New Day - A Moonlight story

(3450 words)

Penina Keen Spinka

Chapter 1

The early sun was only a slight irritation to Francis, vampire though he was, as they drove back to the City. He did not bother to wear his sunglasses since they were headed west. They had just delivered their friends, Josef and Mick, to Josef's private terminal at Kennedy Airport and said their goodbyes.

"How long do you think it will take for Josef to get over what happened last night?" Sam asked as they pulled out of the terminal. "He lost Sarah for good because of what I did."

"Don't blame yourself, Sam. She was already gone, but Josef didn't know it. He begged you to contact her soul. You were right all along that Sarah wasn't in a coma. Her body wouldn't decay, but she had moved on to her next life. As bad as it was for him, Josef is already healing. As long as he has Mick, he'll manage. If Sarah and Josef are meant to find each other in the future, they will. People who are that important to each other manage to find the ones they love again. Josef doesn't like to admit how much he needs Mick, but their bond is the only thing that brought him out of his death sleep."

Sam closed his eyes for a moment of introspection before he spoke. "I feel a connection to Mick; I have since we met, but his first love will always be Josef."

Francis nodded, and softly added, "And mine will always be you. Actually, I believe you and I first met them more than 3000 years ago when early Babylon was under attack by Persian barbarians."

"Three thousand years ago? You never said our friendship went back as far as that. Come to think of it, there is a lot you've never said." The Mohawk drummer was a young man, only 25. His vampire friend had told him they'd been friends in previous lives, but he had always kept his age and certain other details about how they became friends to himself. Was he finally going to reveal the rest of the story? "Tell me more," Sam said. "I'm waiting."

Francis nodded, both to himself and to Sam. "All right. No more evasions or excuses. What just happened with Mick and Josef convinced me that you're more than ready to know what we are to each other." Sam straightened in the passenger seat of Francis's car, giving his full attention to what his friend would say next. "But, you need breakfast. Last night was draining in more ways than one. You must be hungry. I'll tell you how everything came about while you eat. How does The House of Pancakes sound?"

"You're stalling," Sam accused.

Francis lowered his head a bit. "You're right; I am. It's not easy for me to talk about it. There's no reason to rush into this. We'll talk over breakfast. You waited this long," he reminded Sam.

Sam sighed. "I've waited two years, but fine; I'll wait a little longer. The House of Pancakes always sounds good." He looked at his watch. "For once, I'll eat breakfast at breakfast time. I think I'll order basted eggs, lots of home fries with ketchup, rye toast thick with butter, and coffee. Can you imagine what coffee tasted like to Mick that week he was human again? Like a little bit of heaven, he said."

"Since I never tasted coffee, I'll take your word. I suppose it tasted as good as blood tastes to him now, especially yours. You made him very happy yesterday."

Sam recalled the pleasure he felt at feeding Mick the previous afternoon. It helped him become more in tune with Mick, so Mick could help with the ceremony. "Yeah. He got a hint of maple syrup from my memories and loved it."

"I'm sure it was you more than the maple syrup, but he knows what's good. The traffic in New York City!" Francis muttered with an exaggerated sigh. "Except for you, I'd rather be back in Bucharest. Maybe you'll come for a visit after I finish my work at the U.N. When you're done with your gig at the Vanguard, come visit me. You haven't seen our homeland for a few centuries."

"Our homeland? I lived in Romania? How do you expect me to be patient when you keep giving me hints and then back off? Why not just tell me already?" Since Francis was driving, Sam could afford to take a long, thoughtful look at his friend.

"Well, it wasn't called Romania yet. I know it seems strange that I know more about your past lives than you do, but most people don't remember them at all. It's the advanced age of your soul that allows you to recall as much as you do. You have been very patient. All right, I'll begin now. It will take more than one day to tell. Our story began more than four thousand years ago when you and I were born. We were twins, born to the king and queen of the North Mountain Country at the dark of the year. You'd call it the Winter Solstice. Since I was firstborn, I was dedicated to our Gods, as we thought vampires were then. You were raised to be king."

Sam was a trained shaman, but that didn't stop his jaw from dropping. To the disappointment of his family, he had left his reservation in Canada for New York City, to he pursue a career in jazz. Only yesterday, he had contacted a soul and persuaded it to inhabit its former body that was in stasis. He had convinced her 400-year-old vampire lover to let his true love return to her real life. Sam's abilities might seem miraculous, but this information left him speechless. He blinked and remembered to close his mouth while he tried to think what to say next.

"Four thousand years ago, you and I were twins?"

"We were." Francis kept his eyes on the traffic as he merged onto the highway.

"Since we met, I knew you were holding things back. You knew I could hear your thoughts so you thought in Romanian. This is what you didn't want me to hear."

"It would have been too disturbing. We grew up together as princes in the Carpathian Mountains before the beginning of recorded time and I'm still alive, living in the same body. How could you have accepted that until you knew me better?"

"I guess I couldn't have. It was hard enough to believe you were a vampire and I was your friend from way back when. You kept finding me over and over and doing things for me. Okay. I'm ready to hear more. If I was raised to be a king, did I become one?"

"You did, but not for long. We were at war. Our parents were killed in the first invasion. Two nations attacked us. We were a peaceful, but they hated and feared the rumors about the gods of our country. They thought they were monsters, but that was a matter of perspective. They hoped to kill our gods, annex our country and share it between them. You and I escaped the fires and confusion and gathered the survivors into the mountains. I organized strikes to take out their captains. You held the people together until we were ready, but their forces and weapons were superior. We died and our kingdom was lost. All our men were killed and the women and children were taken captive."

"Oh no," Sam said. "Are you sure you can talk about this and drive at the same time, because if it will distract you, I'll wait."

"I'll manage. Don't worry about my driving, Sam. All right. Our enemies knew vampires protected our kingdom and they hated us for it. I'll use the word 'vampire' for convenience, although you know I don't like that word. They pretended to be our friends. Our vampires had been seen and our enemies learned how to kill them. They were targeted while they were sleeping in the daytime and beheaded. They would have beheaded me too if they knew I was fated to become our next god, but they didn't know. They killed me with bronze knife. You too."

Francis sighed. "Their king had no idea I would return to life many times stronger than when I was mortal. I helped our women escape. Our women fed me those first days while they helped me avenge the deaths of their fathers, their husbands and sons. I owed them that. I never thought I'd take blood in anger. It had been an act of worship between my sire and me. Sometimes, there are good reasons for the worst of actions. You don't want a vampire for an enemy."

Sam closed his eyes and rocked against the back of the passenger seat. "My shaman training heightened my mental abilities as your vampirism heightens your senses. I can see your memories. You were in such pain over the loss of your brother. You loved him so much." He was silent for a long moment. "Francis! He laid his hand on the driver's should. "I was back for a minute, in your body when you woke up in that pit of death. You were crying over my body." Tears dripped down Sam's cheeks.

Neither spoke for several minutes. They were nearly to the tunnel when Francis added, "If you want to know how you looked then, look at me. Every time I look in a mirror, I see you as you were. Only our mother could tell us apart. I should explain something else. You know that vampires are sired by others, don't you?"

Sam nodded. "Mick explained it. The human must be near death from loss of blood, most often because his sire drank it. To turn him, his sire feeds him vampire blood. That is what kills him and brings him over."

"That isn't the way we did it then. In those days, one boy in each royal line was chosen, one from the north and one from the south. My cousin was also chosen. Because we were to be the next Gods, we were prepared all our lives. We tasted our sires' blood many times while we were still human and went on to live our full lives. I married and had children. My cousin was captured in the first attack and taken away. I saw him once since he changed, but he took a different path to escape his grief. For all I know, he's still alive somewhere on earth.

"When you and I attacked our enemies, we were captured on opposite fronts. Each group thought they had captured the new king. They saw my face and thought they had you. We died at the same time." Sam reached out to him, but Francis shook his head. "It was an easy death, my brother. Waking up was much harder, and finding you were gone." He wiped tears from his eyes. "Nothing could have hurt me more than that."

Sam stared at him. Francis was still grieving over his first death. "I couldn't protect you, then, but I promised your shade that I would avenge you. Then, I became a wanderer, looking for you to be born again so I could make it up to you."

Sam noticed his own eyes were wet. "You have, probably many times over. Don't blame yourself." He rested his hand on Francis's. "We're together again. I'm sorry I pushed you to tell me."

"No. Now that I began, I'll tell you the rest. I learned how to use my strength and avoid sunlight while I made my plans. Being a young vampire, I was very thirsty, but I would not harm our people. Every woman among them was willing to feed me and I loved them for it. I awaited my opportunity. When it came, I took the lives of our enemy's king, his sons and their officers with great satisfaction. Their country crumbled and their men had no appetite for war again."

"Our women rebuilt our country. Before I left them, I brought two into my life to protect the others. These women were the leaders and most likely to do well. There was little time, so I had to invent the turning method you know. I warned them not to sleep together so enemies of our people could not find them both and dispatch them, as were done with our protectors. The other women would hide them in daylight and make sure they were nourished.

Once I did all I could for the last of my people, I set off to travel the world beyond our mountains in my search for you. I felt your soul then like I do now. I hid from daylight and taught myself how to exist among strangers. I learned new languages and kept my secret. I traveled at night, often feeding from animals. It turned out the wise man who foretold our future when we were boys was right. He told us we'd never be apart for long. You were reborn in the area south of ours, in the southern mountains of Greece. I found your soul in a boy of ten, guarding his father's goats. You were playing reed pipes. I thought of you, my brother. In your first life, your name was Sammik. You played on a clay flute when we were both boys. You tried to teach me. I learned to play music because you loved it. You still do. That has never changed.

The goatherd beckoned me closer and I touched his hand. The moment we touched, our souls connected again. I knew it was you, like I did that night at the Vanguard." Francis pressed his lips together. "It was a pleasant song. You quickly learned to trust me. When you were old enough, I told you what we once were to each other. To my great joy, you believed me. You've lived many lives since then."

Sam did not speak while he thought over what Francis told him. "I understand now why you thought in Romanian when we first met. It annoyed me, but you were right. I couldn't have handled hearing this yet. I've seen so much I wouldn't have believed since we met. As strange as this is, I believe you. Thank you for finding me again and everything else you've done for me."

Francis smiled. "You thanked me when you accepted me into your life. You let me be your friend. Your first death when we were brothers was the hardest, both to experience and to talk about. Now, you know why I searched you out, why I always will search you out. From this moment on, I will answer any question you might have. You have the right to ask."

Sam could hardly decide what questions to ask. There had been so many at first. Francis had told him about several of his past lives in passing, not in detail. They drove for several more minutes while he pondered what he had just learned. "When you were born, the pyramids were new, weren't they?"

"Not quite. My sire saw Khufu's pyramid being built. He traveled with his sire when he was still human. Our people had just come out of caves and learned to build houses. Egypt was ahead of most countries. My sire saw horses and chariots there, and gold."

Sam looked out the window to see where they were, and then looked back to Francis. "Is it worse to be you or to be me?"

Francis looked down the line of cars, then over to Sam. "Everyone we knew is gone, or if they live in other lives now, I don't know them. I spend every one of your lifetimes searching for you, over and over. It's lonely, but I know you are waiting for me and that when I find you, you will know me. You're what now, twenty-five years old?" Sam nodded. "I've been looking for you for twenty years. When you are lonely or in need of understanding, your soul calls out to me. That is how I found you."

"I was feeling lonely and lost in New York. I wish I could remember all the details of my lives. I could listen to you telling me stories about my lives all day."

"You have before and you will again." Francis merged his BMW into the slow-moving lane for the Queens-Midtown tunnel. The wait gave them time to really look at each other. Sam was attractive enough to turn the heads of both sexes. He had tied his long, black hair behind him the previous afternoon before they drove to Josef's lower eastside brownstone. His neck was smooth since he'd swallowed vampire blood from Francis two days prior and from Josef last evening. Francis's old bite marks had healed and new skin had replaced the old.

"It's good to know you as you are, Sam, but maybe in your next lifetime, you'll be a woman again. We could be closer than we are now, or maybe…" Francis continued with a wistful smile, thinking something he did not say.

Sam did not appear to have heard the last. "Me? A woman? I can't imagine it, but I believe you. I think I feel more your equal being a man," Sam admitted. "Too bad neither of us is drawn sexually to our own gender."

Francis laughed. "Speak for yourself, my brother. As long as it's you."

Sam mouthed a surprised Oh. "You never seemed to want 'that' from me." At least they were off the subject of death, but this one was more awkward.

"Nearly the first thing you said when I found you is that you are not drawn to men. 'Not gay' is how you phrased it. I respected that. I would not ask more from you than you are willing to give." He paused to change the subject. "We were always equal. If you were born first, you'd have been the immortal, and I'd be living life to life. Gender doesn't matter much in Western-style countries. Today's women claim the same rights they possessed in Babylon 3000 years ago when the most important deity in the empire was Divine Mother Ishtar. Now that the Taliban has expanded their control, women under their authority have no independence, no freedom to drive or to show themselves uncovered outside their houses. Civilization goes back and forth, warming, chilling, between light and dark. You and I have seen it all."

The BMW paused while the laser scanned Francis' transit pass on the BMW's dashboard. His diplomatic license registered on the computer with a green light and the automatic arm lifted. They descended into the tunnel.

Sam said, "Mohawk families have been led by our women as long as anyone knows. You never came to the reservation and met my grandmother. The White nations are just catching up with us." The commuter traffic had thinned out. The tunnel lights seemed to fly by, turning the tiles a yellowish white as they traveled under the river.

They emerged and headed for FDR drive. They came into Sam's neighborhood, driving through the streets until they saw the familiar sign. Francis pulled into the parking garage. "You've heard the worst of it, but we will continue over breakfast. To speak freely inside, we'll play author and literary agent. I'll tell you when we first met Mick and Josef as if I was describing my manuscript. It will be a fanciful historical with gods and a sorcerer, and a few vampires. My novel might appeal to a Hollywood producer. As my agent, you're very excited about it, and with good reason. Are you ready?"

"I can hardly wait. Your imaginary manuscript sounds promising. Maybe we can collaborate and really get it published."

"Type it yourself if you want. This story began about three millennia ago when I was only a thousand years old."

"Maybe we shouldn't put in that part." Sam walked around the car and joined up with Francis.

"It's important to the story. Vampires are back in style, as long as people think we're imaginary. Look at what's popular at the movie houses and bookstores, not to mention television. I think I'll order a short stack with maple syrup," Francis said. Sam looked at him sideways. "You'll enjoy it. You must be hungry." They followed the arrows to the elevator and pressed the down button to the International House of Pancakes.

14