Erica took the heavy winter blankets out of John’s linen closet and hung them over the blinds inside the windows to block out the light of day. She knew several vampires that could walk in the sun and cursed the fact that she was of a different type. She had loved the outdoors before she was turned and would take regular walks in the woods bordering her family home in the suburbs and hike the park trails when her family vacationed. She had become a city girl after she was attacked and change as she needed to stay near her food source and live in a place where she could blend in. A hundred years ago small towns were unable to support a vampire and allow them to remain hidden from the masses so she moved up to New York. She had spent too long looking around the room and just taking in John’s place without trying to find useful information and would need to spend the day here out of the sun.
After she covered the windows and moved a couch over to keep the front door closed Erica set about investigating the young hunter instead of simply looking around at his apartment. Her first impression was that it was just a place to stay and not a home. There were little if any truly personal touches here and minimal emotional resonance that you find in a person’s home. As Erica was digging searching the bedroom she began to get frustrated with the lack of personalization John had done in the place he lived. (Not lived, she thought, existed would be a better term because there was nothing of a life here. She was a vampire and actually lived more than John did as a mortal. Such a lonely existence, he deserves much better.)
She was getting frustrated and decided to rest a little before she continued searching. Erica walked into the bedroom, stripped down and took a fast shower. She dried herself off and lay down in the bed. As soon as her head hit the pillows John’s natural scent, the one hidden by the smell of oiled metal filled her senses. John smelled of the evergreens and sun that Erica remembered from her day as a mortal. She simply laid there and took in his enchanting scent and let her mind drift until she was just on the edge of sleeping when she felt it.
***********
John spent the rest of that night gathering the tools of his trade from around the cabin. He pulled out not just the weapons that he preferred to use but all of them including those that had been his parents. His thoughts were consumed by the fact he hadn’t sensed her for the Vampire that she was, he’d always been able to know when he was in the presence of the supernatural, even mortals with unexplained gifts. Why had it failed with her? John went in search of his parents’ journals in order to seek answers.
Until this night he had left their bedroom on the cabin alone and as it had been the night the left; before they returned as vampires. He opened to door to see a space with every surface covered in dust. He should have come in and cleaned it prior to now but even though they were long dead it had been his parents’ room and he hadn’t felt right entering it. He spent a couple of hours cleaning before he moved to the task at hand. Sitting down in the chair before a roll top desk John pulled out the keys he’d taken from his father’s body to unlock the drawers and top so he could open it. John opened the top of the desk to find both his mother’ and father’s journal resting on the blotter.
Before opening either journal John searched through the rest of the desk. While doing so he came across several more journals that by looking inside the covers he discovered that they belonged to his grandparents and ancestors further back as well. There were a dozen of the handwritten books all told. Pulling them from the drawers he stacked them with his parent’s book and carried them all into his room. Dawn was fast approaching and he hadn’t slept since he headed for the club two nights ago.
Has it only been that long since I’d seen her last, it feels longer? John was startled as that thought raced through his mind unbidden. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his frantically beating heart and nerves, John pulled out his mother’s Journal from the stack and began reading. Barely begun John drifted off to sleep with the journal splayed open across his chest. In his sleep he dreamed…
***********
Erica sat up in the bed and was standing before the thought to do so even finished flashing through her mind. She lifted the mattress to look under it where she discovered a leather-bound book tucked neatly away. She opened it to discover it was a photo album. Pulling it out and fixing the bed Erica sat against the headboard and flipped slowly through the pictures in the quiet. The pictures were of a young couple with a small child who she assumed to be John as he was not either of the adults. The pictures progressed from him as an infant through his life as he turned into a teenager. Just after he started to look thirteen or so his eyes in the pictures took a darker cast, a loss of innocence that she could feel emanating from them even in the photograph. Had she needed to hazards a guess it was around that time he’d found out what truly lived in the world around him.
***********
John realized he was dreaming almost immediately, but it didn’t feel exactly like a dream. He was standing in a clearing in the forest outside the cabin. The sun shone down upon him as he turned to scan the trees and brush around the clearing. A wolf stepped out of the trees into the clearing; trotting over, closing the distance between them it sat before John and stared into his eyes. She was a beautiful wolf; he had known she was female instinctively, with a dark coat glistening in the light as though it were oil instead of fur. Her eyes glowing a pale and icy shade of blue as their gazes locked together and a chill raced through his body. As they stood staring at one another the moon moved across the sky tp eclipse the sun and the scene changed…
***********
Erica felt a deep sense of loss for the John due to the change from innocent child to what he had become. Whatever had taken the light in his eyes had to have been a true monster and that was something she was intimately familiar with from the creature that had attacked her so many decades ago. That night so long ago she’s had her innocence torn from her as that monstrous thing had taken her blood and body before taking her life. When she came around from being changed the monster was still using her for his pleasure. That night was the first time she’d killed and had prayed that with his death hers would soon follow. She believed it was a vampire from legend and the same stories were correct that with the death of the vampire all of its creations would also perish. To her regret at the time the legends had been wrong. Erica had attempted to return home that night for the aid and comfort of family and that had been the first mistake she had made as a vampire. She had been too new and her dark thirst to powerful for her control. She’d been responsible for the death of her sister that night and went back to the forest to protect the rest of her family.
***********
John was thirteen again and still standing in the clearing the eclipse shining overhead. The wolf was no longer sitting before him but was circling him, facing out towards the edges of the clearing and growling as deep bass rumble at whatever was in the trees. Several pale people stepped out of the trees to surround the clearing. All of them appeared emaciated and feral save the one directly across from him. He was tall; appearing to be a giant to John’s thirteen year old eyes. The man’s hair hung straight and long down his back and over his shoulders to his waist in a red the color of blood flowing from an open wound. The eyes that looked him over were yellow and bloodshot filled with malice as they met John’s open stare. When he spoke to John the voice carried even more malice and palpable evil that the eyes, “Well, what do we have here?”
**********
Lost in the memories of her past and unable to escape from them she continued to live out that first night in her mind as she stared at the picture and into John’s eyes. Erica spent the rest of the night in the forest near some caves and lake miles away from her home. She didn’t understand how she’d gotten there so fast after she ran away from her sister’s body at the farm. She simply ran as hard as she could with the thought of being far away from people she knew and could hurt. She was already a monster in her own mind as she’d taken the life of her sister. She would have killed the creature that did this to her had she not already done so. She sat on the western shore of the lake and looked out over the water for the rest of the night while she waited for the sun to rise. She decided that she would not live as a monster because of a whim of chance crossed her path with that of the creature that took her from the world she’d known.
***********
John felt the warmth spread down his leg as the fear of this man overrode his ability to control his bladder at such a young age. The man stood there staring at John like he was something to eat; then he smiled showing two rather long sharp teeth. John was paralyzed with fear as he looked into the face of death. He knew about death as a few of his parents friends had died in the recent years. They had all been nice to John and he’d been missing them. John wanted to run away from this man, run through the trees as fast as he could back to the cabin but he was surrounded and because fear held him in place. One of the feral looking one charged at him only to be intercepted by the black wolf. The fight was short but no less brutal for it as the wolf locked her strong jaws around the attacker’s neck and bit down through it. There was no scream, just the sounds of tearing meat and the crunch of bone being crushed and broken. The silence that fell over the forest was deafening as anything alive other than those surround them, the wolf and John made themselves scarce. John raised his hand to brush away the warm, wet feeling on his cheek only to see blood on his hand when he pulled it away. He didn’t feel any pain and realized with horror that it had to have sprayed from the attacker when the wolf tore its head off. He shuddered and his heart started to race even faster than it had already been.
***********
As the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon Erica felt tremendous pain all over. She forced herself to continue sitting on that beach as the sun’s light continued to brighten the sky. Every second she sat there the pain increased tenfold and yet she still forced herself to remain. The first glimmer of the sun’s edge broke the horizon over the trees and her control snapped; he skin felt like it was on fire and her blood boiled within its veins. Instinct took over and had her racing for the caves she knew were close by. The pain of her body while excruciating was minor compared to the anguish she was feeling at having failed to end her existence as one of the monsters that hunted the night. She reached the cave and drove herself deep into the pitch darkness within. As she neared the back a loud rumble came from ahead of her. Her eyes focused deeper into the cave straining to see what made the sound when suddenly the depths of the cave appeared as bright as the noonday fields to her eyes. Standing upon its hind legs and growling threateningly at her was a gigantic brown bear. The bear dropped to all four legs and moved towards Erica, forcing her back towards the cave entrance. Trapped between the angry bear and the painful death from exposure to the sun her instincts once again took over. Erica charged the bear, jumping up and wrapping her arms around the neck of the large beast she squeezed with all of her strength. She could feel and even hear as the muscles separated and the bones were crushed into paste by the force she exerted. The bear died with a whimper as its spine was crushed within her iron grip. She sat looking at the bear as she listened to the final beats of its heart as silence fell in the cave.
***********
With the gruesome death of their compatriot the rest of the feral men rushed the circle while John stared at the warm blood staining his fingers and cheek. The sounds of the fighting forced him to raise his eyes and look at what was happening. The wolf was fighting to defend John again. Meeting each attacker as they closed, forcing them to back away with a severe injury before she moved to the next. For all her ferocity and speed she wasn’t able to completely protect him. One of the feral men managed to grasp onto John’s upper arm with a vice-like grip and squeezed right before the wolf bit down through its elbow. John heard and felt the snap of bone from where the creature had grabbed his arm; the pain was like nothing he had ever felt before and hoped never to feel again as it was all consuming. He dropped to his knees then fell onto his side as he curled into the fetal position, tucking the injured arm into his body and cradled it protectively.
***********
Sitting there and watching the bear’s body cool she had an inspiration. Erica moved over to the body of the bear and bit through the fur into its neck. She tasted the filthy, muddy taste of tree bark, dirt, animal musk and whatever else the beast had gotten itself into. Pulling her mouth away Erica reach her hand up into her mouth and felt around for the fangs that she’d ripped into her sister’s neck with. She couldn’t find them but knew they were there. It took a little bit of time for her to think of a way to extend them; finally she thought about the thirst and how it felt when she destroyed the creature that made her what she was which caused them to extend. Again she leaned in and bit down through the bear’s fur and skin. She felt the still warm blood flow onto her tongue and down her throat as she forced herself to swallow it. Moments later her entire body was wracked with pain and convulsions as the animal blood was expelled from her body in a torrent. Erica moved away from the pool of blood and vomit to sit against the wall. She had hoped to live on animal blood so she wouldn’t need to kill anyone else. As despair crushed her heart Erica leaned back against the cave wall and felt the tears begin to roll down her cheeks.
***********
John continued to lie upon the ground under the dim light of the eclipse while the pain in his arm assaulted his senses. As the felling of wet, hot fur brushed across his shoulder he looked up to see the wolf. She was standing over him, protecting his body with hers as she stood with teeth bared and growling at the last remaining man; the man who seemed to control those feral creatures that attacked him. The man attacked suddenly, closing the distance faster than a blink and swinging his fist down at the wolf. She moved quickly out of the way of his fist but jolted John’s injured arm causing him to scream in pain. When she looked at John the man backhanded her in the side throwing her into a tree at the edge of the clearing causing her to whine as John heard the sound of breaking bones. The man turned to grab John from the ground and was reaching for him when the wolf landed on his back and bit down onto the back of his neck. This time she was unable to bite through as she’d done with the first attacker. As they struggled John was kicked in the ribs by the man moving to shake the wolf off of his back. Again the pain and sounds of breaking bones tore through his body, but he was unable to scream as breathing suddenly became very difficult to do.
***********
Erica forced herself to stay in that cave for the next several nights; not daring to walk among people in order to keep from killing anyone. After about a week in the cave she was ravenous, her thirst burned not only in her throat but in her head and stomach. She felt as though she was dying but still kept rigid control during the night when her instincts told her to run and to hunt. She was able to control the desire by thinking of her sister lying dead from Erica’s actions or at least she was in control until she heard the sounds of people at the lake after the sun had set. Pulled by her thirst towards the voices she heard Erica ran in seconds from deep within the cave to the tree line nearest them. There were four of them near the water’s edge. They were dressed as trappers and looked to be heading out toward the mountains from the equipment loaded onto the horses and pack mules staked near her. The wind shifted to flow through the trees towards where the horses were tied and the animals reacted like they would to any other predator, the panicked. The horse closest to the stake reared up, yanking the stake that held them in place from the ground and raced away from the scent and into the dark forest leading the other animals with it as they had been tied together. Three of the trappers chased after them into the surrounding dark of the night leaving only one man at the camp. The predator inside of her salivated at her sense of vulnerable prey and began to stalk along inside of the tree line as it moved her towards the lone man. She had gotten close to him when her turned away to look across the water and the predator struck. Taking the trapper from behind it forced him to his knees, pulled his head back up and to the side in order to expose his carotid artery. She stared at the pulse under his skin, listened to the rhythm as his heart sped up its beating and then she struck. She sunk her sharp teeth into his neck and drew deeply on his life’s blood. That was the third time she killed and hated herself for doing it. She escaped into the night before his friends returned to find the body.
It took her two years to learn that she could feed from a mortal without killing them; she had only needed to learn control. During that same time she’d started to discover the changes that happened to her empathic abilities as well. She had the blood of innocents on her hands and knew that she had been a monster during the beginning of her new life. She fought free on the memories of her distant past and looked more closely at the pictures before her. Turning the page again she’d found another picture that had him looking in his early teens. He seemed younger than her did from the one on the previous page; he had a haunted look in his eyes, a cast on his arm and various scrapes, cuts and bruises on his face and body. He was lying in bed under a window through which the forest could be seen. It struck something in her memory that she hadn’t thought about…..
***********
The man was finally able to grab a hold of the wolf and ripped her from his back. He threw her across the clearing where she impacted the tree against which his body rested from being kicked. The wolf fell to land atop John, her blood flowing from several wounds along her body and a puncture in her front left shoulder where a small branch punctured it and snapped off the tree when she fell. Her blood flowed into his mouth as she rested atop him. The man laughed and it was a sound like grating glass, as he approached them across the clearing. At that moment an angel burst into the clearing from the surrounding forest and tore into the man. She was small, not much larger than John was himself and she was beautiful. She fought the man off as John slipped into darkness. He knew he wasn’t going to live but was thankful for the angel rescuing him from anything worse than death. It should have scared him to know he was dying at the age of thirteen but her felt a sense of peace as his eyes closed.
A few minutes must have past when he opened his eyes again. The angel stood over him felling around the injuries he’d suffered. She moved her hands across his broken arm and he passed out again from the sharp pain. He awoke again as he tasted the coppery flavor as warm blood flowed into his mouth. He attempted to spit it out but his mouth was covered by the source of the blood and his nose was being held. All he could see was a hand holding his nose when he opened his eyes to look before he fainted again. The next time he opened his eyes the angel was gone, he was still in pain but alive. He looked around quickly and his head swam. When the wave of nausea and dizziness passed he spotted the wolf; she was sitting there in the clearing next to him and stared at his face again. She looked as though she hadn’t been injured at all but John had known otherwise. The eclipse was over and the sin still shined down into the clearing but it had to have been at least a couple of hours since the noon sun and been above him. John attempted stand, placing his hand on the ground in order to assist him in gaining his feet. That was a painful error as the broken arm was unable to support him. The pain once again caused him to faint.
When he next opened his eyes it was only momentary and to the sensation of being dragged through the forest by the collar of his shirt. He could feel the furry muzzle of the wolf against the back of his neck as she pulled him toward her destination and he drifted off again because of the pain. When he woke next it was on the cabin’s porch with the wolf standing above him. She looked down into his face and licked it all over; she then released a powerful yet beautifully sorrowful howl from her throat and ran to disappear into the trees. His parent’s opened the door and saw John immediately…..
John snapped awake. He hadn’t remembered that event before but he did so now. The face of the angel was in his mind as well as the look of the wolf that had protected him as though he were her cub. He was grateful for the aid both had provided to him that day.
