Love Journal of a King

Note: Please note I have no idea about Japanese names, so please just go with it. :)

Chapter Two:

‘It did not take us long to figure out that the hours were different here. We could sense the sun rising and setting, and knew that our way of life was definitely changed for eternity, for now daylight lasted so much longer. Mortals ruled, and as far as we knew, we were the first Vampires to step foot upon this world, or should I say, into this world.

‘It was nowhere near as civilized or advanced as our world had been, and we found the humans to be slow and ignorant of many things but quite savage in nature. It was about 30,000 years ago, and we found ourselves in what we now know as Northern Spain. Lands with small ’campsites’ of humans who used reindeer parts for weapons and materials, along with flint. Understand back then, we had no idea how long we would last in this world, whether we’d endure it, for the humans were in small groups and hardly ever separated. It was extremely hard to hunt, and so we mainly survived off the wild animals of the lands, which were plentiful in those days. We dug tunnels deep in the Earth with our bare hands to have a safe, undetected place to sleep the day away. Many times I would be on the verge of panic as I wondered whether humans here would ever advance to the level our world had been, whether it would be like this always, no large, cosy buildings with comfortable chairs and tables for humans and sorcerers to eat at. Would there ever be fine clothes to wear? Huge, beautiful mirrors to gaze into? I was terrified that this would never be, as I watched the years pass by with unchanging eyes.

‘Though we tried to be clever and fast, many times we were caught red-handed by a few humans who rushed us with their spears and chased us away into the darkness. They didn’t understand what we were, what we had done to their companions, all they knew was that we were predators, and an instinct as old as time itself was set in them to be on guard at all times, against the many predators lurking nearby. They had no fear of us really, not like humans did later on in the more advanced days. It’s kind of funny to think that they knew no fear then, until centuries passed and the rise of Christianity and Islam eventually took over the world, and the fear of witchcraft and demons came into being…and now, in this modern age, it had reverted back to no one having any fear of us once more, though with one difference…they know us but don’t believe in us.

‘Anyway, thanks to our abilities to read mortal minds, it was easy to learn the many different languages of this world as time went on. We took the name ‘Carlos’ as our last name eventually as humanity became more and more civilized,  and chose many different first names through the centuries, but as I have mentioned before, I shall use the names we use now to refer to anyone who appears in my story, to put a stop to any confusion that may occur if I were to list every name we went under.

‘At one point, in 1025 A.D, after years of finally living in secrecy with no witnesses to our thirst for human blood, we were run out of a small town by the humans.

‘The people of the town had chased us with blazing torches ready to burn us, blades ready to cut us. We easily outran them over the hills, into the shadows of the dark, as if the night herself was embracing us and keeping us safe in her cool blanket of blackness.

‘Ruby had loved it, the running, laughing as the mortals tried to keep up and shouted curses at us, condemning us. A part of me found it quite funny as well, that us three powerful vampires were the ones running and hiding now, running from a mob of crazed mortals. A part of me though, was angry, so angry at Ruby for letting herself be seen by them as she fed, uncaring that she was being watched, uncaring that the young boy had run off to tell anyone who would listen.

‘We reached the next town not too long after our escape, and decided to break into the old crypts in the cemetery up on a lone hill. When we were inside, I barricaded the decaying door with the crumbling stone coffin holding the remains of a skeleton.

‘I cannot believe you let this happen Ruby!” I hissed, my silver eyes no doubt glittering with their own inner fire in my anger. The smirk on her lips died and she looked away from me, full mouth turning down into a scowl. “It was just a bit of fun. It has been so long since we have given the mortals a good scare, they need to feel the fear!” she eventually replied, cold blue eyes flashing at me. I stared her down, while Antonio sat in the corner among the cobwebs, clothes dusty but he seemed not to care much. His serious violet eyes were on the cracked stone floor, ears closed off to our quarrelling.

‘Ray, they will not find us! They will not know where we have gone, so we are safe. We have the whole world to travel, the whole world to hide in” Ruby pointed out, long fingers stroking her long red hair over her pale shoulder. I was fuming, but I knew she was right in some ways. “There are millions of these humans now remember? What if they do find out about us? How can three of us defend ourselves against a whole city of humans, that may find our hiding place and hack us into pieces?”

‘She fell silent, unable to form a good answer. I was glad to see it finally sinking in that we had to be more careful if we wanted to live. Secretly, I was still a little overwhelmed by the fact that we were still alive, that we had far surpassed any vampire before us in age and we still had not changed at all from the time we had stopped growing. It happens differently with each of us you see, most of us pure-bloods stop growing between the ages 20 to 25 and some stop before that. Even though we knew we were immortal, had been told so all our lives, had read history of times when immortals lived way over the age of two hundred, a small part of me did not believe it, for I had never seen it with my own eyes. I had never known anyone older than two-hundred years and so had never had any living evidence to confirm it.

‘ “We could make more of us. These mortals are the same as the ones from our world, we could do it” Antonio suddenly spoke from the corner, words soft and thoughtful. Ruby smiled at him triumphantly while I stared at him in horror at such a suggestion. “Do you not remember the old rules? The mortals were not turned in our world for a reason. They could not handle the transformation!” I scolded, turning away from his searching gaze.

‘ “No, we do not live by those rules anymore, we make our own. Besides, these mortals are rulers here, they don’t live in hiding and fear like the ones from our world, and they are becoming more civilized. We should live among them, get to know them, see which ones would make good vampires, for surely these type of mortals can handle it much better than the mortals we knew” he replied with a calm, persuasive tone that I was finding difficult to ignore. Live among them? Be a part of them? Know them? I thought all these ideas as madness, for how could creatures  that never see the sun live among the mortals that bask in its warmth?’

   

Ray stopped in his writing, roused as thirst suddenly burned in his throat. With a sigh, he rose from his chair and glided with an immortal’s graceful movements into the front room where his children, Zackary and Scarlett, sat debating about computers and other such modern things that Ray had never had much interest in.

“I am going out to hunt, behave while I am gone” he warned, looking each of them over and then turning his back on them to make his way out of the grand house. Both of them were old enough to look after themselves, but seemed to always finds trouble when he wasn’t around to keep an eye on them. Just a year ago, Zackary had gotten into a fight with a Werewolf, a fight he won, resulting in the whole pack hunting him down while Ray was off trying to woe Rikki. They were extremely lucky that the pack had been led by Skulli, who ended up betraying them for Seth’s sake. Zackary and Skulli didn’t get along very well, for Werewolves were known to keep grudges, so on visits they often clashed and Seth ended up getting upset. Not the perfect family setting Ray had imagined for his children.

He smiled to himself as he looked up at the stars, seeing them twinkle in welcome at him as he began to hunt. Always the stars could soothe him, bring peace that nothing else could, except for Rikki’s warm embrace of course. Thinking of his mate, Ray felt shivers run down his spine, picturing Rikki’s slender pale body, skin cold but soft and tempting. It frustrated him to no end, for they had yet to make love again, for Rikki seemed unable to take that step again and bring them closer, in fear that it meant that things were completely serious between them. Just a few months back, they had gotten so close, he’d come so close to making Rikki give in once more, but they’d been interrupted by Antonio and Mitch returning Hana to them after a few nights of babysitting. Hana was Rikki’s daughter, part Vampire and part Human, who was looked after by her grandparents.

If only they’d kept her an extra night, Ray would have had his way with him. He’d been running his hands over that satin soft skin, that bare slender chest and waist, kissing his neck and shoulders, fingers just about to unzip Rikki’s jeans. And then that annoying sound of the doorbell.

Ray pulled his long coat closer around his tall frame as his trousers became too tight, keeping his eyes downcast as he reached busier streets. It was easier to go about in public with his silver eyes in this day and age, but most of the time he kept his eyes averted to avoid unwanted attention. Of course, mortals would think they were just contacts, but they would still stare and that in turn would make him extremely uncomfortable. He was glad mortals were so lost in their own little worlds that they barely noticed the people they passed by in the dark streets. The occasional one would notice him, unable to stop staring at his beautiful, mysterious face until he was no longer in view, but most of the time he went by unnoticed.

He slipped in a busy pub on the corner of the high street, making his way to the bar to order a beer and then scanned the crowd for a victim. A drunken man sat alone at the other end of the room, hidden half in shadow. Ray made his way over and sat down beside him silently, the man so drunk and tired that he didn’t see or hear him.

With a soft command to be still, Ray leaned across as if to whisper something into his ear, using his hair as cover as he sank his fangs into the man’s soft throat. When he’d drank enough without the man losing too much of his precious blood, Ray moved away to find another victim. Two more people he managed to get alone, and then he found no one else to be an easy target. So it was time for a little role-play then. So be it.

The tall vampire stood at the bar, scanning the crowd once more, seeing whose eye he would catch, the petite blonde with the full red lips perhaps? Or the tall dark skinned man with haunting eyes? Maybe the fair-skinned red haired beauty in the other corner?

It didn’t take long for his prey to come to him, the red-head, small and slender with big brown eyes, his build reminding Ray of Rikki just a little. “Hey, can I get you another drink?” the man was young, only just barely of legal age to drink, and his blood smelled delicious beneath his milky pale skin. Ray looked down at his untouched beer and set it down on the counter, turning a brilliant smile on to the mortal and leaning close so his soft voice could be heard, big brown eyes staring helplessly up into his silver, hypnotising gaze. “Shall we go somewhere a little quieter?” Ray suggested, smile widening when the youth nodded and turned towards the toilets. Not exactly the nicest place to feed, but Ray found he was too eager to get back home and write some more to his biography to care much about taking the mortal elsewhere.

They made their way through the crowd, elbows gently nudging intoxicated bodies out of the way until they reached the men’s toilets. A middle-aged man was at the urinal, and a youth was passed out up against the far wall. Ray eyed them with slight distaste before following his victim into a cubicle. Soft limbs pressed up against him, arms winding around his neck, hot moist lips trailing across his jaw up to his mouth.

“Beautiful” Ray murmured before allowing the young man to slip his tongue past his parted lips to clash with his own tongue, his hands gently cupping the youth’s head as he pulled away to brush his lips across the mortal’s neck. He sent his mind out to grip the mortal’s thoughts, willing him to relax and enjoy the sensation of the bite. Hot and sweet, the blood flowed into Ray’s mouth, sliding down his throat easily, warming his insides. When he felt the boy beginning to get light-headed, he pulled away after sealing up the tiny holes, and then settled the boy onto the toilet seat to collect himself.

Satisfied, Ray left the pub and headed back home, mind scanning the area around him as he did so, just in case there were any unwanted visitors lurking in his territory. When he reached his home, he locked the doors behind him and popped his head into the front room, finding Scarlett curled up in the armchair with a book of love poems in her hands. “Where’s your brother?” he asked, slightly suspicious as to what he might be up to. Scarlett did not look up from her reading, she just murmured a reply, “If you mean Zackary, he’s gone up into the attic to look through the old things that we’ve collected over the years”.

Ray nodded and left her in peace, returning to his desk with a sigh of pleasure. Zackary would always go back to look through the collection in the attic every few years, it was like some obsession he couldn’t shake off. His vampire brain had a perfect memory but he liked to feel the objects in his hands, see them with his own eyes again and again.

Picking up his pen, Ray sat reading through the last few paragraphs where he’d left off to get his bearings, and then he continued with his tale;

‘It took my siblings a few tries over the next few months to convince me of their theory, that the mortals would be able to handle the change. Eventually, in 1026, when we had just moved to the beautiful country of Japan, I gave them permission to make fledgling vampires. Ruby immediately set off to pick out a worthy mortal, a samurai warrior who was a deadly opponent to any that dared go up against him. The poor man was torn from his mortal life as a warrior and forced into a life of immortality, never to see his people and fight battles again.

‘Antonio also made a few mortals, though he went north away from us to do so. In the mean time, I had become captivated by a Japanese woman of such sweet beauty that I could not stop thinking about her. For many nights I stood outside her family home, watching her eat supper and then retire to bed after brushing out her long, silky black hair.

‘She was young, only seventeen years of age at that time, and already a widow, though not willing to get re-married, for it had only been six months since the death of her husband, who I could tell from her thoughts, had been a kind man, but more than twice her age. She had high hopes of finding a young, strong handsome man to have children with, to be proud of.

‘One night, as I stood under the Sakura Tree in her garden, she stiffened and suddenly turned from brushing her hair, black eyes looking straight at me. I froze, though I knew she could barely see my figure in the dark, but she knew I was there. For a few moments I stared back at her, and then she turned away to go to bed. Unable to contain my excitement at her attention, I easily slipped inside and knelt down beside her as she slept, reaching out my fingers to stroke her hair. After a few minutes she awoke, blinking up at me dreamily, “Who are you?” she asked in her native tongue, that beautiful, sharp and elegant language I still love to this day.

‘I smiled and told her I was to keep her lonely heart company, that I would provide for her in her times of need. And indeed I did, I visited her almost every night, always when she had settled down for bed, and she would lie awake waiting for me. I would sit beside her, telling her tales of distant lands and cultures, careful to keep my face away from the light of the moon that glittered through the windows. She would lie there listening, imagining, smiling happily and sometimes taking my hand in hers, so warm and soft was her skin, I could barely contain my thirst, my desire for her, and when she finally drifted to sleep, I would kiss her forehead and soft rounded cheeks, and then slip some money under her pillow before taking my leave.

‘Ichigo was her name, though in her country it was tradition to say the second name first, for their people were very formal in all things. Marayoko Ichigo, the first mortal I ever fell in love with’.