The Prey in the Night

Chapter 6

Not knowing if she was home or not, I decided to knock and find out. Rapping my knuckles on the door twice I waited, it was only a few minutes before she answered, and I was a little surprised. "Ahti, what are you doing here?" Jess said, surprised at my sudden visit but greeting me with a hug. "Honestly, I needed someone to talk to and you were the only unbiased person I could think of." She smiled before pulling me into the familiar sitting room. "I get it, sometimes you need someone outside of the circle you have to get a better idea. I'll gladly be that person for you! I can't tell you how much I miss girl talk, well I mean, being able to talk to another vampire girl." She looked a little embarrassed by her last sentence. "My girl don't be embarrassed about wanting another vampire woman to talk to. I believe it's in our nature to reach out to another similar sex for comfort. Sometimes men just don't get it." Sharing a laugh, she motioned to give her a second as she quickly left and returned. "I used to watch Bill drink this all the time and we had some on my wedding night. It's safe, it's just whiskey mixed with blood." Putting a glass carafe down with two glasses she poured us each one.

Sipping the whiskey, I sat back on the couch and contemplated how I wanted to tell her my situation. "Ok, so spill. Let me try and help you the best I can." Jess said, sitting down next to me and turning her body towards mine. "Jess, I am an ancient. I hope that Bill taught you the ways properly?" "You're an ancient? Bill taught me the best he could but my first little bit of being a vampire I was taught by Eric and Pam." That was even better, they seemed to be more in tune with teaching the new one's the right way of life. "Yes, I'm two thousand years old. Maybe more, I stopped keeping track." Jess whistled out. "Yeah...that old." "Well you're stunningly gorgeous for your age Ahti." She laughed out before I thanked her and continued. "Now being that old, I have fought wars, studied, traveled all over to any place I wanted to, gathered wealth and knowledge beyond the years, and now I find things to be quite redundant. The new age of vampires are stunningly stupid and are not informed on anything that used to be taught to younglings; no offense. So, like I told you, I went to find my maker to talk to her and see her again. What I didn't tell you, was that I planned to ask her to give me the true death."

Looking up and brushing my hair out of my face, I noticed Jess's demeanor changed drastically. She had blood tears in her eyes as she just gazed down into her drink. My guess was that I had just brought back a flood of memories she was not ready to see just yet. I put my hand on her leg to try and console her in a way. Before I knew it, she had me in a large hug and was crying. I'm not going to lie, but I had no idea how to react, so I simply patted her back and shushed her. It only took a moment before she composed herself again and took a large gulp of the whiskey. "I'm so sorry my emotions got the best of me!" "Jess, stop...it's ok!" "Look, I got blood all over your shirt." She laughed a little, trying to wipe the tears from my T-shirt. "Actually, not all of this is yours." It was her turn to be a little shocked. "What happened? Are you ok? Is someone after you?" Shaking my head with a smile I replied: "Don't worry about me, it was a scuffle at Fangtasia last night. And before you get worried again, only a few new vampires were killed, no one else. Anyway, I took my maker outside to try and talk her into giving me the true death; she refused. What bewildered me is that Pam stepped in and told me not to do it." Jess's eyes went wide. "Pam? Tall, blonde, very rude Pam? Are you sure we're talking about the same one?"

"The one and only. Then Eric chimed in and made me a deal: If I stayed and trained his security and taught him some of the old ways, then he would give me the true death." Jess nodded, taking it all in before speaking again. "So much has changed in the past years. I'm honestly surprised that they even spoke up about it at all. They used to never be like that, and I wonder if it has anything to do with what we've all been through or the fact that you're an ancient as old as you are. There aren't very many left of the ancients from what Bill told me." Jess sat there pondering a bit before looking back to me. "I don't see why you shouldn't. You said yourself that the new vampires are basically sad excuses of what vampires USED to be. So why not take the chance to have Eric teach them properly the ones he can at least, while also making sure that they're all safe at the same time. I'm sure there's stuff that Eric and Pam don't know. Then, when you're done, you come say goodbye and have Eric help you out the way he said he would?" Sitting there, I couldn't help but think she was right. It shouldn't take me too long to get things done; hopefully. Maybe I did just need to talk this out with someone who wasn't part of the known circle?