Free The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life by Michael Talbot Page B

to the legend. We do subsist primarily upon blood, but we don’t just go around leaving conspicuous marks on random necks. That’s dangerously flagrant. It starts panics and witch-hunts, and innocent people end up with silly things like stakes in their chests. The first law of survival in the world of the vampire is never to attract attention, and besides, we don’t have to worry about where we get what we need. There are many individuals who offer themselves freely to the vampire.” There was a rustling and we both noticed that Deirdre had once again entered the study and was nosing along the baseboard. A large wood spider scurried out and she gobbled it up greedily. Niccolo chuckled and swirled the golden liquid around in his snifter as he continued to inhale the bouquet. “Oh, no, there are other things that the vampire is much more concerned about than blood.”
    “And what are those?” I asked, returning to my chair.
    He smiled. “Well, first there’s pleasure and the delights of the senses. The older you get the more you realize you should drink life’s liquors before the cup goes dry, as friend Omar puts it. Once you’re no longer afraid of dying and not getting into heaven you become numbed with abandon. Yes, pleasure is always a concern, but come now, Dottore Gladstone, you’re an intelligent man, can you tell me what the most important thing is to a vampire?” As he regarded me the firelight made strange patterns upon his face. “Think about it. If you were a vampire, what would you feel? What would be important to you after you watched the entire folly and pageant of humanity pass before your deathless eyes? Well, I’ll tell you: You would soon realize that being a vampire is a very special thing. Of course, at first it’s frightening because you’ve been taught you’re one of the undead, a monster. But then you realize you’ve changed in ways that don’t seem monstrous at all. Yes, your metabolism becomes so refined that you can digest only blood, and that may seem a little monstrous, but there are many wonderful things as well. Your senses become incredibly acute. You can smell what kind of hard rock candy a child has in his pocket, and you can sense the heat of a man’s footprints hours after he has paced a carpet. You no longer get colds in the winter, or sneeze from the goldenrod, or get cholera when an epidemic ravages everyone around you. And when you get hurt, your wounds heal as if touched by saints. Cuts don’t bleed and scars fade like mosquito bites. And you know what else?” His voice lowered to a reverent hush. “You can see many things other men don’t see. You can watch the sharp lines of cliffs grow soft, religions that people once died for, die themselves and be forgotten, and great cities rise and fall, for you see, my dear Dottore, you never grow old.
    “Now contemplate that, Dottore Gladstone. What would be important to you if you had all the advantages of being a vampire, and you realized you were immortal? Not blood, or helpless young women wandering into dark old castles. Knowledge would become your Holy Grail, knowledge and all the learning you could glean about this phenomenon we call humanity, about a universe awesome enough to create such a thing as a vampire.”
    After many long moments of silence I shifted my weight excitedly in my chair. “Is it you, then? Are you the angel in the painting?”
    Niccolo drew in his breath very slowly, and then nodded. “I was the model who posed for the master, Leonardo.”
    To my amazement his confession didn’t surprise me in the least, and I realized that I, or some part of me, had known how old Niccolo was from the very first time I set eyes on him. As I glanced at the smooth, youthful hands I noticed all of his cognac had evaporated, and I proffered him more. He accepted it eagerly.
    “Were you a vampire when you knew Leonardo?”
    “Oh, yes.”
    “Was Leonardo a vampire also?”
    “No.”
    “How did you meet him