Possibly Sam

Chapter 1

Begins after What's Left Behind. Unfinished. No copyright infringement intended. This can stand alone, but it would be better if you find and read The Beat first. If you have reviews, please send them. I'm still trying to work out this story so comments may help.

It turned out I didn't have a human family after all. I'm still glad I was able to find and rescue Ray's grandson Jacob for his son Robert. For a few days, until the DNA test results came back, I thought Robert might have been my son instead of Ray's. Even if he had been, I couldn't have told him. Robert remembered and loved his father, the one who truly passed on his genes to him, and that was for the best. Ray had been my best friend. I did enough harm after the war, although he never knew about it unless Lila told him. I had loved his wife when I thought Ray was dead. I had feelings for her and it was comfort sex, I admit. Who knows what might have happened, but it turned out Ray wasn't dead after all. He was just missing in action, and then he was found.

I dropped out of their lives; what else could I do? At least, I helped find and save Jacob and returned him to the loving arms of his parents. If there is an afterlife, I hoped somehow that Ray knew I had helped his son and that it made up in part for what I did with his wife. There was still a part of Ray alive and walking the surface of this earth. Had I known I was going to die in 1952, believe me, I would not have wanted to leave a child behind. It's not like I could have cared for a child as a vampire. I had no right to have a family.

Josef came by the loft to cheer me up. That's when I decided to tell him about Sam and what happened when I left him in New York City that January day when Beth and I found out about Sarah. I told him how I met Sam outside the Village Vanguard and why I had spent the night in his house. "It was his music that called me to him. He said it was kind of like a spell, the chant and the beat together."

"So he's a witch?"

I wasn't sure whether Josef believed in witches. Maybe, according to some cultures, Sam was a witch. "That's not how he thinks of himself. He's a Mohawk shaman with very strong powers. He can hear what people are thinking."

"He enthralled you. Vampires enthrall humans. I never heard of a human who could do it to us. Don't you realize what he could have done to you while you slept?"

"Yes, I do. But he didn't. He told me later he looked into my soul and I knew I wouldn't harm him or he wouldn't have invited me home with him. He has a European vampire friend, one who's very old, possibly ancient from the sound of it. His name is Francis. Sam says he lives in Rumania, but he visits New York twice a year for the UN. Did you ever hear of him?" Josef shook his head, but he was staring at me in disbelief. "This guy Francis taught him about our requirements. He even bought him his apartment in New York. Sam keeps a freezer there for when he visits."

"Go on," Josef prompted. "I'm waiting for the punch line."

I was saving the best for last. "It's not exactly a joke so it doesn't have a punch line. Sam told me he learned from Francis about ancient times, when humans thought vampires were gods."

"Get out of here. He could have told you anything and you would have bought it. You honestly think this friend of your new buddy is that old? I met a 900-year-old vampire once. I doubt there's one of us older than that." Josef rubbed his right hand over his face, not wanting to be convinced. "Why were you so ready to believe him? Were you still enthralled?"

"I don't think so. He had no reason to lie to me. It was a gut feeling, okay? But I haven't been wrong very often. Look, Josef, as long as it's confession time, I'll tell you more. I needed a distraction that night after I saw what happened with Sarah."

Josef lowered his head. I thought of a bull getting ready to charge. He could have stopped me with a gesture or a word, but he didn't. I learned the day I met Sam that Sarah had been in a coma since Josef tried to turn her in 1955. Josef never wanted me to know about his lost love and his failure. I hated to make him hurt all over again, but nothing ventured, right? I had an idea. It might work or it might not, but the decision wasn't for me to make. Josef had to decide if he wanted to follow up on it.

Although I was excited, I forced myself to speak calmly, watching Josef's face to see how he was taking my words. "Seeing Sarah showed me how dangerously wrong a turning can go. If I didn't want to make another vampire because I hate what we are, there's another reason now. If Beth ever comes to love me enough to want to join our tribe, I'd be afraid to try. It might go wrong."

"So seeing me and my failure is why you went with a guy who could have been a Vampire slayer."

"That's not what I'm trying to say or why I'm telling you this. Just listen to me, all right? Hear me out." Josef nodded. "He wasn't a slayer. I was sure of that. I felt a connection between us. Meeting him and his family did me a world of good. It was just what I needed to get through the next few weeks, avenging Josh, turning human, turning back, finding I didn't have a grandson after all, and getting closer to Beth."

I could see Josef building up a head of steam and resigned myself. "All I hear is that you found a human who can enthrall vampires. Instead of running for the hills, you trusted him while you were vulnerable. You told me I must have had a death wish that day, and maybe I did because of what I did to Sarah." Josef could have moved faster than the human assassin. He could have prevented himself from being injured, but he hadn't. He just waited on the floor for what the son-of-a-bitch would do next. It was as though he wanted to be punished.

I protected Beth first that day, because she was human. I knew Josef couldn't be seriously damaged. I killed the assassin soon afterward and removed the stake he'd shoved into Josef's heart. A glass of blood later and you'd never know Josef had been hurt. "May I speak now, Dad?"

"Don't call me that. All right, speak." He waved his hand like the aristocrat he was in his first life. "So you felt a connection with Sam. Tell me more." He stretched out his legs on my ottoman.

"He asked me to come up to his reservation near Montreal. We drove the next afternoon and most of the night. Then we camped out before dawn. He had a folding shovel in his car along with his camping stuff. I dug a trench to sleep in. The ground was pretty cold, so I was cold enough. Sam put up his tent over it so no one could see me sleeping there."

Josef shook his head. "How did you know he wasn't going to stake you and bury you out there in the forest, miles from the road? I couldn't have found you, you know. No one would have known where to look. Maybe you didn't care whether you lived or died, but was that any reason to throw caution to the wind? What would I do without you?"

I looked at Josef. Yeah, we were best buddies, but when I thought he was dead in the explosion, I was the one who was mourning. It turned out an explosion and a fire couldn't kill him after all. After my week as a human, since Josef re-turned me to my vampire state, I was stronger myself. With Josef in my new bloodline, I was practically damage proof too.

"You're my only friend who doesn't like me just for my money," he reminded me.

"Yeah. I did say that; didn't I?" I had to smile.

"Damn it Mick! Just because I had Sarah on my mind that night, do you think I wanted to lose you? Losing her was bad enough." I had no answer for him. Men don't talk about the love they have for each other, but it was there and we both knew it. "So, why are you telling me the story of Sam now?"

At last! "Because Sam can reach people's souls." Finally, Josef caught onto what I was thinking. It didn't take shaman ability because we knew each other that well.

"And you're thinking he can reach out and talk to Sarah's soul? What if he can? How am I supposed to believe in him? What if he tells me she says I should let her go? Do you think I can do that?"

"Maybe not if he just tells you what he hears, but what if he shares his powers with you like he did with me? What if he can get you to hear what she wants for yourself?"

Josef covered his closed eyes with his thumb and forefinger, but I saw his chest heave as he took a tremendous breath and let it out with an audible whoosh. "Hear her voice again? Oh God!" he said.