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Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Even today, reader, I still don’t remember what went on during the week I was turning. That was one memory I was never able to get back though I am sure that is a blessing more than anything. I only know what Valentine told me- that I was violent and tried to attack him on several occasions. That I would only drink from animals and I refused any mortal that was handed to me. Even when my hunger was at its worst and I thought I was going to die, I refused mortal blood. The thought of draining them of all their blood disgusted me. Even in my weakened stated I remembered a small sliver of my humanity and refused anything other than animals. That week was all a blur of violence and blood and the next thing I remembered was waking up and Valentine telling me the story of how he came to be. If only I had known it was all a lie, I would not have pitied him so much and stayed with him for so long. I now know that Valentine told me this story to coerce me into staying, into, hopefully, falling in love with him. Even from the beginning, however, something told me to keep my distance. Here is what he told me in its entirety.

“Drake… I have been around for a long time and I felt that it was finally time for me to find a companion. I was drawn to you the moment we met for the peace treaty. During our meeting, I discovered you had no one else to live for and knew you would be perfect.” I shook my head as a shadow of a memory tried to emerge. It was of a beautiful girl with bright green eyes. The name Celeste whispered through my mind but before I could focus on the name it was gone. Valentine smiled.

“You see… no one to live or die for. You were perfect!”

I smiled back at him, not really knowing what to say. It was a little unnerving how much this man liked me and I didn’t even know anything about him.

“Well let’s change that! Let me tell you my story!” I was confused at first, thinking I had spoken out loud. But then my eyes widened as I realized he had read my thoughts and I hadn’t even noticed him doing so. Valentine laughed.

“My this is going to be so much fun! Now… where to begin. I guess we will just start from the beginning!” Valentine’s cheeriness also unnerved me, but I was curious to know about him so I got comfortable and listened to his tale.

“I am sure you have heard the tales of a vampire’s eternal youth and beauty so are wondering why I look older. Well, I wasn’t turned until I was well into my fifties and I was turned by my partner…Caleb...”

Back then Vampires didn’t just suck your blood, one and done. They took their time with their victims, learned everything they could about them first, then slowly drained their life away. Vampires liked to toy with their victims, see how much they could drain before they either killed them or changed them. Nowadays, it is just easier to find your victim, drain all the blood but a single drop then give them your own blood, letting them change almost immediately. There is no need to toy with them; people are far more suspicious now and are normally surrounded by significant others. Granted we can just force our way in everyone’s minds and erase the memory, but who has time for that? My how the world is changed! Anyway, that is what I noticed about Caleb first- his changing. He was a beautiful man, with dark green eyes and dark brown hair. He was thin, but he was built, constantly working to keep his body looking good. He had a thin, long face, and he was the most handsome man I had ever seen. Too handsome for an old man like me, but for some reason he chose me. I never thought I would find someone as beautiful as him and I never did. Until now.

I started as I realized those were my hair and eye colors as well. I looked at Valentine and he was smiling at me. Now I know why I had been his chosen one. Valentine continued speaking about Caleb.

Caleb had always been a vibrant man, easily excitable, always looking for a good time. He loved being out and about the town, meeting new people…

Here Valentine paused and looked away from me. After a moment of silence, Valentine cleared his throat, wiped his eyes and continued. I now know this was all a show for me. He was playing up the sympathy card, trying to make me like him more. Sad to say, at the time, it worked.

Back to the story. Caleb and I had been living together for six years when I started noticing the change. At first I thought nothing of it. Caleb had always been a very vain man, so when he started losing weight, I just thought it was just that- him losing weight to stay in his ideal body type. It was when his energy seemed to be sapped from him that I started to question him. His face took on a sallow look and he never seemed to want to go out. Even when our friends would have parties, he refused to go.

Again he paused and looked at me.

“Now I don’t want you to think it was because it was during the day. The whole ‘vampires are afraid of the sun’ thing is a myth. We can be in the sun, just not for long periods of time. Caleb did not want to go out no matter what time of day it was, which was what made my worry grow.” I had to smile a little bit at this ‘lecture’, but I just shrugged my shoulders and nodded. I didn’t know the “rules” of this whole vampire thing, so I just took his word for it, not saying anything. He continued.

The thing that finally made me confront him was when he stopped eating. Back then, he was what young people call a “foodie” now. If cell phones had been invented by that time, he would have been the first person to take a picture of his food. He loved extravagant meals that cost exuberant amounts of money just because they looked good. But all of a sudden he seemed disgusted by food in general. The few times I was able to force him to come outside with me, he refused any food offered to him, even the fanciest, most expensive meals. I couldn’t stand these changes any longer and finally had to confront him.

“Caleb… what is happening to you? Where is the man I fell in love with all those years ago?” I said to him one night, working up my courage. Caleb slowly turned to me and stared at me with a blank expression. He seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.

“You don’t eat, you don’t go out… you have lost so much weight you look like a skeleton.” It was unsettling how he continued to stare and not say anything. I kept talking. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Caleb. You don’t speak to me anymore. Are you having an affair? Are you trying to slowly kill yourself? What is happening?”

Caleb turned away from me and his shoulders started shaking. Then his whole body followed and I heard laughter.

“What? What is so funny? I am worried about you and I just want to help!” His laughter continued as he turned back towards me. What I saw in his eyes I will never forget. He had gone totally and completely insane. I no longer recognized him. There was nothing left in those green eyes I had loved so much. I let out a gasp and tried to get up from the couch, but he pounced on me.

“You can’t help me… no one can help me anymore…” Those were the last words I remember him saying before everything went black. I remember a sharp pain in my neck at one point, then images of pain and violence scrolling through my head. I remember screaming through the blackness and the next I remember, I woke up, Caleb was gone and I had to fend for myself. I remember the hunger, how bad it was and how I just wanted to die from it. I stumbled to the refrigerator and looked in, but the thought of eating any of the food in there just made me feel worse. All of a sudden I smelled something that made my stomach growl louder than I had ever heard it and I knew that was the only thing that would satiate me. I followed the smell and discovered that Caleb had left me a ‘gift’. I recoiled in horror at the dead boy on the floor, but the smell was too enticing. I sank to my knees and slowly crawled over to the boy. I was extremely hesitant, not wanting to feed on a human when I had just been one a short time ago. My hand seemed to move of its own accord; it dipped a finger into the blood and brought it to my mouth. My stomach contracted at the taste and it was the best thing I had ever had in my life. Unable to control myself any longer, I closed the distance between me and the gift and had my fill.

I knew I had a look of disgust on my face, but I couldn’t help myself. Just the thought of drinking any mortal blood made my blood curl.

“You look at me that way, Drake, but you will learn one day. At the time, it was all a matter of living or dying… So I chose to live!” Valentine said this last part with a flourish of his hand and looked at me expectantly as if expecting applause. I just looked back at him with a blank stare on my face. Clearing my throat, I asked him the one thing I was curious about,

“What about Caleb? Whatever happened to him?”

“Caleb… well… To this day, I do not know. He never came back and I never heard from him again…” Valentine looked away once again so I tried to comfort him.

“I’m sorry… “

“No matter! That was in the past and now I have you!” I should have been suspicious about how quickly he moved on, but of course, I didn’t know Valentine’s true nature then. I didn’t know that, so far, everything was just a farce.

Valentine smiled at me and I shifted uncomfortably on the couch. I wasn’t sure what he meant by saying that he had me and I didn’t really want to find out.

Valentine laughed heartily. “I only mean to say that I am your master and I will teach you this new life and make sure you love it. You will stay with me for as long as you want. When you are ready, you can go out into the world and make your own place in it!” And, once again reader, I wish I had been more suspicious of him. I wish… so many things but alas, that is life. I was content to live with this man and learn his ways.

Leaning forward on the couch, I asked him a question that had been nagging me. “Great… but can you possibly stop reading my mind?” Valentine laughed again.

“Oh no… no no no my dear boy! It comes naturally to me. All of your thoughts are as clear to me as if they were a movie being played in front of me. You do not yet know how to shield them, and won’t for some time. Plus, since I am the one that made you our blood and our minds forever link us together. It will be impossible for you to block me, even if you were to consume human blood.”
I tried to keep the next thought out of my head, but it couldn’t be stopped.

“Yes, you can certainly try! I love your spirit! I knew we would be a great fit! Now! Let me explain exactly what I have done to you.”
I settled back on the couch. Now this was something I needed to hear if I was ever going to learn how to utilize this new life I was going to lead.

“First things first…” Valentine started, sounding very much like a schoolteacher. He sounded very eager, and I wondered if it was because he had found a new Caleb or because I was the first person he had turned. Either way, the more he talked about this new lifestyle, the more I got on board with it.

“As I mentioned earlier, we can be in the sunlight. Now, it does ruin your complexion, so you don’t want to stay in it for too long. Plus, if you stay in the sun long enough your skin will start to boil then melt off your bones.” He paused for dramatic effect. I think he was hoping I would gasp or something, but I just nodded my head slowly and thoughtfully. Looking disappointed at my lack of reaction, he resumed his lecture, “So… just stay out of the sun if it can be helped. Next, yes we can fly, but only the most powerful of us can. It takes a lot of skill and patience to master flying, which comes with age. Perhaps one day you will get there, but for now you will only be able to levitate a few inches off the floor.”

“Holy shit…” I whispered and Valentine looked pleased that I had finally had a reaction to what he was telling me.

“Oh yes… it is really quite handy when you are trying to be quiet, looking for that next prey.” He laughed heartily then stopped at my look of unease. “I mean your animal prey… of course.” He cleared his throat then continued with the world of the vampire.

“Let's see… what else can you do. Oh yes. You already noticed the reading of the people’s minds. That comes with relative ease and you learn how to control it pretty early on. You definitely do not want a billion thoughts running through your head every second…”

I pause here for you, reader because I feel the rest would be boring. I can assure you it wasn’t all that exciting for me either. It really was a lecture on the pros and cons of this new life I was being forced into. The life itself was what excited me and I couldn’t wait to begin using all my new knowledge. The important things I remember from that lecture were: that I could manipulate people’s thoughts and feelings with just my mind. That I could move as fast as a bullet but as silently as a butterfly. That, besides levitation, I could jump impossible spaces and heights. And that most of the myths about us were untrue- garlic and crosses did nothing to us, we could swim if we really wanted to, we could, of course, be out in the sunlight and not sparkle and that we didn’t have to sleep in coffins- they were very uncomfortable. And we did not have to be invited in anywhere. We could come and go as we please, just like the mortals could. And, of course, I learned I needed blood to survive. I was still very hesitant to kill humans. Valentine told me that human blood was better than animal blood; that I would be stronger, live longer, and not have to eat as often. But I couldn’t bring myself to drain a mortal of its life. I learned to live off animal blood, which satiated me fine. I had to hunt more than Valentine did, but I maintained my stance on not killing humans. Valentine found it ridiculous, but I persisted for almost one hundred years. It was at that point that I drank human blood out of necessity. But more on that later.

The most important thing that Valentine told me that night was the main rule of vampirism: “that if you don’t use your power, you lose your power.” I didn’t believe him when he first told me this. He saw that thought pass through my mind and he laughed at it.

“I certainly can’t force you to practice your powers, but just remember this: I hope that one day you aren’t fighting for your life and realize you don’t have an ability just because you were too lazy to practice it.” It sounded like a warning at the time, but I still didn’t listen. It seemed a ridiculous thing to have to do and it was something I had never heard of before. Vampires were all mighty and powerful, so what sort of ridiculous rule was it that I had to practice? Like I was in high school football or something. I dismissed that rule, giving it no more thought. I would, however, find out the hard way why this really was the most important rule to my new lifestyle.


Next Chapter: Chapter 3