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It had been inevitable, really. They had been hiding on the underside of humanity's subconscious for years, taking shelter in the modern notions of disbelief and antiquated superstitions, letting humanity explain away the odd corpse as the work of one of their own, or a complicated accident. However, one of them slipped up.
When a woman in the middle of a crowed street lost copious amounts of blood through a large gash in her neck to a very pale man who glittered in the sun's revealing rays, people were bound to raise eyebrows. However, when the mysterious, very cold, pale, yet sexy man began drinking her blood and wrestled off his would-be restrainers with an inhuman strength that seemed alien to such a wiry body, the implications were unmistakable.
He was a vampire.
Of course, police arrived on the scene quickly, but there was little they could do to restrain the vampire. Tasers did nothing and the vampire was too quick for them to shoot it. The story went viral on the internet. The articles and videos all had quotes from the witnesses and the woman's family, but none from the perpetrator of this crime. Finally, someone tracked him down and got him in front of a camera.
The vampire was interviewed on more talk shows than most people watch. All of the hosts asked the same question: “Why did you do it?” He never gave the same answer. To the first host, he replied, with what sounded like honesty, that he had been tired of his people having to live in shame of what they were. Humanity was ready, he said, to take in another side of themselves. “Think of us as the cousin that hasn't been seen at the family reunion for a couple hundred years,” he suggested. On that first show, he had brought in a cross, holy water, and a clove of garlic to show that these did not affect him in the slightest. He had taken out a mirror to use it for styling his hair. The show had been filmed during the day to prove that he did not need to do anything like sleep. He had even gone so far as to ask the host to drive a stake into his heart with a mallet. The stake had shattered on his pale, marble skin, much to the host's surprise. “Only other vampires can kill a vampire,” he had told her, laughing at her puzzlement. He had dashed to various points around the stage at super-human speed. Each time, the host had reminded viewers that they were showing this live.
Perhaps bored with his first answer, he told the second talk-show host that he had been hungry and he hadn't cared about the consequences. On this show as well, he showcased his imperviousness to most thing that had been thought to deal effectively with vampires. Another host got the answer, “Because, like you, she just looked too delicious.”
Of course, there were calls to hunt down all of the vampires, like the people in the olden days would have. The people on this side would often call shows that were hosting that first vampire and ask why the hosts were being such fools and putting their lives in danger. Although the hosts would never say it, they allowed a creature who feasted on human blood on their shows because this would drive their ratings through the roof.
People on the other side of the argument declared that they would not adapt such outdated approaches that hadn't worked. These people declared that making friends with the vampires was the best choice. They also asked what method the wanna-be vampire hunters would employ, since nothing humanity had thought up seemed to work. In fact, it seemed that humans could not kill vampires at all. A few people simply joined the pro-vampire side for fear of the vampires-either having to hunt them or being hunted by them for speaking up to kill the blood-suckers.
Soon enough, various world leaders saw the overwhelming perks of having troops with superhuman strength, speed, and who were generally impossible to kill. In almost every country, vampires became legal citizens to facilitate them being drafted. Blood draws popped up all over for those who were willing to give some of their blood to the vampires. The blood was removed in the same way as if it were going into another person.
The anti-vampire groups had multiple problems with this. One of the more popular problems was the fear that once a vampire had sampled a certain human's blood, the vampire would want more. The vampire might then find the human and take the rest, either all at once or by taking as much blood as possible as often as possible, without killing the person, much like how people milked cows. The only promise humanity had that this would never happen was the glinting smiles of the undead.
Then people discovered that vampires each had a unique superpower in addition to incredible agility, strength, and life span. Vampires with foresight quickly became employed by people who often gambled. Those in charge of the various gambling places tried to put a stop to this, but there was little they could do to stop people coming in with the results of chance known. Then the owners of the gambling places found vampires who could project shields. The betting field became sharply tilted in the other direction again, at least for the gambling places who could afford the vampires' exorbitant fees. The places that were poorer had to come up with other means of trying to block out those with knowledge of what would happen. Frequently, these people were taken care of in the same way as other cheaters had been previously: management pulled the person in question out of the club, had a thug beat on the winner and management would take as much money off the unconscious body as they felt reasonable. The use of this method decreased considerably when rich people sent the vampires themselves to bet at the poorer gambling places.
For a time, at least in the world that most people inhabited, everything was fine. Many scoffed at humanity's former hatred of vampires. After all, as long as they were kept sated, vampires were not much of a problem. Just as that first vampire had declared, they were like humanity's estranged cousins.
This illusion was much easier to maintain when the bodies drained by vampires were never seen again.
A big war soon erupted, shattering the illusion of peace. Two nations found something that they couldn't agree over and it became pivotal enough that they deployed armies. The first entirely vampiric army marched on their foes in lock-step and soon had ripped out all of their enemies' throats. The vampires were all glutted with blood, with plenty left over. Human troops were replaced entirely with vampire troops in a matter of months.
At this point, it should hardly be surprising that a catastrophe occurred.
Maybe it was because the vampires wanted a higher pay than the top brass wanted to give. Possibly the vampires became tired of fighting for countries whose problems they didn't share. Scariest of all, perhaps the vampires simply realized what they could do and decided that it might be fun.
Two opposing vampire armies joined together one night and marched on the populace of the country some of them had been employed to protect. By morning, there was no one left alive in the vampires' path.
Vampires with more affectionate views of humanity swarmed the murderous army but the smell of human blood in the air made those who had sworn not to drink it woozy. Those who did not succumb and change sides were easy prey for the other vampires. Pieces of vampire dotted the landscape in a garish display. The remaining vampires quickly gathered the pieces and burned them in bonfires. It was not long before the only vampires left were those who actively pursued human blood.
The humans raised a resistance, of course. At first, many simply stayed home. Sadly for them, vampires did not need an invitation to enter anyone's home. These humans were, publicly, among the first to be turned into vampires or simply drained of their blood.
Many humans realized that there was nothing they could do. Some walked out to the vampires and simply bared their necks. Many committed suicide, taking their families with them so none of them would become vampires. Others tried surviving by staying on the move.
Vampires could run as fast as or faster than any land vehicle. Because breathing was not necessary, vampires could pry open submarines or the bottoms of boats and take their meal with the exercise of fighting sharks afterward. It seemed that taking to the air was the best option. The only problem with flight was that all vehicles needed to land at some point to take on more fuel. The few vehicles that evaded vampires for several months soon found that they could not locate any more fuel; vampires had no need of vehicles nor the fuels that powered them. The humans who had survived because of flight soon began to die out.
One woman, who had been quicker than her companions in the helicopter when it went down, managed to get away. She had raced into a basement near where the vampires had found them and had been lucky enough to find some canned food and a can opener. If she stayed away from the few windows in the single room her world had become, and did not make much noise, perhaps she would be safe.
She lived, although nowhere near the luxurious standards to which she had become accustomed. She had stopped being able to smell the stench that arose from the corner where she answered calls of nature. Her food and water looked like it would hold out for quite some time yet, but were bland and threatened malnutrition. She was only grateful that she hadn't noticed vampires skulking around for the past few days.
“Just because I don't see them doesn't mean that they aren't out there,” she told herself, shivering. This knowledge did not make the promise of sunlight less alluring. She had been mostly starved of it for weeks. The thin sunlight that filtered in through the plant-choked windows was barely bright enough to see by. That might have been a blessing.
As the days passed, she tried to convince herself that it wouldn't matter if she left the basement, just for an hour or two, or even half an hour, to enjoy the sun. She didn't really know if the vampires could smell her blood, the way many people had claimed they could, or if the basement blocked this sense. “But I've survived this long, so being in this basement must do something,” she thought.
Finally, one day she had had enough. “I know people need sunlight,” she thought, “and I would hate to die because I didn't get it when I could.” She crept up the stairs, listening at every step for sounds she knew she wouldn't be able to hear. She opened the door slowly and crept into the forgotten yard of this strange house. She looked around. She was alone.
She breathed in the sun-warmed air and felt her shoulders relax. It was heavenly to relax for once after weeks of uninterrupted tension. She felt all her cares draining away in the marvelous sunlight.
“Hello there.”
She whipped around as fast as she could, but the face that had been next to her ear was already several feet away. The bright, almost mesmerizing glitter on his marble skin was an obvious indicator that he was a vampire. Although, her accelerated heart beat was also a good clue.
“Stay away from me!” she yelped. She thought, “I knew I should have stayed in the damn basement. Now I'm going to die!”
He cocked his head. “You're not going to die,” he informed her. “Well, you humans all die someday but it won't be today for you.”
“How did you know I was thinking that?” she asked, wondering if her basement hideaway had been given away by her own thoughts.
“I can read minds,” he said to her. “Don't worry, I won't tell the rest of them where you're hiding.”
“Why?” she asked, her blood drumming in her ears.
“There's something special about you,” he said. Suddenly, he was closer, one finger tracing the edge of her cheek. His pale hand wasn't simply tepid, it was freezing.
Involuntarily, she jerked her head away.
He lowered his hand. “Sorry,” he said.
“If you're going to kill me, then just do it!” she said, tipping her head back to expose her neck. She knew that she couldn't run from him, couldn't hide anymore, and had no hope of fighting him. Dying peacefully seemed to be her best option.
“I'm not going to kill you,” he said so softly that she lowered her head to look him in the eyes.
“What are you going to do?” she asked him, glancing at his marble-like skin, then looking away, briefly embarrassed.
“I'd like to get to know you,” he said. “I've looked all my life for a girl like you.”
“A girl like me? How do you know what I'm like?”
“I can read your mind,” he reminded her. “Don't worry, I haven't looked at anything private.”
“Just my thoughts,” she pointed out.
“It's from your thoughts that I know you and I should be together forever.”
“Wow. Most men run from commitment. You're racing towards it. Why? It's not like you have a deadline.”
“I don't,” he said, “but you're a limited time offer.”
She shook her head and opened her mouth to say something. Before she realized what was happening, his mouth covered hers and she was caught up in his kiss.
“What's your name?” he asked her, when he pulled away.
“Angela,” she said woozily. Then common sense returned. “Or maybe it's Rosemary, or Maria. Why should I tell you?”
“Angela,” he said, testing the sound of it on his tongue. “My name is Daivat.”
“That's a weird name.”
“Angela would have been a strange name during my...human time,” he told her.
“Which I'm sure was long ago,” she said, the remark not the product of a lot of thought. Her mind kept returning to his kiss, not an entertaining prospect when there was a mind-reader around.
“We become stronger with age,” Daivat told her. “If I were not so old, the mere smell of you would have intoxicated me past the point of reason by now.”
“Unwashed human is a great smell,” Angela agreed sarcastically.
“That just means your scent comes through stronger.”
“Thanks,” Angela said, “I'll add 'taking a bath' to my list of how to avoid vampires.”
“That list wouldn't help anyone else anymore,” Daivat said, looking down.
“I'm the last human on Earth?” Angela asked incredulously. She was a fairly good survivor, but she hadn't thought she was that good.
“My kind haven't thought ahead very well,” Daivat admitted. “We had never had so much blood before. It...went to our heads.”
“You wiped out billions of people because some blood went to your heads?!” Angela asked. “Remind me never to hang around a drunk vampire.”
“I'm drunk on your scent.”
Angela turned around (while her mind screamed, “Never turn your back on a vampire!”) and walked back inside the house. She stalked down the stairs.
“Angela,” Daivat called, standing at the top of the stairs.
Involuntarily, she turned and looked. The light at the top of the stairs had been bright, but his shining, marble skin made it almost blinding.
“Can I come again tomorrow?”
It must have been the memory of the kiss that made her treacherous lips say, “Sure.” By the time she had realized what she had said, he was gone. Cursing herself, Angela returned to her squalid room.
The next day, Angela stubbornly stayed in her basement.
Daivat appeared next to her. “Don't your prefer being outside?”
“I prefer not being next to a vampire,” she retorted, her blood beating out a complex drum solo in her ears.
“What is it about me that you find so distasteful?”
Angela found herself thinking seriously about this question. She realized that she might as well say what she was thinking. It would be nice to get it off her chest, and since he could read her mind, he would know anyway. “I was one of those who thought it would be fun to have vampires around when your kind first became known,” she stated. “I marched several times for all of us to have equality and to make vampires citizens. I can't believe how stupid I was. As soon as it was possible, your kind rose up and killed everyone except me. How can I not find you distasteful?”
“It may be true that I killed a few people,” Daivat said slowly, “but I haven't killed you. I've had more chances than I think you realize, but I haven't taken any of them. Can't you see it, Angela?” Her name sounded almost like a song coming from his mouth. “I love you.”
For a moment, Angela's mouth simply hung open. “What?” she asked.
“I love you,” Daivat repeated. “From the moment that I saw you, I knew that you were the one for me.”
Angela couldn't help but doubt him and yet, she had been away from humans for so long and had only felt fear and stress. Love seemed like an emotion that she should run after with open arms. A small voice in the back of her mind said, “Maybe your first thoughts about vampires were right.” Angela shook her head. “I don't even know you,” she pointed out.
“Then let me tell you about myself.”
“Are you going to tell me the human part or the vampire part?” Angela asked with a raised eyebrow.
“There are things I'm ashamed of in both,” Daivat admitted.
“A vampire with shame? I never thought I'd see the day.”
“I didn't either. Most of the other vampires, well, all of the ones that are left are such beasts. When I saw what was happening to my friends who felt the same way I did, well...”
“What did you do?” Angela asked in spite of herself.
“I pretended to be like them,” Daivat said quietly. “I can't think of all the things I did to prove myself to them without shuddering. I have done terrible things to survive.”
Angela thought about the people in the helicopter she didn't even think of saving when they went down. People whose names she realized she didn't even remember. “I know the feeling,” she replied.
Daivat was silent for a moment and nodded. “We've all had to do things we don't want to get by in this world, but I swear from this moment on, you will never have to worry about survival again. No one is going to hurt you.”
Angela laughed. “Saving me for yourself, are you?”
“Yes, but not in the way you're thinking,” he answered with a smile.
Angela shook her head. “Come again tomorrow,” she said. “I can't handle any more of your charm today.”
“As you wish,” Daivat said. He left the basement so quickly Angela almost couldn't see him.
He kept his word. Daivat showed up every day, but no other vampires ever did. After a time, Angela began to wait anxiously for him to arrive, and she worried if he was late.
“Does this mean you care about me?” Daivat asked her.
“Only enough that the one person I can talk to doesn't die,” Angela said, but she smiled. Slowly, she began to let her guard down around him. The first time they kissed for real was wonderful. “Good thing you don't have any fangs,” Angela said.
“Even if I did, I would be sure never to hurt you with them,” Daivat replied.
Day by day, she grew even more attached to him and felt incredibly fortunate that he had approached her and kept on trying to win her. She thought she had known love before, known what devotion was. She knew that this was true love and the deepest devotion she had ever felt. It was a love that should last forever.
“Daivat,” she ventured one day, “I want to love you forever. Could you turn me?”
He looked at her for a moment. “I don't think I could do that to you. The process is very painful and you don't realize what you have, being human. Being alive.”
“I don't care,” Angela asserted. “I never want to lose you. Please. I know you never want to lose me either.”
Daivat considered. “Are you sure you want this?” he asked her. “The pain leading up to it is unimaginable. Nothing you've ever felt can compare to it.”
“I'll do whatever it takes to be by your side forever.”
“Very well. I'll leave you one more night to treasure. Then, tomorrow, I will make you a vampire.”
That night passed far too slowly for Angela. She didn't share Daivat's concern about losing her humanity. As far as she was concerned, humanity was a handicap, not something to be treasured. Somehow, she fell asleep that night.
The next bright day, Daivat's sparkling took on a new quality for her. Now it was not only his beautiful, marble skin sparkling, but it was the way she would look soon. She smiled as soon as she saw him, her heart pounding like it always did, and she was glad that he could move so quickly. That meant that she would be turned sooner.
“Are you sure you want this?” he asked her, again.
“Yes,” she asserted. “No matter what the pain is, it would be worse if I lost you.”
He nodded. “I'll need to hold you down while I do this. Otherwise you might hurt yourself.”
“All right,” Angela said, lying down for the last time in the severely overgrown backyard. Daivat pinned her limbs in place. Then a horrific smile took over his face.
“Want to know a secret?” he asked her.
“Sure,” she said, a little scared by his facial change. She told herself that it must be because he was about to turn her.
“I can't read minds.”
“What?”
“I can't read minds. My power is telekinesis. Did you notice that I asked you for your name instead of knowing it? I wouldn't have expected you to. Humans are so stupid and predictable. I've done this...” he considered, “thirty times now and every time, the human reacts the same. It's almost laughable.”
“Why do you do this?” Angela asked, her heart about to break. She was desperately trying to convince herself that he did love her, the way she loved him-that he needed her as she needed him.
“Have you heard of playing cat and mouse?” Daivat asked her. “With so few people left, I have to have some sort of gambit in place or else I would simply kill all of the humans in one night. If I play with my food, it lasts longer and I give my food supply a chance to grow.”
“I'm not the last human?” she asked quietly.
Daivat barked out a laugh. “Hardly. We keep the remaining humans out of contact with each other so that we can terrorize them more easily. That is, except for the breeders. Did you really think that we would be so stupid and human as to waste all of our resources?”
“Is there another vampire nearby?” Angela asked, inspiration blooming. That must be why he was acting this way!
Daivat laughed harshly. “Even if there was, I wouldn't be worried. I am the most powerful vampire in this sector. All of the other vampires know better than to bother me when I'm about to eat.”
“But... but,” Angela struggled for some reason that this could be happening.
“Did you really think that a vampire would stoop so low as to love a human? There are so many differences between us. If I had tried to tell you anything about how I perceive life, you would only be confused. Your sense are just too limited. Fools have tried, but it is impossible to completely relate to someone who is on another plane entirely.”
“Hasn't it ever worked?” Angela asked, trying to plead for her life.
“I suppose that if, for some reason, I decided to fall in love with my food, I could try. However, where would the point be in that? If I loved you, I would have turned you as soon as I realized it. Then we could have bonded over you learning our way of life. Although how I could ever fall in love with something as afraid and gibbering as a human, I couldn't guess.” He shook his head. “In any case, the combination of sorrow, heartbreak, and fear gives blood such a heady taste. I think you've about reached your capacity for feeling. Bon voyage.”
With that, the vampire began to feed.