Bloodseeker - Colin's Conquest Part 4

So embarra.s.sed! With renewed strength, Joanna slithered from the bed to hobble to the bathroom unaided.

In the darkened library, the two blood seekers conversed in quiet tones so Joanna would not overhear.

"Why did you save her from me Colin? She is no ordinary mortal woman! Her anger overrides her fear of us."

"Do you honestly believe I would choose an ordinary woman as my chosen one?"

"But Colin, she will never be willing, we should kill her now before she does you harm."Colin's face changed in an instant, his cheeks flushed with a flood of color like a dangerous crimson tide coming to swallow him whole. Ben's body shook as he realized that he argued with his own creator. How could he have the audacity, no, the stupidity to do such a thing? Too late now, the words already spoken, and by the look of Colin's ruddy face and flared nostrils, he made a terrible mistake in saying them.

"You think me so pathetically weak?" Colin shook his finger in Ben's alarmed face as he advanced upon him.

"I am the Creator here and you will obey me without question! You keep your hands ... and teeth away from her!" His voice broiled with anger and yet the volume remained low, making him even more terrifying in his restraint. How much did he hold back?

"Understood Benjamin?"

Ben bowed his head. "Yes, Colin, as always, I obey and I apologize for my brash behavior."

Colin nodded his acceptance of Ben's sincere apology, knowing that the boy meant what he said, but also knowing that it would happen again ... and again ... but what would Ben be without his impertinence? Not the Ben he knew and loved anyway. Anger did not stand a chance against the real love he felt for his young companion and his ire cooled at once.

He turned away from his young friend, flipped on the lamp, and settled into his favorite armchair, raising a book to his face to avoid Ben's barrage of questions, for a few minutes at least. He knew from years of experience that Ben would not be able to control his boundless curiosity for very long, no matter what Colin's mood happened to be like.

His creator knew him well, for Ben wanted to know why and how Colin picked Joanna out of all those hundreds of human victims.

But he had enough sense to be anxious about pursuing the subject further and angering Colin again.

Glancing over at the curly head immersed in the old book, Ben noticed that he took an abnormal amount of time on that one page.

He watched out of the corner of his eye for several minutes and Colin never once turned the page. Had he fallen asleep?

Not likely, he probably thought about ... her.

He banished the jealousy as soon as it reared its ugly head. She became part of the family now and he should be pleased. But how did this all come about?

He squirmed like a bored child on the sofa, moving his finger along the lines in the fabric, first one way then choosing another shade of green and following the line until it hit another color in the tweed fabric. He rearranged the pillows that Colin positioned along the back of the sofa. First placing all the like colors together, then separating them into groups, then piling them all up in the center to form a pillow tower. Resting his head on his hands atop the pillows, he watched Colin and waited to see if he would notice. He didn't seem to even know that Ben remained in the room.

Colin felt Ben about to explode, but he still chose to ignore the rustling of his young friend until the young one spoke up, no longer able to hold his curiosity in check. He so needed to learn patience!

Ben didn't disappoint his creator. A few long minutes later Colin heard Ben clearing the nervous tension from his throat as he crossed the room to lean against the mantle, facing him.

"Have you love for this human, Colin?"

With exaggerated slowness, Colin lowered his book, then lifted his eyes to stare at his anxious student. He sighed, closed the book that he had not read a single word from, and spoke to Ben in his soft, seductive voice so close to a whisper.

"Come to me, my curious young one, if you must know. Kneel by my chair." His hushed words beckoned to Ben, and he followed his creator's instructions and sank to his knees by Colin's feet. How he loved Colin's melodramatic manner. It was so, well ...

Colin.

"We will not make a habit of this Benjamin" He rolled up his sleeve, baring his wrist.

Five

"Look into my eyes, Benjamin, look deeply. Do not look away and sip with the greatest care from this willing fount. You will walk in my footsteps and see as if you were me."

"You can do this? Send images with the blood?" Ben's voice grew thick with awe.

"Again you doubt me! It is not solely the blood my inquisitive young one, but in what other way could our souls be linked so?"

Filled with wonder, Ben gazed up at his regal maker, staring into the 'Alice in Wonderland mirrors,' those deep, dark, s.h.i.+ning eyes.

He never doubted Colin, not once, not ever.

Colin rested his head against the chair with his eyes unfocused, one arm extended towards Ben, waiting to send the images with the power of his potent blood and his even more powerful pineal gland.

His eyes still locked to Colin's, Ben rested his lips on his creator's wrist before driving his fangs hard into the resilient flesh. With the first entrancing spurt of blood, the room faded and he found himself moving with great haste through a forest. Despite the thick vines and underbrush his body slipped through the branches like a slithering reptile without hampering limbs.

An unusual sound stopped him in his tracks and inflamed his insatiable thirst. Human heartbeats. One a sleeping child, the small beats slow and unchanging, the other a young adult. He veered toward the sound, his own heartbeat quickening in antic.i.p.ation. He found the adult seated by a small campfire in a tiny clearing. She seemed young, no more than sixteen years of age. She sat reading a book, a look of enjoyment on her youthful features. Once in a while, she glanced towards the little tent and the sleeping child, then returned to her reading. When he saw the t.i.tle of her book he almost laughed out loud. The sweet irony of it! Bram Stoker's Dracula of all things! Maybe her thoughts of vampires drew him to her like a moth to flame.

He could not resist toying with her, confronting her, breaking his self-imposed rules and letting her see him for what he was. Never one to let vanity surface before he could not resist the temptation and he crept towards her with silent footsteps until he stood within three feet of her.

Several minutes pa.s.sed without her eyes lifting from the pages of the novel. He found the situation quite amusing ... standing there in front of a fully aware mortal and she would not even look his way.

He laughed.

She stiffened, her pulse accelerating but still she would not look up. He knew she heard him despite his quiet chuckle.

"Excuse me, ma'am, is that a good book you are reading?" Colin's stilted voice came from Ben's mouth, his soft words drawing her attention.

She looked up from the printed pages. Large, s.h.i.+mmering green eyes met his and he was stunned for a moment when he saw Colin's reflection there. Then Ben remembered the blood and he latched onto Colin's wrist with a pa.s.sion.

Ben had to see more! He lapped at the rich flowing blood, savoring it, and he became Colin once more, smiling down at the beautiful young girl.

He expected her to jump up and run, but she remained in place, staring up at him with her mouth hanging open.

"Do you believe vampires exist?"

She snorted and curled her lips into a condescending sneer before she answered him.

"Of course not."

Oh, but I beg to differ little mortal. He seated himself beside her, his back straight and regal, turning only his head in her direction. His gaze revealed his hunger ... as apparent as the leaves on the trees, as the log on which they sat, as the book in her hands.

Much to his surprise, she remained calm, and did not grow frightened. She examined his pale face, still bloodless from lack of sustenance, and then she asked if he suffered from anemia. Anemia of all things! A blood seeker seated beside her and she inquires about his health!

He laughed. He roared. He laughed until he cried.

What a strange feeling, to laugh with a victim by his side. What she did next shocked him even more. This sc.r.a.ppy little human scrunched up her face, balled up her tiny fist and struck him! As ineffective as a gnat brus.h.i.+ng his supernatural flesh, her blow, but still it shocked him out of his laughing fit and he wiped his face dry with his immaculate handkerchief.

After regaining his composure,he asked her name, willing her to answer, even though she did not wish it.

"Joanna, and what's yours?"

Why would she want to know the name of her death?

Contrary to his own set of rules, he revealed himself to her.

"My name little one, is Colin, and I am about to prove to you that your fabled vampires most certainly do exist."

Her pulse quickened as the fear took root. He calmed her with a few hypnotic suggestions and pushed her, with tender care, onto her back. Straddling her body, he peered into her eyes rendering her immobile with his mesmerizing stare...

The tingle started ... first between his eyes, then behind them and farther, deep into his brain. The girl's eyes widened at that moment as if she knew she caused his discomfort. For a brief second, he felt as if she entered his mind.

He shook his head trying to stop the tingle and succeeded to some extent, but a mild headache remained behind to distract him. He refused to be swayed!

Ben felt the headache and same confusion that Colin felt when the event actually happened. It distracted him for a moment also but the blood called him back ... into Colin's past.

Baring his fangs, he moved towards her neck expecting to see revulsion or fear on her face. What human would not be repulsed once they discovered his true ident.i.ty? This one. She smiled up at him, her eyes a bit glazed and her smile lopsided, too deep in his trance.

"Joanna, I am a vampire." Amazed, his voice rose.

She lifted her arm with great effort, breaking through the trance, then touched his hair!

"UGH!" He grunted when the tingle returned full force and vibrated his skull. She caused it, no doubt about that now. Amazing!

Examining her lovely face up close, something warmed inside his chest and he almost felt like crying. So many years without tender human contact...

He remembered something his creator told him, when the right one comes along you will know without a doubt it is she. If there were a female on this planet with the genetic anomaly, he would know it. Could the tingle he felt be his signal? Was that what Linnea meant? Was Joanna one of his kind? Could she be transformed as Ben was transformed? Did her young pineal gland produce the special hormone that would allow her to become immortal?

Just looking into Joanna's eyes, he knew that inside he would find her personality as lovely as her physical appearance, and he decided in that instant to do it. In a flash, he unb.u.t.toned her blouse to expose the tender flesh above her heart."You are my chosen one, Joanna."

Then he bent and drove his fangs through the skin above her left breast and drank, his saliva entering her bloodstream with his first swallow.

Ben fell over on the floor. Blinded, he groped for the blood source he had lost.

"Benjamin! Come around!" The creator's command brought him out of his swoon and he sat up, blinking his eyes as Colin's face came into focus.

"But the story.... it hasn't ended.... how does it end? How am I able to know your thoughts as well as see your actions? Please allow me more...."

"You were draining me, young one. The hallucination was too strong and you were drawing from me as I did from Joanna. Too much of my centenarian blood will make you ill, as you are but an infant in our world."

Comical, the extreme disappointment on his young one's face. If anything ever defeated him, it would be his curiosity.

"I will tell you the rest, Ben, if you wish to listen."

Perking up, Ben smiled and clamped his hands together. "Yes, yes, please do!"

Colin leaned back in his comfortable armchair, lowering his sleeve over the puncture wounds as he spoke.

"I left her with enough blood to live. So strange, I had no need to kill that night, even though it was a full moon. The drink from her contented me, filling me as never before. Then, I removed her memory of me but commanded her to return here to the thicket ...

thirteen years from that night, during the week of the full moon. I buried the command in her subconscious. The part of the command that you witnessed, when my name came unbidden from her lips, was the moment the moon became a true full moon.

She was told to call for me by name at that time and it was a bizarre coincidence that you had your child fangs in my chosen one at that moment."

Colin sighed, burying his momentary resentment. "A bizarre coincidence indeed."

Ben tried to hide his discomfort over his horrible mistake by adding a cheery lilt to his voice. "But why did you wait so long?

Thirteen years?"

Colin sighed again. "You are really too young for this information." He gazed into Ben's open face and could never imagine betrayal there. Even the young one's accidental taste of his chosen one could be forgiven, had been forgiven, so why not pa.s.s his secret on?

"Have you ever noticed the absence of female blood seekers? Most likely you would not have because you have not seen many of our kind. Females almost always die when conversion is attempted. The lonely male centenarians, myself included, make other male children to keep them company until those children leave the nest as centenarians themselves. This information must not leave this room Ben. The others would destroy you and everyone around you for it."

He paused, watching his child to make sure he understood the real danger in this knowledge. Then he s.h.i.+fted in his chair, re- crossing his legs and brus.h.i.+ng a bit of lint from the knee of his tailored black slacks before he went on.

"I know of one female in existence."

Ben's eyes grew large.

"She is very old and very powerful and much sought after by the older males. Jealous centenarians who wanted her for themselves destroyed her own mate and maker. Linnea told me how her creator made her and that it must be the only way to convert a female. He chose her at a young age like Joanna, but when he came back the next night for the second bite, she fled. Being very strong-willed, she overcame his mental block and recalled everything, so she fled before he returned for her the next night. She traveled the world to escape him and relentlessly he followed. Jeremiah was a very determined centenarian and he was determined to have her.

Finally, thirteen years later, he caught up with her, here in this wild and untamed land that we now call America, and as you young people would say-he got her good. He drained her to a very weakened state and brought her to his home.

He would not rely on hypnotism this time, so he kept her prisoner until her strength built up enough to bite her the subsequent times and infuse enough of his saliva in her bloodstream to keep her alive through the metamorphosis."

Ben listened, his face rapt with excitement. It was rare for Colin to talk for any length of time, but when he did it was utopia.

Colin could feel Ben's excitement and he felt the thrill of Jeremiah's conquest himself as he told the story.

"She fell in love with her vampire captor and she feels that this love pulled her from the jaws of death as she lay drained of blood."

Colin's voice dropped to a whisper and he stared through the doorway towards where his chosen one lay waiting. Would it work for him, or would she die like all the others?

"But still, Colin, what has the thirteen years have to do with her survival? Is it a magical number? Lucky for us as it is unlucky for humans?"

"We can only guess that in females, the estrogen which of course is in lower quant.i.ties in males, binds with our lamiartis since the two hormones are closely related. I have discovered much about this since my original meeting with Joanna. Over the centuries, Linnea studied our physiology. I cannot discuss her methods with you, but believe what I tell you for it is true. Is that understandable to you, young one?"

Ben stood and stretched his cramped legs as he turned towards his creator.

"So really what you're saying is that this female vampire, Linnea, thinks estrogen kills our vampiric hormones, what did you call it, lamiartis? And, that means we are vampires because of a hormone?"

Colin stood also and looked down at Ben.