Tales of a Night Walker By Bert McKenzie Copyright 2010
Chapter 5
Sarah stood, staring at the two of us as we quickly stepped apart. "I wouldn't harm him," I said quietly.
"I thought...you were about to..." I could see the tears in her eyes.
"I am so sorry," I apologized, turning from them.
"Lighten up, sis." David said. "It was only a hug."
I quickly left the room and returned to my attic abode and spent the rest of the night in contemplation. I decided I must find another place to hide out, one where I would not endanger my friends, and where I could stay away from the forbidden lust I felt for Sarah's brother. I must remind myself that this is why I was living this half life.
Morning came and I heard the stirrings of life in the house below. I sat quietly in the dark of my room for a long time and tried to plan what I would do. Perhaps after the sun set again I could go out in search of someplace else to be. I must find a job so I would be able to rent an apartment on my own. After a time a soft knock came from the door. I ignored it wishing whomever it was to leave. But again it came, a gentle tap. The knob turned and I heard Sarah call my name. "Jeff, may I come in?" she asked. I wanted to forbid her, but after all, this was her home, not mine.
"Yes, of course," I responded. She opened the door and came up the short flight of stairs to my attic room.
"I am so sorry I over reacted last night," she apologized. "I guess I'm just a little too protective when it comes to my brother."
"Don't apologize," I responded, looking guiltily at the floor. "You were right to be concerned. I may have hurt him without even thinking. Such as I am, I don't know what to expect. Sarah, I am not human, and none of us can be allowed to forget that fact."
She sat on the top step at my feet. "Don't say that. You are gentle and kind. Just because you have an unusual condition..."
"Your brother told me last night that you were romantically interested in me." There, I had blurted out part of my concern.
"Well, who wouldn't be?" she responded after a moment of silence. "You are attractive, strong, kind and gentle. And you are a great friend, companion and protector. Of course I have a bit of a crush on you. But I also know that you don't feel the same way. That's okay. I love you, Jeff and if it's only as a sister, that's okay too."
"Sarah, I would never do anything to hurt you, and if staying here is giving you some sort of false hope for a future for us then I had best find someplace else..." She quickly reached out and placed her finger to my lips.
"Don't even think it," she admonished. "I won't hear of you leaving. You're my vampire and I'm not going to let you go out into the night of the 20th century alone and unprepared for a world you can't even imagine." She laughed a gentle laugh. "Besides, who else is going to drink all that pig's blood I just stocked the refrigerator with? Now come downstairs and let's have a long talk. I think we both scared David last night. He probably has all the wrong ideas about us, and certainly about you."
"What can you possibly tell him?" I asked.
"I think it's time for the truth. After all, if we are going to be a family, he has a right to know." She took my hand and pulled me to my feet, bringing me down the stairs and out the attic door.
"Sarah, I'm not sure you should tell him what I think you want to tell him," I cautioned as we came into the darkened parlor, but she ignored my protest.
"Okay, what's up?" David asked. He was sitting on the couch watching the television box.
Sarah reached over, turning the knob flipping off the set. "We have a lot to explain," she began.
"Well I know things are pretty strange around here," he said as we sat in chairs opposite him. "You have a new boyfriend who sleeps in the attic, drinks pig's blood and keeps the shades drawn. Either he's a psychopath, hiding from the police or some sort of creature from a B movie, no offense," he said with a glance to me.
"None taken," I replied, not having any idea what the reference meant.
"You're partly right, Davey," Sarah said. "He's not a psychopath. Jeff is one hundred and fifty-five years old. He's a vampire."
David began to laugh, and then he stopped and looked shocked. "You're serious. You really think this guy is... oh my God, Sarah. He's just..."
"I'm afraid it's true," I admitted. "My father tried to murder me in 1823. But instead, the creature he found to do the job turned me into the living dead. That is why I drink pig's blood."
David's face was one of incredulity. It was obvious he did not believe us. "Didn't you wonder at how cold he was?" Sarah asked. "Or why we keep it dark in here?" "Well..." We could see that her brother was beginning to doubt his certainty that this was some sort of joke. "I guess I'm off after all. I thought he was gay, but he's just a two hundred year old vampire." The hysteria began creeping into the edge of his voice.
Sarah suddenly turned to look at me. "David, you thought he was gay?"
"I'm only 155, and do I not understand that term?" I asked. "You said your brother was gay. I thought it was because he laughed and smiled so much."
Sarah began to laugh. "No, Jeff, today the term gay means a homosexual." She saw the blank look on my face as I tried to digest what she was saying. "You know, someone who likes people of the same gender. Surely you had homosexuals in your time."
I quickly stood and walked to the window, staring at the drawn curtains. "Jeff," Sarah said firmly. "I know it was probably thought to be a very bad thing in your time, but there are some people who are just that way. David didn't mean to insult you, and I won't have you treating my brother badly because of his preference for men."
I turned and looked at David, his face still a picture of confusion and disbelief. Sarah's brother seemed so normal, not an abomination. "You are a homosexual, and you admit it openly?" I asked him. I then turned to Sarah. "Your brother likes men? And you find this acceptable?"
She nodded, a frown still lining her brow. "You had better not say anything negative about it. I know you were brought up in a different culture, but I won't stand for any bigotry."
"But that was why my father hated me, and why I was cursed," I said, astonishment in my voice. "My father caught me in the arms of another man."
"You're gay?" she exclaimed. "That explains so much."
"I knew I wasn't off," David laughed, and then quickly looked concerned. "But what's this shit about being a two hundred year old vampire?"
"One hundred and fifty-five and it is true," I admitted. "I've spent the last one hundred and thirty-two years locked in a crypt. My first act when released was to murder a man."
"It was the guy who tried to rape me," Sarah quickly added. "I told you about that."
"You didn't say he murdered the guy!" David quickly stood and began to pace the room. "You guys are putting me on. This is some sort of crazy joke."
"Leave it to me to fall in love with a gay vampire," Sarah muttered, more to herself.
I fell into a chair beside Sarah just as David fell back onto the couch. "This is quite an astounding world I've come into," I said to them in astonishment.
"I guess we deserve each other," Sarah laughed after a moment. "We are truly a confused family. I have one younger brother who is gay and an adopted older, much older brother who is a gay vampire"
"So you really think you're a vampire?" David asked with a slight tone of sarcasm in his voice. "Do you kill people and suck their blood? Should I be worried?" I told him the only person I had ever killed was the man who tried to assault his sister. Since then I had been a strict 'vegetarian,' living on pig's blood. David just laughed. We talked long into the afternoon. I told them the whole story about Armand and my father. Sarah just shook her head. David told us about his feelings, how he had always felt different. What a strange new world we lived in. "Well I'll give you one thing," David finally said. "If you aren't two hundred years old, you sure do know your history."
"One hundred and fifty-five," I corrected him for the third time, causing both he and his sister to burst into laughter. David suddenly got an excited look in his eyes. "Tonight, you and I are going out. I can't wait to take you to private club I know." He explained that this was a place where lots of gay people socialized. I wasn't sure this was a good idea. I was, after all, a vampire. Not only did I have urges toward other men, but I had urges toward blood lust that I had to keep suppressed. I had been doing what I thought was a good job of fitting into this strange new world, but how was I to behave in an establishment full of uninhibited men. The truth was I wasn't sure how to act around these humans. I may be one hundred and fifty-five years old, but for all that, I was still a virgin in many different senses of the word. How different my life would have been if I had been born into this century.
David hailed a cab for us and we headed into the heart of the Richmond business district. As we rode along I asked where we were going. "We're going to a bar," David answered. "It's time we went out and had some fun." Sarah explained about the bar. It was a place where a lot of other people with similar interests and tastes socialized, but I was confused. I asked if it was designed for gay people to socialize in, why had she come along. Would she not be out of place? But David just laughed and said she would be our chaperone. She admitted that she had gone with him to this club before and enjoyed music. There were a few other straight couples who socialized there, but the clientele was predominantly gay. Sarah admitted that she often had to go home alone if David found someone else to leave with. This certainly seemed inappropriate to me and I determined that we would all leave together, or at the very least I would accompany Sarah, not letting her leave such a place alone.
There, in the middle of tall office buildings was a door surrounded by ropes of light. A name seemed to be written in a glowing cursive, "The Pink Collar." Sarah paid the driver and the three of us stepped out onto the paving stones. David pulled me toward the door, and soon we entered the establishment, stopping to pay a cover charge at the entrance, and then stepped into a fairyland of sensory stimulation. Inside the door was a dimly lit lounge area flanked on one side by a long bar and the other side by more of the strange ropes of lights surrounding a mural depicting a picture of two men in Greek togas embracing. At the far end of the bar was another huge room with a dance floor. Dim lights lit an area where a large group of tightly packed men were gyrating to a cacophonous sound. It was a cross between a tribal drum beat and the tortured sound of metal being destroyed.
David ordered drinks at the bar and the three of us moved to the room with the dancers, finding seats at a table along the wall. I took a sip of my drink and nearly gagged. It tasted like Scotch, but was so unpalatable that I coughed and choked. "Too strong for you?" David shouted over the noise. I merely nodded my head. I was learning that anything other than blood or water didn't seem to agree with me at all. David grinned and shook his head, no doubt laughing at the thought that I could drink pig's blood from their refrigerator but choked at the taste of alcohol. "Do you want to dance?" he asked.
I was shocked. I'd never danced with a man before. I shook my head. "I don't know how to do this," I shouted back.
"Come on, I'll show you," David insisted and pulled me to my feet and into the crowd. "Follow my moves," David yelled and began rocking back and forth, holding my hands and swinging me around in the tempo of the drum beat. I tried to do the same as the others I saw on the dance floor but felt extremely awkward. This was a far cry from the dances I had attended in my youth. What would Armand and Felicity have thought to see me bouncing in rhythm with this strange crowd?
Many of the other dancers wore skin tight white shirts that looked more like underwear than proper attire for public. I found this even more enticing and tried to focus on David instead of letting my eyes wander. But I kept getting distracted by the constant jostling from the crowd. It seemed that strange men were always bumping up against me. I thought that it was my clumsy dancing that was causing me to get in the way of others, but after I apologized several times, I saw the smiles on their faces and began to realize that the bumping and touching must be intentional. The sound finally died down and holding David's hand, I quickly pulled him back to our table before the loud music, if one could call it that began again.
"David! David Kitterage!" a voice screamed over the sound of the room. We turned to see an older man dressed in a flamboyantly colored shirt and wearing an earring like a pirate waving at David. He quickly made his way to our side and gave David a hug and kissed him on the lips. I was shocked to see such open display and quickly turned aside. To my extreme surprise, no one else in the area seemed to take any notice of this aberrant behavior. "Who is this fabulous creature?" the stranger asked in an oddly musical voice. "Where did you find him? He's gorgeous."
"Neil, this is Jeff, Jeff, Neil." David introduced us and I uncomfortably reached out my hand to shake the newcomer's, but instead the man grabbed me and pulled him tightly against his body, slamming his lips to mine. I pushed him back none to gently and he made an odd sound like a cat in heat. My vampire body reacted violently. I could feel the blood warm in my veins as my throat began to burn and my mouth to salivate.
"Oh Jeffrey, I want to have your baby!" he said. Had I been able to blush I surely would have.
"Cool it, Neil," David warned. He could see my discomfort and perhaps understood the danger this situation was causing. "Jeff isn't used to this sort of place."
"Oh, I am sorry, a straight boy. What are you doing with this old queer, Jeffrey?"
"The name is Jefferson," I corrected him.
"Well if you ever need to try a walk on the wild side I'd love to be your tour guide." The strange man then reached down and grabbed my genitals. Before I could react, he had melted back into the crowd. It must have been obvious that this sort of behavior was a shock to a man from a century out of time.
David quickly pulled me back to the table. "I am sorry about him," he apologized. "I wanted you to see what it was to be gay in the modern age, but I guess you weren't quite ready for that."
"Indeed not," I agreed.
"Calm down, buddy. Your eyes are kind of turning red. It's absolutely spooky," David said.
"Was that Neil?" Sarah asked. "Oh my God, David, how could you let someone like that near Jeff?" She then reached out and took my hand. "Jeff, if you ever want to rip someone's throat out, he's the perfect person to practice on." I could tell she was joking, but I also could tell she didn't like the strange man. They had no idea how close I was to doing just as Sarah had suggested. I took another swig of the alcohol which brought on another round of coughing, distracting me from the wild animal urges I was feeling. If this is what it meant to be gay in the 20th century I wasn't sure I wanted any part of it. Everything seemed a bit too open and exposed. The odd little man was much too forward for my taste, but I had to admit, this was definitely a unique experience.
David excused himself and went off to dance with some old friends he knew and left me and Sarah sitting alone at the table. She asked me how I was adapting to this place. I truthfully admitted that I was having a bit of trouble. There were just too many sounds and lights to allow me to be comfortable. And how could anyone concentrate with that awful sound they called music. It was an overload to my senses making me feel jumpy. She apologized and told me that we could leave as soon as David came back. I looked for him on the dance floor but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Sweety," a high pitched voice called. I jumped and turned to again see the man David introduced coming to the table.
"Go away, Neil" Sarah said firmly.
"Oh I know where I'm not wanted. I just thought I'd tell you that your little brother is in trouble. I saw some guy pull him toward the restrooms and he didn't look like he had to go."
I was instantly alert. "Show me where this resting room is," he demanded, jumping up from the table.
"I'll go get help," Sarah said as she hurried toward the bar. Neil pointed to a dark archway on the far wall. I shoved my way, none to gently through the crowded dancers and entered the darkened hallway beyond.
Inside the hallway smelled of sweat and lust combined with the smells of urine. It was very dimly lit compared to the dance floor but my enhanced vision allowed me to see clearly. There were niches and corners with benches, most of them occupied by men in couples. They were touching and kissing and performing all sorts of acts for which they would be burned at the stake in my era. He had never seen such open displays of debauchery. But I shook my head to focus and followed the clear scent of David. I could tell my friend had come through this room and I continued on toward the back. At the end of a narrow hallway were three doors. One had the word "Men" written on it, and one said "Ladies." I assumed these were interior out houses similar to the bathroom that Sarah had at her home. A continual line of men seemed to be coming and going through the door so labeled. The third door had no such label, but it was the one that seemed to block David's scent, and my path. I stopped beside it and listened for a moment. I had no desire to interrupt if David had willingly joined others for some sort of perverse sexual release.
"You got a lot of nerve showing your face here after last summer," a man growled.
"I told you it was over," he could hear David say.
"I think you owe me, Davey. It's over when I say it's over," and then I heard the unmistakable sound of a fist making contact with something soft, followed by a groan.
That was all the invitation I needed. I grasped the handle and found the door locked, so I simply pushed a bit harder and with a loud sound of splitting wood, it opened. Inside a small storage room was a scene frozen in time. Two thugs were holding my friend and a third man had obviously just punched him in the stomach. Once again time seemed to slow to a crawl as I moved. With an angry growl I crossed the room before they were even aware that the door had opened. I grabbed the man who had just delivered the blow and tossed him back into a wall as if he were a rag doll. I could see the surprise on one to the two thugs' faces as I smashed my fist into one, then the other. Released from their grip, David fell forward into my arms. I gently lifted David and began to carry him toward the door.
Apparently things had returned to normal enough for the thugs to realize what was going on. One grabbed a chair and smashed it over my head, knocking us to the floor. I pushed David into the corner then turned on my attacker, grabbing him by the throat and pinning him against the wall. An animal growl came from the pit of my soul and my lips curled back over my teeth. I could see the fear in the man's eyes and I could feel his pulse beneath my hand. I could think of nothing but ripping his neck open to drink that hot blood. Everything seemed tinged in a red haze. "No, Jeff, let him go," a voice said. I turned to see Sarah pulling on my arm.
Another growl came from my throat and I had to shake my head violently to try and stifle the urges I was feeling. But Sarah held on to me and gave me a rock of stability on which to focus. I slowly relaxed my grip and allowed the man to slide down the wall until his feet touched the floor. "Time for you to go, buddy. You've caused enough trouble here," a big man standing behind Sarah said, and grabbed me by the collar, pulling me back from my intended victim.
"No, he was only helping my brother," Sarah tried to explain, but the big guy shoved us both toward the door. David had already recovered enough to stand there and joined us as we were roughly pushed back into the darkened room beyond. I thought to turn on this large man, but Sarah grabbed my arm and David leaned weakly on my other side, so I allowed us to be pushed out toward the dance floor. Most of the men who were engaged in intimate contacts in the darkened hallway seemed to have vanished, no doubt frightened by the rather noisy altercation.
The crowds on the dance floor parted as we made our way out of the hallway and through the dancers toward the main entrance. I felt as if all eyes were upon us as we passed through the throng, and looking up, suddenly spotted something familiar in the crowd. Deep brown eyes stared at me from the back of the crowd and a pang of instant recognition hit me, almost doubling me over. I blinked and looked again but the owner of those eyes was gone. "Keep moving," the big man said and gave me another shove from behind. I thought again to turn and fight, but Sarah and David pulled and tugged me rapidly toward the door.
Once out into the fresh night air, my head seemed to clear. "David, are you alright?" Sarah was asking her brother as they rested on the sidewalk outside the establishment. I turned to my friends with concern.
"I'll be okay," David said, still holding his stomach. "Let's just go home. I think I've had enough fun for one evening."
Sarah quickly hailed a cab and we climbed in to return home.
"Who were those men?" Sarah demanded as soon as we were settled in the back seat.
"One guy was a persistent boyfriend from last summer," came the answer. "He owns the club. We had a short fling and he somehow got the idea he owned me. It was a messy breakup right before I returned to school." David then turned to look at me. "My hero! Thank you for coming to my rescue," he said. "You must really be fast and strong. I didn't even see you. The door burst open and the next thing I knew I was on the floor and you were holding that guy by the throat."
"You're just lucky you weren't hurt more seriously," Sarah admonished her brother. She then turned to me. "And you could have killed those men. If I hadn't got the bouncer..."
"Yeah, he was a big help," David said sarcastically. "He thought we were the bad guys."
"At least he got us out of there," she said. "Did you see how Jeff had that man pinned to the wall? And he was growling like a wild animal. I thought he was going to kill him." She then turned and gave me an odd look. "What's wrong? Are you okay now?"
"Wrong?" I repeated.
"I know your moods. Something is bothering you. Was it the fight?"
"I thought I ..." I stopped for a moment, trying to organize my thoughts. "I saw someone in the crowd, someone I knew. His eyes anyway..."
"Jeff, you don't know anyone here," Sarah said, gently.
"I know, but for a moment I would swear those eyes. . . They belonged to . . ."
"Who?" David asked.
"It cannot be. I must have been mistaken. The person I thought I saw has been dead for at least one hundred and fifty years."
When we got home, Sarah went right to bed, but David pulled me down onto the couch beside him. "Who did you think you saw?" he asked.
"I could swear those eyes belonged to Armand," I replied, sipping a glass of blood.
"Your lover?"
I let out a strangled laugh. "Lover? We shared one kiss. I saw a lot more than that just walking through that dark hallway tonight."
For a moment my new brother looked at me with a kind of wonder on his face. "One kiss?" he repeated. "Jeff, how many men have you kissed?" David asked.
I was a little shocked. I kept being surprised by the openness of this new era. "Not including that strange man you introduced me to this evening, just the one," I replied.
"And how many girls have you kissed," David persisted.
"Counting my mother and sisters?"
"No, not counting them."
I was acutely uncomfortable with this line of questioning. "Well, actually none."
"What about Felicity, your fianc‚?"
"In my day a man courted a woman slowly," I replied. "We may have eventually shared a kiss..."
"Are you a virgin?!" David had a look of incredulity on his face.
"One doesn't usually speak of such things in public," I answered.
"But are you?" he persisted.
"Yes," came the answer. "You sound as if you think this so strange."
"Well in this day it is. Most guys lose their virginity before they're out of junior high."
"I don't know what junior high is, but we did things a bit more slowly in my day."
David suddenly pulled me over on top of him. "You don't know what you're missing," he said and firmly kissed me on the lips. For a moment I couldn't breathe, not that I needed to. But the room seemed to spin and David pressed his warm, sensual lips to my cold ones. Our lips parted and I felt David's tongue invade my mouth. I was in sheer heaven with the excitement of the moment. I felt his tongue exploring my canine teeth, then dueling with my own as I tried to slide my tongue into his mouth in return. I couldn't believe that another man was kissing me willingly, and with such passion. I felt the burning at the back of my throat and had an urge to bite down.
I broke the kiss and quickly sat up. "What's wrong?" David asked.
"I'm not sure we should be doing this," I replied. Something in the back of my mind nagged me, a hidden bit of guilt left over from my previous life accompanied by the knowledge that I could so easily kill my friend. But David just stood up, took his hand and led me to the bedroom. Once inside, he shut the door behind us and began to remove my shirt while kissing me again.
He slowly and sensuously kissed my pale chest and said, "You are still so cold. I'll have to try and warm you up."
"I'm not sure that is possible," I answered truthfully.
"Let's see if this doesn't warm you," David said playfully and began to undress before me. My body temperature may not have changed, but I could feel the passion rise in me and my body began to respond physically. When David was totally naked, he dropped to his knees and began to remove my trousers. I leaned back against the closed door and gave myself over to another new experience.
Little did we realize that outside our house a pair of soft brown eyes stared up at the bedroom window. The owner of those eyes then made his way to a pay phone. He quickly dialed a number and spoke rapidly into it. "Father, I've found someone you would never have guessed."