by J Wells
“These dreams were my gift to you. They helped you forget, glossed over your grief while you slept.”
It takes a while, but eventually he looks up.
“Don’t you remember your adventures, your conquests and scandalous affairs, the guns, the fire, the dancing, the music, the romance? I could go on, but I’ve said enough…”
“You’re full of shit, playing on my feelings.”
I yank my heels out of the mud.
“Just for a second, Rose, let me un-cloud the windows of your mind. Rome, Valentino, Sebastian, Venice, New York, do I not spark some kind of recollection in your memory?”
All I hear are empty words, empty names and places that mean nothing.
“The Masquerade, Lucian…”
Lucian Valentino, Sebastian … I flinch as faces appear before me. I’m replaying so many beautiful memories.
“Oh my God…”
My whole being trembles, and I grab one hand with the other to steady my nerves.
“Tristan, you bastard!” I spit. “You’re telling me that when Jai lay dying I was gallivanting with other men, having fun, dancing? Why would you do such a thing? How could you be so cruel?”
He raises a brow. “Why? Because I couldn’t sit back and watch you break into tiny pieces.”
I hear such conviction in his voice, and can see the many cracks in his chiselled face.
“What are you?” I hiss.
“I have already told you. I’m your guardian angel, a saviour to many.” A low chuckle passes his lips. “I’m sorry!” he shouts towards the powder-blue sky. “Even guardian angels fuck up, and on this occasion I fucked up big time. During regency times Lucian was an Earl of high standing. He’d been ill for months after contracting consumption. I know everybody’s destiny, and Lucian’s was that he would die the night of the masquerade…”
Tristan pauses, and I hear him swallow before taking a deep breath. Briefly I close my eyes and imagine Lucian walking away from me as I sit on that weathered stone bench.
“It was by pure chance that a masked lady walked into his life and stole his heart.”
“That lady was me!”
“Yes. On his death bed Lucian called out to Lucifer to spare him, he wanted a life with his masked lady. But there was a sting in the tail: the masked maiden was not of Lucian’s time, as you already know.”
I nod in response.
“This challenge pleased the devil somewhat, and he came up with his own concoction of a life. The devil granted Lucian his request; he ripped out his heart, allowing him to live on as the un-dead, a vampire, a blood drinker and scourge of the earth. He and his family may wear the faces of humans, but they are no more real than the masks they wore at the masquerade ball. I am here to reclaim their souls and rid the earth of these unholy creatures.”
“Take me home, get your shit and get out of my flat, get out of my life.”
“I can’t do that, Rose; I need to protect you… You are the key to end this curse.”
My straight face falls into a frown.
“Rose, I’m going round in circles, but the point to all of this is that the masked girl Lucian fell in love with two hundred years ago was you. You were only there because I made it possible. Can’t you see how your destiny and wishes have intertwined, and the mess I’ve made of everything by doing so? All these years Lucian has waited to find his masked lady, though the caveat was that you, Rose, lived over two hundred years in his future.”
Tristan turns away from me, pointing his finger towards the trees.
“Lucian’s here, he wants you, he wants you badly, but he has no idea why. Under no circumstances can he discover your true identity. Your love alone is the only way to break the devil’s curse. Your love has the power to give back mortality to both Lucian and his family of vampires.”
“What are you saying? Where does all of this leave me?”
“If they die as vampires, their souls will burn in the depths of hell for all eternity. If you were to break their curse they would become human, which would give me the power to free their souls and lead them to heaven’s stairway. Lucian will sense you and he will come. Go to him, Rose; you need to finish what should have ended long ago. Go to him, and when all the loose ends are tied up, come back to me.”
“Come back to you? Why should I?” I sneer.
“Jai has left your heart cold. I cannot help the human side of my nature taking over.” Tristan’s gaze wanders up and down my body. “Or where my attraction lies,” he adds.
The corners of his lips rise into a half moon. The glance he throws always manages to lighten my mood, but only now can I see the seductive low-lashed stare in which he holds me.
“You know, you and I are very similar creatures. I spend my life collecting souls, while in your dreams you have been collecting your fair share of hearts. Yet this I put to you: in the future there will be a trade-off between you and me. Metaphorically speaking I shall own your soul, and in return you shall own my heart.”
Turning towards a nearby tree, I count.
“One, two, three, four…”
I continue in my head.
“Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty!” I shout.
My eyes snap open and I turn to look for my family. Although this is the same game we play every night, we still manage to have fun.
Edmond has such a chip on his shoulder. He thinks he’s faster and can out-run and out-smart me. Instead of fleeing like the others, he stands mockingly only feet away, with an annoying smirk on his face. I look over his black trousers and open-necked shirt, and then up to his dirty-blonde hair, which is tied back against his pale skin; his amber eyes goad me to take chase. He may not think he needs a head start, but I’ll prove him wrong. I watch his walk turn into a slow trot.
“Come on, Lucian, get me!” he calls over his shoulder.
So blasé, I think, as he runs between trees and thick bracken bushes. Who’s he kidding? He can’t out-run me. I wait a few seconds longer. I’ll give him a chance. Taking chase, my eyes catch sight of Julian, his small figure darting away to my left. He can wait for now, the slow little fucker. Edmond is by far the strongest game-player; I will get him first.
I hear a splintering of branches and female laughter. Jazlynn skips along delicately. I can’t help but admire her jet-black hair, which floats down way past her waist. Her long maroon skirt is pinched between her fingers as she lifts its hem from the forest floor.
I imagine my feet to be as fast as a cheetah’s; it’s times like this that I actually enjoy my life as a vampire. I take deep breaths, but my chest doesn’t burn. Gaining speed, I love the fact that my legs don’t ache or cramp. My predatory instincts awaken and I run my tongue across the edges of my teeth, their tips as sharp as knives.
I know the direction that Edmond takes. There is such predictability to the man; he hardly strays from the leaf-lined path that snakes its way down towards the riverbank. Light-footed, I arc around the path. I will get there first. My feet accelerate, almost tripping me up as I stop dead. My senses are heightened; I can smell him, he is so near. Hardly breathing for fear of being heard, I stand inconspicuously behind a tree. A shiver runs the length of my spine and I’m filled with sudden excitement on seeing a wisp of Edmond’s fair hair. I leap with the stealth of a preying mantis and grab him within my arms.
“You bastard,” his muffled voice cries out.
I have him clamped in a head-lock. I smile victoriously as he struggles to free himself. Whilst holding him down with his head pressed into the ground, Jazlynn shows her face. I turn towards her.
“Same outcome, just another night!” She laughs.
I see her gaze divert to Edmond, and the way her brows raise and her eyes widen.
I release him from my arms and hear him spit out the leaves. Turning back, I see him wiping dirt from his mouth. Jazlynn clears her throat; it isn’t her voice that speaks, but Edmond’s.
“Lucian,” he splutters, “don’t get me wrong, o
ur nightly games, the duels are great fun.”
Why does the roll of his eyes tell me otherwise? Edmond gets to his feet and circles me. Jazlynn crouches and appears to watch us both.
“We’ve done it,” he announces.
I frown.
“Can you really deny them? Don’t you think it’s about time our women got into the real world, into the twenty-first century and out of the nineteenth? There’s money to be earned and jobs to be had.”
Am I hearing Edmond right? I can’t hide the lift of my brows.
“My friend, women like to talk,” I say, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Our secret has been well-kept within the forest. If it were ever to get out that we are vampires, what do you think the humans would do to us?”
I can feel my fingers tighten on his shoulder blade.
“Think, man, think.”
Forcibly I shake him.
“Lucian…” Jazlynn is quick to interrupt. “Can’t you see we’re bored? Every day we sleep, and every night is the same. Before you men go to work, we play these games of yours because they make you happy. When the games are over, it’s us women that hunt. There is a big world out there waiting, and we want to see more of it.”
I stamp my foot down hard.
“Why can’t you, Arabella, Emily and the others just be content with the life I have given you? I don’t lock you away, do I?” I say, lifting my arms. “We’ve got the car, you have the choice of visiting neighbouring towns and cities, why isn’t that enough?” I ask, and await her answer.
“I have an interview at the snooker hall,” Jazlynn says, “and whatever you think, Lucian, whatever you say, I’m going. We need money and lots of it to get out of here and find our castle above ground…”
I lift my finger to silence her.
“I will have the final say!” my voice thunders. “There are no jobs for any of you female vampires. There’s no life, no living for the dead.”
I point my finger towards the depths of the forest. My temper cools as I swallow back my harsh words.
“All I do is try to protect you. I love you, you fools.” There is a break in my voice.
What they have said has weakened me, but I do not let them see. It is very rare for me to succumb to sentiment. Looking back towards Edmond’s and Jazlynn’s straight faces, I force a smile, one that could have been painted on.
“Go and hunt, get out of my sight. I’m not hungry; you have left a nasty taste in my mouth.”
With my head held high, I walk with the river behind me as Jazlynn and Edmond leave together in the opposite direction. I catch sight of Julian; simple-minded as he is, he has no idea the game is over. He laughs and continues to run between the trees, waiting for me to give chase.
The fun side of my nature is quick to slip away. I can’t help mull over Edmond’s and Jazlynn’s words. Perhaps old habits do die hard and there is some substance to what they say. Though as I stand and contemplate, I can’t be ignorant of the times we are living in and the changes we face. It’s begrudgingly that I admit to myself that life here in the forest does get boring, but I don’t welcome change. Men are meant to provide, and the women are meant to look after us, stay in the forest and await our return.
Tired of walking, I sit down to rest, crossing my legs. I scrunch crisp leaves between my fingers; they are porous and disintegrate like paper. On their release, I watch them as they are picked up by the cool breeze and, like confetti, are taken away.
Getting up again, I walk for a while before resting against a nearby tree. A thick knotted rope hangs above me and I grab it between my hands. As it swings, I sit inside the worn rubber truck tyre. Edmond, ever the opportunist, couldn’t resist when he discovered it lying at the edge of the road and rolled it like a hoop to our hideout. I have to admit, it has added a dash of fun around the place. Before we converted the tyre into a rope-swing, Edmond and I would take turns positioning ourselves inside its rim and would then roll at speed towards the River Trent. Making fun with other people’s cast-offs is about as exciting as life as a vampire gets. I think about how I enjoy my job at The Silken Kite. Though our women complain, maybe they do need escapism of their own. Am I too set in my nineteenth-century ways, or just a selfish man?
With the momentum of my legs, I swing to and fro from the large horse chestnut. Even as night casts her dark face upon me, the essence of summer still holds its sweetness. It is not the best time of year for a vampire, for the hours of darkness are short, leaving us little time to hunt. But even so, my senses cannot help but admire summer, with her prettiness and the sweet fragrances that dance around but go unseen.
“Not working tonight?”
Distracted, my eyes shoot to my side. I see droplets of fresh blood ooze from between Jazlynn’s lips and the way her tongue laps at them.
“No; after last night I can’t be in the same room as Gaz. If I wasn’t a vampire, I think I would have ripped his fucking head off. I need a break, a few days off. But whatever goes on at work, I’m not going to bring trouble home with me.”
“Yeah, right. What about Vinny?” Jazlynn is quick to add.
“Men don’t beat up women, and I’ve had no trouble with him since.”
Our conversation ends as the momentum of my leg kicking increases. I swing higher and higher, breaking between the tree’s lower branches. I gaze down between the dappled leaves at Jazlynn. As a human I would have found her quite attractive; I may even have tried my luck with her at some point. She is a lady of good breeding, with family connections and undeniable good looks. Even standing below me as a vampire she still manages to hold on to some of her previous beauty. Unfortunately for me, unfortunately for us all, being as cold as death and with no beating heart there is very little point.
“I’m not blind you know, I can still see that faraway look in your eyes. Is your mind still fixated on that girl? It won’t do you any good,” she huffs, screwing up her face. “You know you’ll never have her, so forget about her and get yourself to work.”
My fists clench the rope tighter as I slow myself, and the tyre spins. I dig my heels into the worn mud, which spits up at me from below; gradually, I stop. Looking up, I catch the moonbeams as they flit across Jazlynn’s soft ivory complexion. Her long poker-straight hair is tucked untidily behind her ears, so black in colour that it almost loses itself in the darkness. The elongated sweep of her eyelids has quite the oriental feel, set back with elegance in the oval-shape of her face. Word had it her mother had been unable to conceive. It was something of a scandal when the family upped without warning, leaving their estate, and it was said they travelled overseas. On their return they had a ‘babe in arms’; coincidental, one may say. Not according to the rumours that circulated around Almack’s at the time. But two hundred years on, it really doesn’t matter.
I cannot miss the sheen of her amber eyes; they seem to soften in my presence. Her lips appear fuller, almost kissable, though it’s unfortunate I feel nothing.
Oh, to be human again, to hold the curved body of a woman in my arms. To feel the urge a man feels, to once again have that excitement and release. But this life I own gives me none of that, just years of unfulfilled desire and the broken dreams of a masked maiden with whom I fell in love, who has been long forgotten by time but never forgotten by me. What pains me the most is that she died never knowing my true feelings for her.
“Talking of work…” he says.
I look at her clothing, and see that she’s already changed out of her maroon dress and into a shirt and pair of navy trousers.
“Seeing as you’re already dressed and ready, hadn’t you better get to your interview?”
Jazlynn lifts the cuff of her shirtsleeve and looks down at her Rolex.
“Guess some of us round here have to earn a living, especially the way you’re flashing the cash, our cash.”
She storms off, lifting rough edges of bark from passing trees as if it were no more than paper. I watch her rip off a strip, leaving the sap to ooze a
nd bleed.
“A month from now,” she stammers as her amber eyes turn black and narrow like an awaiting dart, “we will have the country house in Derby, our new life which we all have our hearts set on. You know it’s going up for auction. Lucian, this is our one chance to get out of this godforsaken forest. I know how hard you men have saved these last few years, but you’re jeopardising all of our futures. We have the chance to claw our way above ground for good, but you don’t give us a second thought, do you?” she spits. “And you’re jeopardising all of this for a human, for her!”
I frown and watch her continue.
“Lucian, we are sick of living below ground like animals. It is not a castle any more, but a mass grave with dark windows and a dark past. Heed my words,” she snaps, pointing her finger into my face. “If you hand over ten thousand pounds to this girl, it will be the beginning of the end for our family as you know it.”
My eyebrows arch. Breathing in, I can smell her annoyance, though it is not all bad, for I feed off strong emotion. At times I find her to be quite an irritant, whilst at others she is a joy. I can still hear her constant bickering, though I choose to switch off to her opinions. She is not subservient like the other women, she has an opinion and we fight like cat and dog. Her nineteenth-century subservience has been swallowed up by her twenty-first-century attitude.
“Jazlynn…” I lift my finger to her lips to silence her; she’s said enough. “I think it best you remember your place. This world is a vast and lonely one without me and the family unit to protect you. I must say, I admire your tenacity, but believe me when I say they will never leave me, none of them. Now, go paint some colour on that pale face of yours, or you’ll be late for your interview.”
I watch her shoulders drop as she skulks away. My head turns, enabling me to watch her pass. It is obvious from the abruptness of her steps and the way her hands grab at the twigs and leaves that conceal the entrance to our underground castle that I have annoyed her.
Night-time is the time I enjoy the most. Small winged bats swoop around my head, resembling a black halo, and the hum of wings from my nightly friends is my constant companion. I can’t help but admire their loyalty; they eat and hunt like me, I am just bigger, with sharper teeth and far more power.