Vampires of the Sun (10 page)

              Nervous about how hungry she might feel, Norah creeped along behind Jack. With confidence, he moved up to the counter and began the check-in process. Norah tried not to use her nose to smell but a sweet scent came wafting in anyways and she was hungry, just as Jack had said but she noticed a difference from his words. It wasn’t uncontrollable. She didn’t feel like leaping across the counter and sucking them dry. Jack handed her the room key, looking at her in concern and then confusion.

              Entering the room, it really was a window-less room. Other than the lack of windows, it appeared like any other hotel room she’d stayed in. There was a closed off bathroom with a spa-tub and two queen beds facing a TV with a small couch in an alcove with a mini-fridge and a coffee maker.

              Jack flopped down on the one closest to the door, taking the remote control to the TV with him. Norah didn’t know if it was a protective thing or just from convenience but she happily took the opposite bed. “It is strange that you didn’t react very strongly to the smell of humans. I’ve never seen it. They say that ingesting the blood of an older vampire means you gain an advantage. In your case, it must mean that you don’t lack control when it comes to hunger around humans. It lends credence to my theory of how old your parents must be.”

              “I suppose I should be a bit thankful then. Travelling won’t be such a big issue.” Norah said, grabbing a bag from the cooler. “I do still feel immensely hunger but not like my first drink after turning. The smell was incredibly sweet and mouth-watering. It brought up the memory of crepes with chocolate and strawberries my parents gave me once. I was starving for some reason. I think my parents gave our maid the night off and I hadn’t had dinner because we were going out to eat but my parents just took me to a dessert place and watched me eat. I remember smiles on their faces, which was rare. This lovely music was playing in the background and I’d never been happier with them as I ate. It was around Christmas too so I got a lot of presents before my parents disappeared back off to some unknown place. It was a good memory.” Norah didn’t want to be reminded of the few good times. She wanted to hate her parents instead. Curling up, she stared at the wall instead of the television.

              “It’s okay to remember them in a good light. The people in your past aren’t the people in your present. Experiences change people and it’s clear that in their own way, your parents want what they consider good things for you. To vampires, having a child and raising it before making it an eternal and everlasting creature is an amazing thing. And while time passed slowly for you and you were lonely, to a vampire of so many years, it’s a blink of an eye. They most likely just lost track of time. It’s amazing they even came home so often every year. I’m not saying this to empathize with them. I think you should stay away from them until you are powerful enough to protect yourself but once the feeling of anger at what they did wears off and you don’t have anything to fear from them, it might be worth it to try to see what their side of the story is.” She knew he was trying to be caring but Norah didn’t like the words that came from Jack’s mouth.

              Listening to the sounds of chatter from the movie Jack put on, as the night wore on towards dawn, Norah was beginning to feel a tiredness in her bones that even the blood she’d sucked down did nothing about. Before she knew it, she was falling asleep into a dead silence. When she woke, the hunger was back. Jack wasn’t awake yet despite the clock reading 7 p.m. but Norah wasn’t going to keep sleeping. She ate, testing out her fangs in the mirror. She found she could bring them in and out at will if she focused on the feeling she was remembering from eating. When she heard him stir, Norah jumped into the bath and changed into clothes from the bag of things Jack had bought for her. They were all simple, basic clothes without any logos in muted colors. Jack had done well in guessing her size but they were all still slightly big on her. While she dried her hair with the blow dryer, Norah wondered if this was how she would always look. Would she be able to change her body type with exercise or would she be perpetually stuck with a baby face and a child-like body?

              When Jack was dressed and had eaten as well, they packed up and left, leaving the key in the room and dumping the empty blood bags in the hotel dumpster to hide the evidence of their meal. Driving throughout the night, listening to music and making small chit chat to better get to know each other, the ride wasn’t unbearable and soon enough the Kansas City sky line came into view. Tired with the approaching dawn and worried they wouldn’t make it to the safe heaven Jack mentioned, relief flooded Norah when they pulled into the driveway of a house at 5 a.m.

              Norah could tell Jack was apprehensive as he knocked on the wooden door. It was only a moment of silence before it opened and a woman stood waiting for them. “Come in,” she said abruptly, leading them through the entrance way and into a rustic-styled living room area. There were a few people gathered in the room and one man in particular stood out, sitting in a recliner. Norah noticed him first. He had an air of importance about him and Norah thought she caught a whiff of the smell Jack said all night-walkers had. She couldn’t make out what it reminded her of though.

              “Jack, glad you could make it. We stayed up waiting for you when James let us know you were coming. He filled me in on some of the details.” The man speaking had to be Kenneth. Jack hadn’t really told her anything about him but she suspected only James really knew the man.

              “Thank you for letting us come.” Jack’s head lowered into a small bow. “This is Norah.” Jack introduced her and she refused to bow her head in the same way. She just gave Kenneth a pert nod. She could see a strange smile in his eyes, laughing at her defying stare.

              “Well, we could all use a little excitement in our lives. Nothing like the fear of being decapitated for aiding and abetting to get one out of a rut. I’ve become very bored in the last twenty years. For now, it’s time to turn in. Shoshannah will show you to your rooms and tomorrow night, we can talk all about my history with Claude. I can see the interest in both of your eyes.” A subservient girl stepped forward and urged them to follow her. It was a different girl than the one who opened the door. Norah noticed that it seemed as if most of the women were subservient, doing homely tasks in Kenneth’s home.

              The room Shoshannah showed them was spacious and underground. Heading down a spiral staircase into a cavern with a long hallway of basement rooms built in, Norah and Jack were placed at the end in a shared room with two beds. The only thing contained in the room was a small bathroom, an empty closet, and a set of drawers between the beds. The room was minimalistic and suited Norah’s taste.

              “I don’t like him,” was the first thing out of Norah’s mouth when Shoshannah had left them. Jack nodded in agreement. “Do we have to stay here?”

              “For now, yes I think it’s best but I don’t want to stay here for too long. James was right about being with other vampires. It’s kind of dangerous and I wouldn’t trust Kenneth to not hand you over to Claude in order to get onto better terms with him. Tomorrow we will listen to what he says and then we’ll have to make a decision about how long we should stay.” Norah liked that Jack wasn’t saying they would have to make a decision about if they should stay. Being in agreement about leaving left her with a bubble of happiness.

              Sleep came easily and in the evening when they woke, Norah and Jack took turns in the bathroom to get cleaned up before they headed upstairs. There were only a few people there, including Kenneth. With a swift hand motion towards Shoshannah, he called for drinks which Shoshannah obediently obliged, pouring a plateful of drinks for everyone. Warm blood in crystal glasses were passed out for everyone present before Shoshannah took her space in the corner again, waiting for instruction. It disgusted Norah to see her act that way, only if because Kenneth expected her to.

              “I imagine you want to cut to the chase and learn all I know about Claude and Mara Banks?” His eyes were wolf-like but he seemed willing to divulge information to them. “My relationship started with Claude. He was the one who turned me and taught me. This was 600 years ago. I stayed with him for 100 years before he met Mara. There was something there that I hadn’t ever seen in a vampire before and I haven’t seen it since. True love isn’t a feeling we easily develop and it came for both of them so quickly. They were true soul mates and meant to be together and have remained together ever since.”

              “Claude never told me how old he was but I suspect he has about 400 years on me. He was turned in Europe somewhere by an unknown person or creature. He told me he never saw its face and wasn’t entirely too sure it was the modern vampire. From what I heard of Mara, she had a similar experience but it took place in modern day Iran. I could never tell how old she was as she was not my maker. I would guess 200 years younger than Claude. I stayed with them as their servant for a total of 300 years after my turning. I was turned by Claude in England but we made our way to Canada where I did the majority of my time before spending a few years in New York City when it was just beginning to blossom as an industrialized city.”

              “In Canada we started out on the east coast, in Newfoundland. Slowly we worked our way west before working out way back east. We saw parts of the Revolutionary War and when it was over, I found a love of my own. She was a human girl and I wanted to turn her. Claude didn’t approve of her though because she was a lowly peasant woman and had nothing to offer him. Claude was a greedy man and didn’t want just anyone to join the ranks of the vampires. I had family money. My parents were merchants and when they died, I had inherited it all. Claude took every last dime and originally, I didn’t care.”

              “I wasn’t allowed to turn Rosie. One night, when I was hunting in the woods, only wanting to live on animal blood, either Claude or Mara went to Rosie’s room and killed her. I never learned which one it was but from that moment on, I could not trust them any longer. I had given them everything, including my servitude and I had received nothing in return, not even the ability to stay with the only woman I had ever loved for all of eternity. I left them that night and I haven’t returned since. I have had, however, an eye out on them since I came into my own money again. It was easy to get the money back with all of my knowledge from the years. I used it to finance various detectives throughout the years or took it upon myself to look for them when it required a bit more finesse than a human could muster. I knew they were returning to Austin every so often although I didn’t know why until James gave me a call.” Kenneth’s eyes moved over Norah’s face and then her body.

              “Your parents have been all over the place in recent years. There is no real pattern to their travels but they have literally been all over the world. I make no claims to know what they are up to, although I’d like to know what myself.” With nothing else to say, Kenneth took a final swig of the blood in his glass and crossed his legs to look at them, assessing them.

              “I don’t know what they do or what they want. I didn’t even know vampires existed before a month ago.  I was never told and my parents never exhibited any sort of signs that would clue me in.” Norah expressed to him. He knew more about them than she did and had spent an infinitely longer amount of time at their side.

              The conversation was going nowhere and it didn’t seem like anything else was going to be said so Jack excused them, saying he needed to train Norah since she hadn’t had time to learn the art of hunting. Leaving the house, they drove towards the Power and Lights District. “Jack, I really don’t like him. I don’t think he means well at all. He’s too curious about me and what my parents have been doing.”

              “I agree. We can’t stay. He doesn’t like me either. While I can’t read his mind, I can read him as a person and I get the feeling he’s a spiteful guy. We can sleep there in the morning and then we head out under the premise of training you again. We should try to make him think we’re going to stay awhile or else he might try to keep us from leaving.”

              Putting the discussion of leaving off, Jack parked the car in a garage and they moved out onto the street, discussing what she had to do when there was no one around. Jack said the easiest way for her, as a female, would be to meet a guy in the club under the premise of sexual advances and take him into an alley and suck up the blood, leaving him there in a woozy, forgetful state.

              Going into the first night club they saw, Norah found it intoxicating to be around so many humans. She got light-headed but took a seat at the bar while Jack ordered them a drink. “I don’t think I can seduce anyone,” she whispered to him. All of her nerves were tightening up into a ball and bringing butterflies into her stomach with such a force that she could imagine them existing and living there.

              “Have a few drinks, lighten up. This is a natural act for us and it has to be done. You need to learn now how to do it properly,” he reassured her. When the Midori Sour he ordered for her arrived, she tipped it back, pouring it straight down her throat. Plying her with shots, Norah eventually felt good enough to stand up and actually survey the people in the room. She didn’t really see anyone worth her time. She didn’t want to be picky about appearances but she couldn’t imagine necking any of the older men in the bar who might have been her grandfather or who could crush her with their weight alone. “Norah, why not try going outside? Go around the back of the building and pretend you’re waving goodbye to me as you go alone. There will be a guy who follows you out. He would be a good target. I’m not saying you can’t be choosy but if you end up killing him, at least he’s a very bad guy to begin with.”