Awakening (new chapters added)

Part 5 - chapter four

Four

Samuel felt nothing. Most of the time he simply existed, he sat, he walked, he drank, enough to live but no more. He had relished the early years as a vampire, everyone does; the freshness of everything, like being reborn. Colours are brighter, smells are stronger; everything was more exhilarating.

Vampires are exemplar predators; they are better adapted to every environment than humans, they are stronger, faster, impervious to disease, and they can reproduce indefinitely. It was natural selection in its purest form.

Vampires on a hunt could reduce a village, a town, even a city to a pile of bodies in hours. There was just one problem; no more humans, no more food.

Like all vampires Samuel enjoyed the thrill of the chase and the prize of adrenalin rich blood. After all what could you expect with humans parading around tempting you; the smell of their blood and the sound of it driving through their veins coupled with their rampant stupidity, they were simply on a lower level of the food chain.

Humans should have existed to provide food for higher more superior species. After all wasn’t that the basis of their own philosophy? They treated domestic animals as if they existed for their use. Where was the difference? But humans refused to accept the vampires’ superiority and tried to fight back.

As the centuries passed vampires had developed a more symbiotic way of living with humans; Samuel understood its practicalities but he preferred the excitement and honesty of the earlier years.

Capitalism, the perfect economic excuse to make feeding easier and less hazardous;  by paying for their services vampires had found a way of encouraging humanities dependence. Humans now clamoured to become service providers. Samuel appreciated that irony and he chose this large house to settle in so his food and that of his family would be close at hand.

Samuel was old; knowledge gave him power and strength but after several centuries he had grown deeply bored. All the older vampires were the same; they retained some interest through playing their puerile war games, they made strategic alliances, trying desperately to rekindle the good old days when they were feared. The groupings they developed were called families, liked the Italian gangsters he had hung around with during Prohibition in America; that had been a fun time.

The families were overseen by the Council, these were the oldest vampires of their kind and they adored the power and attention that being part of that exalted group brought. Samuel had a seat at this table though he rarely attended. Their obvious posturing irritated him, they now spent most of their time pretending to be affronted by ridiculous breaches of respect, attempting to vindicate the subsequent actions of violence they yearned for. Samuel did his best to ignore these minor spats.

This situation with Joseph had been of minor interest, at least it was unusual but it was still difficult to stir up any real enthusiasm. Samuel turned to watch the trees move gently in the breeze; he vaguely liked the garden, he liked the colour green. That ridiculous thought made a pale smile flitter across his face.

His oldest friend now preferred gardening to massacring, preferring to be reclusive rather than associate with the rest of the family, he understood and respected that. However, he didn’t feel he had that luxury; his family were naïve and despite their potential would be unable to manage alone.

He knew that all of the family, even those who spent most of their time on other continents or travelling, all thought him so aloof that he was considered barely part of the family anyway. That made him wistful, their stupidity knew no bounds. If only they were more capable, then he could be like his friend, maybe he too would take up gardening.

Samuel tried to refocus his thoughts as he became aware Joseph was approaching. He could hear Joseph’s blood flow faster through his body, yet he seemed relaxed. The rest of the family were now making their way to the meeting area. They gathered in the centre of the house; this octagonal room linked the numerous corridors from one end of the house to the other. In this space vampires would come to associate with others, this was their meeting area, part library part common room.