“It’s a long, depressing story.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about it.
“Well, then tell me something good about how you ended up here.”
My new riding companion could ask to hear something good all he wanted, but my tale would continually disappoint until today. Unaware of why, I wanted to share my good fortune with Solomon. “Something incredible happened to me this afternoon and I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around it, but I’ve been unsuccessful thus far.”
“Did you find a senorita to tickle your fancy, or what? Come off of it, dude. I need some incredible in my life, so what happened?”
Most would be jealous of my good fortune and wouldn’t press me to tell them about anything that brought happiness to my existence. This wasn’t really the kind of story I could just jump into. “How much time do you have?”
“Are you kidding? How much time do I have? I think you know I have forever,” he laughed.
Solomon was pleasant company and I began to see his offer of a ride was out of the goodness of his heart, an act I had never seen that in selfish beasts like us. He was different, almost human in his actions.
I considered how different he was from the evil fiends I had known and wondered if he could be the someone I needed to help figure out what had happened to me. “Actually, I would love for you to help me figure things out because I’m hoping you know something I don’t know.”
The only way to tell this story was to start from the beginning, the day Marsala entered my life. Only minutes into the story, I saw sympathy across his face and he was horrified by the depth of evil inflicted upon me by Marsala. I had not put a dent in my story when we reached the ferry at La Paz, so I paused, knowing we had arrived at our destination.
He pointed toward a small cruise ship and said, “That’s the ferry that will take us to Mazatlan.”
It was then that I remembered I didn’t have a dime on me. I had enough money for lifetimes to come, but it was useless without access. It was humiliating and I had no choice but to tell him, “I don’t have money for the ferry because I walked away from everything I had.”
“No worries because I’ve got you covered. You know our lifestyles and money is no problem.”
“I can pay you back, but I don’t know when.”
“I’m not worried about a few bucks. Just don’t forget where to pick up with the rest of your story because I want to hear everything. I’m certain something incredible did happen if you are free of Marsala, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here now.”
The ferry ride was long, giving me the time I needed to tell the complicated story of my last 139 years. When I concluded my story with the events of the afternoon, he sat motionless, staring at me. The confusion was apparent on his face and he looked like he was waiting for the punchline. “So, you walked in the sun today, and you weren’t burned at all?”
I looked him straight in the eyes, conveying my honesty, when I answered, “I did, and no, I wasn’t burned at all.”
He looked at me curiously. “Can you do it again?”
I put my raised palms up in the air and shook them as I answered, “I have no idea.”
Solomon stood and began to pace a small path in the tiny room we shared on the ferry. “Do you think your ability to walk in sunlight was associated with the supernatural event of the eclipse?”
“If it was, why me? Why not someone more deserving? I don’t get it.”
He hesitated for a moment. “I have a suspicion.”
I looked at him, waiting to hear his explanation. “Let’s hear it, I’m dying here.”
“It sounds like your deranged maker hacked off the gods so your release was her punishment. I studied many years with a mentor. His name is Sebastian and he is the wisest vampire I have ever known. He has taught me more about the power of the gods than I would want to know in five lifetimes and the most stressed lessons were always the same. First, never anger the gods and second, there is a reason for everything. The gods always have a plan and one action leads to another, so there is a reason you were able to walk in sunlight today and there is a reason I stopped to offer you a ride.”
I pounded my fist against the armrest of the chair I occupied and said, “But I need to know now.”
He was amused by my impatience. “All of your questions will be answered in good time, when the gods want them revealed, so you might as well stop worrying about it because it’s going to get you nowhere fast.”
My frustration was growing and I said, “I know nothing of gods, goddesses, and titans. She never told me anything about such things.”
“Looks like she kept you in the dark a lot, no punt intended,” he laughed. “She made sure you were screwed if you ever got away, my friend. She should have been showing you the ropes, but she used your lack of knowledge as a form of control. She might have been your captor, but she placed herself in a very pivotal place as your protector and now that you are without her protection, you’ve got to put it in reverse and learn it all from the beginning if you want to survive.”
“How do I learn all the things Marsala didn’t teach me? It’s been so many years, is it too late for me?”
“I can teach you if you’ll let me, but you’ll be my first, so I guess that makes me your surrogate maker. Forget I said that because it sounded too weird. Let’s just stick with mentor.”
I guess that meant he had never changed anyone, so he wasn’t a sire. “I’ll agree to the mentor thing.”
“We should find a safe place to stay when the ferry lands. Mexican deserts are a bitch, even for humans, and dawn will be creeping up just after we land.”
It was my turn to question him. “Solomon, how old are you?”
He didn’t hesitate in answering, “I’m almost 300 and I’ve been a vampire for 274 of those years.”
I thought he looked close to my age. “So, you were 25 when you were changed?”
He began laughing as he answered, “Forever confined as a 25 year-old, every man with erectile dysfunction’s dream.”
His sense of humor was strange, making me more curious about him. I couldn’t help but ask, “Was it your choice?”
His humor left and he took a deep breath, causing me to regret my decision to question him, but he answered, “No, it wasn’t my choice, but my circumstances were different from yours. You were changed by a possessive woman, hell-bent on having you and her possessiveness created an unusually strong bond with you. Most aren’t like that.”
“Forgive me. I feel so ignorant because I don’t even know if I’m being rude by asking.”
“You will learn all you need to know, but it will take time. My bond was different because my brother was my maker. He was changed by his lover, who later abandoned him, and he was lonely and missed our companionship. It was a selfish act, but it wasn’t out of malice. It was out of brotherly love, and it took years, but I forgave him.”
“I don’t understand how you could forgive him. I would hate him,” I confessed.
There was such kindness in his eyes and it was so foreign to me. “That’s the vampire in you speaking because hate is the one lesson you were taught well. I spent too many years hating. It is exhausting and it leaves a terribly bitter taste, so I decided it was time to forgive my brother. He didn’t have to ask for forgiveness because it was my decision that he didn’t have to pay anymore. The only regret I have is that I didn’t forgive him sooner.”
I wondered if he had any contact with his brother. “Do you have a relationship with your brother?”
“I do. I love him very much and he is my best friend.”
I thought about my brother and how different my feelings were toward him. “I had a brother years ago. His name was Sully.”
“Then, I know you understand the bond between brothers.”
I shook my head, thinking of my feelings toward Sully. “I use to, but not anymore.”
“What happened?” Solomon asked.
“It’s his fault I was changed into thi
s. He introduced Marsala into my life when he knew what she was. He blamed me for her obsession with me and the only thing I did was refuse her advances toward me.”