“The two people out on Old Mill’s Road,” Hailey gasped, placing her hand up to her mouth.
“Yes. But I promise you nothing like that will ever happen again. Jacobus is young and made a grave mistake that will not be repeated.”
“He’s being punished?” Hailey asked.
“He is.”
“Well that’s good, I guess. You guys have a justice system… and all. And you drink animal blood so you don’t get involved with humans. Very smart, I guess.”
“There are other means.” When Hailey looked at him with a desire to understand what he meant, he elaborated further. “We recently took over fifty pints from a mobile blood bank. We left behind the blood that we could smell was contaminated by human infections and took the rest.”
“Your sense of smell is that keen?” Hailey asked. And he told her that he could smell every human infection and disease on earth. It was an evolutionary trait that allowed vampires to flourish. That led into a discussion of the earliest vampire civilization on earth – located in the Balkan Peninsula, and still standing to this day he informed her. This led to a question about more vampire lore.
“Tell me,” Hailey said as he sat on the bed next to her. “Can you turn into a bat?”
“A Bat… a wolf… and we may take the form of the mist in the air.”
“Wait, what? You can become a wolf. And you can transform into mist?” He nodded to which she said, “I’ve never heard of that before.”
“I’d be willing to bet that, with your finite years on earth, there are a great many things you have not heard of,” he said with a slight arrogance.
“No need to be pretentious,” Hailey scoffed.
“Knowledge itself feels subjective when you’ve lived on this earth for over 300 years.”
“That’s a long time to be seventeen years old,” Hailey said, her tone struck by the permanence of his words. “I can’t even imagine such a thing.” She paused for a moment just staring at him. “What about garlic and holy water and crosses?”
“Food, water, and wood. Not very harmful I’m afraid.”
“And the thing about soil and caskets?” she asked.
“I have a coffin containing soil of my homeland, yes. But is it necessary that I sleep in it? No. And before you ask, when you’ve reached my age you need as much sleep as you can get. Sleeping from seven to seven usually does the trick for me.”
Hailey looked at him in pure astonishment, still unbelieving that a real vampire was sitting next to her on her bed. Then the very real teenage thought entered her mind of what her mother would think if she were to open the door and walk in on Hailey sitting next to a boy on her bed at midnight. This made her smirk.
She grabbed the hairband from her wrist and used it to tie her hair, tossing it back to one side. Percy longingly gazed at her warm, smooth neck. She noticed immediately.
“Do my arteries turn you on?” she asked. And they both shared a laugh. “Okay,” she said. “You told me you could turn into a bat or a wolf or mist. The mist being the most unbelievable. Prove it.”
“Only because I am enjoying your company,” he smiled. And immediately he began to transform into particles of mist, his body crumbling into an airy mist from left to right until he was nothing but a gust of fog rolling around the ceiling of her bedroom. The mist moved in and out of a vent before reassembling back into a boy in front of her very eyes.
“Oh. My. God,” she gasped, her eyes as wide as saucers.
“Told you,” he winked.
Hailey had never seen a human being reassemble themselves into another form before in her life – much less a thin cloud of mist and fog. But then she remembered – Percy was no human being. No, he was the most astonishing thing she had ever seen in her life. A 300-year-old gentle beast. She was far too hesitant to ask him to transform into his wolf or bat form. Besides, he wasn’t a circus animal meant to perform tricks at will.
“Do you have to learn to do that?” she asked.
“Three hundred years is a long time to practice. Now I must admit, I have a question for you. You’ve been quite inquisitive for the past hour.”
“Oh,” Hailey said apologetically. “I’m so sorry. It’s just that I’ve never met a vampire before. I shouldn’t have asked so many questions.”
“It’s quite alright.”
“Ask away,” she said.
“I’m not into hypnotizing people I like. So I must ask you directly. Would you allow yourself to be courted?”
This question perhaps threw Hailey off guard and shocked her more than any other revelation tonight – more than seeing an immortal teenage boy transform into fog and mist. How could she answer this? What was she to tell him? If she said yes, would he be showing up in her window seal each night, flying into her room as her own personal Peter Pan?
Most of all, what made her stand out from all of the other girls at Corpus High? She washed her hair with strawberry shampoo, could that have been it? Focus, Hailey. What does he really want with me? What could he possibly see in me?
“I… I don’t know,” she told him truthfully and painfully.
“I suppose that’s not a no,” he asked.
“It’s not,” she answered.
He closed his eyes and raised his head into the air. He took a deep breath, wafting her scent. It was intoxicating. And just as well, it was time for him to go.
“I must depart now, Hailey. Thank you for a fascinating talk. Perhaps next time, I’ll get the answer I’m looking for.”
He smiled and slowly crumbled into particles of mist and fog – floating away and out the window from the human girl he had been so smitten with.
But as he left, her brother was in his bedroom, just a few windows away. Mason was closing his window when he saw a whirring mist leave his sister’s window and float upward into the sky.
“What the hell is that?” he said quietly to himself. And he watched and gasped as the mist began to transform. Within seconds it took the dark form of a giant bat – its wicked wingspan silhouetted against the moon itself. He was sure he had been seeing things. Either that… or a creature of the night had just snuck out of his sister’s bedroom.
***
Meanwhile, Hailey would not be the only person in Corpus to receive a supernatural visitor that night. Across town, Sebastian was preparing for bed. His thoughts finally unclouded. Confusion finally drifting to the place where burden lessened. He was beginning to gain a sense of peace.
It was then that he heard the knock at his window. The same kind that Hailey heard at her window. So it should be unsurprising that Sebastian rushed to his window and stared back at a vampire.
It was Gregory, sweeping a strand of his long black hair from his face. He smirked and raised a single hand, as if to wave, before lowering it just as quickly.
If there were any difference between the window meetings of Hailey and Sebastian, it was that Sebastian lived in a one-story house.
Suffice it to say, an individual appearing at the window of a room on the ground floor was not quite as mesmerizing as one who’d appeared floating at a second story window.
All the same, Sebastian was just as excited to see the older boy who’d saved him from imminent death nearly twenty-four hours ago.
Sebastian raised the window. “What are you doing here?” he exclaimed.
“I’ve come to see you, of course.”
“I was hoping I would get to see you again,” Sebastian said.
“Then what are you waiting for, my young friend. Invite me in.”
Sebastian paused. “You need to be invited in, don’t you?”
“That is so.”
“Cool. Then come on in.”
The tall black-clad boy swooped into Sebastian’s room and closed the window behind him. “It’s sort of cold out tonight,” he told Sebastian.
“Gregory,” Sebastian said.
“You remembered my name, did you? And I, yours, Sebastian. A fine name to be sure.”
&nbs
p; “I wanted to say thanks. I really could have died last night.”
“My good friend, Percivell, described saving someone interesting last night as well. Perhaps we ought not make it a routine of saving humans. Regardless, I assure you that dying isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
“Because you’re a vampire, aren’t you?”
“What gave it away?”
“Your strength, for one. And I saw Jason stab you last night. You didn’t even wince. Then my suspicions were confirmed only a minute ago when I asked if you if had to invite you in. I love horror movies. I’ve seen enough to know that vampires have to be invited inside a house in order to enter.”
“So horror movies inform your knowledge of vampires, do they? Well where’s my cape and medallion?”
“But I bet you have fangs,” Sebastian said, standing his ground.
Immediately Gregory opened his mouth for Sebastian to see as fangs grew from his incisors. The boy leapt back and gasped. “I promise I didn’t mean to startle you,” Gregory said with a smirk.
“A real, live, vampire. I’ll be damned. My friends are gonna freak. And you’re not like some bloodsucking savage either. You’re kind of cool.”
“Cool, huh?” he laughed. “Well I appreciate it, kid.”
“Why’d you save me?” Sebastian asked, in need of a genuine answer.
“Because you needed saving.”
“But then you smelled me. The same way a dog sniffs people. You… you want something from me, don’t you? Perhaps just me.”
“From you? I’ve not wanted someone in over a hundred years. Control is the most important thing a vampire must learn. Otherwise we risk exposing many millennia of secrecy.”
That lead to a discussion of the dead couple and of the empty bloodmobile – the same discussion that Percy shared with his human interest. Sebastian was given Gregory’s reassurance that he doesn’t kill humans and such an act is expressly forbidden by vampire-kind. This eased the tension – slightly.
“So just how old are you?” Sebastian later asked.
“I was turned when I was a teenager. That was 372 years ago. However, among our kind we do not count our human years within our age. When you are turned you are reborn as a greater and more dominant species. Age, of course, is less specific to us the older we get. A vampire who is 1123 years old will simply say they are 1000 years old.”
“So you just round,” Sebastian said, still slightly nervous.
“Please, don’t be nervous. You invited me in because you presumably trusted me. Did you not?”
“Yeah… um, I guess so. But it’s still scary, y’know?”
“I’m afraid fear is not something I’ve felt in many centuries. We tend to love only our own kind, in fear of loving a finite creature that will soon return to the dust from wince it was created.”
“I dunno,” Sebastian said. “Normal humans can live to be like ninety or a hundred. That plenty enough years.”
“But can’t you dream of more?”
“Wouldn’t it get awfully boring?”
“Not when you know how to enjoy it. There are tens of thousands of cities and regions on earth. Imagine spending just one year on each of them. Doesn’t seem so boring now, does it? Vampires love to travel.”
“Have you been to every continent?”
“I have.”
“That’s amazing. I’ve never left Georgia before.”
“You’ve a full life ahead of you. Do you dream of more?”
“More than Corpus? Yeah. Who doesn’t? But I can’t imagine being a vampire. Human is hard enough.”
Sebastian could tell that Gregory had stopped listening to him when he closed his eyes, placed his nose upward, and smelled the air.
“Truly impeccable,” Gregory whispered.
“Are you smelling me?” Sebastian asked.
“I won’t disagree with that assessment. But,” he said, changing the subject. “I truly feel as if I owe you.”
“What do you mean, owe me? You saved my life… don’t you mean I owe you.”
“Is that how you feel?” Gregory asked him.
“Well, I guess so.”
“So what would you be willing to do for me, Sebastian?”
“I… I don’t know. What do you want from me? My blood?”
“On the contrary…” Gregory paused for a moment then continued. “Would you be up for traveling with me tonight?”
“Where?” Sebastian asked.
“My home.”
“Is that in like Transylvania or something.”
“No,” he laughed. “It’s right here in Corpus. There’s this vampire order, you see. Ancient. And there’s so very few of us, they station us around the world, changing our locations every few years for safety… and to keep things fresh.”
“How many vampires are there?”
“There are several orders. Ours is the Order of Lilith, and contains three million around the globe. There are fifteen million of us counted among the orders. However, there are surely many more who live a nomadic existence and wish not to be discovered.”
“A whole order of vampires. And millions of you all around the globe! How much other stuff is out there? Werewolves? Mummies? Freddy Krueger?”
“In all my existence I’ve never seen any of those things except in the movies that keep you entertained.”
“This just gets better and better,” Sebastian said, shaking his head in nonbelief and just realizing how absurd the reality of the situation truly was. “This is insane. Vampires are real.”
“And now that we’ve established that, will you come with me?”
Before Sebastian could answer him, Gregory opened his window and climbed out. “Come on,” he commanded him and Sebastian followed.
Sebastian was without shoes. His bare feet stepped upon the dewy grass. “Cold,” he shivered.
“We’ll fly low then,” Gregory told him.
Gregory reached out his hand and Sebastian extended his own. The vampire took Sebastian’s hand. He pulled the boy in closer, turning Sebastian around so he faced the boy’s back, and placed his other arm around Sebastian’s waist.
“Are you ready?” he asked. And before Sebastian could answer they’d lifted off the ground. Cool air blew against his face as they got further and further into the sky.
“This is unreal,” Sebastian said. It was more than incredible, it was exhilarating. The winds rushed against them as Gregory’s speed picked up.
Sebastian had never experienced anything like this in his life. “So this is what flying with a vampire is like?” he asked.
“Sebastian, I’d ask you how you’re enjoying it but I already know the answer. Perhaps we could do this often.”
“Often?”
“As much as you’d like,” Gregory said, and they were moving so fast they both had to speak much louder in order to hear what the other was saying.
“Aren’t you afraid someone might see us!” Sebastian asked as they flew through the night sky.
“Not at all,” Gregory answered. “You people don’t stay out late. This isn’t Yonkers. But more importantly, sometimes you just gotta say fuck it… and live a little.”
They flew over and past the school. Then several miles later through a long thicket of forest trees. On the other side of the forest lied a pink domed manor. It was the largest home that Sebastian had ever seen.
A black gate surrounded the manor. The lawn was freshly manicured. And Sebastian could see black drapes up to every window.
Gregory slowed. Together they landed on their feet at the entrance of the pink antebellum mansion.
“Welcome to Vampyr Manor,” Gregory told him. “When vampires of the order are assigned to Corpus, there is where we call home.”
Gregory inserted a key into the ornate gilded door, turned its golden doorknob, and the door itself flung open.
Inside was a massive foyer with marble floors and a chandelier hanging from its center. There were halls of rooms and a red-carpet
ed staircase.
“It’s incredible,” Sebastian said. “I’ve never been in a house so big. It’s looks as big as the White House.”
“Even compared to most properties under ownership of the Order, it is admittedly one of the nicest. Tucked away in this tiny town.”
Sebastian looked into a mirror near the staircase. He saw his own reflection, but not Gregory’s.
“Ah, yes,” Gregory said, turning to look in the mirror he saw Sebastian staring into. “I was wondering what you were looking at.”
“You always hear that vampires don’t have a reflection. But to see it… it’s really something,” Sebastian said quietly.
“It is a sad reminder to be sure. A sad reminder of what we were. And of our inability to see our own selves. It is the ultimate form of inhumanity. I have not been able to see what I look like in over 300 years.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Sebastian softly. “It sounds so sad.” There was pity radiating from his voice.
“But, in turn, we have traded so much for it – Immortality. It is why a few of us coined the name – The Grateful Boys. But to be fair, we could always commission a painting.” He winked.
Gregory pointed to the other side of the room, to the opposite side of the spiral staircase. Sebastian looked in his direction and saw a large oil painting. There was Gregory, Percy, the blond Alobard, the mohawked Gabriel, long-haired Jacobus, and in the center was a black suited man with dark hair who looked middle aged.
“Is that your leader?” Sebastian asked.
“The Chancellor of our clique, so to speak. Yes. But he is rarely here. It is unlikely you would ever meet him.”
“And the rest are your brothers? I mean, vampire brothers. Not blood brothers. Your real family must have died hundreds of years ago,” Sebastian said as Gregory nodded. “Thank you for sharing so much with me. You’re really not as scary as I ever thought a vampire would be. Or could be.”
“I promise you, we could be just as frightening as you could imagine. But we’re not in the business of harming others. There’s no grand vampire agenda. Our secret society has existed for millennia. If we wanted to take over the planet, I promise we’d have done it a few thousand years ago,” Gregory smiled at his last comment, revealing his still-extended fangs.
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