Chapter 150 - Interlude part 2

He complained about the water again. I suppose I should stock a few bottles of wine. I do entertain guests from time to time. Not often. The last guest I'd had in my home before I became embroiled in this dance of death with Lukas and his vile compatriots was a man named Florian Gertraud. 

Florian was a serial killer who stalked the nightclubs of Liege in the early 1970's. He seduced homosexual men, murdered them and took their hearts as trophies. The newspapers christened him the Valentine Killer. By the time our paths crossed, he had killed half a dozen men. I posed as a gay man, invited him to my suite. We shared a bottle of wine and listened to music, and when he stabbed me from behind as I stood listening to my phonograph record player, I turned and had my bloody way with him.

I found his address by going through his wallet, then carried his lifeless body to his bachelor's joyless flat and threw him from the roof of the building with a note pinned to his lapel. I AM THE ONE WHO TAKES THE HEARTS. That is what the note I affixed to his jacket declared. I had imitated his block-style handwriting, which I copied from the horrific journals he hid in a secret compartment in his bedroom closet. I also found the hearts, which he kept frozen in his icebox. Though there was very little blood in the body when it burst upon the pavement, the police were none the wiser… or simply did not care to investigate.

I sat with Lukas as he drank. I did not leave the glass with him as I feared he would break it and use the shards to slice his wrists.

As he drank, he asked me what time was like for immortals.

"In most ways, I experience time no different than mortal men," I answered. "I exist, just as you do, trapped in the present as between two panes of glass. I can glimpse the future that lies ahead of me using my imagination. I can turn and look to the past through the impressions of my memory, but I cannot cross the invisible barrier that separates the present from the future and the past. In that, I am no different than you. We are all trapped in the glass corridor of the Now. I am time's prisoner just as surely as you are mine."

"But your memory is extraordinarily vivid. How do all those thousands of years of experiences fit inside your brain?" he asked.

"They do not. I can no more remember who I fed from exactly one hundred years ago this day than you can remember what you ate for breakfast on June Third, 1997. The little things, the unimportant minutiae… they drift away like flakes of ash upon the wind. Like mortals, I remember only the events that are important to my soul. They are so real I can close my eyes, and it is like I am living those days again. It is like I am there. All the rest… Dreams. Ghosts."

I glanced at him, the hint of a smile flickering across my lips.

"But why do you ask those things?" I said. "You do not care about them. I can see it in your eyes. The lie of your curiosity. What is it you really want to know?"

He took a sip of water. Swallowed.

"You do not plan to kill me," he finally said.

I laughed. "Really?"

He looked nervous, but he spoke his mind regardless. "Your long life has made you arrogant. You don't think a mortal man can grasp the workings of your thoughts, but I have been observing you just as much as you have been observing me. I am… getting to know you."

"So what is it you think I plan to do?" I asked.

"I think you're testing me in some manner. With all these tales. I think you plan to make me an immortal."

"You? An immortal?" I scoffed. "Why would I unleash such a horror on this world?"

Lukas's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure yet. There's something you want from me. Something you see in me. Otherwise you would have already killed me. I can see how badly you want to do it sometimes. Your lust for my blood smolders in your eyes when you look at me, even though you try to hide it."

I laughed, rising. "You are right. If I were not so lonely, I would tear you limb from limb. I would drain you to the last drop and dispose of your body like the garbage that you are. You saw what I did to your giant compatriot. That is what I plan to do to you when I have tired of your company."

I reached for the doorknob.

"Let me go!" he said hurriedly, anxious to have his say before I departed. "There's no need to keep me in chains. I want it! I want you to make me a vampire! Let me return home. Let me put my affairs in order, and I will return tonight. You can tell me your stories. I will listen to them all, if that is what you need from me, before you change me into what you are!"

I stood glaring down at him in disgust, my lips curled back from my fangs.

"Are you afraid I'll go to the gendarmes?" he asked. "I am a wanted man! And even if I ran, you would have no trouble finding me."

"No, I would not--"

"Then release me! My sins are no greater than your own. You have no right to pass judgment on me."

He rose from the bed, and I stepped away from him. I retreated, and it infuriated me.

"I know you're lonely. I'll gladly be your new companion. I'll listen to all your tales. Hell, I'll even fuck you, if that's what you want. You can take me right now, right here on this bed. We can be together forever, you and I. Hunt together. Kill together—"

"Be silent!" I roared, grabbing him by the throat.

He retched, his eyes bulging.

Jerking him close to me, I stared into his eyes. "Do not presume to know what I do or do not desire from you," I snarled.

His fingers scrabbled at my encircling hand, but he could not loosen my icy grip. His face turned red, then began to purple.

"You are nothing to me," I whispered. "Less than nothing. A moment's distraction. An idle diversion. If I wanted to fuck you, I would fuck you. If I wanted to kill you, I would kill you. You offer me nothing I cannot take from you by force. You possess nothing that I need."

The vein in his forehead bulged. His eyes fluttered and went blank.

I threw him onto the bed with a snort of derision.

He rolled onto his side, wheezing and clutching his throat.

"You've spent your entire life preying on the weak," I said. "A predator, yes, but you are a hyena in the den of a lion. Do not forget that, Lukas Jaeger. I will devour you if you task me."

He did not reply, just laid there whooping and holding his throat. I think, perhaps, he nodded a little, but it might have only been a twitch.

I picked up his glass and glided silently from the room.

I locked his door on the way out.