Keeper of the Dead Chapter One

Part One: Rise of the Champion

Chapter One

"How did you learn about me?"

At such a question, I gleamed a pearly flash of a smile (just enough for her to see my tiny fangs) and looked down at her, "You were recommended by a close friend-"

"Who, I want a name." Her voice was cold and uncaring, which made me find her even more mysteriously beautiful. By my guess she was no more than twenty years of age. She stood only about five foot five inches tall. I knew that she was getting attention from humans and immortals of each sex as they cast their eyes in her direction. Beauty seemed to radiate from her, though she was casually dressed in a very defining small black t-shirt and a baggy pair of dark denim blue jeans that were cinched up tightly around her small waist. It was obvious to me that she could handle herself very well for her small frame. Currently she stood with her hands on her hips, and one hipbone protruding slightly with attitude. "I believe that he goes by Adam."

Slowly she melted dropping her defensive stance to lean casually against the bar.

"So, what can I do for you - I don’t know your name."

"Marcus, Marcus is my name, my real name. But as I understand it is a bit dated. Forgive me; I have been sleeping for a couple of decades. I need a keeper, however, I have never had one before. You see years ago we didn’t have anything quite like a keeper. Apparently one is necessary in this day and age, what with all of the commotion in the world of the undead now. You will need to explain to me what the arrangement is."

"Typically I work with you for six months at a time, half a million dollars a month, three million total. The concept is simple really; I keep your ass from roasting or being disturbed during the day, and see to it that you are kept safe during your waking hours by providing a secure place to go. There are other stipulations in the contract like being forbidden to feed from me and things that we can go over later."

I really couldn’t help but wonder, "Contract? What, will you take me to court? And without attempting to disrespect you, do you really think that you could fight me off if I wanted to have you?"

"No offence taken, keepers stay in touch with one another via the Internet. If you run out on me, it will get very hard to hire anyone else for a while. About the fighting you off is really the same answer, unless you kill me, then I have a way that in the case of my disappearance, someone that I know will be notified of the client I was serving most recently and they will be tracked. You vampires really do take pretty good care of those of us that are somewhat skilled," She paused to smile, "You won’t want rid of me."

"So does each vampire need to have his own keeper?"

"Some of us will hire out to a small coven, but if you mean random vampires at once no. Why?"

"I have three companions."

She didn’t look happy, "Damn, that will be a stretch. It will cost you, but I guess I’ll do it for a million apiece a month, twenty four million total."

Her long thin fingers went delicately into her back pocket to withdraw a small piece of paper, "Sign here and we’ll have a deal."

I did so and she handed me another small slip of paper with an address in Dallas, Texas and the words ‘sunset tomorrow night’

Thus my first encounter with Michelle Justine came to an end. I have committed it to pen as I always have tracked my journey through eternity. This fills my time and allows me to evaluate my actions so as not to make the same mistakes continually. Though my memory has been improved drastically by my vampiric abilities and I needn't record as my memory does it for me. It sooths me to write. Even the most difficult and rewarding endeavors that I have undergone have and will eternally be committed to this ongoing work. Thus begins the adventure with Michelle Justine.

She struck me as amazing. Everything about her screamed strength and power, though outwardly she was so small of build and femininely attractive. I watched her leave the bar, her hair sashaying deftly around her well-shaped hips. Michelle was a vision, I anxiously anticipated meeting her the next night, but I had to hurry to my traveling cohorts. They waited in the basement of the local warehouse in terror of being found. I was a bit frightened myself. Lauren was pacing the floor impatiently. His long black hair was flowing free around his shoulders. Lauren always looked a little crazy, like a caged wild animal, especially now as he seemed to stalk around. He is much younger than me, but his reckless beauty always has mystified me. Lafayette was sitting quietly near a candle examining the flame and lost in thought. I smiled at the thought of him, Lafayette is so delicate and fragile like a porcelain doll with his blonde hair and exceptionally bright blue eyes. I am certain that without Lauren Lafayette would not survive a year. At first his weakness appalled me and his fragility made me see him as a danger. However, he is the most intuitive vampire I have ever met and I cannot help but fall for him myself. All of a sudden something alarmed me Adrian wasn’t there. "Where is he?"

Lauren looked up as though he had not noticed me come in, "Oh Adrian? He left about an hour ago to feed."

"Why didn’t you stop him? Don’t you know this place is dangerous?"

This time it was Lafayette who answered, "We could not stop him, he wouldn’t hear my pleas for him to wait for your return. All he kept saying was that it ruined the moment of climax knowing that you are ten feet away."

I panicked, now I can admit that. Adrian was my first creation and my first love. Just the thought of anything happening to my Adrian frightened me terribly. I bolted to the street, leaving Lauren to care for Lafayette. Quickly I closed my eyes and waited to feel the presence of another immortal. It wasn’t long before I could feel a pulsing presence of immense power and energy. There were crowds everywhere so I could not use my immortal speed to reach him. The only option I had was to run as a mortal would, which is always cumbersome for me to move my limbs to such physical exertion. Within minutes (not nearly soon enough) I arrived within fifty yards of the power I had sensed back at the church. Since I was not certain that Adrian was the vampire I was close to I had to be very aware, hopefully there was not another so powerful in the vicinity. Slowly I closed in on a slum house, which was always Adrian’s style. He continually sought out the lowest humans to feed from. A young woman saw me and proceeded to approach.

"Hey what’s a high class brother like you doing on this side a town? You lookin’ for somthin’?"

"Actually, yes. I am looking for a companion."

"Well, that happens to be my specialty. I can make you a very, very happy man."

"I’m sorry miss, but I meant a friend of mine, I am really not interested."

She curled her lip and walked off muttering something under her breath I have no desire to repeat. I opened the rotting door and walked into a dimly lit room with molded carpet and dirt caked walls. The body of a young female was haphazardly thrown to my left without a shirt and a bite mark on her left nipple. ‘Yes, this has to be Adrian, he never took the necessary time in his feedings.’ I bent down and bit my tongue hard enough to draw blood and allowed a single drop to come from my tongue onto the bite. After a moment of massaging the bite completely disappeared so I licked up the blood. I resumed the search for my careless child. The next room back was a small dirty kitchen with ants crawling over dishes that had not been cleaned in months. The stench of rotting food emanated from the sink that had not been an equally long time. Only one more room, he had to be back there. Upon opening the door I found him. He stood over the bed and held a young woman upside down to him feeding from her inner thigh. She was wearing a filthy little dress that reeked of sweat and semen but it was pulled up under her breasts to expose her sex and stomach. She was drunk. "Adrian,"

He opened his eyes to bat his eyelashes quickly and stopped suckling the sliced vein. Blood began to slowly trickle down his chin and into his open palm.

"I have always hated it when you interrupt me at my peak."

He dropped the woman on the soiled mattress and wiped his left had off on in. He reached down to rip off a piece of her dress from the neckline down, revealing both full and heaving breasts, to use the cloth to dab off the excess blood from his chin. Now standing at full height he stared directly into my eyes as beautiful and warm as I had ever seen him. His full-bodied chocolate brown hair fell around his chin. My Adrian, his deep emerald eyes, lack of facial hair, defined high cheekbones, and bambi nose, has always spellbound me. Adrian simply stared.

"I didn’t come here because I like to interrupt, I came because we have to leave town tonight. The keeper that Arliquin referred said she would take us in, so we have to be in Dallas tomorrow at sunset."

He continued to stare, but a smile spread wide across his face to expose his small fangs, which made him even more beautiful.

"I know you mean well."

As I turned to leave his arm swung around my waist and mine his. We walked casually back to the church under the stars. I had forgiven him completely by the time we reached the basement. Lafayette was worried and looked obviously relieved when we walked in. Lauren just looked pissed off.

"If I thought Marcus loved me half as much as you I would have taken off too. Did you have fun? You know, Lafayette and I are starving down here; did you bring us a meal? I guess not."

Adrian simply broke away from me to embrace Lauren and kiss him roughly on the mouth.

"I missed you too my love. So glad that I made it home safe to see your lovely face again."

Lauren rolled his eyes but didn’t retort again. Lafayette rose from his seat and as he proceeded to speak all in the room turned to quietly listen.

"So what do we need to do now? What did the keeper say?"

"Her name is Michelle Justine and comes highly recommended, a real professional. She writes contracts for six months at a time, so it isn’t a long-term deal."

"Well, tell us about her, is she good?"

"That sounds like something you would say Adrian, actually, one term of the agreement is that we cannot feed from her."

At this point Lafayette spoke up, "I guess we really don’t have time to be sitting around chatting, and we have to get to Texas soon to find a safe nest for the day."

We all knew he was right and gathered our few belongings. All of our coffins were in storage here in town and there was no way we could take them on such short notice now. We would have to come back later. So finding a safe place to stay would be a challenge. I decided to take Lafayette in my arms, since in his youth he lacked our immortal speed. I halted in a small town several hundred miles from our destination. We easily broke into a small car repair shop. This probably wouldn’t be safe during the day. There was no natural cover outside for miles. I began to panic, the night sky was paling and Lafayette was fading fast. Quickly I hoisted him over my shoulder and headed for an abandoned building in the distance. It was actually an old sugar processing plant. "This will suffice," I said hastily as we rushed through the back door and sought a center office or basement.

Lauren spoke frantically, "I’m slipping quick, so we need to find something." At which point Adrian slipped his arm around him and supported much of his weight.

"Hurry up Marcus, we can’t hold out forever."

I finally found the door I was looking for and swiftly entered with Adrian at my heels. The rotting floorboards caved easily under my hand and the four of us sunk to the bottom of the elevator.

"Good choice," Adrian said though now even he was beginning to lose consciousness, "but there is no time to check for light escapes"

He was gone. I had another several minutes to momentarily do some light checks and cover the other guys with some of the fallen boards before I simply couldn’t stand.

I woke as the day was fading and rose without delay to check my companions, who were all safe. It was just a few moments before Adrian woke so we took flight to collect a meal for Lauren and Lafayette. I was quick with my feeding, and surprisingly so was Adrian. We collected two young boys and ran back to the plant to find Lauren leaning against the back door and Lafayette standing silently watching the stars move across the sky. I have always enjoyed watching Lafayette feed. His boy was positively frightened. Lafayette caressed his face and stroked his hair, cooing him all the while. Once the boy had calmed slightly, Lafayette proceeded to give him delicate butterfly kisses, taking care to never expose his fangs or accidentally graze them across his yielding mortal flesh. He always began his shower of kisses on the forehead and fed from the neck. But even then, the humans never realized what was going on until it was too late. Lafayette was so young to have learned the art of graceful feedings, yet he did so better than even my lovely Adrian. After they finished, we threw the bodies into the plant and retrieved a lighter out of Lauren’s things and set the place ablaze.

"We need to move, we have quite a bit of ground to cover before we reach Dallas, and then we have to find this address. Once again, I took Lafayette by the waist and persisted on our way. It really didn’t take long to reach the city limit, but finding a single house in such an enormous city would be a challenge.

"Not a problem, give me the address."

Lauren casually sauntered into a little restaurant across the street and approached a young woman. Lauren leaned up against the little podium, which she stood behind and struck up conversationally flirting with her. After about three minutes he fished the piece of paper out of his back pocket and she was obviously giving him directions, then she wrote them down and blushed brightly. Lauren leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek delicately.

We approached him at the door as he giggled and nodded his head, "Putty in my hands"

"I’m glad that was fun, did you get specific enough instructions?"

"Of course, couldn’t you see that she was telling me how to get there?"

"Yes, while vampires have an impeccable memory, that only applies when they are paying attention in the first place."

Lauren snickered, "She gave me her number, wants me to call."

I rolled my eyes but we all laughed.

After that it didn’t take long to find the house in a modern, upscale neighborhood. The two-story brick home had few windows, but each had heavily drawn curtains. The landscaping was very traditional, with a large elm tree in the front surrounded by brightly colored flower gardens. The large redwood door didn’t even possess a peephole, this place was a modern vampires dream, and everything seemed to have already been thought of. Of course, Lauren marched up to the door without the slightest observation and rang the doorbell. He was always the recklessly brash one of our little coven. The delightful little southern belle answered the door, this time dressed in yoga pants and a bra top. She ushered the four of us into the house politely. My heeled shoes clicked loudly against the freshly waxed hard wood floor. The entire house was pleasantly lit to a degree, which my eyes felt very comfortable. The walls in the entry hall were painted a brilliant shade of hunter green with a delicate candlelight chandler tight against the high ceiling. She led us into the adjoining room to our left, which contained wall-to-wall bookshelves that stretched to the ceiling. A small writing desk was positioned across a corner facing the front window. There were three overstuffed chairs and a small loveseat positioned in a circle around a small coffee table in the center of the room. Lafayette and Lauren chose the burgundy loveseat; Michelle was already seated in the black leather wingback chair, which was across from the loveseat. That left Adrian and I across from one another in matching navy blue chairs.

"Welcome to my home gentlemen. Yesterday evening Marcus mentioned to me that you have not had a keeper before, so allow me to tell you how this works."

She was about to continue when Lauren piped up, Actually, Lafayette and I have, Adrian probably has too."

"Yes, I have."

"Well, gentlemen, I am most likely a bit different in how I keep my household and Marcus hasn’t ever done this before. So it would be wise to go on and listen to the ground rules that I have for you while we are together."

Lauren spoke up again, "Ground rules? I though you just housed us?"

Michelle was obviously growing impatient, I shot a look at him and he finally seemed to get the idea.

"Like I said, I do things a bit different. In light of the undead conflict escalating I require certain information. But before we get to that you would probably like to know more about your surroundings," I nodded in agreement as she continued. "The curtains are actually in two separate layers and on separate curtain rods. The fabric is the thickest purchasable; believe me, no light gets through. Each of you has your own bedroom during your stay here. There is a door in the floor in a different place in each room that will lead down to separate chamber rooms. The rooms below are hardly big enough for a full body coffin. I will replace any moved furniture every evening and retract it again before you wake, that way no one will know who stays where or when. There is a fireplace further back in the house but the only other natural fire is in the front entryway. I live upstairs; you are not permitted up there. Any questions about safety precautions?"

She paused for a moment, Adrian spoke, "What about locks?"

"Oh, yes, I completely forgot. To get in your coffin rooms there is a seven-inch solid metal door with a keypad. I will give you all the instructions and you will set the codes yourself. Upstairs under lock and key is a master code to your vaults that randomly alternates every thirty seconds. I assure you that is only for the direst of case of emergencies. The front door will always stay locked and I change the locks with each new client, each of you will be given a key. Does that answer your question?"

He nodded and she continued on. "I realize that you are independent creatures, but you are paying me to be like a mother to you, so I must demand certain things. First of all, you must stay under this roof and in the same room every night. If for some reason you won’t be coming in one night I cannot be held responsible. The other is a bit more challenging. I have to know where you go and your feeding patterns."

"Excuse me?" I was simply aghast, "You expect us to plan where we go and exactly where we will be feeding? Don’t you think that is a little far?"

"I know a couple of other keepers," Lauren was standing up and out of the chair, "we cannot be expected to do that."

Adrian looked at me disapprovingly as well. "The door isn’t hard to find," she gestured toward it, "you won’t hurt my feelings. But there is a reason my prices are high and demands are steep. If you weren’t high risk you wouldn’t need it. I have asked around the campfire about you Marcus, the way I see it, I am the one being generous by accepting this job."

I knew she was right and motioned for Lauren to once again have a seat. He was infuriated but did so. Adrian was just horror-struck that I was considering staying here another minute; I could see it in his eyes.

"Gentlemen, understand that these demands are clearly extreme but they are not outlandish. Without trying to threaten you, there are others who would be content to give me any information I desire."

Lafayette spoke up "I disagree with the possibility of being required to report in on everything that I do. But with the limited knowledge that we have about what is going on out there, we cannot chance another night alone. She can keep Marcus and us safe. Someday this turmoil too shall pass. Then we can proceed with our blissfully independent lives. We all knew that eternity would change from the day of our birth age. This is merely one blip in our timeline. I believe that this would be worth a try and I am willing to accept these stipulations to keep myself and those I love alive."

We all fell quiet. None of us spoke up to outwardly disagree. Finally after several minutes of silence I clutched the armrests to pull myself out of the chair.

"Miss Justine, I apologize for this little exchange and for you having to listen to it. We will graciously accept your services for the term of contract that I have already signed. Each of us will report to you what you require."

Turning, I looked on each of my loving companions. Lauren was still upset but seemed to except my decision, they all did. This moment, this beautiful moment, I knew that I was loved.

"Well, with that aside, I should like to meet each of you and show you the rooms."

"Oh, how truly rude of us all, I am dreadfully sorry my lady. My name is Adrian Miranda."

He left his chair to bend to one knee gracefully before her and took Michelle’s hand to sweetly kiss the top of her wrist. "I am truly charmed to be in your acquaintance and your home."

She smiled pleasantly and nodded to accept his compliment.

"My name is Lauren, this is my child Lafayette. I would greatly appreciate it if you would look carefully after him. He is the youngest and most susceptible of our coven. If you could watch his back it would mean the world to me."

If vampires could blush, Lafayette would have been bright red. Lauren always treated him exactly like a child, yet when I compare the two, I consider Lafayette far more mature. Michelle stood to show us the bedrooms. We walked through the back doorway into a glorious formal dining room; I wondered why she would keep such a room.

"This is my space, but it is also where we can hold meetings." She turned to face us, "After we have the house tour, I would like to meet with each one of you individually. It won’t take long."

Michelle turned away and continued to show us through the house. The next room back was a small but orderly kitchen done entirely in black and silver. There was black tile here, the only place in the house without wood floors. All of the appliances were stainless steel. "If anyone of you has a problem with taking victims, I shall have the blood boiling on the stove when you wake. But we shall cover that individually."

Here she turned through a door on our right into a large sitting room with a tremendous hearth in the middle of the wall to our left. There were several writing desks in this room. "This is your room to do what you will, but you cannot, and I stress cannot, bring your victims here. There is a television in the cabinet across the room, a stereo to your right, anything else that you would like just ask."

The doorway to our right was the entryway by the front door. She sauntered thorough it and instead of turning to the right and the library, she went left into a dim hallway. The entire house must have been very dim to her, but obviously intended to ease our nocturnal eyes. The hall was fairly long; at the end was a solid door with a good seal around it. Inside the room was decorated in bright royal blue and vibrant bright purple. There were two full-length mirrors and a large chest of drawers out of maple.

"Who wants this one?"

I could see the way Lafayette’s eyes were sparkling and knew this was his style, but in his perfectly normal timid fashion, refused to speak up in case someone else wanted it.

"Lafayette, why don’t you take this room since it is the closest to the door and you lack our speed."

He nodded delightfully to my suggestion and Michelle pulled a small notepad out of her back pocket to jot it down. Lauren quickly chimed in to take the next room over. Surprisingly it suited him very well, being decorated very glitzy and richly in white and dark cherry woods. He was very pleased and we continued further back into the house. A narrow stairway began a little after Lauren’s door and curved up to the left. Under the stairs was another door that she unlocked and we all entered the room. It was slightly larger than the two. The bed was of large and heavy construction without bedside tables. The only other furniture in the room was two tall bookshelves, a writing desk and a basic wooden chair. There was no color in the room, aside from the slate gray walls and the wood floor.

"I would like this, it reminds me of home."

Once again she wrote it down quickly and we followed her out of the room but I lingered for just a brief moment, this would be a place where I would be able to roost and call home, finally, a place to feel safe.

A few brisk strides and I caught up with the group in the next room. It was also minimalist, but contained a couple of pieces of abstract sculptures. Adrian shrugged and accepted this next closest room for that simple reason alone; he never cares where he stays. She lead us back to the front of the house and told us that we could peruse the ground floor of the house as we chose while she met with us individually. I told Lauren to go first; which aggravated him slightly but he did it. I returned to my room and sat down into the plush bed, ‘the mattress must be stuffed with feathers,’ I simply sank into it.

"You look comfortable," Adrian was standing in the door, leaning attractively on his right leg with the left crossed over and arms folded across his defined chest, "I haven’t seen you at ease since you woke a year ago."

I rose from the bed to take him in a deep embrace, my Adrian. "The feeling strikes my that good things will happen with her, Adrian, we can finally be safe and watch the world go by."

He smiled gleefully at me and sweetly kissed my nose, "Soon, we can go back for the coffins and your books."

With a quick tender squeeze he was gone and I returned to the bed. As I lie face up staring at the intricacy of brush strokes in the gray paint on the ceiling. An icy shiver went through my body, that design was far too perfect to be human handy work. For some reason it never occurred to me that other vampires had been here, of course they had, but I never thought of it. ‘Stop worrying, we will be safe with her. She will take care of what we cannot.’

Slowly I slipped into a pleasant daydream of humanity in the land of my home. The freezing wind was chapping my face and curling my fingers, my brother was with me. We stood, watching the snowfall over the village square. Of course the fountain had frozen over and the birds were frolicking about on the ledge. Occasionally as men we got together to spend time but we did this at every first snow, even as children. Ice crystallizing on my eyelashes and making it hurt to blink.

Suddenly, Lafayette was at the door. "We have all spoken with her Marcus." He was very pale; I knew that he was waiting for my permission to go feed as it was getting very late. He had to feed every night. "Go and take Lauren with you, I shall probably be tied up too late for you tonight."

He smiled an entrancing beautiful grin and walked away. Casually I made my through the house and into the dining room where Michelle sat at the head of the table across from me. She was twirling her ballpoint pen, threading it through her fingers. The chair was pushed back and a bit to the right so I could see her long sexy crossed legs. Both nights that this woman had crossed my path she has been possibly the most provocative human that I have ever met. Her hair was pulled back tightly into a high ponytail. She gestured for me to sit down. There was a spiral notebook lying in front of her where she was obviously taking notes on us. She eyed me carefully, evaluating my every move. "What would you like to know Miss Justine?"

"First of all, I want to apologize for my attire this evening, I wasn’t expecting you so soon. When you said you had companions I foolishly assumed they were very young." I nodded an acceptance and began to vocalize my opinion that there was no need for such a regret, but she continued to speak. "Lets get down to business shall we? How often do you feed?"

"Well, I don’t like to actually, so only about once a week."

"What kind of people?"

"I try to take those who seem to want it, I don’t know, it is hard to explain. Sometimes the elderly, terminally ill, or runaways are what I will approach first. But I won’t talk to my victims. I’m not sure why, if they see me and smile or acknowledge me I will turn and walk away. It bothers me to take children, they are so beautiful and innocent."

She wrote something down quickly and had a puzzled look on her face.

"What did you just write?"

"Oh, just a little note to myself."

I smiled politely, "I would really like to know."

Michelle put her pen down. "In the several years that I have been a keeper I have developed my own way of classifying vampires. Because of my somewhat adept skills in this line of work, I have worked for small covens many times. I have four types of vampires according to my system; lovers, seekers, bitter victims, and tragic heroes. Lovers simply adore being the immortal thing that they are. They love to feed, love to live, and love the company of immortals and mortals alike. They are easy going and do not waste their time with trivial things. Seekers quest constantly for a higher truth or greater knowledge. Often they daydream constantly and are stereotypically weaker immortals. The strange thing about Lafayette is that he fits this description perfectly, yet he knows that he will never find that greater power that he continues to look for. Someday, I think that contradiction will shatter him. But to continue, bitter victims feed from the high society and try to live as a member of that higher class. They are constantly trying to get back at humanity for what they are. Bitter victims seem to always be irritated or just angry. The last classification is the tragic heroes; that is what you are. They have an innate sense of right and wrong. They love humanity. Strangely they detest their own flaws yet praise and secretly desire the flaws that human beings posses. That is what I wrote down, that you are a tragic hero. That is what confused me. Your group contains one of each of these, which is weird and wonderful in its own right. Vampires typically keep to their own type, not with the polar opposite personality type. Your group contains one of each. But even more unusual is that you, the tragic hero, are the leader. Your type is typically very subdued and passive and stays far from the spotlight of such a commanding role. It is very curious to me."

"You certainly seem to have us all in our respective boxes, and you just met us all."

"How often do you go out?"

"Nightly"

"How far?"

"You know, you could be human about this whole thing. I believe that it is quite clear that this is an uncomfortable process."

"I do believe that you noticed that I am human, you were eyeing me the whole evening we were in the club last night."

"You know what, maybe you don’t understand vampires quite as well as you think you do. We find beauty in all places, in many ways. Believe me, we don’t think you as a person are all that wonderful. We simply require your services, and we just love the human race. I promise, you are not the quality we were looking for."

"Quality? Well, do allow me to rattle off my credentials. I come from a family of first generation keepers. My parents kept two vampires in our basement since I can remember. From the time that I was about seven or eight one of these vampires began abusing me, feeding from me often and using me to achieve his desires. My mother was really the one that kept them and my father just never said anything about it. He was a kind and loving man who loved my dearly. Not to say that my mother didn’t love me, she just always had her own agenda going. When I told them about him bleeding me, my mother didn’t bat an eyelash. She thought I made the marks myself and was lying to stir up trouble. My father however, was all astir. He wanted them out immediately. But she eventually wore my father down and everything returned to abnormal. A couple of days after my twelfth birthday I returned home one evening to find the same vampire feeding from my mother and my father dead in the floor. Since he was feeding, my presence was not noticed. I quietly retreated back into he living room and retrieved the poker from by the fireplace. In the height of my rage I remained cool. Because I just walked into the room and before he cared to turn around I skewered the son-of-a-bitch. Haphazardly, in the process I also stabbed my mother, directly through the heart and killing her instantly. The other vampire handled the situation for me and begged me to continue his care. At the wake he became ‘my long lost uncle’ and we moved away. For three and a half or four years he remained in my care and showed me what was involved in this job. Then one morning he didn’t come back. I waited for almost a month before moving on. He had sown me what I needed to do. I returned to my hometown just outside the Dallas metro and updated my parents home, the one we were in last in Dallas. Most vampires that were looking for a permanent home though wanted a family setting to hide under. The only vampires willing to accept an underage female guardian were the desperate ones. So, I made a living doing this, since I never finished school I had few options open. I poured all the money my father left me into acquiring new residences. Quickly I elevated into the top of the ranks in high-risk vampires. I am one of the most experienced and respected in this sect of the keeper community. I don’t expect you to like me, and you don’t pay me to be friendly. So just let me do my job and leave me the fuck alone!"

She sat back into the chair. Her nostrils were flared, solitary strands of hair from her tight ponytail were coming down to frame her face, and the blood was running to her face; I hated it, but she was still so amazingly striking. I couldn’t stand her, she was too bitter. "It will be a long six months. I hoped this would be a place that I could be happy, comfortable, and safe. Evidently that will not be the case. But what could I really expect, I am quite familiar with disappointment from all my immortal years, you are merely one more to add to the list. Is there anything else that you need to know from me?"

"Just tell me in the evening when you wake if and where you plan to kill. I need to keep track of it to keep my nose clean in the eyes of the local law enforcement."

"Fine. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your evening. Good night, I am going out, I will return before morning. My party and I will need coffins for the first few days before I will have the time to go back retrieve them from storage."

She nodded and I left.

I walked of the house and sat on the curb. This was nothing what I expected it to be. I heard Adrian walk up behind me.

"I take it your meeting didn’t go well."

"She is impossible, she isn’t caring or loving at all."

"Look, we don’t pay her to be a groupie, we pay her to keep us safe."

"I know, but she seems like she could be such an amazing person. Why can’t she like us and like what she does?"

"That isn’t fair for us to expect of her. Just give her some time, she will come around to our charms."

He smiled and lovingly stroked my back as he sat down to join me.

"She is only human, realistically how much help can she be in protecting us against Ardeo?"

"Look Marcus, we cannot fear him forever. You know that you are vastly stronger than he is. She will only give us the essential leverage. You know that Lauren, Lafayette and I are totally behind you. Don’t worry."

"I am not worried about myself, I am concerned about Lauren, Lafayette, and you. I know that you are behind me and I fear that Ardeo will realize that."

"Don’t worry. We will all be fine."

Lauren and Lafayette were approaching quickly and heading for their respective rooms, thankfully neither stopped.

"Adrian, you said that Ardeo was developing a following among us and some kind of cult among human beings. With a following like that we are five against who knows how many, do you really think that we are going to be all right? He could have someone watching us right now."

"You can’t think like this. Come on, let’s go inside and you can take the slight remainder of the evening to unwind and relax."

We walked back into the house in each other’s arms. The rest of the evening casually passed and I moved the bed to go into my day chamber. What I saw put an instant smile on my face. Obviously she had readied the room while Adrian and I had been sitting outside. There were beautiful full bloom flowers everywhere and I opened the cherry wood coffin to find blood red rose petals lining the entire bed. The perfume surrounding me was extremely intoxicating. It was too fun! I actually took my shirt off and laid my skin against the petals. That was the best sleep I have ever had. The next evening I mentioned that I had flowers in my bedchamber, and Adrian had flowers too, but not roses, tulips. Lauren had lilies and Lafayette had gerbera daisies. But none of them mentioned casket flowers so apparently I was the only that had petal lined bedding. Later that night I caught up with Michelle in the dining room burying her head in a journal, which she appeared to be writing in at a ferocious pace.

"Excuse me Miss Justine," she looked up immediately, no doubt she stopped writing mid word, "I was wondering, though I am not complaining, about the flowers."

She smiled sweetly. "I do that the first night with everyone. It sets us off on the right foot and puts everyone in a better mood."

She didn’t mention my casket flowers, but I didn’t want to press the issue. Maybe it was a gesture to call a truce. I just made my exit and returned to my companions.

The next several evenings were essentially uneventful. Michelle was around but we didn’t really speak long enough or about anything important enough to disagree about. Lauren was beaming one evening as he entered my room to find me at my writing desk.

"Guess what we are going to tomorrow."

"I have no idea what you have got us into now."

"The mayor is having a fundraising party for his constituents and we are on the list. I cannot wait! It has been far too long since I have gone to a party. What should I wear? Maybe my velvet suit, retro is really in currently."

"Hold on, what time?"

"When we get up of course!"

"I thought we were going to try to blend in and not make a scene?"

""What harm can one social gathering do? Come on Marcus, it will be fun."

My smile showed him that I had given in. He pranced out and away. So I figured I needed to tell Miss Justine where all of us planned to be. She had no reserves and only asked if we wanted her to come along. In my opinion what harm can a little extra security be, so I invited her along.

Interested in reading more? Check out "Keeper of the Dead Chapter 2"