Thus, I needed a project. And I found one.
I was, as far as anyone seemed able to ascertain (and as long as no one could locate Laucian), the last of the Master Vampires. Well, the last with any sort of claim to authority and power over a race that was now spread across the world. The vampire world was in as much chaotic disarray as were all the other supernatural factions following the disappearance of the last queen of the Underworld, which had led to the dissolution of the old alliances, and the fall of the Underworld itself.
Without the leadership that the Underworld had offered, vampires had reverted to their natural habits; to kill. I will not pretend myself to be any better than I am; I am a reformed killer. But that was then and this was now; the world had become a less violent place and draining humans on a whim was frowned upon. The benign influence of the Underworld had allowed vampires to be themselves, but with limits. The Underworld coalition allowed us to be part of something greater. Now on our own again, we were suddenly once again just killers, and it would only be a matter of time before we became public enemy number one, and the vampire hunters returned.
Someone had to take charge. And the last Master Vampire was the obvious choice.
It had not been easy, but I think it would have been considerably harder if the last queen of the Underworld, Jolie, had not done such a good job. Under her wise guidance, vampires had become more used to working together and being ‘subjects’ of someone. They now welcomed the return of an authority figure, even if what I offered was nothing like Queen Jolie’s rule.
The name I chose for our league was the Vampire Coalition; an independent vampire state. To stop prying mortals from asking questions, I placed my kingdom upon a cruise ship, perpetually sailing around the oceans of the world. It was to be a home for vampires, safe from the interference of any outsiders. Before I knew it, I had enough subjects to require another ship, and then another. Now a small fleet of three, by night you could watch vampires passing between the ships, dematerializing from my flagship the Carpathia and reappearing on the Apuseni or the Calimani. The ships were all named for mountain ranges in the old country—despite my age (six hundred years or thereabouts) I am not a traditionalist myself, but others appreciate this nod to the places where we came from.
The rules of the Coalition were simple:
- No killing of humans.
- No drinking of them without their permission, except in dire need and then not to excess.
- No turning humans into vampires without my personal permission.
Other than that, my subjects were free to do as they pleased, as long as they did not bother me in the process. Yes, I quite wanted to be left alone.
While my subjects were quick to agree to my terms, there was one subject raised—one that became quite an issue; what were they to do? As a species, vampires are long lived and filling such time can be problematic. That problem is increased when the entire population is confined to a handful of ships, and thus unable to terrorize those on the mainland.
It took me perhaps an hour of solid thinking to find the solution to this problem. And that solution was: to have fun. Yes, I believed Epicurus quite had it right when he said the point of life was pleasure. Hedonism thus became my new mantra.
And my fellow vampires were quite pleased to assent to my decree. The fleet of the Vampire Coalition thus became a hedonistic hotbed of sex and blood. It had not been my plan to create a never-ending party cruise, but I took the view that whatever kept my subjects from killing was for the best, and there were worse things to do with eternity than to spend it enjoying oneself.
To feed my subjects, there was a large population of humans onboard. Again, this had been something that initially concerned me, but there was an underground community of men and women who liked to be bitten by vampires and took pleasure in it. When I contacted this underground society, I was pleased to find they were quite well-organized and were happy to help. Periodically they would put word out to their members that we would be taking on new ‘crew’ at this port or that port and people actually signed up to be a living meal for the next few months. And in most cases, those living meals also became sexual meals as well. For all but myself.
This meant there was a regular turnover of humans for feeding, and between meals they made themselves at home and treated the trip as a holiday. Since they were onboard for such a long time, the humans inevitably became drawn into the orgiastic lifestyle—vampires slept with vampires, humans slept with humans, vampires slept with humans, vampires slept with humans and vampires, and some surprisingly complex intimate relationships evolved. In six centuries of life I thought I had seen everything; I had not come close.
This was the Vampire Coalition.
It was not exactly what I had set out to create, but it would do. It was not the Underworld. It did not have that moral purpose of peace between the races. But it kept the vampires happy and out of harm’s way. I was not certain if I was proud of it, but it had taken my mind off my own problems for a while, and running the coalition meant I limited my thoughts of Bryn to merely twenty three hours a day.
It could be worse.
###
“This feels a bit unfair,” pointed out Denise, as we squared up in one of the boxing rings in the gym upon the massive ship. “I mean; I’m a pretty mean kickboxer. I used to do Judo and Krav Maga. But you’re a vampire.”
“I will not come at you full strength,” I encouraged her.
Denise nodded uncertainly, though her face still held a touch of; would it not be more fun just to have sex?
“Come along then.” I darted towards her and Denise backed off, scared by the speed with which I moved. “Fists up. Take a swing.”
After a few rather half-hearted attempts, she began to get into the swing of it, sparring with me as if I were a gym buddy and not a Master Vampire who had drunk her blood earlier and could snap her neck at any moment if I so chose.
“Alright, that is good. Now a little harder.”
“What do you mean?”
“Go for it. As if I were a real attacker.”
Again I rushed her, bluffing a punch, then landing a light one on her padded helmet, trying to goad her into action. Now she responded, throwing some pretty good kicks at me as I dodged from side to side.
“Quite good!” I cheered her on. “Go on! Do not hold back.”
She was the best I had found yet. What the odds against it? To find someone who looked so much like Bryn, whose voice had the same American accent and cadence, whose eyes had that rare sparkling blue, whose cleavage had that firm, familiar bounce. Someone who worked out hard and even knew how to fight one on one, who could throw a punch. What were the odds? In the last ten years I had found nineteen Bryns who had stayed on the ship for varying lengths of time as I drank their blood, sparred with them, and even spent a bit of leisure time chatting with them. Sometimes I tried to recreate specific moments Bryn and I had shared. It always ended the same way though; with the realization they were not Bryn. They had not been close enough.
But Denise? Denise was damn good.
I was actually having fun, adrenalin coursing through me as we fought in a way I had not for so long. I was laughing again, enjoying the company of a woman again. If only…
Deliberately, I moved a beat slow, dropping my guard as if by accident, leaving myself open for a knockout blow. Denise threw the punch, but her fist stopped a hair’s breadth from my temple.