3 Infancy: Vitality

The infant is a vibrant and seemingly unlimited source of energy.

It was late September. You could almost smell the change of season in the air. It wasn’t cooler yet, but a breeze seemed cooler than it did a month before. You could see the rare tree leaf starting to change early, but it was in passing. The change could only be noticed on the periphery; in the big picture, it still seemed like summer.

I had made another observation in the last three months. At the end of July, I went to feed on purpose. Well not really feed, but drink; that just doesn’t sound right though. Anyway, I went to the same park as before, and I wanted to feed on purpose instead of being driven into it. I didn’t like that feeling of losing control, so I made a choice to try and control it.

I found a few dogs, or they might have been coyotes, I’m not sure. I was chasing them and got one separated from the pack in the pursuit. I didn’t want to corner it, so I just sped up and grabbed it in flight. The kill was almost identical to the bobcat, with the shaking of the head and such. The euphoric feeling, the satisfaction, tingling, and orgasm was about the same. I still couldn’t get over how disgusting the whole process was, and barbaric; that is a good description, barbaric. Dog hair is worse than cat fur by the way.

My observation or discovery was related to my teeth. Take a moment and open your mouth as far as you can ... You, the reader, I am talking to you. Open your mouth and estimate the distance between your teeth. I measured Rhonda’s teeth after I made this observation; she thought it was foreplay. There were about two inches between her teeth; sorry I am still not used to metric. A little more than four centimeters. My point is, my vampire teeth, for lack of a better term, are also about that long. So with a standard jaw, that leaves no space between them to insert anything.

The only reason I noticed this was because the dog’s neck was a bit thicker than the cat’s. How did I bite them if I can’t open my jaw that far? And I couldn’t open it that far, my teeth are no further apart than average.

In front of a mirror, I thought about the kill and caused my teeth to come out. I put a thumb on my front top teeth, and with the other hand I pulled my jaw down. Just as I was, I had my mouth open a little over 90 degrees, I also noticed a couple muscles in my neck and jaw I had never seen before. As I thought about it and tilted my head back, I got another 20-30 degrees. I could barely see the mirror to the side, and it looked insanely vicious. While I was admiring it, my arm got tired and started pulling out more instead of down. I swear I saw my jaw detach. I stopped immediately before I freaked out more. Totally cool, but freaky as hell.

It was date number seven, and the first one I brought Jacky along. She of course did the necessary complaining and whining, as well as to point out how unfun it is to hang out with your parents. She had a good time and I dare say she had fun as well. I picked an Italian place in Chicago this time. Rhonda had a thing for Mediterranean food, so she would probably pick that next time again. Neither of us felt giving Jacky a choice would be a very good idea, so we didn’t bring it up in her presence.

I figured out what upset Jacky so much the first time I met her in the hospital. Believe it or not, she is really smart. We apparently had a debate a few years ago about whether or not she should skip grades. We decided that her staying in school far more benefited her social development than to take college courses a couple years earlier. Plus, she wanted to stay in school. The main problem was her boredom. She had to maintain her perfect scores if she wanted to stay in normal school, otherwise we planned to put her in private school where the curriculum could be better tailored. The reason she had gotten so upset was we had a standard dialogue where we used to discuss how she was handling the boredom. I of course didn’t know it at the time and put a giant spotlight on my amnesia and the big changes to come.

“You failing math again, Jacky?” We were still sitting at the table in the restaurant just letting our food settle.

She frowned. “Who knew that ten came after nine, I thought it came after three because they all start with Ts.”

“Well, the addition and subtraction are getting easier at least, right?”

“No, not really, I don’t understand why two groups of apples equal four somehow.”

I patted her on the shoulder. “Keep working on it honey, your mother and I believe in you.” I looked over and some lady was staring at us like we are crazy. So, I stared back hard. “Don’t judge my daughter lady; not everyone can be as smart as your kids!”

She blushed. “I am so sorry.” She broke the look and stared at her plate now.

Rhonda and Jacky broke out into giggles. It was difficult, but I maintained my disgruntled look.

We had coffee and stayed another thirty minutes chatting before we left. The plans were to go to a show, no not a movie, but a theater with a stage and people singing on it. Not my idea of a fun night, but I was outvoted. For some reason, singing and dancing about getting the milk out of the fridge for breakfast just don’t do it for me, perhaps because I have balls. Who knows...

We were a couple blocks from the restaurant, headed for the rail depot another block ahead when I got a feeling. I had a very uneasy feeling, I would compare it to nails on a chalkboard, except it was more mental and less physical. I started looking around frantically trying to identify the source, slowing down to a near stop.

“What’s wrong, Danny?” Rhonda must have sensed my unease, she looked worried.

“Just a minute.” I found them. About 150 ft behind us was a couple walking arm in arm staring at Jacky’s ass. When I focused on them, I got the feeling they were predators and my Jacky was their prey. I couldn’t help it, I physically snarled and growled. I felt my teeth wanting, needing, no, begging to come out. I reached over and pulled the girls behind me and instinctively made myself taller and more imposing. Maybe because I broke their line of sight to Jacky, or perhaps because they felt the impending death, we made eye contact and they stopped. The woman snarled back and suddenly had vampire teeth. The man seemed to be trying to calm her down. On seeing her teeth, my teeth made their presence known and my growl got deeper and louder. I started leaning forward for the kill I knew I was going to do, I was going to rip this woman to shreds, starting with removing her head. The man, looking between the woman and I, picked the woman up and starting running away like a coward. I was an instant from chasing him like the bobcat when I felt arms encircling me from behind.

“Dad? What’s going on?” Jacky asked. I started to calm down, keeping an eye on the direction they ran.

Rhonda moved in front of me and hugged me from that side. “Danny, they are gone, you need to calm down.”

That did the trick. My teeth vanished as I looked into her eyes, eyes of deep love and concern. “I’m sorry, I had something in my throat and didn’t want to hack all over my pretty ladies.” Rhonda gave me a weak smile and a squeeze. “Let’s go, we don’t want to be late for this awesome show I can’t wait to see.” I deadpanned, they both laughed.

As far as shows went, this had to be the worst I ever saw. Rhonda and Jacky loved it, and couldn’t stop singing its praises, literally. We were on a rail, on the way home. I just groaned and kept an eye on the people around us. They casted a few looks, but you can’t blame them. It is impossible to not look at a train wreck, and the singing was on par.

My head was in a completely different place though. I now knew there are other vampires, who fed on people. I didn’t like the fact my family was on somebody’s snack list. I needed to find them and destroy them to protect my family. I will rip them to shreds and burn the remains, I will piss on—

“Danny!” Rhonda was in my face.

“Sorry, what did you say?” I looked between them, they were just staring at me.

Rhonda pulled my face to hers and looked me in the eyes, “Are you OK?”

I smiled. “Just daydreaming, no big deal.”

“Yeah? You bent the hell out of that poor innocent bar.” She pointed at the bar I was holding to maintain my balance in the swells of the rail car. Oops.

“My plan worked then ... You stopped singing.” I just smiled

Rhonda got a disgruntled look, and just punched me in the stomach. She was waving her finger in my face. “You behave.”

With my best defeated look, I said, “Yes, dear.”

With my new mission in life, to find those two vampires and get more information, I started the next night. I made excuses to Rhonda, but I had a feeling she knew what I was doing. My plan was simple, to just hang out in the same area I had seen them until I saw them again. Once identified I would approach them, violently if necessary, and question them. If they seemed to be looking for Jacky, I would end them, or die trying.

I timed my arrival just after sunset, I couldn’t assume all vampires were like me. Some of the lore had to be based on some truth, aversion to sunlight being the most common.

With their last known location as my center point, I marked a circle four blocks in radius. I couldn’t assume they didn’t travel far and wide, but I figured a good hunting ground would be returned to eventually. Hopefully, our little altercation kept them from feeding last night, and they would be back tonight to fill their bellies.

As I roamed the area back and forth, I kept my senses on full alert. I especially kept my intuition fully tuned, and what I heard surprised me to the point of distraction. I never looked at someone and tried to listen to them before, I mean without ears. Now that I was doing exactly that, I was dumbfounded.

Every time I focused on someone, I got three distinct feelings. What they were thinking about, which rarely had anything to do with what they were doing. Their intent, as in walking to the rail depot, or seeing a friend. Lastly, I got their emotional outlook, happy, angry, depressed, and the like, or all those combined ... it was very messy. If I didn’t try and focus, I would get all three at the same time. It was very confusing without context. I was able to filter it though and could listen to their thoughts while feeling their emotions, ignoring intent.

For example, this woman, I didn’t know her name yet — how often do you think ‘my name is so and so’? Anyway, this lady was worried about her dog, which was acting strangely and might be sick. The dog was old and she didn’t want it to die because she just knew it would really upset her and she didn’t feel like she could handle it right now. Her thoughts were a little jumbled, and one right after the other leading to the next one in a never-ending diarrhea of thought. Her emotions were heartache, worry, impending doom ... Ahh, I get it, she is on her way home, and afraid the dog will be sicker or dead and her night will be ruined with all the emotional trauma that this will cause. That is kinda selfish, well maybe not, this is her inner thoughts not up for public consumption.

This older guy was radiating pride like a sun, tinged with worry. He heard today that his son got a promotion, but he was worried it would hurt his struggling marriage. He really liked the girl, even though she was white.

Over a hundred years in the future, and racism is still strong I see.

That fancy dressed twat is trying to figure out which of his clothes will give him the best chance to get laid on a date tonight.

Like I said this is very distracting, but very cool. I wonder why I never heard Rhonda’s thoughts, that sure would have made my life easier.

I tried to filter just the happy emotion on a wide scale, so I would only notice the happy ones ... it didn’t work. I still had to focus on each person before I got anything. My logic was maybe I could filter something like the predator emotion and any vampire would stick out like a beacon. What I need is a bad guy so I can identify bad emotions or intents, then I can set a filter and quickly focus on each person. A lawyer might do, but it is a little late to find a lawyer, I need to come back in the morning. Oh, there is one, a bad person, not a vampire.

OK, so maybe not totally bad. This guy is a cop, I think. He just has bad expectations of everyone and is happy to end the life of any confirmed bad people, I think. He is constantly evaluating the people around him looking for signs. He seems like a kind of predator, but not at taking life, a predator of morals maybe. That is a really strange way to live, looking at everyone as a possible victim of his justice. His outlooks and expectations have to be learned on the job, from constantly dealing with the crap of the world. I would suggest a National Hug-a-Cop day, but I would be afraid of the likely accidents. Moving on.

Now, this is a strange bird, an older guy 50s or 60s, dressed professionally. His intent says he is trying to find something, that’s it, nothing more. His emotions are all over the place, prideful yet disgusted with himself, happy with how today is going but depressed with tomorrow. He is currently totally focused on a smudge on his left shoe, and he keeps counting with every step he makes. He keeps thinking of stopping to clean off the smudge, but never slows down, and keeps counting as he walks. I followed him for two more blocks where he got on a rail, his intent never wavered. His thoughts only changed when he had to walk around someone or avoid an obstacle, then the counting would start over at one.

I thought there would be more evil or bad people, I haven’t found a single one yet. I guess when you look at people you don’t know, you kinda see them in the worst light possible. Everything you see is gauged from the perspective of survival, is that person high on something, is that girl staring at my wallet. It isn’t completely conscious either, it is more a background process, then when you look at them that information collected puts a sorta shade on how you see them. The person you suspected to be high on something is twitchy and jerky with the body. That girl’s clothes are old and worn, and her face looks gaunt like she needs food. Focusing on them, I can see neither of them is dangerous, they are just trying to get on with their lives like everyone else.

This woman is different. She looks young, late teens or early twenties. Well dressed and well made up. It is late, and she is just standing there, maybe she is a hooker. What is different about her is her intent is all over the place; going upstairs, getting something to eat, looking sexy, taking my shoes off ... Her intent just kept changing for no rhyme or reason. Her emotions were pretty stable and only changed slightly with her intent. Her thoughts were bizarre though, they changed with her intent but in an opposite way. She wasn’t arguing with herself, it was like she was trying to curb the intent or talk it down. Like when her intent changed to taking off her shoes, her thoughts immediately went to ‘my feet don’t hurt that much’. When her intent went to food, she thought she wasn’t that hungry, and should probably wait. It was really strange, and difficult to follow. On the outside, she just looked happy and bored. Maybe this is attention deficit disorder, I am not sure.

Perhaps evil is only rarely all consuming, the rest of the time it is situational. The truly evil people like a sociopath with a fetish as a sadist, wait that doesn’t make sense. A sociopath would have no empathy, so why would sadism get them off ... maybe I am confused. Anyway, a truly evil person is probably rarer. When just the right series of events takes place that brings someone to the breaking point, that would be a crime of passion, I think. A spouse catching the other cheating. A starving homeless man getting a strong smell of something delicious, while that obviously rich stuck up person is sneering at him. The years of struggling to make ends meet, then you get in a car accident and flip your lid. Well I guess that doesn’t make sense either, only rich people can drive now, but you get my point.

Like I said, this crap is distracting.

I walked around all night looking at people, focusing on them, and keeping a watch for my two vampires. Just before sunrise, I headed home disappointed at my progress. I was thoroughly distracted though by the people around me.

When I got home, Jacky was already gone. Rhonda was sitting at the table into her holo. She put it away and looked at me. I looked back at her. She was racked with worry and guilt, concern for me. Her intent was to take care of me. Her thoughts were along the lines of; ‘He looks OK, I don’t see any bruising, his clothes aren’t torn.’

“I am fine Rhonda, I had a boring night for the most part.” If you consider mind reading boring.

“OK, are you hungry?”

“No, I had some coffee and a bagel just an hour ago.” I walked up behind her and gave her a kiss. “We should probably talk though, I discovered something new.”

“Sit and let’s talk then.” She motioned towards the head of the table.

“You don’t want to talk in the bedroom?” I waggled my eyebrows; there is that smile.

“Not if you want a real talk. Sit, I have things I want to say, too.”

She was going through a list in her head, I tried not to pry, but it is just too easy. I sat down. “You go first.”

She got serious, “I want to know what happened the other night with that couple you were staring at. I want to know what happened on the rail on the way home. I want you to talk to me like your wife. How did you have teeth like that? What is going on?!” She took a deep breath and clearly relaxed again.

“Rhonda, I am still trying to figure this stuff out, too.” I reached for her hand, and she met it with hers. “The teeth ... the best I can figure is I am some sort of vampire. As crazy as it sounds that is the best I can come up with. Those two people last night were vampires too, and they were looking at Jacky like a snack, and I just reacted.” I let that sit for a while.

Rhonda was just staring at the table.

“On the rail, on the way home, I was making plans for those two. I was upset that they wanted Jacky. Can you understand that?”

‘I saw his teeth, that isn’t normal. He was leaning forward like a runner, but didn’t have his foot forward to support himself, it was totally unnatural; if he is crazy then I am crazy, too, because I believe him; I saw him slowly squeeze that bar, I tried the same and couldn’t even budge it, it doesn’t make sense.’ She looked at me. ‘He is my Daniel, but he isn’t.’

“You are not crazy for believing me, and I have no idea how I leaned forward like that, I didn’t know I was doing it.” I squeezed her hand.

“Are you in my head now, too?”

“That is something new I learned tonight, it was what I wanted to tell you.” I smiled slightly to lessen the shock.

“You stay out of my head, that isn’t fair!” This was a new look, she looked angry.

“OK, I can do that, it isn’t just there, I have to focus to get the thoughts. But I do want to try something later.” Dramatic pause ... come on, ask me!

“What?”

“I want to read you during sex, I want to see if I can take you to new heights.” I waggled my eyebrows again.

Her face screwed up as she thought about it, then I saw a smile starting. “You are a sneaky bastard. Stop changing the subject. Tell me more about all this.”

“OK ... The first time it happened was when I went to the park back in June. I wa—”

“What are you talking about? What happened?” She was back to serious, at least she wasn’t angry.

“Just let me finish.” I gave her hand a squeeze. “I don’t know if you remember, but we had a marathon of sex that morning, and when you woke up, I was still hard but you were tired, so I went for a run to clear my head.” She was looking at the table again but didn’t respond, so I continued. “Anyway, I was in the park running that first time when it happened. I saw a bobcat staring at me and I sort of lost it and started chasing it. When I caught it, I bit it, and drank it dry. The feeling was ... awesome, I can’t really describe it, I—”

“You chased a bobcat in the park and caught it?” She was examining me now.

“Yes, I think I reacted to its aggressiveness, or maybe the threat, I am not really sure.”

We talked for another four hours. I was tired after staying up all night, mentally tired. Sex didn’t even enter my head when I laid down for a nap. I am not sure how she felt after the talk, I didn’t read her mind. She seemed contemplative, if not accepting of the situation. I showed my teeth a couple times and I think she thought that was as cool as I thought it was. I shared it all, and all my theories to date. I reassured her that I didn’t need blood, I just got moody if I didn’t have it for a while. Overall the talk was very positive, and it felt nice to share it with somebody.

It took three weeks to find the two vampires again. I didn’t go out every night, but I nearly did. When I found them, they were quietly talking and hadn’t noticed me yet, so I just decided to observe for a few minutes.

Both of their intents were to wait on a good victim. They didn’t think about the criteria, so I had no idea what they were looking for. Emotionally they were content, happy even, bored was another strong feeling. The man seemed to be concerned or in love with the woman. Their thoughts were pretty generic, and that surprised me. I figured they would be thinking about how they were going to eat someone. The woman was contemplating the success or failure of a future conversation she planned. I couldn’t understand much, but it seemed like she might be a gossip monger. The man was upset with his shoes for whatever reason, apparently, they are new, and he doesn’t like how they feel. He wished his old shoes hadn’t worn out.

I watched them for a couple hours, and everything they thought was pretty on par for normalcy. That is when they spotted their victims and agreed to pursue them. They had chosen a couple in their late twenties, both on the way home together. The vampires worked together, and I was surprised at their efficiency. The man distracted the couple first when the woman bit the woman for only a few seconds. It was like she didn’t even notice being bitten. Then they switched and the female distracted them while the man bit the man. Again, no reaction, I was perplexed ... how can they not notice being bit? With the deed done, the couple of vampires just walked away nonchalantly. Their victims seemed to wake up a few seconds later and went on like nothing happened. Amazing.

With their intents changed to heading home, I felt like this was the right time to approach. I planned to use all my speed to get in front of them. I had a ton of questions. So, when I just popped in front of them, I dived right in.

“How did you bite them without them noticing?” I was excited. They seemed shocked to see me.

The man recovered first. “You don’t know how to bite someone without them noticing? Where is your creator?”

“No. I don’t know. I only had a couple animals so far, and I had to chase them.” I was getting anxious, I wanted answers.

The woman spoke up. “So, you are brand new with no creator?”

“I guess, I assume a creator is the one who made me?”

She nodded. “You were the one walking with those women the other day, why did you challenge me?” She laughed.

Now that laugh pissed me off. “Because that is my daughter you wanted to bite, I was protecting her.”

She stopped laughing “Your daughter? Was the woman your wife? Do you still live with them?”

“Of course, where else would I live?” Now I was feeling anxious for a different reason.

She meant to trap me in something... “Do they know what you are?” she asked. The man was very curious how I managed to live with my family without telling them.

“Of course not. They would think I am crazy.” I got disappointment from her, the trap failed.

The man spoke up, “You can mesmerize them, put them in a mini sleep I guess, that’s how you bite them without them noticing.”

“What about the bite marks?”

He laughed, “Your saliva will heal the marks, just lick them, and they will disappear in a few moments. You really know nothing do you?”

“I don’t. Is there somewhere I can learn more?”

The girl spoke up, “That is your creator’s job. I can’t believe someone turned you and just left you.”

The man interjected, “You should come with us back to the coven. I will introduce you around. Perhaps someone will teach you the basics.”

I just nodded, “Thanks, I think I need that.”

“Do you need to drink?” He examined me.

“No, I feel fine.”

“When was the last time?”

“It has been a while, but I feel OK.”

The man shook his head, “No, you need to feed. You don’t want to lapse and become feral.” He turned to the woman “Jessica, let’s find another. You catch their eye while I make sure he doesn’t drink too much. This will be his first human.”

“Fine, but I don’t understand why we are helping him,” she complained.

“Come on, someone helped you when you were new.”

The man’s name was Steven I figured out later. They picked an older man on his way home from work. Steven explained to me that I only need a mouthful of blood to sustain me. He also explained not to bite too hard, or I might bite off a chunk. ‘Just get your teeth in, suck till you have a mouthful, swallow and lick the holes as you pull away.’

I wasn’t really comfortable with this, and I probably hadn’t done it if I hadn’t just seen them do it without bothering anyone. I needed information though, and this was a rite of passage, I thought. One benefit, I got to see up close the whole mesmerizing thing. Jessica’s pupil got huge, and then the man’s pupils did as well, that was when Steven indicated for me to start.

I pulled the guys collar away and bit him where his shoulder met his neck from behind. It didn’t take much sucking to get a mouthful of blood. The feeling was awesome, I wish I could describe it, orgasms couldn’t hold a torch to it. If the sun radiated pleasure and y—”

Steven slapped me on the back of the head. “That’s enough, stop sucking and release him.”

I had a couple more swallows before I got my teeth out of him and licked the wounds. Before my eyes they slowly closed. So cool.

“So, you have to feed in pairs?” I asked.

“No, you can solo with enough practice and timing. It is just a lot harder,” Steven said.

“Plus, it is more fun to have someone to talk to while you wait, safer too, if there is a problem,” Jessica said.

Steven nodded to the north. “Let’s go.”

I was led to the Palmer House Hotel. We entered in through the front doors and walked over to the right most elevator. Steven hit the button and turned to me.

“This building was financed and built by the coven in the 1800s. It sits directly above it and shares a few amenities. We have one additional law in this coven, we are not to bother any guest of the hotel, or bother anyone near it. If you have doubts of any kind about someone, pick someone else, better safe than sorry. Obviously, you aren’t expected to memorize every guest, so just make sure you are seen in the best light possible if something were to happen.” He smiled.

The doors opened and we got in. He produced a key and used the numbers of the floors to enter some kind of code. The elevator had a slight jerk when we started heading down. I wasn’t focused on him, so I missed the code.

When the doors open, we walked out into a nice big foyer. It wasn’t dark, damp, or musty like you would expect from books and movies, it was very nice. The style seemed very similar to the hotel above us. Classical architecture, a chandelier hanging in the middle of the room, and lots of arches were my first impressions.

I was led to a front desk, which was currently empty. Steven walked behind it to a pinboard full of numbers and a few keys. He grabbed a key for 106 and handed it to me. He then pulled out a book, opened it to the last written page and handed that to me as well.

“Just put your room number and your name since you don’t know your creator. This is your room while you are here, don’t lose the key, they don’t make them any more.” I quickly did as he said while he continued.

“This is the main floor for guests. Your room is through that door there. This is floor number one, and the floors increase in number as you go down. The third floor is where the conference rooms are, most of the teachers and historians are there, too. Since you are not a part of the coven yet, don’t be caught below the fifth floor without an escort. Follow me to the third floor, I have someone that will want to meet you.”

I followed Steven down the steps to the left. When we got to the third floor, Jessica continued on. Even on this floor, everything was nice. With the carpeting on the floor, I am surprised they don’t have problems with flooding. He led me down three hallways before he stopped at a door and knocked. I heard a brief something inside, and we entered and approached an old native American woman.