Learning more about Vampires

'I did read part of the book, but I want you to explain. You have been living through it.'

Dave sighed, and went to sit on a straight-backed chair, which didn't look very comfortable, I guess, to remind him that the situation he was in, having me with him like that, wasn't that comfortable as well.

Behind him, there was a large French door and I could see that it led to a green lawn, and was that a swimming pool I could see? I inched closer to get a better view, but Dave's voice stopped me right in my tracks.

'Sit.' He pointed at another one of those uncomfortable chairs which was in front of his. They were part of a dining table set and looking around me briefly, I deduced that we were in the dining room. There was a long table which could seat around 10 people. Instead of the same ivory color as the hallway, the wall was covered with a cream wallpaper with little tiny daisies. There was a mini chandelier at the top and it gave the room a kind of retro and stuck up look. The decoration didn't match that of the two rooms I had already seen.

'So what have you learnt already?'

I felt as if I was back in secondary school and the educator was waiting for my presentation, but my previous educators had never been so charismatic and handsome before. And they had not been glaring at me so much.

'So basically there are two kinds of vampires, the goodies and the baddies. The baddies want to get more power and have allied with the werewolves, who are also baddies, to get power.'

He lifted his hand up to stop me.

'Nothing is that clear cut. No one is completely good or bad. There are what you call nuances. You know, like your fifty shades of whatever. We are all born with the choice to take good decisions or bad ones and our fate depends on the decisions we have taken. Some of the visionaries you see in Bhuvar today, used to stay in Rasatal, but with the power of the good decisions they took, when they died, they took birth in Bhuvar.'

I was still stuck by his reference to Fifty Shades, wondering if he'd read the book, but I was still listening with an ear.

'But I thought that vampires did not die?'

'I know we are given the tag of being immortal, and in fact, if you live for 500 to 800 years you are seen as one. There are some who have gone much beyond that. But there comes the time in a vampire's life, when you have already seen the world, accomplished all your tasks, that you feel like taking a break. Your body then starts secreting a substance that starts ageing your cells and we slowly wither and die.

'So it's like death upon wish then?'

'This process takes decades and there are others who want it to be quicker so they choose euthanasia instead. And there are some factors which quicken death. Like the bite of a werewolf. It's not the bite in itself which is fatal, but a substance they secrete in their saliva which destroys our cells, like a virus, except faster. This is why werewolves are traditionally seen as threats to vampires.'

'That's enough for now.' And he stood up with determination, clearly indicating that the conversation was over. He took out a small square device and started pressing buttons on it.

'Oh, what's that?' I asked in wonder. 'An extraterrestrial device to call your spaceship?'

'No, that's my phone,' he pointed out dryly.

'You have had a hard day. Let me show you your room for you to rest.'

I wanted to disagree with him, to tell him that I wanted, no needed, to know more, but then a huge yawn racked my body and I felt overcome with tiredness. I bleakly followed him to a large masculine room decorated in dark green colors and browns. There was an immense bed in the center with soft kiwi green bed sheets and 4 large fluffy pillows. There was an indoor swing that could seat two people on one side of the bed and it looked so inviting. It would be fun to cuddle there to read a good book, I mused longingly. The laminated flooring gave way to a thick rug at the foot of the bed and I took off my shoes so that I could dig my toes in its softness. A door on the side was open and I could see that it led to an adjoining closet and bathroom. There were two bedside tables on each side of the massive bed, but only one seemed to be in use. At that moment there was a small pitcher of water and an empty glass next to it. There was a large framed picture of a kind of abstract painting on one side of the wall and that painting seemed to be moving form time to time. Oh, it was a screen, not a static painting. I had heard of those, you could time at which frequency you wanted the pictures to switch. A large mirror on the wall facing the bed completed the picture.

'The guest bedroom is not completed, you can use my room,' Dave said from behind me, from where he had been observing my reaction to his bedroom. A thrill went through me at the thought that I would be sleeping in his bed. Where would he sleep, however? The bed was big enough to shelter four people comfortably, so would he be sharing it with me? I then smelled the faint citrusy smell I got from his body when he had picked me up in the room. He must have taken a shower before. How could I not have made the connection earlier and understood that I had been standing in his room?

'I'll sleep on the sofa in the living room, don't worry,' he said as if he had heard me. Of course he had heard me, he could read thoughts. Dumbo! How could you have forgotten that? He was a vampire!

It was at that point that this information started to sink in. He was a vampire! I thought of Twilight's Edward, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in their vampire movies. All of them had been cute, but blood-sucking creatures and this was what had freaked me out. And their sharp fangs. I had nightmares the first time I had watched Count Dracula and I hated horror movies because of the gore and blood that were involved. And here, I was trapped in a new world surrounded by vampires. I could feel the pressure of all these events on my shoulders, the fear of the unknown washing over me in waves. I wrapped my arms around me and plonked down on the bed, moving forward and backward in a rocking motion, willing the tears not to come, but it was futile. A sob managed to break out of my mouth and then it was like an avalanche of emotions washing over me and I couldn't stop the tears flowing freely through my eyes.

I felt Dave's arms surround me in a hug and at the back of my mind I tried to resist as even he was part of that fear.

'I won't hurt you,' he hissed putting his face in front of mine so that our eyes met. 'I won't hurt you. Don't be frightened of me.'

'You, you , you're a vampire too,' I wailed in a voice I couldn't recognize as mine as it was so pathetic. And I hate vampires.'

He froze at that comment and lifting my eyes to his, instead of sympathy now I could read amusement.

'Well, that's funny given that even you have vampire blood running in your veins.'