When we would go out every now and then, every so many nights to look for food, I appreciated the starry nightscape of the savannah, the milky way crossing the starry sky and the full moon nights, which painted the landscape with a silvery color.
Tomas was finally able to get a lion and felt like Hercules defeating the Nemean lion.
"You can skin it and use it as a pelt, just like Hercules," I joke, while he looks at me a bit confused. Then he manages to associate my joke with the Hercules he saw in the Disney movie. When I get to tell him the real story, the one I know, because I hadn't seen that movie, he gets very interested and amazed at the differences between mythology and Disney adaptations. He finally decides not to skin it because it seemed too morbid to him already.
Amalia and I just caught a couple of gazelles. Then we walk towards the cave as I constantly admire the starry sky before me.
"A shooting star!" I exclaim. "Come on guys, make a wish, but in your mind!"
The three of us close our eyes, and before concentrating on my wish, I pause to feel the wind on my face, listen to the whistling and beautiful melody the trees and plants make as they dance with it. I only wish that one day, I will be able to forgive myself for all the centuries in which I caused death and suffering, both to vampires and, above all, humans. Then I start thinking about the conversation I had with Amalia days before, about Arthur.
When Arthur became a vampire, his reaction was very confusing. He wasn't violent, but he looked around everywhere, and laughed. He got excited about everything he saw, heard, smelled, it was like a blind man who had been given sight without ever having seen before.
"This, this is a miracle!" Arthur would say. "Excuse me, who are you people? What has just occurred to me?" he would ask, I can remember how marveled he was at that moment.
Od explained to him about vampires, the rules and how he should behave. He stressed the importance of discretion and of the Volturi's punishments in case he didn't obey the rules. It turned out Arthur had gone to war after his partner had died from an infection that couldn't be treated properly, a household accident.
The depression and his loneliness led him to enlist in the British army and, in a kind of suicide mission, assist the paratroopers in breaking enemy lines and infiltrating hostile territory. Arthur explained that basically his mission was to sabotage bases and points of military interest, and send information back to Britain. Eventually he and his platoon were captured and taken to a concentration camp, where they would be executed, Arthur was the only one who managed to escape.
"With these abilities at our disposal, victory in the war is within reach! I must return to the camp to secure the release of the civilians held captive by the Nazis!" he would say with total conviction and it seemed to me that he wanted to go back more to avenge his executed comrades, Od stopped him immediately and forbade him from going back, vampires were not to get involved in human affairs so as not to reveal themselves to them, unless it was solely for feeding purposes.
"Bloody hell, what's the point of having these powers if I cannae use them for something!" Arthur would argue with Od.
"I don't make the rules, it's the will of the Volturi," Od would say seriously.
Arthur stared fixedly at Od, and asked him why he had turned him. Od simply told him it was because we needed one more member, and to show me the transformation process, Arthur looked at me, intensely with his ruby eyes, and asked me sarcastically if I liked the result of what I saw, I just laughed but appreciated his humor. "Hospody!" I said to myself from the awkwardness of the situation.
A nomadic coven of three members is very rare, vampires usually travel in pairs or alone, competition for blood makes relationships very hostile for several vampires to coexist, whenever blood is involved, there is a fight to the death.
Over the following years, me and Arthur began talking more. He was very chivalrous with me and loved wrestling with Od, they would spend nights and nights practicing and trying to prove who was the strongest, I think Arthur was trying to impress me with that attitude.
Our trio seemed to work well and I could spend many hours talking to Arthur about different topics. Arthur would tell me about art and the paintings he had in his small villa in Scotland. He had taught me to sculpt using his hands on stones, he would get materials from somewhere and start painting. He made two portraits of me using the style of different eras, he would leave the paintings he made in random places and liked to hide to see people's reactions when they found them, his ability for the arts had greatly improved upon becoming a vampire.
If he wasn't sculpting something with rock, he did it with wood or other material, and he also introduced me to English language and literature. I was very touched by his sensitivity and the creativity he possessed, something in me began to grow and managed to touch my heart, just as Darius had done previously.
We became a couple during the 70s and Od simply gave us his approval and stressed the importance of keeping the group united. Od this time, would watch us more closely to prevent what had happened with Darius.
The funniest thing about Arthur was that he was the first man who, after consummating our relationship, asked me if vampires could have children. I laughed out loud and assured him we couldn't.
"Боже мій! Arthur!" I thought for a moment. "Vampires can only create other vampires by biting a human," I would remark, while staring at each other.
I deeply hated that Od would interrupt my intimate moments with Arthur, it disgusted me and made me feel ashamed, but Arthur knowing how distrustful he was, just suggested I ignore him, that if he wanted to watch then let him watch. Od wasn't going to sabotage my relationship with Arthur.
Od also had his adventures here and there with human women, but according to him "They were part of the hunt."
In 1986 we decided to return to the small German town called Himmelsburg, near Munich, Bavaria. Other vampires had been passing through there from time to time. It was a very isolated place from civilization and when we hunted humans around those areas it wasn't too complicated to do it discreetly, since it wasn't a very well known place, the people were quiet and tourists were few.
Me and Od used to pass through that place about every twenty years. The forest was lush and the fog would often cover many spaces, having little sun allowed us the luxury of going out during the day several times. For a while we were bothered by that strange cult that had formed during the medieval era, it attracted unnecessary attention and jeopardized the peace we used to have there, but after they burned the lunatics of that place and the castle was abandoned, people stopped paying attention and we could pass through more freely again.
That particular year was quite bothersome for us. Arthur was still not very careful when we hunted and Od didn't like letting him hunt alone, but Arthur had a very independent character and didn't like being told what to do at all, he would only listen to me, no one else.
Od hated Arthur's hunting style, which often left the bodies of his victims in very bad shape, and he didn't take much care to hide evidence of our activities. Me and Od used to, after feeding, burn the bodies and break the rest of the bones, leaving nothing behind, but Arthur often didn't do it, and when he did, he did it badly.
Upon arriving in Himmelsburg, we used a cave and the lake to hide during the sunniest days. Me and Od would hunt tourists and hikers exploring the forest, sometimes using my method, sometimes his. We only met up with Arthur at certain times we agreed on, we could never hunt all three at once, precisely because of the violent tendencies he had when hunting, he was like a possessed beast when he smelled blood, it seemed as if he had never passed his newborn stage.
During that year, 1986, the police were uncomfortably following our adventures, especially two guys who were quite bothersome to us, one named Peter Klein, who was a cop, and then the local forest ranger, named Harald Bauer. The latter was especially insistent, he would set traps for us and go out at night to chase us with rifles, Od was impressed with his determination.
Arthur played pranks on him, messing with his cameras, putting bodies of dead animals here and there and appearing out of nowhere. I got very angry when he left a deer that I had hunted back then and Od was already slowly planning to execute him if he didn't change his attitude, if the police managed to find something that pointed to us, Od would have to get rid of Arthur.
After several fights between the two of them and me, completely desperate, we took a break with Od to talk. I asked Arthur to leave Himmelsburg and meet us in a few months in Siberia, and Od gave him the specifics of the exact place. After begging him, with kisses and caresses, Arthur decided to leave and give me and Od time to come up with a plan, and clean our tracks.
As we walked along a trail, carrying the belongings Arthur had collected from his prey, we came across a homeless man and I noticed his mental health wasn't the best. I immediately told Od to give me the backpack and leave the rest to me.
I asked him his name and he introduced himself as Wolfgang Meyer. After a conversation where he babbled things about his family I gave him the backpack and the clothes we had obtained from some victims. I insisted he put them on and after a couple of hugs I indicated where he had to go. A couple hours watching him from a distance, the police arrested him and convicted him for the murder of those Arthur had fed on.
"Arthur..." I remember Od murmuring. "Next time we won't forgive you..."
I calmed Od and with a hug I told him. "We have to think it through if we'll bring him back next time."