The Keeper of Darkness (Ch. 3, pt. 1 - ‘Eternally Yours’)
downtown NYC, 2013
I came here often in order to lose myself in the flashing lights and the pounding rhythmic beat of the music.
It was always a good place to pick up a boy too; they all seemed to be quite happy to leave with me whenever i asked, and i do so like takeout.
I was trying to key in on a suitable victim, preferably some macho lady killer type with a huge ego, when i suddenly became aware of something unusual.
In the midst of all of these sinners, i felt a different presence. Even through the heat and the noise and the clutter of hundreds of heartbeats, i could distinctly feel that there was one heart that beat differently, a heart that beat true, a heart that beat with perfect unspoiled purity.
I hadn’t felt this from anyone in many years.
This was a heart that was childlike in its innocence, yet fully formed. It was a contradiction, an oxymoron, it was a total impossibility … and yet there it was.
I could feel it beating, so it was definitely real.
I certainly wasn’t dreaming; you have to sleep in order to dream like that, and i haven’t slept for a very long time.
How i envied the girl who possessed this pure heart.
Once, i had been the same as her, but that was before the accident that had left me so near death that it had taken a vampire’s kiss to save me.
Now i wanted desperately to hear my own heartbeat again, to feel it beating in synchronized time with hers.
Of course, that would never happen.
My heartbeat had been silenced long ago when i became the creature of the night that i am now.
This thought only made me want to find the girl whose heartbeat i could feel pounding rhythmically throughout my whole body now all the more.
It was as if her heartbeat had taken the place of my own and for just that one brief moment i felt truly alive again.
I had to meet her face to face; nothing else mattered at that instant, not even the familiar insistent hunger which had begun to consume me once more.
I searched the club, homing in on the sound of her heart, passing writhing bodies covered with sweat as if they were phantoms, my urge to feed subsumed by the overwhelming desire to meet her.
I could feel her presence now; i was getting closer.
With my heightened senses, i could even smell her. It was a sweet yet spicy odor, like a pumpkin spice or gingerbread latte from my favorite coffee shop.
I was getting high on her scent almost as though i’d taken a drug, and i could feel everything she was feeling, the blood coursing through her veins, the flush of her heat, the slightest hint of perspiration on her soft body, and the music pounding in her ears, taking her outside of herself.
There was something else drawing me to her also now; as i got closer, i could feel a need beginning to build inside of her.
And then suddenly there she was, standing right in front of me.
I saw a slender wisp of a girl wearing a short red and black plaid mini with a black chiffon and lace ruffled hem and a tight black sheer long-sleeved scooped neck top, with a black microfiber bra underneath and a fitted black velvet blazer over it.
Black over-the-knee socks, and a pair of black Converse Chuck Taylor high tops decorated with intricate designs in silver ink on her feet.
It was like she was wearing a Gothic Lolita version of my own schoolgirl outfit!
Her hair was a glossy dark brown shade, so dark it was almost black; the same color as Hannah’s, i thought, only straight, not wavy.
Metal rings pierced her lower lip, and they glinted in the light with a bluish glow.
They almost looked like fangs right then, although her beating heart was proof enough that she wasn’t actually one of us.
She was swaying in time to the music with her eyes closed.
As i stood there before her, i was captivated by her appearance, but even more so by the pure quality of the soul I sensed within her.
Then, as if she was suddenly aware of my presence, she opened her eyes and looked straight into my own.
Her eyes were like clear brilliant blue pools of water, and i felt as if i was drowning in them, in her pure essence.
She and i would have been the same height if i hadn’t been wearing heels, but as it was, she had to look up slightly at me.
I liked that.
She smiled at me, and her smile was so bright it was as if the sun had risen in this dark club.
The sun, which i hadn’t even had a glimpse of for almost half a century, was there in her smile and it made me realise just how much i had actually missed seeing the sun rise.
She did actually have fangs too, although hers were only cosmetic, LOL.
‘OMG, a sweet little wanna-be vampire girl gets to meet the real thing,’ i thought, laughing to myself. ‘This ought to be fun.‘
“Hi! I’m River,” she said, still swaying to the music, her eyes locked with mine now. “Do you want to dance?”
I could feel her heartbeat quicken as she said that, the sharp intake of breath, a little more warm flush to her body; all the signs of attraction were quite plain, and i hadn’t even tried to enthrall her yet.
This connection was real, and i wasn’t used to it.
In fact, the last time i had felt so irresistibly drawn to someone was the night i first met Hannah, and that had been almost half a century ago.
Normally, i would have used my power to make a person attracted to me, and of course then they would have no other choice, but this young girl was a rare find. She was a true innocent, and i had no intention of spoiling that in the slightest.
Her feelings would remain her own. I was just incredibly happy that she had chosen to like me of her own free will.
I was not above putting a tiny suggestion into her head, though.
“I’m not much of a dancer,” i replied. “You seem thirsty. Can i buy you a drink?”
“Sure!” She nodded emphatically.
Without another word, she took my hand in hers and we headed towards the bar. When we got there, i waved to the bartender, a girl with long purple hair and a nose ring.
"Orange Whip?" i asked River, and she nodded a yes.
“Becca, can i buy you a drink also?”, i asked the bartender when she came over to where we we were standing at the far end of the bar.
Another nod, from Becca this time. “Three Orange Whips, then?”
I had a feeling that River would enjoy something a little sweet, and i loved Orange Whip cocktails myself.
Hannah says that i have a ‘sweet fang’.
“Sure, Cool! Comin’ right up!”, Becca replied with a bright smile.
Becca was OK. She knew Hannah and i were ‘night people’, and she accepted us for what we were. She didn’t have a problem with freaky … her words, not mine.
As Becca prepared our drinks, mixing them in a gleaming polished steel shaker, River looked at me and asked, “Why did she call you cool just now? I mean, not that you aren’t or anything, but … ”
I laughed. “Oh, it’s an old joke. My real name is Erica, but no one has called me that in … well, forever, really. Everyone just calls me Cool. I used to say ‘cool’ all the time … ‘She’s cool, he’s cool, that’s cool, it’s cool’… then people just started making fun of me, calling me Cool. And it stuck.”
Smiling, i said, "You can call me Eri if you like."
Becca poured the drinks into two glasses and set them in front of us.
In her thick New Yawk accent, she said, “Here ya go, girls… enjoy!”
She gave us a big smile and added a sly little wink at me as she did.
I smiled back at her, and said, “Oh, i’m sure we will. Nobody here mixes a better Orange Whip than you do, Becca!”
“I’ll have mine later when my shift is done,” she said, deftly scooping up the cash i’d laid on the bar with a practiced flourish before moving off to take drink orders from some customers at the other end.
“Your friend’s name is Becca?”
“Yes … why do you ask?”
“Oh, I knew someone else with that same name once; we weren’t friends though …”
She sounded a bit sad now as the sentence trailed off so to help change that mood i slid one of the tall glasses over in front of her.
She raised it to her pretty lips, took a sip, and then sighed contentedly.
“She does make a great cocktail, Becca does,” i said softly as i drank from my own glass.
River nodded in agreement as she took another sip.
“Oh yeah ... I could def get used to these, Eri,” she said with a little giggle.
Thursday night was always busy and the club was packed so River was pressed up against me as we stood together at the bar. It was nice to feel her warm body, to take in her intoxicating scent up close, to hear her heartbeat.
She was so alive, and i wanted her more than i had wanted anything in a very long time. It seemed like i wasn’t going to have to force her either; she clearly was beginning to want me also.
Leaning over a bit so that i could speak directly into her ear over the loud music, i said, “What do you say we finish these drinks and get out of here? I’m dying for a smoke, and we have to go outside for that.”
River nodded. “Okay. I don’t smoke, but I’ll come keep you company while you have one.”
It didn’t take us long to finish our cocktails; they were cold, they were delicious, and they went down easily.
Setting the empty glasses back on the bar, we headed off towards the exit.
