I was a beautiful girl, and I knew it. My blonde hair was long, the color of spun gold. My eyes were the bluest blue of them all, and more wild than the Pacific and all its wonders. My waist was small, forming nice curves into my well-formed hips. My legs were long, and well muscled, like battering rams used to knock down castle doors in the Middle Ages. I turned heads wherever I went.
I walked down the street side by side with and my very best friend Aodac Mendu, in a run down part of town we lived in. The streets were in bad need of repaving; the sidewalks were cracked and corroded. The buildings were falling down; the foundations were starting to break apart, taking the buildings with them. Graffiti was everywhere you looked. Gangs ruled the streets, but, I always felt safe with Aodac around. You see, my best friend was not normal. He was a vampire, and I tell you he hated being one. He despised it. He never let people forget what immortality had cost him; however he couldn’t do anything about it. I mean, what do you do to get rid of the vampire in a vampire? Centuries passed for him this way. He never wanted immortality, but he got it anyway. He grew ever more bitter with each passing year. His hatred of the thing he was grew worse every day. Could it be that it was only two months ago that The Council had taken him to their lair? They held him on vampire trial to determine if he was worthy to live or if he should die for his crimes against the vampire nation. Aodac had become reckless in the last year, and The Council did not like it. The Council decided that Aodac should live over the course of the two months that he stayed with them as their prisoner, and they put Aodac through a ritual that would kill his vampire blood, and leave him human again. Yeah, you got it; there’s a cure for vampirism if you know how to get it. It was too bad that Aodac found out too late. We were on our way home. This is where my long story begins.
I lived with Aodac and two other men. They had saved me from the streets when I was young, a homeless orphan. Aodac and the others had given me a home; they had raised me in brotherly love and blessed my life.
Aodac and I walked through the door and one of my other brothers was there in the front foyer. Cahol MacDum looked at Aodac with wide eyes full of surprise.
I had not thought of Cahol as a brother in a long time. I thought of him as a lover. I was always flirting with him. I wanted him so bad I could taste it. I never stopped my pursuit; Cahol had no interest in me that way; he tolerated me for Aodac’s sake, and no other reason.
“Hi, baby. Wanna come up to my room and put me to bed?” I asked in my most sensual voice which sounded like the soft caress of velvet.
He looked me straight in the eye, but instead of answering me, he addressed Aodac. “Where have you been? We’ve been trying to find you for weeks.” The sound of his rich tenor voice always shook me to the core of my body, creating an almost orgasmic wave over me. It was addictive.
Aodac looked at him and answered. “I was taken by The Council.” That statement ended the entire conversation. You see, while all vampires knew of The Council, almost none had ever meet them. Most didn’t even believe they existed.
I looked back at Cahol as he watched us climb the stairs to the upper floor, and said to him, “Come up later. We’re probably going to need you. Or, more to the point, I’m going to need you.” He nodded as Aodac dragged me into the library.
It was eight o’clock before we all sat down for dinner. Cahol’s place was empty for the moment. Aodac had been sick all afternoon and on into early evening. His body reacting violently to the “virus” that The Council had put in his blood stream to kill his vampire blood. But it worked swiftly, and Aodac was well again by early evening.
Cahol came into the dining room while we were eating. Contrary to popular mythologies, vampires eat normal food in addition to drinking blood. They need the enzymes in a person’s blood to feed their dead blood life; otherwise they wouldn’t drink it. When Cahol asked Aodac to tell him what happened, Aodac told him the whole story. Aodac was the center of attention while we ate. And finally, Aodac told Cahol that he was no longer a vampire. Cahol dropped his fork in shock and looked at Aodac, checking his teeth; he saw for himself that there were no fangs. Cahol, slightly disgusted with the whole thing said, “What a pity.” Cahol picked his dinner up and turned on his heel and left.
I followed Cahol into the hall and asked him to stay. I flat out told him that if he didn’t, I would go with him to his room which was across the hall and eat with him anyway. Pushy bitch, aren’t I? I knew that one day I would break his resolve to never touch me, and I also knew that when that happened, I would have him, my way. You see, Cahol promised Aodac a long time ago that he would never touch me. They all watched me grow from an orphan on the streets into a beautiful woman, and they all wanted to act on natural attraction; however when they all promised each other never to touch me, Cahol’s warmness to the girl I was turned to cold and icy hatred. Our easy camaraderie was gone and I became more of an irritation to him than a friend. It had been that way for two years, since I was seventeen. I wanted my friend back. I wanted him for a lover. I just wanted him. One day he was a friend that loved me and the next day I was an annoyance he couldn’t stand. I could not stand that. I moved up to him, getting real close, so close I could feel his breath on me. I knocked his plate out of his hand, and it clattered to the floor.
“What did you do that for, Francesca?” he snapped at me with irritation in his voice.
“So that I can do this………” I told him, reaching up and putting my tongue on his chin and tracing it all of the way up to his lips. I kissed him then, hungrily. He grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me away; there was an intense look of pain in his eyes as he warred with himself.
“Stop it.” He said, almost as a plea. “Can’t you see what this is doing to me, what you are doing to me? Can’t you see how much it hurts me to stay away from you?” There was a touch of madness in his eyes; all it needed was to be brushed away.
“Then don’t.” I said quietly, moving back to him.
“What?” He asked me in a deathly fierce voice.
“Don’t stay away from me.” I said wrapping my arms around him once more and leaning into him. “Don’t stay away.” I said in a whisper.
He caught me in his arms, wrapping them firmly around me. “You bewitched me so many years ago; I have wanted you for so long. Why did you push me? Why didn’t you just leave it as it was?”
“Because, I have wanted you too, my beloved Cahol.”
“I can’t stand this torture anymore. To hell with the vows I took.” He said in a pained snarl.
He kissed me then, deeply, hungrily, in a devouring embrace. He kissed me more deeply than I have ever been kissed. The hunger of that kiss was from an almost ancient longing; a longing that we both felt.
I jumped onto his tall wiry body, and he carried us to his room and then to his bed. He stripped my clothes off of me… more like ripped them off of me. Then he tore his own clothes off, and our bodies entwined into each other. His lean wiry body fit perfectly next to mine. We fit together like gloves fit on your hand. He and I ravished each other. Our sex was all encompassing. He was the only thing that existed to me. We were entwined for hours fulfilling our need for each other. Why was it so wrong for us to want something that felt so right?
I knew that he was a vampire, and I didn’t give a damn. He said something about blood that was lost to me in the in the heat of the moment, yet I reached my neck over to him and let him feed from me. He fed deeply. Then he let me bite his neck and he gave me what I needed to complete the transformation.
Hours later we lay next to each other, my fingers still wrapped in his hair slowly stroking and massaging his head. “You are the only one I have ever loved.” I said to him in a barely audible whisper.
“Mm-huh.” He grunted in response.
It was unclear to me weather or not he had heard me, and I asked him if he had. This time he spoke in his majestic tenor voice, “Yes, I heard you my dearest Francesca, and I have always loved you; though I was bound by my vow to never touch you.”
We were both covered in blood from our passion for each other; however neither of us cared. The blood had finally begun to slowly ebb in flow from my open neck wound; his had healed almost immediately after it was opened. I reached up and felt the bite marks on my neck. It was the best feeling I had ever felt. I knew that Cahol had granted me the most forbidden of all desires; Cahol had given me immortality. I smiled in elation at the thought of spending eternity with Cahol.
However, it was inevitable that my bliss had to end that night.
I started to get light-headed, disillusioned; it didn’t even feel like my head was still attached to my body. Cahol told me what to do to make the transition easier for me, though he did not want me to leave him so soon after finally giving in to himself; however there was a point where he reluctantly held me closer and kissed my forehead before he looked down at me and told me, “Go take a hot bath to relax your muscles while you are still able to, then go in your room and put on your sexiest little negligee for me, and go to sleep until tomorrow when I will come for you, my beautiful new vampire.”
I feel I should clear up another misconception about popular vampire mythologies; unlike what you see in the movies, once you have drunk vampire blood it works really slowly inside the human body. It can take anywhere from six to twenty-four hours to transform you, depending on how large your body is, and that’s not all. The blood will make you confused, feverish, etcetera; it’s almost like the flu only worse, and I wasn’t immune to its powerful side effects. I felt like I had the flu, and I couldn’t keep a thought in my head.
I was completely confused and disoriented because of it. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. It was due to these side effects from the blood that I had to ask Cahol where his bathroom was. Surprise too little blonde me, I was right next to it. Go ahead and laugh at me, but Cahol didn’t laugh. He knew what I was going through at that moment.
I went to walk into the bathroom when Cahol said, almost as an afterthought, “Be sure to groom while you are in there. Once you turn, any unwanted hair will be there forever no matter how many times you try to get rid of it.” I thanked him for the warning.
Cahol silently crept up behind me as I walked into the bathroom, and wrapped his arms around me. I asked him to join me for my bath which was already running. Being the darling boy that he was, he accepted. The blood washed away easily; however it hadn’t really dried all that much anyway.
The grooming session in the bath was more fiery foreplay for us, and when we turned the shower on to rinse off we had sex again and again. It was as if we were addicted to each other already and no amount of sex would ever quench the thirst we had for each other. Our passion for each other could only grow beyond us, not diminish. I never wanted to leave his side. However, at that moment reason won out over passion and I washed up quickly before going home to follow the rest of his advice. I took care of a few more details when I got home, and then I went to bed.
I feel that I need to explain one more small detail before my story will make sense.
I had wanted Cahol for years. I had desired him beyond all imagining. However, Aodac, Cahol, and my third roommate-brother, Adam, had all vowed that none of them would attempt to have a romantic relationship with me; they vowed to always remain my brothers. I pursued Cahol relentlessly for years out of hurt. One day he had been my best friend and the next day he resented my presence anywhere near him. After a long time of that attitude I finally figured that he was trying to push me away because he was ashamed of what he felt for me that wasn’t brotherly.
I had been half right about that. In all of that time when I had wanted my friend in Cahol back, he had wanted me back as well; however he had let fear dictate to him what he was willing to do. Cahol feared that once he had me in his arms he would drink from me, and I would either be appalled by what he did or he would accidentally kill me. He told me once that he had never cared about that stupid promise he made to Aodac and Adam. He had never wanted to make it. He had kept his distance from me up to that point by refusing to admit to himself that he wanted me; however he was beyond such a simple denial to himself now. In that moment he was mine, and I would never let go of him. I had him, and I wouldn’t lose him. I refused to lose him.
I awoke during the night; my entire body was a gigantic burning flame. I was burning within my own skin. There was nothing but pain, pain, and more pain. It was a pain unlike any other I had ever felt.
I started to scream. I felt a searing agony in my gut. My abdomen was aflame. I woke Aodac up with my screaming, and he ran into my room. He saw my neck, and immediately he knew what had happened. He turned to leave. He wanted to hunt down Cahol, but I stopped him. I tried to tell him that I was the one who had instigated what had happened between Cahol and me, but I couldn’t get the words out. It was hard to talk through the pain, and he understood that all too well. After all, he had at one time gone through it himself.
My skin was glistening through a layer of sweat, and my mind reeled in a fire that cut threw me harder and sharper than any sword ever could. Aodac stayed to help me. At least, he tried to help me; though he knew there was nothing he could do. He gave up trying to help me and he just held me as I screamed in agony.
Cahol came into my room a few minutes later. He said that he was there to check on me. Aodac saw him and flew into a murderous rage. I had only seen Aodac like that twice in my life, and it scared me now more then it had ever scared me before. Aodac gave into that rage and charged towards Cahol. Aodac plowed him in the chest and Cahol told him that I had gotten what I had wanted while they were rolling around in a brawl on the floor. Aodac didn’t want to listen. He tried to turn a deaf ear on Cahol and continue in his quest to drown his anger, but Aodac very knew well that Cahol was right. I had asked Aodac for years to change me, but he never would feed off of me. More than likely it was for the same reasons Cahol had denied me for so long… a fear in the conscious part of his mind that he would loose his self-control when he drank from me, and he was mad because I finally got what I had wanted, even coveted for years, but he wasn’t the one who had given it to me.
See, everything changed after my roommates all made their vow to leave me untouched. Cahol reacted to that vow by shunning me and withdrawing from even our friendship. Aodac reacted to it by becoming overbearingly protective of me and became increasingly jealous of anyone I ever showed any interest in. While Aodac wanted me he knew he couldn’t have me, and even if he could have found a way to have me, he didn’t want me to suffer eternal torment like him, or worse yet, with him. It made no difference to him that I wanted to be a vampire. I had told them over and over again that I wanted this; they just wouldn’t listen to me. Aodac had thought that I might be with him once he was human again, but he was blind. I was never happy being human; he was never happy as a vampire. His hopes were doomed before they could ever bloom into a reality. He just didn’t see it, or didn’t want to. However, it made no difference in the end. What happened happened, and there is no changing the past.
I tried to tell them to stop… I tried to demand that they stop… but they either didn’t hear me or they just chose to ignore me. I tried to get up to stop them, but I collapsed on the floor before I had taken two steps. Finally! That’s when they stopped their asinine behavior and they both helped me back onto the bed. Both of them stayed with me through the night. They both held me through the pain and whispered soothing words to me; however the pain was so intense that I hardly noticed them. I was consumed by the searing yank and pull and twist in my gut that seemed to go on forever. It lasted an eternity, and just when I felt that I couldn’t take it anymore it stopped. It didn’t stop all at once though. It gradually diminished and then faded completely.
At last! Near day break, the pain began to subside and I drew my last human breath. Cahol picked me up, and carried me to a dark place very far underground, beneath the basement of the house, where I woke up in his arms. His wiry body was pressed tightly to mine, and I was wrapped in his protective cocoon. I looked around, and asked Cahol what this place was.
He told me something that I had never known before, “We are in a vampire’s lair. This is where we go to too wait out the sunlight. Where we’re in the cover of darkness. Aodac and I have used this lair for centuries. Didn’t you ever wonder where Aodac and I disappeared to every day?”
“I never really thought about it.” I said to him, as I wrapped myself around him more tightly. Cahol had laid me down on a normal bed, much like my old one, and I fell asleep in his arms, far below the city, and chaos, and the hatred that awaited us at the dawn of darkness.
