But what if you are not human? What if you are something…more? What applies to that, reader? If you aren’t human, then do you still feel the wonders of love? If you had asked me that a year ago, I would have said, “Absolutely not!” But now I am not certain. Reader, the monster that we could not cl*censored*ify as human does feel. Now, sitting here with her, I knew for sure. Love comes in many different ways, shapes, and forms, and there is nothing that is possible to stop it.

Thirst

I WATCHED THE MAN OUTSIDE OF MY HOME SILENTLY, making sure that I wasn’t to be seen. The middle-aged human was staring in awe at Mansion Santiago, as my brother called it, focusing on either the beautiful carving of the columns that held to the porch roof, or the clean, sparkling white of the entire layout. I couldn’t tell which one. Maybe it was both.

I raced through the back door then; my throat burning like someone just made me swallow a curling iron that was turned on. I had to concentrate on not pouncing on the man staring at the house still. I could hear his heart beating, could feel the blood pulsing through his veins, could smell that same blood. My mouth would have watered if there was any saliva in it.

I flipped open my cellular phone and had Alistair’s number dialed. Alistair was my creator, and, to me, a father. I didn’t have to wait two rings when he answered.

“Benjamin,” He said.

“Need to hunt,” I replied, my eyes darting around to make sure no humans were in earshot.

“Ahh,” Alistair sighed. “Let’s meet at the reservoir, okay, Ben?”

I said, “You got it,” and flipped my phone shut.

Behind Mansion Santiago there was a forest. In the heart of the forest was a reservoir, a body of water so clear-blue and deep. In thirty seconds I was there; Alistair had beaten me. I mumbled a cuss word, and Alistair chuckled.

“Can’t beat the three-hundred-thirty-four year-old, can you, young one?” He asked.

It was mean to be a rhetoric question, but I replied, “I’m one-hundred-seventy-two. That would be quite old for a vermin.”

Alistair laughed heartedly and said, “C’mon, let’s hunt.”

We didn’t go far before the wind blew a female hiker’s scent towards mine. It was the most delightful scent I have ever picked up. It smelled of vanilla and honeysuckle, and I looked at Alistair. I spoke quickly so he wouldn’t call dibs first. “I got her!” I shouted, while he was about to say, “She’s mine.”

Alistair made a face at me. “Fine,” he snarled, “But I get the next one.”

I sighed. “Fine,” I growled back, and moved towards the girl’s scent. Something inside my head made me lose focus.

No, it said. Don’t drink the girl.

At first I didn’t listen to it.

I saw her then; her curly red hair was hard to not notice. She had sea-green eyes, a abnormal combination. No freckles were upon her face; maybe they were un-noticeable against her lightly tanned skin. She was dressed in khaki-colored clothes and a olive-colored baseball cap to match the shirt underneath her opened vest. She was skinny and frankly of average height for a sixteen-year-old.

Suddenly, I heard a “Who’s there?” Damn, she had good ears. She growled and said, “Really. If you’re trying to like, murder me, it’s not gonna work. I’m a tough girl!” I let out a chuckle. She may be tough, but not tough enough for a vampire.

I jumped out of the bushes in which I was hiding. “Hello, beautiful,” I crooned.

The girl turned around and rose an eyebrow. “Who’re you?” I laughed.

“I am the answer to all of your nightmares, love,” I answered her, and moved closer to her in a bl
ink of an eye. She clenched her teeth, reached into her bag, and pulled out pepper spray. The girl sprayed it right into my eyes-she had good aim, too. It was too bad that I didn’t feel any pain, or I would’ve been impressed.

I smirked. “That won’t help any,” I informed her.

She jerked away from me. “Go away,” she hissed at me.

She rose an eyebrow again. “Only if you tell me yours,” she replied.

“Brave, aren’t we?” I grinned. “I am Benjamin Santiago. Now, you are?”

She said, “Grace.”

I smiled. “Grace,” I breathed. “Lovely name for a sweet-smelling girl.”

Grace looked at me as though I was crazy. “Sweet-smelling? I’ve been hiking for three hours, I hardly believe that.” I chuckled at her while shaking my head back and forth.

“So, what was it that you wanted?” Grace asked.

I thought for a moment. “The truth, or a lie?”

“Truth, please. Now, tell me.”

“I was thirsty,” I told her with a sparkle in my eye.

Grace’s eyebrows furrowed. “Thirsty? I have bottled water, if you really need it.”

I laughed. “That won’t be necessary. I don’t drink water.”

Grace smirked. “Then what do you drink?”

“Blood.”

It was hell from there on. “What?!” Grace shouted. “De ce que l'enfer parlez-vous? Etes-vous fou? Cela dégoûte totalement! Vous me restez? Parce que si vous êtes, je ne suis pas craintif pour utiliser mes mouvements de karaté sur vous!”

I looked at her strangely. “I’ll answer you, I suppose. I’m talking about that I am a vampire. No, I’m not crazy. It may be disgusting to you, but not to me. Do I look like I’m lying? And no need for your precious karate moves, darling.”

Grace returned my strange look. “You know French?” She asked.

That was not the response I was expected to hear. “Yes, I’m one hundred and seventy two and have a lot of free time.”

That’s when Grace snapped back to reality, I believe. “So, you’re a vampire?” She tried to say it nonchalantly, but her voice cracked.

I smirked. “Of course.”

Grace gulped. “And you’re going to kill me?”

I didn’t know the answer to that, so I said, “I want to.”

She bit on her lip. “Fine. Kill me, but remember, you’re losing the most precious thing you’ve ever laid eyes on.” She smiled.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her statement. “You know what, just for that, I’m not going to kill you. Today.”

“Well, Golly Gee, do I feel special,” Grace said sarcastically. It made me chuckle once again. Well, at least she had a sense of humor.

I circled her, my hands folded behind my back, staring at her through all angles. I had never seen her before.
“Where do you live?”

“Here.”

“I’ve never seen you.”

“You’re not very observant, then.”

I smirked. “I can see far better than you, love.”

Grace shivered. “Stop that.”

“What?”

“Calling me ‘darling’ and ‘love’ and ‘beautiful’ and all that crap. It’s annoying.”

I raced to her and grabbed her hand. She tried to pull hers away, but I had a firm grip. One advantage to being a vampire.

“Get away,” She said, but it was too late.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

“Hm.” I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. I had sworn she had just called me a freak.

She asked aloud, “Yes?”

“I didn’t say anything.” I was catching on to what was happening.

“I heard you say Grace.” She sounded positive, just like I was positive that I had heard her.

“I didn’t say anything,” I repeated. “I thought it.”

Grace hesitated for a second. “I can read your mind?”

She looked at me like I was crazy for the second time.

“And,” I went on, “I can read yours, too.” I let go of her hands. “Now think of something,” I tested.

Grace said, “Okay,” and squeezed her eyes shut.

I heard nothing. “What did you think?” I asked her, curious.

“I thought, ‘You’re crazy, Benjamin,’” she replied, her eyes twinkling.

Fighting the urge to slap her arm(knowing that I could possibly break it if I did), I grasped her hand again.

“Think it again,” I commanded her.

I laughed. I know.

Grace smiled and I let go of her hand. “So,” She said, “When we’re touching, we can hear each other’s thoughts, but when we aren’t, we can’t?” Her eyebrows furrowed together and she looked very confused.

I had expected this, at least. I knew this was much to take in for her.

Suddenly, I heard a ruffle in the bushes. Maybe around the reservoir, somewhere we were far from. I was pretty sure I knew who it was. Alistair, of course, he was certainly looking for me by now. Probably thinking I had found a vampire hunter, or one of those special humans.

I have not yet told you about those yet, reader. But, I am sure you will learn about them sometime very soon.

Continuing on, by now he was very close, there was a noise in the bushes near us now, the same bush from where I was hiding from Grace.

Who would’ve guessed that it wasn’t Alistair after all, but…

“Ben!” A high, clear voice rang throughout the forest that was like wedding bells chiming.

“Connie,” I replied. Connie, or Constance, was my sister. No, really, my actual sister, from when I was a human. She, though, wasn’t changed by Alistair. Strangely enough, Constance doesn’t remember who she was changed by. Of course, that was fairly common in vampires. Connie was fairly pretty, with ghost-like skin and dark red eyes, which meant that she commonly drank adult’s blood. She wore Strawberry-Blond curls that looped down to her shoulders, and in overall, was skinny and petite.

Grace spoke then. “Benjamin,” She said. “Who is she?”

Constance said, “Pleasure, miss, I am Connie. It is Short for Constance. Who, pray tell, might you be?” Connie talked like that often. We were born in the 1800’s, and old habits die hard. I was better with common English, though.

“Grace,” Grace answered her.

I spoke then. “Grace, Constance is my sister. Constance this is my…friend,” I sneered the word, “Grace.”

Grace stuck out her hand and Constance shook it, curtseying as she did so. “Pleasure, Grace.”

“Same to you.”

I rolled my eyes. It was obvious that Grace was only trying to act polite, and Connie was scaring her. So I quickly changed the topic. “What brings you here, Connie?” I asked. “Where’s Logan?” Logan was Constance’s Fiancé, she usually dragged him around wherever she traveled.

“Oh, Logan? He is back at home,” She said, meaning her home in San Francisco.

“Don’t you usually bring him along when you come down here?”

“Yes, but he hasn’t been feeling well lately. He has switched from-” She stopped mid-sentence, peered at Grace, and leaned to me. She finished the sentence, whispering “Teenager’s blood to children’s, to change his eye color. It has been giving him headaches of the worst kind.” I nodded sympathetically; switching the type of blood you took in was hard. Grace didn’t seem to notice that Constance was keeping the second part of her sentence from her, in fact, she didn’t seem to be listening at all. Instead, she looked deep in thought.

Suddenly she asked, “How come you two have two different eye colors if you’re related?”

I smirked. “Okay, explanation time. As a vampire, my dear Grace, you have many choices of, err, blood to drink. There’s those who feed off of children, those who feed off of teenagers, those who feed off of adults, and those who feed off of the elderly.

“Now, depending on which stage you feed off from, your eyes hold a certain color. For instance, Connie here has dark red eyes because she drink adults’ blood. I have silver eyes because I mostly drink teenagers’. The ones who like children have icy blue eyes, and the ones that like seniors have black eyes.”

Grace seemed to be taking this all in slowly. After a while of hesitation, she said, “Oh. So that’s why you wanted to drink my blood. Because you like teenagers.” I nodded, and she returned the gesture.

Connie said to me, “I did not know she knew…that you were…Oh. All right, then, I do not have to hide anything now! This will work out wonderfully.” She clapped her hands together once, and grinned. I rolled my eyes.

Changing the subject once more, I asked Grace, “Would you like to come back with us to our home?”

Grace looked at me, again, like I was insane. “Are you kidding? Me, going to a house full of vampires? I don’t think so.”

“Alas, Grace,” said Constance, “It is not a house full of vampires. There is only two living there-and one guest, counting me, of course. It is not ‘full’ of them.”

Grace snorted. “Whatever. I guess I’ll go.”

My eyes twinkled. I liked Grace a lot, maybe more than a vampire should like a human. “Grab my hand,” I told her.

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

She took my hand, and I instantly felt a connection between us-it was that freaky mind-reading thing, of course. Smiling, I began to run, tightening my grip on Grace’s palm. Everything was crystal-clear to me, as though I was running at normal speed, but I was sure that to Grace everything was a blur.

I laughed. I know.