Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1) (9 page)

"
I didn't think you'd want any." Moon proffered the plate towards Uri.  "According to most of the stories I've heard vampires aren't meant to be able to stomach solid food."

"
I can't see why not," replied Uri rather indistinctly through biscuit-coated fangs.  "I still have a stomach after all and blood is a very boring diet, believe me."

"
So, how long have you been...?" Moon sought in vain for a euphemism.

"
...A 'blood sucking fiend'?" Uri completed the sentence for him brightly.  "About a thousand years or so - it's amazing how the years roll by when you're undead.  However, I always thought that was a very inaccurate description for people like myself.  Okay, for your zombies, perhaps.  For rotting lumbering corpses with worms for brains the term 'undead' might just fit.  Although 'annoyingly not dead' might be more accurate.  But for someone so very much full of life as a vampire, no I don't think so."

Moon regarded Uri with horror
.  "You mean there actually are such things as zombies? You've met them?"

"
Not socially, no.  They lack the, what is the term? ...Oh yes! They lack the communication skills and of course they smell very, very bad indeed.  I have helped despatch one or two though.  They tend to be a great nuisance in countries where they are common - because they eat people, of course, and once you have one you usually end up with a whole graveyard full of them if you're not very vigilant.  But they certainly do exist.  In my experience anything human beings believe in strongly enough for long enough will manifest itself eventually."

Moon paused to digest this titbit
.  It hinted at the existence of a more interesting but much more frightening world than he had previously thought possible.  "And is that what you did? Did you 'manifest yourself'?"

"
No, I was human once.  And no, I wasn't bitten.  It is a long story, which I don't care to tell at present.  Enough to say that I fell victim to a sorcerer.  It was my own fault of course - when I was younger I did many things that I am now ashamed of.  I was a man of my time you see and a callous, violent time it was.  The old man had his rightful vengeance for the way my companions and I treated his people, but I think now, if I met him again, I might thank him for giving me the last thousand years."

"
But doesn't becoming a vampire mean that you're somehow infected with evil?" Moon shrugged.  "At least that's what all the books and movies say."

"
Ah, yes.  Black and white, white and black, that's the way I used to think it was as well.  I was a vampire so I must be evil and therefore evil and terrible was how I behaved, which wasn't that much different from how I'd behaved as a human being, now I come to think of it.  I was born to a noble family in eleventh century Russia and we were all what you would call 'bad sorts'.

"
It was Roanne who taught me differently… sweet, infuriating Roanne, with her Celtic stubbornness and talent for asking bloody awkward questions.  I stalked her for her beauty, you know, and turned her to the Blood.  Then I expected her to behave like every bad little vampire should but instead she backed me into a corner one day and demanded to know 'why’.  ‘Why must we kill? Why must we terrify people?' Suddenly, 'because this is the way we are' became a less than satisfying answer.  We are thinking beings, Moon, who possess the ability to sense the pain of others and put ourselves in their place.  What a dreadful thing it must be for a person to be hunted and killed by a terror like me!  That's what Roanne taught me.  She taught both of us: Charli and me.  She refused to take on the mantle of the monster and, by doing so, she reawakened the humanity in us both.  That was over five hundred years ago - shortly after I was forced to flee from the burning craze that spread through Europe with Charli hiding like a newly hatched fledgling under my wings."

"
Are you talking about the Inquisition?" asked Moon, trying to dismiss visions of the Monty Python team in black robes and flying helmets.

"
That and the witch burnings, yes.  It was never as organised as history might suggest.  Much of what occurred happened because the bastards in authority realised that the Church had handed them a legitimate way to steal property from the wretches they accused.  Did you know, in many places all the property owned by those found guilty was forfeited directly to the state? It was a terrible time and I feared that Charlotte and I would be hunted down and executed for being exactly what we were: vampires who hid themselves on the edge of human society and preyed on the weak and unwary."

"
So you came to England?"

"
Yes, where the Church itself was heretical and the madness was less widespread.  Then we moved to Wales, where the older ways still lingered and the Church was less powerful still." Moon wished he could publish this - it was potential gold dust.  "And you spent the next five hundred years in Wales being ‘good’ little vampires? That's hard to believe."

"
It took time, Moon.  Once you've begun to think of people as cattle to be bled for food it's hard to teach yourself to believe differently.  And I didn't have a good start for that, even during my human beginnings." He lifted his cup and found it empty.  "Do you have any more tea?"

"
I'll fix some," replied Moon, getting up and reaching for the cup.  Unexpectedly, Uri seized his hand in a grip like cushioned steel and forced him to look him directly in the eye.  The dancing red shimmer deep in his black on black pupils held Moon's gaze like a vice and teased a thread of terror from his soul.  Had Uri just been playing with him - a game to add some flavour to the kill?

"
What I am about to tell you could harm not only my ladies and myself but others who are as dear to us as family if it falls on the wrong ears, Moon.  If I find that you have broken my confidence I will not be merciful.  Do you understand?"

"
Y-yes!" yelped Moon, wincing with pain. He sagged with relief as Uri relaxed his grip.  For a moment there he had thought he was going to lose his hand.  "You could trust me without having to resort to threats.  But I suppose you don't know that, do you?" He took the cup and poured some fresh tea out of the pot and lacing it generously with sugar.  Hope this gives him cavities, he thought, wringing his bruised fingers.  "You were saying?"

"
Ah, yes." Uri relaxed back in his chair, his charm returning, like a fleeting cloud vacating the face of the sun.  "It wasn't easy but slowly and surely we began to build a circle of close friends around us - people who would let us have what we need out of love and not out of terror.  We no longer had to kill our victims to hide our true nature and, over several generations, we built a small enclave of trusted families around us.  Two hundred years ago a small group from one of those families moved across the Severn from Wales to Bristol to expand their silversmith's business.  We decided to come with them and we live here with their descendants still."

"
So there's a family in Bristol who've harboured a trio of vampires for two centuries! And no one's told the authorities or leaked it to the press? That story would be worth a king's ransom to the tabloids."

"
Yes, but we are very secure nonetheless.  Our relationship with our human friends is a mutually beneficial one.  In return for their protection and the occasional donation of blood we offer them our protection.  Also, we have invested wisely over the years and we supplement their income handsomely." Uri's red lips curved into a smile of candid affection.  "And, of course, we are now family as well.  They have all known us from their childhoods; I played with the oldest of them on my knee as a baby and she was ninety-three last birthday.  For, it seems, while we no longer turn people to the
Blood
, something in our bite prolongs life and improves health.  Our family members are seldom ill and they all tend to live to a ripe and healthy old age."

Moon pondered what Uri had told him
.  This sounded far too good to be true.  "It sounds delightful but are you sure you're not kidding yourselves? These people could merely be your 'ghouls', is that the word? Could they not just be slaves attending to your needs under the enthralling effect of your bite?"

A flash of affronted anger
passed through Uri's pale blue eyes.  "That, you would have to ask them yourself but, believe me; we would never knowingly make slaves.  Fate transformed us into parasites - so the best we can aim for is some form of symbiosis - but I think we manage to do this very well."

Moon nodded but he wasn
't entirely convinced.  "I respect your intentions to make good of your situation but there are still a couple of things I'd need to get straight before I'd be willing to take you on face value."

Uri made an expansive gesture that was unmistakably Russian in origin
.  "I will do my best to answer your questions." The reassuring smile that accompanied this statement was marred by the glint from his three centimetre fangs.

"
Well, first… when you came into the Rest tonight every ghost in the place scattered like the devil was after them.  That doesn't exactly gel with the 'Father Christmas' image you're trying to sell me, does it?"

"
Hmm," Uri nodded.  "Vampires are powerful predators, Moon, and we are vessels of great power.  I suspect that ghosts sense this and avoid us.  You witnessed the sheer force of the spiritual energy that just one of us can release earlier this night, in the graveyard.  Considering the depth of a vampire's potency, it is a true sign of your tiny Anna's great love for you that she was willing to stand her ground before me."

"
I suppose I'll have to take your word for it," replied Moon.  "I never knew that vampires wield such power over ghosts."

"
Not many do, except the ghosts of course and who are they going to tell, eh? No, sadly, a vampire is a monster to both the living and the dead.  Did you have something else to ask me?"

Moon toyed with his empty teacup and studied the faded
pattern in the carpet.  "Why the music? You've already implied that you're independently wealthy and you say that you don't need to draw victims to you.  By performing you regularly place yourselves in danger.  You flaunt your true nature in plain sight…  What have you got to gain?"

"
Ahh, Moon, there is some virtue to hiding in plain sight but it is also to do with something very important to our existence indeed -
belief
!" Uri's clasped fingers flew open in a starburst gesture and his eyes flew wide open as his eyebrows raised expressively.

"
Belief?" Moon fingered his chin thoughtfully.  "You mean you need people to believe that you could be vampires? Why?"

"
We may be flesh and blood, Moon, but we are also creatures of phantasm.  I think I mentioned earlier that those supernatural imaginings that people believe in over time somehow have a tendency to manifest? This is also true with us.  We discovered this when we moved away from Europe and began to live a more benevolent existence in Wales.  Our powers slowly began to wane and, after a couple of centuries, we noticed that we'd begun to ‘fade’.  There was a sort of thinness to us, nothing obvious but just a feeling.  At first I thought we would have to go back to hunting humans or choose to fade away to nothing.  But things became clear when Roanne began to change."

"
In what way, change?"

"
She changed physically.  It was almost imperceptible to begin with, but eventually her hair took on a greenish hue. It became coarse and lank and started to grow at an alarming rate.  Her fingernails turned bent into blackened claws and her beauty began to fade as her features grew sharper and her eyes became as dark and piercing as a crow's.  Even her normally gentle nature gave way to crabbiness and violent outbursts.  The poor thing was so distraught at not being able to be herself.  The most profound change however was when a small pair of bat-like wings began to grow from her shoulder blades.  We thought at first that this was some strange vampiric mutation… Roanne herself was the one who eventually realised the truth.  She found herself being drawn to those who were close to death and she started to have premonitions of who would die. 'Oh no!' she cried one day, as she stood in front of the mirror trying to do something with her poor hair.

'
I think I know what's happening - I'm turning into a
gwrach-y- rhibyn
!'"

"
A what?" asked Moon.  "I'm afraid I don't know any Welsh."

"
The
gwrach-y-rhibyn
is a kind of Welsh banshee.  She looks like an old crone but with bat's wings and a foul temperament.  After some discussion we realised that because there is no vampire in Welsh folklore Roanne had started to develop the features of the closest Welsh alternative.  That was why we decided to leave Wales, for all our sakes.  God knows what sort of goblin I would have eventually turned into if we had stayed.  Charli had already discovered a pair of tiny black lumps growing between her shoulder blades."

"
So your act helps to maintain the belief that you are vampires?"

"
Just
’might be’
, Moon; that we might possibly be vampires.  It prevents us from drifting into the forms of other ‘mythical’ creatures or from fading away entirely.  The current fad for believing that vampires are beautiful and sexy helps of course.  I wasn't quite so pretty when we were performing stage adaptations of
Varney the Vampire
and
The Cabinet of Doctor Polidori
back in the eighteen-hundreds but they served their purpose." Uri paused as if wondering whether to say more then seemed to reach an inner decision.  With a brief nod he continued, "There is more to our performing though, Moon, especially since we started to make music together.  Our audiences produce a kind of energy that we are able to feed on.  An audience becomes a huge group entity, which we can tap into without draining the individuals involved.  We have had to feed physically much less since we started the band."