The Vampire Pirate's Daughter (5 page)

He is twenty-one years old and not a
half-blood like me. He turned like Amanda and Shayne and they have
skin like marble. They are rock hard and if you walked into them by
accident, it actually could knock you backwards, it would be like
walking into a brick wall. However, I have a certain degree of
softness to me but I am not as squishy as humans are and to the
uninformed, I would just seem well defined and muscle toned.

There is a knock at the door and I walk
toward it, calling into the house, “I’ll get it.”

I open the door and the porch light
illuminates him. He has his dark hair coifed up over his forehead
and his dark hazel eyes look broodingly at me.

His eyes sparkle when he says, “Good Evening,
beautiful Susanna.”

“Hi, Ethan.” He is utterly adorable and
absolutely gorgeous, but I always feel awkward in his presence even
if we have known each other for eons. I know he likes me, but he
has a new girlfriend almost every week, mortal or immortal, makes
no difference to him. I am looking for a lasting relationship, not
something fleeting. I want to experience that feeling of
unconditional love, a feeling I have searched for it seems forever.
If I had a romance with Ethan, he would get bored with me too
quickly and there are those little things that irritate me, things
I would not be able to live with for the rest of forevermore.

“Come in, Ethan. Why are you just standing
there?”

He smiles handsomely. “I thought we would be
leaving as soon as I get here.”

I sigh exasperated. “You know Shayne. He has
these little habits and rituals. Just come in, don’t just stand
there.”

He walks past me as I stand aside.

I turn and close the door behind us. I
walk into the house behind Ethan and I turn to him by the stairs.
“Amanda and Shayne will be here now.” I point toward the lounge.
“You can go and sit down so long.”

I walk up the stairs toward my room. I
usually wait in my room, while the ‘grown-ups’ have an alcoholic
beverage before we leave. I put a CD into my stereo, and sitting on
my bed, I page through a magazine.

My door opens softly and I turn toward it.
The words, “I am coming,” freeze on my lips, when I see Ethan
walking toward me.

He smiles at me and although I honestly do
not want it to affect me, it does. Smiling seductively, he comes to
a stop in front of me and he holds his hand out toward me.

I take his hand while looking up at him
and he pulls me up from the bed gently. Once I am standing in front
of him, he does not move away. He drops his head closer to mine and
with lightening speed, his hand is holding my head closer to his.
He softly lets his lips glide over mine.

Holding his lips close to mine, he asks
softly, “When will you be mine?”

I pull away from him, frowning. “Never.”

He laughs softly. “Why never?”

I turn away from him dismissively and walk
toward my cupboard to get my trench coat.

Staring after me thoughtfully, he asks,
“Are you ready?”

I smile friendly, although I do not feel it.
“I am coming. Do I have a choice?”

We walk out to the car together and Ethan
sits with me in the back of Shayne’s car. We drive past Carmine’s
house and I see the party that was supposed to have been at
Andrew’s house is now at her house. I see all the kids, my age in
appearance, and I feel despondent that I could not join them after
all. However, I feel the demon rise in me when I look at them and I
can imagine sinking my teeth into their soft, young skins, so I
look away.

As if Ethan can hear my thoughts, he folds
his hand over mine on my leg. He squeezes my hand softly. I look
toward him sideways and a soft smile is playing on his lips. He
whispers, “I do not know why you waste your time with them.” His
eyes look over my shoulder toward the group of teens standing on
the pavement.

“They make me feel normal,” I reply
defensively.

“But you aren’t normal, are you?”

“You don’t need to remind me.”

“Why do you have this need to feel normal?
You are so much better than them.”

I do not want to tell him how I feel. It
had nothing to do with him. I did not want to blurt out how I
wanted to be like them. I wanted to grow old and move on, not
forever stuck in one particular place, frozen forever in this
body.

I sigh and look out the window up toward the
night sky.

Ethan whispers in my hair, “Don’t be so sad,
beautiful Susanna.” He lightly kisses me on the top of my head.

I notice the night getting darker as we drive
away from the suburbs and the city, and then not long after, shacks
surround us. Little squares made from anything and everything in an
attempt to keep the rain and wind out.

You can feel the despair and hopelessness in
the air and suddenly I do not want to do it. These people already
have such a crappy time of just finding something to eat, how could
we come here and feed off them, besides I suddenly realize
something important. I ask Shayne as he brings the car to a stop,
“What about AIDS? Have you considered it?”

Shayne laughs cruelly, “What do you suppose
AIDS will do to you, Susie?”

Amanda confirms, “Blood is blood.”

Still I am reluctant. “These people hardly
ever eat. They would not fill us – at all!”

I can feel Ethan shake as he laughs and I
turn toward him abruptly. “What?”

“You are just like your father, William. He
was also always worried about people and humanity. These people
will be grateful to die when they no longer have to live in this
total poverty and misery. Trust me.”

Amanda, Shayne and Ethan open their doors,
while I say, “I’ll stay here to look after the car. It might get
stolen.”

Amanda says adamantly, “Susanna, get out now.
You cannot go to school on Monday if you do not feed tonight.”

“I’ll find something else.”

“You will put us all in jeopardy. Get out of
the car now. Shayne will keep an eye on it.”

Reluctantly I get out of the car and slam the
door. We do not need to do this silently, because nobody would be
able to outrun us anyway.

We walk in between the cardboard and
corrugated iron houses next to each other. Four formidable figures
walking side by side. I hear babies crying all around me, the night
sounds of the squatter camps. I see rats scurry ahead of us and
some of the rats are as large as small dogs. I jump over the sewage
overflow puddles in the pathway, reluctant to touch the foul, dark
water. There is no moon, so it is dark and the orange hue from the
high-mast light does not really provide any proper lighting. We
walk further into the sad, hopelessness and at times, we have to
turn sideways and walk one at a time between the shacks. In one of
the houses, we notice the flicker of a candle and Shayne stops. He
looks for somewhere to knock, but then he just pounds against the
flimsy corrugated iron door. Quickly the light from the candle goes
out, but nobody comes to the door. Shayne pulls the flimsy door off
the little home, while I still stand back and look around me. It
happens so fast that there is no screaming for help. The family of
eight slept in a row on the ground, all of them in this little box.
There is no toilet, no kitchen and no furniture. The old man who
was still awake look at Shayne, his eyes as big as saucers, but it
is over for him quickly.

When I smell the irony, sweet smell of rich,
burgundy blood in the air, I cannot control myself and against my
resolve, I join them. I drink in a mad frenzy. There is no stopping
me. I sink my razor sharp teeth into their soft necks. I feel the
way their skin fold around my tongue as I suck the blood into my
mouth. I feel the blood, thick and warm slide down into my throat
and then my entire body joins in. My every sense tingles and I
drink and drink until I am so full, my eyes want to close from
contentment.

Ethan finds me draped over an old woman. Her
body is withered, not a drop in her anymore. I wish I could turn
her inside out and lick the sides clean. Ethan touches me on my
shoulder and I am back. The mad raging overpowering feeling leaves
me just as suddenly as it became a part of me.

I stand up and remorse fills me immediately
when I look down at the lifeless body of the woman, but I convince
myself that I honestly had no choice. I was born this way.

Ethan takes me in his arms gently, but I push
away from him and determinedly I say, “No.”

He moves away from me and I can see the angry
humiliation in his eyes. He says firmly, “One day, you will give
in.”

I turn away from him and walk toward the car.
We leave the bodies as they are. Nobody will ever find us and we do
not even leave any DNA behind. If anyone ever bothered to
investigate, they would be baffled, because we must have an
infinite number of DNA belonging to many other people coursing
through our veins.

The car is silent when we drive home and when
we drive past Carmine’s house again everything is dark.

I did not realize how long that took. It is
almost dawn.

At school, I avoid Andrew completely. I still
spend time with Carmine, but when Andrew approaches us, I turn
around and walk away.

A week later, Carmine insists that I go with
them to the dam. I tell her I will meet her there and while I get
dressed, I keep debating with myself whether I should just stay
away. It is not as if she will miss me.

Amanda eventually convinces me to go and I
drive past the mall, across the bridge and down the hill toward the
dam. When I drive over the little hill, I can see the water of the
dam shimmer through the trees. The sun dances on the water and it
looks peacefully surrounded by a nature reserve.

Nostalgia intrudes my mind. If it were not
for all those vampires sacrificing themselves all those many years
ago, I would now be huddled in a corner somewhere, too afraid to
walk out into the sun. I remember listening to the stories about
the vampires, now regarded as heroes, who gave up their lives so
that all the other vampires could live as normal human beings,
without having to hide away from civilization. If I forgot even one
day to take my pill, amusingly referred to as vitamins and I walked
out into the sun, I would disperse in the wind.

I remember Shayne telling me what happened
to my real father. He saved my mother from a burning house, the
château I grew up in, after the man I always thought of as my
father tried to kill my mother. William, my biological father
jumped out of the window with my mother in his arms. Moments later
and he would have been okay, but the sun was still hovering on the
horizon. When the rays touched his skin, he scattered in the
breeze. He was gone, just like that.

I shiver involuntarily.

Driving slowly along the dirt road into the
dam area, I see my classmates ahead of me. I slow down even further
and then I pull into a vacant parking spot. I pick up my straw hat
and beach bag on the seat next to me and I get out of the car.

Carmine notices me immediately and she rushes
toward me. She is like a toddler with too much energy and I grit my
teeth. I reprimand myself to enjoy myself and to fit in. Immersed
in their lives, and although so predictable, it amuses me and
breaks the continuous monotony. I have done perky, I have done
cheerleader, I have been Goth many times, I have been the nerd, the
science genius, name it and I have played the role. Now, with this
group I want to fall in love. I want to experience that feeling of
falling, to put my trust, as limited as it may be, into another
person. In addition, I have this unexplained yearning toward
Andrew. I often wonder how it would feel if he touched me softly or
how it would feel to kiss him.

Carmine reaches me. Her golden, blonde curls
bouncing all over her head. “Susie, I am glad you decided to come
after all.”

I smile friendly and feeling the sun on my
shoulders, I think I actually feel happy. “It is such a nice day
and I could not stay indoors or just go the mall,” I answer.

She takes me by the hand. “Come.” She pulls
me toward the group of people. I immediately notice Andrew standing
across from me, but when he looks at me, a frown creases his brow.
The rest of the group greets me friendly.

I look around for somewhere to put my bag and
I notice a blanket spread out on the ground a distance away. I turn
away from the group and walk toward the blanket. When I reach the
blanket and the grouping of bags on the ground, I bend down and I
put my bag on the ground as well.

Carmine calls, “If you have your swimming
costume on, take off your clothes. We are going
swimming.”

I hesitantly pull my shirt over my head and
then bending down I slide my shorts down my legs. I fold my clothes
and then leave it in a pile next to my bag.

I wrap a towel around my waist and walk back
toward the group. I see the boys looking at me appreciatively, but
regretfully Andrew ignores me. Already when I think of Andrew, I
feel agony.

Carmine holds onto my hand and then yanking
at my hand, she starts running toward the water. I run with her,
dropping my towel and I start to feel a slight inkling of being
mortal, to live for the moment and make it count. This is one of
the main reasons I surround myself with humans, because I can
imagine their mortality and for a brief moment, I can experience
it.

The water splashes up and over us as we run
into the shallow water, deeper into the darker water.

I fall down onto my back purposefully and
feel the cold water immerse me. I come up and the water drips from
my face.

Duncan swims toward me. I have noticed him
a few times before in class. He has his fawn colored hair clipped
short all over his head, he has steel-blue eyes and he is extremely
muscular. He leaps toward me and with his one arm around my
shoulders and his other hand on my head he tries to submerge me
under the water.