---
Chapter Six
---
“Are you all right?”
Her voice is angelic.
Everything is a blur. My eyes have not yet adjusted. Is this Paradise, I wonder – have I finally earned my place in the afterlife? Am I with my family?
“Emily?” I whisper through a sore throat.
“Who’s Emily?”
I smile and reach out for her face.
“You are,” I smile.
---
Hours later I wake up with a banging headache. It feels as if I have spent the night being hit over and over by a double-decker. Where am I – this place reeks of human. I look for any hints of my whereabouts and notice photographs hanging on the walls. They are pictures of a human family. One of them catches my attention – a picture of a young woman in her twenties. She has got bright green eyes and curly red hair. She reminds me of someone I used to know.
My study of the photos is interrupted by someone entering the room – it is the woman from the picture. She sits down on the bed next to me and hands me a glass of water. I accept it and devour it in seconds. I am thirsty. The woman is studying me carefully as I am lying in the bed. I gather that she lives here. This might even be her bed. After some consideration she decides to ask me something. She takes a deep breath to find the courage.
“Who’s Emily?”
I stare at her with a blank expression. Where did she hear that name? That is a name I swore never to speak again. No one has the right to utter that name – no one.
“I’m sorry,” the young woman apologises. “It’s just, you were dreaming and you repeated her name several times. And when you woke up you called me Emily too.”
Vampires do not dream – at least I do not think so. I have not dreamt for three centuries and I have no intentions of breaking that pattern now. Whatever this girl imagines herself having heard cannot be right. But how else could she have learned of that name?
I shift uneasily in my bed. It is suddenly not as comfortable as before. Pushing myself backwards I am soon sitting against the wall instead of lying down. Performing this movement makes my body feel as if I have fallen from a ten story building and broken half of my bones. I moan in pain.
“Are you okay?” the girl asks.
I nod to agree, but my expression tells a whole other story.
“Shall I get you some pain killers?”
Smart move – an unknown guy is lying in your bed, he could be anything from a drug addict to a psychotic killer and this girl wants to give him pain killers?
I adjust my position and find myself in a somewhat more comfortable situation. I close my eyes to focus on my body. Silently I scan my body for any wounds, inner bleedings or broken bones – nothing. Good, but I can tell that I am bloody sore, and I know that I must feed. What I do not know however, is where I am and how I got here. I recall the sisters at the monastery and a misty road to London. After that I only have a faint memory of something very old, something that happened a long time ago. Strange, why would I think about that now?
Since I have been nothing but quiet since she entered the room, the girl decides to leave – a wise decision. I hear her shut the door behind her and sigh deeply. She walks away from the door, heading for another room. Someone else is here; I can sense the presence of another person. I gather that she sits down next to this person.
“How is he?” the person, obviously male, wonders.
He is genuinely concerned. I wonder how long I have been here. They appear to have bonded with me while I was out. However, there are more urgent matters: where ‘here’ is, who those people are and how I ended up here in the first place. This will unravel soon I expect. For now I shall lie back and enjoy they show. The two humans clearly have a lot to tell each other. I hope that they do not mind me eavesdropping. Honestly – I do not care if they mind or not. They probably have some of the answers I seek.
“He’s awake now,” the girl informs him, “but he is not too talkative.”
I get that a lot.
“Has he told you what he was doing lying passed out in the middle of London in the middle of the night?” the male asks.
Good question, a very good question indeed. I am not one to black out from low blood sugar exactly, which reminds me of something – I must feed – soon.
“No, he hasn’t said a word,” the girl replies sadly.
There is a moment of silence in the room. I almost regret not having talked to her. She seems like a nice kid.
“We probably should’ve left him there,” the male continues.
“Lying on the streets?” the girl ejaculates. “He could’ve died!”
“If not there, then at least at the hospital,” the male mutters in embarrassment.
I think that he is her boyfriend. She has him thoroughly whipped.
“The hospital refused to treat him, remember?” the girl says aggravated.
The male chuckles at her amusedly. Perhaps he is not as whipped as I had thought.
“This time I have to agree with the nurses – it is difficult to treat someone that’s wasted.”
‘Wasted’? They think I was drunk. Now there is an amusing misunderstanding if I ever heard one. A vampire cannot get drunk, or even intoxicated. Our blood devours the alcohol long before it even has a remote chance of affecting us. I must really have been in a bad shape to allow these humans to take me to a hospital, mistaking me for a drunk.
“He’s in pain! I just saw him moan in pain. He wasn’t drunk, he’s sick,” the girl ejaculates upset.
Touching – she cares for me.
“He’s probably just hung-over,” the male counters.
I can already tell that I do not like him. He has too little faith in people, always expecting the worst. Jackston would be fast to tell me who he reminded him of. I am lucky that Jackston is not here – Jackston is lucky he is not here. He dislikes humans more than I do. I never did figure out why. I dislike them because they are weak, and arrogant. That is a bad combination in the company of someone obviously superior to them. I get annoyed at their belief of being the elites of this godforsaken world. Humans are weak and fragile – a small illness can mean death to them.
“He’s not hung-over – if you’d seen his expression you would’ve known,” the girl continues, still valiantly defending my honour.
“So he’s got a headache,” the male sneers. “Big deal, it’s a common symptom to a hangover, you know.”
The girl sighs. She is clearly upset.
“Why did we even bother to pick him up?” the male sighs, trying to reconcile with the girl.
I can feel her grief burden her even in another room. Something is troubling her and causing her great grief.
“Because,” she sighs deeply, “it’s what dad would do.”
This is a sensitive subject. I can feel tense electricity in the other room. I wonder what has happened to her father. I come to wonder why I even care.
“Maybe,” the male agrees, “but dad’s not here, is he? So it’s not really up to him.”
Interesting; I was mistaken. He was not her boyfriend – they are siblings. It is not until now that I realise whose room I am really residing in. It is not the girl’s room, as I first thought – it is her father’s.
“How dare you?” the girl growls. “If dad was here he would’ve have made you regret those words, you ungrateful bastard.”
I gather she is the older sister, partly due to her kid brother’s embarrassment from his statement and partly due to the protective nature towards her father. The oldest daughters always have a tendency of showing great love and loyalty to their fathers. The sons are often too busy trying to surpass their fathers to show them such loyalty.
“I’m sorry,” I hear the brother mutter. “It’s just that he’s never around, always off working somewhere.”
He has struck his sister’s soft spot. She is kind and loving again.
“That’s only to put food on the table and a roof over our heads,” she says. “You know that he does it all for our sake.”
She is a good sister – a great one in fact. The only mistake she ever did was making the unwise decision to take me in. I intend to correct that mistake. I manage to pull myself out of bed, though it hurts. My whole body is aching. I notice that I am wearing nothing but pants. Perhaps I was found like this, I hope not – it would be too embarrassing.
A minute later I manage to stumble into the living room where the two siblings are sitting on a sofa. They stare at me with stunned expressions. Their eyes look as though they are about to pop out of their sockets. I suppose they did not expect me up so soon.
“Are—” the girl stutters. “Are you okay?”
I do not think so. The soreness will cease in due time, but for it to do so I know that I must feed. Whatever I have been doing I have lost a heck load of blood. If I do not feed soon I fear that I will pass out permanently.
The girl is truly beautiful. Her red hair falls down to her shoulders like a curly veil. Her eyes are like emeralds reflecting every single ray of light in the room. Her brother, on the other hand, looks rather ordinary. He has got brown hair and is wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of worn out jeans. To me he looks filthy. I knew I would not like him.
I tell myself not to kill either of them – despite my immediate hunger. They have been nothing but caring to me and do not deserve to die simply because they made the mistake of taking a vampire in.
“I’m fine,” I lie through a sore throat.
She exchanges a worried look with her brother. Not for me any longer, but rather if it was indeed a wise choice to shelter a complete stranger in their father’s bedroom.
“Don’t worry,” I say, each word aching in my throat. “I mean you no harm.”
She smiles nervously at me as she gets out of the sofa.
“Can I get you anything?” she asks politely. “You look pretty banged up – maybe something to eat?”
My entire body screams ‘blood’, but I doubt that she would happen to have any in her fridge. It is then I have an epiphany – I do not need human blood, I just need blood. Any blood would do. At least in my current state, I need to put my system at ease.
“Do you have a beef?” I ask.
“Sure,” she replies, surprised that this is the first thing I ask for after awakening. “How would you like it?”
“Just put it on a plate and I’ll cook it myself,” I smile in gratitude.
A few minutes later she returns to me and tells me that she left the beef in the kitchen. While waiting for her to return, her kid brother has done nothing but stare nervously at me. I do not blame him. I would have done the same if I was in his position.
I am in luck. It is a fresh beef, just like I had hoped. Blood is still seeping out of it. It may not be much, but it is enough to ease my hunger for now. I put a frying pan on the stove to make it sound like I am cooking it, while I devour it raw with a few bites. I lick the plate clean, careful not to leave a drop of blood behind. I can already feel the soreness leaving my body.
“You know, it would actually taste better if you cook it,” the girl says, standing in the doorway.
I am startled. I did not hear her coming. I must have been too busy pleasing my inner monster’s hunger. Did my feasting freak her out?
“If I had known that you were that hungry I would’ve slaughtered a horse for you,” she chuckles.
She has obviously seen a lot of weird things in life and is not easily intimidated. Good for me – and for her. I would hate having to break my promise to myself by killing her to preserve my identity a secret.
She studies me from the doorway before reaching out her hand to me.
“I’m Mina,” she says with a faint smile. “It was me and my brother Michael who found you lying about on the streets.”
I lick my mouth like a wild animal, trying not to waste any remnants of blood on my lips. It must make hell of a first impression. Afterwards I wipe my hands on a paper towel. I then accept her hand and shake it.
“Theodore,” I reply.
I am pleased that she appears to have forgotten to mention my daughter’s name again, at least temporarily. If she did not I might feel obligated to break my non-killing-promise.
“Theodore,” she says with a pondering tone. “That’s an unusual name, isn’t it?”
“It’s a bit old,” I admit.
I do not know why I even bother to engage conversation with her. I should pick up my stuff, if I do indeed have anything else with me than the pants I am wearing, and leave.
Her kid brother, who has managed to annoy me by simply existing, enters the kitchen and sits down by the table, close to his sister. He is obviously curious of what we are talking about. In fact, he seems amazed that I am capable of speech at all. I look at him, trying to hide my despise for him, not wanting to alert his sister to my disliking of him. He is young – he cannot be over eighteen. His sister is probably about four, maybe five years older.
I look at them. She is beautiful – he is not. Then I realise that I have other places to be.
“What time is it?” I ask as I pull a curtain aside to learn of my whereabouts.
Out of nowhere my eyes appear to burst into flames. It feels as though my skin is boiling and my blood is acid. I swiftly cover my eyes and fall to the floor. Sunlight is now illuminating the prior dark kitchen.
“I told you he was hung-over,” the kid brother giggles while rolling his eyes. I should strangle him – slowly.
It hurts so bad that I wish to do nothing but scream and scream until there is no air left in my lungs. Luckily, the girl, Mina, comes to my aid and pulls the curtain back.
“Are you all right?” she asks worriedly.
I glare at her kid brother who seems to be enjoying my misfortune immensely. Had it not been for his sister, whom I have already taken great liking to, he would not be alive for much longer.
“Yes,” I lie. “I’m fine. And by the way, there’s no need telling me what time it is – I figured it out on my own.”
---
Chapters
Prologue | 1
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Epilogue
