History Repeats Itself

Chapter 4 – Questions

Jade had seen Xander before he even stepped through the doorway. But that wasn’t going to stop her from feeding from the man who had offered himself up to her. Sure, he wasn’t her bite slave, but she didn’t need one. She had flown solo more times than others thought, and it was great. And she steered cleared of bite slaves, especially after the last one died on her, not that it was her fault. Unless you count the fact that she didn’t protect him like he needed to be protected.

So, without blinking, her eyes locked on the man who strolled in as if he had every right to be there, while her teeth sunk into the neck that was open and willing for her. Never had she dared to look at someone else when she was feeding. It was a good recipe to have something screw up. But it wasn’t the blood of the man she was feeding on that she wanted. So, after just a few pulls, she stopped. With her eyes still engaged with Xander’s, she ran her tongue over the wounds, making sure they closed before the man walked away.

And even from the distance, she noticed that he finally took a breath and continued walking over to her. She wiped away the blood that was still lingering on her lip as he neared, and her brow rose. She saw the anger, but she couldn’t explain why. However, it was thrilling for her, and she refused to understand that.

“Found me,” she told him, smirking.

“Is this a feeding haven?” Her eyes looked around and she shrugged.

“I guess one could call it that. It’s where vampires can go to meet humans safely, without damage happening to either one. If it’s just a feeding, great. A random f**k, even better.”

“Finding a bite slave, the icing on the cake?” She tilted her head before flicking her black hair over her shoulder.

“He told you about that?”

“It’s how he started. Do you know him?” Jade reached for her drink and nodded.

“I do. Marlene was a friend, is a friend, she’s still very much alive. But at the time that Dave was in the picture, I wasn’t around much. So, I can’t say there were a lot of parties we all attended as to where I would have really had to the chance to talk to him. But I did know he was a cop who really liked Marlene, but he was married.”

“You know a lot about him.” She shrugged again as if it wasn’t anything big. “Can we talk?”

“Want to talk to a bloodsucker?” He chuckled and closed in on her a bit more. When the hell did the massive room seem to close on her with that action?

“I want to talk to you.” Her finger ran around the rim of her glass before she gulped it back and sat it on the counter.

“Let’s go,” she told him, taking his arm and leading him out. “You’re not going to want to talk in there. Vampires don’t have horrible hearing.”

“Okay, so you’re real.” She chuckled and she made sure that her fangs showed. “I get the point.”

“Look, Xander, I’m not sure what more I can tell you that your boss didn’t share.”

“He gave me the rundown on bite slaves and said that Hollywood wasn’t right.” She stopped on the bridge and stared down at the water running below.

“We don’t f*****g glitter in the sun, we don’t burn up in churches, we don’t come from Judas Iscariot, but that was a f*****g brilliant idea. We don’t sleep in coffins, we don’t fly, exactly. We have good hearing, good eyesight, can jump a great distance, and can only die one of two ways. We sleep during the day, in whatever room we prefer in, but most of us have houses with blackout windows.

“We have a vampire council that is the elders of the vampire world. They make the rules, and they enforce the rules. We co-exist with humans, walk alongside them, and are very rarely known about. What else do you want to know?”

“That’s a lot of information.” Jade laughed as she glanced at him. “What’s the vampire council, exactly?”

“It’s a council that has ten members, and as you can imagine, they don’t change very often. They record the vampire history, each day. There are men and women who work for the council and are errand boys if you will. Then there are historians, such as myself, who do the recording and have access to the archives only for the time I have to write the event down.”

“All deaths are written there?”

“No, just significant ones.” She could read him, could figure out his next question before he asked, and that was unusual. She had no special abilities to be able to do that.

“What was so significant about that death?” Xander questioned.

“Good question, and that I can’t answer. As a historian, my job is to record fact for fact. I don’t ask questions to the elders, or questions to the ones who are relaying the information. In fact, if given an order from the council, it’s forbidden to question why. However, death by ice isn’t something we do. It’s a way of death, but not a common one. It’s certainly not how we murder our own, though it’s known of course. Our laws are in place and execution is by sunlight, usually at the dawn of a day.”

“And some of those laws would be what?”

“No needless death of a human or a vampire. No more than one bite slave. No blood banks unless it’s one you support. No lying to the council. Things like that. We don’t have many laws, but they are important.” Jade turned around and leaned her back against the railing, enjoying the breeze. She crossed her arms and glanced at him.

“I’m assuming they issue out a death warrant, right?” he asked.

“Correct.”

“Who performs it?”

“The council does. Amongst their lower ranks are…police, I guess for lack of a better term. They don’t patrol the streets like a cop does, but they do keep the peace within the vampire communities.”

“Where’s the council located?’ Jade smiled all the more at that.

“Washington, DC.” Xander swore and she couldn’t help but laugh even more. Talk about irony in so many ways.

“Okay, so it’s a distance away. Tell me more about this police vibe. Are there all a lot of them?” he asked, watching her. Her eyes locked with his and she slowly nodded.

“We’re all over, vampires I mean. If you could map it out, it would be like our homes are communities. We’re sections of many areas. And much like a cop would patrol certain areas, these men do the same. They keep us more in line, not that we stray off the beaten path too much. But there are times when vampires feed too long or expose themselves too much.

“Among the men in these areas, there are historians. It’s impossible for just a few of us to travel from place to place, so we pick a more centralized location and work out of that area. I know it’s hard to phantom, but though there are a lot of vampires, there’s still not nearly as many as you think.” She paused and tilted her head, trying to piece together what would make sense and not.

“Go on,” he urged her.

“We as historians work for the council, but we don’t talk to them. We know of them and have had questions asked of us, but there is no direct communication with them. Our orders come from an errand boy who works for the council and oversees the area as a mayor would for a town. And just like a mayor reports back to the president, in a line, so does our overseer. In truth, our vampire community, regardless of where we live, is run a lot like the country is. The States is just a way grander scale, although ours is way older.”

“That…makes sense. Why you’re not seen, or really heard of.” He pointed back to the bar as he turned to face her fully. “Are there lots of places like those?”

“A lot, actually.”

“And how do humans know about it? Because there were humans there.” She laughed at that.

“Word of mouth, much like anything else. We go there to feed, let loose, and get out of the mundane existence that is our life. Those bars, clubs, or places, are meant for the likes of us, not the likes of humans. Humans who go will know what they are going to see. Most come to find a vampire or to be bitten.”

“I see.” She smirked as she looked at him, taking him in once again. She could admit that having Xander be her bite slave was beyond enticing, but again, she didn’t do those anymore. She’d rather find some man, or on the rare occasion a woman, who was more than willing to offer up their blood. “If sunlight is the means of execution in your communities, why not a stake, like this?”

“It requires more skill to pierce the heart to get it to freeze. When a vampire dies and is reborn, our organs change and shift. The lungs die and the heart moves, there’s no protective organs around it anymore.” She played with her lips as she thought over the scene, having a vague memory but nothing beyond that. “For centuries, the only way has been sunlight. We literally burn to a crisp in moments. Ice isn’t nearly as fast, and it's way more painful. It’s as if the one killing is wanting the vampire to suffer. We’re not nearly as brute as that, trust me.”

“So, why did they send you out?” Her eyes sought his again and she almost took a step back at the tinge she felt.

“I don’t know, Xander, other than it’s not normal. But I can’t even begin to phantom why, or even how, someone would do that.”