From Slate to Crimson (6 page)

“So you’ve claimed me for yourself?” Amelia asked in a sly, playful voice.

“I wish it were that simple,” I said, and could not help but smile. “You claimed me long before I ever claimed you. For the rest of your life, you will be the only human I ever feed from.”

“You know, if I didn’t realize you were talking about using me for food, that would almost sound romantic,” Amelia said, and giggled. Her blush betrayed how impressed she was with what I had said. “But I still like it.”

If only you knew just how much you satisfied me
, I thought, and then reeled at her enticing scent. But I kept a tight rein upon my desires as I sat up and strode around the room to Amelia’s side of the bed.

“You may go home for now,” I said, taking her by the hand and helping her to her feet. I mentally summoned Justin. “I know you’ll have a lot to absorb. I doubt you’ll get much sleep because of it.”

“Can’t I stay with you?” Amelia said, crestfallen. I expected this; the bond, after all, was still strong. I had not yet trained her to manage her desire for my drink.

“That wouldn’t be advisable,” I told her, even though the memory of her blood made it difficult for me to say it. I very much wanted her company; my want for her blood was that powerful and the few drinks I shared were heaven. But even when the thirst was sated, the psychological hold remained. Her presence would have been particularly distracting to me. “Being around only my kind is not healthy for your psyche. You need to associate with humans.”

Justin came in at that moment. I took Amelia by the hand and guided her to him.

“Justin will be escorting you home,” I said. “Stay by his side. Return to me in two days. You’ll want to do it sooner, but you must resist that urge. Trust me, it’s much better if you do.”

“All right,” Amelia said, still disappointed.

“It won’t be long until you see me again,” I said. “You do want to be a part of us, right?”

“No,” Amelia said. “I want to be a part of
you
.”

“I will never leave you alone,” I assured her. “I could no more stand to be held apart from you than you could stand to be held apart from me.” I brought my fingers to her cheek, and felt the tingle of her blush warming her skin.

“Until we met again,” I said, and kissed her on the forehead. Justin then led her into the hallway and out of sight.

I bit into my lip, recalling the red her face had turned, and the scent of her blood beneath her soft skin.

I have fought Lothos longer than any of my kind, and so the times during which we have little activity from the enemy leave me restless. I stay away from the Lair and take refuge in safe houses near areas where there has been some enemy action, where I proceed to throw myself into danger involving both the lowest echelons of Lothos’ clan, and their human collaborators, making certain these calm times last as long as they possibly can.

Amelia had changed me instantly. For the next two nights, I lost focus from our objective there at the safe house. I did not obsess over Lothos’ whereabouts or plans as usual; rather my thoughts turned to
her
. I tried to tell myself that I had not bonded with Amelia.

That night, I summoned two humans to my chambers the next night and fed from them, but their blood became sand in my mouth and lead in my gut. I quickly dismissed them; they were disappointed, but glad, as all humans in our cause were, for the honor of having earned my personal attention. For the next two nights, I wrote in my journal; I sparred with the new recruits; I searched the city, in vain, for any trace of the enemy. At last, after learning that Justin had no news to report the night before I was to meet Amelia again, boredom claimed me, and I retired.

When I awoke, it was with a strange sense of urgency. It was late evening the next day, very close to sunset; all of my kind was still asleep, but I was driven to awaken even earlier than normal, feeling a nameless need. I disguised myself using my Jewel. The almost magical relic of my people’s old technology worked its wonders, and the hue of my skin and eyes transformed into those of a human.

Still, I knew that this would not protect me from the ravages of the setting sun, as resistant as I was to it after the endless centuries. I concealed my hands in gloves, and obscured my face with dark shades and a broad-brimmed hat in preparation for my outing. I then braced myself to open the front door.

The sun was beginning to set, but even this was painful. I could withstand this level of light, but still, it sapped my strength. Any sunlight at all did this. But need overpowered my weakness. I
had
to reach Amelia. And as I pressed on, guided by her scent, still as strong as if she had been beside me, I began to understand what had roused me so early, and drove me.

It was not her blood, as much as I desired it; rather, it was fear. I feared what would happen to my clan in the ensuing weeks. Amelia’s insertion into my life had awakened a stark fear in me that I would lose her. Times of calm such as this would not last forever, and once Lothos knew of the bond I shared with a human, he would target her at the very first chance.

Humans under our sway from the first drink usually do not lie, and Amelia seemed gentle and harmless. Her thoughts had an almost motherly timbre, but time and circumstance had bred caution in me. I had Justin check into her history, and as I expected, there was little need to worry. Amelia led a simple life. She was single, lived alone, and had no pets, but possessed a large network of friends and acquaintances that she kept in constant touch with whenever she could find time away from her job.

I kept my mind occupied with these thoughts on the way to her house. I went at a brisk pace, seeking shade where I could find it, as the sun weakened me ever more. Several times, I had to travel a succession of city blocks with no respite, feeling very ill when I at last found some. My skin began to prickle and itch beneath my thick frock; the skin on my face began to peel and crack. When I at last arrived at her house, I was grateful that she had an open air garage, with a dark corner behind a pile of boxes to momentarily retreat into.

Unfortunately, no one was there.

On my way here, I realized that the location of Amelia’s neighborhood kept her in walking distance of her school, the local supermarkets, downtown shops, and boutiques. A northern breeze blew, and I caught her scent faintly on the air, coming from the direction of her school.

I steeled myself for the walk ahead, but then was relieved when I noticed an opaque black umbrella resting against the wall beside me. I would look odd with it open above me in early dusk, but no stranger than I did during the few times when I went out in summertime evenings. Heat does not faze me, but my choice of clothing in sweltering weather made for quite a sight.

My skin had become as normal-looking as my weakened state would allow, and so I opened the umbrella and headed for the school. Her scent grew stronger along the way, and into the school, to her classroom. All was a colorful assault on the eyes, as elementary classrooms were. Art projects hung from strings of yarn tied to the ceiling; numbers and renditions of the alphabet in bright, perfect cursive were posted high upon the wall above the blackboard, along with various educational posters.

A myriad of books lay in stacks upon the floor and beside the teacher’s desk; others were stored neatly in cubbyholes and shelves.

But Amelia was nowhere to be found.

I stood for a moment, perplexed. Rarely did my senses fail me when it came to tracking mortals, and now that I was bonded to Amelia, it should have been laughably easy to locate her. The sun was fast setting, but enough light still poured through the blinds that covered the windows to be uncomfortable. I surmised that perhaps my senses had been dulled by the pain from the sunlight as I glanced around the classroom, at a loss for what to do next.

My momentary confusion had made me unaware of Amelia’s approaching footsteps as I prepared to leave and retrace my way back to our safe house.

We met each other in the doorway; I, lost in thought, Amelia, deep in concentration over her lesson plan book. I could not recall who was the more surprised. It was the first time in millennia that a human had ever startled me. I had to laugh in spite of myself.

Amelia, however, did not laugh.

“Is something wrong?” I asked, noticing her curious stare. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“The…sun’s out,” Amelia said. Her tone was a mixture of both utter fascination and clear confusion. “I though
t you said that...I mean, shouldn’t you be…?”

Her voice trailed off in her momentary shock, and I remembered that I never told her about this.

“Sunlight won’t kill me,” I said. “I’m too old.”

“Too…old?”

“It used to be a danger even to me,” I admitted, “but it’s something I learned about over a great deal of time. The older we get, the more resistant to the sun we become. I imagine that in a few thousand years more, I will be completely immune to it.”

“How’d you even figure out that you were becoming immune?” Amelia asked. “Don’t you fall asleep at sunrise and wake up at night?”

“Sometimes, situations arise where I
must
wake up early. It’s difficult, but if driven by a great enough need, I can be roused awake in the day. So after so many times of this happening, I began to experiment. Of course, I can’t even begin to count the times I was burned.”

“You burned yourself coming to me?” Amelia said, jumping to a conclusion. Her expression changed into one of horror as she took hold of my hands, expecting to find them scarred and mottled with severe burns.

I smiled at how motherly she was, and then heard—and smelled—the blood rushing through her body in her short-lived panic. She had indeed recovered from my previous drink, and was ready for more, but I gritted my teeth against the beast. I wanted her so very badly, but could not give in to that desire now.

“You won’t find any burns,” I said, withdrawing my hands, which had gained a slight tremble from my fight with the want of her blood. “That stopped happening long ago. There was a time when on the days that I was forced to rise early, I began to expose myself to the sun, little by little. I wanted so much to walk in daylight again, and so I hoped beyond hope that I would develop a tolerance to it.”

“You…purposely exposed yourself to the sun?” Amelia said, her tone flat and disbelieving as she raised an eyebrow.

“Do you know how it is said that exposing yourself to a small amount of snake venom over time gives you a tolerance to higher doses?” I said.

“For a time, I supposed that the same was with myself and sunlight. My tolerance developed over centuries, however, rather than months or years. At first, each exposure burned me terribly, but after many centuries, I found myself growing stronger; the sunlight had less and less of an effect on me.

“At first, I could only stand the light of late dusk, but as the centuries passed, I found myself able to go out ever earlier. Now, though it weakens me, I can expose myself to the light at mid-evening. But my first theory about it being akin to snake venom exposure was destroyed when I saw my older lieutenants beginning to develop the same tolerance that I had.”

Amelia hummed.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, really. It’s just that what you said reminded me of a legend I once read as a kid. It said something about vampires being able to go out during the day, but since it’s not their natural time, it weakens them. You were probably the start of that legend, I think.”

“Perhaps I was,” I said, grinning at the tale. “And then again, it might have been one of Lothos’ clan. But neither he nor his clan has any worries about never seeing the sun again. He has probably never discovered such a thing, seeing how there are no reports of the older of his kind lurking around during daylight.”

“Oh, Talante…” She touched my cheek with gentle fingers. “Why did you go and expose yourself to sunlight for me? I’m not worth all that.”

“You’re worth more to me than you realize,” I said, surprised at how unabashed I was at my words. “I was worried about you.”

“Worried that Lothos coming to spirit me away at night?” Amelia asked. Her lips crooked into a tiny grin.

“Perhaps,” I said, betraying a smile of my own. “It frightens me just how closely I’m bonded to you. Perhaps I should ask about what it is like with some of my children who have experience with such things.”

“Will that mean you’ll stay away from me afterwards?” Amelia asked.

“I sincerely hope not,” I answered.

Amelia giggled melodiously. “Well, seeing you here now at least, I’m flattered that you’d brave the big, bad sun to come all the…hey, isn’t that my umbrella?”

I was at first jarred by her sudden pause. As if realizing I had it for the first time, I followed her gaze to the umbrella, now rolled up in my hand, and stared dumbly at it.

“This?” I sounded as if I were a child who had been caught chocolate-faced with his hand in the cookie jar. “Yes, it’s yours. I stopped by your house first, but you weren’t home.”

“I’ve been working late for the last couple of days,” Amelia explained. “It’s not normal for me, I’ll admit, but—” she laughed self-deprecatingly “—papers won’t grade themselves.”

“I had thought it was strange for a teacher to be at work this late,” I said, smiling at her dedication. There was something beautiful about it, which made her all the more lovely to behold.

“School’s just started back from the holidays, you know. But I think you’re partly to blame.”

“Me?” I said, again feigning innocence.

“Yes, you,” she said, a hint of bitterness in her voice. “Ever since you bit me, you’ve been all I could think about. I’ve been distracted while at work; the principal’s been on my ass about my performance.”

“I’m sorry you had to endure this, Amelia,” I said. I was genuinely distraught by this news; the last thing I had wanted to do was to inconvenience her, but it could not be helped. “What I’ve done to you cannot help but inconvenience; that I know. Not unless you are able to fight the initial effects.”

“I thought you said I was addicted to you,” Amelia said, “or rather, ‘bonded;’ wasn’t that the word you used? And isn’t that an effect in itself?”

“Yes, but there are levels to it,” I said. “The drink is never quite the same for everyone. Remember how I said that you feel what we feel when we feed from you?”

She nodded.

“That feeling is still all-consuming. In the beginning, you’re addicted to the point where the next feeding is all you can think about. It consumes your thoughts day in, day out. But unlike my kind, you can overcome it, since that part of it is psychological. Still, that takes effort. The effects of the drink are very powerful.”

“As if that’s not the understatement of the year,” Amelia said, laughing to cover the tremor that the memory of my drink had produced. Her perfume grew stronger as a flash of desire shook her. “So you’re saying that there’s no easy way out, is there?”

“The lives of anyone involved with my kind are never easy,” I said, once again feeling that pang of regret over what I had done to her. “But as hard as it is for you, I can assure you that it’s far more difficult for me. From the beginning, the thirst overpowers us all, and you want to drain your host to death for the sheer delight of the drink. The discipline needed to tame it is grueling, and victory is to deny a primal drive, which causes constant frustration. Even now, as I speak to you, you enflame me. I have to restrain myself from taking you.”

“Then why deny it?” Amelia said, more fascinated than frightened.

I suppressed the surge of anger that her question had generated. She was neither Lothos, nor one of his clan. She could not possibly know that her question was my nemesis’ way of thinking. Still, I noticed that she cringed slightly. Perhaps she had seen the emotion flashing in my inhuman eyes.