Confessions Of A Vampire (11 page)

We spent our nights shopping or partying and our days dead. No one really cared to know what we did, so I can't tell you what they assumed about us.

It was a good life and we had fun, but after so many years, partying grows boring. Star wanted to settle down. She longed for a family and I know it hurt her deeply that she'
d never have another child. I wished I could give that
to her, but the laws of our kind strictly forbid us from owning
human
children for any reason
or from turning them. It was considered cruel and unusual even by our standards.

We soon
grew bored of the cold and snowy winters so we packed up a few things, closed up the penthouse and headed
south
. We'd heard that New Orleans was the best place
for
a vampire
to
blend
in. The early 90s found us still shrouded in
secrecy
.

We were still just considered folklore and if you ask me, it was a damn good thing. We got away with so much more back then. No one was constantly reminding us to behave and set a good example of our kind for the humans. The humans were nothing but a meal plan for me. I hated them then and I'm not fond of most of them now. But they did serve a purpose.

New Orleans soon became one of my favorite cities. The magic in that city was breathtaking. You could wander the streets covered in blood and no one would bat an eye. People minded their business down there and I was happy.

Vampire themed bars were popping up all over the place down on Bourbon Street with the popularity of that little movie
Interview
with
the
Vampire
. My kind were the “in” thing and so we decided to profit from it, right under the noses of the humans. T
hey weren't that smart then and most aren’t now
.

Star and I often hung out in Club Bite, dressed in gothic dresses and flowing black velvet capes
.
We'd sit for hours listening to the humans ooh and ahh over how “authentic” the club seemed.

What they didn't know was that in the back room we had our pets, the humans that knew we existed but served us willingly. Each bar had
its
own backroom and for a price you could feed on the pets
or more if they were willing
.

Four years later, in the winter of 1998, a vampire walked his happy ass out of the coffin and exposed us to the world. He stood in front of millions of people and proclaimed that we did indeed exist and that we
had been living
among them
for centuries
without them even knowing it.

He told them to think about their neighbors and the ones they all thought were strange. Those were the vampires he said. He asked them to think of all the ones that had moved away or the ones that never looked like they aged a day in their lives. And that's how we were shoved, kicking and screaming out into the sunlight so to speak.

Aaron cleared his throat and I stopped mid thought, tilting my head to look at him. He hesitated yet again before he spoke.

“You don't sound happy about the reveal that your kind exists.”

“I wasn't. Being exposed to the human world meant they'd try to change us. They'd either want us all dead or they'd want us to pay taxes and vote. Some states quickly passed laws banning our presence in them. It created quite a mess for most of us. Inheritances were called into question, property ownership, and some of us were staked by the ignorant breathers that thought we all wanted them dead.”

“But you feed on human blood, right? Isn't that how you survive?”

My eyes narrowed as I stared at him. “You know that's how we survive, Aaron. Human blood is what nourishes my kind. It's what we crave and what we want, but now we don't actually have to have it to “live”. Bottled blood has become the politically correct thing and several thousand of my kind adhere to a strict diet of synthetic blood.”

“But you don't?”

“No, I do not. I prefer demon blood, Severus' to be precise, but if his is not available I will happily consume human blood. That bottled shit tastes like feet and is not what they claim it to be. There have been no studies on long term effects on our bodies. I will continue to get my meals the old fashioned way
thank you very much
.”

My annoyance with this line of questioning was obvious but he continued to ask things he wanted to know. It was my belief that Aaron was growing comfortable in my presence. At least, he felt reassured that I would not turn him into a meal.

“Do you have pets or do you still hunt, Mrs. Severus?”

“I hunt when I can and we have donors available, both human and demon.”

“There is a difference in taste?”

I simply nod and he jots down something in his notepad.

“Was your husband the first demon blood you'd ever tasted?”

“Yes, up until that night at the Masquerade Ball I'd always thought that demon blood was toxic to vampires. “

“Toxic? Like an allergy for humans?”

“Yes, I guess it was similar, but for many of my kind, demon blood can kill them with one taste.”

Again, he made notes in his pad of paper and I waited impatiently for him to allow me to focus on my thoughts again. But as I watched him, he began to gather his things and I looked down at the clock on my
cell phone
, stunned to see it was well after four in the morning.

“If you don't mind, Mrs. Severus, I can return tomorrow around lunch time.”

“That will be fine Aaron. Do be careful on your drive home. Maria will show you out.” I motioned towards the plump older woman who'd appeared as if by magic in the doorway.

I excused myself to go check on my children and climbed into bed after kissing their foreheads and tucking them in.

Chapter Fourteen

The next day Aaron found me sitting on the floor of the twins' playroom drinking pretend tea and eating invisible cookies. Vivienne and Vivica invited him to join us and much to my surprise he sat down on the floor next to my little girls and played with them for nearly an hour before I stepped in and told them that we had work to do.

The girls waved at us as we headed out of the room. Getting settled in the sitting room again, I waited for him to get his things ready. While I waited I let my mind wander to things I thought he'd find interesting but he had other ideas.

“Can you tell me about your marriage to Draven?”

Shrugging I took a deep breath and told him what he wanted to know.

At first
,
life with Draven was good. He was a very sweet man and devoted to me. There was only one problem. He wasn't the mystery man from that night in the King's gardens. And as much as I wanted to be in love with my husband, I found myself always comparing him to a man I didn't even know. In my mind Severus was perfect. He was the man I'd always dreamed of.

I didn't know his name or even
if
what
I believed
he was
to be the truth
, but I was in love. And I mean head over heels, can't quite catch your breath, in love.

I know it seems silly
,
but I was. And Draven just didn't compare. There was no passion for me. I just didn't feel that spark when we kissed and even though our sex life was good, it wasn't the kind of sex that makes you lie awake at night touching yourself at the memory.

We had a nice life but I wasn't fully committed to him and my sister wasn't about to let me live it down. She'd been right and she wanted to gloat. As soon as she knew he'd left for a few days to handle some business she pounced.

All evening she went on and on about how she had known that I had lied on my wedding day. Star advised me to be honest with Draven and get a divorce. I laughed at her and reminded her that even though we'd been walking
this Earth for several hundred years
, one thing remained the same, women didn't just ask for a divorce.

Of course my sister burst out laughing and shook her head. “We're vampires, Sunny, not humans. We can do what we want.”

“
We married under human laws, sister dear. And you don't need to remind me of what I
am;
I have the fangs and the blood cravings to do that. As much as I want out, I don't think I want to kill another husband. This one hasn't really done anything to deserve true death, with the slight exception of not being the one I really want.”

She started to speak again and I stopped her with a raised hand. I wasn't about to end a marriage to a good man just because I couldn't forget about someone who most likely didn't even remember me. For me the conversation was over and wisely, my sister stopped bugging me about it.

Draven was still out of town a few nights later when Star and I went hunting. It was a spur of the moment trip and we often didn't go out without my husband. He worried that we'd be discovered and he wouldn't be around to protect us. Not that we needed protection. I mean, we could basically kill anyone who tried to harm us, but more often than not we humored him.

We dressed in our finest dresses and took the carriage into town, stopping to pretend to have dinner at the local tavern just so we could study who was out and about. Both of us were itching to go to the bar and take advantage of the drunkards or whores but Draven insisted that we at least appeared to be respectable.

But respectability was boring and Star and I were fed up with being bored. One glance across the table and I knew we'd be breaking a few rules and maybe a few hearts that night. Tossing a handful of bills on the table and leaving the plates of food untouched we sped out of the restaurant, our laughter floating behind us as the door closed.

We breezed into the pub across the dusty street and set our sights on a couple of men well into a bottle of whiskey in the back corner of the room. Exchanging a knowing glance, Star headed in one direction and I in the other.

My hips swayed as I casually strolled across the knotted pine floor, the smell of cheap liquor and too much perfume filling the air around me. It created almost a heady feeling and my body seemed to come alive at the thought of playing cat and mouse with the human male I'd set my sights on.

I'd just about reached the table when I stopped dead in my tracks as the smell I'd often dreamed of seemed to surround me and fill every available space in the bar. Inhaling deeply I spun on my heels and found myself staring at a man
that could have been the one
I'd been unable to for
get
.

All thought of hunting vanished as I was drawn to his side. Casting a sideways glance my way, he flashed a crooked smile down at me from his perch on the bar stool but there was no recognition in his eyes. If this were the man I'd met before, he had no memory of me.

I claimed the stool next to him and asked the barkeep for a scotch and water, my eyes floating back to the demon next to me every few seconds. He had the dark wavy hair and blue eyes I remembered but something seemed a bit off with him. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the longer I lingered, the more I began to doubt myself.

I struck up a conversation about the turn in the weather as I waited for my drink, wanting to hear his voice, hoping it would stop this foolishness of mine at once. His voice didn't have the same deep, sultry lull to it that I'd remembered and I caught myself staring a little too intently at him. His hand stilled mine as I reached for my coin purse to pay for the drink and
that touch was all it took for me to know that wa
sn't the one
I’d been searching for
.

As we spoke, I studied his movements, the way his hands moved as he talked and my heart dropped. He was demon, but he wasn't my demon.
With each
second that
passed,
I saw it more and more. This man, though incredibly handsome, lacked the things that had made the other so memorable. His face didn't have the scar below his eye that I'd found so charming and his lips didn't give that pout that made me ache for a heartbeat again just so it could skip one.