Fanged Refrain- A Savage Songbird Novel

Going Through A Phase

Home, what a strange concept. Évariste was not referring to the little brownstone where I resided. No, he meant his home that was steeped in our line’s history. It was a place I had no real connection to and a place I had never been. Still, the link that connected us made it my home as well. I would be familiar with it soon enough. The boarding pass he emailed me was for the next day.

I let my feet remember the way while my mind was busy asking questions I couldn’t answer. While Évariste hadn’t ordered me to return and I could choose to ignore it. I wanted to know why. It had to be something pretty earth shaking for him to make such a phone call.

Our family was comprised of introverts. I had never met any of the others he had sired. There was never a need. I knew of their existence in the vaguest sense. There were four others and they were all much older than I was. Of course, they would be very gifted artists in some form or another.

Évariste had sworn long ago that he would only sire children if they made the world a more beautiful place. There was enough ugly in the world, especially when you threw vampires into the mix. He wanted to turn his curse into a blessing. I think most people who were morally just, when turned, find some sort of coping mechanism to protect their conscience.

As far as I knew, all of us were pretty self sufficient and low key. We stayed off the radar, didn’t get involved in vampire politics and remained unknown. I doubted the summons was due to one of us causing trouble. There wasn’t enough information for my imagination to fill in the blanks. I would have to wait till I arrived for answers.

Traveling by plane as a vampire isn’t easy, especially on international flights. Coordinating flight plans and layovers with sunshine and time zones was a nightmare. Fortunately, my boarding pass was for a private jet and I didn’t have to worry about all the math, tracking the sun’s path and potential.

There were also boarding passes for the cats, which created more questions. Apparently, they were invited as well. Did that mean that this was going to be a long trip? Were we actually moving home? Also, how did he know about them? I had never shared their existence. For all these years, had Évariste been keeping tabs on me? The idea of him watching over me felt invasive. Technically, he was my father, in a sense, but our relationship just didn’t seem that close. I use the term seem because I didn’t really know where I stood with Évariste.

Vampire relationships were different from human relationships so it was impossible to really compare. Time was important in human relationships; time spent together, time spent apart. When time was limited and precious, who you used it on was a good indicator of how close you were with other humans and how important they were to you. Vampires had infinite time, so it wasn’t necessary to fill it with loved ones because time would some day run out. I had only begun to exist beyond a human lifetime and my perception of time had only started to shift and adjust due to the longevity.

Based on the few vampires I have encountered, we tend to be pretty solitary in nature. Our thoughts, feelings and opinions are more internal than expressed. I am not exactly sure why, maybe a survival instinct. It could be that we spend so much time alone that our verbal communication skills deteriorate. Needless to say, we don’t typically express how we feel to others.

There is also the complexity of the situation between a sire and his child. Noone who actually should become a vampire would ever consent to being turned. Living off the blood of others in return for the loneliest form of immortality is not a prize a sane person wants. The first couple decades, I had a lot of anger. It felt very selfish that Évariste had taken my human life and replaced it with this.

Eventually, the anger subsided and I grew comfortable with who I was. I would never know if I would have been happier finding a husband and popping out some kids, given the role of women at the time. You can only be angry for so long over a lost future you weren’t sure was for you. By the time I had cooled off, Évariste had moved on to a different part of the world and we relied on phones to communicate. We had met twice since, at my fiftieth birthday and again at my hundredth.

Due to all these factors, I didn’t know how to define our relationship. By human standards we were not close and it could hardly be considered a relationship at all. Based on vampire standards, I had absolutely no clue. Apparently, we were close enough that he made an effort to keep himself informed on my life. I didn’t have time to waste psychoanalyzing things, I had to get my affairs in order and pack for a trip of an uncertain length.

I unlocked my door and collapsed onto the couch. My house wasn’t what you would expect. There is a certain freedom that comes with having a house no one ever visits. Interior decorating isn’t mandatory. Instead, I created a living space that I actually wanted to live in without any fear of ever being judged.

I had purchased my furniture based on comfort, so none of it matched. Currently, most of the walls were covered in pictures of K-Pop groups. I was going through a phase and had unleashed it on the surfaces of my house without restraint. I also had quite the collection of pillows and blankets. Who didn’t love curling up with blankets?

There were an obscene amount of cat trees scattered throughout the rooms while their toys littered the floor. I may have spoiled them. Seonghwa and Minho brought me joy and I wanted to return the favor. This obviously meant my house had been hijacked and became theirs. I had never intended on owning cats, but no one ever does.

Seonghwa was perched on the very highest surface he could find, like a queen. He lived his life as if at any moment someone was going to take a picture of him. His long black hair was always perfect from hours of self grooming and he had piercing lime green eyes. I won’t discuss the cost of the white lace, pearl and diamond collar that he absolutely needed.

Minho was my ginger demon. If there was a glass left unattended, he would knock it to the floor. He never came when he was called. Instead, you had to wait until he was ready to give you attention. Even then, he was just as likely to change his mind and bite you as he was to purr. I had no idea where he was hiding, which was terrifying. I had to equally spoil them, so around his neck was a little Gucci number. It was just a little way I connected him to his name sake.

I had a feeling I would have to rely on my vampire speed and reflexes to get Minho in a carrier for our little trip. I would worry about how I would accomplish that later. I had to figure out what to pack and also get a hold of Mutt about indefinitely running Speakeasy. Did I need someone to check on the house periodically? I don’t recommend spontaneously traveling to France with only a day’s notice.