Aeternum Amor Read online

Aeternum Amor

  By Megan Hammer

  Copyright 2012 Megan Hammer

  Vatican Vamps

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Aeternum Amor

  I-Stygialis

  The boy and the girl had been in love for as long as they could remember. Sometimes, it felt like forever in their minds. They knew each other so well that they could know what the other was thinking. Indeed, the two rarely had to say a complete sentence when talking.

  He was tall, all lanky arms and legs. His hair was a mop of black strands that were in constant disarray. It was rare he went anywhere without at least one piece of black clothing on him. He was classified as a "freak" by others of society and often avoided because of it. But he didn't care; he was comfortable with who he was. He had dark green eyes that darted everywhere, taking everything in. And his name, though later rejected, was James.

  She was tall as well, but the height suited her. She did not look like a puppy still growing into his paws as James sometimes did. She was thin, wiry. Her long blonde hair matched her body. Her eyes were the blue of a warm ocean, though they were often narrowed in cynicism. She wore Celtic jewelry, silver in color, on her body in at least one place every day. Her skin matched her clothes: pale, almost ivory. At the time, she went by the name of Brigett.

  The two stood in sharp contrast to one another. People wondered how they had fallen in love. Some days, they themselves wondered just how it had happened. But a look into each other's eyes, and it became glaringly obvious once more: they were meant for each other.

  But events greater than even their love were occurring, by beings more powerful than the two could imagine. And it was not long after James's twentieth birthday that the first of these events transpired.

  The two had gone out to one of the fancier restaurants in the city. She, dressed in a white dress, appeared to be an angel. He wore a black tux; even the shirt was the color of midnight. Together, they were two halves of the same picture, an idea that was lent credence once one realized they each had a half of the same Celtic knot on a chain about their necks.

  The night was perfect when they left the small French restaurant. Uncountable stars filled the sky while the moon was just this side of dark. In the darkness of one alleyway, they waited for their cab, kissing in the dark. Neither paid much attention to what was going on about them.

  As such, it was impossible for them to hear the approach of the thief on quiet feet.

  "Your money," he ordered, jamming the barrel of the pistol into the small of James's back. "Or I kill the girl."

  James slowly nodded and reached into his back pocket drawing out his wallet. He pulled out the $40.00 that had been in it and passed it to the thief.

  "All of it," the thief ordered.

  "That's all I have," he replied softly.

  "Then I take the girl," came the answer, the gun shifting over to train on Brigett.

  "Run, Brigett!" James told her. She took off down the street. James threw himself at the thief in an attempt to give his love more time to escape. Frightened, the thief's finger twitched and the gun spat out a bullet. It ripped through James's body and bounced harmlessly off the brick building behind him.

  James fell to the ground and lay on top of the thief. Still in shock, the thief pulled himself out from underneath the dying James and stared at him. Then, he transferred the gaze to the gun in his hand. He hadn't meant to kill anyone, just scare them. Money forgotten, he began to run in the direction Brigett had gone.

  James lay on the sidewalk, the dark night growing darker around him as he lost contact with the world. He heard a fluttering noise from above and then a face appeared in his narrowing field of vision. At first, he assumed that it was only something he had created in his mind during his last moments.

  Then the person knelt down beside him. "I can save you," he told James in a quiet voice. "But it must be your choice."

  "What do you mean?"

  The being pulled back his lips from his teeth and let that be his answer. "You know what I am."

  "Yes. Vampire,” James coughed out, a bit of blood beginning to spill from his lips as it filled his mouth.

  "I can save you," he repeated. "But it must be your choice. Do you wish to be like me in order to remain in this world a little longer?"

  James though of Brigett, a girl whom he would do anything for. If he died, he would never see her again. Never again would he hear her voice or feel her feather light touch as her fingers tied his tie. For her, he would do anything; even become one of the damned. "Let me live," he whispered to the vampire.

  "Very well," was the quiet reply. And he lowered his head and began to transform him.

  II- Expergo

  Every day, he dreamed of that night. The soft touch of Brigett's lips against his own. The love they had shared before the thief and his gun had shattered the night and their world. Diu, the vampire who had rescued him, helping him to his feet after the transformation had been complete for the time being. Taking off to find Brigett, only to find her and the thief dead a few alleys over, killed by who knew what. His dejected return to Diu who took him under his wing--literally-- and brought him back to the oversized basement that served as a home for Diu and the others. For Diu was not the only one of his kind in the city, though he was among the oldest.

  Diu had helped him to finish the transformation that night, performing the final transfusion that would change him for all eternity. When he had asked about the black wings, Diu had only smiled and didn't bother to explain their presence beyond the word, "Magic."

  As he slowly slipped to a deep sleep, Diu told him that he would need a new name. He was no longer James. And he knew the elder vampire spoke true. A name came to him while he thought about it.

  "Koios," he said softly, not knowing where it had come from. He knew that he liked it though, and that it fit, so the name remained. "I am Koios."

  "Welcome, Koios," Diu said with a small bow.

  Every day, Koios dreamed of that night. And every night, he tried to forget it.

  He was one of the undead now. Dead, but brought back to life much the way Lazarus had been returned to life by Jesus in the Bible. Only there had been no blood involved with that miracle. And no damnation of the soul.

  When the sun went down, he awoke with his usual start of fear. The small room, no larger than a walk in closet, was pitch black. Always, for the briefest of moments, he was afraid that he was dead once more. Then the feeling passed and he remembered who and where he was.

  Koios rose from his small bed and pulled on his pure black clothes he had taken to wearing. His hunger coursed though him, a reminder that he would need to feed that night for sure. If he did not, he would risk weakness that would render him unable to do anything but just lay there.

  He stepped out of his room and found that, as usual, he was the first one awake. Their lair was little more than a forgotten basement of an abandoned building on the bad side of town. It had been divided into two parts: a communal room and the sleeping area, full of the closet-like rooms. No one ever bothered them or even seemed to know of their existence.

  The communal room had several couches that Koios believed were just as old as Diu, if not older. Some of their number were sprawled across them, the dawn having caught them before they could retreat to the know safety of their rooms. The one named Lupus was wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans and had an old book spread open across his bare chest. Koios approached him and lifted the book to see what it was. "Dracula," he muttered, a wry smile on his face. Stoker's novel
was a source of never ending amusement for the vampires. The idea that they could change into animals or mist was laughable. There were a few things in the novel that were true, however, such as how to kill one of their own and the effects of sunlight. It was why Greeting the Mane was still such a nightmare to them all.

  Koios replaced the book and looked over at the clock on the wall. The days were growing longer now, though snow was still heavy upon the ground. The sun had just gone down and it was already almost six-thirty.

  A noise from another part of his home drew his attention away from the clock. The noise was faint; if he had still been human, he could not have heard it. The others were waking.

  In what almost amounted to a rush of bodies, the rest of the vampires joined Koios in the communal room. Lupus woke with a start behind him, nearly dropping the book on the ground. With lightning reflexes, he was able to catch it inches before it touched the hard stone floor.

  The vampires gathered about, some slumping into couches and chairs while the rest remained standing, talking with one another. It was a mortal's equivalent of a family gathering. Only this one happened every night.

  Koios wandered among them, smiling and nodding as needed. Off in the corner, he caught sight of the youngest member of their family: a girl maybe fourteen. Blood stained trails inched down her face as she tried to cry. Koios ran through is mental list of names and determined hers to be Emaline. She had been transformed by Diu a few nights ago after she and her family had been victims of a robbery turned gang fight when others had showed up.

  He knelt down next to her and wiped away a tear of blood. "Emaline," he spoke soothingly, using all the charm he had learned during his ten year tenure as a vampire. "It's alright, Emaline. You have nothing to be afraid of."

  "I'm not afraid," she hiccupped out.

  "Then what is it?"

  "I miss my family."

  Koios gave her a gentle smile that hid his teeth. It wouldn't do to frighten the girl even more. "I know. But we are your family now. And though it hurts, you must stay strong. We are the few, the lucky," he said, quoting almost word for word what Diu had told him that night after he had seen Brigett's broken body there before him. "We are eternal."

  "But my family isn't here!" she said, staring up at his pale face.

  He gently reached out to grab her hand. His was near white, having lost all pigmentation long ago since he was no longer in the sun. Hers, on the other hand, was still tan with color. "We will stand by you as if you were our own flesh and blood," he said softly. "I will take care of you."

  "You mean it?" she questioned quietly.

  "With all my heart and upon the Codex I swear it." He rose, taking her with him. "Come. Let's see if I might go out early with you so that you might get something to eat."

  "Like McDonalds?"

  Koios cringed inwardly. Emaline still wasn't completely aware of what it meant to be vampire. She didn't know that she wouldn't be able to stomach anything but the blood and its energy for the rest of eternity; that she would remain as a fourteen-year-old forever. But he couldn't bring himself to be the one to tell her that. So instead, he nodded and said, "Perhaps." Then he looked over his shoulder at the room that was nearly full. He held out his hand to her again. "Shall we go, my tiny Lazarus?"

  She took it and looked up his tall, thin frame to the face obscured by hair. "Lazarus? Who’s that?"

  "A character, or a person if you'd rather, in the Bible. He was one Jesus supposedly brought back to life after he had died," he explained, exhausting most his knowledge of the Bible and the majority of the stories within.

  "Like Diu did with me," Emaline said as she caught on.

  "Like he did for most all of us here," Koios said softly. He led her over to an open spot by one of the couches and sat down. She followed suit.

  “What's your name?" she asked suddenly.

  He was caught off guard by the question. She had to repeat it a second time before he was able to answer. "I'm Koios," he told her.

  "No. Your real name."

  He gritted his teeth together in an attempt to control his anger. He could not attack her. She was but a fledgling, fresh into her life as a vampire. "I am Koios," he repeated, enunciating every syllable to every word.

  "How did Diu save you?"

  "What?"

  "My parents and I were caught in a robbery gone wrong. Diu came and offered to change me so that I would be able to help my parents," Emaline explained. "I said yes. But my parents were both dead by the time I got to them." She looked up at his face once more. "What about you?"

  Koios looked away and sighed quietly. Talking of Brigett and the past was something he tried not to do. It was also something he tried to forget. "I was shot trying to keep safe the one that I loved," he said simply.

  "Do you still love her?"

  "Yes," he admitted. "But it doesn't matter now. She died the same night I did." Koios sighed again. He was doing that more than he used to lately. It made him feel human and he reminded himself that he should stop it. "That was in another life though. I try to forget about it. As should you. You are no longer Miley." He ignored her shocked expression and continued on. "You are Emaline, beget of Diu, a member of Diu's Court." He looked up and saw that the vampire in question had finally entered the room. "Let's go get some food."

  In the ten years since Koios had first seen him, Diu hadn't changed. His raven hair was still shoulder length and very straight. His green eyes were still bright and full of unshared laughter. Black, as with most everyone, remained the color of choice. The one thing that set him apart from the others was the way he carried himself. He looked older than his body, which was true. He was still in the visage of the 25-year-old he had been when he had been killed. But he was close to 300 now. Even so, he looked far older, worries no other had to face weighing upon his flawless and ageless face. The black wings Koios had come to associate with Diu were folded and behind him, blending with the duster had had on top of his clothes.

  Koios nodded respectfully to him as he passed him by. Diu saw that he had Emaline in tow and gave him the briefest of smiles. "Take good care of her," he told him.

  "I will," Koios responded, opening the door that lead to the world outside. He paused for a moment, breathing in the smell of the city night. Smoke, fear, sweat, tears; it was all there, each easy to pick out from the other. "Lazarus awakens," he said softly. Then he took off into the night in search of a meal.

  III- Caedes

  The world was already dark when Koios and Emaline stepped outside. The scent of the day, of the people, permeated the air. It was difficult to gain even a basic idea of where a night wandering human might be lurking.

  After a few seconds that passed as lifetimes, Koios lowered his head from the sky and opened his eyes. "Follow me," he told Emaline, not bothering to glance back at her. He took off running towards an apartment building and leapt from landing to landing on the fire escape until he reached the asphalted top of it.

  From the tar garden, he could pick out the area of the city where all the nightclubs were to the north. To the east, the sky was obscured by high-rises and too many lights. Koios smiled grimly. The humans were trying to turn the night into day with the hope that they would be safe.

  He continued his circle, looking out to the outskirts of the city and the start of the suburbs in the south and the lake to his west. The wind that night was coming off of the lake, warming the air just a half of a degree. Still, the cold air sliced through his clothes and on reflex, he drew his coat closer to him in an attempt to ward it off.

  The wind carried the soft scent he had come to associate with food. It was from, unsurprisingly, the northern part of the city. People were out there in droves tonight and they would be easy to get alone.

  He leapt back
down to the ground, landing cat-like and startling Emaline. "Come," he said simply before taking off to the north. It did not take long to reach the part of the city that never seemed to sleep, even with a few stops to allow Emaline to catch up.

  He stopped her on the outskirts of the neon lights, kneeling down beside her. "This is your hunting ground. It is the only one you have, so don't abuse it. Take only what you need then leave the rest. Do you remember how to get back home?" He waited for her nod before continuing. "Make sure you are back before sunrise. The sun appears over the horizon and you drop into slumber, unable to awaken until nightfall. The only place of true safety is there. Do you understand?"

  "Yes."

  "Good." He rose and pushed her into a small circle of blue and green light. "Good hunting."

  "And to you," she replied. Her instincts took over then and she was gone. Koios waited a moment to make sure she wasn't going to return for help before starting a hunt of his own.

  The hardest part of any hunt was the search for the perfect prey. Not to large, but older than 18. He would not feed off of children. Lupus said it was a sign that he wasn't a true vampire. Diu also said sometimes that he needed to learn to take the easiest prey, regardless of age.

  "We are the perfect killers, indiscriminate in our choosing," the vampire leader had told him once.

  He remembered his answer with a wry grin. "Then I am not perfect." Then he had left for a hunt.

  From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a girl. No, woman. She was young enough to have enough in her to sustain him, yet old enough that he would not feel anything while taking from her. Silently, he followed her through the streets. He became the sleek jungle cat stalking the tiny gazelle.