Fallen (Fallen 1)

“Donated blood?” I gulped. Picturing some underground cult where humans and vampires co-mingled and gave blood willingly.

“Yes, you know how people can donate blood to the Red Cross. We vampires can buy it.”

“Oh. I thought you meant people willingly sacrificed themselves, for your thirst.”

“No, sciocco,” he said and I could tell he was trying to hide a laugh.

“So, who turned you into a vampire?”

/> “My uncle Patrick. My family and I were dying of the black plague. My father had gotten it first. Then my mother, Diana, Joseph, and lastly I caught the plague. As soon as my father caught the plague we were quarantined. Patrick caught word that we were dying and came to ‘save’ us. We thought my father was already dead but his heart was still faintly beating. He turned us and brought us back here. At the time we lived a few miles south of Rome.”

I let this entire explanation sink in.

“So, how come you don’t have red eyes?”

“Myth that humans made up to feel safer. If we get too hungry our eyes turn black. But no matter what we drink they’re always silver.”

I decided to ask a question I had been pondering over.

“I thought your parents were murdered.”

“They were not too long ago,” he said with a haunted look.

“I thought nothing could kill a vampire?”

“A stake of any kind through the heart paralyzes us. Bullets wound but don’t maim us. Fire is the only sure way to kill a vampire and that’s what happened to them.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It was.”

“I know this is a silly question but I have to ask…” I blushed before continuing. “Can you turn into a bat?”

“No, but I can fly, kind of. It’s a really weird way of travel it’s more like jumping really high and really fast. It’s not the most convenient way to travel for risk of being spotted. So, vampires can also run fast and jump from super high places without getting hurt.”

“How come your tattoo means, ‘possessor of fire,’ shouldn’t you be afraid of fire?”

“Yes, all vampires are afraid of fire. But all vampires also have a unique power. Some more extraordinary than others. Your power is determined by a tattoo of sorts it’s really more like a birthmark. The mark doesn’t fully appear until several days after you wake up from being created. To a human the mark looks like a tattoo. I have the power to conjure fire. Some vampires never get a mark. But most do. My sister Diana has the power to control water. My mother, Katherine, had the power to grow things. Joseph has the power of illusions. Patrick has the ability to control technology. That’s probably why he’s become an inventor of sorts. His wife Amelia has the power of severe patience, not one of the most spectacular powers but helpful nonetheless. Mason, one of Patrick and Amelia’s twin sons, has the power of temptation. He can make you do horrible things and pretty much anything he wants. But he’s never tried it to its extent, so we don’t know how potent his power may be. Danny the other of Patrick and Amelia’s twins has the power of enchantment. Similar to temptation but used in a good way instead of bad. He uses his power with almost all the girls at school. They all follow him around like a lost dog. My father, Baron, had the power to control the weather. He didn’t use it much. But if this garden needed rain or sun he’d make it happen. It’s the only time I know of him using his power. My mother grew this very garden with her power.”

“You said Patrick and Amelia had twins. How is that possible?”

“Vampire men can have a child with human women. And that child becomes a vampire-human hybrid also known as a dhampir. However a vampire woman can have a child to. But that only happens every several hundred years. It’s really rare. In all the years I’ve been a vampire it’s never happened.”

“How can you stand sitting next to me? Don’t you want my blood?” I choked out.

“It’s hard to explain. But every vampire has a soul mate. Amelia is Patrick’s soul mate. And you are mine.”

“What?” I said startled. First, vampires and now this? Jonathon and I soul mates? But then again that explained my reactions to his touch, to his kiss, to his very presence. It explained how I could understand this so easy, why I wasn’t freaking out. It also explained why I had been drawn to him from the very beginning. Maybe that day when he held my hand in the car, and I had those visions, maybe they were trying to tell me something.

“Yes, we are.”

“Is that what the spark was about?” I asked referring to our kiss. I couldn’t help putting my fingers to my lips.

“Yes, a conformation so to speak. I was so drawn to you; I’ve never felt like that before, so I was pretty positive that I had found you. My soul mate. After all these years I finally found you,” he said with the happiest expression I had ever seen. His glowed and his smile was blinding.

“I seemed connected to you too. There is something about you I find fascinating,” I said not being able to help myself.

“Yes, well to answer your earlier question, I can’t smell your blood. Therefore I have no desire to suck your blood. It’s a struggle every day of my existence; the smell of blood, that is. It’s hard to learn control. Harder for some more than others. But when the taxi drove by the day you arrived I suspected I had finally found my soul mate. I could clearly see three figures but I could only smell two. Joseph, my brother, was outside with me, he could smell all of you but I couldn’t.”