Fate: Updated Edition, page 4
“I am not the oldest of my kind, nor do I claim to be an expert on them. However, in my many years of existence, I have found little written on the subject of vampyres, other than questionable folklore.
“In an effort to dispel the mythology and to create a guide for the newly turned, I have decided to write this book. In no means is it to be taken as a ‘Bible’ for my kind, but rather, as the title suggests, a brief history of vampyres as far as I can tell.”
My fingers began to tremble, and I was afraid I’d rip the fragile pages out. Knowing vampires had a history was disconcerting.
I knew they existed, but the only ones I knew were Jack and his family, and they weren’t particularly frightening or disturbing. But thinking of vampires as a whole, an entire species of creatures out there, feeding on the living for the past millennia… it sent chills down my spine.
The first chapter was simply titled “In the Beginning.”
“Perhaps what is most unusual about vampyres is that while we carry many of the same traits of humans, we lack any real creation story of our own. Some vampyres still cling onto the religion of the people, while others banish it, saying that we are proof that God does not exist.
“What I have found to be true is much less sensational than one would hope. We have neither a direct line with God nor the devil. We are no closer to the meaning of life than any other human.
“Vampyres have not existed as long as humans have, by our best record, and I was unable to find anything on the first vampyre. More precisely, I have never encountered a vampyre who admitted to being the first one, or any other vampyre who met him.
“Our first documented appearance happened to coincide with a plague, which leads me to believe that we are some kind of plague ourselves.”
“I see you found some light reading,” Ezra interrupted, startling me so badly that I jumped up from the chair and dropped the book onto the floor.
“I-I just- I was just curious,” I stumbled and felt my cheeks burn with shame.
Ezra waved off my apology and walked over to me. “There’s no harm in being curious.”
He picked the book up off the floor and held it for me to take. I hesitated for a moment, afraid that it might be some kind of trick, although he didn’t seem much like the tricking kind.
“I don’t know very much about you.” I took the book from him, and I lowered my eyes and held it close to me.
“We haven’t been as forthcoming as you’d like?” Ezra raised an eyebrow, and I wasn’t sure if he was being skeptical or sincere.
“No, it’s not that,” I corrected myself quickly. “It’s just…”
What was it exactly? They had been incredibly open with me. When I had questions, Jack answered them to the best of his ability, but somehow, that wasn’t enough. As much as I knew, it seemed liked there was twice as much that I didn’t know.
“It’s because it’s personal now,” Ezra said knowingly. “Before, we were merely a curiosity to you, or an opportunity.”
“No, no!” I interrupted him forcefully. “You’re not some sideshow to me.”
“No, I know that. It was a poor choice of words on my part,” Ezra said, calming me. “I know how much you care for us.
“But… you’d always known us as this, and whether you understood us completely was irrelevant,” he continued. “You saw that we were happy and well. But now that it’s struck Milo, it’s not enough to know that we’re content. You need to understand everything about us.”
I nodded. “So?”
“So… you want me to tell you everything.
“Yeah, kinda.”
Ezra smiled sadly. “I have bad news. There’s not much more to tell.”
“How can there not be much to tell?” My voice quavered with incredulity. “You’re telling me that the little bit you’ve confessed to me in the past few months covers the entire history of your species?”
“No, of course not,” he amended. “We have an extensive history, and that book you’re holding right now is a very good source of some of it. But it’s much like any other history book you’ve read. You’d be more interested in a biology book.”
“Is there one?” I asked hopefully.
“There are a few.” Ezra shrugged indifferently, as if none of them were that good. “Peter has some, I’m sure.
“But there are many problems with a biology book about vampires. Autopsies are impossible,” he went on. “Whatever kills a vampire tends to destroy everything inside him, making it impossible to dissect it all and see how it differs from a human. But that’s only half the problem.”
“What’s the other half of the problem?”
“Have you heard about the bumblebee?” Ezra leaned back against the end of Peter’s four-post bed, crossing his feet over his ankles.
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head, confused by the abrupt subject change.
“According to an aerodynamic study done in the early 20th century, the bumblebee can’t possibly fly,” Ezra explained. “Its wings are much too small and can’t beat fast enough to carry the weight of its body.”
“What?” I furrowed my brow and decided it must be a riddle. “So… What? How do they get around then?”
He smiled at me. “They fly, of course.”
“But you just said…” I sighed and shook my head. “What does this have to do with vampire biology?”
“The bumblebee existed despite scientific evidence to the contrary, much like myself. Eventually, scientists figured out they were looking at the wings wrong and discovered the magic in the flight of the bumblebee. Unfortunately, science has yet to figure out the magic of us,” Ezra finished, looking apologetic.
“So you’re saying that nobody knows the answers to my questions?” I asked.
“Yes and no.” He straightened up. “You’ll find some things, but it likely won’t be enough. Feel free to continue looking through Peter’s books and see if you can come across anything that might help you feel better.”
“Thanks,” I said.
With that, Ezra nodded at me and strode out of the room. I sighed and listened for his departing footsteps, but there were none. The only thing I could hear was music wafting from Milo’s room that sounded like Mozart.
I settled back in the chair and opened the book where I had left off. As I read on, I found that the faded italics offered little in what I wanted, just as Ezra predicted.
It was interesting though, telling the story of the unnamed author and his transformation into a vampire. He described it as excruciating, but in the end, very brief and hard to define. There was just pain, and then an unquenchable thirst.
The only new information was that some vampires turned more than others. While most retained a sense of their humanity, some of them lost it entirely. They were crazed bloodthirsty monsters, and they didn’t live very long because humans and vampires couldn’t stomach a creature like that.
I had just finished reading that passage when I heard a disgusted scoff at the door, frightening me so much I yelped. I half-expected to find Milo standing there, with shiny new fangs and that animal look in his eyes the book described.
Instead, it was only Jack in the doorway, frowning.
“You scared me,” I said.
“What are you doing in Peter’s room?” He fought to keep the edge off his voice, but he did a poor job. The last time I’d been in this room, I’d almost died, and his eyes kept going to the bloodstain on the rug.
“Reading.” I held up the book for him to see, but his expression never changed. “It’s a book about vampires. I figured that I better bone up since everybody around me seems to be one.”
“Why don’t you take the book and go somewhere else to read?” Jack asked.
I could’ve argued with him, but the scent of Peter was distracting me anyway. Thoughts of him kept lurking in my head, keeping my mind in a fog.
Jack stood just outside the doorway, refusing to step inside. When I slid past him out the door, he finally seemed to relax.
“What do you have?” Jack touched the book, moving it so he could read the title. Immediately, he let go of the book and rolled his eyes.
“What?” I glanced down at it. Nondescript leather with the words A Brief History of Vampyres emblazed in the cover. “It’s just a book.”
“It’s Peter’s book,” Jack grumbled.
“Yeah, but you knew that when I was in his room.” I gestured back to Peter’s bookcases. “Just because Peter owns something doesn’t—”
“No, he doesn’t just own it,” Jack corrected me. “He wrote it. That’s his biography.”
“What are you talking about?” I flipped open the book, looking for some mention of the author, and I found something that contradicted Jack. “No, it says right here the author is very old when he wrote this, and the book itself is incredibly old, and Peter isn’t even two-hundred yet.”
“Yeah, he wrote it when he’d been turned for like twenty years, but he didn’t think anyone would think anything of it if they knew how young he was. That’s why it doesn’t mention who he is or how old he is exactly.”
“But…” I tried to think of something to disprove it, but I didn’t even know why it was so important to me that I counter his argument at all.
“Was that the first book you picked up?” Jack narrowed his eyes, and his tone took an entirely different turn.
He was vaguely jealous, but mostly, the whole vampire bonding thing sickened him. My blood, Peter’s blood, they only seemed to exist to drive Jack insane.
I felt the same way he did. I hated that my pulse quickened just at the memory of Peter, or that I was automatically drawn to his book. Any connection to Peter felt like a betrayal, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“It’s just a book!”
Jack shut Peter’s bedroom door. When he looked back at me, he wrinkled his nose. “You smell like him.”
“Sorry.”
“Have you eaten today?” he asked. “I can order you a pizza or something.”
“I’m okay.” I shook my head. “I had a bagel earlier.”
“Right.” Jack stood awkwardly in front of me for a moment, and then stepped back. “I’m gonna go check on your brother.”
“Good idea. Tell him I say hi.”
He nodded and walked to the end of the hall, into the room I couldn’t go. I was alone holding Peter’s book, and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to read it or not.
Part of me wanted to read it even more now that I knew it was the story of Peter. Anything to get a better understanding of him would be amazing.
The rest of me knew it was a path I didn’t want to go down anymore. After he tried to kill me, a choice had been made, and Peter was no longer an option for me.
Chapter Six
The curtains layered the windows so thick the sun never stood a chance. No matter the time of day, darkness shrouded the house. My vision wasn’t as advanced as the vampires’ so Jack put a night light in the bathroom that adjoined his room.
I heard a rustling, and that must’ve been what awoke me from my sleep. The clock on the nightstand said it was only two in the afternoon, so I couldn’t imagine that anyone would be awake. I hadn’t gone to bed until seven in the morning, and Jack had still been awake playing Xbox.
I rolled back over, burying myself in the thick blankets of Jack’s bed.
When I heard the rustling again, I barely stirred, and figured that it must be the dog. I had overtaken Jack’s room, and it led to some confusion with Matilda. She usually slept at the end of his bed, but he was sleeping on the couch. She couldn’t decide if her loyalties lied more with him or the bed.
“Go to sleep, Matilda,” I muttered.
I was awake enough where I felt the movement. It wasn’t actually a rustling that had woken me, because the motion was nearly soundless. But there was something – almost like an electric breeze – moving about the room.
Someone was in the room with me. There was silence and a shadowy presence that I couldn’t explain.
“Matilda?” I whispered.
I sat up, my eyes searching the darkness. I hoped to see her massive white shape lurking somewhere, but the night light from the bathroom cast little light. Then I saw a glimpse of a shadow rush in front of it. Before I could yell, the bed moved, and whoever it was had gotten on it with me.
“Jeez, Alice, settle down,” a voice chuckled in the dark, only a few inches from my face. “You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.”
“What? Who’s there?” I asked. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Shame on you,” he said with exaggerated disapproval. “You don’t even recognize your own brother?”
“Milo?” I scrambled to turn on the bedside lamp.
I gasped as soon as I saw him. He looked like my brother but not. The baby fat had been chiseled away to cheek bones and a strong jaw. His skin had never been scarred by acne, but it appeared even smoother and more flawless.
The change aged him, but in a good way. He no longer looked like a boy teetering on puberty but rather a young man in his late teens. His brown eyes had gotten more amazing, but his crooked, unsure grin remained the same.
“Milo?” I repeated, struggling to grasp that my little brother had become this rather stunning creature before me.
“The one and only.” His voice still sounded much like his own, but it was deeper and more velvet. It lacked the squeaky insecure quality that had once been so distinctly him.
Without thinking, I reached out and touched his face. His skin felt soft and temperate, but before I could register anything more, something flicked across his face. He jumped back from my touch.
“What? Did I do something?” I asked, pulling my hand back.
“I’m just not strong enough yet.” Milo backed closer to the wall but stayed in the bedroom, bathed in the soft lamp glow.
“For what?” I asked.
“You’re the first… human I’ve been around.” His face contorted. “I could smell you when I was in my room, and I thought I had a handle on it. But I wasn’t prepared for how your pulse would feel on my skin…” Guilt and disgust flashed across his face at finding me appetizing.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve known better. I’m always doing the same things to Jack, and you think I would’ve learned by now.” I forced a smile at him, but his expression only got more sour. “What?”
“So… you knew?” Milo asked quietly.
“You mean… that they’re vampires?”
“I knew that you had to.” He stared past me into the darkness. “As soon as I could understand what was happening, and Mae explained it to me… She told me that you knew, but, I guess I didn’t really believe it until I heard you say it.”
“Why wouldn’t you believe it?” I asked. If he could believe that he was becoming a vampire, how would it be a stretch to believe that I had known about them?
“How could you not tell me about this?” Milo sounded so angry and hurt, and I flinched.
I remembered what Jack had said. When vampires first turn, all their emotions are right at the surface. Everything is so much more intense, making it harder to manage. Self-control had always been Milo’s strong suit, but that was likely how he was able to be in the same room with me so soon after he’d turned.
“I-I didn’t know how to tell you,” I stuttered. “I even tried to once. But you would’ve just thought I was crazy.”
“You should’ve tried harder!” Milo snapped.
I stared at my brother, at the new exquisite contours of his face. I didn’t love him any less, but I had this feeling that I didn’t really recognize the boy glowering at me from the shadows of the room.
I imagined this was how the dad felt when that creepy little boy came back from the Pet Semetary. That thought was followed by the thick Maine drawl saying, “Sometimes, dead is better.” I stifled the chill running over me.
“I’m sorry, Milo. You’re right. And it was so hard keeping this from you. I just…” I sighed and shook my head. “It was a hard decision. Just like this one.”
“What one?” His eyes flashed with confusion, and I wondered how much Mae had told him.
“The one… to turn you” I swallowed hard and studied his face for his reaction. His eyes dropped from mine, and he softened. “Did they tell you what happened?”
Milo nodded. “Jack said it was his fault, and I was dying. So you asked him to turn me. To save me.”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I’m not angry with you,” Milo absolved me. “I’m sure I would’ve done the same thing in your situation.”
He shifted against the wall. In that simple action, I saw the way the muscles moved subtly underneath his shirt. Soft would be a good way to describe him before, but now he looked like a jungle cat recoiled before an attack.
To know something is entirely different from seeing it so blatantly in front of me. Everything about him had changed, and only time would tell how much of him was still my brother.
“You’re a vampire,” I said breathlessly.
“I am,” Milo agreed with a wry smile.
“How do you feel?”
“Pretty amazing actually.” His smile widened and his stance broadened. “At first, it hurt like hell and I was sure I was going to die. Or at least I hoped I would. But now I feel better than I’ve ever felt.”
“Really?” I asked hopefully.
“Yeah.” Milo nodded, but his smile faltered. “Well, except for the hunger. It’s hard to get used to, but eating… Wow. There aren’t even words for it.”
“So you’re eating?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
“If I wasn’t, I couldn’t be here with you,” Milo said with a strange threatening sound to his voice, and I involuntarily shrunk back in the bed. “I’m not even supposed to be out of my room now. But I woke up hungry, so I had some blood bags in the room. Mae was completely passed out in the chair, and I was sick of being locked up.”
“They think you’re going to eat me?” I tucked a tangle of my hair behind my ear and hoped my voice stayed even. He looked pained but said nothing. “Do… do you want to?”
