MONSTER LOVE
(c) MaryJanice Davidson, 2002
Prologue
From the private papers of Richard Will, Ten Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.
"Becoming a vampire was the best thing that ever happened to me. The very, very best. Which is why I don't understand all the literature, how the vampires are usually these moody fellows who rue the day they ever got bitten, who pray for some illiterate European to plant a stake through their ribs. Rue the day? If the mob hadn't torched my killer the next night, I'd have kissed his feet. I'd even have kissed his behind!
"After all, what else was there for me? Take over the farm when my father died?
No, thank you. Farming is back-breaking work for very little reward, and even less respect. And I could hardly endure being in the same room with my father, much less work for him the rest of my life. (Punch first and punch second, that was my dear departed papa's motto.)
"Lie about my age to join the army, and get my head blown off? (All so sixty years later we can ignore the Holocaust and pretend the Germans are good guys?) But back then, if you didn't fight you were a coward. Of course, two wars later the young men were encouraged to go to Canada, to avoid responsibilities to their country. If they fought, and lived, their reward was to be spit upon at the airport. It just goes to prove, nothing changes faster than the mind of an American.
"No, life wasn't exactly a bowl of fresh peaches. I was in a box, and each side of the box was equally insurmountable. I wasn't the only one, but I was the only one who noticed the shape and size of the prison. I was always different from my chums. At least, I think I was...it was a long time ago, and don't we always think we're different?
"So when Darak-that was his name, or at least the name he gave me-bought me a drink, then two, then ten, I didn't turn him down. What did I care if a stranger wanted to help me forget about the box? I was big-twenty-three years working on a farm made for a big boy-and if he wanted to get inappropriate, I was sure I could handle it.
"Yes, there was homosexuality in the forties. People like to pretend it's a modern invention, which always makes me laugh. Anyway, I figured Darak wanted to see what I had inside my drawers, but I had no intention of showing him-what men did with other men was none of my concern. Of course, my drawers weren't what held his interest at all.
"I'd been supremely confident I could toss Darak through a window if I needed to, which just goes to show I was something of a na?ve moron when I was a boy. Darak took what he needed from me, and never mind pretty words or even asking permission.
He stopped my heart and left me on a filthy floor to breathe my last. The last thing I remember was a rat scampering across my face, how the tail felt, dragging across my mouth.
"I woke up two nights later. It was dark and close, but in a stroke of luck I hadn't been buried yet. I didn't know it then, but the town's only mill had blown up, and there were forty bodies to be interred. Plus they'd cornered Darak and set him on fire. Yes, things had been positively hopping in the small town of Millidgeville, pop. 232 (actually 191 now). They were in no rush to get me in the ground. They had more important things to worry about.
"I was thirstier than I had ever been in my life. And strong...I meant only to pop open the door to the coffin, and ended up ripping it off the hinges. I lurched out of the coffin and realized instantly where I was. And I knew what Darak was...I'd read Bram Stoker as a teenager. But even through the mad haze of my unnatural-or so it seemed to me then-thirst and the disbelief of my death, the main thing I remember is the relief. I was dead. I was free. I silently blessed Darak, and went to find someone to eat.
"Being a vampire is wonderful. The strength, the speed, the liquid diet...all solidly in the plus column. The minuses-no sunbathing (so?), sensitivity to light (sunglasses fixed that nicely), no real relationships other than those of a transitory nature (callgirls!)-are bearable.
"I miss women, though. That's probably the worst of it. No more sunsets? Phaugh. I saw plenty of them on the farm. But I haven't had a girlfriend since...er...what year is it? Never mind.
"I can't be with a mortal woman, for obvious reasons. She'd never understand what I was, what I needed. I'd constantly fear hurting her-I can lift a car over my head, so being with a mortal woman is not unlike being with a china doll. And being dead hasn't affected my sex drive one bit. I was a young man of lusty appetite, and while I still look young, my appetite has increased exponentially with my age.
"I've only met six other vampires in my life. Of the six, four were women, and let me tell you, they were complete and unrepentant monsters. They ate children. Children!
I killed two, but the other two got away. I could have gone after them, but I had to get the child to a hospital and-well, I wouldn't have wished their company on my fiercest enemy, much less welcomed them to the marriage bed.
"Yes, I'm lonely. Another price to pay for the eternal life and the liquid diet. But I'm young for a vampire-not even close to a hundred yet. Things are bound to look up.
And even if they don't, my patience-like my thirst-is infinite."
Chapter One
A monkey. A fucking monkey!
Janet Lupo practically threw her invitation at the goon guarding the doors to the reception hall. Bad enough that one of the most eligible werewolves in the packthe world!-was now off the market, but he'd taken a pure human to mate. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Humans were okay. If you liked sloths.
She stomped toward her table, noticing with bitter satisfaction the way people jumped out of her path. Pack members walked clear when she was in a good mood.
Which, at the moment, she was not.