letting go

Letting Go

After I showered and changed, I grabbed a broom and a dustpan and started sweeping up the broken glass. Anne was there watching me, with a goofy smile on her face. I couldn’t believe the way she responded after getting the hell scared out of her. I figured today would be as interesting as yesterday.

I could tell that Anne had a ton of questions for me, but she waited patiently leaning against the door of the bathroom watching me closely.

"Just asked Anne, I know you’re dying too."

"I really don’t know where to start to tell you the truth. There’s so much I want to know."

"Like?" I asked while sweeping.

"Well." she said with her mood changing.

"Just say it please." I said.

"Well, what happened last night? You know, when we were…" she didn’t finish, nor did she need too. I knew right away what she wanted to know.

"I was afraid of getting my feelings hurt in a nut shell, and I panicked. And when I have really strong emotions, my survival instinct kicks in. I’m strong in my human form, but I’m a great deal stronger, when you know. My body will protect itself."

"It’s weird to hear you talk in the third person about it."

"If you stubbed your toe, you wouldn’t say to someone, ‘I was walking along and I stubbed myself’ would you?"

"No I guess not."

I smile and swept a bunch of glass into the dust pan and dumped it into the trash.

"So are we going to be able to have sex then?" Anne blurted out.

I could feel myself blushing; I didn’t know what even to say to that. Last night it was so in the moment, I wanted to, I really did, I thought many times how nice it would be. But I had no idea what to say.

"I guess" I said embarrassed, "Are you asking me, like right now?" I just put my hand over my face, I felt like it was going to catch fire I felt so hot.

I just started sweeping again not knowing what else to do, what if she said yes? I knew I was way too embarrassed to do that right now.

Anne’s laugh startled me, "I’m not talking about right this minute you goof. I was wondering if there would be danger or something."

"Oh," I said still trying to get myself working on cleaning up the glass, "No you won’t be in any danger from me or anything like that. Can we not talk about this right now?" I asked.

"Sure. Can I ask you something?"

"Okay?"

"Have you ever been with a girl before?"

"In truth, I haven’t been with anyone before."

"Have you been close?"

"Do we have to talk about this?" I asked not really wanting to get into this subject.

"No."

"I have three times; two of them were not pleasant experiences." I swept up the rest of the glass and dumped it into the trash.

"We got school tomorrow." Anne said with a touch of sadness.

"I was thinking about that earlier." I said.

"I’m not looking forward to seeing Tammy."

"Would you like to stay here tonight? We could swing by your place get your stuff and ride with me in the morning."

"That sounds like a great idea. I’m so not looking forward to talking to her."

"Why are you roommates with her if you don’t like her?"

"Convenience. Her parents make sure all her bills are paid, that make sure she has plenty of money to buy food and all that."

"That’s got to be rough."

"Yeah, well if I’m going to stay over, I need to go get my stuff."

"Would you like me to come with you?"

"Yes I would, but it’s better if you don’t. Tammy will be there and I don’t want to deal with her."

"Okay." I felt a little sad at her answer. I felt a wave of insecurity wash over me

like she was embarrassed of me.

"Don’t be sad," Anne said coming over to me and touching my face, "I’ll be right back. I’m sure tomorrow will be bad enough for you with her. So don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be able to get your Tammy fix tomorrow in history."

I smiled at Anne’s attempt of humor. But in truth I knew I hated the idea of being away from her. Anne gave me a quick kiss and she left. I dumped the trash outside in the garbage and came in and got dressed.

I put on long smocked white dress that screamed summer fun at the beach. That was the one thing I didn’t like about Washington, it didn’t have good sandy beaches. I sighed at the thought; maybe I should go to Hawaii this summer and get my sun and beach fix. Maybe I could talk Anne into coming.

About two hours later Anne came back. She had showered and changed into cutoff shorts and a white T-shirt with pink eighty-eights on the front. The shirt complemented her figure nicely. I felt a million times better when I opened the front door and she smiled at me.

"I still can’t get over how pretty you are." she said as she came through the front door.

"Thank you," I blushed, "I can’t believe you still want to be friends with me after everything." I answered back.

"I don’t, I want more."

I didn’t know what to say in response, so I took her backpack from her and shut the door.

"Would you like to go for a walk with me?" I asked setting her bag on the floor by the door.

"Sure, where at?"

"Down on the water. It’s kind of warm today, and I could really use the sun and fresh air."

"That sounds nice. But, wait a minute. How are you able to go out in the sunshine?"

I laughed, "Oh, Anne. There’s so much you need to learn."

We exited the back the house down by the pool; we walked hand in hand across the back yard down to the beach. The sun was out and there was not a cloud in

sight. There was a light breeze in the air that made my hair fly into Anne’s face. We laughed about it and switched sides.

We walked along the shore and let the cold water splash our feet. Walking with Anne felt like a dream to me, I couldn’t see how anything could screw today up.

She knew I was a vampire, she knew I was over four hundred years old. None of it mattered to her, all that seemed to matter was her and I right at this moment. Soon the sun would set on our dream day and we would have to go back to real life at school, the thought made me frown.

"Would you like to know how I became how I am?" I asked.

"Sure."

"It’s not a nice story though." I said not wanting to ruin the day’s mood.

"You don’t have to tell me. But I would like to know."

"The year was sixteen-twenty-two," I smiled at the thought. My age was something I rarely thought about, "My parents died when I was six. I was taken in by one of the families in my village."

"Where was this?"

"A little village in northern England called Little Sleeper. There were about twenty families that lived there. It was like all little villages of that time. It farmed, had an inn and a blacksmith.

"Anyways, I wasn’t treated very well at first. I was beaten often and made to work all day in the fields. I mostly ate the scraps from the family’s dinner table, or whatever I could steal.

"I was told I was a curse on the village, that’s why my parents died. They were frightened by my red hair."

"Idiots." Anne said shaking her head.

"Well I grew, and as I got older the family wanted to get rid of me. So they tried to marry me off several times, but I refused. The father of the house, he was a wicked mean old b*****d who as I got older refused to send me away. I think he wanted me to share his bed, but he never tried. I would have gelded him if he would have.

"It was right before harvest time when a man by the name a Nelix passed through my village. He was a wealthy man in an expensive carriage pulled by four

huge black horses. His driver had gotten lost so he stayed at our inn.

"Was Nelix a vampire?" Ann asked.

"Be patient, I’ll get to that. Anyways, what I did not know was that there was talk with the village elders that I was a witch. Back in those days a burden on a town like an unwed maiden or an old women, the best way to deal with them was to accuse them of witchcraft."

"So they accused you?"

"Slow down, and no they didn’t. Remember yesterday when I said the kids I grew up with thought I was a witch?"

"Yes."

"Well, everyone knew the children of my village thought that. That night in the inn they were talking about burning me at the stake. Well Nelix over heard that so he went looking for me."

"So he saved you."

"Not exactly," I smiled at the memory of it, "I was drawing water from the well and he came riding up to me on one of his horses, he reminded me of a knight of something.

"He held out his hand to me and told me I had to come with him now, they were going to burn me as a witch. I had asked him who? And he had said your village. He was so beautiful; I knew right away I could trust him.

"So you went with him." Anne concluded.

"I did. We rode into the night; he rode with such intensity. His eyes were everywhere; it was like the devil himself was after us. I could hardly stay on the horse I was so tired, and the horse about died at the speed he pushed it.

"He had told me to hang on; there was a small cottage he was riding too. I thought we would never get there; it was close to dawn when we arrived. He had jumped off the horse to make sure there was no one in the cottage.

"When he came back for me he was such a gentleman, but once we were in the cottage he changed. His face changed into his vampire face, I screamed of course and tried to run but that was a lost cause.

"He threw on the floor and explained to me that he wasn’t going to kill me if I did what he told me. He told me that I was now his slave; he said to me that I was

as good as dead back in my village and because he took me away, my life belong to him.

"I thought he was going to rape me, but instead he bit me. He drained me almost to death, and then he asked me if I wanted to live forever. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter, so he cut open his wrist and made me drink."

"That’s when you became a vampire." Anne said.

"Well I wasn’t one yet. It takes some time for the change to take place. I was lucky, because of that I wasn’t killed. When a vampire changes someone, the person who is getting changed drains the vampire of a great deal of blood. It leaves the vampire extremely weak until he can either feed again, or until his body can make more.

"After I drank, then he tried to have his way with me, but right in the middle of him trying an ancient order of vampire hunters called the Order of the Brotherhood found us."

"Is that why he was running for his life?" Anne asked.

"Yes, they were able to track us. About thirty men came crashing into the cottage with swords, spears and axes," I smiled at the memory, "I became a thing of little importance to him at that point.

"I ran for my life. The men didn’t try to stop me; they came in and saw him attacking me. So they didn’t care where I went as long as I didn’t get in the way. I ran outside and jumped on Nelix’s horse and rode off. I didn’t have a clue where I was going or what I was going to do. After a few hours I came back the cottage.

"There was a huge fire burning out front with what looked like the remains of a person in it. The inside of the cottage was completely destroyed, there was blood splattered everywhere. I didn’t know what else to do so I stayed there.

"There was a well out back so I cleaned it as much as I could, that’s when I noticed I was getting sick. It felt like I was catching the flu or something. Three days later I was so sick I could even get up to go relieve myself."

"That’s horrible." Anne said.

I just shrugged my shoulders, "I was dying so to speak. That night I died I guess. To my surprise, I woke up. I have no idea how much time had passed. It was early morning I know that."

"What was it like waking up like that?"

"The same I guess. I could hear much better, it was like seeing life for the first time. Things were so much sharper than before."

"It sounds amazing."

*

"Here it is." I said pulling up to the mail box with the address I was looking for. I drove my rental car a few hundred yards past the lonely driveway and parked.

I got out of the car and grabbing my long duster trench coat and black fedora. I slung my coat over my arm and walk around the back of the car. I popped the trunk and took out my short sword and clipped it to my belt. I put on my coat which hid my sword; it was not my plan to fight the creature. But I wasn’t going to go into its territory without my trusted old friend.

I pulled my small tape recorder out of my pocket and hit record.

"Reconnaissance of home of possible vampire. Name, Penelope Grace Alexander." I hit stop and moved into the woods, I made my way slowly towards the house.

"From a hundred yards of the house, there’s a strong presence of the creature." I said and hit stop on my tape recorder.

I looked around and could see nothing from the creature’s home. She was close, but whether or not she was in the house I couldn’t tell.

"The house is a large luxurious brick home, it looks to be three levels, but I can’t tell for sure from where I stand. Also, the yard around the house is well manicured. I would estimate that the house is around eigth thousand square feet. This creature loves its comforts." I said hitting stop.

I looked up to the sky; it wouldn’t be dark for another hour. I could wait until dark to check out the house, but what did it matter to vampires. They could see just as well in the dark as they could in the light. And if this one wasn’t in the

house she was a day walker, which meant she was a strong one.

I skirted the woods as long as I could and came up to the house from the left. There were lights on inside, but from what I could tell there was no one inside. I peeked into the garage and there were two cars parked in there, plus there were two older looking models outside.

I clicked on the recorder, "There are two older cars parked outside the garage, and two parked inside. They’re both under sheets which leads me to believe they’re expensive ones. Also, there appears to be some kind or recreational vehicles on a trailer. But it

also is under a sheet.

"The house appears to be empty, so possibly we have a day walker. So Sebastian’s belief that this might be the mystery girl from the Nelix story may be true."

I stopped the tape and started moving around the side of the house towards the back. I could sense the vampire was close; she definitely wasn’t in the house. As I moved into the back yard I could feel the essence of the creature becoming stronger.

I cut into the woods on the other side of the yard and started moving in the direction of the creature.

"The house fits the profile of most vampires that have a permanent residence. Secluded and near a body of water. If I had to guess this vampire is capable of flight. Which means I’m going to need to get reinforcements."

Damn it I thought as I turned off my recorder and headed towards the beach. When I got to the wood’s edge I could see two women walking along the beach in the opposite direction of the house. I found it strange that the vampire could not sense my presence.

Maybe I was starting to slip? How could the offspring of a vampire as powerful as Nelix not know I was here? Maybe she wasn’t the mystery girl, maybe she was just a European reject that had managed not to get herself killed.

I decided I would just go down on the beach and see, if she was just a watered down version I would just kill her and be on my way. But what I couldn’t tell from here was, was the other girl a vampire too.

Weak or not, I did not like the idea of fighting two vampires. The whole thing

just didn’t make sense. How would a strong vampire not know I’m here? Secondly, why would two weak vampires be out in the day time? In all my years at fighting vampires, never had I seen a weak vampire come out in the day time.

I decided a closer look would be necessary. I put my recorder back in my jacket pocket and loosened my sword in its scabbard, and headed towards the beach.

*

Anne sighed, "Who’s that?" she said looking back behind us.

There was a man that had walked out of the woods, he was walking towards us.

"I don’t know, I’ve never seen him before. I think we better go." I said.

"Back towards him?" Anne asked with alarm.

"He’s no threat to me." I said trying to comfort her, I held her arm and we headed back towards my house.

The dark man seemed to be walking straight towards us, as we came closer to him I put myself between him and Anne.

"Move to my right a little hun, if he acts stupid I don’t want to hit you with my wings when they come out."

"Okay." Anne said a little frightened.

"If he tries anything I want you to run back to the house and lock yourself in wine cellar, it’s my safe room. The door is made out of steel and you wait for me until I come and get you. Though I doubt you’ll beat me there, but just in case."

"Okay."

As Anne and I walk up to the guy, he moved out of our way, "What, the beach isn’t big enough for you mister?" I asked rudely.

"My apologies." he said tipping his hat and walked passed us.

After he was passed, I reach out for Anne’s hand and we hurried back to the house. The sun was setting by the time we got back.

"That guy was so creepy." Anne said.

"I know, did you see his eye?" I asked.

"I did, I wonder what happened to it, I looked like it was torn out or something."

"I don’t know, Washington’s weather does weird things to people."

"Can I ask you something?" Anne asked.

"Sure."

"What would you have done if he would have started something?"

I smiled, "Probably thrown him into the ocean." we both laughed and forgot about the creepy man on the beach.

We made ourselves comfortable on one of the couches and I hit the switch to turn on one of my gas powered fireplaces.

"Are you hungry?" I asked.

"A little."

"Would you like to me to order you some pizza?"

"That would be nice." Anne replied.

I got up and headed towards the kitchen to grab my cell phone.

"What would you like on it?" I asked over my shoulder.

"Whatever is fine."

"Anne, I’ve never eaten pizza before, so I don’t know what’s good." she laughed, "Come to think of it, I don’t know if I even know how to order a pizza."

"I’ll do it."

We came into the kitchen and I grabbed my phone and looked up the number, when I found a pizza place that Anne liked I showed her my phone. She dialed the number and I wrote down my address for her.

"Delivery please." she said into her phone, "A medium with pepperoni and mushrooms."

I pulled a twenty out of the drawer and laid it on the note pad that I had written my address down on and went back to the living room, I flopped face down on the couch that we were sitting on.

After a moment Anne came back in laid down on top of me on the couch. She laid the side of her head down between my shoulder blades.

"You back is hard."

"It’s my wings you feel."

"So you do have wings."

"Yes."

"I was wondering if that was what I saw."

"Does it bother you?" I asked.

"No."

We laid there just enjoying each other. We didn’t say anything; there wasn’t anything we really needed too.

"The pizza will be here in about thirty minutes." Anne finally said.

"What did Tammy say when you went home?"

"She wasn’t there."

We lay there quietly again for a time before I spoke, "I wonder what she’s going to say to you tomorrow."

"Who knows, in truth I don’t care. I wouldn’t care if I never saw or spoke to her again."

"Where would you go?" I asked.

I knew where I would want her to go, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to suggest it this early.

"I don’t know, maybe back to my parent’s. But I think I would rather live with Tammy then have to live with them."

"Do you not like your parents?"

"They’re fine. If I went home they would probably treat me like I was twelve years old or something. It’s not too bad with Tammy, I just ignore her most of the time."

"Well you’re more than welcome to spend time over here with me if you like." I said trying to sound casual.

"I just might. I just might not ever leave."

"You just like the pool."

"Well that

is a plus." Anne joked.

"Listen to you." I said trying to roll underneath her, "Up for a second my dress is caught.

Anne lifted herself up and I pulled it out from under me. Anne laid gently back down on me and propped herself up on one elbow. She gently tucked my hair

behind my ears and smiled.

"Come here." I said reaching up for Anne’s face.

Anne leaned down and kissed me, it was the best thing ever. I love the way her lips felt against mine, the softness of her skin. The sweet smell of her hair and body spray. The way her body molded itself to mine. We kissed for a time; I knew we couldn’t get ourselves too carried away. The pizza guy would be here soon and the last thing we needed was something to interrupt us again.

Anne broke the kiss and propped herself back on her elbow. She was smiling down at me and me at her.

"So, let me ask you something."

"Ok." I said.

"Your face. Can you do that anytime you want to?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because I was wondering, can I see it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because it’s not something I like doing."

Anne laughed at my discomfort, "I think it’s cool though."

"You didn’t last night."

"Last night I didn’t know what it was I was seeing, so it caught me off guard."

"Yeah, and I can still remember the look on your face when you did see it."

"I’m not going to react that way again you know."

"You’re not going to drop it are you?"

"Nope."

"Fine." I said, I let my face slide into its vampire form. I could do it without a thought. I felt embarrassed to let Anne see me this way, but she had the right to see me for me. It was just like the clothes I guessed.

Anne reached down and touched the ridges of my forehead and my eyebrows. She traced them gently with her finger, down to the side of my face and touched my lips.

"Do you have fangs? I don’t remember. I was so surprised at seeing your wings I can’t remember if you did or not." I smiled lightly with no humor.

"I didn’t see." Anne complained.

I opened my mouth and showed her them. Anne reached in with one of her finger and touched them lightly, I closed my mouth and she smile and kissed me again. I didn’t like kissing her with my vampire face on, but she needed to let me know that it was okay. So I kissed her back with my vampire mouth.

We kissed for a while, Anne was careful of my sharp fangs as we kissed, but luckily I was saved by a knock at the door.

*

"Sebastian, this is Arthur. She’s defiantly a vampire." I said into my phone.

"Is she who we think she is?"

"I don’t know." I said pulling away in my car.

"What do you know?"

"Well, it’s a little strange, she acts different."

"How so?"

"For one she’s a day walker."

"So she must be Nelix’s offspring."

"That’s what I thought when I first inspected the house. The house is a grand place; it has an indoor swimming pool. It fit the vampire profile. But as I got close to her she didn’t seem to sense me."

"A deluded blood then who’s incredibly reckless?"

"No, I don’t think so. She felt strong, really strong." I explained.

"But she didn’t sense you."

"No."

"Did she see you?"

"Not at that point, she was walking with another girl on the beach when I saw her."

"Was the other girl a vampire too?" Sebastian asked.

"I couldn’t tell at first."

"At first?"

"I couldn’t tell if I was feeling two vampires or just the one strong one. I decided I would walk up to them. If I could, I would just kill her. If they were two weak vampires I would leave them in peace, and come back later."

"So they saw you."

"At that point yes. It wasn’t until I got close could I tell that the second female was indeed human. But I still don’t understand how she didn’t know I was a vampire hunter."

"Maybe she doesn’t know who we are."

"I doubt that Sebastian, how could a vampire that descends from ancient blood not know who we are?"

"I’m not saying that, I’m just saying maybe she doesn’t know us by scent."

"Possibly, but she knew I was a danger. When they saw me, they turned around and tried to go back to the house. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until I got right up on them. The creature put herself between me and the other girl, I decided she was ready for a fight and I wouldn’t risk it."

"Good, she probably was protecting her prey." Sebastian concluded.

"No."

"No?"

"They’re lovers."

"Really, do you think seduction is a part of her feeding?"

"I doubt it. The human girl knows she’s a vampire. After they went back to the house I followed them from a distance. I looked through one of the windows; the girl was kissing the creature in her true form."

Sebastian laugh, "Arthur, I sent you there to see if she was a vampire not to be a peeping tom."

I ignored Sebastian’s comment, "I’m going to Seattle to find some brothers to eliminate the beast."

"I hate to do this to you after you doing such good work, but I need you to come back as soon as possible Arthur."

"What? Why? Why do I smell king toady?"

"You do, but it’s not what you think."

"I bet it is."

"Arthur trust me on this, I need you here. I can’t talk to you about it now. Just get back here as soon as you can."

"What about the creature?"

"I doubt she’ll go anywhere anytime soon, not with her hands full with her lover. Just get back here as soon as you can."

"I’m on my way now."

"Thank you Arthur. Let me know when you’ll be back, I’ll have a car waiting for you.

*

"Pizza," I said letting my human face come back.

Anne got up and went to the door, I watched her as she went. Watching her body move gracefully, I felt a great deal of desire for her.

Anne came back into the room holding the pizza, "Pip, the pizza guy said that he saw some old guy in a trench coat walk passed him as he pulled into the driveway. I think it was that creep from the beach."

"Lock the front door and stay here

please." I said getting up from the couch.

Anne placed the pizza on the coffee table and looked concerned as I took the stairs three at a time. I skidded to a stop in my bedroom and quickly got undressed. I threw on my shorts and shirt from this morning; I grabbed my old cavalry saber off its rack on a small table against the wall and headed towards my balcony door.

"It must be nice to not have to worry about people seeing your b***s when you fly." I grumbled to myself as I launched myself over the balcony railing.

I fell for a half a second before my wings stretched out; there was a good whooshing sound as they filled with air. I flapped them several time to gain some

altitude and circled the house. Each time I circled, I went higher and expanded my range out. I could see no one around, just the pizza guy driving away.

"Damn peeping toms." I said as I heading back.

I dive-bombed the front door from about a hundred feet. I pulled up at the last second and flapped my wings hard as I came under the front door’s covering. I sent dust and leaves everywhere from the wind of my breaking, the noise and the debris scare Anne as landed hard on my feet.

Anne’s scream startled me and I pulled my saber from the old scabbard and whipped around to protect my back. It was Anne’s laughter that told me the only thing that scared her was me flying up to the door like a bat out of hell. I sheathed my sword and Anne unlocked and opened the door for me.

"You scared me half to death." Anne laughed.

"Sorry." I said coming back into the house holding my sword by the scabbard