The Book

A Megacosm story

My name is Maximilian, a vampire sergeant from the Sect of Alban under the Christian Order, and several days ago the entire course of my life changed forever.

I stood at the edge of the rooftop of the Sunset Hotel, looking across the vast cityscape. The city twinkled like Christmas lights against the night sky. The silver dollar moon threw a pastel white streak across the river that flowed beneath the bridge. It is said vampires abhor the pure moon. That is a baseless lie, introduced by our lesser, bestial cousins. But I? I adored it. I loved how it highlighted the tips of the trees and brightened the snow around me with its brilliance so that the world was a white tapestry sprinkled with city lights.

Below me, a fingerprint smudge of red on that canvas paced along a desolate train station platform that I had chosen. I called her my morning rose, my precious Judith.

With my arms outstretched by my side, I stepped from my perch and let the wind carry me down to her. Streams of air fluttered my black silk shirt, carrying its airy fingers through my long dark hair. The breeze carried her scent up to me, the vanilla aroma hiding at the nape of her neck, and the smell of mint glossed on her full, pink lips. As I fell, I closed my eyes and drank in her essence. That frail rose bloomed once in a lifetime and was mine.

I landed behind Judith on the icy, slick platform, crouched like a cat with nary a sound. She hugged her blood-red jacket, shivering in the whining breeze that swept through the train platform. I stood to my feet and studied her closely. Her brown locks tumbled down her back beneath her knitted, crimson cap. Orange light from a platform lamp struck loose hair strands, and illuminated her form so that she glowed like an angel. My delicate angel, my sweet Judith.

Judith turned as if she felt my presence, a trace of that hidden connection that she and I shared.

"Max!" She shouted, her face pure joy.

Her warm exhalations floated in the chilly air against her pink, windswept cheeks. She did not flinch at my presence as she had done the night I first made myself known to her, that night in the park where lovers sometimes traveled.

* * *

We first met at night. Winter had just begun, and a light dusting of had snow already blanketed the earth. I was but a scout then, on a mission from the Order to scour among the barren trees and fallen leaves in search of food..., when I heard the song. The music tickled my skin,its rhythmic melody throbbed in my ears. It cried out to me through the withered leaves and swaying branches, whistling like a white-throated swift calling for its mate. The rhythm sang its gracious song,leading me like a marionette to Judith.

At the forest's edge, I watched her from the shadows, intrigued by her mere presence. I vividly remember how she looked that evening, a lone form seated on a park bench placed on one of the many pathways crisscrossing through the park. There she sat, safe and secure under a Victorian style lamp that illuminated everything around her. She wore the same red jacket, which made her stand out like a rose against the pure, white snow. My Judy rose.

Contact with humans was forbidden for one of my low standing. Only high elders had such privilege, but something inside that delicate young woman called to me.

The outside world meant nothing to her. I watched as strangers passed, but she remained seated without a glance in their direction. She sat, quiet and still, with a Mona Lisa smile as she read the latest pulp novel drawing young girls like her to my kind. Her thoughts as trapped in that world as mine were transfixed on her. I touched the tree next to me and crept further into the light so I could view the cover of the book. The title read The Kiss of the Vampire.

I remember closing my lowly scout rags against my body after realizing the title. The halls of the Sect tower would always buzz whenever another one of these novels captured the imagination of the world. It fascinated us to see how humans thought and imagined we should be. I, myself, had read several volumes while on patrol, sneaking away five or ten minutes at a time to acquaint myself with the literature until I knew full well how humans perceived vampires, the picture burned in my mind. I closed my soiled rags because I knew Judith saw my kind as beautiful and romantic, and I was far removed from that dream. Me, the humble scout, out hunting for the weakest animal to feed upon.

Barefoot, I stepped lightly in the snow so as not to alarm her while she walked back towards the city. Following along the edge of the forest, I watched my dear Judith with utter fascination. Clutching the book to her breast with both arms, I caught glimpses of her precious face with each pass under the lamps lining the walkway. Her countenance strained with thought as she held the novel tightly, as if the tome shielded her heart from harm.

She paused just outside the light of a lamp, her face momentarily lost in darkness as she dug a mobile device from her pocket. The blue radiance from the device flickered only an instant on her face before darkening once more, but in that instant, I saw the tears glassing her eyes. Standing just a few feet from her in the shadow of the trees, daring not to move a muscle, I heard the heartrending song of loneliness inside those tears. I knew who Judith was at that moment. She was my morning rose. She was my freedom.

That was nearly three months ago to the day.

* * *

At the train station, as I had done that night in the park, I reached out my hand and took hers into mine.

"My Judy Rose," I said with a smile and pulled her close. Her touch warmed me like the sun I had not seen in over three hundred years.

"I missed you so much Max," she said.

Her breath melted against my neck as we embraced and I felt that strange, yet wonderful sensation. A sensation that I had risked losing everything to feel. It traced its heat down my spine and nearly made my still heart beat again.

"And I you, my love." I said. "Are you ready?"

She leaned back in my arms and glanced at her dearest earthly possessions packed in two small bags. Gazing up at me, she clutched the very same book from the park, holding it between us with both hands. From the top of the book jutted a bookmark, set on the last page. Its strings fluttered against the back cover, pushed by the wind.

Her beautiful green eyes that sparkled like polished jade never left mine as she replied, "Yes, my love, I'm ready to go away with you."

She was only eighteen years of age, just a moment's breath for my lifetime, but in all my years, I had never met a soul that spoke with such conviction. She possessed a remarkable spirit as pure as the driven snow.

I held her like a flower so delicate that I could not risk stifling its radiance.

"It will be dangerous," I said.

"I know it will be," she replied.

"The path we have chosen is fraught with danger, Judith," I said. "You will be human, and I, a vampire, trapped by the sunlight. It is my prison. We will never share the things that other lovers experience."

I nearly let her go, but Judith held me firm.

"I will never call on you for lunch. I will never make an appearance at work to surprise you with beautiful flowers, or take romantic trips out to the countryside. You know the Order will never willingly let me go. They will send others like me to hunt us to the end of our days..."

My voice trailed off as Judith ran her fingers through my hair. Tresses that I had grown long and alluring to fulfill her fantasy of what I should be. I could see our daring romance unfolding in her eyes. The idea captured her mind like the best passages of the novel she held dear.

"Your life will never be normal again," I said. "You must be sure, my Judy rose, or I cannot proceed."

"You've told me this before," She said. The tears welled in her eyes as she graced me with her bewitching smile. "But I love you Max. And I trust you. No matter what kind of life we have together, no matter how long we have, I want to be with you always." She lowered her eyes and her smile began to tremble.

I lifted her chin until our eyes met again, wiping away the solitary tear trailing down her face. She smiled once more like a shy child, her cheek reddening from my touch. Red, the shade that rushed through my mind like a rising tide, the color that called to me and led me to the rose that I held in my arms.

"Do you mean that?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. Her hand enveloped mine as she kissed the tips of my fingers and pressed them against her cheek. Smiling, she closed her eyes, "You're so cold, my love."

Opening her eyes once more, she looked intently into my own and that wonderful stinging sensation rushed through me again. The very same distinct connection I had felt the first time I saw her on that park bench. She wrapped her arms around my neck and I pulled her in close enough to feel her heartbeat through her clothes. Her lips brushed against mine and I knew what she longed for. I had promised her a kiss that night. The kiss that would signal the beginning of our new life together.

The kiss from a vampire.

My lips met her cheek.

"My precious morning flower," I said. The scent of the vanilla on her neck assaulted my senses as I pressed my lips against her warm nape.

"I need you, Judith," I whispered. She gasped like a lover enthralled by ecstasy as my breath cooled the wet stain my lips had left behind. "I need you, Judith, because I am so very cold without you."

Her neck pulsed against my lips.

I kissed her neck again, hard and intentional, the kind of kiss only one such as I could give. The flower shuddered in my arms as if kicked by the breeze. The smell of sweet copper drowned the vanilla on her neck as her love filled my mouth and spilled over my chin. A low growl crept up in my throat as I leaned back, just for a moment, before kissing her neck again.

Her screams —like the crying call of the animals the Order had forced me to feed upon in all their repression—, petered in the night air. Her fingers dug into the binding of the book between us. The book that had led one such as her, so beautifully pure, to fall into my arms. She pushed against my chest with the arm that held the book, but it was like an ant trying to move a mountain. She was a fly caught in a spider's web and my grip never wavered.

"Don't fight it," I whispered in her mind as she shuddered again, our bond now stronger than twin siblings sharing the pain of loss between them. "You shall have your wish, my Judy Rose. You shall be with me until the end of time."

The hair I had grown to satisfy her girlish fantasy fell about my face as I bent her backward. The excitement and sensation I had felt the first time our eyes met ran like electricity through my body. The hunger that had driven me to search the park like an animal for sustenance faded away with the touch of her love. My limbs grew strong from the purer source. My still heart nearly jumped through my chest from the sheer exhilaration I felt deep inside as I drained Judith of her precious love.

I pulled away as her body went limp as a rag doll. The blood that had sang to me that night in the park as it rushed through her veins, dripped down my chin and splashed against her flushed cheek. I watched her eyes fill with glittering tears as they reflected the moonlight above. Her sluggish heartbeat thrummed in my ears as if it were my own.

The book that had brought us together finally fell from her grasp, striking the snow and pavement as tears rolled down the sides of her face. Like two lovers dancing together into the night, I held Judith in my arms for the last time. Judith, the rose that had bloomed once in a lifetime before winter's harsh embrace had called it away again.

"Why?," Judith whispered in my mind. Her wide green eyes staring at mine. "Why Max…I loved you?"

I licked her saccharine love from about my chin. "Because, my love," I said, my teeth the shade of pure sapphire held to the light as I grinned. "I'm a fucking vampire."

In her mind, I told her my name wasn't even Maximilian, but she could not hear me. I heard the last beat of her heart as her body crumpled to a heap at my feet, cold and lifeless. The next day they would find her spread over the tracks, a tragic accident b ya careless girl caught under a moving train. Her wounds would hide my crime and my Sect would be none the wiser.

As I dabbed her blood from my mouth with a handkerchief, my eyes fell upon her book. Speckles of blood stained the cover, glistening like rubies from the platform lamps. Stooping, I picked up the book and turned to the last page where Judith had placed the bookmark.

On the page, left blank by the publisher, Judith had written a loving sonnet about our time together. A poem of such beauty, I could hardly believe one so young had written it. She had dedicated the last line to me. The book that had influenced her thoughts about me and my kind, was intended as a present. A gift to me from my morning rose. A symbol of our new life together, far kinder than mine.

I turned to the page she had folded down and smiled as I read the glowing scene of a vampire meeting a young woman for the first time. The two fall in love and eventually run away together. I smiled because I knew that any girl who read such drivel was easy prey. With each new vampire tale came a fresh crop of women, dreaming of such an encounter, who would come willingly to my waiting arms. They had to come voluntarily with the utmost trust or else I risked discovery by the Sect, or worse, the Order, and punished for my transgressions. I smiled because the book I held had sold nearly a million copies worldwide. My hands nearly trembled from the thought.

I licked Judith's sweet love, now cold from the night air, off the cover of the book and tossed it onto the tracks where her twisted body lay. My heart felt nothing from her words because my heart was still. My soul never soared to the heavens at the merest thought of love, because I had given up my soul long ago.

I adjusted the collar of my shirt and walked away, my body burning from the only love I truly knew. I had a meeting to attend, a mission for the Sect, and I couldn't be late, but the slight detour was worth the terrible risk. I was a fucking vampire, you see, and somewhere in all the world, another rose blooming once in a lifetime, had just begun a book.