Bitter Sweet (14 page)

Alyon Alik

Chapter 16.0

             
"I suppose I should finish answering the question you asked earlier in the car. You know how kids who are lonely will make up imaginary friends?”

              “Yeah,” she answered as if I had taken a strange turn in the conversation.

              “Would you think I was crazy if I still had an imaginary friend to this day? I don’t really know what else to call it,” I said hesitantly.

              “It?”

              “I probably started this in a bad place. I guess I could tell you a little about my past on the first date.” I gave her a chance to say this wasn’t a date, but she didn’t say anything so I went on. “Despite what I have now, I was the poorest of the poor as a child and through all of that, it has still stuck with me. How could I forget about something that has stuck with me through that? Forgetting it would be like turning on June or Lilith, unforgivable. It has never asked for anything; it simply watched over me, kept me company through the cold nights and the days I was hungry, and times I felt like giving up. It was just like a brother, protecting and comforting just with its presence around. When Lilith found me, she saw my friend from afar, but did not take me from it. She nurtured our relationship and now, it helps me to protect the few I manage to cherish and the world I have helped build and maintain. To this day, it still gives me strength and warnings. I will probably never have a friend that is greater than it.”

              “I don’t see what this has to do with why Lilith created you.”

              “It wasn’t me that she wanted, it was my friend.”

              “So you think that she is using you?”

              “I know that she is,” I smiled at that thought, “although it eats her inside. Still, it doesn’t change what she is doing.”

              “Would it be possible for me to meet your friend?”

              “Everyone will someday, if they are lucky. It won’t be for a long time. However, you’ve made me rethink that.”

              “I don’t understand.”

              “You still haven’t figured out what my friend is?”

              “Aren’t you talking about a person or a vampire?”

              He laughed. “No, I probably explained that a bit too poetically.”

              “That seems to be a habit of yours. Can’t you be a little more direct?”

              “I was eleven when I first tried to kill myself. I jumped into a river during a flood. I thought death would be better than the endless hunger, living off of the scraps thrown onto the streets. The raging water scared me at first as it bubbled and frothed in anger. Too bad I woke up on the riverbank the next morning, shivering and sore, but still very much alive.” Vanessa’s eyes were wide as she couldn’t help but stare. I wasn’t sure if I was scaring her or not, but I still went on. “I tried to cut my wrist once when it became too much again.” I pulled back my

sleeve and showed her a thin dark line running above a vein on my arm. “These are the only scars I carry from when I was human. Normally the transformation heals all old scars, but this one stayed with me. I woke up in a small house; a young woman with a kind smile was sitting over me. Her husband found me as he was walking home. He brought me back to his home and they took me in and watched over me until I recovered. However, the old man owed a lot of people money. His home was burned to the ground; both he and his wife were killed in their sleep by smoke. No one knew a small boy was in the house. I thought about lying in the fire and letting it end me when I heard the meow of a cat trapped by the flames. We both somehow made it out alive.” I couldn’t help sighing as the memory of the missed opportunity still annoyed me.

              “Alik, you don’t…” Vanessa started.

              “Have to tell you my somewhat pathetic story?” I smiled, turning to watch two guys who were taking pictures next to my car. “I don’t mind, but if I’m boring you, I can let you eat.”

              She took my face in her hands reaching over the table and looked in my eyes.“ I can tell you want to tell me this. Just don’t hurt yourself doing it. I don't know how i feel about you yet and this feels very personal.” Vanessa told me, I ignored the warning and went on.

              “I found Lilith the night of my nineteenth birthday. She was a defenseless woman on the surface, easy prey for a thief. I didn’t know she was actually baiting me. I followed her into an alley that ended at a brick wall. All I had on my mind was easy money. She turned and smiled at me.

              ‘So what now?’ she asked calmly while my voice shook.

              ‘Give me your pouch and anything valuable you’re wearing, I will let you pass then.’

              ‘If I were to say no?’

              ‘I will take them by force.’

             
‘And if I said you’re the victim here?’

              ‘I’d laugh.’ I had been in many fights by this time and I had lost enough of those to learn how to win. Those beatings were life lessons in how to survive even without my friend. I had no fear in losing to this woman. I approached her with a small knife held out in one hand and the other balled into a fist. ‘I will ask nicely again; hand me your valuables.’

              ‘You’re the nicest thief I’ve ever met, asking me so politely and so many times.’ She smiled.

              ‘If you have met many, then I pity you.’

              ‘You are sweet, but I’m going to say no.’ I lunged at her and she made a graceful twist and easily ended up behind me. I quickly turned to attack again, but she blocked my hand with her arm. It felt like my hand was broken as it cracked against her arm. She then punched me in the chest, and it felt like all the breath was forced out of me. I stumbled back, but she then kicked my feet from under me, following me down to the ground where she held me by my throat with her fingers digging into my skin, slowly cutting off my air. She looked into my eyes while I was looking up for the first time into the shadow that was my friend; she followed my line of sight and smiled again. ‘There is a presence of death about you, an impatient yet protective presence. Why aren’t you dead? she asked like it was a problem that I was still alive.

              ‘Believe me, it’s not from a lack of trying.’ I choked out.

              ‘Perhaps you have just not died the right way.’

‘Then kill me and be done with it.’

              ‘Maybe I should make your friend walk you into Hell and leave you... Then again, who am I to break up such a bond of friendship? I will ally you, make you one.’

              She then bit me. She took her fingernail and made a cut in her

neck, offering me her blood. My first vampiric memory was waking up in a forest at night. I opened my eyes and the sensory overload clouded my thoughts, but I couldn’t worry about that. Through the haze of ants in the dirt and birds in the trees, I heard larger footsteps somewhere in the underbrush; four others were watching me. They slowly approached and I didn’t know what to do. They bore their claws and teeth; a low growl echoed off the trees. I looked around and there was my friend as always, watching me from behind a tree, more solid than ever.

              I took peace in that and closed my eyes, thinking that maybe it was finally my time to die. I waited for them to act. Two of them lunged at my back and my friend wanted me to move. I turned, not knowing what I would do, but both fell with a sickly cracking sound, overshadowing the other’s growls. I turned to the other two and growled; I had no idea where it came from. They turned and began to run, but I chased them. Catching the first by jumping on his back and pinning him down, I ripped out his throat with my teeth. I quickly caught the last, snapping his neck so easily in my hands with blood splattering my face. I stood back and looked down at the vampire I just killed as his eyes slowly rolled back into his head. Lilith spoke, standing at my left, placing me on her right.

              ‘I knew there was something about you,’ she said. Instincts took over and I took a swipe at her. In one motion, she ducked under my arm, turned, and then grabbed me. ‘Too much power; you throw yourself off balance using all your force like that; it shows what you will do.’ I attacked her again and found myself kicked through two trees. ‘I guess it would be astounding if you had done any better,’ she stated, sounding slightly disappointed while tilting her head.

              ‘How am I alive after that?’ I asked her, confused, sitting up with only the slightest soreness which was quickly fading.

              ‘You aren’t. I told you that I would ally you and your friend, didn’t I?’

              She told me what I had become and who she was; I thought she was just crazy until she took me to feed for the first time. I killed a

young girl and the girl  was happy I did it. Lilith charmed her with unearthly charisma and for the first time, she introduced me as her son. I didn’t know what it was that I had felt, but I took the young girl’s hand and looked into her eyes. She blushed and smiled, her eyes glinting in the light. It was so easy to just leave her laying there, the cold smile on her bloodless face still showing the pleasure she felt in death.”

              I wasn't looking at Vanessa when I finished; my eyes were on those two guys still taking pictures.

              “I still don’t understand,” Vanessa said, confused.

              “I don’t even think about it most of the time. That old man behind you in the brown hat: it would be so easy to simply snap his neck. Or the woman in the green glasses two booths down: one little bite and she would be powerless and then dead in minutes. Or how about those two teens three booths away? How hard do you think it would be for me to get one, or even both girls, alone and far away from here with my fancy car? I bet I could kill the guy in front of them and they would still come with me. You saw people when we walked in here; I saw targets, meals, and blissful idiots. I give their lives no more meaning than roaches. When I see vampire, I constantly assess what order would be best to kill them. Enemy and allies have very little bearing for me.”

              I looked her in the eyes so she would know just how serious I was. “Angelo della morte: the angel of death is my friend. I will not share you with him, you’re the one light I have in this dark world, I don't want to snuff that out.”

              I think she was shocked by my confession, but she didn't show it, but I did feel it as I looked into her eyes.

              “What about the other girls Lilith mentioned?”

              “There are some people who I’d rather not spend eternity with.”

              "If you don't change me, you will only get maybe sixty to seventy years?"              “It’s not that I wouldn't want to make you vampire. Ask

and I will do it. My fear is that being vampire around me, all you would be remembered for is death. Others shouldn't fear someone like you."

              “Why me, does it have to do with this connection we have?”

              “No, my mother felt it too and she does not have our connection. You radiate a presence that I desire in every way you move, speak, and even breathe. I’m such a selfish creature that despite all my reservations about changing you, I will be here waiting for you to ask and when you finally do I will make you vampire, and protect you always.” despite that being maybe one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, or one of the cockiest.  Taking it as cocky, I responded in kind.

              “When? You are awfully sure I will want to be a vampire.”

              “Don’t play with me Vanessa, I can feel when you’re bluffing. It’s a type of lie after all.”

Vanessa Stanton

Chapter 17.0

             
He smiled and I hated it. Still he was right, but I wouldn’t tell him that.

              “Oh, shut up.” I finished eating; Alik paid for the food and the chef gave us a friendly wave with the same smile Alik had on his face. Alik then drove me home slowly, taking a much longer than necessary route. When we got outside, he walked me to the door and turned to look at me right in front of the door. He placed his cool hand on my cheek and leaned closer. “You know, my mother and somehow Sam are trying to watch us,” I whispered.

              “Yes, I can hear them.”

              “Then what are you doing?” I said, leaning back and looking into his eyes.

              “Giving them a show, what does it look like I’m doing?” He meant that.

              “Your mother is right, you do have a high opinion of yourself.”

             
“Are you going to stop me?” I hesitated and he took that chance to kiss me. I couldn’t stop myself from going along with it; I had never kissed anyone like this. The low squeals from behind the door were just a faint noise in the backdrop. All my senses focused on my lips and the small of my back where his hands were sending an indescribable sensation racing up my spine and out to my fingertips. When we pulled apart, I looked into his eyes with a dazed look. “Did you like that?” he asked.

              “This isn’t a TV show. The kisses on the porch after the first date won’t win me over, you know?” I felt a low tug of longing to kiss him again and he smiled. However, my words were somewhat weaker as my voice slightly shook, giving me away as well.

              “I’ll think about it and see if I want to try any harder then,” he said, the smirk still on his face as he stood back.

              “Maybe I will let you."

              “I never thought human would be my thing,” he whispered, leaning back in.

              “I’m still not sure vampire could be mine.” I placed a finger against his lips to stop him and he closed his lips around it.

              “May I have a taste?” he mumbled.

              “No, behave,” I reprimanded, taking my finger back. Not that I would tell him, but it took all the self-control I had to do so.

              “When do you move into Cornell?” he asked, changing the subject.

              “In two weeks.”

              “Want some help?”

              “Of course, but in between those two weeks, I expect to see you. If you want to win me over, that is.”

             
“I’ll think about that as well.” He started to walk back to his car.

             
My mom and Sam opened the door, seemingly unable to hold their excitement anymore and pulled me inside. As they attacked me with questions, I could hear Alik outside laughing as he drove away. Stupid vampire, he knew this would happen.

              After what Sam and my mother thought was a date with Alik, I was bombarded with questions. Maybe it was a date, or even a little more. It seemed that Sam and my mother had taken a liking to Alik more than anyone I had ever gone on a date with. My mother wanted to know about the date itself: where he took me, what we talked about, and whether or not he was polite?

              Sam ended up spending the night and when we got to my room, she hit me with another set of questions. Sam was much more interested in whether he had held my hand, if he tried stay close, and the details on "the kiss". I lied through all of this and I thought I did well, considering that I hadn’t really been on a normal date if it was a date. Then Sam asked me one last question, “So, do you like him?”

              Did I like Alik? I didn’t know. This was the fourth time I had seen him and I just didn’t know what about me he liked and what was some abstract vampiric effect. The only time where I had ever remotely felt anything like this was that time with Seith. I’m still not sure what I felt then. With Seith, I was mad, comfortable, doubtful, and depressed when I had to leave for a while. Whenever I saw love, it was smiles and hugs. When my parents expressed love, I smiled and they smiled and we were happy. I can’t remember looking at Seith and smiling just from love. Thinking about my night with Alik, I hadn’t once just smiled and felt happy, or gave him a loving hug. I don’t consider the kiss a hug.

              “I don’t know,” I answered Sam honestly.

              “Yeah, I guess it’s still too early to know. Right now, it’s all about those amazing eyes and that tight ass.”

              “I hope that’s all it is.”