Blood Desires

"So I see you're here for only me. Why is that?", Seth asked, curling his lips up in a menacing way, Taylor could only imagine just how terrifying he looked.

"They aren't playing around this time Seth. You either come willingly or we take you. It has been far too long. It has been what, eight hundred years?" The vampire was beginning to walk sideways now in an attempt to circle around Seth.

Seth followed his path slowly and bared his teeth. He was preparing for a fight and Taylor only hoped there wasn't one. "It's been long enough for your people to be satisfied."

The vampire threw his head back and laughed. "Long enough?" His snickering sent chilll down Taylor's spine. "The prophet told us that we needed to change you, remember? Has Seth's memory faded?"

Seth just shook his head in disgust, trying to hide the fact that he was baffled by what the vampire said. He remembered the words of a prophet, but he never thought it to be true. It made him curious to what had been foretold.

Suddenly the vampire tensed up. He stood straight up and sniffed the air, unsure of what he was to do. He glanced at Seth then down the alley and snarled towards whatever it was he sensed. "I'll come back for you later, but for now I have someone to catch up with." The vampire glared at Seth for a moment before running off down the alley, sparing Seth.

Seth nearly collapsed from the stress. He had never felt so drained since becoming a vampire. He sat there, propped against the alley wall trying to regain focus when he remembered Taylor was still in his head.

"Honey, I'll be home soon." He sent her images of them kissing through the strange link they had discovered.

"Okay", she breathed and released her hold on his mind.

Sitting back in her chair she felt really weird. She was at home, supposed to be writing an article for work. Things were always so weird and eventful since meeting Seth.

Taylor decided that working was a lost cause and simply turned her laptop off and went to the couch. She curled up on it, grabbing her book and sitting to read it.

Reading and writing were such comforts to her. They took her away from the real world for a while and made her believe that happiness was everywhere. She wished life was simple enough to write on a page and have come true. The first thing she'd do was make sure she had a happy ending, no matter what happened in between.

An hour went by until Seth stumbled into the door, looking depressed and exhausted. Taylor ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"Are you okay?" She questioned him as his eyes roamed her face. He smiled and kissed her forehead.

"I'm fine. I've lived nearly eight hundred years, I'm sure I can make it a couple more." Taylor slowly sank as she remembered everything she had seen.

Seth realized what she was thinking and he sighed. Swooping her up in his arms he carried her to the couch and sat her down, not in his lap but next to him.

"We need to talk about that. Rather, I figured you would have questions to ask me."

Taylor nodded and instantly began launching them at him. She wanted to make sure she got the whole truth this time and wasn't going to stop until she did. "So when were you actually born?"

"Twelve hundred and fourty from my research. Back then we weren't as good with the year as we started to be. I kept track though. I had time to do that." Seth smiled as Taylor gaped, trying to grasp her mind around how long he had been alive.

"Okay, well who was Madeline? So you were a knight? What else did you do in your life?", Taylor launched her questions, curious as to everything. There was no telling what all he had been through.

"Slow down", he laughed pulling her closer to him. She comforted the feel of his arms and laid back into his lap, staring up at him as he started to tell his history.

"Well, I grew up in a small peasant home in the city of Merrickson. It was named after the man who founded it. My mother, Scarlet Scottsdale, raised me by herself while my father was off at war for our city. It was growing vastly into a kingdom." He paused and looked down at Taylor to make sure she was listening then continued on. "My father, Eric Scottsdale, was a good man to my mother, but I rarely saw him in my childhood. I did get to see him once he got home from war, but I was already a teenage boy, nearly a man during that time."

Taylor sat up and looked at him, feeling bad for poor Seth. Growing up without a father must have been hard. She snuggled closer to him, laying her head on his chest and allowing him to continue on with his story.

Seth held her and went on talking. "I grew up with my mother and so respected women at a very young age. It should've been no surprise that I wanted to defend them and my country. I went into training to be a knight. Granted I wasn't rich so it was very hard, but eventually I made it in and it helped my mother very much. I wasn't an only child. I had a younger brother. He was seven years younger actually. His name was Gregory and he was the most adorable child ever. I took care of him as much as I could, but I had to leave when I turned and have no idea how he turned out."

Seth's eyes grew somber at his words and he seemed to look off in the distance as he thought to himself for a moment. "Regardless, I became a knight and helped our kingdom as it grew. I was able to provide for my family, and after serving our king for ten years I was finally moved up. I was a royal knight and became very popular in our town." He chuckled to himself for a moment at the thought. "I was quite popular with the ladys then, and many mothers strived for me to be with their daughters. I met Madeline in such a way and we became close."

Seth stopped and looked at Taylor in the most loving of ways. "I didn't fall in love with her, but I wont say I didn't care about her. She was always so giving to me, and I only wish I could've given back to her the same love."

Taylor nodded at this and felt sorry for the girl. She could only imagine what that would be like; being with someone who didn't care nearly as much as you did. It must've been awful to pour your heart and soul into something that did you no good. Taylor blinked her eyes to keep away the tears as Seth continued with his past.

"Of course you saw the story of how I was turned, and from there I went from town to town, learning what I could about my own and being secretive. I stayed hidden for years. I learned a great deal in that time, including how to be a doctor. Of course, back then we weren't as advanced, and when the black plague eventually hit Europe, I could only do so much for them. It was awful." He turned toward Taylor, trying to convey how horrible it was. She could see the death and destruction replayed in his eyes. Everything he must've seen from living for so long.

"Of course, after a while I had to move on from each town I helped, unable to return for a while. Some towns were wiped out completely anyways, no one to remember me there. Eventually bad times ended and then things began to enter what we call the Renaissance. One of my favorite memories of my life. The art was so breathtakingly gorgeous I would've stayed there forever. Italy was magnificent in everything and still is today."

Taylor reveled in the thought of being there with him, seeing herself with him. She would be draped in a gorgeous attire including the hoopskirt women wore at that time. She would be garnished in pearls and hanging from his arm.

"Still, my life went on and I learned a lot through the great times in history. The rest of my life is pretty boring. Came to the new world, settled here and went through old fashioned American life up until quite recently. I've acquired a lot of riches in my lifetime and am just now able to really put them to use. The modern world has opened so many doors for people, especially older vampires like myself. I do have to be careful what I get into however. Before long I will have to move on somewhere else and disappear off this grand map I am on now, passing Scottsdale Beer on to somebody else."

"You would just give up your life again? After everything you worked for!" Taylor couldn't believe her ears. Even after all of these years he was still going to give up the great life he had, just to be hidden for a while and come back later on in life with no one knowing who he used to be.

"I have to. People can't know that I'm going to live forever. I can only pay so many people to help erase my history. I screwed up by becoming head of the company, but luckily we are strictly local. I refuse to expand and currently that is agitating my employees. My board of directors wants me to move on with a plan to get larger, but I can't. If I do I can never start a new life. If I quit now then I can fade away and eventually they'll forget about me."

Taylor just shook her head. Everything he said made sense, but she hated that fact. She didn't want him to have to do that. It seemed like so much sacrifice that he had made just to save a kingdom way back when. Now he was stuck being a vampire and every life he tried to live had to be restarted every few years so that no one would catch on.

A thought struck her suddenly, what would happen if he had to move on? Would she go with him? An even better question began to come to mind. She would die without him and he would continue living. Should she just go along with that as if it was nothing?

Seth began to see the panic that was creeping across her face. "Honey, I know it's a lot to really think about, but there is plenty of time. I'm twenty-eight, currently playing as twenty-five. I can keep going until I'm supposed to be thirty-five and no one will notice. We've got ten years."

"I suppose", Taylor mumbled under her breath.

Seth sighed, swooping her up into his arms and carrying her to their room. "How could I convince you?", he smirked.

"I'm not sure you can", Taylor laughed, then realized how forced it sounded.

"Listen, don't think about it too much. The last thing you need is stress. We have time." With that they laid down in the bed together, snuggled tight.

Taylor fell asleep with dreams of her and Seth in a castle. A dragon was waiting outside and Seth ran to fight it recklessly. She ran after him, through the castle and it's maze like structure until she found him. He was staring up in horror at the dragon that now had him pinned to the ground, nearly ready to bite his head off.

It opened it's mouth wide, ready to snap. All Taylor could do was watch. Abrubtly she picked up the sword Seth had dropped and was prepared to fight when her alarm went off.

Sitting up in bed in a cold sweat had not been how she'd wanted to wake up, but then again the dream was weird and she needed to get away from it. Why was that what she had dreamed about? Of course it was knowing about Seth's history. Thoughts flooded her head again and she got out of bed, ready to begin her day. She only hoped that it helped her figure out what to do.