Julia had joined Chris in the sitting room; she lounged in a chair flicking through a magazine she'd found on a side table, completely at ease. Chris was slightly more reserved.
"Most of the third floor is guest bedrooms, and some of the fourth, although the one at the end of the corridor is mine, and Jamie is locked in one of them, You can chose any one apart from that, all the beds should be cleanly made, most of the rooms are en-suite, so you should be able to find everything you need." Chris nodded gratefully and disappeared in the direction of the stairs, Julia paused for a second before following.
"Did you move any of my stuff?"
I smiled "Everything is exactly as you left it in your room, I haven't been in there."
she nodded "Excellent!" An instant after she ran from the room I heard her door slam. I remembered she had a large one; complete with king-size bed, luxury bathroom and balcony overlooking the lake on the third floor. She had expensive taste, strange considering she grew up as a servant girl, though I suppose she was probably compensating for that.
I sighed, before going to carry out my hostess duties. On the fourth floor, I have an entire huge room, which is used as a giant closet adjoined onto my bedroom. I have accumulated a lot of clothes over the centuries, seeing as I never grow out of them. I keep most of them in this house where there is plenty of room.
I looked around; most of them are modern, stretching along many rails around the walls. A few rails along the center of the room have older clothes, from the 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s and backwards. Black strongly stood out amongst the assorted fabrics. It has long been my favourite colour, so calm and peaceful; it can be worn for any occasion.
In the back corner, I had a dress from my very early days, I had it made in the year 1610, or rather, I threatened a tailor into making it for me, as I didn't yet have much money. That was not one of my actions I am proud of; however I still loved the dress. Deep red, so dark parts of it are almost black, made from the finest silk and satin, with many elegant ruffles that flowed down to the ground. I even still had the delicate lacy umbrella to match; this was before sunglasses were invented. I had not worn it in many years, now it was delicate with age. The curtains in this room were always firmly closed, to prevent the sunlight fading the material.
Julia would know where to find clothes and what she was allowed to wear. I had some clothes from previous visitors that Chris could wear; some would be around his size... once I had accumulated a small pile I followed his scent until I found in him in a room on the opposite end of the third floor to Julia, I knocked on his door and left the clothes on the floor before heading to my own room.
My room was the largest bedroom in the house, although I didn't really care about such things. The bed was a king size, complete with deep purple canopy, and carved posts, which matched the wardrobe, chest of drawers, dressing table and bookshelf which stood around the room. The floor had dark wooden planks like the rest of the house, but most of it was covered with an elaborately patterned rug in the same shades as the canopy of the bed and the thick curtains.
I did not have a great deal of personal clutter in the room, a few random pieces of jewelry were scattered across the dressing table, a dark scarf was draped from the corner of the mirror, hanging down the side in velvet folds. An older pair of boots lent against the bottom of the wardrobe. And a shirt was thrown on the chair in the corner.
I went to bed, deciding to get a few hours of sleep while I could. I knew it would help my wounds finish healing; I checked them when I changed, and all three were now closed over, although angry red scabs marked their places vividly. It was a relief to finally peel my ripped, blood soaked clothes off and change into a soft, floor length black silk nightgown. I got to sleep easily; it was early morning after all - my natural bedtime. I slept lightly, staying aware of my surroundings, although I let the greater part of my mind drift randomly. I didn't dream.
When I woke properly, it was about four thirty in the afternoon; I had slept much longer than usual. After I had dressed I wandered slowly down to the kitchen, Chris was already there, and Julia followed soon after, pulling a brush through her fiery hair.
Jamie was still safely in his room, although I could hear him pacing angrily. In the middle of getting a glass of blood from the fridge I paused. Jamie would need feeding, and not with anything that I had. I frowned. Julia waved a hand in front of my face impatiently.
"What?"
"I need to go and buy some food."
"What? Why?"
"Jamie will need some soon."
She exhaled crossly, "why did you even have to bring him anyway?" I wasn't sure, even to myself. I gave the only valid reason I could think of;
"I want to question him - he might be useful". she didn't reply, although her eyes narrowed slightly. I downed my glass, and left the room calling over my shoulder; "I'll be back soon".
I ran to the little village a couple of miles from the house, slowing when I reached the buildings. It was still light, and it wouldn't do for anyone to notice me. I found a small supermarket, it didn't take me long, there were not a lot of places to get lost in a village this small and it hadn't changed much over the years.
When I entered I had little idea of where to start. I had not had a need to buy food in a few hundred years, things had changed a lot since then. I wondered through the shop, firstly I picked a few things that I understood like milk, then I decided to investigate the more modern foods, ending up with several different varieties of instant noodles and pasta, chocolate and crisps, I also bought some coffee and tea, I didn't know what he liked, although I'd heard some people were very choosy when it came to what they drank.
Paying for the food was easy. I quickly dug the correct change from my pocket and handed it over. The server didn't pay me much attention, she looked tired, and I guessed her shift was nearly over, She was young, probably still at school, a thin fragile looking girl. I doubted she would remember me, which was good.
I took slightly longer getting back, only travelling at a leisurely jog; I would nearly have passed for human, at a distance. I enjoyed the countryside in the quickly fading light, clouds were gathering on the horizon; the wind was starting to pick up. I supposed it was probably very cold; it was winter after all, although the sharp wind felt gentle and warm against my skin. I wondered if Jamie was cold, the house was big and old, so it was probably cold. I stopped myself short, why did I care about Jamie? He deserved to be cold. I forced my mind back to enjoying the countryside. I disliked being trapped inside for long lengths of time.
When I got back I rearranged the fridge so there was a shelf clear for "normal" food, then loaded the rest into random cupboards where there was room.
I went up to check on Jamie, he had finally sunk into a chair in the back corner of his room, but he jumped up as soon as I entered. I stayed in the doorway, he may be my enemy but I didn't wish to frighten him any more than was necessary. I may be cold, but it was not in my nature or the small human part of my nature anyway, to be unnecessarily cruel.
"I have been thinking, there is no point in keeping you locked in here". Hope flickered through his eyes, followed by apprehension before he quickly hid it.
"So you're going to let me go?"
"No... but I have decided to give you run of the house, there is no point trying to escape. I will know if you do, and then I'll just have to lock you up again, in somewhere smaller than this." I stared at him for a moment to let him contemplate where that could be. "You can go anywhere inside the building."
"Why?" he looked confused... and suspicious, I decided to be partially honest with him.
"Well mainly because if I keep you locked in here I'll have to look after you... and I really can't be bothered, so I figured, I could just let you out so you could do it yourself." He looked perplexed, but still angry.
I shrugged, maybe if I was reasonably nice to him he may give me some answers, I could torture them out of him... but even then there would be no guarantee that he would actually speak the truth, and it would be messy, and exceedingly painful... for him. Plus I didn't want to set the group even more against us, torturing one of their youngest members would definitely make the situation worse, or that was what I told myself anyway. I cursed myself, a century ago I would have easily have inflicted any pain necessary to get what I wanted. I must have gone soft... he was still standing there watching me cautiously, I don't think he would have noticed my mental ranting, it had only taken the smallest fraction of a second for all that to run through my mind. I turned;
"Come on, I'll show you where to find things." I didn't wait for him to move, but after a moment I heard him scrambling to follow me, probably deciding that anything was better than being locked in.
I lead him along the corridor to the clothes room; his eyes were wide with astonishment as I lead him through the many rows of clothes to the back. I pulled out a large pile of men's clothes from a drawer, and dumped them in his arms, careful not to touch him. He caught them to avoid dropping them.
"Anything you need, you should be able to find it somewhere in here" his expression was unreadable, although I noticed his eyes flick around the room when he thought I wasn't looking, lingering on the beautiful dress in the corner.
It didn't take long to deposit the pile back in his room, then I lead him down to the kitchen where I left him to find something to eat. I noticed he went for the instant food without considering cooking anything more complicated, I frowned to myself, either he wasn't used to proper food, or he was just too wary to linger too long cooking it.
Julia was in the indoor pool; I could hear her floating lazily, only occasionally bothering to swim. Chris was reading something in his room, I heard the pages turn rapidly if I listened carefully. I was surprised Julia hadn't come to shout at me for letting Jamie out, maybe she was saving it.
Or maybe she'd just accepted that I was crazy and got over it. Either way didn't bother me much. I was confident it was perfectly safe, if he tried to leave he wouldn't get more than a few meters before I caught him. He couldn't call for help, with any communication outside the house you needed a six digit access code, which only I knew. If you got it wrong more than twice it locked you out. Completely secure.
I could hear him rapidly eating now in the kitchen, he must have been much hungrier than he showed, and when he was finished he quickly retreated back to his room, slamming the door. Or maybe he didn't slam the door; he simply closed it louder than I was used to with the naturally graceful people I lived with.
I needed something to occupy my time, so I settled for doing some sketching, curled in the big chair in the study. Now that everyone was safe I wanted to let Jamie calm down as much as possible before I attempted to question him.
For the next few hours I was content, creating endless drawings of buildings, people from my memory, especially William. It was less painful to draw him, without lingering on individual memories, just the shape of his face, those bottomless dark eyes, almost black they were so dark, to match his hair, long and messy the last time I'd seen him, the shape of his strong jaw, sculpted features... I stopped, the pain was growing in my chest, threatening to rip me apart at the seams, and I clenched my teeth to catch the moan that threatened to escape. The thin pastel I was holding crumbled to dust in the strength of my grip before I realized I was clenching my fists.
I brushed away the powder impatiently, leaving a midnight smear across the desk and myself.
My breath came out in an angry huff. Now I would have to get changed to avoid spreading pastel everywhere. But I welcomed the anger, it distracted me from my deeper feelings. Abandoning my work I dragged myself back to my room, cursing myself for being so stupid.
Once I was changed I no longer felt like drawing, I wandered through the house aimlessly, ending up in the library, which had long been my favourite place. I owned an extensive collection of books, from all different genres, and times including some of the more modern ones. I had a whole section devoted to languages, since I travelled a lot it was useful to be able to talk to people. Although some of them were a bit out dated now.
I ended up in the back corner, where I had an elegant grand piano on a platform; behind it was a huge mirror, rising all the way to the high ceiling, the gold frame exquisitely carved. My reflection frowned back at me as I slid onto the bench in front of the piano. I had to think about making myself visible, or I wouldn't have a reflection, I believe it has something to do with the way light refracts away from me.
This was something I constantly had to do while in public, if I happened to pass something shiny and made no reflections on it, people would get worried. I brushed my fingers over the keys gently, creating a soft, soothing sound. It had been a long time since I had played, although I remembered every detail of every song I had learned. Some of them my own compositions, although I didn't compose my own songs often because they always managed to sound sad, even when I didn't mean them to be, and this was depressing.
I had played quietly for a while, keeping to the classics, when Julia appeared fully dressed and scowling.
"What are you going to do?" I kept my face smooth although I knew I had to stop delaying.
"About what?"
"Jamie! You decided to go to all the effort of kidnapping him, and dragging him all the way out here, and then you do nothing! Why?"
"It has only been a day; do not think I am being idle."
Her expression changed. "So you have a plan?"
I hesitated, "Yes" her eyes narrowed.
"What is it?" she knew I was bluffing.
"He is an experiment."
"What kind of experiment?"
"I am going to be reasonable to him, and see if I can learn more that way than if I forced him to talk... if it doesn't work, then I will just have to change that." I felt a strange fluttering sensation in my chest at the thought. She was incredulous.
"And that is why you let him out of the room?"
"Yes."
"Well it won't work! I have left him alone this long because I thought you had some brilliant plan like you usually do, but that is pathetic! I am going to go and get everything we need right now, I can get it from his mind myself if you won't." she was already strolling from the room, so I followed her.
"That is a bad idea! You know the damage you will do if you try to rip things from his mind, you are not careful enough!" she was too reckless; she could damage him permanently, or even kill him. This made her furious.
"Well, I know you can do it better, but if you won't... then it leaves it up to me doesn't it! For all of our sakes" I knew there was only one way to stop her, though the solution wasn't much better, at least I would be careful.
"Fine, I'll do it."
We had arrived at his room, Julia went straight through the door without bothering to knock, and I winced when it slammed into the wall. Jamie had been curled in a chair when we entered, but now he sprang to his feet in a defensive stance, heart pounding.
Julia flashed behind him and forced him to sit back down, leaving her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from moving. I gave her a disproving glance before focusing on him. He flinched as Chris appeared behind me; no doubt to witness what was going on.
I decided to give him a chance, keeping my voice gentle.
"Jamie, would you be willing to answer a few questions?" Something flickered in his eyes when I spoke his name, but his jaw hardened.
"No".
"Are you quite sure?"
"I will never tell you anything. Just kill me and get it over with."
I sighed, Julia cut in;"Jade! Stop stalling!" I reluctantly placed my fingers on each side of his head, to help me focus, trying to ignore the way he flinched away from my icy touch, and the downright terror he tried to hide in his eyes.
I didn't let him move as I stared, extending my mind towards his. I could tell he was very resolved; he was trying anything to keep me out, anger and fear lending to his strength. I had never met anyone who could keep me out this long before, especially a human; I felt my eyebrows crease into a faint frown.
I pushed harder, coming up against a thick mental wall, it was almost solid. I kept up a steady pressure on it, feeling him slowly weaken, I didn't want to push too hard, and risk his sanity. He was gradually losing the battle, suddenly I withdrew, and almost immediately rammed my mind into the wall, he was taken by surprise, and the barrier collapsed, letting me through.
The sudden flood of thoughts and raw emotions made me inhale sharply, as I attempted to grasp my own thoughts and distinguish between mine and his. Fear, terror, anger, frustration, confusion... he tried to push me out again, but now I was in it was too late. I collected my thoughts and emotions together, so I could examine his, I was confused, this had never happened before, no one had ever been able to overwhelm me like that, make me lose control, he had an incredibly strong and vivid mind, very individual, and yet... similar to mine in some ways...
A harsh thought interrupted me, almost screaming in my head. I am nothing like you parasite! Shock scattered my thoughts again for a moment, before I regained my senses, was that him? It wasn't me, it must be him... but that was not possible, no human had ever been strong enough to talk to me with his or her mind before, and that meant he could hear my thoughts! That could never be allowed. I hurried to shield myself, putting a thick mental wall around my mind to keep him out. But I couldn't, wouldn't, withdraw from his mind without finding out any information. That would mean Julia taking over, she would hurt him, it would feel as if rusty nails were being drawn out of his head. A strange wave of protectiveness washed through me, I would get what I needed, and he wouldn't be allowed to win. For his own good.
Keeping my barrier firmly in place I began sorting through his memory's, skimming through, trying not to look at anything too personal, although I did learn some things. The leader, Sam, was like a father to him. His real parents were dead, he watched it happen: A newborn vampire judging by the savagery of the attack. He was young at the time, innocent, about eleven or twelve when Sam saved him from the scene. He was unconscious when he was carried away; I was surprised that he didn't die with the amount of blood he must have lost. From then on he had stayed with him, learning to hate my kind, being taught that we are evil, and never to trust us, even for a second. Being taught to kill. To murder.
I felt a surge of anger from him at this, the whole time he was attempting to block me and push me out, fighting bitterly against my defences.
It is not murder, it is pest control! For the safety of everyone! I let him hear my thoughts for a second so that I could reply, keeping everything else protected.
What about the safety of my people? You are not the only ones who don't want to die. He mentally flinched at the touch of my mind
Your people deserve to die; you are monsters!
Not all of us are monsters, it is a shame that you have only previously been in contact with the worst of us... we are not all like that
Lies
Not lies, truth! suddenly I wanted him to understand, it annoyed me that he had such a limited view, I wanted to change it... before I had realized, he had took advantage of the brief moment my attention lapsed, he could see my memories, my thoughts my feelings: the long years of my life stretching out like some sort of filmstrip flashing before him, moments of happiness, joy, sorrow and despair, my simple human life, back in an easier time, my long and vicious vampire life, my intense bloodlust, my guilt and resistance, and William... the first time we met, in the street outside a bakery, the sunset casting beautiful colours over everything, stolen moments of romance, our kisses, our marriage... his death... NO!
I felt him gasp with shared pain as I remembered; he was immersed in my memories.
I took the opportunity to sort through the rest of his head; he was so deeply in mine he unintentionally allowed me access to his. This distracted him and I managed to block him out again, keeping him subdued with my mind. A lot of things were as I had guessed.
The group trained intensely every day, practising all methods of fighting and stealth, they knew many ways of sneaking up on vampires; staying downwind so I didn't smell them, shifting their weight as the walked to make as little noise as possible... He was a good fighter; he beat most of his opponents, even ones who had been fighting much longer than he had.
The only person he had never beaten was Sam, and I thought that was just because he didn't have the heart to... underneath all the anger and bitterness he didn't really like all the violence and hatred. He was too nice a person for it. I realized it with a slight shock, Jamie was one of those rare people who were good, given the chance he would help people, simply out of kindness, he would care about people he had never met. The complete opposite to me.
I think it was around that moment that I decided that I would never be able to kill him. Even if it was necessary. It was also the moment that I decided that I should stay away from him. For his own good.
I went forwards further in time, seeing the warehouse from his point of view, the apprehension and fear when they waited for me to enter, coupled with adrenalin and bloodlust from his peers. The shock when he first saw me, so different from anything he had ever seen before.
Civilized. I talked calmly to them, as if I was the human I impersonated, instead of the blood crazed animal he had expected. Unthinking admiration for the predatory gracefulness of my walk that was almost immediately replaced by a kind of terror. The other monsters he was able to deal with, they rarely were able to plan or think things through clearly, but here was one who could, far more dangerous... deadly.
I watched through his eyes as I was shot, relief when he believed the danger had passed, but also a strange kind of sadness that he didn't understand... Anger shock and disbelief when he realized that I had recovered, none of the others had ever done that... it was disconcerting for him.
It was strange; as I let my fangs slide down and my eyes change, there wasn't any extra fear, like the others showed; instead there was a strange kind of determination. Now I looked like the others, I had lost that interesting civilized quality, I was no different to the savages that killed his parents... so now he could kill me.
He battled through the crowd as I escaped, determined to stop me, almost savage himself in his desperation to get to me. When he got close enough he did the first thing he thought of to slow me down; which was throw himself on top of me, there was no room to fight and everything happened too quickly, suddenly there was a sharp pain in his wrist and his knife was gone, then he was flying... the next thing he was fully aware of was being on the roof, frantically trying to escape from the evil creature that was dragging him roughly towards the edge, almost pulling his arm from his socket with its demonic strength...
I skimmed through the rest quickly, I was growing tired of battling with him to keep him subdued while I searched, and there was unlikely to be anything else important; from then on as he was with me anyway. I caught lots of flashes and impressions of myself, apparently he had been thinking about me a lot; but I wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or not...
He had spent a lot of time contemplating my motivations for things, like when I left him in his room after asking if he was all right, my own expression shocked me, it was unusually concerned and torn with many conflicting emotions that raged in my eyes. That was the first time he had thought of me as a person, although he did it without realizing and quickly went back to his previous views of me, convinced I had some ulterior motive that I would deceive him for. It made me feel inexplicably sad that he saw me that way.
Hurriedly withdrawing myself from his mind I straightened quickly, realizing I had been unconsciously leaning towards him, our foreheads almost touching. I let go quickly as if I had been stung and jumped back, breathing hard. He slumped in the chair, exhausted from battling me for so long. I staggered away from him, surprised at my own weakness.
Chris caught my arm and steadied me before letting go, and looking worried."Does that usually happen?"
I shook my head, Julia answered for me, "I've never seen that happen before, what happened?"
"He has a very strong mind, he fought against me".
Her eyes widened in surprise "That is impossible, I have never seen or heard of a human with any ability to fight with their mind before."
"Well he could... he could talk as well." She sucked in a quick breath.
"Clearly?"
"Yes"
"But that is impossible, only we can do that, because of what we are, how could he have that ability?" the way she said it gave me an idea.
"I have a theory... we are technically dead, we died and then came back, like we are now, that's what gave us our abilities." I murmured.
"So?" her brow creased in confusion.
"Well I think he might have died... or almost died in the past, I couldn't tell, he was unconscious, but only for moments. When he was revived... he was alive again, that is clear, I can smell him... but he brushed death, that may have given him extra... abilities." I looked at him speculatively, he growled and tried to get out the chair, but was pushed down again by Chris.
"I am nothing like you! I am not a...a freak!" I ignored him and addressed the others;
"It is just a theory. I can't think of any other explanation, but that doesn't mean there isn't one."
Julia looked impatient "So did you learn anything important?" she took a small step back towards him.
"Yes" she looked at me strangely, and I realized my voice was too sharp. In short cool sentences I told them all the relevant facts I had learned about the group, leaving out his emotions and other thoughts.
Afterwards neither of them could argue that there was anything else to find out, so I shooed them out the room without once glancing in Jamie's direction, although I was painfully aware of his presence. I could feel his simmering anger at being ignored, but also his relief that we were leaving. I didn't need to be able to read his mind to tell that.
When I left them I went straight to bed. The mental battle had drained me more than I let anybody see, so I fell asleep quickly, confident that Jamie would be left alone for a while.