A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga (3 page)

“I suppose you wish to know what I am?” asked
Xander, sitting down on the couch across from her. “Hiding my true
identity will only put you in further danger. You deserve to know
the truth, and the faster we get this out of the way, the faster I
can get you out of danger. I am a creature of the night… a
vampire.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Emily,
rolling her eyes in disbelief. “I didn’t hit my head that
hard.”

Xander smiled, opened his mouth and two long
fangs descended from his canine teeth. Emily jumped back, which
only caused Xander to erupt into laughter.

“Oh my god, you’re telling the truth,” Emily
said. “So you’re dead?”

“Well I wouldn’t say
dead
, but yes, my
mortal life ended over 500 years ago,” said Xander, now completely
serious with a stern look on his face.

“Are you going to hurt me?” asked Emily, now
a little startled after the initial shock had worn off.

“No, I’m not going to hurt you,” Xander said.
“I haven’t hurt anyone for over two hundred years, at least not
anyone that hasn’t been trying to hurt me.”

Xander looked down, clearly ashamed of the
man he once was. He had hurt many people, but he was a changed man.
Or at least, that’s what he kept trying to tell both those around
and himself.

“Oh no, I didn’t mean it like that,” said
Emily, slowly walking towards Xander. “I’ve just never met a real
vampire before. To be honest, I never really believed in the
supernatural.”

Xander looked up at Emily, confused by her
words. If that were true, Xander thought, than perhaps her
attackers could’ve been mistaken. Perhaps
he
could’ve been
mistaken, also. Maybe she wasn’t the girl they all believed her to
be.

“Can I ask you something?” Emily asked, “What
were those men that attacked me? I’ve never seen red eyes like that
before. Were the junkies vampires, as well?”

“They were ghouls,” Xander replied. “They are
humans that have taken to drinking the blood of a vampire.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Emily
asked. “Is that how you become a vampire?”

“No, that’s not how you become a vampire,”
Xander said. “In truth, there are not many vampires in the world.
Our survival demands certain secrecy, and in turn, we rarely give
our power to others. It is considered the most special gift our
kind can give. They are our eyes and ears in the world, watching
over our territory with bloodthirsty vigilance.”

“Humans that drink the blood of vampires are
given increased strength and resilience,” Xander continued. “There
have been many important ghouls throughout history, bending
countries to their will… to our will. They do not age, in fact,
some ghouls have lived longer than I.”

“What about werewolves?” Emily asked, sitting
forward with eyes wide open. “What other creatures stalk the
night.”

“It’s best if we speak on other things, more
important things,” Xander said. “I hate to be the one to tell you,
but there’s something coming… something very dangerous and looking
for you.”

“Oh, c’mon, you can’t leave me hanging,”
pouted Emily, completely glossing over the harrowing warning she
had been given. Her eyes had awoken to a new world around her; a
world she always wished would exist. Eternal love, that was the
draw, but it extended much deeper than that. The myths not only
spoke to her, they made her understand a little bit more of herself
through their lessons. “What about vampires? Is it like the movies?
What kind of cool abilities do you have? I bet you’ve got a lot.
What happens if you eat garlic? Can I take your picture? If I can
take said picture… would it should up if I uploaded onto a social
media website?”

“Whoa,” Xander said with hands raised in
surrender. “Let me collect all that information… okay, let’s see.
It’s not like the movies. We can’t heal from broken necks or a
knife to the heart, but whatever doesn’t kill us outright will
eventually heal, as long as blood stirs within us. We’re not gods,
though there are others that would disagree. I hate to admit it,
Emily, but we’re monsters and we
do
go bump in the night.
This isn’t the glamorous realization you so readily believe it to
be.”

“You make it sound so morbid,” Emily said.
“Why even become a vampire, at all?”

“One reason to trump all others,” Xander
replied. “A shot at eternal life… and
life
is always
favorable to
death
, under the right conditions.”

“What about mages?” Emily asked. “Do they
exist, too?”

“Yes, but quite what you’ve grown accustomed
to,” Xander answered. “Anyone with patience can learn the forbidden
arts with proper teaching. It’s more than learning incantations and
deciding which reagents to use… it’s about tapping into a higher
level of spiritual enlightenment, more akin to the monks in Tibet
than the hocus pocus you’ve seen on television.”

“Forbidden arts?” Emily asked. “You said they
were forbidden… who could forbid such a thing?”

“The Council of Elders outlawed it a hundred
and fifty years ago,” Xander said. “Witches, warlocks, mages and
wizards, they were all different names for the same thing—
dangerous. The vampire council sent all those with knowledge of
magic to the brink of extinction. Governments rallied against them
and they were utterly destroyed, burned at the stake or driven
underwater. Some were allowed to live, and they remain to this day,
under the watchful eye of the elders that culled them.”

“Oh,” said Emily with a look a shock, “I
guess that I didn’t want to know so much as I
thought
I
did.”

Xander walked to the window and peered out
into the night sky. As he looked upon the stars, he said, “I have
been watching you for several days now.”

“What do you mean?” Emily asked. “Earlier,
you mentioned that I was still in danger. I’ve been patient, but I
think I deserve some answers now.”

“I believe those ghouls have been tracking
you down,” said Xander, his eyes scanning through the trees. “For
what reason, I don’t know. I picked up their scent and didn’t want
to leave until I made sure they knew you were
not
fair
game.”

“This is all so much to take in,” said Emily,
flopping onto the couch. “I’m supposed to be leaving for college in
a few days, and now you’re telling me that I’m being hunted; for no
particular reason. That’s just great.”

“I’m sorry, Emily, I truly am,” said Xander,
leaving the window and walking towards her. “I promise you that
I’ll not leave until you’re safe.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” inquired
Emily, as she sat up on the couch. “I appreciate the warning, but I
barely know you.”

“I—I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt,”
Xander stuttered.

It was the first time he hadn’t been sure of
himself, Emily noted. Could he have been hiding something? Emily
decided to put it out of her mind; she owed Xander her life, and he
deserved more respect than being accused of unfounded
accusations.

Grabbing Emily’s hand, Xander looked in her
eyes and said, “Do you live in this big house, all alone?”

“No, I live here with my brother,” replied
Emily, looking down to the floor. “My parents died when I was a
young girl. My grandma raised the two of us, but she passed a few
years back.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” said Xander, with
a blank look on his face. It wasn’t entirely true, but she was too
important to risk losing now. There were more important factors in
play tonight, and he needed to make sure she would be ready for the
coming darkness.

“That’s all right,” said Emily, slowly
looking up and into his piercing eyes. “It happened when I was a
young girl.”

“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Xander asked.

“I don’t mind,” Emily continued. “My parents
left one night in a hurry, leaving both me and my brother home
alone. They were found the next night in their car, five miles
away… they had been murdered.”

“Emily…I am so sorry,” said Xander, grabbing
tightly hold of Emily.

Emily rarely cried, but as he held her, the
tears just seemed to come easily. The tears streamed down her face,
as the two of them embraced.

“To this day, I still can’t figure out what
they were doing out there, in the middle of the forest,” said
Emily, still clutching tightly on to him.

Xander must have thought he heard something,
as the embrace ended abruptly and he quickly returned to the
window.

Emily had almost forgotten what had attracted
her to Xander in the first place. His dark hair and mysterious good
looks had won her over the moment she first saw him, and thought of
all the possibilities of what making love to a vampire would feel
like.

Perhaps she had a way to thank him, after
all.

“Xander?” asked Emily, biting her lip in
anticipation.

Xander looked at her, but didn’t need to ask
anything to know what she wanted. He walked towards her, and they
once again embraced.

Their lips were inches apart when the sound
of a window smashing drove the two of them away.

“What was that?” asked Emily, alarmed and
frantically searching the room for any signs of attack. “What’s
going on?”

Xander grabbed Emily by the shoulders, looked
her in the eyes, and said, “Whatever you do,
don’t
move…
I’ll be right back.”

Xander dashed out of the living room and to
the front door. Emily couldn’t hear from the living room, but she
could swear Xander was arguing with someone at the front door, and
it didn’t sound like one of her friends.

Deciding that she best find out who had been
harassing her, she began walking towards the door. She was afraid,
but pushed past the pain and forced herself to hold her head up
high as she walked towards her destiny.

“My dear old friend, Xander,” exclaimed
Simeon, standing outside the house on the porch. “What an
unexpected surprise. Don’t you remember what happened the last time
you tried to interfere?”

“Who the hell is this?” questioned Emily, now
standing behind Xander. “And how do you two know each other?”

“Know each other?” Simeon returned. “My dear,
I made him the man he is today.”

Chapter Six

The year was 1478, and Alexander Franson was
lying in a pool of his own blood. He was in East Stoke, England;
which would one day be considered the last battle in the War of the
Roses.

Xander had commanded the armies of King Henry
VII into battle against the pretender, Lambert Simnel. Xander had
given everything to his king, and paid for it with his life. Near
death, and gasping for breath, Xander considered for a moment,
where his actions had taken him.

He didn’t regret his choices; he only
regretted leaving behind a wife and child. They had been his entire
life, and now he was going to die, alone and afraid, without his
family for comfort.

The battle had been over for a couple hours
now, yet none of his men had returned for him. Not that they would
be able to find him, he thought, in the sea of bloodied corpses.
No, this is where he was going to die. At least he would finally
have peace.

“I saw you out there,” said a voice from the
shadows. “You were magnificent.”

“Who’s there?” asked Xander, desperately
trying to find the energy to turn himself over. “Show yourself! Do
not hide from me!”

Xander’s eyes traced the tree line, as he
frantically searched for the person behind the voice.

“I’m not over there,” said the voice from
afar. “I’m here—.”

“Ah!” screamed Xander, as the man appeared
right beside him, inches away from his head, kneeling over like a
hyena picking at his dinner. “W—what do you want?”

The man sniffed around the open wound on
Xander’s head. He brought his lips to Xander’s ear, and said, “I
want
you
.”

“You have fought well for your king,”
continued the man, staying just out of Xander’s line of sight. “If
you were to survive, you surely would be given land, and a title;
but you are not going to survive, are you? No, the stench of death
is all over you.”

“What are you, a soothsayer?” asked Xander,
as he coughed up some blood. “Spare me the merchant’s pitch. Either
leave me alone, or kill me right now.”

“What I offer…goes far behind life or death,”
said the man stepping in front of the fallen Xander. “My name is
Simeon Agathon and over 1000 years ago, I too, was a soldier just
like you; a Roman legionnaire, to be exact.”

Simeon hovered over Xander as he licked his
lips in anticipation. He looked at Xander, and yelled, “Now I am a
god!”

Simeon threw his hands to the sky and he let
out a monstrous scream. The ground below shook as Simeon howled to
the very gods themselves.

“I want you to be a god, too,” said Simeon,
lowering his head back down. “Is that something you would
like?”

The answer seemed to be rhetorical, because
as soon as the words left Simeon’s mouth, he dropped to his knees,
and began biting at the neck of Xander. After all, Simeon thought,
if given the choice, who would not want to be a god?

The monster’s teeth tore through the flesh of
Xander, as he helplessly cried out for help; but no help would be
coming for him. Not that any would have really made a
difference.

And so, Alexander Franson died that night;
the final casualty in the War of the Roses.

Chapter Seven

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” asked
Emily, now brandishing a knife she had retrieved from the kitchen
counter.

“I’m not with him, I promise you that,”
Xander growled, refusing to take his eyes off Simeon.

“My goodness, you both are
so
rude,”
smirked Simeon. “Isn’t anyone going to invite me inside—?”

“Do not invite him inside!” shouted Xander,
his lip curling at the sight of his maker. “He can’t enter your
home without an invitation.”