The Pathological Part
The Pathological Part I always preyed on the most vulnerable class of mortals. No, I’m not talking about the friendless or widowed ones. I mean those rare beautiful women whose self-esteem had been so damaged that they avoided most people by day. The obscure kind. This type preferred to explore the world as it slept. They felt safe roaming at night, almost always alone, far from the high-strung bustle of diurnal status-quo keepers. I always knew where to find one of that type. No, I wouldn’t bite this prey. Instead, I’d earn her trust. Then use her to unwittingly lure one of my adversaries, or unknowingly deliver something for me. Occasionally they’d be killed by my enemy. Oh well.There was one, though, who I’d hoped wouldn’t be killed. I almost rescued her, in fact. I remember the night I found her in the park. She seemed a regular gal, just the kind I needed. Not highly educated. Friendly. No one Prince Eli would suspect. Eli had abducted my bride, Narkissa. He was keeping her in his hideaway. It was to do with a dark prophecy he was invested in. Without her he’d never fulfil it. But with her he’d draw only more power into himself. Already he was a power-monger, far stronger than most immortals of his experience. Eli was too powerful for me to trail. He detected my personal scent from five miles off. I couldn’t even get close to him. For the past year Eli kept Narkissa in a slumber inside a glass casket planning to hide her in Antarctica. Soon. My desperate question was: Where? Once in Antarctica I might never find her again. Then there would be no stopping Eli in his power quest. Frankly, I hoped to use Narkissa just as he had planned— to empower myself. Then I could battle that prince. It was imperative that I remove her from his possession. Fast. I’d already begun with my clever plot: Eli didn’t know that I had found his mortal father’s skeleton, long hidden it below the city of Paris. I had recently taken a tibia from it, brought it to a group of secret practitioners. Their magic infused a silent beacon into the bone, one that only I would detect. It would be activated within moments of being touched by Eli’s hand. Even among the undead there is something to say for that DNA connection. Only someone loyal to me could deliver the beacon. I knew I could gain the loyalty of my newest prey. Walking trails always have those benches nearby in the coziest of shadows. My prey sat. Smiled at me. I turned on my seat, intrigued at how she’d made first contact. That was unusual. I sensed no fear from her. We introduced ourselves. She asked, “Where did you come from?” “Haven’t I always been here?” I smiled. I’d whitened my blood-stained teeth. I even wore cargo pants, looked exactly like a mortal. She sat sideways with a leg dropped over each side of the bench. Within moments I had her laughing. “You’re right,” she said. “There could easily be a mass timeshare of every street in town. They must think the day schedule is part of the American Dream.” Sipped her coffee. “But it’s so balmy during the day. And the traffic! They can all have it.” “I think they’ve already taken it.” “Yah-well they can sure have it!” She was laughing. I sought miniscule clues that revealed her age, smelled her blood type. I could see the glow-pattern of where her fingerprints touched her cup, watched them fade when she set it down. Aurora was a youthful thirty-eight, far from being tired out by mortal life. In true scampire fashion I was being everything I sensed she wanted me to be. When she sat smiling, her chin close to her chest, a lull came between us. I knew she was feeling playful but too shy to reveal her true desire. I turned her song up, took her hand. We danced over that mulch path like old friends at three in the morning. Then I took her to my lair. No, never to my house with the night nymphs, not even one who made an undead beast long to breathe. I always concealed my true address. My lair was a cabin on a fringe of suburbia, set a mile off the road. It was accessible only through a clever mazework I’d formed from exotic trees. There on my dark porch our hands touched. Aurora knew I felt unnaturally cold but night women seldom nurture serious suspicions. They are risk takers, unafraid of the oddities of their world. In fact, they are often captivated by them. “I take blood thinners.” “You should have your prescription adjusted, Omar.” I told her my name was Omar. She found that surprising at first. She’d have never guessed my name was Griffin. I said, “I didn’t realize I was that cold.” We stepped into the hot tub, which always steamed my corpse to a nice ninety-six degrees that held for at least an hour or two. After meeting at the park every night for a week she insisted we continue meeting only after dark. It was then I knew she was beginning to trust me. I’d pass my daytimes safe at home, her scent on my arms. In my daydreams I was her mortal husband, we lived in a happy yellow house with two yellow cars, a pair of yellow pets. She’d burn candles, brew us coffee. We’d laugh at videos on the internet. Kiss with grinning lips. Tell each other old stories. Sleep curled around one another’s familiar warmth. It hurt to see that fantasy through one closed eye while glaring through my open eye at my grim present reality of being locked inside my coffin and her being nowhere near my lethal fangs, my monstrous, dead flesh. Still our affair continued, the myocardium in my chest trembling to bear a half-beat when I’d rise by night to meet her. Its efforts would quickly collapse as though it knew it would never live again. I continued to meet with Aurora, led her to believe that I collected bones and such artifacts as a hobby. I gave her the tibia on our two-month anniversary as a gift, telling her it had belonged to Elvis’s great, great grandfather. She smiled. I knew she hated it, but that was part of the plan. By June I’d grown hungry for her extended touch. So, I exchanged my impossible fantasies for possible embraces by obtaining a fat supply of a rare Manchineel incense I started burning nonstop. It made her warm body feel as cool as mine so my undead chill would go unnoticed against her flesh. From then on, we indulged in embraces, finding genuine comfort in one another’s arms. I deluded myself often, intentionally, to forget our time was destined to end soon. One night she scratched gently at my cheek, in my arms looking up at me. Uttering. “…quit my job so we can move there together. I want to go with you.” A disturbing rush of awareness jabbed into skull as the thought, it’s time to reap her loyalty. My power-bride, Narkissa, awaits.” The Night of a Thousand Lies: The following night I stayed home, knowing she’d be looking for me in the park. I phoned from one of my other phones. Said I’d been arrested on suspicion of murder. “Omar, What!” I feigned a sobbing drawl that made me wish I could shed living tears for Aurora’s fate. “They think I killed my ex-girlfriend. But on that night, I was with you, oh! I remember, June 1st.” “Oh my God Omar. You were with me. This isn’t right! How could they blame you. They have to know! She was hurting, yelling. “I’ll go there right now, tell them-” “No. You can’t, Aurora. No. My cousin is Investigator Brunswick. I’ll give you his number.” I gave her the number to my other phone. “My bail is expected to be posted for three hundred thousand dollars.” “How are you going to raise that kind of money!”She proposed one extreme option after another. I said, “No-no-no. The bondsman will take ten percent. The tibia. Sell it. It’ll fetch nearly enough.” “It’s worth that much?” “Oh yes.” I instructed her to go see a man who walked the beach some nights. I misled her to believe the man was known to buy such artifacts. “I read about him in the newspaper.” “Really?” “Yes!” “What’s his name?” I couldn’t have her going there, a strange mortal, calling Eli by name. He’d have killed her on the spot. So, I lied. “Jethro Blue.” It didn’t matter as long as he took the bait. “He’s about thirty-five. Clean shaven. Tell him you’re a hobbyist, bought the artifact online last month. An appraiser recently told you it probably belonged to Genghis Kahn.” Eli had to believe she was just some random mortal who was inexperienced with artifacts. I closed my eyes, shifted in my lounge chair, devoured the Merlot in my glass like it would save my dead soul. “Can I call your cousin’s number after I leave there?” “You can try. He’ll be here.” I trusted her to do exactly as I said. I was pacing my house at 1:30. My third phone rang. I answered in a nasal tone. “Detective Brunswick. Is this Aurora?” “Yes! I have an emergency! I have to talk to Omar.” “Sure thing, Aurora. One sec.” I heard my living love huffing. I said, “Hello?” “Oh my God Omar he was a vampire! Do you hear me! That man at the beach!” “Calm down Aurora. Breathe. Now, what do you mean by vampire?” “God!” She was bawling. Dropped the phone, picked it up. “Okay. I’m pulled over now. I’m at the convenience store. I’m shaking so much. He had fangs, do you hear me, fucking fangs!” “Fangs? Like implants?” “He pinned me by the throat to my car. Demanded to know where I got the tibia, Omar! Christ! I said what you told me. He wanted the website so I just made one up. He sniffed my face. Opened his mouth and literally roared! People don’t roar, Omar. And his fangs.” She sobbed out loud. “They reached the tip of his chin! I watched them growing out of his gums. “He took the tibia right out of my hands. I’m so scared.” “Just breathe, Aurora. Are you parked in the light?” “Yes. Going home now. I’m so sorry. I lost your way out of jail, Omar. I can’t believe this happened. He came out of nowhere and-”Eighteen hours later I texted her: Meet me at the park. What? Hurry. I was starting to feel the beaconing vibes from the tibia. I missed Aurora, frankly. I didn’t want to vanish from her life without warning. I wanted to hold her. See her. To give her an amulet that protected mortals. She looked lost, watching me walk out of the shadows towards her, my arms wide. We embraced. She trembled in my grip. Looked at me. “How did you get out?” “My father.” “Your father.” “After having shunned me for six years he decided to help me out.” “Wow. Well. I know you didn’t murder-” “I appreciate that.” I took a step back. “Wear this for protection.” She held it in her hand like it was some business card. I stepped back again. In hours I’d be with my bride, everything would be different. “Listen. I was thinking that. Maybe we should be friends.” “What in the hell are you talking about, Omar. Friends?” “Not forever, Aurora. Just for a little while, my love. Temporarily.” It was easier to say that. “I don’t understand. You get arrested for murder, I almost die trying to help you and now.” She went airy, “You don’t want to see me anymore?” Teary. “Is it something I did? Something I said? Tell me-” “Please. No. It’s nothing like that. I was just. Alone. Last night. For the first time in three months. I guess I had time to think.” “Think. Think?” “Maybe I just need a little space. You know?” “So you were. Thinking? Or cheating! Look at me! She slapped me. “How convenient that you’re suddenly not in jail when last night you needed thirty thousand dollars!” “I was in jail. Why would I have you sell the artifact if I wasn’t in jail. Think!” “Yeah.” Her chin trembled, she backed away. “Because. Because. Maybe you hoped he’d kill me. You knew he was vicious, didn’t you!” I protested with every grain of decay in my flesh. I couldn’t have her thinking I wanted him to kill her. I didn’t. I denied knowing he was vicious. We argued. “Well. I know something’s not right,” she said. In the end, she stormed off, her talisman lying at my feet. I still smelled her tears three hours later, kept checking for a text from her. Not one. Thought I felt her prescence. I gleaned every detail of the shadows that did and didn’t move. There I sat like a leper against a tree for hours, face and fangs buried in my palms’ scraping grip. By 1:00 the beacon’s signal started drawing me in at full strength. It was time. I drove toward the calling. I couldn’t resist it. It had been designed to capture me. Traffic lights couldn’t buffer my impulse, nothing could slow my thoughts or movements. I raced across town to the very edge, found myself in on a hill that overlooked the city. Parked across the street from my destination. I smudged one of the last drops of the rare Oil of the Nine Woods onto my forehead. It would work like a charm to keep Eli from picking up on my scent for perhaps ten, twelve minutes. Then it would age-accelerate to my present age. Deteriorate instantly. It was barely enough time. Found my way through the house. It was void of any prescence on the first floor. Down to the basement. Into the huge room that housed Narkissa in a crystal coffin. Eli had braided her long hair. I felt jealous of Eli on so many levels. When I opened the slumber bond cracked with the sound of a rushing wind. I dripped the last of the oil onto her forehead. Her eyes barely opened as I lifted her out. I’d gotten to the doorway with her when Eli appeared. “Griffin! Now, put. That. Back.” “You’re not having my bride in your dungeon, Eli. I’ll destroy you!” He lunged at me, we flipped head over knees over the floor numerous times. I slammed into the brick wall, him on top of me, strangling my strength away. Aurora was right, his fangs did reach out to the bottom of his chin. That meant that he’d stolen power from other sources since I’d last seen him. I implemented my crushing grip against his forearms but he was uncrushable. His strangling was intended to plunge me into a slumber. Sleep induction was his greatest strength. I felt my limbs weaking. Someone appeared from behind an armoire. Began screaming. It was Aurora! She watched terrified. Narkissa rested on the floor, still groggy. Eli stood, took her by the hair. “I remember you well, missy.” Dizzied, I crawled to Narkissa’s side, watching them. He turned his head three hundred degrees, glared at me. “You sent a mortal? My father’s bone—it was a set up. You knew I’ve wanted to collect his remains, to resurrect him!” She slipped from his grip. Hid behind one armoire after another. He’d throw them to the floor; she’d bolt to the next one. “Griffin Let’s go. I’m too weak to run.” I looked at Narkissa, knowing all that was at stake in that moment. Eli chased Aurora into an attached room. She was squealing. I got to my feet in the doorway, lifted Narkissa. “He’s grown more powerful,” she was explaining. I stared at the floor. Thoughts of Aurora, the forbidden mortal love of mine, dug into my conscience- if I might call it that. I couldn’t leave her here. Maybe I could carry them both somehow, I pondered. Then I realized all was silent. I looked back. Where was she? I saw her on the floor near the wall, her throat in the grip of his jaw, tears streaming from her big brown eyes as she stared at me. Aurora’s gaze begged me to save her. “Griffin, let us take our leave now!” Aurora, pale and silent, had already reached the point of no return. It was too late for my mortal. I remained stuck in the bond of her gaze a moment. My lips were turned under; craftily, covering my anxious, lengthening fangs. I was still trying to hide the monster I was from her, scared she wouldn’t love me if she saw my fangs. That was the pathological part, that I really believed she didn’t see through me by now. Insane, how I clung to the belief that there was anything left between us to preserve. Her fading stare remained set on my face as I turned away with my bride. Vanished. Aurora was my inspiring light of the night. She didn’t leave the park that night until I did. Followed me, determined to keep me- or risk an agonizing heartache trying. Aurora wasn’t going to give up on me nearly as easily as I had thought. How could I have been so stupid! She survived. Oh yes. Eli wasn’t siphoning her vein. He was milking it. I saw. Eli intended to morph her, not kill her. Makes me sick. Lovesick. My bride and I have spent the last decade living in no place for too long, trying to stay one step ahead of Eli and his minions. But sometimes I travel back to the states, to that park bench, sit. Look around at the open night air. “Are you looking for me, Aurora? I’m here, my love.” I wait there throughout the hush hours for someone who’ll probably never return to me- except to get revenge. And I’m too lovesick to turn from her wrath if ever it finds me.