Vampire Romance: Vampire Preference (paranormal shifter romance) (New adult vampire shapeshifter short stories comedy)

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© Copyright 2015 by Diane Queenston - All
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Vampire Preference

Vampire Romance
For Adults

Diane Queenston

For millennia vampires have run
the events of the world from the shadows- shaping events and sculpting the
world the way they want it. Even the obsession with them in the media is their
doing. They figured if they could win the teenagers over then the rest of the
world would quickly follow suit. Many of the things people know about vampires
are wrong. Garlic is just some crazy notion that someone cooked up. A vampire
can’t see themselves in a mirror, but it is because to the vampire the mirror
is a doorway; not because it doesn’t have a soul. The stake through the heart
most certainly kills them, but then again apart from zombies what wouldn’t a
stake through the heart kill. One thing the books and movies got absolutely
right is the crucifix, but a cross only works if the person wielding it has
undeniable faith in his Lord. Otherwise the cross holds no power. Some things
are never mentioned and with good reasons. Only male vampires are immortal.
That is to say that they will live forever until the world ends or they are
killed. Female vampires on the other hand only live five hundred years and then
their bodies shutdown. It has something to do with the pact the first vampire
made with Satan, but the specifics have been lost over time. In their time
together a vampire couple will only give birth to one child and the child is
always a male. The child takes a hundred years before they are fully grown and
able to function completely in the world on their own.

Every five hundred years a male
vampire must choose a new mate to turn from the current populace of women. He
has a week in which to do so. If he does not find a woman in that week, he must
wait another five hundred years to try again. Some choose the first woman they
see while others like to shop around a little first. Most just take and turn
the woman they choose whether she wants it or not, but a few vampires like to
let the woman decide for herself. For Tomas that five-hundred-year cycle has
just begun anew and he must pick a new bride.

Tomas walked down the street
with his long black trench coat dusting his heels with each step. Underneath his
long silver hair his violet eyes roved back and forth in search of the woman he
had been dating for sometime now. He had picked Sammy out months before his old
bride had expired. She seemed to be a lovely girl. Her short, petite body and
close-cropped blonde hair did something for him that he enjoyed. He spotted her
as she stepped out of her apartment building and walked down the steps. Tomas
quickened his pace and caught up to her as she turned to go down the street.

She never heard him until he
was walking right along beside her with a smile on his face. A gentle nudge
from his elbow and she turned to look at him. A smile broke out on her own face
as she saw who it was. She hadn’t known Tomas long, but she thought he was a
great guy even if there was something a little off about him.

“Hello dear.”

“Hi Tomas. What brings you to
my part of the neighborhood?”

“I thought I would take you out
for supper this evening. How does Pescalero’s on 54
^th
sound? Say
nine o’clock?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll pick you up after work.”
Tomas took her hand and kissed the back of it lightly. “Until then my dear.”

Without another word he turned
on his heel and strolled away to blend into the thickening crowd on the
sidewalk. Sammy’s best friend Jen appeared beside her from out of nowhere and
took her arm. Sammy watched for a moment to see if she could get another glance
at Tomas in the crowd. She hadn’t known him for long, but she really liked him
already. Jen tugged on her arm and they started for the restaurant.

“What do you see in him girl?”
Jen gave her a serious look. “He talks funny, his hair is grey and he gives off
a creepy vibe. I mean come on Sammy.”

“I think he’s cute and he’s a
perfect gentleman which is something that is more than rare to find in this
town and you know it.”

“Yeah, but I like my men wild
Sammy. I like ‘em really wild.”

“I know Jen.” Sammy rolled her
eyes and thought back to some of the men that her friend had dated over the
years. “Remember the skinhead you dated a few years back. That one was wild and
it went really well as I recall. Didn’t it?”

“Okay that one was kinda bad.”

“Kinda?”

The skinhead had taken both Jen
and Sammy hostage in a store when Jen told him that she wanted to see other
people. He just kind of lost it and pulled a gun out of his waist band and
pointed it at both of them. It turned out to be a twelve-hour hostage thing
with the SWAT and police.

“Okay it was a disaster, but
what are the chances of that happening again?” Jen asked as the waited for the
crosswalk light to turn green.

“I’d say pretty likely if you
keep dating those ‘bad boys’ like you always do.”

“Whatever.” Jen dismissed her
comment with a wave of her hands. “Did you see the news this morning that . . .
”

Sammy zoned out as her friend
went on to describe the hot actor she saw on the news that morning. In her mind
she went over what she should wear tonight for her date with Tomas. He usually
wore that black trench coat with a black vest and white long sleeves
underneath. Now that she thought about it, she realized that those clothes were
all he wore. She had never seen him in anything different. Maybe he just liked
those colors and has a wardrobe of those same outfits, she thought.

They reached the restaurant
they had both worked at since their big career as stage actors withered and
died beneath the spotlights. As Sammy thought about her life, she realized that
she was a walking cliche. She was a failed actress in New York, whose career
had dried up, no love life to speak of, and a friend who was wild and dated
even wilder guys. All she needed was a cat and she would fit the role
perfectly. You know I’ve always wanted a cat, she thought with a chuckle as she
tied on her apron.

Tomas watched the hundreds and
hundreds of people as they moved around him in a wave on the way to who knows
where to do something that to them in that moment seemed like the most
important thing in the world. As he watched the daily races of the homo sapiens
he could almost see why most of his vampire brethren hated them with a passion
and saw them only as cattle to be turned- but then a man stopping to give hard
earned money to a homeless woman changed his mind. These people only lived long
enough to barely grasp life, but they still somehow found the time to be kind
to others. Sure there were those who did more harm than good, but every now and
then some shining example would make him think that maybe this species should
be in control. It wasn’t like the vampires were doing a great job so far. Wars,
murders, deaths by the thousands from diseases- no, the vampires weren’t doing
so good at all.

He thought all of this as he
walked along 54
^th
street to where he was supposed to meet Sammy at
Pescalero’s. He thought that tonight would be the night that he told her what
he was and asked her to be his bride. He found that he hoped more than he ever
had that this one would say yes. He had married hundreds of brides over the
centuries, but this girl was something special and something that he had never
encountered before. He had never had feelings for a bride like he had for this
one. In short, he was in love with Sammy.

He rounded the corner and there
she was standing beside a newspaper kiosk with a little black dress on. He
grinned and picked up the pace. As he touched her on the shoulder, she spun
around with her big, blue eyes open wide. She smiled when she saw it was him
and the smile lit Tomas up inside.

“Good evening dear Sammy.” He
took her hand and kissed the back of it.

“Hi Tomas,” she laughed.
“You’re such a weirdo. Kissing my hand like it’s the thirteenth century or
something.”

“Actually they didn’t start
kissing the backs of women’s hands until the mid-fourteenth century. Before it
was just kings and men of god who got that treatment.”

“How do you know these things?
Do you live in books?”

“You might say that,” he
grinned because she didn’t know how true that was. He had been at the battle of
Hastings, fought in the American Revolution, battled Huns during the middle
ages, and fought Christians during the Crusades. Tomas liked to fight for the
underdog. “You look ravishing this evening my dear.”

“Thank you,” she looked over
his usual attire, “you look good too.”

“Nonsense. This is what I
always wear. How about we get something to eat?”

“Okay.” Sometimes when Sammy
was with Tomas it was like he could read her mind. When he said that about the
clothes her chin almost hit the floor because that was exactly what she had
been thinking at the time.

Inside the waiter sat them at
their usual table in the back and out of the way, but where they could observe
the other people as they came and went. That was one of the things that Tomas
and Sammy had in common. They both loved to watch people and wonder about their
lives. Who they were and how they lived? For Tomas it was less of a guessing
game and more to keep his mind reading skills sharp, but he enjoyed it
nonetheless.

Sammy ordered the linguini like
she almost always did and Tomas ordered his usual-spaghetti with extra garlic
and meat balls. He liked garlic, but Sammy joked with him about how it made his
breath smell. The meal went quite well and they sat afterwards with a glass of
wine each and watched the people in the restaurant as they went about their
day.

“I bet that one has at least three
dogs and she calls all of them her babies.” Sammy pointed to an elderly woman
with her hair done up in a severely tight bun. Her clothes were an immaculate
white. A strange choice for an Italian restaurant, thought Tomas.

“I bet she does and their names
are probably something like Timothy, Jonathan, and Harold, but never Timmy,
Johnny, or Harry. Not ever.” It wasn’t probable in the least. That was what her
mind told her.

Sammy laughed and moved on to
her next choice. “And that one right there is a business man to the core. Look
at that suit and tie. Look at the bags under his eyes. I bet he hasn’t taken a
vacation day in five years and wouldn’t take a sick day unless he was
paralyzed.”

“Sounds about right.” Tomas
agreed with a laugh. In fact he hasn’t taken a day off in more than twelve
years, he thought.

“Your turn.” She sipped her red
wine and waited from him to make a selection.

Tomas scanned the room for a while
knowing that he could know everything about everyone in it in less that five
minutes if he probed hard enough with his mind. He chose a woman yelling at one
of the waiters.

“Her,” he pointed and Sammy
followed his finger. “I bet she is the wife of some big shot corporate man and
is used to living the high life, but with the economy the way it is they’ve had
to make some cutbacks so she comes to places like this and yells at the staff
for trivial things to make herself feel better about whom she is because she
knows that her husband has found another woman and her marriage is about to go
down the drain. Her kids have grown to resent her because of her outbursts and
that is the sole reason why her husband started sleeping with the babysitter
and his secretary.”

“Good god Tomas,” Sammy looked
at him and laughed. “Yours are always so specific. It’s like you really know
what they are going through. Why don’t you tell me the pin number to her bank
account while you are at it?”

Tomas decided that it was time
to let some of his secrets go and see how she took them. “7454. The 74 stands
for the year she and her husband got married and the 54 stands for the date her
mother and father got married. Anything else you want to know about her?”

“How . . . you made that up.
Pretty convincing, but I know you made it up.” She laughed nervously and took a
gulp of her wine.

“I didn’t make it up Sammy. I
can read minds and do many other things.”

“Sure you can. I knew it. I
freaking knew it. The first decent guy I meet in years and he’s some kind of
freak who thinks he can read minds.”

“I probably am a freak Sam, but
I can read minds. Ask me something about yourself that I couldn’t possibly know
from the internet and that you have not told me.”

“What was my first cat’s name
when I was a little girl?”

Tomas stared at her for a
moment and let his mind probe into hers. He eventually dug the truth out. “You
never had a cat as a little girl. You always wanted one, but your father
wouldn’t allow it. He said cats were for sissies and bought you a dog. A Doberman
and you named him Fluffy just to spite your father. When he got back from
driving a load of electronics to Detroit, he found out what you had been
calling the dog and tried to change its name, but the dog had already imprinted
the name Fluffy and wouldn’t answer to anything else.”

“How . . . how . . . there’s no
way you could know that. I’ve never told anyone that story.” Sammy looked him
up and down with her brow furrowed. “What the hell are you?”

“I’m a vampire Sammy.”

“What?!” She freaked out before
she could control it. She looked around to make sure that no one noticed her
outburst as she continued. “You expect me to believe that you’re a vampire. Let
me guess- you turn into a bat during the day.”