Free My Vampire and I by J. P. Bowie Page A

only kept his longing gaze upon Thomas, and when that failed to move him, turned away with a dismissive wave of his hand.
     
"We left his house immediately, filled with elation and disbelief. Thomas remarked that we had obviously maligned him needlessly, that d'Arcy had seen the power of our love, and had given in to it. Naturally, I wanted to believe he was right, and so, hand in hand, we ran into the night. "We returned to my home, I suggested we leave Paris, immediately. At first, Thomas was resistant, saying that he loved Paris too much to live anywhere else, but eventually, I broke down his resistance. We moved to London where I had a comfortable townhouse near Regent's Park."
    He paused for a moment. "Roger, are you still awake?" he asked, giving me a little shake.
"Of course," I said. "I wouldn't miss one word of this story.
But tell me, if you don't mind me asking, How come you had all these homes everywhere? And money? How did you earn a living?" "That goes back several hundreds of years."
Well, I did ask.
"I think I mentioned my father was a Senator of Rome. He had amassed an enormous fortune in gold over the years.
Upon his death, two years after I had been changed by Polonius and then abandoned, I returned home. My mother was overjoyed to see me. I took up residence again in my 80
    My Vampire and I
by J. P. Bowie
home and, for a time, was able to conceal my true nature from my mother. After two years of fending for myself, I found it relatively easy to adapt to living again with humans.
     
It was a luxury for me to have my old room again, instead of the dank barns, ditches and caves I had been forced to take refuge in to avoid the sunlight of the day. I had discovered, the hard way, it could destroy me."
     
"You mean you got burned?"
     
"Horribly burned, Roger. I fell asleep in an open field, one day, out of sheer exhaustion. I did not know then that the sun's rays could harm me. I awoke to the smell of my own flesh burning. I was on fire. My clothes had all but disintegrated, and my naked flesh was afire.
    "Screaming from the pain, and the mental agony of seeing my skin blacken and shrivel before my eyes, I ran like a madman. I still did not quite understand why I was on fire, but as soon as I reached the shade of a nearby thickly wooded area, the pain became less intense. I threw myself under some bushes and lay there, whimpering like a child but staring with disbelief as slowly, but surely, a healing process began. I discovered that day, that vampire blood made us almost impervious to things that would kill a mortal being. I would later discover that the blood with which I had been imbued was from one of the most powerful strains within the vampire world. In the space of a few hours, my body was whole again with no trace of burns or scars. It was a lesson well learned."
    "But how did you live—I mean, find blood—didn't you need that as soon as you were ... changed?"
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My Vampire and I
by J. P. Bowie
"Yes, and of course, not knowing that either, I almost wasted away. Real food nauseated me. I could not keep anything down. Then the craving began. I'm afraid a nearby farmer went short of a few sheep and calves that spring."
    "Not human blood then?"
"Not right away. A vampire can exist on animal blood, for a time."
"For a time," I repeated. "Then what?"
    "I had to ... uh ... supplement my diet, so to speak, with the real thing." He paused, shifting his weight, so that he could pull me even closer to his side. I didn't mind at all, stroking his chest and flat stomach gently, with my free hand.
"It is a myth that all vampires are imbued with the instinct to kill anyone who steps into their path. I took blood from humans, yes ... I still do ... but only enough that I might live.
    It is also a myth that those bitten by a vampire are doomed to become one of us. That, as I think you know, can only be accomplished by mutual transference of blood—and over a period of time. Otherwise, by this time, as you can