Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin(23)

Elizabeth gritted her teeth. It was her last bit of self-esteem coming through. She still wore the most unflattering clothing in her wardrobe.

"You don't wear anything nice either," she observed.

It was true. For the most part, Aaron wore clothing built for work outdoors. Occasionally, he might wear something that was surprisingly trendy, but tonight he wore an old pair of jeans with paint stains on them and a white v-neck t-shirt.

"Is that what you like? Would that make you warm to me?"

Elizabeth was silent. She closed her eyes. She wanted to escape. They were done with dinner, and she sensed what was coming next.

But then, instead of requesting (aka: ordering) her to the bedroom, he got up and moved behind her. She found herself hoping he would break her neck. Instead, she felt something cool slip around her neck and was disappointed that it didn't feel like a noose. She looked down. It was a long string of pearls.

"Stand up," he ordered.

Elizabeth stood and Aaron led her to a full length mirror. He stood behind her as he admired her image in the mirror.

"I want to see you in nothing but pearls," he murmured in her ear.

Elizabeth lost it. She pulled away from him, grabbed the pearls, yanked them over her head, and threw them at him.

"How dare you!" she screamed. "I hate you!"

He stared at her with a genuinely bemused face.

"I thought you would like them," he said. "I've never been with a woman who didn't love it when I gave her jewelry."

The idea of him abducting other women and then handing them jewelry made something in her brain snap. And the fact that he actually looked crushed at her reaction made her want to tear his throat out. She felt like she was going to be sick. Dizziness swept over her and raw emotion churned her stomach with acid. Was she going to throw up? And then it felt like her whole body collapsed in on itself. She screamed. And then she wasn't screaming. She was howling. She saw herself in the mirror. She was a large golden retriever. But she was only a gold retriever for a moment. She quickly morphed back into a human.

"Elizabeth!" Aaron exclaimed. "You've become a half vampire!"

"But how..." she started.

"Vampirism is typically passed through exposure to a vampire's blood. But there is another way. And that is through frequent exposure to the bodily fluids of a vampire. We've been together, without protection, almost every night for a month now. You're body has finally begun to change."

"I'm not going to become a full vampire, am I?" she asked with alarm

"No," he responded quickly. "Have no fear of that. Members of your species are unable to become vampires."

She looked at him quizzically. Members of her species? What species was Aaron? He led her to the chaise lounge and began to tell her his history and the history of vampirism.



Chapter 11: The History of Vampirism

"I grew up thousands of years ago. We'll guess 40,000 BP--"

"What the heck is BP?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, you know how it used to be BC? Before Christ was not considered politically correct; so it was changed to BCE, which stands for Before Christian Era. But then I think people realized that didn't actually change anything, so the term became Before Common Era. However, a lot of scientists have taken themselves out of the mess by using BP. BP stands for Before Present. I didn't know what "present" they are talking about or what marker they are using until recently. I found out that the start of PE is January 1, 1950. 1950 is when scientists, such as archaeologists, started using radiocarbon dating to determine the date of ancient remains. I think this system of dating is well suited to discussing anthropology. But back to my story. I grew up during the Paleolithic era. But we didn't have any concept of time back then. I still don't really understand the concept of linear time. We considered the world to be cyclical. The seasons changed and then repeated predictably. Like a circle. We didn't have eras. We were all simply traveling through the same circle of life.

"I was raised by a Cro-Magnon mother and a Neanderthal father, so we are only half the same species. The Cro-Magnons were modern humans, but the Neanderthals were not. I've read a bit on the differences and similarities between the two species, and I don't know how accurate it all is, but I'll give you a little synopsis. Genetically, all modern day humans are a tiny bit Neanderthal. It's mostly in the skin and hair. We Neanderthals were a very fair species, because we originated in Europe. Homo sapiens sapiens came from Africa. You can see our genetics coming through strongest in those of European descent. I can't tell you much about how my mother's ancestors came to Europe or why they migrated. She spoke to me a little of her family but history was a circle and she only seemed to have a firm grasp of her own place in that circle. She could tell me that fourteen winters ago I was born, but we didn't even have a counting system that went much past thirty.