After the Fall: A Vampire Chronicle (Book One) (8 page)

             
“No,” Christian admitted.

             
“You’re not in counseling, either, are you?”

             
It was a rhetorical question, and didn’t warrant a response.

             
“You lied to me,” she said in a watery voice, as if she would start crying any minute. “I suppose it’s my fault, really, for being so stupid. I mean, I just met you. I just met you an hour ago and yet I felt like I could trust you.”

             
“You can, Caroline-,” he tried to protest, but she cut him off.

             
“You didn’t follow me to the coffee shop to counsel me. You didn’t follow me to help me. You only wanted to know what I knew. You lied to me.”

             
Christian had never felt so horribly dirty and rotten in his whole entire life; he hadn’t lied to her, but he hadn’t been honest with her, either. It was just another thing she hadn’t needed added to an already horrible day. He took a cautious, conciliatory step towards her, but he could sense her bristling, and so he stopped.

             
“I was trying to help you, God’s honest truth. I’m still trying to help you, if you’ll just let me explain-“

             
“I trusted both of you. For God’s sake,” she said, suddenly turning her anger towards Lorenzo, “you’re a priest! And here you are, having your…
friend
follow me and press me for all the gory details of my family’s murder! How sick can you people get? What are you two, some sort of vampire groupies or something?”

             
“Some might call us that.” She was glaring at Christian, but it was Lorenzo who answered her. He took a step forward, and then another, until he was even with Christian. She was breathing heavily and erratically, her eyes wide and wild. She looked as if she might bolt; Christian suddenly saw that as furious as she was, she was also terrified. He didn’t even look to Lorenzo for permission. He had come back to her to tell her the truth, and he still intended to. He took a deep breath before proceeding.

             
“I am what is called a vampire hunter,” Christian said. “I told you that I help people in need. Well, my job is to kill vampires.”

             
“Vampires are real.” She had said it before, but she was only just realizing the full implication and weight of the words.

             
“Vampires are real,” he agreed yet again, “and I fight them. Lorenzo helps me on the more intellectual end of the deal. Research and stuff. Hence, the books.” He gestured to the book-laden end table.

             
He waited to see what her reaction would be to his statements so far, but she remained silent. He began to worry when she still said nothing. He was about to continue with his explanation when she spoke, in a barely audible voice.

             
“My family.”

             
A chill settled in Christian’s spine. How could he have been so careless? Here, he had been trying to smooth things out, and he had forgotten that his admission could make things extremely, irrevocably worse.

             
She looked into his eyes, and he was suddenly frightened. There was no longer any anger, and the betrayal and hurt were also gone, but in their place was nothing. Her eyes were flat, devoid of emotion. She was shutting down.

             
“If what you’re telling me is true, then vampires killed my family. If you kill vampires, how were those two able to kill my family?”

             
Christian had no answer for her.

             
“Have you killed them? The vampires who killed my family?” Christian’s guilty silence was the only answer she needed. She nodded in understanding.

             
“So, my parents are dead, my sisters are dead, and those two vampires are still walking around someplace. That sounds pretty reasonable.”

             
She was right. About it all, she was right, except for the reasonable part. He had failed, and he would never forgive himself, but it suddenly felt ten times worse because she knew he had failed her, and she would never forgive him.

             
Without warning, she turned and walked to the front door of the hotel room, turning the knob. Christian rushed to stand in between her and the entrance to the hallway.

             
“Wait!” he cried, confusion and worry temporarily overriding his self-berating. “Where are you going?”

             
“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “Somewhere. Anywhere. Besides the fact that it’s none of your damn business where I’m going.”

             
Lorenzo was suddenly at her side.

             
“Leaving would not be a wise decision, my dear. You are not safe. Nobody knows about vampires save a select few, of which you are now included. You are a threat to them, and I am sure they intend to kill you. You must stay with us to ensure your safety until the Master Vampire is killed.”

             
“Oh, great, now there’s a Master Vampire?” she cried, nearly in tears. “And how am I safer here with you? He,” she gestured angrily at Christian, “couldn’t save my family. How can he save me?”

             
Her words hurt, and catching Christian off guard, she shoved past him and stormed off. Christian was immediately set to run after her, but Lorenzo restrained him. When Christian looked at him in bewilderment, the old priest explained.

             
“If you follow her now, she will only become more hostile and adamant. She is in shock. Keep an eye on her from a distance, but give her some time before you approach her again.”

             
“But you agree that she must stay with us? That she isn’t safe otherwise?”

             
“As much as I dislike the idea, I agree that she needs to be kept safe, and that staying with us, where we can keep an eye on her, is the only option.”

             
Christian started out the door, but Lorenzo again restrained him with a hand. Christian turned to his mentor, whose eyes had softened and was looking at him as if he could see into Christian’s soul.

             
“Do not let her words hurt you. She is upset. You are a good Hunter.” Sensing the doubt Christian continued to feel, Lorenzo added his usual words of reassurance.

             
“Remember, Christian. We do only what we can.”

             
Lorenzo could tell that Christian still didn’t completely believe him, but the hurt and self-loathing in the young man’s eyes had diminished. And then he was gone. Lorenzo turned to a cross on the wall and said a silent prayer for the young girl, and for Christian, too. They would all need a prayer or two; he could foresee nothing but trouble in the future.

Caroline ran blindly out of the hotel, almost colliding head on with the doorman in the lobby, not sure where she was headed, just trying to get as far as possible from Chris Dreiden. Before long, she found herself across the street from Central Park, and she finally decided that’s where she wanted to end up. The walking had helped to clear her head and calm her down a bit. She walked into the park, and it was like stepping into another world.

It had always amazed her how a beautiful, peaceful park full of trees and grass and…well, more trees, could exist in the middle of a concrete and steel city that never slept, home to millions. As a child, she had loved visiting the park with her father, particularly the zoo and carousel in the spring and summer, and ice skating in the winter. Thinking of her father brought on a fresh wave of pain, but Caroline found that being in this place, with all the wonderful memories it held, was comforting.

Usually, she could spend hours just wandering, exploring all the meandering paths and visiting all the attractions, but Caroline had finally settled on a destination, and she made her way directly there. As she approached the bridge that marked the entrance, before it came into view, she paused for a moment, and closed her eyes. She loved Central Park, but she loved this part of it best. She thought Bethesda Fountain was one of the most peaceful and magical places she had ever known.

She couldn’t say for sure when the old, ornate fountain, topped with its stone angel, and the plaza in which it sat had first taken on their magical qualities, but she had been young. Her parents had been the first to bring her there, and she had fallen in love with it immediately, finding it to be like a sanctuary within the sanctuary of the park itself. She had returned to the park several times following that visit, but to her disappointment, she hadn’t been able to find the fountain, even though she spent several hours each time combing the park for it.

Finally, on a third trip back, she accidentally stumbled upon it, and found, to her surprise, that from where it was located, she must have walked right past it on her earlier trips, but though she could make out the stone angel atop the fountain before she even approached the entrance, she knew that on her previous visits, that angel had not been there.

She became convinced that the fountain was in a separate reality, sometimes vanishing altogether, only to reappear later. When she got older, she realized that this fantasy couldn’t possibly be true and she had not been able to find the fountain due to some serious lack of directional skills, but some tiny part of her always held on to the fantasy anyway. Maybe Bethesda Fountain wasn’t part of an alternate universe. Then again, maybe it was. She had, after all, just been told that vampires were real. Caroline figured after that, anything was possible, and if it was, then that was great, because she was thinking the universe she currently inhabited was too small for her to get as far from Chris
Dreiden as she wanted to.

Chapter Seven

             
After leaving the hotel, Christian wandered around midtown for a while with no destination in mind. Caroline wasn’t in sight. She had booked it out of the area faster than Usain Bolt racing for Olympic gold.
If I were a confused, angry, hate-driven yet hurting woman, where would I go?
The truth was, he didn’t know Caroline Gallagher. She could’ve gone anywhere. Well, he’d have to start looking someplace.

He eventually found himself wandering into Central Park. He found the park fascinating, a bunch of contradictions: tree-filled grounds in the middle of a city of glass skyscrapers, a haven and place of fun and play for children during the day, a breeding ground for drug addicts, the homeless, and muggers at night. Still, it felt natural to end up in this place, and so he wasn’t all that surprised to find when he reached Bethesda Fountain that Caroline was sitting on the edge of it, deep in thought.

              She didn’t look up or move when he took a seat next to her. While not a warm reception, he found it encouraging that she didn’t get up and walk away.

             
“I’m so sorry,” he finally said. There was nothing else
to
say. She still wouldn’t look at him. He waited for her to say something – he still wouldn’t blame her if she simply got up and left. When she finally spoke, she caught him as off guard – he expected her to chew him out or say something about her family or his failure. Instead, she issued a calm question.

             
“How did you and Lorenzo get into this whole vampire hunting thing anyway?” she asked. “Or are you not allowed to discuss that kind of information?”

             
“We’re not really…encouraged to divulge that kind of information,” he admitted, “but I think you deserve to know.”

She held up a hand to stop him from continuing.

“Please, don’t,” she insisted. “I don’t want you getting into any more trouble with your superiors on my account.”

“It’s the whole vampire deal that we try to keep a secret from society. Since you already know that part, the damage has already been done. Anything else I say will not make the situation any more worse.”

They sat in silence, side by side, for a moment before he continued. He wanted to keep her there by his side, wanted to answer her question. He figured it was the least he could do, but images were floating to the surface of his mind, ugly, brutal images that necessarily came with thoughts of how he had become the Hunter. For years, he had tried to not think about them, and for the most part, he had been successful. But if keeping Caroline from running off again meant dragging these memories up, he would.

             
He must have hesitated for too long, because something in Caroline’s eyes hardened and he could feel her closing off from him.             

             
“No, wait,” he begged. “I’m sorry. I want to tell you. It just involves some painful memories. But I’m okay now. Do you still want to know?”

             
“Yes,” she finally answered. Listening to the water flowing from the fountain at his back, Christian took a deep breath and began to speak.

             
“I don’t know how Lorenzo got into this line of work. He doesn’t talk much, especially about himself. He’s more of the listening type. As for myself, I am not the only hunter, but I am the only Master Hunter. It is my job to fight and defeat the Master Vampire, because I am the most powerful hunter. The others were chosen for their intelligence and cunning and strength, but I was chosen by birth. I am a hunter by blood. All the Master Hunters come from my family line. Anyone, from anywhere in the world, who has Dreiden blood, has the possibility of becoming the Hunter. Once one Master Hunter is killed, the next is chosen, from the member of my family who shows the most potential. It usually ends up being one hunter from each generation of Dreidens.”

             
“Did you know the Hunter before you?” Caroline asked, morbidly curious.

             
“Yes,” Christian answered softly, a catch in his voice. She must have sensed the shift of emotion in his voice, because she looked uncomfortable, not sure what to do.

             
“So, you were the Hunter chosen for your generation, huh?” she asked, trying to sound a bit light-hearted, attempting any slight change of subject. Unfortunately, the question brought Christian right back to where he had been before. He smiled sadly.

             
“Actually, no.” His statement caught her by surprise, as he knew it would. “I was Lorenzo’s second choice. The hunter before me was my brother, Brian.”

              Caroline wasn’t sure she could’ve been more surprised. First, Chris shows up in her sanctuary, as if he knew she’d be there. Still angry with him, she had nonetheless wanted to know why he did what he did. She needed to understand how someone could kill vampires for a living. She had been relieved to find he hadn’t done it by choice; that would have been a little more morbid than she could handle. She hadn’t been prepared to find out, however, that the hunter Chris had replaced had been his own brother. She suddenly felt guilty about making him talk about it. She could see it in his face and hear it in his voice how painful it was for him to recall the past; and suddenly, she understood why he felt so guilty about not being able to save her family. More than the fact that it was his job, he at least hadn’t been lying when he had told her he knew what it was like to lose a family member.

             
“You don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry I brought it up,” she quickly apologized, but he stopped her with a gesture.

             
“No, I need to talk about it,” he tried to reassure her. “I never talk about it with anyone. There’s no one
to
talk to it about. And besides, you should know.”

             
She said nothing; as much as she wanted to contradict him and make him stop, she still needed to understand where Chris was coming from.

             
“We grew up in California, near Santa Barbara. Brian was four years older than me and I absolutely worshipped him. There wasn’t anything I thought Brian couldn’t do. I didn’t even care that he was the perfect son, the child my parents were most proud of, the one in whose shadow I lived. I didn’t mind being second best, because I loved Brian, and I thought he was the best, too.”

             
Chris stopped talking and Caroline’s heart went out to him. She knew that kind of love. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t have done for Lauren and Katie. Chris finally regained his composure and continued.

             
“Though we were raised Catholic, my parents were less than thrilled when Brian decided to become a priest. They thought he had too much potential to do great things in life, but it was what Brian wanted. That was when I first met Lorenzo. He was Brian’s spiritual advisor and he and Brian became extremely close. What I didn’t know was that Brian had just been chosen the Master Hunter. He and I kind of drifted apart, due to all of the time he was spending with Lorenzo, but more than anything I still wanted to be like my big brother.”

             
Chris stopped again. He appeared to be struggling with a decision, as if he wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to say next, and Caroline suddenly realized she knew what it was, and though she was surprised at the conclusion she reached, she realized that it was so obvious that she shouldn’t have been surprised.

             
“You became a priest, too,” she said, finding it wasn’t as hard to get out the words as she thought it would be. He nodded wearily – it felt odd to have him confirm her suspicions. She couldn’t help but look him up and down. He shouldn’t seem any different to her now that she knew he was a priest, but he did. He looked exactly the same, but suddenly, he didn’t. He wasn’t just a good-looking guy anymore, or even a good-looking vampire hunter for that matter. He was a good-looking priest, a man of the cloth. It was strangely disappointing, but oddly comforting. She knew the fact that she felt deceived was irrational; there had never been any reason for him to divulge that information earlier, but she wondered if she hadn’t asked, if he ever would have told her.

             
“You don’t seem that surprised,” he observed, and she shrugged.

             
“I guess it makes sense.”

             
Christian wasn’t sure what to make of that statement; he had seen all the emotions play across her face as she had digested the information that he was, in fact, Father Christian Dreiden. He could tell that though she wasn’t surprised, she also wasn’t that comfortable with it, and he suddenly realized that, with how close he felt to her, he wasn’t all that comfortable with it, either. Clearing his throat, he continued with his story.

             
“Brian’s order was known as Manus Dei. It is an order of priests dedicated exclusively to the eradication of vampires from the earth. All hunters are members of the order, and all members of the order are hunters. Brian told me that the order only allowed one new member every few years, because he knew I would try to join. So I joined a different order. That was almost two years ago. Two months after, Brian was murdered. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was killed while fighting vampires.”

             
Christian was getting choked up and he could feel tears welling up in his eyes. At night, thoughts of Brian often came unbidden into his mind before he was able to banish them again, but he had never, ever spoken about his brother or his brother’s death with anyone, not even Lorenzo.

             
“You know what it’s like, then,” Caroline said softly, and Christian saw tears of empathy welling up in her eyes as well. Of course she understood what he was feeling, how his heart broke every time he thought of his brother, because she was feeling it too. They understood each other. He watched her lean over and take his hand in hers; the warmth and weight of her hand was comforting and he gave her a reassuring squeeze.

             
“Yes, I understand.”

             
He didn’t want to dwell on it, though. He released her hand and wiped a tear away and cleared his throat.

             
“Is that when you became the Hunter?” she asked, prompting him to continue, sensing his need to not dwell on the pain.

             
“Actually, no,” Christian replied. “I was out of control; Brian’s death devastated me. I was angry with him for dying, angry at the world and God for allowing him to die, angry at myself for not being able to save him. I was so full of rage that I thought I would burst. I was lashing out at everyone. I requested immediate time from my superiors for what I told them was a sabbatical. I rented an apartment in the worst area of the city and walked the streets with an attitude, daring any drug dealer, thug, and hoodlum to pick a fight with me. It was dangerous, but at that point, I didn’t care. I didn’t have anything to live for, so what did it matter if I died anyway?”

“Lorenzo found me there. He was another person I was furious with. He was supposed to have looked out for my brother. Lorenzo realized, however, that I had a lot of anger that could be put to good use. At that point, I had become hardened and ruthless, uncaring. Lorenzo gave me the opportunity to get revenge on those responsible for my brother’s death, and that’s how I became the Hunter. Under Lorenzo’s guidance, I was able to channel my thirst for revenge, but more than that, I was able to learn discipline and to find God again, to become less angry, to find a bit of peace. Lorenzo saved my life.”

              Caroline was completely drawn in to his story, trying to picture a cold-hearted Chris seeking a pointless death in the inner city. The image broke her heart. But it was heart-warming to see Chris’s eyes become soft and a small smile come to his face when he spoke of Lorenzo, as if Lorenzo were a beloved grandfather, or as it were, a very good friend.

             
“So you’ve only been a Hunter for a short time,” she said.

             
“Yeah.”

             
“And you’re in New York now because of the Master Vampire?”

             
“Yes,” he answered, nodding. “Only a Master Hunter can kill a Master Vampire. Although there’s only one Master Vampire at a time, they, too, are replaced upon death, or so Lorenzo thinks. We’re not entirely sure how it works, although Lorenzo spends a lot of his time trying to figure out what the connection, if any, is. This Master Vampire appears to be somewhat new. Powerful, but new. He’s only been around for a couple of years. Lorenzo and I have been following him from California.”

             
“And what if he leaves New York?”

             
“Then we follow him.”

             
“And what if you kill him?”

             
“I don’t really know,” Christian admitted. “I’ve never killed a Master Vampire before, but I imagine I’ll go after the next one, wherever he pops up.”

             
Caroline didn’t know how he did it. He talked about being a Master Hunter as though it were any other job, as if it had been a normal career choice.

What do you want to be when you grow up, Billy?

Oh, I want to be a fireman.

How about you, Priscilla?

I want to be a ballerina, or a lawyer.

And you, Chris?

I’d like to be a truck driver, or maybe a vampire hunter.

But she didn’t see how it was anything but a curse. By a quirk of fate, he had been born into a family destined to save the world from vampires, forced to give up any hopes or dreams he might have had to have a career, a home, a family. Every day was a matter of life or death for Chris, a battle between good and evil. Lorenzo may have saved Chris’s life, but in return, Chris had given up his right to any kind of normal life.

              She found that she admired him for it. She couldn’t picture going through everything Chris had and would go through. It took courage and determination and probably a lot of faith in God, that you were saving people for a greater good.              

“I want to come with you,” she said, surprising herself, and from the look on Chris’s face, surprising him
even more.

             
“What?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard correctly.

             
“I want to come with you and Lorenzo. I want to help you kill the Master Vampire, since he’s responsible for killing my family.”

             
“No,” Christian answered immediately, seeing right away that it wasn’t the answer Caroline wanted to hear. He wasn’t giving in on this, though. What she was proposing was out of the question.

             
“It’s too dangerous. Hunters get killed by vampires all the time, and we’re trained to fight them, selected for special skills. You are what we call a ‘civilian.’ You wouldn’t stand a chance, no offense, and I cannot allow that to happen. You can stay with us until the Master Vampire is killed because it will be safer for you. In fact, I insist you do. I promise to protect you like I wasn’t able to protect your family. But how can I protect you if I allow you to fight vampires?”