My Fair Donor

My Fair Donor

  By J. C. Verdin

  Copyright 2012 J. C. Verdin

  My Fair Donor

  Television sucked more than I did. Clicking off the TV, I looked at the clock. Emily would get off work in a few minutes.

  I hopped off the couch and pulled on my coat. The cold didn't bother me, but it would have raised suspicion if I didn’t wear it, considering it was November. I left the apartment and headed for the hospital.

  Emily Kendall, AB negative, was my roommate. She wasn't my girlfriend, although I did think of her as my human. She was a nurse in the maternity ward. Her hair was somewhere between blond and brown and her eyes somewhere between blue and green. I'd always liked that about her. It made her hard to define.

  In exchange for her blood, I protected her from others of my kind that would, while they wouldn't kill her, would make her wish they would. She'd be locked up and drained almost to the point of death every so often. Vampires never messed with each other's humans.

  At least with me she had a normal life—with the addition that her roommate was a vampire that drank her blood, watched her TV, and sometimes played Angry Birds on her iPhone. She called me her leech.

  She was pulling on her jacket when she saw me. Smiling, she and hurried over.

  "Hi, Julius," she said when she cleared the doors.

  The part of me from the eighteenth century wanted to offer her my arm on our walk home, but I refrained. I had asked her once to be my eternal bride. I was kind of glad when she declined, otherwise I would've lost my blood source. My rare, delicious blood source.

  "How long have you been awake?" she asked.

  "A while," I answered. I slept from dawn to dusk. "Nothing good on television."

  "Staying out of trouble?"

  That was a strange question. I looked at her more closely. She was a cheery person. My ray of sunshine in the eternal night that was my world, but she was overdoing it. Even for her.

  "Yes." I lowered my voice. "I haven't bitten anyone in a year, Em, give me some credit."

  Emily laughed, a little too loudly and a little too long. Something was definitely up. The conversation ended till we got back home.

  She put her purse on the kitchen table and put noodles to boil. She dug around in a drawer. "Get your shot glass."

  She wasn't due to feed me for another three days. I raised my eyebrow, but did as asked and placed it on the table. "Did you mark your calendar wrong?"

  "We need to talk, Julius," she said. She took blood from her arm with a syringe and spurted it in the shot glass.

  Uh oh. I sat down and threw back the shot. "What's going on, Emily?"

  "Keegan asked me to marry him last night."

  I was glad I'd already swallowed, otherwise I may have spit it out. Keegan Seamus was Emily's Irish Catholic boyfriend. He wore a gaudy crucifix and I wanted to gag every time he came in the apartment. He emigrated here a few years ago. He was only a few inches taller than Emily, reddish-brown hair, and green eyes. He had, Emily's words, not mine, "the sexiest accent ever." He reminded me of a leprechaun.

  He was as pale as I was, so he didn't suspect I wasn't human. He did think I was gay, though. I didn't like him.

  "Please say something, Julius." Emily batted her lashes at me.

  "What did you tell him?" I asked.

  "I told him I wanted a day to think about it." She gave me a half smile. "He's coming tonight for his answer."

  I know why she said it. She was thinking about me. What would I do without her?

  I'd have to find a new blood source.

  "I'm not sure how this was supposed to end, but I want to say yes. I wanted to say yes last night, but I couldn't. So, can this—" she gestured to the both of us, "—end?"

  I wanted to say, "Hell no, you were mine first. How could you do this to me?" I decided on something more eloquent. "Sure."

  She hugged me and kissed my cheek. "Thank you, Julius. I was sure you'd drain me when you found out. Of course you wouldn't."

  She was going to get old unless I changed her, which she didn't want. She wanted what Keegan was offering. Marriage. Kids. A lifetime of bliss.

  At the moment, I could only protect her. If I turned her, she would get an eternity of constant hunger and me. Keegan was the better option.

  The doorbell rang.

  "That's him." She jumped up to answer it, leaving me at the kitchen table.

  "Hi, sweetheart," she said in that cheery voice of hers.

  It grated on my nerves. I stood and walked over to our small living room, where Keegan was entering.

  He looked at me and nodded. He was no easier around me than I was of him. Probably afraid I was attracted to him. I tried to smile but didn't offer my hand. "Congratulations."

  "Thank you, Julius," he answered back, nodding.

  "Can we have an evening wedding?" Emily asked him.

  "Yes, although I don't think I'll be able to wait the whole day to see you," he answered, smiling like an idiot.

  I wanted to gag.

  "Julius, would you give me away?" She gave me the sunshine smile, the real one. The one I could never say no to.

  "Sure." I thought for a moment. "I'd be honored."

  The sun got a little brighter. "Thank you."

  ***

  After Keegan left, Emily leaned against the door to close it. Giving a happy sigh, she hugged herself. "I feel so lucky, Julius. So happy."

  "Are you sure he's the one?" I asked. "You'd hate to marry the wrong guy. How long have you known him, after all?"

  "Give me some credit, Julius," she said, straightening to her full five feet and two inches. "Keegan has been nothing short of a gentleman. He has a great family. And he's Catholic, a religious man. How bad could he possibly be?"

  "The same religion that's responsible for the Inquisition? Famous for pedophilia?" I raised my eyebrow.

  "It's not like that," Emily said, waving me off. "Keegan's not like that."

  "Marriage means the mask comes off," I said.

  Emily opened her mouth to speak, but then thought better of it and closed it again.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Nothing," Emily said. She covered her mouth to yawn and brushed past me. "Goodnight, Julius. Doc has a scheduled caesarian tomorrow."

  After her bedroom door closed, I slipped away.

  The first class predators were usually solitary. It was seldom that we ever met up with each other, but we all had an idea of where each other was.

  I found Antoine, the oldest vampire in the area. If anyone knew how to undo the vamp-curse, it was him.

  "Why would you want to undo your immortality?" he asked, giving me a speculative look. We sat in his apartment's living room, each with a glass of O positive. The chairs were more comfortable than what I had at home, the place better furnished.

  "I want a soul," I said. "I want to grow old and die."

  "With the woman you love," he added. "It's the only reason any of us ever want to undo it. She doesn't want you to turn her?"

  "No. Her boyfriend just proposed to her, but I think if I can become human, she'd realize she wants me instead." The moment I said it, I regretted it. It sounded ridiculous even to me.

  "Julius, if she doesn't, you're stuck mortal," Antoine took a sip from his glass. "A vampire can try to turn you a thousand times, and you'll never become one again. You'll grow old and die. Contract diseases. Is it worth it?" Antoine gave me a level stare.

  "She's worth it." I took a sip, reminding myself I had far finer stuff at home. "And if not, well, it'll be a lot easier to kill myself if it isn't."

  ***

  And if this didn't kill me, nothing surely wou
ld.

  Gaining my mortality and my soul back would require me acting like a mortal. I had to stay up during the day and sleep at night. I had to eat human food. I had to get a job. I needed an identity. Eventually, I would have to go inside a church and, even scarier, broad daylight.

  I hadn't needed to go to Antoine, I should've just paid better attention to that old Christmas movie Jack Frost.

  When I returned to the house, Emily was still asleep.

  I thought over my list. If I were mortal, I couldn't protect Emily. Well, it would be harder.

  We could move, I decided, to a small town where vampires didn't dare go. It was easier for us in large cities. Plenty of beggars in dark allies that nobody cared about to sustain us. Everybody cared about everybody else in small towns. Disappearances were suspicious. The risk of being found out was too great.

  I set an alarm and went to sleep. I woke up when Emily did.

  "Emily, I've decided to become mortal again," I announced at the breakfast table.

  Her eyebrows came together. "Really? Why now?"

  Because I'm not going to lose you to a leprechaun, I thought. "So you don't have to have an evening wedding. I think it would be better if you had it in the daytime. In the morning. Outside." I was such a liar.

  She smiled, but I didn't think she completely believed me. She didn't press the matter, though. "So, what do you have to do?"

  I showed her the list Antoine gave me.

  "Easy enough." She nodded. "I'll help you."

  "How does someone who doesn't exist gain an identity?" I asked. I had been under the radar for over two centuries. I had no driver's license. No birth certificate. No social security card.

  Emily thought for a moment. "We'll worry about that part later. In the meantime, you can work on the other things."

  "How do I get a job without an ID?" I asked.

  "Lots of places hire illegal aliens." Emily looked at me sideways. "How old were you when you turned?"

  Unable to help it, I smiled. "Twenty-nine."

  "Ah, forever twenty-nine." Emily grinned. "Are you sure you don't want to stay that way?"

  "Positive," I answered without hesitation.

  "Your birthday?"

  "April thirtieth."

  "You never got to have your golden birthday." She shook her head. "So maybe we can see if we can get you your soul back before it passes next year."

  ***

  Emily was right about plenty of places hiring illegal aliens. I got a night job as a security guard at one of those business towers.

  I found out one of my colleagues was very similar to me.

  Kirk was a little taller than I was. I was five feet nine inches. He was about five eleven. I figured he was descended from Scandinavians. Blond, almost white, hair with blue eyes. He would've made a great Hamlet. "You trying to get your mortality back too?"

  "Yes," I answered. "How long have you been a vampire?"

  "A few months. I went see Antoine as soon as I was turned," he answered. "How long have you been like this?"

  "Since the 1700's." I couldn't remember the last time I talked about it. "I was born in 1745. I was turned in 1774."

  His eyes widened. "America or Europe?"

  "Europe." I answered. "Spain. I spent some time in France during their revolution. Pickings were good, then." I grimaced, remembering. I could admit to what I had done, but I wasn't proud of it. "When Napoleon took over, I came to America."

  He looked like he knew he should've known what I was talking about, but he didn't. "Your name's not really Julius, is it?"

  I was glad he didn't ask, "What was it like?" Still, Americans didn't know history so well if it wasn't American history, and even then, they still didn't know Benjamin Franklin was never a president.

  I shrugged. "It is now."

  "Why did you pick it?"

  I gave another shrug. "I was going down the alphabet. I was at j."

  "What names have you gone by?"

  "Aaron. Bane. Cedric. Desmond. Eric. Fagan. Gareth. Henry. Ian. Now, Julius."

  "What was your birth name?"

  I hadn't said it in years. I didn't think even Emily knew my real name. "Esteban."

  ***

  Being able to actually hand Emily rent money from my first paycheck was one of the best moments of my life.

  "So, it's worth it?" Emily asked. She had pictures of wedding gowns spread out along the table.

  I grimaced, aware I was running out of time. "Yes."

  "You're serious about this mortality thing?" she asked.

  I nodded.

  "Good." She got up and grabbed a legal pad from a drawer. "What's your full name?" she asked.

  I looked at her. "Why?"

  "Because people who exist need names," she answered, coming back to the table. "I work at a hospital. I can get you a birth certificate."

  I smiled, wondering if it was even legal for her to do that. Probably not. I looked at the mail I was getting.

  Julius Jones.

  Since Jones is a common last name, I thought it was a safe bet. I looked at Emily. If this was going to be permanent, I wanted something I wouldn't mind living with for the next fifty-odd years.

  "Stephen Julius Araia," I answered. "A-R-A-I-A."

  "Pretty." She wrote it down. "Born April 30. What's 29 years backward?"

  I did the math in my head. "1982."

  "Parents?" she asked.

  "Bernardo Araia and Brisa Derio."

  She wrote it down and looked at me. "That really them?"

  I nodded. "Yeah."

  "Did you have siblings?" she asked.

  "Yes. I had three older brothers and three older sisters."

  Sympathy crossed her features. "I'm sorry."

  Emily had had a basic idea of how old I was, but I didn't think she had understood the full weight of it before that moment. I tried not to think about...before. I could pretend it didn't happen. That none of it happened and I was just dropped here.

  "What else do you need?" I asked, clearing my throat.

  "Nothing. I'm going to check hospital records for a doctor that would've been around during that time. I'll fill in any other information." She tore the sheet from the pad and shoved it in her purse.

  "Thanks." I went upstairs for a nap. I did still need to be awake at night, although I took to eating breakfast and lunch with Emily. After over two hundred years of drinking blood, human food didn't sit well.

  ***

  Keegan invited Emily to Saturday night mass. Knowing it was on my list, Emily asked if I could come along.

  He gave me an odd look. "I don't know how they'd feel about him being gay."

  I'd been waiting for a remark like that. "How do they feel about you being a leprechaun?"

  "Boys!" Emily glared at both of us. "That's enough. Keegan, Julius isn't gay. Julius, Keegan isn't a leprechaun. Goodness, we need to attend some sort of service. Maybe the both of you can learn how to be nice."

  We gave mirrored sighs of resignation. No matter how irked we were with each other, neither of us would ever want Emily upset with us.

  Keegan spoke first, "Let's go, then."

  So we all went. However, since I wanted to make a hasty escape, I sat in the last pew. I was already uneasy and shaking as it was. Keegan didn't notice and Emily just nodded and smiled at me. After about five minutes, I left the sanctuary and went into the foyer.

  The church had a huge crucifix in there. I always wondered what sort of people could make them. At least back in the 1700's I had. The ones now were probably mass produced.

  The best part of losing my soul was that I didn't have to worry about saving it anymore. Who wants to go inside a church and stare at a tormented guy on a cross willingly? Staring at the crucifix then, I wondered if being brutally tortured and killed like that was worse than living without a soul for over two hundred years.

>   People started to come out of the sanctuary. How long had I been staring?

  "Ready to go home, Julius?" Emily asked, smiling.

  Nodding, I followed them out.

  The three of us walked back to Emily's and my apartment. I politely excused myself to my room. If I really loved Emily, I would want her to be happy.

  But I wanted her to be happy with me.

  ***

  At work the next night, I was quick to tell my new friend about what had happened.

  "What was it like? Going inside a church you weren't supposed to be in?"

  "It was weird. I could practically feel damnation raining on my head." I didn't tell him about the crucifix. "But then, I grew up Catholic and I remember feeling that as a mortal too. When I have a soul to worry about saving again, I'm going Protestant."

  Kirk laughed. "But you survived it, right? That's got to be a good sign."

  I shrugged. "I hope so."

  "You've been a vampire for two hundred years, Julius. Why now are you deciding you want your soul back?"

  I looked at him closely. "The girl I'm in love with doesn't want to lose her soul. If I were human, though, I'd actually have a chance."

  "How long have you known her?"

  "A year and a half, about." I conveniently left out the part about her being AB negative.

  "Does she know about you?" Kirk raised a blond eyebrow.

  "She's my blood donor. I would never turn her against her will, and she's engaged to this Irishman--"

  Kirk stopped me, surprised. "You're going through all this trouble for an engaged woman?"

  "She was mine first. She won't have me like this, but maybe she would if I were human again. She'd actually consider me."

  "You don't even know?" His eyes were wide and he shook his head. "That's an awful lot of trouble for an uncertainty."

  "I want my soul back," I said, and I was surprised at how much I meant it.

  ***

  Emily showed me my new birth certificate and social security card. I'd been born at the local hospital. My parents had been immigrants. For the first time in two hundred years, I slept soundly. The next morning, after Emily left for work, I went to the roof.

  I stood under the little shade that our apartment building roof offered. I had a loaf of bread, a dollar bill, my ID, and a picture of a crucifix. The real ones still burned a little. "Human food I've consumed. Mortal money I've gained. Name I've been granted. Condemnation I've faced. Soul, I have finally earned."

  I stepped out of the shadows. "Sunshine I have conquered."