Bride of Blood:: First Kiss Page 2

  Still on that night, a stranger was eyeing an even more evil character who would be his next victim. This was a monster much more dangerous than himself or Shannon’s boyfriend. Anton was able to read his thoughts, as he did all mortals with which he came into contact. It was the only way he could determine who amongst them were the worst of the worst and deserved to die. Mortals would always think things that they usually never would say out loud, giving away their evil hearts and intentions. Most mortals were good people, but there were still too many who did harm to those around them. Those were the ones that Anton and others of his clan selected as victims.

  For months, there had been a series of unsolved murders along Interstate 35. Prostitutes and female hitchhikers were being found dead on the side of the highway or in rest areas. While authorities had no idea who the killer was, they suspected that the killer must be a transient or a trucker. The press dubbed him The Interstate Killer, and he was sitting not fifty feet away from Anton.

  He looked like the average truck driver: large, with a beard and bad body odor. However, his mind kept racing as he stared intently at Shannon. Anton knew that the killer was thinking about how he could snatch Shannon, rape her, and then kill her. He kept telling himself that he would get away with it, as long as he was careful. It would be the perfect crime and she would be the best of his collection. He would occasionally glance over at Anton, and his thoughts would return to something else. It was almost as if he knew that his thoughts were being listened to. No, he wasn’t smart enough to figure that out. Anton had yet to meet any mortal who knew they were being hunted. The man’s obsession with Shannon was occupying his every thought. Anton was able to also see flashes of the other women and girls that he had killed over the years. Here was a piece of shit that had to be killed, Anton told himself. If given the chance and the right circumstances, he would have killed her it if Anton had not been there.

  The current owner of The Truckstop was a cheapskate. He refused to install cameras or hire security. He figured that nothing could possibly happen in a small town, even though they were just off the interstate. It made hunting easy for Anton, but unsafe for Shannon and the rest of the waitresses. What would happened to them if Anton ever moved on?

  The killer whose name was Carl Solis, subject of a long and violent rap sheet. He got up from his seat and prepared to go out to his rig to sleep for a few hours. His plan was to return later and snatch Shannon as she made her way to her car in the morning. Not exactly the best plan, but Anton was going to ruin it. Solis had started to get sloppy with the last few kills. He’d left victims in rest areas and along the sides of the highway where they were sure to be spotted. It was almost if he was asking to be caught. Anton would be the one to catch him. And there wouldn’t be a trial, a judge, or a lawyer, just an executioner.

  A few minutes after Solis got up, Anton followed him. They walked past the restrooms, the fuel desk, and out the front doors into the night. A steady snow had started to fall again, adding to the already high piles. Seasons in this part of the Midwest were always extremes. Winter was nothing but snow and cold, and lots of it. Summer was hot with lots of humidity. This winter had been extra rough, with snow drifts almost as tall as houses.

  Solis walked almost halfway to his truck when he felt that someone was following him. He turned around and saw the guy from inside. Anton’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail and was wearing a long, dark trench coat with a white and black scarf. He was staring at Solis and was smiling.

  Anton listened around for any signs of life. There were none. It was now or never. No witnesses. No one was going to miss this sick bastard.

  “What are you looking at, you…” before he could get the rest of the words out, Anton ran at him in the blink of an eye, and pinned him against his own semi. Anton covered the killer’s mouth and said, “Your life of murder ends tonight, you son of a bitch! You looked at the wrong waitress.”

  Before he could respond, Anton buried his fangs into the man’s neck. He struggled but was no match for Anton who held him with the strength of ten men. Solis’s stench filled Anton’s ultra-sensitive nostrils and made his eyes water, but he drank on. Since his diet consisted of truck stop and junk food his blood wasn’t appetizing but it was blood nonetheless. It was not necessary for a vampire totally drain a mortal of blood to be nourished, but Anton wanted this one dead. He knew that Carl’s death meant that he would save several innocent lives, so he wasn’t bothered. Whether he killed him or not it didn’t mean that Solis would become a vampire. Just getting bitten or even drained by a vampire did not mean a mortal would become one, too. That was one of the many things Hollywood got wrong. It was a long and arduous process to make a new vampire.

  Soon he stopped squirming and Anton could feel the last drops of the blood on his tongue. The heart stopped beating, so Anton let the corpse fall into the freshly fallen snow without a sound. Anton sat on the ground next to the corpse and let The Rush come. -Whenever vampires first feed, a great head-rush hits them as the newly acquired blood circulates through their bodies. Anton’s body shook and his eyes rolled back in his head. A great warmth came over him as The Rush passed.

  Anton stood up, his head felt a little woozy from the unhealthy blood. He shook the cobwebs out and listened again. Still, no sounds except for the falling snow. So he picked up the corpse and carried it over to the large dumpster. He lifted the lid and threw it in. Then he quickly buried it under the other trash. He smoothed himself off and closed the lid.

  He looked back at the killer’s semi. He knew that there was a sort of kill-room in the back part of the cab itself. Eventually his company would track the missing semi here. The police or the FBI would search it and be able to connect Solis to the murders, thanks to DNA evidence. He wouldn’t be missed, although they would wonder what happened to him.

  Anton brushed the snow off and lit a cigarette. He didn’t need to smoke as nicotine had no hold on his body. He had picked up the habit in the 50’s and again in the 90’s when everyone seemed to be doing it. Besides the smell of smoke would cover up any smell of garbage. He puffed on it and stared out across the parking lot. It was really almost dead that night. There were only two or three semis there and those guys were still in the restaurant. Anton thought about Shannon again. It saddened him that he was unable to help her or take her away from her current situation. Maybe she didn’t want to be rescued. Some abused people never are able to find the strength to leave. He’d seen it over and over again. Still, there was a chance that someday she would find the strength. He decided to put it out of his mind. He reminded himself that he couldn’t save everyone.

  After finishing the cigarette he walked back into the restaurant and returned to the seat. Shannon quickly refilled his coffee and sat at the table next to him with her own cup. She looked tired, but somewhat cheerful.

  She reached out and touched Anton’s hand. This time it was strangely warm as it usually was cold even with the coffee cup in it. She stared into his eyes and smiled at him. He returned her gaze and wished that he could take her home with him. Although vampires could not reproduce sexually, they could have sex. And Anton really wanted to have sex with her at that very moment.

  “Miss?” said a voice from across the room. Shannon groaned and got up from her seat. As she walked away Anton turned and looked at her small butt wiggle as she walked. He reached into his pocket and unrolled about ten singles and put them under his cold coffee cup.

  He hated to say goodbye to her, so he quickly walked out of the restaurant. He stopped at the cashier and paid for his coffee and a newspaper. Without a backward glance, he walked out the door and into the cold night air. He would be walking home that night, and a glance at his watch told him that he had plenty of time before daybreak. Still the flakes were falling harder and harder. The cold didn’t bother him at all, it never had, even when he’d been mortal. Still, it was a long walk. He set out in the direction of his home and disappeared into the darkness of the unlit st
reet.

  Chapter 2 Meet Alexander

  The night was cold and the air was crisp. Anton and Alexander sat on the roof of their home looking like two beautiful gargoyles. The two of them were striking against the almost darkness of the night and the drabness of the house they shared.

  Alexander was 150 years old although he appeared to be 19. He was made by Anton and was his devoted companion ever since. He was much taller than Anton, though he wasn’t skinny at all. His frame was heavily muscled. He didn’t have the usual pale skin that most vampires had; his was a normal flesh color, as he had been heavily tanned when he was made. His eyes were brown and had a strong sadness to them. His hair was blonde like Anton’s but slightly darker. His face was smooth and handsome, appearing as if it were never able to grow facial hair. He was also the last new vampire made by their order because Lady Bernadine had decreed that society was too dangerous and vampires were too easily detectable to stay hidden. She felt that there were too many of their number to make any more. Of course, only she knew exact number of “her children”. The Order of the Dragon had no such rules and their carelessness threatened to bring down the entire vampire society.

  Anton was out West in the 1880’s when he found Alexander naked, starving and half-dead on the prairies. In his mortal life, Alexander was known as Jesse, a name he despised. Upon his transformation, Anton christened him Alexander after his old friend Alexander Hamilton, whom he knew from his time on St. Croix.

  The Transformation wiped out quite a bit of Alexander’s memories of his mortal life. Anton glimpsed them right before and he thanked God that they were lost. Alexander’s family moved out west as so many had in the years after the Civil War. There were four of them in the family: Alexander, his parents and a baby sister. Somewhere out near Missouri, they were separated from their wagon train and got lost. In the ensuing months, both his mother and baby sister succumbed to the elements.

  Alexander’s father changed dramatically after that. He began to physically and sexually abuse Alexander. After one particularly bad episode, Alexander had enough and stabbed his father several times. He then left the hut where they had been staying. He simply ran out into the night without any plans at all, much less a horse or gun.

  After a few days wandering the prairie, he was dazed and confused when Anton found him. After The Transformation, he changed greatly. His body which had been gaunt and scarred became lean and flawless. His empty eyes became bright and shining. His hair doubled its length and lightened in color. But most of all, his memories from his mortal life were almost totally erased, which was not uncommon for anyone who had made The Transformation between mortal to immortal. All he could remember were shadows, but no real faces or memories.

  Sometimes though, he did suffer from mood swings and bouts of depression. He had a difficult time forming relationships with women. One particular female vampire named Rachael really liked him, but Alexander seemed incapable of taking their relationship past that of friendship. All that aside, he was deeply devoted to Anton and would defend him with his own life, if needed.

  Anton looked at Alexander. He loved him deeply, but worried about him. On that particular night Alexander cut his hair short. By the next night it will have grown back. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his hair long, which fell down past his shoulders, he just felt that he would fit in better sometimes. And fitting in was what that night was all about.

  They were going out for a night on the town. The destination was a local bar and grill called JR’s Place. Anton and JR were friends and they had an agreement about no killing on the property. All kinds of people came into his bar on Friday and Saturday nights. Some of them were evil with very dark secrets, which was just the kind that Anton and Alexander fed upon. Since the numbers of bad people in the world outweighed the number of good ones, it was a fair trade-off. Most of the time the evil people that they killed were not missed. Occasionally there would be an article in the paper or something on the news about missing people, but since those that they killed were usually criminals and dregs of society, the media attention usually died down pretty quickly.

  Anton pulled out his disposable cell phone and called their familiar, Rick Nash to pick them up. A familiar is a mortal who takes care of a vampire. They help them with properties, taxes, fake ID’s, birth certificates, college degrees, etc. In recent years their importance was more needed than ever before. In the past they were generally used to protect sleeping vampires or to provide them with a place to sleep and stay. In the modern world, vampires relied on familiars to help their masters to stay under the radar and to appear mortal.

  Rick, his father and his grandfather had all been Anton’s familiars. Soon Rick’s daughter, Chelsea would take over after Rick retired. A familiar was paid very well, much better than any regular job. Besides doing their tasks, it was important that they remember to be discreet and never question the vampires they serve.

  The only other mortals that vampires came to rely on were The Cleaners. Up until the last 15 years or so, disposing of a body was relatively easy. However because of DNA and new technology, it became necessary for some vampires to use their help. The Cleaners would arrive at a kill scene and take care of the disposal of the body and “clean up” all the evidence. They were also discreet and asked no questions. Anton usually did not require their help as he was quite good at body disposal.

  “Rick will be here in ten minutes; we’d better get to the end of the driveway,” Anton told Alexander, hanging up the phone. Alexander nodded as they jumped off the roof and prepared to leave.

  He stopped and looked at the house. A light was left on in Anton’s study. It was an oil lamp to keep from using electricity and creating a paper trail. Alexander twisted his fingers and suddenly the window went dark. Telekinesis was just one of his abilities.

  “Let’s go, then,” he said to Anton as he started off down the driveway. Anton nodded and followed.

  Their house was buried deep in an almost impenetrable wood. They had what was once a gravel driveway that led from the house to the road. It twisted and turned a few times so that the house couldn’t be seen from the road. At the end of the driveway was a gate with a huge padlock on it. There was also a “No Trespassing” sign posted by the gate although intruders never came. The county had been paid off and the taxes were paid at least 30 years in advance. Local townspeople never came near, and they encouraged outsiders to do the same. Even if a nosey mortal were to try to climb the fence or cut through the woods, they wouldn’t get too far. The entire property had a deep enchantment on it, and most mortals felt uneasy even if they drove past it. Rick and his family were the only mortals who dared to come near, as they were unaffected by the enchantment.

  The house itself was nothing special, although they were comfortable in it. It was white and had the look and feel of a farmhouse, except there was no farm and it was the only building on the property. On the ground level floor there was a kitchen that was only used when Rick and his family sometimes stayed over, a living room, a bathroom, and Anton’s study. The top floor had a bathroom and three bedrooms which were usually never occupied. The attic was stuffed full of things that Anton and Alexander had collected over the years.

  But the basement was the best place of all, where Anton and Alexander slept during the day. There was a door right off the kitchen that had been reinforced with steel and had several locks on it that could be locked from the inside. Then down a long flight of stairs there was the main room which contained more things that they had acquired. There was no carpeting, simply a cold concrete floor. The room just adjacent was The Coffin Room where they slept during the day. It also was reinforced with a steel door and three locks. The windows that had once been in that room had been bricked over. There were three coffins in the room: one for Anton, one for Alexander, and one for a guest vampire. There were several candelabras about the room, more for atmosphere than light since they could easily see in the dark. A thick, lush carpet was on this floor
, and the coffins themselves were placed on solid stone tables raising them several feet above the floor. It was the perfect home for a vampire, and since Anton had spent a good deal of his immortal life wandering and living in boarding houses and basement apartments, he enjoyed finally having a semi-permanent place to call home.

  Anton and Alexander jumped the gate and stood near the road and waited for Rick. Anton pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Alexander shook his head in disapproval.

  “Don’t you know that no one smokes anymore?” he asked.

  “Really?” Anton answered taking a deep drag, “since when?”

  “Since mortals learned that it can kill them. And besides, almost every restaurant and bar in the world is smoke-free these days.”

  “Damn,” Anton said dropping the cigarette and stomping it out. “I wish these damn mortals would make up their minds! It seems like only a few years ago everyone was smoking!”

  Within a few minutes Rick pulled up to them in his van. Anton and Alexander quickly got in. They sat in the back seat with Chelsea, Rick’s daughter. Anton whispered something to Rick’s wife Marcy, and she took the remaining cigarettes and a lighter from him.

  Chelsea looked and Alexander and smiled. She was 17 and thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. She was very beautiful and appeared very delicate with her high cheek bones and long dark hair. She looked much more like her father than her mother, except that she was super slim, and Rick was a large gentleman. She had always done well in school, specializing in business and accounting courses. She had no other ambition other than to be Anton’s familiar. It was a lifelong commitment that she was readily able to accept. But she was especially fond of Alexander who appeared to be right around her age. Alexander smiled back at her after reading her thoughts. She blushed and tried unsuccessfully to clear her mind for the rest of the trip.