Sleep is quite strange as a vampire. We still dream like normal humans, but the division from your mortal memory makes dreams become like living another life. In my dream, I’m sitting on a beach in Florida, my skin drinking up the sun’s rays. The distant roar of waves crashing in the ocean sings to my heart and soul, or at least what’s left of it. There is always a dissonance between my dream state and my awakened state, yet today there is a wider gap between them. Tonight, I’m human for the first time in four years. For once, I can drink the golden radiance of the harsh sun without burning to ashes. Yet, a brief flash of memory tears through the beach scene, carving out neon signs and streetlights from the serene shores. I’m lying on a cold concrete floor in a crimson puddle. My torn clothes bind themselves to my pale flesh, the fabrics stained deep red and sealed tight together. I climb up on my frail limbs, walking out of the alley with a ruinous hunger drilling a pit in my heart.
I wake up as soon as I step foot out of the alley, almost jumping out of my bed as my chest heaves. If I had a heartbeat, it would be damn near ready to burst out of my ribcage. I hate this dream so much, but I can’t escape it no matter how many times I try. Crawling out of my bed, I step out on my wounded leg without thinking too much about it. Oh, fuck! A sharp pain shoots up my leg like an electric shock, racing all the way up to my ribs. Somehow, I’m still standing by the time the pain subsides, so I stumble my way through the hallway into the kitchen. Friedrich stands in the middle of the kitchen, stirring a pot that smells like confectionary chocolate. He’s wearing a bright pink and black apron that clearly doesn’t quite fit him. Yet, the more I look at the apron he’s wearing, the more I realize that he stole my apron.
“Friedrich, where did you get that apron?” my voice cutting through the stillness in the room.
Friedrich turns to look at me with a guilt-ridden look on his face. The older vampire pauses for a moment, pursing his lips before he finally starts speaking, “I pulled it from the closet because I didn’t have anything else to wear, Fraulein. If nothing else, I was going to wash it after I was finished.”
“At least you thought to wash my apron after using it. I wanted to ask you some questions about the vampire world before I went to bed if you don’t mind answering.”
Friedrich pours a ladle of confectionary chocolate onto a tray of pastry dough, spreading the warm viscous syrup across in even layers. Yet the man doesn’t move at all, staring intently at the chocolate bubbling in the pot.
“So, who are the Hell’s Sirens?” I say, walking over to the coffee pot. I pull a coffee cup from my cabinets, pulling out a black cup styled after the French catacombs.
“Fraulein, the Hell’s Sirens are a coven of vampires that are like your sororities in college, except the matron is almost an ancient vampire. Many of them possess impressive charms alongside their otherworldly beauty. There haven’t been any new additions to her coven in a couple hundred years. Why do you ask?”
“Well, that vampire hunter mentioned them in passing last night while he was trailing me. He smelled somewhat familiar, as if I’d met him somewhere before,” I sigh, pouring myself a cup of coffee. Something about today has me craving hazelnut creamer.
“Vampires can recognize their kin through scent, are you sure you don’t have relatives who might be vampire hunters?”
“Not really, my father used to tell me stories to scare me about supernatural creatures, but everybody does that,” I reply.
A loud thud smacks against the door, jolting me from our conversation. I walk over to the door, peering through the peephole and finding no one there. Instead, there’s a small bag that sits in the middle of the welcome mat. What the hell is this? Who would throw a bag at the door? Something about this screams a set up, but it’s not like I have many options. My backdoor only has a wall of white picket fences surrounding it thanks to my wonderful neighbors. The only way out is through that door.
“Friedrich, would you be a dear and grab this present someone has delivered to our doorstep?”
“Yes, madam, though it would be more effective if you grabbed it since you’re standing in front of the door,” he says.
“Is that sass I detect in your voice? Would you speak to your mistress in the same tone?”
Friedrich glares at me upon rounding the corner with a bright smile on his face. Despite my comments, he’s sporting a genuine smile. The vampire walks over to the door, opening the door with a rapid motion, scanning the entire surrounding area before picking up the bag. I stifle a laugh as Friedrich shuts the door and hands me the bag.
“Now you’re beginning to sound like a lady of noble blood! Your mother must have been something fierce!”
“Well, my stepmother certainly was. I have no idea about my real mother though. My father said that she was eccentric, but she loved me dearly,” I reply.
“Did your mother ever visit you?” Friedrich says.
“No, she never did. I found it odd that I never heard a word from her despite my father’s persistent words of praise for her.”
“Your father was keeping a secret from you. He probably didn’t tell you because your mother was likely a vampire. Only half-vampires born of a noble bloodline to a vampire mother retain their father’s eye color after death,” Friedrich says without skipping a beat.
“How could my mother be a vampire? My father spent my whole life telling me about vampires being scary creatures of the night as bedtime stories when I was a kid! I mean, how would he know about the story of the Divine Hunter and the Bloody Goddess?”
“I’ve never heard of a tale by that name, Miss Alirelli. Though I have heard rumors of some vampires who decide to have children through mortal fathers. There seem to be quite a few of them to be honest, so I can’t track down your heritage like that.”
My childhood plays on repeat through this fractured lens. My father knew a lot about these vampire hunters, whereas nobody in school knew about this secret order. Now that I think about it, my stepmother also knew about the Order. My father’s best friend knew about the Order as well. Yet this order is real. They found me within a month of my disappearance. How else would they have known about my disappearance if my father wasn’t a member of the Hunter Order? Did my father send the Order to find me? My stomach twists itself into the tightest knot I’ve ever felt before.
My hands tremble as I stare down at the razor-sharp claws I’ve come to know. All this time I thought that I had been killed and revived as a vampire. Hell, I lamented the fact that I didn’t get to live out the rest of my life. Even to this day, I still wish to see the sun once more without it burning my flesh faster than you can open an umbrella. Still, to find out this is part of my lineage…
I have to be dreaming. This has to be a dream. There’s no other explanation. Pure vampires must have their own eye colors. Maybe Friedrich has red eyes because he was turned. But if that were the case, then I’d have red eyes. So, maybe my mother was half-vampire herself? There is no way that my father, an ordinary man, could have had a relationship with a vampire. Let alone one of noble blood. She’d have to be one of the richest creatures in the world. My father’s frugality would drive her insane! It’s just not possible.
“Is everything alright, Madam Alirelli? I understand you are facing a lot of questions, but I’d appreciate if you could put me down,” Friedrich says.
Friedrich’s interruption draws the rest of the room back into focus. Everything with any connection to life lies suspended in mid-air, including my ever faithful but clumsy servant. I release everything from my mental grasp, dropping Friedrich on the floor. Everything else falls back into place just as it was before I snatched it.
“Sorry Friedrich, I got caught up in my own head for a sec. We never opened that bag, did we?”
“No madam, that’s why I was trying to get your attention. We still have the matter of the mysterious hunter to deal with … among other things.”
“Friedrich, what do you mean by other things? What else has been going on?” I snap.
“Um, well, you see…”
“Spit it out. NOW!” I hiss.
“So, I may or may not have triggered even more intense security by drinking one of the mayor’s secretaries to death…” the older vampire says.
“YOU DID WHAT!!!!”
I snatch Friedrich back up into the air, binding his limbs behind his back. The older vampire attempts to break free but stops after a few minutes of pointless squirming. Friedrich stares down at the floor, cowering like a child that knows they’ve done something they shouldn’t have. I sit him down on the ground and release Friedrich from his binds. I put my head in my right hand before I pay heed to my trouble-making colleague.
“How bad is security?”
“They have three-armed security guards per entrance of a public official’s home. Inside of public buildings, they have two guards on each side of an entrance or exit. They got this city locked down in no time at all. Honestly, it’s quite impressive,” Friedrich chuckles.
“I meant outside of the governor’s family and sphere, I sigh.
“Oh, they are now conducting searches of visitors for any items related to blood and medical supplies, especially at hospitals.”
There goes access to my blood donors. I guarantee that they’ll start at the hospitals and work their way through the entire medical system. They have no way to trace my clinic back to me, but I need to err on the side of caution regardless. My stable food supply is gone for at least a week, maybe more. I could possibly find some lower-ranking vampires who have any extra blood, but they gather blood in unsavory ways.
Friedrich pries open the bag, pulling out a small note and unraveling it. My colleague takes on the form of a grandfather as his tone shifts, “’Dear resident, I hope that bullet wound isn’t causing you too much damage. Assuming you drank some blood, you should be regenerating rather fast.’”
“Of course, he would joke about shooting me in the leg. Who wouldn’t joke about that?” I shout, throwing my hands in the air.
“You didn’t let me finish reading the note,” Friedrich laughs, “’If you are who I think you are, you have a deathly allergy to garlic and won your senior year volleyball tournament as the MVP. Meet me at the park three blocks from the steel mill in five days. I things to prepare in the meantime.”
There are only a select few people that know of my garlic allergy, those few being my family, my medical team before I turned, and a few of my close friends. The likelihood of anyone outside of my family showing up is rather low, plus the age of the hunter places him just around my father’s age. I could really use his help right now.
“Are you going to meet this hunter who knows a suspiciously high amount about you?” Friedrich says.
“I don’t really have a choice, but I do need to exercise caution in the meantime. Plus, I don’t have much blood left, so I’ll be in a weakened state for a few days.”
“Can’t you just drink from a person walking down the street like most vampires do?”
“Friedrich, you doing just that is why I’m in the position that I am asshole!” I snap.
“Point taken.”
“Now, I am going to take a nice rest for a while. Keep watch for surveillance teams and alert me if anything suspicious happens and do be a dear and keep your hunger in check!” I say, really hissing out that last part.
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