“I don’t want to be a murderer,” I whispered, mostly to myself.
“But that’s what we are made for. We’re different though. A new race, a better race. We are The Guardians,” he proclaimed with pride. His stony eyes twinkled. “We’re as close to human as any species of vampire in the history of the islands. We’re not human though, and we never can be.
“Most vampires, they only kill. They’re barbaric animals and-”
I cut him off. “And we’re not? Don’t be so self-righteous, Aiden. I know what I did to that bear, and I know what you’re going to do to that man. We aren’t any better than anyone else.”
“But we are,” he tried to reason. “Dad knew what we were destined to become, and he wanted us to have real lives. An education, a home, a family. Human things.”
“Education?” Dad had told me that I was going to Mara for high school, but that was apparently just a cover-up for Aiden’s absence and to squelch my curiosity about the entire situation. He must’ve still expected me to go to high school on Luna-as a vampire.
“It certainly wasn’t my choice. We‘re going to go home since school starts pretty soon, but you’ve got to learn some things first.”
I snorted at him. What could he possibly teach me? I’m at the top of the food chain. Nothing can hurt me anymore. He ignored me and began to ‘teach.’
“We’re strong and fast, but you already knew that.” He stopped in mid-stride and turned back to me. His head was cocked to the side. He must have recently picked up that habit; I’d never seen him do it when we were human. “You do know that don’t you?” I narrowed my eyes. When would he stop being so absurd? I’d just killed a bear with my bare hands, and he asked me if I knew we were strong. Ridiculous.
“You’ll have to watch me hunt to see what we are capable of doing to humans since we’ll be in close contact with them shortly.”
“I refuse to be witness to a murder and not do anything to stop it!“
“If it even looks like you’ll try to stop me or run away, I’ll rip off your legs before you know what happened,” Aiden said, his teeth bared and slightly pointed.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I said.
“Try me, Asha.” That’s when I realized that I didn’t know what this new version of Aiden was capable of. A chill ran up my spine when I realized that he would have ripped off my feet with nearly no hesitation. With a sniff of mock indifference, I stood still and watched him hunt.
He leaned down and whispered something in the destitute man’s ear. The man then laughed aloud, a deep, throaty sound. “Get them to trust you first in any way you can. Feed them, pet them, act submissive, anything. It’s true for humans and animals.” His eyes flicked to the man. “Once you gain their trust, its easier to kill them.” His voice had taken on an odd quality, but I couldn’t pinpoint what was different.
I looked to the man-I refused to think of him as food until Aiden was drinking-to see if he was bothered by that statement. The content look on his face made me think that either he hadn’t heard Aiden or he didn’t understand that we were talking about him.
“Don’t talk about him like he isn’t there,” I said. How can he be so insensitive?
“He can’t hear me. I pushed the pitch of my voice too low. It probably sounds like a faint whale song to him or something. I don't know. The whales are particularly loud in the fall, so it wouldn’t be odd to hear them even at this distance. Try it.” I did, but my voice couldn’t drop that low. So I threw it up higher than the highest falsetto I’d ever heard.
“Like this?” I asked, my voice still incredibly high. Oddly enough, we could both understand my words with no problem.
“Exactly.” He walked over to his ‘friend’ and grabbed his hand. With a malicious smile and a swift twitch of his wrist, he ripped off the unsuspecting man’s arm. “Now that you’ve seen our strength, I’m going to go eat breakfast.” I thought he would’ve taught me something about how much effort it took but it seemed like his thirst was getting to him. His breathing was getting quicker and shallower the longer he waited to drink.
When I nodded my assent-I couldn’t deny him what I was thirsting for too-he went over and began licking at his ‘breakfast’s’ stump of an arm. Even if I had told him not to, he would have done it anyway, and I turned away when Aiden moved for his throat. I heard his teeth unsheathe then the sound of flesh being punctured and dripping blood. I could hear him slurping it into his eager mouth, and to my utter disgust, I began to drool.
When the noises stopped and my face was dried, I found my voice. “Are you finished?” I asked, my voice filled with revulsion.
“Look,” he demanded, pulling out a small lighter. On the side, there was an engraving that said ‘Exuro totus testimonium.’ He burned the body, the smell of burning flesh like miasma in the air. He handed me an exact twin of his lighter. “It means ‘Burn all evidence.’ Dad was so dramatic.” I winced at his easy use of the past tense.
“Can we go home, Aiden? I’m just so…” thirsty, I added mentally. Maybe I’ll find something on the way home.
“I forgot to tell you. School starts tomorrow.” I turned south towards home, but he turned north towards the lake.
“That’s the wrong way,” I said, wondering at how easy it was to tease him when we were human. I desperately wanted us to fall back into that pattern. Hopefully, all my high-strung emotions would fade and we would feel that bubbly sibling affection that I’d felt when we were human. When we were human, I thought wistfully. If only we could go back to that nearly perfect time.
Even though my sense of direction had been knocked atilt, I was sure that the house wasn’t any closer to the lake. The smell of the fresh water tickled my nose and the crashing waves pushed at my ears even though we were a few miles away from the coast.
“New life, new home,” he said with no inflection. Who is he? I asked myself. It felt like one too many times that I questioned him and who he was. At least I felt like the same person.
“Aiden, why aren’t you talking to me?”
“I’m talking to you right now,” he said. Instantly, I regretted bringing up his behavior. If he was going to act that way, then I didn’t want to talk to him either.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” He kept walking, his mouth fixed into a firm line. “Why do humans smell that way to me?” I asked after a long silence filled with only our footfalls muted by the dewy grass.
“Every vampire is different. I like human blood, and you like animal blood. That doesn’t mean that human blood won’t attract you when you’re thirsty, though.” We walked in silence as we neared the edge of the forest. It was neither awkward nor comfortable, but it felt stifling to me. I continuously tugged on my shirt in an effort to get the feeling off of me; Aiden didn’t seem to be affected at all.
When we reached the end of the trees, white fluffy clouds spread across the sky, but sunlight was still able to peak through and warm the ground. As I was about to stick my foot out of the shadows-I was yearning for that heat on my skin-, Aiden wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and threw me to the ground beside him. It didn’t hurt like I was expecting it to, but it was still unnecessarily rude.
“What-”
“One more lesson for today,” he said, interrupting me. “Stay out of the sun.”
“What?” There could be no greater torture than staying in shadows after living my human life in a world of eternal warmth and sunshine.
“We’re vampires. If you don’t want to listen to me, then go ahead.” He lifted me up and motioned me forward.
“What’ll happen if I do?” I wouldn’t do it since he’d told me not to. Besides, he’d been a vampire for a year; he had to know what he was talking about.
“It burns like hellfire. And someone will figure out what we are once they see you in the sun. White will reflect the light, and you’ll be safe for about two hours.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “No shield can last forever.”
“Everything’s changing,” I said, shaking my head.
“Things change. The world changes. Immortals don’t. We can’t; we’re ageless. The only constant in this world is death. And we bring it.” I looked at him warily. He just shrugged off the tense subject and guided us home.
