everything about everyone in it in less that five minutes if he probed hard enough with his mind. He chose a woman yelling at one of the waiters.
“Her,” he pointed and Sammy followed his finger. “I bet she is the wife of some big shot corporate man and is used to living the high life, but with the economy the way it is they’ve had to make some cutbacks so she comes to places like this and yells at the staff for trivial things to make herself feel better about whom she is because she knows that her husband has found another woman and her marriage is about to go down the drain. Her kids have grown to resent her because of her outbursts and that is the sole reason why her husband started sleeping with the babysitter and his secretary.”
“Good god Tomas,” Sammy looked at him and laughed. “Yours are always so specific. It’s like you really know what they are going through. Why don’t you tell me the pin number to her bank account while you are at it?”
Tomas decided that it was time to let some of his secrets go and see how she took them. “7454. The 74 stands for the year she and her husband got married and the 54 stands for the date her mother and father got married. Anything else you want to know about her?”
“How . . . you made that up. Pretty convincing, but I know you made it up.” She laughed nervously and took a gulp of her wine.
“I didn’t make it up Sammy. I can read minds and do many other things.”
“Sure you can. I knew it. I freaking knew it. The first decent guy I meet in years and he’s some kind of freak who thinks he can read minds.”
“I probably am a freak Sam, but I can read minds. Ask me something about yourself that I couldn’t possibly know from the internet and that you have not told me.”
“What was my first cat’s name when I was a little girl?”
Tomas stared at her for a moment and let his mind probe into hers. He eventually dug the truth out. “You never had a cat as a little girl. You always wanted one, but your father wouldn’t allow it. He said cats were for sissies and bought you a dog. A Doberman and you named him Fluffy just to spite your father. When he got back from driving a load of electronics to Detroit, he found out what you had been calling the dog and tried to change its name, but the dog had already imprinted the name Fluffy and wouldn’t answer to anything else.”
“How . . . how . . . there’s no way you could know that. I’ve never told anyone that story.” Sammy looked him up and down with her brow furrowed. “What the hell are you?”
“I’m a vampire Sammy.”
“What?!” She freaked out before she could control it. She looked around to make sure that no one noticed her outburst as she continued. “You expect me to believe that you’re a vampire. Let me guess- you turn into a bat during the day.”
“No Sammy. You’ve seen me during the day and if I could change into a bat I wouldn’t be a vampire. I would be a shapeshifter, but that is a whole different story for another time. I will prove to you that I am a vampire.”
“Bullshit,” she looked at him smiling, but the smile faded when she saw for sure that he wasn’t joking.
“I’m not kidding Sammy. I wanted to tell you from the beginning, but I was afraid of how you would receive the news.”
“It’s not something you hear every day from a normal human, but for some reason I think that I believe what you are telling me.”
Tomas took her by the hand. He was tempted to use his persuasion on her, but he refused to do so when he was picking a bride. “I believe it because it is true my dear.”
“Can you prove it?” She watched him smugly. “Can you prove that you’re a vampire like you say you are?”
“Of course, but not here in this crowded restaurant. People will go crazy if I show you.”
“Okay where then?”
“The park sounds like a good place. Somewhere there are people close, but not close enough to see me too well. How does that sound Sam?”
“Okay. Let’s go.” She downed the rest of her wine in a single gulp and motioned to the waiter that they were done. Tomas paid for the meal as he had for every meal they had eaten together despite Sammy’s protest that she could pay for her own meals.
They walked to the park at a quick pace with Sammy a little in the lead. Tomas had hoped that this would have gone over better, but so far it wasn’t going as bad as it had gone in the past. She wouldn’t hold hands with him or allow him to hold her arm to escort her. They reached the park in a few minutes as they had only been a few blocks away. Sammy chose a secluded bench where there was little foot traffic and sat down with her arms cr
ossed.
“Okay Tomas. Let’s see this vampire thing.”
“Alright Sammy, but first you have to listen and promise me something. Will you?”
“What is it?”
“Just know that I never meant to hurt you and I would never do so. Not ever. And you have to promise me that after I show you what I am you won’t freak out and leave, but you will stay and at least hear what I have to say.”
“Alright,” she huffed angrily, but he could see that she was curious and he didn’t need to be able to read minds to tell. “Alright I won’t freak out. I promise, but you have to make me a promise too. Promise that you won’t kill me and drink my blood.”
“I promise Sammy. Never would I do something like that and hurt you. You simply mean too much to me. Alright here goes.”
Tomas took a step back and leaned forward so she could see his teeth clearly. He pushed and the canines extended to a massive three inches in an instant. She jumped, but kept to her word and stayed on the bench. He retracted his teeth, smiled at her, and motioned for her to wait for a second. He pointed at a tree across the park and then turned back.
“I will cover that distance in what seems to you like the blink of an eye. Maybe less. Do not blink or you will miss it.”
She laughed, but she stared at him closely. With his strength summoned he took off like a flash for the tree he designated. In the blink of an eye he was there and back. Sammy jerked back on the bench as he slid to a halt in front of her.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Yes . . . I do.” She didn’t seem to be scared -only nervous and confused. “But I don’t understand why you would tell me this.”
“It is simple Sam. I would like you to become my bride.”
“What? Your bride,” she looked at him, brows furrowed, “I don’t understand.”
“Every five hundred years a vampire male must pick a bride from the current homo sapiens. I have chosen you if you will have me, but if not I will move on and try to find another. Some chose to force the women into loving them. I could do that, but I want a bride who will love me for who and what I am without coercion.”
Vampire Romance: Vampire Preference (paranormal shifter romance) (New adult vampire shapeshifter short stories comedy) Page 1