Chapter 2

A Matter of Faith and Trust

August 5, 2004, Miami

I had to come.

Flying long distances, in this case from New York to Miami, so fast always uses up much of my strength. I made it right after 11:00 p.m. In complete silence, I landed in the back of the beach house and immediately found my way inside.

Wearing all black, as I always do when flying, I became one with the semidarkness of the place. My sense of smell guided me to where she was-sleeping on the couch with the TV on. I walked slowly toward, contemplating the expression on her. She looked so sweet and at peace. Then saw traces of eyeliner on her cheeks.

She had been crying, a lot.

I got her phone call that evening, just around half past five. Stephen had broken up with her, and she was very sad and was in desperate need of a friend. After almost three years, I was beginning to think that the guy had changed his ways and had become committed to her. Instead, his insecurities got the best of him, and he had taken to blaming Lucy for things that could only be justified by an immature jealousy. He had dropped the old "I need time by myself to figure things out" bomb, and her heart was shattered. It was hard for me to see her like that.

I was only weeks away from a long-overdue trip to Mexico. I was looking forward to spending the rest of the year over there before returning to Miami when her phone call made me forget everything else and make the leap in less than six hours from New York to Miami. My body was trembling furiously from the effort of challenging gravity, and my brain was going crazy, demanding blood; but she needed me here. I couldn't refuse. For once, the thirst would have to wait.

"Lucy," I called out her name softly.

She opened her eyes. It took her only a fraction of a second to recognize me; and when she did, she immediately teared up. I knelt next to her. She reached out for me and buried her head in my chest, allowing me to hold her tightly. I could feel, as much as hear, her sobbing. I felt dizzy, like my heart was going to stop and faint but no, I couldn't. She needed me.

I could feel her tears seeping through my shirt, and I closed my eyes, wishing I had the power to take her pain away. I felt her warmth and her heartbeat, and I made her pain mine. Slowly, our bodies came back down to the couch. She tried to explain what Stephen said between her cries. Her thoughts opened up to me, sharing her sadness in a way I rarely felt, but easily reminded me of my own. We held each other for a long time. Eventually, she fell asleep. My vampire eyes found her face, and I planted a kiss on her forehead. I held her tight in my arms, wishing with all my heart that I could somehow bring back her happiness.

Hours later, burdened by all the care in the world, I got up from the couch, picked her up, and carried her with ease to her bedroom. Without waking her up, I lowered her onto the bed and covered her with a blanket. Then I walked outside, looking out toward the city, desperate to sate my thirst.

I returned to the house around 5:30 a.m.

That previous night, I needed more than one victim to satisfy my thirst. It took me awhile to find the right people, but I eventually zeroed in on a nice single mother and her two sons over in Cooper City. I went after the kids first, making sure their deaths were quick, then the mother. With her, I took my time, making sure she was completely drained. Now their bodies lay somewhere in the depths of the dark waters of the Atlantic.

How many had I thrown into its depths? Why bother burying or burning corpses when you have the ocean as your accomplice? It took me less than twenty minutes flying east, at least one hundred miles into the ocean before letting them fall. By the time their bodies hit the water, I was on my way back to the beach house. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to hide my deeds.

All my senses alerted me to the imminent sunrise, and instinctively, my eyes cast about for the dark horizon. There was nothing, just darkness but still could feel it, something, crawling up.

Lucy was still in her room, where I had left her. I made sure she was secure, and then I made my way to the guest room. There, I felt Stephen's scent. I turned to the closet and opened it. I found part of his clothing on the hangers. Their scent, Lucy's and his, was everywhere. They had been here numerous times. The unmistakable odor of sweat and body fluids was too much for me to handle. The notion of their lovemaking throughout the years made me angry. I needed to get out of the house before the sun came up, but I also did not want to leave Lucy alone. I swallowed my pride and did my very best to change into clean clothes. I placed the dirty ones in a corner of the closet, to make room for Stephen's.

Afterward, I went to bed, hating every second. There heard the sun rising up. I kept my eyes open for as long as I could, watching the traces of the new day through the small spaces between the slats of the window blinds. My eyelids grew heavy, and I knew that soon I would be snug deep in the nothingness.

I thought about Stephen and swore to myself that he would regret the moment he was born.

Then complete darkness.

I opened my eyes right after 5:00 p.m. and instinctively oriented myself to the room. The blinds were pulled down, effectively keeping out the last traces of sunlight. On the night table next to the bed, there was a tray with a paper on it. It was a note from Lucy, telling me that she was going to be at school but would be back after 6:00 p.m. How convenient, I thought.

Lucy was in her last year of college. However, anyone keeping tabs and doing the math would have noticed that at almost thirty years of age, her last year of college was six years too late.

She was eager to find a direction in her life. I tried to help as much as possible; but in reality, I couldn't do much because age, as has always been the case, was an issue. She was nineteen when we met, and I looked like twenty-eight. Now a decade later, she was about to turn thirty, and I had to grow a beard to look somewhat older.

I had stayed with her in this same beach house the first three years, and I saw how my company created a balance in her life. But when I realized that sooner or later she would grow suspicious of my "great genes," I made the decision to move back east to Extreme City New York.

Jason didn't like that at all, but that's another story.

Immortality is not easy.

I've encountered the occasional curious soul who, for some reason or another, had figured out what I am, and a few of them have had the courage to approach me and ask for immortality.

I try to remember how it felt before I knew my fate and right after I did. Before turning, I was reckless, a rebel, a thief, and an assassin; but was also mortal and every breath I took was precious.

Immortality changed all that.

The moment you realize that everything you know and everyone you love will cease to be is the moment you start to truly understand the reality of an eternal life.