Even Monsters Get Lonely
Chapter 4

“So that’s what happened,” Shannon said as she finished. She had been telling André and Rick what had occurred earlier in the evening between her and André’s vampire.

Vampire, as he wished to be called, had apparently bitten her without André knowing.

“Um.... so, now what André? Is it bad that he bit me or something? I mean, that’s what vampires do, right?” She paused then as her eyes widened as she continued, “He didn’t try to turn me into one, did he?”

“Non, Shannon he did not. Please calm down. Maybe I should explain a few things to you,” André said, hearing the panic in her voice. He then stood up, taking her arm as he headed for the sitting room.

Rick walked ahead of them.

“Wait here for a moment,” André said as he paused in the hallway. He then went upstairs to his room to grab a comb. Returning to her, they walked into the sitting room together.

Rick had already taken a seat and made himself at home there.

“Sit,” André said, patting the footstool in front of a wing-back chair.

Shannon sat down.

After pulling the towel from her, now nearly dry, hair André began to comb it. As he gently worked the tangles out, he began to gather his thoughts before speaking. First, he asked her, “Alright, so you remember me telling you of how the vampire found me?”

“Yes. Thieves had robbed and beaten you before leaving you for dead,” Shannon answered.

“Oui, that is what happened,” André agreed. “What I didn’t say, was that I had gotten up and tried to make it home. I found my horse, which I hadn’t made it to before I was attacked, which was a good thing, or they would have stolen it also. Then I tried to ride home, I had almost made it to our stables when the vampire found me. He grabbed hold of my horse’s reins and began to lead me off to this small cave that was on the border of my family’s land. He said it wouldn’t do for someone to find my body drained of blood.”

“You said he was injured also,” Shannon commented then.

“Oui, he was,” André agreed once more. “While he was leading me away, he complained about having to walk slowly because another vampire had injured his leg. Anyway, I passed out at some point and when I awakened, I remember feeling strange. As I lay on the floor of the cave, trying to figure out where I was, I heard a voice in my head. The voice kept saying, “so hungry, so hungry”.”

She nodded.

“Of course, you were hungry André, we always awaken feeling hungry,” Rick muttered.

André gave him a dirty look before saying, “Well, I didn’t know that at the time, and I had no one to tell me either.”

Rick just shrugged.

Shannon turned and looked at André. She said, “Oh, so it was...?” She trailed off when André nodded.

“Yes, it was the vampire who is now a part of me,” André finished for her.

“Okay, so the vampire is a separate being from you? Kind of like the werewolf, who has a wolf spirit or something like that? Do werewolves even exist?” She almost mumbled at the end.

André chuckled then said, “I don’t know if they do or not. I’ve never met one if they do, but I’d say it is a possibility, after all, I exist. As for your question about him being separate, I really don’t know if he is, but he spoke to me, so maybe.”

“Stupid human,” Rick, “Mr. Know-it-all, muttered. “No, André, your vampire isn’t separate, don’t let her put ideas in your head.”

André ignored him.

“Okay. Well, do you still hear him talk to you?” She asked. “Why did he get so upset when I called him André?”

Rick began laughing at her.

Shannon stopped to frown at him before she said, “You wouldn’t be laughing at me if he were here!”

“Oh, really, and why is that?” Rick asked her, still chuckling.

“Because Vampire is scary! Well, kind of anyway. I mean he looks really scary!” She sputtered out.

Rick rolled his eyes. “He looks just like André, because “duh” he is André.”

“No, he doesn’t look like him! His eyes are black, his teeth are sharp, and so are his features. I can’t explain it, but he looks almost totally different!” She told the men as she studied Andre’s face.

“Whatever,” Rick said with a snort. “I’m a vampire too, and he doesn’t scare me.”

Shannon glared at Rick as she told him, “Well you should be! Now you better stop laughing at me, or next time I see him, I’ll tell him just how mean you’ve been to me. I bet he’d wipe the floor with you for being such an evil being!”

Rick tossed his head back in laughter. “Like a vampire would care what a human girl has to say.”

“He would, I know he would care,” Shannon whispered.

“How?” Rick asked.

Shannon bent her head, looking down before saying, “I don’t know, I just have this feeling that he would. I don’t care if you believe me or not, because I know he would.”

André looked at her and saw that her lips were trembling. He knew she was close to tears. So, he gave Rick a death glare before turning back to Shannon. He then said gently, “Shannon, ma petite (my little one), ignore him and let me finish, please.”

She looked up at him then with a cute pout and nodded.

So, André continued, “I vaguely remember getting off the floor and having an odd feeling in my mouth and face. I know this is when my fangs lengthen. Although, from what you are saying, when he takes over completely, my facial features change also.”

She nodded and told him, “They do. Are you saying you don’t know what he does when he takes over? Do you think he knows what you do, like right now?”

André sighed. She is so full of questions! I barely answer one, before she has another! “I think he can know if he wishes to but doesn’t care to most of the time. All I know is when I am in control only my fangs lengthen, and my eyes take on a light glow. Although the pupil does enlarge, this takes away most of the green.”

She once more nodded.

“Anyway, after the strange sensation in my face, I didn’t remember anything else, until I awakened with a dead body of a woman next to me. I took her out and quickly buried her as the voice in my head once more complained of hunger. Once the body was buried, I blacked out again. This happened three more nights, and I would always awaken to a dead body,” André told her.

Shannon stared at André, her eyes wide. “You killed all those people?”

“Oui, petite, sadly, I did,” he admitted. “The hunger was fierce, and I had no one to teach me how to control it. But after five days I knew it had to stop.”

“There is no shame in killing. We are vampires, predators first, and human second!” Rick announced from his corner.

André once more gave him a dirty look.

“So, what did you do?” Shannon asked him.

“When I heard the voice in my head again, I told him if we continued to kill people nightly, we would eventually be caught and killed ourselves. I asked if there was any way we could eat without killing,” André said.

“And?” Shannon questioned.

“The next night, when I awakened, my victim was still breathing next to me. So, I took her back to town, and left her on the steps of the church,” André said as he stood up and went to stand by the window. “This went on for a few nights until I told him was tired of blacking out. I told him I wanted to know what I was doing. After that, he didn’t talk to me again, but he did allow me to feed without him completely taking over.”

“You don’t talk at all anymore?” Shannon asked.

“No, we do not petite. But I haven’t blacked out again until tonight either, and I’ve been a vampire for five hundred and six years,” André told her.

“Wow, now that gives a whole new meaning to the expression ol’ man doesn’t it?” Shannon murmured.

“I just don’t understand what has brought him to the point of taking over again,” André said. He stood staring out of the window at the star-filled sky, trying to think of the reason why this had happened to him after so long of a time. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rick move.

Rick was almost a blur, and André almost missed him.

“If I had been André, I wouldn’t have left until I had taken everything you had to offer,” Rick told Shannon as he pulled her from the stool into his arms. He then pulled her head back as he ran his nose down her neck.

André hissed as his fangs lengthened, and the voice of his vampire whispered through his mind saying, how dare he touch her!

Then André felt that odd sensation of his face shifting shape. He knew then that the monster inside of him, who called himself Vampire, was taking over in his anger. This time though, André was conscious enough to see what was happening.

“Why do you touch what does not belong to you?” Vampire hissed.

Rick turned to look at Vampire, his fangs down and his eyes glowing as he said, “Oh, is she yours now?”

“More mine then yours,” Vampire said as he tilted his head. “I believe she asked you earlier not to touch her.”

Rick sneered, saying, “I’ll touch her if I want too. I need no one’s permission to take what I want!”

“Yes, you do! You should always ask the lady if she wants to be touched first, and respect her if she says no!” Shannon yelled as she struggled in Rick’s grip.

Vampire felt proud of her. This was a strange feeling for him to have because normally he had very little feeling about anything. Well, except hunger, there was always a feeling of hunger. He then thought, Oui, she was scared. I can hear her heart pounding, but still, she stands up for herself.

Rick turned and hissed at her, causing her to shrink back and whimper.

Vampire saw red then! He might be in the process of denying any feelings for her, but he wouldn’t stand by and allow someone to terrorize her. Funny how earlier he’d had the same attitude toward her as Rick, yet now it was annoying. This made him think, I’ll think about why that is later.

Like lightning, Vampire moved, yanking Rick away from Shannon.

She sat down on the floor out of the way.

Vampire threw Rick against the far wall.

“Come on man! We’ve been friends for a long time. Are we really going to fight over a woman, a human one at that? All I wanted was a taste of her blood!” Rick yelled.

“You are not my friend!” Vampire hissed. “If you were, you would not have touched her when she asked you to leave her alone.”

“Seriously André? You really...?” Rick began only to be interrupted.

“I am not André! I am Vampire, and you test my patience with your whining!” Vampire told Rick before running at him.

“But you are André!” Rick shouted as Vampire tackled him.

So, the fight began, but it really was no contest because Rick was a weak vampire.

Vampire was throwing Rick all over the place like he was a rag doll! It was so unreal, they looked to be about the same size, but Rick had nothing on Vampire.

Shannon had to admit she was quietly egging Vampire on to make Rick bleed. Yeah, she knew that was a mean thing to do, but she really didn’t like Rick, at all. She stayed out of their way, as they all but destroyed the sitting room. There are holes in all the walls and most of the furniture is now broken.

Vampire was yelling in French.

This meant Shannon had no clue what he is saying, nothing nice she was pretty sure though.

Finally, Vampire knocked Rick out, or she guessed he was knocked out since he was no longer moving.

When Vampire turned toward her, she gasps as she looked at his face. It was bruised, bloody, his eyes pitch black, and his fangs out.

He really is scary when he’s angry Vampire! She thought to herself.

“Ne sois pas effraye petite, Je ne te feria pas de mal,” Vampire said as he walked toward where she sat huddled on the floor.

“What?” Shannon questioned in a whisper. She didn’t understand what he had said as she held her arms up for him to pick her up. When he did, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, hiding her face in the crook of his neck.

“Do not be scared little one, I will not hurt you,” Vampire translated for her.

“It isn’t you I’m scared of, even if you do look a bit scary right now,” she informed him. “What scared me was the thought of what Rick might do to me when he grabbed me as he did.”

“I wouldn’t let him hurt you petite,” Vampire said. Then, almost in a whisper, he added, “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Sensing the truth in his words, Shannon hugged him tight as he carried her back to her room. Once there, he tried to set her down, but she wouldn’t let him go. Instead, she begged, “Don’t leave me!”

“I’m not leaving, I just want to take the garbage out of my home!” Vampire said in a hissing growl.

Shannon finally let him put her down, just as they heard a door slam. Shannon giggled. “I think the garbage took its self out!”

“Oui, petite, Je crois que oui,” (Yes, little one, I believe it did.) Vampire agreed with a chuckle.

Shannon could only guess he was agreeing with her since she didn’t understand French. Frankly, she was just too tired to ask him to translate. Instead, she let out a huge yawn, because though the night wasn’t quite over, the events of it had exhausted her.

Vampire sat down on the bed, propping himself against the pillows. Then he pulled her down next to him and wrapped his arms around her. “Sleep petite, I will keep you safe.”

Shannon gave another yawn and snuggled her face almost under his arm. She had to wonder how she had gone from being terrified of him to feeling safe all in one evening. It made no sense, and yet it happened. Laying here, wrapped in the arms of a vampire, she feels safer then she had since her mom had died.

Then, she felt her eyelids droop as sleep closed in. She rubbed her arm that was still in a cast, along his chest, with only her fingertips touching him, as she murmured, “I’m beginning to really like you Vampire, you and André. I’m so glad he found me.”

Then, Shannon faded into the oblivion of sleep.

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