Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The night was cool and as clear as things got in Los Angeles, yet only a handful of stars could be seen thanks to the light pollution of the sprawling metropolis. The moon was new, and with no clouds to reflect the city’s glow, the surroundings became much darker once Joseph moved onto the moderate hiking path. The trail itself was an easy incline, especially for Joseph and his heightened strength and endurance. Spring rains had eroded small channels through the dirt, and he had to pay attention to where he stepped, even more so in the dark.

It was several minutes before Joseph realized he was being followed. He scolded himself for lowering his guard. LA wasn’t a dangerous city, especially away from the city center. The downtown Hollywood area had been tamed twenty years ago and successfully gentrified, and the Hollywood Hills, through which he now walked, had a minuscule incidence of violent crime.

He reached out with his senses, trying to identify the person or persons behind him. It was surprisingly difficult. Whoever it was had light footfalls and didn’t make much sound. They were downwind, but the breeze was light, so Joseph should have been able to smell something from them, but all he could detect was the dusty trail, the sweat of the evening walkers who had been on it during the last hours of daylight, and the various animals in the area. He sensed the many dogs who hiked with their owners, some deer that inhabited the Hills, and the coyote that hunted the deer (and sometimes the smaller dogs).

Joseph didn’t have enough information to determine whether the person following him was actually following, or just coincidentally behind him on the same trail, which was closed, on a dark night. The darkness was a clue. Most human beings required flashlights to walk safely on this dim a night on a path as poorly kept as this one. The pieces fell into place. Joseph stopped and turned towards his pursuer, his eyes picking up the ambient light and flashing with warning.

“I am not prey,” he called out. “You will find no meal in me.”

A figure stepped out of the shadows from the brush along the side of the trail. “I didn’t think I would.”

He moved closer and Joseph suddenly recognized him. The only vampire he had ever created. “Hello, Alexander. It’s been a very long time.”

“Joseph. It has indeed. How long did it take you to detect me?”

Joseph ignored the dig about his sensory abilities. “What are you doing in Los Angeles?”

Alexander spread his arms to show his peaceful intentions. “Can’t I come to see my long-lost progenitor for a visit?”

Joseph looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Is she still with you?”

Alexander closed the distance between them, casual and silent. “If you are referring to my dearest love and wife… She is hunting. She decided to see what your Venice boardwalk had to offer, though after feasting in the real Venice, I doubt this one will compare.” He looked around them. From here, the trail had climbed enough up the hill that it afforded a decent view of the San Fernando Valley which stretched out like a blanket of lights before them. “I don’t suppose you’re also hunting? Here, where there don’t appear to be any humans to prey on?” He made a show of looking around them, searching for any humans they might feast upon.

Joseph stood his ground. “I am not.”

The amiable look on Alexander’s face dropped in unmasked disappointment. “I had hoped you might have changed in the hundred years since we last saw each other. You have always been too involved with humans.”

“They dominate the planet. Even more now than when you traveled by my side. It makes sense to fit into their world or risk discovery and death.”

“That’s not why you don’t eat them, and you know it.” Alexander turned to look at the lights sprawling beneath them. “They are sheep. You are the wolf. I’ve never understood why you don’t act like it.”

“I would have taught you, but you left to be with that lunatic you love so much.” Joseph moved to stand next to his progeny. “I wanted to teach you, as I was taught.”

The younger vampire snorted derisively. “Uh-huh. And your progenitor, your … teacher of vampire life, where is he now?”

“He was slain shortly before I made you.”

“Good that I did not learn from his student, then. I would rather a similar fate not befall me.”

Joseph pointed at the scar on Alexander’s face. “By the look of it, it nearly did…”

Instead of turning to hide the deformity, he presented it to Joseph. “A battle scar. When we returned to Europe, we were tracked by a group that fancied themselves vampire hunters. They were delicious, and they died slowly. This was their only hit. A silver blade, it never fully healed.”

“I would have taught you to avoid silver if you hadn’t left.”

Anger roiled suddenly in Alexander’s eyes, flashing red. “You sent me away! Your pity for the humans caused our rift.”

“Your loathing of them did that.”

Alexander closed the distance between them, baring his teeth at the man who created him. “I do not loathe humans. I don’t think highly enough of them for that. You, on the other hand, you ignore your nature. You are a predator, yet you completely fail to behave like one.”

Joseph remained calm but on guard for any sudden moves the younger bloodsucker might make. “I recognized a changing world and adapted with it. You would be wise to do the same or the next silver blade you encounter might do more than leave a scar.”

Alexander sneered. “You bend truth like one of their politicians would. You hated feeding on humans since before I was born. Tales of your weakness are told among our kind.”

Joseph grew tired of the tit for tat. “Why are you really here, Alexander?”

The other vampire began backing away, arms spread apart. “Why, I’m merely a tourist in your great city, Father.”

Joseph stiffened at the moniker. “I don’t believe you.”

“What you believe holds little concern for me.” Alexander sighed theatrically. “I must leave your company, though; the smell of humans on you sickens me. Good night,Father.”

With that he stepped off the trail, jumping into the growth below. Such a show should have raised a ruckus of rustling brush and breaking branches, but he was virtually silent. Joseph was able to follow his path down the hill, between houses and through the light woods, until he lost sight almost half a mile away.

Joseph turned up the hill and resumed his walk, now preoccupied with the problem that was Alexander. He never intended to create a vampire. Contrary to popular superstition, it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Joseph had seen many depictions of vampires in popular media over the centuries. Stories around the hearth, then books, and these days, movies and television. But none of them ever had it quite right. There were too many wrong details, like the ridiculous ability to turn into a bat or glitter in sunlight or not make reflections in mirrors. Some omitted true facts, like the limitation in the process by which vampires were created.

Alexander had been a sloppy accident. In the years after the death of Connor, Joseph had been distraught and careless. One hunt, he had beset a highwayman who had plagued a stretch of road between Paris and Brussels. It had given Joseph a sense of justice and righteousness to feed on men who preyed on other humans. On this occasion, however, after draining the thief, some of his blood from a lucky blow landed on the thief’s lips, and against all odds, the thief gained his immortality.

Joseph would never have considered giving such a gift to a person with that much cruelty in them. Increased power, strength, and long life only served to exacerbate a person’s evil tendencies. That mistake turned Joseph away from feeding on humans ever again. He shifted his diet to cattle and other easy prey. Joseph initially felt a responsibility to keep the thief with him, and tried to train the young vampire how to live nonviolently. He attempted to adapt the lessons his own creator had bestowed, but Alexander’s bloodlust was overwhelming, and the pair were constantly working to quash problems caused by his indiscriminate killing. Too many young women were lured by his hypnotic energy and bitten at the height of orgasm. When the French Revolution happened, Joseph and his protégé were already under close scrutiny, so out of an abundance of caution, they fled to the New World and settled in New Orleans. It was French, and thus familiar. But it was also wild and exacerbated Alexander’s wanton dismissal of Joseph’s insistent teaching.

Then Roxana came. Alexander’s bloodlust was easily eclipsed by hers, and they quickly fell in love. It was a passion fueled by mutual distain for humans and, by extension, Joseph and his benevolence for them. They hunted together more and more until she was ever-present in their lives. The female vampire was older than Joseph and Alexander combined and physically powerful. She was a perfect huntress, but she depended on Joseph’s hospitality, having never taken advantage of her longevity to develop wealth or resources.

Before long, Joseph found himself unable to tolerate their wanton cruelty towards humans or their disrespect of his house. He would occasionally bring men home, but always feared for their safety. Instead, it was in hotels and brothels he would appease his sexual needs, and when they grew to know him by name at an establishment, he would never go there again. After perhaps a dozen years of this, he saw an opportunity as the American expansion into the West began, and Joseph left New Orleans behind. The last time he had seen Alexander was in 1820. He had closed his affairs and burned the house to bring closure to that identity (giving fair warning to the bloodthirsty lovebirds, of course), and moved west. When gold was discovered in California, he was there, with enough wealth to build mines and hire men to dig for him. He bought land, developed farmland in the fertile area, and built his financial empire, though always through a veil of secrecy. His companies had fingers in almost every type of business, from food to technology to healthcare to banking. And of course, scientific research. Various businesses under the corporate umbrella held thousands of patents worth billions of dollars. Tetractys was not a household name, but it was one of the most powerful companies on the planet.

Joseph stopped walking. Alexander’s parting words came back to him. “I must leave your company…” The phrasing seemed oddly formal for the former bandit.

It’s something to do with Tetractys. Perhaps he knows what I’ve built and means to take it from me. Joseph started walking again. He was relatively certain Alexander couldn’t know all the parts of his financial empire; a huge percentage of the wealth generated by his companies was directed into research towards green energy production, space exploration, human medicine, and, clandestinely, the genetic study of vampirism. On paper, Joseph was worth billions, but only had ready access to a tiny portion. If Alexander was after a massive payday, he was likely to be disappointed. And if Alexander was disappointed, he could be a violent problem. And if, and if, and if…

Joseph shook his head. It was not a problem that needed to be solved now. Alexander would entertain himself in this new city, and if he needed money, Joseph could easily provide some to tide him over until a more permanent solution could be found.