"Take care, my love," I said, moving my neck away from her mouth. "You would not want to break the skin and drink ofmy blood."
"Would that make me like you?" Vodka slurred her words.
I nodded.
"Maybe that's what I want. To be a hunter, preying on the life surrounding me, having you at my side. Forever."
The image of the vampire, of my wife, superimposed itself over the present for a fleeting moment as a blinding light filled my sight, the light growing as it came closer. I let myself fly toward the light. My wife was there in the light. I could feel it. That molten gold was warmth, was love.
But just as the light touched my fingertips, it flew away from me, shrinking until there was nothing but darkness in my sight, cold against my flesh and a vampire telling me that I was a creature of the darkness, forever banished from the light.
"You cannot really mean that," I said finally.
Nicole lifted her head as she straddled my hips. "Tell me you love me, Al."
I laughed. "Of course I love you. You know that."
"I wanna hear you say it. I love it when you say it."
"I love you, my dear. I love you with the ferocity of a lioness with her cubs. I love you with the sureness of the sun rising in the east each morning."
"Is it really true? Could you make me into a vampire?"
I felt my expression grow serious. The logic of lovers is quite the dangerous game. "Yes, it is true. If you were to drink of my blood, you would die, but rise again as one who must hunt in the night."
"Make me like you. I want to be like you."
"No. Absolutely not, Nicole. Ask me anything, anything at all, anything but that. I will not do that."
Her smile faded away. "You said you love me. Wouldn't you do this for someone you love? I love you, Al. I want to be your lover forever."
"My love for you is precisely why I would not do this. If I were to make you into a vampire, I would not be giving you something. I would be taking something precious away from you."
"You mean my life?" She shook her head vigorously. "My life? My life's a fucking joke. It's all pain and sickness, growing old and then dying. Hell, you get to live forever."
"Nicole, my love, what happened to me is something that never should have happened. My wife and I should have grown old together, taken care of each other when we were sick. We should have died together. Should have been buried together. Do you know what it is you ask of me?"
"But we could be lovers forever."
I cupped my hand against her cheek, but she pushed it away. "If you became a vampire, you would lose interest in me."
She grabbed my hand and pressed it against her soft breast. "No, I wouldn't, Al. No way."
I nodded sadly. "Vampires have no need for reproductive organs. Like me, you would lose your ability to have an orgasm. And like me, you would hunger for the sweet taste of human pleasure. You would seek human men, perhaps human women, in order to taste their orgasm the way I taste yours."
She appeared to pout silently; I had hoped she would not be one to pout. That has always seemed mere manipulation performed by those of an inferior level of maturity.
"What is wrong, Nicole?"
Her eyes glistened slightly, but she did not cry. "I'm sorry, Al. Vodka makes me get kinda mushy, kinda silly sometimes. It's just - I'm scared to die."
I sat up and hugged her tightly. "There is nothing at all wrong with being frightened of dying. To fear death is simply to be human. All I can say is that it is normal to fear the unknown, and that is exactly what death is, the unknowable unknown. I myself died, but remain bound to this Earth by that which courses through my veins. As to what awaits all of us, I do not know, though I can say it is not anything of which to be frightened."
She somehow did not seem to fully comprehend my words.
"But if I was a vampire, I wouldn't have to be scared anymore."
"Vampires constantly face destruction. We have to walk around in fear all the time, fearing the suspicion and hatred from the humans who inadvertently allow us to maintain our existence. Do you know what immortality really means? It means an