Eternal Beloved

  That brought a chuckle to his lips. “No. Nothing like that.”

  “Then what?”

  He fixed me with his deep blue eyes and I felt that sensation of the world tilting again. When he spoke, it was unbelievably soothing, but like his voice was coming from far away. “Tell me about your dream, Lacey.”

  “My dream?” I asked. My voice sounded distant as well.

  “Yes. The bad dream you have again and again.”

  I gulped, my eyes locked on his. Where is he going with this? “I…I’m tied down to a hard surface. It’s always night. I struggle to free myself, but I can’t. I’m alone, and then someone appears…with a knife. Sometimes they tell me it’s time to die, other times I can’t make out what they’re saying…but I always wake up when the blade hits my chest.”

  “What kind of knife is it?” Jared asked, his voice even softer.

  “What kind? I don’t know. It’s stone of some sort. Black stone.”

  Jared nodded slowly. “Obsidian.”

  He looked away and stood. The dreamlike quality lifted like a fog, and I watched him stoop down, pick up a pebble, and toss it down the brook.

  “How do you know what kind of stone it is?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he looked up at the moon. “There aren’t many black stones that can be chipped or honed to a reliable blade. Flint or obsidian would be the likely suspects.”

  “It could be anything. It’s just a dream.”

  He sighed again, this time pain evident in his gaze. “I don’t think so, Lacey.”

  What? “Okay, Jared. This is getting weird.”

  “It’s about to get weirder. You wanted to know who I’m afraid of, or what. To understand that, you need to know more about me.” He paused and his eyes bored into me. “About what I am.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Promise me you’ll hear me out with an open mind.”

  I hadn’t known him long, but I knew what I felt. “You can tell me anything. I mean that.”

  “I hope so.” He walked back from the water’s edge and sat down across from me again. “The world isn’t the way people see it, Lacey. The lion’s share go through life asleep, seeing only what they want to. But that doesn’t mean that’s all there is. It just means that the lens through which they’re viewing the world only sees certain things – think of it as certain frequencies. Just as a typical human can’t hear a dog whistle but a dog can, or some spectrums of light are invisible to the human eye but visible to other creatures, so too are certain aspects of reality.”

  I waited for him to continue, not following where he was going. He seemed to understand my puzzlement – expect it, even.

  “Sometimes, though, bits of this reality slip through the cracks into human awareness. Clues to another dimension. Like hints of a familiar melody you can’t put your finger on, but haunt your memory.”

  “Are you talking about ESP? Precognition? I’ve looked at that for abnormal psych.”

  “That’s a very tame version, but yes, it’s similar to what I’m describing. That occurs when the fabric of space-time rips or has a flaw. Certain sensitives can intuit the future, or events at a distance.”

  “You’re…you’re psychic? Is that what this is about?” I asked.

  “No. I mean, yes, somewhat, in that when I’m deeply connected to someone, I can read their thoughts under certain emotionally charged circumstances.”

  My eyes widened. “But why would someone be after you because of that? Is it some CIA experiment thing?”

  Jared laughed at that. “Mmm, no.” He grew serious. “What do you know about the supernatural?”

  I gave him a perplexed look. “Like ghosts? Just what I’ve read as a child.”

  “How about witches and warlocks? Sorcerers? Wizards? Spells?”

  “Harry Potter’s one of my favorite series.” But that’s fiction.

  “What about vampires?”

  “I don’t remember any in those movies.”

  That brought a smile to his lips. “There weren’t any. But what have you heard about them?”

  “I read Dracula when I was in eighth grade. And one of the Anne Rice books. I don’t remember the name.”

  “The stories pop up throughout history, don’t they?”

  I felt a tingle of apprehension along my spine. “Do they?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  My eyes widened. “Are you going to tell me they’re real?”

  “Perhaps not as you’ve read in those books. But yes. There’s truth to them, as there are with most accounts that recur through all cultures and on all continents.”

  I squinted at him. “Are you totally screwing with me? Bringing me out to the forest to tell ghost stories?”

  He chuckled. “I’m not, as you put it, screwing with you. I’m telling you that there are phenomena science doesn’t understand, that fall outside of the realm of the ordinary, but which are nonetheless true, or based in truth. Vampirism is one of them.”

  “And you think that, um, vampires are after you?” I said I’d listen to whatever he said; I didn’t say I’d believe it.

  “Well,” he answered slowly, as if trying to decide how to deal with my skepticism, “that’s not all of it.”

  “Wait…you’re not going to tell me that you’re a vampire? That you’re going to drink my blood?”

  This time there was no laugh. “You’re half right. But I would never, ever drink your blood. I promise you that, Lacey. I swear it. You have nothing to fear from me.”

  Half of me wanted to jump up and bolt away, to run as hard as I could from him. But another part of me was enthralled – there was something about his voice, the way he spoke, that captivated me like nothing ever had.

  I tried to figure out if he was messing with my head or, worse, was actually crazy. Was it possible he truly believed he was a vampire? I knew there were delusional personality disorders, where people believed they were all manner of things: Jesus being one popular hallucination, a superhero another. Maybe he had a screw loose and honestly thought he was one of the undead?

  My thoughts must have shown in my expression, because he laughed again, genuine humor evident in his grin.

  “I know at this point you must think I’m nuts,” he said.

  I tried to recall whether there was a preferred way of dealing with someone who thought they could fly or walk through walls or whatever. I drew a blank, so I opted for what passed for diplomacy with me.

  “Okay, so why are you telling me this? Why tell me you’re a vampire, out here in the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night?”

  He folded his hands in his lap and gazed at me with such sadness my heart hurt looking into his eyes.

  “Because you were one too.”

  Chapter 19

  I stared at Jared in honest astonishment. I tried to form words, but only managed to sputter incoherently as my mind grappled with what he’d said. A part of me wondered for an instant whether he was dangerous – maybe he brought me out here to serial kill me or something? But the look of complete openness in his eyes banished the thought.

  “Come again?” I finally said.

  “Your dream. You were once like me. A long time ago.”

  “Are you saying I’m a vampire?” I asked, doing my best to sound calm and reasonable.

  He grimaced. “Of course not.” He tried again. “But you were.”

  “A vampire.” I exhaled quietly. “I see…”

  “Hear me out. Remember, you promised.”

  I tried to surreptitiously look around for anything I could use to defend myself, a rock or a branch.

  He grinned again. “You don’t need a weapon, Lacey.”

  I stared at him. “Is that you reading my mind?”

  “Hardly. You’re just telegraphing your punches. You have a lousy poker face.”

  “Oh.” I hesitated to ask, but couldn’t stop myself. “How do you know I
was a vampire?”

  He sighed. “Because in a past life, I knew you. In fact, I more than knew you.” He gave me a small smile. “We were in love, Lacey. We…we were to be married.” He paused and his face grew dark. “Until…your dream happened.”

  A knot in my throat suddenly threatened to choke me, and my birthmark throbbed. “It happened?” I whispered.

  He nodded sadly. “Yes. You were from one of the most powerful two clans of vampires in the world. I’m the equivalent of a prince in the other. My maker…the equivalent of my father, for lack of a better word…arranged with the royal court for us to wed, solidifying a union between the two factions. I loved you as I’ve never loved anything or anyone before, or since. And you loved me.”

  All I could do was stare at him.

  “But one of my clan, another royal, wanted you for his own. He petitioned the court to allow him to marry you, rather than me. When the court refused, he…he abducted you and…you know the rest from your dream.”

  I blinked in the moonlight. “I thought vampires were immortal. Or that you had to drive a stake through their hearts, or hang garlic on them, or pour holy water or something?”

  “All variations of legends, with a grain of truth to them. You can kill a new vampire with a stake, but the only way to kill a mature vampire is to cut out their heart with an obsidian knife and then burn it. We can be incapacitated in other ways – stunned, if you like – but a stake through the heart only would work on one that was just made – say within a year. It’s a garbling of the truth that made it into legend. Same with garlic and holy water and crosses. All useless to varying degrees against mature vampires, although our sense of smell is far greater than a human’s, and garlic really does stink to high heaven. I imagine the holy water and crosses were an attempt by village priests to reassure their flock. Or maybe they were inventions by fiction authors.”

  “Is that why you speak so…why you’re so old-fashioned in the way you talk?”

  “Am I? I thought I’d lost that. I’ll have to work on it more.”

  I eyed him skeptically. “Prove it. Turn into a bat.”

  He guffawed. “That’s another fairy tale. Although I confess I never saw the use of it, even if it were possible.”

  “There has to be a way to prove it.”

  “It’s hard to believe, I know. But in your heart, you must know the truth. You must be able to feel it.”

  I didn’t know what to believe. He did look and sound sincere. Which was fine, but if he was psycho, sincerity didn’t mean anything except that he had mistaken his hallucination for reality and was convinced it was real. Which might make him seriously dangerous.

  “So what are your magic powers?” I asked.

  “My heart doesn’t beat. Or rather, it does, but so slowly it’s almost unmeasurable. And I’m ridiculously strong. And faster than a speeding bullet. Oh, and I can control the elements somewhat. There’s some other stuff, but it’s not terribly impressive.”

  I frowned. “You left out the blood-drinking part.”

  “I don’t do that these days.”

  “These days? It’s something you can just give up?”

  “It’s overpowering when you’re a young vampire, the urge. But with time, it fades until it’s no more than a craving.” He shrugged. “Besides, it’s forbidden now. Has been for generations.”

  “Forbidden,” I repeated.

  “The royal court laid down rules. Violate them, and the penalties are harsh.” Another shrug. “Besides, these days there’s no reason to go out and kill. Most just buy blood through our sources when the urge becomes unbearable.”

  My eyes widened. “Buy it?”

  “Sure. From traffickers who lift it from blood banks, mostly. That way there’s no trace of our existence to frighten the humans we live among. When there are bodies all over the place, it causes problems.”

  I felt giddy over the matter-of-fact discussion on blood-drinking and the merits of black-market blood over cold-blooded murder. “Untidy,” I agreed. “There’s probably an app for it, right?”

  He smiled. “It wasn’t always that way. Some of the mass murderers in history were undisciplined members of our tribe. Jack the Ripper. The Cleveland Torso Murderer. But as forensics improved, the danger of the truth being discovered was deemed too great, and an absolute ban on fresh kills was imposed. There are only a few rogue vampires who’ve ignored it, but they were mentally unstable prior to becoming vampires.” Jared paused. “One of the rogues is the one who…who ended your life. He fled afterwards and has never been caught.”

  “Wait. You’re saying there’s a vampire FBI or something?”

  “Not exactly. But there aren’t that many of us, and the various covens know one another and communicate. We all trace our lineage back to the same two makers, so it isn’t surprising.”

  I got to my feet. “You said your heart doesn’t beat.”

  “That’s not entirely accurate, but close enough.”

  A thought occurred to me. “What about the pointy teeth?”

  “They only manifest when we’re in bloodlust.”

  I nodded. “Take your shirt off.”

  Jared looked amused. “Why?”

  “I want to feel your heartbeat, since you won’t turn into a bat or anything dramatic.”

  “I can simulate a heartbeat if you like, with a few obscure muscles.”

  “So you do have one,” I said.

  He stripped off his T-shirt, revealing the most incredible torso I’d ever seen. His skin glowed in the moonlight, and as I stepped closer, I was trembling.

  “You’re shaking,” he whispered.

  “It’s cold,” I countered.

  He reached out and took my hand in both of his and then pressed it against his chest. His flesh was cool to the touch, like satin in its perfection. I waited for his heart to beat and, after a few moments, moved my hand slightly to a better position.

  And felt…nothing.

  I waited expectantly, and after at least twenty seconds, dizziness swept over me and I blacked out.

  ~ ~ ~

  When I came to, Jared had his shirt on and was cradling my head in his lap.

  “Wha…what happened?”

  “You fainted.” He looked down at me with concern. “Were you holding your breath?”

  “I…I don’t remember. Maybe.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t do that again.”

  I opened my eyes wider. “You…you don’t have a heartbeat. You really don’t.”

  “I could be one of those yogis who can slow it to the point where it seems like I don’t.”

  I pushed myself to a sitting position and immediately regretted it as the forest spun around me.

  “Easy,” he said.

  “Are you?” I asked.

  “Am I what?”

  “A yogi?”

  He shook his head. “Afraid not.”

  I studied his face, memorizing every nuance. “How do you know that I’m…that I was a vampire?”

  “Not just a vampire, Lacey. The light of my world. The love of my life. My eternal beloved.”

  “But how did you know?”

  “I didn’t. Not at first. I just knew that when I saw you in the crowd, for the first time in forever, I felt…something I thought I’d permanently lost. So I wanted to learn more. I had to. I came up and talked to you after, but…you do look similar to how you did, but also a little different. I was looking for a special mark I’d recognize, but you have all this wild hair…” He shook his head and chuckled.

  A special mark? Could he mean my birthmark? I remembered his penetrating glance after the concert and how awkward I’d felt. I’d just assumed that if he saw any kind of mark on me, it would be something bad.

  “I couldn’t be sure. It had been so long, and I’d given up hope. But then…for whatever reason, when you got into trouble with that guy, it was like a punch to my gut. I knew you were in trouble as soon as you did. Maybe even before.” He hesitat
ed. “The same thing happened at the river. I lied about practicing my lines. I was in my trailer, and I…I felt you drowning. But that had never happened before except with a few other vampires. And you aren’t a vampire.”

  He appeared to think for a beat. “And I felt…I cared about whether you were hurt. Not compassion or empathy. Something more. Something stronger. I’d only ever felt anything like that once in my life before. So I had to investigate.”

  “Investigate? Is that what you call our dates?”

  “I was trying to figure out what was going on – why I feel such a strong attraction to you. That’s why I was asking you all those questions. I was looking for a clue.”

  My heart soared when he said strong attraction.

  “It wasn’t until I kissed you that it all fell into place. I knew the second my lips touched your skin. It was like a blinding flash. I just knew. Now, how you could be reincarnated is a different story. I have no idea how that could happen. I thought…I believed you were lost for all time.”

  My eyes began to glisten, and I looked away. “You said someone was after you?”

  “Yes. Hunters. There are always hunters, unfortunately. Throughout the ages.”

  “They hunt vampires?”

  “Yes. They’re our nemesis. Sometimes helped by supernatural forces. We’ve made many enemies through the years.”

  “Why do they do it?”

  “Any number of reasons. It’s like asking why people drive monster trucks.”

  I laughed through the tears that threatened to run down my face. “I didn’t know vampires could be funny.”

  “Only the funny ones.”

  I laughed again, the surreal quality of the exchange beyond strange. “Let’s say I believe you…”

  “You want to feel my heart again?”

  I did, in the worst way, in spite of the setting, but I didn’t say so. “Say I believe you,” I continued. “Why do you think the car was hunters?”

  “I found a tracking device. That’s what that disk was.”

  “But if they can’t kill you by hitting you…”

  “If they break my legs or my back with a car, I won’t be going anywhere, at least not for a few minutes. We rejuvenate quickly, but not that quickly. If I was lying on the ground, incapacitated, that would give them the chance to cut out my heart and take it to be burned.”