The Embrace (6 page)

“You saved my life” I whispered. His smiling face took on a more serious look.

“I am so sorry I couldn’t save your family. I only knew when you were in trouble, not them.” He replied. I really should have been more worried by how this man had such a connection to me but everything he said washed over me like a calming breeze. “I imagine you have many questions” he carried on. “I will try to answer them the best I can. Come.”

With that he took my limp, sweaty palm in his own strong one and led me to the bench at the side of the garden.

We sat together in silence while I tried to prioritise my endless questions.

“Who are you?” I asked in exasperation, having failed to pick the most important question.

He let out a soft laugh that warmed me deep inside. I was only a young girl but something in my innocent mind knew that this laughter wasn’t the kind that comes between friends. This man was something more than a friend.

“That’s tricky.” He mused. “Well, my name is Gabriel. I live...around. I travel from place to place and the moment I got back in town I came to see you. I’m a lot older than you.”

It was my turn to laugh and I could see soft wrinkles develop on his perfect face as he took his turn to be confused.

“Gabriel? Like the angel? You’re like
my
guardian angel.” I saw that wonderful smile form again.

“Alright then, it’s my turn to ask a question. Who are you?” Gabriel asked me.

“I’m Louisa Reed. I live here, obviously. I’m 13, nearly 14.” I answered with ease. “My turn: What happened to the man who tried to kill me?”

The comfortable mood between us stiffened and I could tell Gabriel didn’t like this question. He took his time to think of an answer, and I regretted asking him at all.

“The circumstances surrounding your family are unusual. I can’t tell you much just yet. Maybe one day I will, but not now.” He took my hand as he could sense I was beginning to become upset.  “You may not realise it Louisa but you are special. You didn’t survive out of luck. You were meant to live. I saw you in the garden that night and I knew I had to protect you. I was across town when the murders started but I could tell something was happening. I got here just in time to save you and your mother. The man who killed your family...he was special too. He was different, evil. I made sure he’ll never bother you again.”

Gabriel stopped suddenly and I was left with an uncomfortable feeling. It sounded as if he had exacted revenge on this man on my behalf, and I didn’t like the sound of that. I knew then that Gabriel may have been my friend, but he could easily become dangerous if I let him.

I didn’t really want to think about the murders anymore so I changed the subject. “Why did you come back? Are you going to come back again?” I asked.

Gabriel was happy at the change in topic and he gently squeezed my hand.

“I came back tonight for the same reason I came back three months ago: you are special.  I can’t let you go, not now. I will come back, of course. I don’t know when. I’m a traveller by nature so it might be months, but I will come back to you. I promise.”

This response made me elated. My heart swelled with pride that such a wonderful man could take interest in a little teenager. We sat together in comfortable silence for a while as Gabriel’s fingers gently stroked mine, but this paradise didn’t last forever. Gabriel turned to me and I felt his sweet breath against my cheek.

“I have to go Louisa. I’m so sorry.” He whispered.

I felt like crying. I had found this man out of such a tragedy. He was the only person who spoke to me and listened, not pressing me for answers to questions I couldn’t understand. I felt as if my oxygen was cut off, as if I needed him to survive.

“One last thing” I called desperately as he stood up, never letting go of my hand. “I know who you are but
what
are you?” I asked him.

That questioned raised the biggest grin on his face yet and he gave the most wonderful laugh. “I don’t quite know, but I know I’m yours.” He kissed the top of my head and ran into the shadows.

I sat alone on the bench for hours, thinking only of Gabriel. I fell asleep on the hard wood, dreaming about him and not blood for the first time in three months.

The next morning I woke up in the garden, alone, wondering if it had all been a dream.

When Gabriel and I woke up after our first hunt together, it seemed as if he had forgotten the previous night. For me the same uneasy feeling was clawing at my stomach and I couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong. I had no real emotions, no soul, and no conscience. There was little chance of me being able to drag up the feelings buried at the bottom of my being so I tried to ignore it.

Gabriel didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong and for the third night in a row we visited a town, this time on the other side from the previous night, and found a pitiful young girl whom Gabriel swore was the best victim. After he taunted and killed her, his lessons tailed off.

For the first few days everything had felt exciting and new. Gabriel taught me how to kill and how to run through the woods like a true hunter. As the days passed and we continued to find new places and new victims, it became tedious.

For the first few weeks of my vampire existence life was a monotonous circle. Gabriel had promised that we would get out of my small town to avoid suspicion and to experience the world, but his promises had failed to materialise. I had been stuck in this dead end place for 21 years and even though I now ceased to age, it seemed that the years would carry on regardless. I would end up spending eternity in this place one way or another. The only difference now was the fact that I wouldn’t die an old spinster as I wouldn’t die at all.

Nothing about the vampiric world was the way I had expected. That first night and the first kill had been paradise. I had freed something within me, some hidden desire, and fulfilled it as much as I could.

I had seduced and killed a man twice my size and seen the pain in his eyes as he approached death. I had fed on his blood to stop my hunger and I had felt no remorse. That hunger and passion had been more than my expectations, but the world Gabriel and I were living in was far from the first night.

For two weeks we visited town, hamlet and city, finding damsels in distress whom Gabriel taunted and eventually devoured, allowing me to feast on the leftovers of his catch of the day. It fulfilled my physical desire but none of my mental lust was even close to being met. 

Even our own relationship seemed to have changed. I had expected to throw aside petty, human differences but something about Gabriel’s lust for these helpless girls unsettled me. We had lost the passion between us.

I loved him just as much as the night I first spoke to him, but something was undoubtedly different. Gabriel had changed, or maybe I had. Either way the bond between us wasn’t the strong, healthy one I had been expecting. We were cohabiting without joy and without desire. We were just two killing machines who slept side by side every night, but never shared anything more with one another.

After a fortnight of this monotony I needed to break free. Instead of waking up from my catatonic state and waiting for Gabriel’s piercing eyes to open too, I decided to leave and hunt for myself. I silently moved next door to my sister’s old bedroom which I had turned in to a walk in wardrobe for my many outfits.

The old tales portray vampires as more beautiful than humans, like a race of supermodels, but it’s more than that. It’s not that we change that much physically when we go through the deathly embrace. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the same girl I had always been: my hair colour remained unchanged, my eyes were still the same shade of blue, and my figure was still frail and petite.

It was my persona that was transformed. I had an aura about me, like Gabriel had always had. My energy wasn’t as strong as his yet as he’d had years to develop it, but something about me was different. When I walked down the street, a human being I had known since childhood would recognise me and comment on how remarkable I looked. Every negative opinion they had ever held about me would be erased, and whenever they thought of me the only image that would come to mind was perfection, whether that was true or not.

In reality the aesthetic appearance doesn’t change that much. We remain as beautiful or as flawed as we always were in life. The thing that changes is the human perception of that physicality. We come across as more beautiful than before, more like the person you have always wanted to fall in love with. The feeling a human gets when they look at a vampire is remarkably similar to love at first sight: a blinding, overwhelming feeling that somehow you
must
meet this person, no matter what the cost.

I enjoyed the new sense of freedom my appearance gave me. Everything I put on possessed that flattering quality all girls desire. I picked my outfit of choice: a loose silk dress, red as it was my favourite colour, with a black sash around the middle to highlight my tiny waist. I brushed my hair into a suitable state and slipped my feet into dangerously high black stilettos. I applied a shocking red taint to my lips, the only bit of makeup I needed on my deceivingly beautiful face.

I had no reason to carry a purse or a handbag. My charisma meant I needn’t bother with ID or money as no one dared to question me. By the time they realised I had gone without paying or without proof of age, I would be long gone, if they even realised at all.

I decided to go back to the green. It had been two weeks since my first kill and I thought that returning to the scene might resurrect the excitement I had lost somewhere along the way. I used the front door, rather than the window, to exit the house. I had no idea if Gabriel had woken up yet but I didn’t want to explain my actions to him. Something about Gabriel’s behaviour since my transformation scared me and anything that can scare a killer is a dangerous sight.

I left our shelter alone and ran to the green, my hunger building with every step I made. The heartbeats in my head still pounded, even after a fortnight to get used to them. They never quite reached the aching intensity of the first night, but they were still a constant presence in my head.

As the heartbeats intensified I knew I was getting closer to my potential victims. I was apprehensive about being out on my own as I was still unsure of what to do. I had only ever killed with Gabriel by my side. The few times he let me inflict the killing blow on one of his pathetic young victims, I had never been fully satisfied.

I imagined the first kill again in my mind with perfect clarity. I could feel the pulsing jugular under my lips, the heart beat fading away as I sucked the energy from a man who had once been so full of life, and most of all I remembered the pain in his eyes as he came to realise that I was the one who would end his life. I was becoming woozy as the memories of that night resurfaced. I could hardly stand up straight by the time I reached the green and my whole body began to shake as I walked along the pavement.

Happy couples walked along beside me. They held hands and smiled at one another as they walked along, content that they loved one another completely. As I walked past them their heart beats resonated loudly in my mind, poking out from amongst the throng of other sounds. Each one was tantalising but none of them held the perfect clarity that I was looking for.

I could feel each one of them looking at me even when I tried to avoid their gaze. The second they looked at me they fell under my spell. Males and females alike would suddenly desire to know me, they ached for me no matter who they were.

Their yearning for me went beyond the physical. Something about their very soul seemed to want me. The women wanted to touch my soft, unblemished skin and run their fingers through my hair. The men wanted to caress my soft cheeks and run their lips along the edge of my neck.

Something about my persona scared them too. I seemed to be too beautiful, almost too perfect to be real. They could sense there was something unnatural about me and they were seduced yet terrified by it. All of these emotions swept over them in a second, and the moment I passed them their feelings disappeared before they even had a chance to sort through them.

The man and woman would look at one another and carry on as before but their subconscious could tell that the other person had felt something for the mysterious woman who passed by. That night they would return home, pledging undying love for one another, and fall into each other arms. They would claim the reason for their renewed affection was love but really it was nothing more than guilt. Each person was trying to make up for the fact that they wanted, even for just a second, to throw themselves at the mercy of a complete stranger.

All this would come from one glance at me. The power I held after my transition was so intense it almost scared me.

I continued to wonder around the green, avoiding the chattering groups leaving in dribs and drabs from various places. The pubs were still open but the encroaching darkness had forced many people back to their homes, and my pool of victims was rapidly diminishing. I still held out hope that I could find the perfect person, but I was beginning to become worried.

I decided to take a different approach. The past few weeks had been filled with power games where Gabriel putting himself in the role of the predator, firmly in charge of the situation. I needed a change and a new routine.