Moonlight Scars

1. The Same Old Story

Vincent

I pressed hard on the acceleration pedal as my car went easily over 70 mph on the highway. Without a car in sight, my silver Lamborghini Gallardo broke through the silence of the night. As the engine got louder with power, my endorphins started spiking. I hollered with excitement as I laid back in my chair and sped through darkness.

That's what I love about the night. When your average people go to bed and the freaks are let loose. No police officer could catch me. In a car or on foot. Even if they got lucky and did, I could still snap their necks like toothpicks. Did I forget to mention?

I'm a vampire.

Real vampires of the modern world are different from the mythical beings of legends. We don't live in large, elaborate castles in Transylvania. We don't die from sunlight or are effected by garlic, crosses, or holy water. We're actually a quite advanced species.

Our bodies are dead, no more working organs or cells. Our life force is provided by vampire's venom, passed through a vampire's bite. That gives us our 'powers' . We are extremely strong, fast, and almost impossible to kill. We have to be ripped to pieces and burned, most likely by a vampire. Although we try not to kill each other.

Most vampires are nomads. We would ordinarily travel alone or in pairs. The nomads go from place to place, picking off a human every now and again for food. These vampires only last maybe a couple weeks before leaving.

There is something that separates me from regular vampires. Not only me, but also my 'family'. We are self-proclaimed 'vegetarians'. We only feed on the blood of animals. Not only does it makes us feel better about our diets, but it allows us some peace. Because no humans end up dead where we go, we are allowed to stay in places longer. We maintain a residence in small towns usually in the north, away from the sun. Of course we can't stay in one place forever. We don't age, so looking the same for more than a couple years gets people suspicious. We try to stick to a two or three year stay.

That brings us to our current situation. We are in the process of moving. To a small town in Minnesota, called Hawley. Probably one of the smallest towns we've stayed in. Population 1,882. I couldn't tell if that was good or bad.

I saw a black, Maserati MC12 speed up next to me. The car shined in the moonlight, as the driver looked at me and I at him. It was Xavier, my 'brother'. There were six of us in the family. We posed as a family of adopted children to a young couple.

Angelo was our patriarch. Stuck in the body of a 31 year old, he was a 407 year old vampire. He had black hair, slicked back. He was tan, due to his being born in Spain 1601. He had been a merchant and had kept that training, posing as a small time business man all these years. He had turned all of us. We adopted the last name 'Drailen' after what he says was, ' a dear friend'.

His 'wife' was Antonella or ,as we called her, Nella. She was an average age in both terms. Stuck as a 28 year old Italian woman, she was 124. She had dark brown hair that flowed in waves down her back. She was a beautiful, maternal figure to all of us. Another fun vampire fact, we all are impossibly beautiful and attractive. A natural weapon of ours to lure human prey.

Next oldest was Juliet. She had long black hair running like a powerful river to the middle of her back. She was exceptionally attractive, a 22 year old French girl from 1887. She was the older sister of the family. She reminded me of a snobbish princess, with her taste in elegance and hesitancy toward most people. She assured me she was the daughter of a middle class banker.

Next eldest was me. Vincent. I'm not going to talk much about myself. I'm 80 years old and stuck in a 18 year old body. Standing at six three, I have dark blonde hair hanging messily down to my eyebrows. I'm an introvert.

Next is Xavier. He is physically older than me. He looks 19-20ish, but he is really 74. He's definitely the more fun brother of the Drailens. His hobbies include fast cars, gambling, and anything that gives him a rush.

The youngest is Kara. Sometimes I think she's too sweet to be a vampire. Always in a happy mood, she's a short, 17 year old blonde girl. We pose as adopted siblings and I treat her like I did my biological sister.

Back in the real world, I was racing head to head beside Xavier. I look at him through the window. With a vampire's vision, I still could see him perfectly in the night. He looked back at me. He had his expensive, black sunglasses for the sole purpose of looking cool. He shined me a smile and nodded at me before speeding up. Good old Xavier.

His car cut into my lane, forcing me to slow down. With him in front of me, I was now forced to follow him, doomed to lose. I laughed at myself and continued to follow him for the next 2 miles.

Angelo bought a house deep in the woods. We had to use a long, winding driveway to reach the large mansion. Seeing it for the first time was nothing special. It was a three story, peach colored brick house. There were a lot of pillars, arches, and old style designs. A Nella trademark choice.

I got out of my car along with Xavier. We were the first ones there.

" The king remains undefeated! 22 years strong! The crowd is going wild!" Xavier taunted. I went over to him. He was leaning against his prized Maserati MC12. He smiled at me and ran his hand through his short black hair.

" I'll get you next time" I said before giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. I looked him up and down. He had left before our last week in Park River, North Dakota. He had only joined us on the highway. " What's with the suit?"

Xavier was wearing an all black suit. I noticed the top buttons were undone and a tie hung untied around his neck.

" I came straight from Vegas" he said proudly with a smile. " Won a couple thousand dollars, but I wasted it through…… recreational purposes."

My smile dropped. Xavier always had a problem on his vacations. Not a gambling problem though.

" Take off your glasses" I told him flatly. His smile dropped quickly. I looked up at him as he took his glasses off. He hung his head down in shame.

It surprised me that I had so much control over Xavier. He was a good three inches taller than me. He was definitely stronger, even by vampire standards. His shoulders were wide and his arms strong, as he was the muscle of organized crime during the 1930's.

He looked up at me and gave me an annoyed look. My gold eyes met his red eyes in a stare.

" Come on Xavier. You need to get a hold on your problem."

Vampire's pupils can be three colors, representing their recent dietary habits. Black meant we were hungry. Gold meant recently fed, on animal blood. Red meant he recently fed on human blood.

" In my defense, this girl came onto me" he calmly argued.

" Yeah I know. Then you bought her drinks, professed your love for each other, and then you killed her. Same old story"

Xavier's problem was thay every time he went to a gambling town, he fell 'in love' with a girl. Whether it be a desperate show girl or a drunk college student, he always got intimate with one. Any sort of love is frowned upon between vampires and humans.

Not only could we easily break them, but it sometimes led us to lose control. I personally didn't get it. Humans are so fragile and greedy. I couldn't see myself being involved with one.

" Whatever, just put on your sunglasses before Angelo gets here."

I patted him on his shoulder. He put on the glasses and smiled, showing that all was well. Soon enough, two cars pulled into the driveway. A red Mercedes and a blue Bentley Coupe. Angelo and Nella stepped out from the red car, Juliet and Kara from the blue car.

" So boys, Nella tells me Xavier won" Angelo said. Nella had a vampire supernatural power. Not natural, but not unusual. She could locate anyone within a couple miles with her mind. As a human she always knew where her children were. As a vampire she was even better at it.

" Does it surprise you that I won?" Xavier cockily asked.

" I'm surprised" Juliet commented. Her voice was strong, yet elegant. " I thought you'd crash because you were too busy looking in the mirror."

" Says the girl wearing tons of makeup and always carries two mirrors" Xavier shot back. The brunettes always fought.

" Well then" Angelo said, " your prize is the job to move all the furniture into the house." Angelo clicked a small device he took from his pocket. The three garage doors opened, revealing three moving vans. We all laughed as Xavier groaned. " When your done, leave the trucks at the foot of the driveway." Angelo led the three women into the house.

" You're not going to give me the keys?"

" Break open the back, then drag the trucks."

Vampires are condemned to never ending night. We can't ever sleep, keeping us from peace. Living under the black nights and the gray, sunless days, we can never know genuine light. Darkness is chaos, and we are destined to be prisoners.

I leaned against a tree and opened up the black case. I took out my violin, an antique from the early 1900's. I started to play an original song. It was fast and sort of angry. Not only did it give me something to do, but it desensitized me. It was mediocre peace. I lost myself in the darkness of my music of the night.

I was quite good at the violin as a human, even better as a vampire. I was what people called a prodigy as a child. I remember that I had been a scholar growing up. I was set to go to college, become successful. Unfortunately, I was killed at 18.

My parents were immigrants from an Eastern European country. The territories have changed, making me unsure of my official nationality. They were poor factory workers, living in New York. They worked hard to put me through school. I studied hard to help my family. My sister was 6, my mother got too elderly to work, and my father got sick. That's when tragedy struck.

An anti-immigrant mob attacked our house one night. They lit the house on fire. My father valiantly blocked the door, allowing my sister and I too escape. They killed my mother as she was working in the garden. I ran with my sister in my arms. We ran into a stray mob member in an alley. I put my sister down and told her to run while I fought the man. I wasn't much of a fighter, as the man beat me within an inch of my life. He picked up a rock to finish me off.

Luckily, Angelo was around the corner and saw the fight. He appeared quickly and snapped the man's neck. He saw me on the ground dying. After a moment of reflection, he bit me, turning me into a vampire.

Normally, a vampire doesn't remember their human life. I had Kara help me to remember. She too has an unnatural power. She is able to manipulate memories, erase them or bring them back.

I soon snapped back into reality. The sky was lighter and the dawn was coming. I would have to go to school soon. My music had made me lose track of time, for hours. As much as I wanted to keep playing I couldn't.

Part of the family charade was acting as a normal high school student. Even though I had studied for eighty years world wide. I groaned. The same monotonous, old story.

The four of us drove in two cars. Xavier and I in our joint Range Rover, which was probably the most normal car we had. Juliet and Kara rode in the blue Bentley Coupe. We parked in the neighboring parking spots we received.

We sat in the car for a while. I scanned the faces of the kids. 542 kids went to Hawley High School. 121 of them were juniors, which is what I was supposed to be. Kara joined me as a junior, as my twin, and Xavier and Juliet was seniors.

With the experience of over 50 high schools, I have seen every type of teenager. I saw the football team who were 'messing' with some nerds. I saw preppy girls, skater guys, and even the artistic kids. I noticed some normal, no clique groups scattered around. To me, they were just boring.

" It's 8:15" Xavier pointed out. " Homeroom bell rings in two minutes."

" Let's go" I sighed.

We got out of the car and grouped up with the girls. Not matter how much we did this, I never got used to it. I took a useless breath as we started walking through the crowd. The angels from hell were walking among humans.

Of course everyone stared at us. We were gorgeous. Xavier grinned happily, enjoying the attention. His expensive shirt was quite small, showing off his muscular torso. Juliet was dressed in designer everything, with a walk and smile ready to kill. Kara was normally dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I had jeans and a plain, dark green sweater.

I looked down most of the time, but glanced up to look at people's reactions. The girls blushed and bit their lips, mostly for Xavier. The guys stared and drooled at Juliet and Kara. The same old story.

We walked up the steps and headed for the main entrance. The school was medium in size, having two floors, but not very wide. There was a small platform between the parking lot and the main doors. We walked across it. I held the door open as the other three went in. Before I went in, something stopped me. Something fell, then a yelp, then something bumped against my leg.

I looked down and behind me to see a skateboard. Someone must have fell off it, causing it to roll towards me. I traced its path back to the skater. A girl lay on the floor being helped up by another girl. Both girls caught my attention. One was very Goth. She helped up the fallen skater. I eyed the skater as she eyed me.

Her attire was punk-goth. Not over the top like her friend, but nice. Her hair was a light auburn color. It ran straight and smooth to her shoulders. She had a thin face and blue-gray eyes. I could see fear and wonder in her eyes. They melted me frozen, dead heart. She was no taller than Kara, five seven at most. She had an aura about her that….. attracted me. Then she did the worst thing possible.

She flipped her hair so that it went behind her, revealing her neck. Whether it was a flirtatious or not, I couldn't tell. If I was looking at her face I could have told, but I was focused on her neck. As her hair flew back, it sent a gust of scent toward me. Not a scent of shampoo or perfume, but of blood. Her neck was thin and the perfect shade of a dark pale, almost tan. She was skinny, perfect for her veins to show. I could smell her blood from the distance we were at.

Venom accumulated in my mouth, the equivalent of drool. My nerves tightened up as my body tensed. It must have been weird for her, the awkward silence of the beautiful boy looking menacingly at you. I quickly nudged her skateboard to her and turned around. I went inside school with a new problem.

I was not only irrevocably attracted to this girl, but I also undeniably thirsted for her blood.