A Fatal Attraction

I was sitting against a tree, in the forest when I heard sounds of dry leaves crunching behind me. I didn’t need to look to know that it was Lillian. She rarely came into the forest at all, once in a great while, she would venture into the woods if I was here. She never interrupted my peace and quiet unless something was wrong, because she knew very well that my being in the woods meant that I wanted some alone time

What are you doing here, dear sister? Lillian immediately looked in my direction.

“Aiden. Aiden, you must come quickly. There is a boy. He is…” She trailed off, breathless, even though we technically didn’t need to breathe. Seeing the panic and fear in her eyes, I was by her side in half a second. She was wide-eyed and jittery.

Take me there, I demanded. If tears could have come from her eyes, they would have. Lillian is the most compassionate person I know, if we can be considered persons still.

She hesitated for a moment, then grabbed a hold of my left hand, and led me alongside her as she ran towards where she saw this mysterious boy. It was about thirty seconds later when we almost reached the end of the woods, where the boy lay – or rather a man. He looked too old to be a boy. He laid there limp, not moving and barely breathing.

“Aiden! Do something. He is dying! Help him.” Lillian was screaming at me, but I couldn’t comprehend what she was saying, for I was distracted by the beauty of the broken man on the ground. Hidden by the cuts and bruises was a fair-skinned male about 17 years old. His midnight black hair was a bit tousled, but it was beautiful. His face was absolutely gorgeous. Beneath the brutal pain, everything about him was immaculate. Everything was perfect, even his scent; especially his scent. A little cologne, a little sweat, added with his natural human scent made him smell tremendously good.

I picked him up into my arms and he was light, as though he were a feather. I began running towards my house, with Lillian following. He needed to get cleaned up and staying in the forest wasn’t going to do anything for him.

Once I made it to my house I set him gently onto the sofa and asked Lillian to get a cold washcloth so I could clean up the wounds. The wounds looked like stabbings, so whoever had done this liked to fight with weapons. I sat next to him on the beige carpet.

Wait until I get a hold of you and see what kind of weapon you’ll be using then, I thought to myself. I didn’t like who had done this to him. He was an innocent human and no one had any right to lay a hand or a knife on him.

“Here,” Lillian said her voice hard and scared sounding. With the washcloth she handed me, I gently started cleaning the wounds with it. The man winced when it touched the gash on his arm, so I knew he was semiconscious, which was a good sign. That meant that I have a good chance to save him. Her hand lingered a bit longer near me and she asked, “Is he going to be all right, Aiden?”

“Yes, dear, Lillian. He is going to be perfect again.” A smile started pulling at the edges of my mouth and that made Lillian smile. The words sank into her brain for a moment, and then her smile showed hints of confusion.

She moved her hand and walked out of the room in an unhurried pace, but a human wouldn’t have notice her leave. I was thankful that Lillian and I had hunted last night, because if we hadn’t we would be hunting with the rest of my family and the man would not have had a chance to live. Besides, if Jamien had been here, he probably would have been pissed off at me for bringing a human into our home. He hated them more than anything. I still wondered why. Had he forgotten that he was one at one point in time? That was a long time ago, so I guess he had forgotten, but I will never forget my life as a human.

After the last of his bloody wounds were cleaned, I began to stitch and bandage them for him - something I was taught during my centuries of being “alive.”

The stitching and bandaging process took about five minutes since the patient is half-way unconscious. I put my hand carefully against his cheek and slowly traced his face with my finger. Afterward, I did what any normal person would do - mouth-to-mouth. It created a foreign feeling throughout my body when I pressed my lips to his. I didn’t know if mouth-to-mouth would work, since I didn’t really have any air in my lungs but air seemed to fill his lungs pretty well, so it must’ve worked. His body twitched a little first then he coughed jaggedly and forcefully.

I jumped to my feet and screamed, “Lillian!” Excitement rose inside me. I had really saved him!

Down came Lillian in no time, staring in amazement at the man who was now waking up and was looking a lot better than he had when she left the room.

He blinked a few times to fully wake himself then stared at Lillian and myself. He looked around the room, obviously scared and confused. I took my place on the floor again next to him, again. Lillian spoke before I was given the chance.

“How are you feeling?” She whispered. He didn’t know what to say, since he was still in shock of how quickly she had moved.

Lillian, I thought. He doesn’t know about us. Try to act like a human, okay?

Noticing the plain fear in his eyes, she said, “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Would you like a glass of water?” He nodded slightly and she walked into the kitchen, slowly enough to pretend to be a human, but she still made no noise in the kitchen. It was a natural habit for her, since she doesn’t have to act human in a house full of vampires.

Lillian. Make a little believable noise, I thought to Lillian as I said, “May I know your name?”

From the kitchen, I heard Lillian create a little more noise. The man on the sofa sat up, pained noises escaping his throat, but sure enough he answered, “Tristan.”

His name was beautiful too. Tristan; the name of a medieval warrior who fell in love with his uncle’s bride, Isolde from drinking a love potion. I had known him personally before I was a vampire. Although the man wasn’t a very pleasant person, I admired his work.

“You have a very nice name,” I commented. The corners of his mouth curved into a smile so gorgeous it gave me the sudden urge to kiss him. Of course I didn’t, but I wanted to more than anything at that moment.

Tristan looked up to where Lillian was walking into the room as slowly as she could to keep him believing that she was human. It must have been hard for him to think she and I were human since neither of us looked human at all. Even our eyes were different from human eyes. My eyes - they were blue but the blue was unlike anything anyone - meaning humans - had ever seen. They were a very light blue, almost white. What made them so different was that the color around the pupil was a very dark blue; almost black. Tristan’s eyes were a gorgeous emerald green. I had always favored green eyes to any other eye color, but I couldn’t even explain the intense beauty of his eyes.

Tristan took the cup of water that Lillian offered, and Lillian sat next to me on the floor. He was clumsy with the cup from the near-death experience. I still wanted to know what had happened out there, but I wasn’t going to pry into an uncomfortable conversation.

“Can I ask you what your name is?” Tristan’s voice startled me, but I barely moved.

“Of course, my name is Aiden. And this is Lillian. She is the one who brought me to you.” I pointed at Lillian who waved her thin hand in the air and Tristan smiled politely.

“Thank you. For doing whatever it is that you did to save me. You don’t know how much it means to me.” Tristan leaned over; arms stretched out and gave me a hug. I returned the hug and it lasted all of three seconds.

“You’re welcome,” I smiled casually. He smiled back. “Would you like anything to eat? We don’t have much, we still have to go shopping, but we do have a little bit that you could eat.”

“No, thank you.” He politely declined my offer as he stared around the room. He seemed to be amazed by the ancient artifacts that completed the living room. His attention was fixed on a piece that I had painted during my human life.

“What is that?” He pointed to a painting on the wall.

“It is just a painting that I drew a long time ago, nothing special.” It wasn’t all a lie. It was in fact a painting, but it was something very special. It was a painting of my younger sister, Imera. It and her favorite doll were the only things I had in memory of my sister. For my parents, I had my mother’s wedding ring and the necklace my father had gotten from my father had gotten from his great grandfather.

“Who is the little girl that was painted in the picture?” Tristan asked, observing every detail and feature of the painting.

I looked up at the painting and said, “She was a girl I knew very well. Her name was Imera. I cared dearly for her.”

Tristan’s eyebrow furrowed for a second then relaxed. “What do you mean; she was a girl you knew very well?” His question surprised me and sent a shooting pain through my body.

“Unfortunately, she passed away a few days after I painted that of her.” It was the truth; I had painted it days before the death of my family.

“Well, it is truly amazing. You have a lot of talent.” He was clearly trying to avoid making things uncomfortable. He took his eyes off the painting to finish examining the rest of the room.

I grinned slightly and whispered, “Thank you.” Tristan smiled the same gorgeous smile he had before, but this time I wasn’t so tempted to kiss him. I took my eyes away from Tristan’s tempting smile and glanced over at Lillian who was taking in the realness of the painting of Imera. Feeling my eyes on her, Lillian turned her stare towards me, then to Tristan.

“I have to go into my room, if you would like to come, you are welcome to,” I offered. The look in Tristan’s eyes was difficult to interpret, but I swear there was excitement shining brightly in them.

Standing up, I took his hand and helped him get off the couch. He stumbled trying to walk up the stairs. We made it to my room and he flopped into the chair. Even sloppily sprawled in the chair, he was still gorgeous. While he rested slightly in the chair, I straightened some of the things in my room, so I didn’t look so much like a slob. My room wasn’t normally messy, but I hadn’t had much time to clean it.

“Wow,” he said, straightening his body in the chair. “Your room likes very similar to your living room - filled with many ancient, mysterious things.”

I followed his gaze to my collection of ancient books; each in perfect condition. His gaze wandered around the room, wide in amazement. My room was filled with the things I’d collected over the many years I’ve spent here.

Tristan stood up, without any trouble this time and walked around the room, looking at almost everything he walked by. He picked up my mother’s wedding ring and intently stared at it. “Why do you have a wedding ring with the letters K L S in it? Did you murder a married woman and steal her wedding ring?” He laughed and I joined in the laughter.

“It was given to me,” I said. He placed it back on the dresser where he had picked it up, then turned to me. It looked as though he was going to say something, but he was interrupted by Lillian bursting through the door.

“Aiden! They’re coming back now. They are almost home. He has to leave. Now.” Lillian’s frightened face was the only thing I could picture in my mind as I pulled Tristan onto my back and raced downstairs towards woods, before Tristan could even think of objecting. Lillian ran side-by-side with me.

We were into the forest within minutes. Tristan had no clue about what was going on. I had forgotten that Tristan knew nothing of me or my kind and in that moment, my whole body filled with shame and guilt. Clearly, Tristan had noticed that I moved much too fast to be a mortal. He couldn’t even stand up straight - probably nauseous from having moved so quickly.

I looked over to Tristan who had stumbled over to a big oak tree for support. The look on his face was almost indescribable. It was horror-struck. He was, in fact, scared of me. Or terrified should I say. I didn’t know what to say to him to make the petrified look on his face disappear. I would have done anything for him to be able to understand and know the truth. Unfortunately, by the Kalibary law, I was unable to tell any human of my nature.

Curse the damned Kalibary law! Curse the Kalibary Clan who made it! Screaming at myself was the most I could do in this situation. Lillian stared at me wondering what I was thinking about and Tristan… Tristan was staring at me wondering what the hell just happened. I collapsed, faster than a speeding bullet, only Lillian and I actually noticed the movements. Tristan only saw the last movement, when I placed my face into my hands not knowing what to say. I hated myself for being so careless.

“I have to go talk to Jamien.” Before anyone could say anything, Lillian was out of the woods in a minute. I could have caught her, if I wanted to, but I had nothing to say to her or Tristan, who was still in utter shock.

“Tristan,” I exhaled his name. “Tristan, I am sorry. It isn’t that bad.”

Tristan opened his mouth for a moment as if to speak then quickly closed it. I didn’t expect him to know what to say. After all, he had just ran faster than the speed of light, by someone - or something - that save his life, as for how he was saved, he didn’t know. I waited a little longer to see if Tristan was going to say anything else. When he didn’t, I looked up at him to see him staring at me with those gorgeous green eyes of his. He really didn’t understand that I couldn’t tell him what happened back there, but he also didn’t understand how much I wanted to tell him.

If I told him the truth, told him that I was a vampire and that my family belonged to the Anixo clan, it would surely drive him off. Not to mention what the ancestors would do if they ever found out. We didn’t see much of the Anixo clan, but that was who we were and we followed the rules that the ancestors made for us, which meant I could never tell Tristan the truth because he was human and he would supposedly be a plausible threat to me and my clan or any other of the clans.

“I. Should. Go.” Tristan spoke one word sentences which didn’t surprise me, because he had just been scared out of his mind. Nothing else was said and Tristan walked slowly away from me. His movements were jerky almost forced as if he didn’t want to leave. That, I didn’t understand.

Tristan was now out of my sight, but I felt no urge to move. I was as motionless as a statue when Jamien came into the woods. “I knew I would find you here.” Jamien said smugly.

What are you doing here? I grimly asked him. From the look in his eyes, he didn’t know about my encounter with Tristan.

“What? You can’t talk to me now?” Jamien envied the fact that I did not need to speak to communicate.

No. Leave me alone. I demanded

Jamien didn’t say anything for a moment. Instead, he sat down in front of me. He looked at me curiously and asked, “What did I do now?”

I looked at him apologetically. In truth, he did nothing. I did. I had scared away Tristan who would probably never talk to me again.

“You have done nothing, Jamien. I did.” I shook my head, ashamed.

“What did you do?” His voice lowered. Confusion veiled in his voice and his expression.

“Dear, brother, I ask you to leave me alone.” I spoke calmly. It even surprised me. But, Jamien did as I asked. He walked away, never once looking back - disappearing into the trees as he went back to the house.

I rose to my feet and punched the tree, with a loud cracking sound. The tree split down the middle and fell to the ground. I was still upset with myself, because Tristan was gone and there was nothing more that I could do about it. I walked swiftly to my house, after Jamien. What I wanted now was to be in my room. I would read, as I always did when I was upset. It was my greatest escape.

My room was exactly the way it was when I left it earlier. I ungracefully fell onto my bed. I picked up the book from my nightstand, called “A Lovely Nightmare.” I had already read the book many times before, but I didn’t feel like moving from my bed so I began reading it anyway. The book was written by a mortal and it was their point of view about vampires. It was always interesting to know what they knew about us. Or what they thought they knew. The story was about a girl who was attacked by a vampire, who ended up being the person she loved more than anything. It made no sense, but it was interesting, in the least.

Obviously, they write from myth and legend. Vampires do not turn into to ash or stone from contact with the scorching sun. Granted, it hurts our eyes and sends tingly burning sensations through our body, but we can live through the world like any human. We don’t burn with contact of holy water. And we aren’t allergic to garlic or anything like that. We also still have a reflection in the mirror. The differences are that we have no heartbeat, we are immortal, we drink blood in replacement of regular food, our senses are increased and strengthen, and we sometimes acquire special abilities like my telepathy.

There was a delicate knock at the door. I knew who it was; it was Adrina, the closest person
I have to a mother now. She always knocked softer than everyone else.

Yes mother? I whispered to her. She walked into my room, closing the door soundlessly behind her.

“Aiden, what’s wrong?” She sat at the end of my bed. The softness in her eyes always comforted me.

“Mother,” I sighed, “I think I may have really screwed up this time.”

“I know.” She sighed. “Lillian told me. She said you were really upset with yourself. It will be okay.” She said that it will be okay, but she doesn’t even know what ‘it’ is.

I didn’t know what to say to her, so I turned my attention back to my book. Once she realized there was nothing more to discuss, she left without another word. What could I say? That I have inexplicably fallen in love with a mortal who I had met less than two hours ago, who just so happens to be a man. I have never mentioned my sexual orientation to my family, because they didn’t approve of gay relationships. Most likely Lillian would be the only accepting one. Even, if she was accepting of my desired lifestyle, I wouldn’t tell her until I knew I found the right person that I want to spend my life with.