Evanescere: Origins by Vanessa Buckingham

myself.
    I know that I surprised
Jack in a way that none of our kind has ever done. I surprised myself and the
old ones. They all agreed there had never been a vampire such as myself and
they all thought this was curious. Avitus believed I was more than just human
and vampire. In his three-thousand-year existence he has never seen a creature
such as I. He was unsure what this meant for our kind. I was a vampire anomaly.
I did not know how to take this new information. I wondered if I should be
worried or just happy that I was different from the others.
    For a creature of the
damned, I did not believe I was truly damned. I mean I was saving people. I
know murder is murder, but would it not balance out if the murder was committed
in order to save a life? I wondered to myself. Jack and I had debated this
question many times even the old ones would join in the conversation. They did
not believe we were damned to hell, Hades or whatever afterlife there was. They
believed that we were both cursed and blessed by the Gods of old. We are cursed
in our very nature, but blessed to see eternal life, which in itself is a
curse. We would live to see our loved ones pass into that eternal slumber and
be no more. The old ones did not believe we were an abomination. The only one who
thought so was Leta. She had wished many times to walk the halls of Valhalla;
however, for us, Death was not an easy occurrence.
    It is very difficult to
kill another vampire, so anything books say about destroying us is inaccurate.
First of all, it is very difficult for a human to capture a vampire. Second, it
is very difficult to know that we are different from humans. Leta is one of the
few who I know tried to end herself. The last time she tried, she set herself
on fire and found that she did not easily burn. I guess it would be safe to say
she toasted a bit, almost like a tan. It took days for her fair complexion to
return and she has not tried to end herself again.
    We stopped again in
Cardinham Wood for one last meal. I stalked my prey a very large stag. I leaped
at him and before he could run I sank my teeth into the think fur. He smelled
very earthy and wild. He did not fight. He did not try to escape. Death was a
part of life and he accepted it.
    “You know Jack,” I asked
after I had drained the stag,” if Lilith was originally damned to follow the night
then how is it that we can be out in the sun and not die?” I asked more out of
confusion.
    “That is another story
unto itself and one that is not mine to tell,” he responded and said no more.
He knew I would continue to be curious about this fascinating puzzle. I did not
question him any further and I knew this was a question he chose to avoid for
another time. Even though he could walk in the daylight it was quite
uncomfortable for me. This was the time of day in which passersby would stare
at us. I chose to go out most nights and would rarely leave the cottage during
the day. Even though I no longer cared, I was still vain about my appearance.
My chalky pallor and newfound beauty was something to behold. I could not bring
myself to be that narcissistic about myself. I did not particularly enjoy the
attention I received.
    We continued to walk
toward the cottage in silence. He could sense I was again lost in my thoughts.
My eyes glazed over in thought, but my body knew where I was headed. This was
normal for us. We could do many things at once. Our minds were fluid in this
way. This was all new for me and I wish that I could say I adjusted well
overall, but that would be a lie. I still had my moments of sadness. It was
these times in which Jack would leave me alone for days at a time until I was
able to get these moods under control. He could not bear to be within miles of
me during this time. It was the connection we shared. When I felt these moods
it affected him in a way he has never been affected. It was a good thing these
moods rarely occurred and lasted longer than a week. I suffered a type