Chapter 19 – Aurora
It’s been a long week, and Rorik still hasn’t fucked me.
He’s fulfilling his punishment for kidnapping me, teaching classes to humans about the history of vampires. They’re night classes since Layla felt it would confuse the humans, or possibly scare them, to see a vampire out in daylight.
The reaction to the reveal of the supernatural world has been mixed. There were a few nights of unrest which resulted in the deaths of both humans and supernatural creatures, but for the most part, the humans have accepted that monsters exist and they’re not here to intentionally harm them.
The conspiracy theories on social media are wild. Some mortals still believe it’s all one big prank or that it’s artificial intelligence or whatever other technology there is to create such an elaborate hoax.
I collapse onto the couch with a bowl of grapes and turn on the television to kill some time before Rorik returns home. He said tonight’s his final class before a different vampire takes over.
Every channel seems to be about the reveal. Movie channels are playing classic monster films. Music channels are playing videos that feature mystical creatures. And it’s all the news is talking about… still.
The network news channel that I flip to has a graphic in red across the bottom of the screen that reads: MONSTERS ARE REAL. Vara sits at the news desk in her sphinx form being interviewed by the anchor. Vara’s appeared on air every night since the announcement.
“The incident on Staten Island last night was a result of self-defense," Vara explains. “The wolf shifter was targeted by a co-worker after they revealed themselves as a supe. That co-worker then gathered their bigoted friends and went to the shifter’s house. The humans are the ones who attacked the wolf who then fought back rather than get killed.”
“They shifted into animal form for an advantage,” the anchor counters.
“It was four against one. The law states a supernatural creature can shift to defend themselves if ganged up on.”
“And what about this attempted kidnapping from a few weeks ago?” the anchor says.
Vara’s eyes widen before a video starts playing.
Oh shit.
That’s me.
That’s Rorik holding me after I tried to escape his building.
It wasn’t an attempted kidnapping. Rorik succeeded.
After the video is done playing, Vara and the anchor appear back on screen.
“Was this not a vampire trying to kidnap a human?” the anchor asks.
Vara smirks. “That was simply a misunderstanding. The woman is actually a witch, and the vampire is her lover. They were roleplaying. It’s called primal play.”
My face heats at her explanation. Lovers isn’t entirely correct since Rorik still hasn’t fucked me aside from pleasuring me with his mouth, fingers, and shadows.
“We have a video from that woman explaining as much if you’d like to see it?”
It’s true. They asked me to record a statement after several videos from that night went viral. Vara already warned Rorik to be ready to do damage control, which includes interviews on TV.
Vara taps away at her phone, then tucks it away. “You should be getting it at any moment.”
Okay. That’s enough of me on the news. I pick up the remote and change the channel.
“No. We don’t sleep in coffins,” the woman on television says. It’s Millie and Teddy, giving a tour of their penthouse. “That hasn’t been needed for decades as we now have protective screens on windows that block ultraviolet rays.”
They’ve had plenty of programs like this that featured different species.
It’s to make the monsters appear more human.
They chose wisely too, selecting beautiful, handsome, and charming supes.
Teddy has a golden retriever personality that draws you in.
He’s become so popular from doing these types of interviews that he has millions of followers on social media now.
He does ‘a day in the life’ videos, or live streams where he literally just runs around Central Park at top speed.
Locheran and Farrah are also gaining popularity.
Ahead of the reveal, Vara sent camera crews to interview them about their love story, which was turned into a whole two hour-long documentary.
How Farrah comes from a monster hunter family who wanted Locheran and all the other monsters dead.
It documented the fall of the hunters and acted as a warning to humans who are considering joining a hunting clan.
There are still some out there, but a new group of hunters are captured and charged every day.
That documentary has been viewed millions of times. Humans sympathized with Locheran and Farrah. Not to mention you parade a muscular and handsome gargoyle soldier in front of a camera, you’ll have some of the hesitant ones switching their tune.
It’s all so shallow, yet, for the most part, it appears to be working.
There’s still plenty of hate and violence that has resulted from the announcement. Dozens of supernatural beings have died from retaliatory attacks. Punishments are being handed out, but it’s not doing much to slow down the targeted assaults.
A lot of resistance is coming from extremely religious humans. They’re convinced this marks the end of the world and refuse to accept that monsters deserve equal rights.
I’m about thirty minutes into Millie and Teddy’s apartment tour when Rorik walks in, carrying takeout bags.
“Hello, Little Lamb,” he says, setting the bags on the island in the kitchen where I meet him. “Are you hungry?”
“Depends, whatcha got?”
“Chicken Tikka Masala,” he says as he starts setting containers on the counter.
“My favorite! How did you know?”
He pauses and frowns. “I’m not sure. I just… knew? I had a craving for it as well.”
He sets the dish in front of me along with basmati rice, garlic naan, and a small salad.
“You can eat human food?”
He’s never eaten around me. Actually, I’ve never seen him ingest anything in my presence. Not even blood that wasn’t from my body.
“Yes, I eat human food but not often. It doesn’t digest as fast.”
“So, that means you poop too?”
He braces his hands on the counter and lowers his head.
“Aurora,” he sighs.
“It’s a serious question.”
“I know you’re being serious, and yes, I poop. But only when I eat human food.”
“What about peeing?”
“Yes, all vampires pee. But again, not often. Our bodies absorb blood as energy, but eventually the body will need to get rid of waste, and that’s when we pee.”
He hands me utensils.
“Fascinating,” I say, using the fork to dig in. “Holy shit. This is amazing.”
“It's from a fantastic Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights.”
“You got this all the way in Queens?”
“Yes, because I knew that you’d love it.”
I swallow my bite and ignore the ache forming in the back of my throat and eyes.
“That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me. That I can remember.”
Rorik chuckles and sits down next to me. He takes a bite of his food and hums, something I notice he does when he’s pleased.
“My dear captive, if that’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for you, then I have a lot of work ahead. You deserve everything in the world. I’ll take you to India so you can have an authentic dish.”
“This isn’t authentic?”
“Chicken Tikka Masala is a British-Indian fusion dish. If you go to India, northern India specifically, you’d get butter chicken, or Murgh Makhani.”
“Oh, wow. I had no idea.”
We finish eating in silence. At one point, he sets down his fork and takes my left hand and weaves our fingers together while holding his phone in his other hand, answering texts or emails or whatever else a 3,000-year-old vampire would need to do on a phone.
He absentmindedly rubs his thumb along my forefinger.
When I push my plate away, he sets his phone down and turns in his chair to face me. I do the same.
He brings my hand up to his lips, kissing the knuckles.
“I’m going to fuck you tonight.”
I respond with a choked sound because who the fuck just says something like that?
“Okay.”
Like, what else am I supposed to say?
The corner of his mouth turns up.
“But I want to tell you about my life before you make that decision.”
I blink at him. “You’ve literally had your fingers inside me. You ate me out while I was on my period.”
“That was a dream.”
“It still felt real. I’m just saying, I think we’re well past me making a decision to fuck you. I’ve already made it.”
He shakes his head, staring down at our clasped hands.
“This is different. I need to tell you about all the horrible things I’ve done. You need to know.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.” He doesn’t answer. He just keeps staring at our hands. “Okay. Then tell me.”
He stands, tugging my hand to indicate that I follow him. He sits me down on the couch, then takes the oversized chair diagonal to me. I frown at him for not sitting next to me. Is he worried? Does he think I’ll hate him for what he’s about to confess?
If I can forgive him for kidnapping me, then certainly his past won’t scare me away. Especially since he seems to be a changed vamp.
“I can’t remember much about the night I was turned. What I do recall is waking up with an undying thirst, fangs, no heartbeat, and cold skin. I was convinced I had died and had woken up in hell.”
He pauses to swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“Since my memories were taken, I didn’t know where I was or who I was.
So I started walking. I needed to find water.
Food. Something to quench this… hunger and thirst that was near debilitating.
I stumbled upon a home less than a mile from where I woke.
It was a two-story cabin with smoke spiraling from the chimney. The smell coming from the home…”
He chokes on his words.
“It was the most appetizing smell I’d ever come across.
I knocked on the door, and a woman answered.
She was beautiful. Short and thick with long, wavy strawberry-blonde hair.
‘Rorik?’ she’d said. ‘What happened to you?’ She opened the door, and I stumbled in.
Two little kids ran up to me, hugging my legs. This was my family.”
Oh no.
Oh God.
I don’t like where this is going.
A single tear falls down his cheek.
“I killed them, Aurora. All of them. My family. My wife and children—”
“That wasn’t you—”
“It was!”
I jump at his raised voice.
“They pleaded with me. Begged me to stop. I couldn’t. And I didn’t want to.”
I reach out to him, but he stands abruptly and walks to the wall of windows. He stares out into the night, only the glow of windows from nearby buildings lighting up the view.
“Over the years, my memories returned, but most of what I learned about my life before the turn was because of my wife’s journals.
She documented everything about our lives.
My name. Her name. Our kids’ names. My date of birth.
What I did for a living. I was a farmer.
A wealthy one. My wife’s name was Kassandra, and our daughters’ names were Eleanor and Natasha. ”
He’s silent for several minutes, but I wait, because I know he’s not yet done.
“We lived in Dacia, or modern-day Romania. I went on a rampage, entering every house I stumbled upon for miles and killed the people inside. Nothing made the thirst go away. After what had to have been my hundredth kill, a witch found me. She was able to suppress the hunger for a few hours. She tried to help me. Tried to reverse whatever this… curse was. That’s what she said too.
That it was a curse. She said I reeked of it.
Of black magic. But nothing worked. And the spell to curb my thirst faded.
I killed that witch. I killed a lot of witches over the years, all of whom were just trying to end my terror. That’s why they despise me.
“I tried to keep my victims alive, but it was impossible. My thirst was unending. Unbearable… And it took me about 300 years before it lessened enough that I learned to control myself. 300 years and hundreds of bodies later.”
I stand and approach him from behind, wrapping my arms around his waist.
His entire body shudders as he places his palms on my forearms. I kiss his spine, and he sighs.
“I tried to end my life. I did everything imaginable. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, because nothing worked.
I had to accept that I was invincible. Immortal.
But immortality is rather boring and lonely.
So, by my 800th year on this earth, I began experimenting.
I wanted to create someone like me. I met a woman named Portia.
She was one of many women—and men—I met.
Many who I fucked and drained. I enjoyed it too.
I enjoyed feeling their heartbeat slow while my cock was still deep inside them.
But Portia was different. She wasn’t terrified like the others.
She seemed to thrive on my madness. So, right as she was on the brink of death, I gave her my blood. That’s how I sired my first fledgling.
“Portia became more uncontrollable than I had been. She not only killed every human she encountered, but she went on to turn dozens of vampires. Those vampires turned others… The undead population grew too quickly, to a point that I had to kill Portia and any other vampire I could find. But it was too late. I couldn’t get them all. ”
He huffs a laugh.
“Did you know the word vampire didn’t emerge until the 1700s? We were simply called bloodsuckers. Or drainers.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I whisper. “This life. You were turned into a monster against your will. You were the first of your kind. How were you supposed to know how to control something that never existed before? You learned. You said you—”
He peels my arms and walks off to the side of the room to a large floor to ceiling bookcase. He picks up a knife and flips it over in his hand.
“I didn’t learn. I still claimed innocent lives.”
“But when was the last time you did that? When’s the last time you killed someone who didn’t deserve it?”
He sets the knife down and shrugs. “A hundred years ago maybe?”
He stalks back over to me, taking my face into his hands.
“You should stay away from me, Little Lamb. I should leave you alone because I don’t deserve you. Everyone who I love ends up dead. I don’t want that to happen to you.”
“It won’t happen to me. Rorik, I don’t understand.”
“I was mated to two souls a very long time ago.” He releases me, his face falling. It might be the first time I’ve truly seen him sad. “And I’m the reason they’re no longer alive.”