He could feed on animals, but they did not fill him. He would have to hunt every night rather than the weekly quest of feeding on a human, and he did not enjoy the taste of animal blood. If someone had an accident and bled near him, he did not go into a frenzied attack, although it was tempting at times, and maybe for a new vampire this could be true.
He found the many vampire myths amusing, but he tried his best to see if there was any truth in them. He could not turn into mist, or become a bat. None of his kind that he had ever met slept in a coffin, or hung upside down from rafters. He could not fly or jump over buildings. He could not walk up vertical walls. He had a reflection.
He had a lot of questions as they walked along the white sandy beach. “Have you ever killed anyone, Helena?”
“I have killed. I do not kill to feed. I never have. The only human I’ve killed was my husband from my human life. I took great pleasure in killing him. I also killed the one who changed me.”
“Why did you kill them?”
Helena looked down toward the sand, her face deeply saddened and her eyes closing against the pain the memory obviously brought her. “That’s a story for another time.”
Cain felt uncomfortable and he tried not to look at her.
“What else do you want to know?”
“Do we live forever? Are we immortal?”
She replied softly, “No, we are not immortal. We age around five years to every human century. The oldest I have ever come across was nine hundred years old. I think he still lives.”
“Can we turn into other creatures? I mean is it possible? Stupid question, I guess.”
Although chuckling slightly, she was not laughing at him. “Well, if there is a way I do not know of it. But your question is not stupid. We do have an uncanny connection with dogs and wolves. We sense their anxieties and fears, and know when they are content or dangerous. But we can’t control them.”
Cain’s face flushed and then he relaxed. “Are any of the myths true? I know we are faster and stronger than humans.”
Helena tried to hide her amusement. “The old ‘protect yourself with garlic, silver and crucifixes’? And ‘run to hallowed ground’? And ‘you’re safe from vampires as long as you don’t invite them in’?” She burst out laughing.
Cain laughed with her, and said ruefully, “I tried them all.”
“One’s maker usually teaches us the truths about our kind. I’m sorry your mother was not able to.” Helena told him she had taken two human husbands since she became a vampire. She would not take another, as the pain of watching them grow old and die was too much for her. When each one died a natural death, she lost a part of herself. Now, she only had short relationships and tried not to fall in love. If her feelings started to grow too strong, she would leave them.
A vampire’s life was a lonely one, and on rare occasions vampires were known to create a mate so they did not have to watch them die. But Helena could not condemn another human being to this life. She would not watch them suffer the deaths of everyone they held dear to them. She warned Cain that you could never be sure what they would turn out like. Some vampires found it very hard to return to their human behavior, but most found it easy and still had emotions and compassion. Most vampires did not kill their prey, but there were exceptions. She knew of a few who enjoyed the kill, even torturing their prey, and, unlike her, thought of humans as cattle.
***
Helena had news of Vasile the day she was leaving Thailand. He had been seen in Pakistan, but that was over a month ago. She had a permanent home in Florida and invited Cain to visit her. “Do not live your life through vengeance. There are so many opportunities out there for our kind.”
Cain had only spent a week with Helena but, after she left, he felt really alone. He missed having someone in his life, yet hadn’t felt he deserved to have a companion since his mother’s death. Now Vasile had eluded him again, adding frustration to his loneliness.
As he pondered Helena’s words ‘Do not live your life through vengeance’, he saw a vision. In it Helena was lying on a floor, covered in blood, and her eyes were staring at a dying human male. The thought of her like that scared him, and he knew he had to go to America, to save her. He could not allow this vision to come true.
***
Helena greeted him with open arms, the genuine smile on her face only adding to his heartache. For almost a month Cain had not left her side. One night Helena wanted to go and relax at a bar and watch a band play. Although it was not to his taste, he was too afraid to let her out of his sight. He felt uncomfortable and shuffled about in his seat while Helena ordered them both a glass of wine.
She watched him for a few minutes. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why did you come here with me? It’s obvious it’s not your thing.”
Because I don’t want you to be on your own and my vision come true. Cain shrugged his shoulders. “Why do you do that?”
She scrunched her eyebrows together and tipped her head to the side. “Do what?”
“Why do you sit drinking wine in a bar? It gives us no sustenance. Why do you pretend to still be human?”
Helena laughed. “You have been off the radar, haven’t you? I drink water and wine to fit in, to have a normal life. Food is a little more difficult to keep down, but on occasion I will eat if needed.” She leaned over to him and kissed his forehead. “I want a life, one as normal as it can be. Do you understand?”
He nodded, and a thin smile crossed his face. “I have been alone so long, I never even think about having a normal life.”
Helena smiled warmly. “Well, don’t you think it’s about time you did?”
Cain liked America. He could see himself living here permanently. The size of the country, with all its different states and large population, would make it easy to blend in without drawing too much attention to him. Yes, maybe it is about time I started to live.
Helena looked serious. She took hold of his hand. “Cain, I love your company, but you have hardly left my side since you arrived. What’s wrong? Please tell me. Maybe I can help.”
He squeezed her hand, and crossed his legs. Then he then uncrossed them and squeezed her hand again. Helena watched, from the corner of her eye.
He cleared his throat. “Have you ever had visions, seen things that you know will happen?”
She smiled, although it did not quite reach her eyes. “Sometimes, but usually only about people I have a connection with.” She jerked her hand back and sat up straight. Realization crossed her face. “That’s why you haven’t let me be alone? You saw something happen to me, didn’t you?”
Cain crossed and uncrossed his legs again. He began to fidget with his hands.
She took a deep breath. “What did you see?”
He could no longer look in her eyes. “You hurt badly, watching a human male dying.”
She gave him a pitiful look. “Oh, I see. Cain, you have to understand that these visions, well, it could be decades, even centuries before they happen.”
His jaw clenched and he breathed in loudly through his nose. “The other times I saw things, they happened almost immediately. If there’s no time limit how do I stop it from happening?”
She gripped his hand tightly, her face full of sympathy for him. “You can’t. I appreciate you trying, but you must stop right now.”
He leaned over and lifted her face up. He looked deep into her eyes. “Helena, promise me you won’t get involved with a human again, and don’t cut your hair.”
She laughed. “I would never cut my hair.”
Cain smiled at her. “Let’s go home. I have some packing to do.”
***
In 1999, after years of fruitless searching throughout the world for Vasile, Cain returned to America. He had decided he needed to put down some roots, belong somewhere for a while, and he wanted to be close to his only friend, Helena. He still wanted revenge against Vasile, but he had searched for him for over fifty years. Helena had been right, he could
not let this rule his life completely. He would find Vasile one day, of that he was sure, but he wanted a place he could call home while he searched for clues as to Vasile’s whereabouts.
He reckoned he could live in any one place for around twelve, maybe fifteen years at a push before anyone would become suspicious of his odd behavior and lack of aging. He opened an antique shop in New York, which he ran himself. Then he bought two other shops, one in Texas, the other in Utah, and then a further one in Canada; he named them all ‘Archaic Wonders’.
While he lived in New York, he rented the Utah, Texas, and Canada shops until he was ready to make use of them. He became very good at pretending to be human. He wouldn’t call himself happy, but he thought he was content. He was lonely, but what else could he expect? Who would love a monster except another monster? Life had become, in a weird sort of way, normal for Cain. On very rare occasions, he would pick up a prostitute, and during sex, he would feed on them; but he always made sure they were well paid for what he did.
Most of the time he would go out-of-state to small, quiet towns to hunt at night. He did not want to take a chance on being recognized as ‘the weirdo who stalked the streets at night’.
Chapter 9
One night Cain traveled to a National Park, searching for a good place to hunt. He had never been to that town before and it was still light when he entered the park. It had vast, rolling green hills and multi-colored trees as far as the eye could see. In the center deer drinking ringed a small lake. It reminded him of Manchester’s Heaton Park in England. There he came across an old man sleeping on one of the benches. The man was obviously homeless; he was dirty, his clothes were very worn and tattered in some places and Cain could smell the alcohol on him.
There was no one else around, and he could not hear or feel anyone except the old man. This is surely an opportunity not to be missed, he thought. So he approached the man, shook him gently awake and began talking to him. After making small talk, he asked the old man about his life, how he ended up living on the streets. He said he was Sergeant William Grayson Cooper. After he had returned from his last tour of Vietnam his marriage broke up. Cooper had started taking drugs to help rid the memories of the war, which would often cause him to go into fits of rage. He eventually had a mental breakdown.
“Most people think I’m mad,” he said. “Sometimes I think they’re right.”
But Cain thought he wasn’t mad, he was just lost. He felt empathy for this man. He was a war hero and society did him no favors. He gave the sergeant a bundle of cash and told him to get a decent meal.
William stared at the money in his hand, unable to speak. It had been such a long time since someone had treated him like a human being or something close to one, and even longer since anyone was willing to listen to his story. As William looked up, Cain put his left hand on William’s cheek and his right hand on his shoulder, before a second had passed Cain was biting down on William’s neck.
***
Sam, at twenty-seven years old, was the eldest of the three brothers. His dark blond hair was curly and fell to the top of his shoulders. Tim, the youngest at nineteen, had a thin build, and at six-foot-four, he appeared even skinnier. His flaming red hair made his fair skin seem pale. Ted was the middle brother, twenty-four years old and very similar in appearance to his brother, Sam. They were walking their dogs through the park when they came across what they decided could be a vampire.
“Are you sure it’s one of them?” Ted whispered. “I mean, it’s not dark yet. I thought they only came out at night. But it has to be one of them, doesn’t it?”
“It’s the first one we have come across since….” Tim hesitated, the memory still raw. “Well, since we saw that one kill Mandy.”
Sam looked at Tim. He saw his eyes had become watery behind the thick glasses. Poor kid, I knew we should have left him at home. What nineteen year old should be trying to hunt vampires? “We’ll get the one that killed her. Do you still want to do this?”
Ted looked at Tim and shook his head, disgusted. “I can take him on my own. You run home to mommy, nerd boy.”
Tim’s face went red. “We can’t all be built like Arnie, like you and Sam. But what’s wrong with wanting to learn?”
“Keep your voice down, you two,” Sam hissed. He looked at Ted. “And will you stop picking on him?”
Cain felt the other presences. Humans with dogs! He let William go. He’d started to gently lay him down on the bench when he heard the dogs barking and shouting coming from the bushes.
“Get away from him, bloodsucker!” Ted yelled.
The three men watched the creature gently put the old man down. They saw the blood on its face.
“Set the dogs on it!” Sam shouted.
Cain started to run but the dogs were soon snapping at his heels. He made a dash for the trees but was not fast enough after. He’d wasted precious seconds wondering Did they just call me a bloodsucker? Do they know what I am? His confusion hindered his escape. Both dogs bit on his left leg. He lost his footing and fell but managed to stagger upright. He threw one dog into the trees, but as he went for the second animal, the three brothers jumped him. He couldn’t fight them off; there were too many of them and the dog continued to bite at his legs.
Sam sat on Cain’s chest, his knees digging into Cain’s sides. Sam pulled a sharpened wooden stake out of his back pocket. “Keep hold of him.” Sam let out a grunt as he thrust the stake through Cain’s heart.
Cain screamed from the colossal pain that ran through his chest. Pain was something he had not felt since he was human. Even then, he could not remember anything as intense as he was feeling now. He lay in the fallen leaves, trying to fight them off, while they fought equally hard to keep him down.
“Get the gas!” Sam shouted.
Ted let go of Cain and picked up a jerry can.
Cain kicked out with his foot. One of the dogs yelped as he made contact with its jaw. He pushed Sam off his chest, and then grabbed Tim by the throat and threw him out of the way.
Sam grabbed the matches, watching for Ted’s next move. Ted held onto the can and threw the contents over Cain.
The liquid splashed over Cain and there was no mistaking the smell of it. Gasoline! They’re going to set me on fire! He had to act quickly. Hearing the match strike, Cain sprang to his feet, lunged at Sam and bit down hard.
Sam fell to his knees, clutching his throat, blood spurting through his fingers.
Ted and Tim looked on in horror as the scene unfolded in a matter of seconds.
“Sam! Oh, shit. It ripped Sam’s throat open with its teeth! “Tim screamed as he frantically scrambled over to Sam.
“Where the fuck did it go?” Ted shouted.
“Doesn’t matter! We have to help Sam!”
“It ran off like an inferno. We got it! We got it good!” Ted heard the gurgling noises and turned his attention back to his dying brother. “You got him good, Sam. You got him good.”
***
Cain ran toward the lake. The burns, not to mention the wooden stake that had been thrust into his chest, had made breathing difficult. Did he have enough oxygen to last until the others had gone? He would soon find out. He dived in and lay completely still under the water.
He lay there, watching the ripples of water above him. Is this it? Is this how I am going to die, burned and staked, at the bottom of a lake?
No one was going to miss him, grieve for him. Maybe his staff would miss him eventually, but he was hardly ever at the shops these days. Most of his dealings with the shops were now over the phone and Internet to the managers. He kept his distance, as he didn’t want to have to explain to his regular clients and neighbors why he always seemed so young.
Apart from Helena, there had not been anyone in his life since his mother had died. He lay there reliving that day. He could feel the heat from the flames and see her flesh melting away as the fire engulfed her.
He forced himself to think of something else. Maybe Helena w
ould miss him, but how would she know what had happened to him? He hadn’t seen her in such a long time, maybe five years. His mind began to wander. He tried to recall the last time he had spoken to her. It must have been over a year since he had heard her voice. She was the one who had suggested a shop in Canada. She had even helped him choose the perfect building, one with a small apartment above.
He moved slightly and a pain shot through his chest. The thought of removing the stake scared him. That would surely end his life, wouldn’t it? But he could not just lie here and die. He did not deserve to die, not like this. He didn’t kill his prey, not now, not for over sixty years. He didn’t go around hurting anyone. He survived amongst the humans by living a lie, but the lies were as much to protect them, as they were to protect himself.
How did those men know what I am? Have they been tracking me? No. That’s not possible. I would have known if I was being tracked. It has to be coincidence. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw me feeding.
When Cain emerged very gingerly from the water he could not sense the humans or their dogs. On reaching the bank, he climbed out of the lake and made his way into the tree line. He did not know or care where he was going; he just had to get away from the park. The burns didn’t hurt that much now but the wooden stake in his chest was excruciating. With every step he took, a pain shot through him like a red-hot iron bar being slammed through his chest and into his heart.
What felt like hours later, he found himself at the edge of some woods. He stood looking down at his burned body and the wooden stake sticking out of his chest. He was weak, in pain, and he needed to feed. He walked slowly into the woods to lie down under some thick bushes. He took stock of his position, and collected his thoughts. Should he pull the stake out of his chest? Would he heal or would he bleed to death? There wasn’t a lot of choice; it had to come out.
Fear gripped him but he slowly put his hand around the stake. Taking a deep breath he pulled it from his heart. He let out a loud cry from the intense pain, and then everything went black as he collapsed.