Chapter 4: Finding.

Mr. Tanaka’s small smile didn’t indicate an immediate danger such as rogue vampire attack needed to be dealt with. He’d be showing his serious face when it was about any attack on humans, the living, the ones we, vampires had to protect.

This time, his smile showed his care for me or more like a worry. Sometimes, Mr. Tanaka could be so wise that he acted almost like my dad with his wisdom. Well, he was away older than me when I turned him. He was just so grateful that he didn’t feel all the pain of growing old when he was still a human.

He said that finally he could focus on his work to give better service for me and my vampire kingdom. I always couldn’t wait for what kind of act of kindness this time he would show me, more like I had been waiting for it over and over, then after he smiled, he asked,

“It’s full moon, my lady. Have you seen any news from the crystal ball?”

His eyes gleamed bluish of curiosity behind the spectacles. Then I smirked,

“Well, it’s about the solution of our blood sources problems.”

I knew that he must be ecstatic too, as I saw he was surprised in awe.

“What an awesome news, my lady! What should we do, then?”

It felt funny seeing him so excited in his old but strong figure. It was like watching an 8 years old boy just found out that he got a new toy. Only this one, the toy was about his own future. Still I tried to be serious,

“We have to find a scientist, Mr. Tanaka. The crystal ball showed that.”

But Mr. Tanaka frowned his almost uni-brow and curiously asked more question while shoving today’s newspaper that I hadn’t read yet because I was just waking up to the blue light of the full moon to see what inside the crystal ball were,

“Does the image look like this?”

Then there, I saw the face of that gorgeous scientist. He had decent picture on the front page of the newspaper. His droopy eyes were so clear behind his spectacles. They showed how genius he was. Among many creatures I had encountered for so long I had lived, his eyes surely showed the mass knowledge he possessed.

Since I saw his eyes more clear this time, I just realized there was a little bit of sorrow and loneliness buried deeper there. I was a vampire, but sometimes my great-grandfather’s ability to sense emotion still lingered in me, especially when the person had strong emotions on what he or she really felt for quite some time.  

His nose was perfectly sharp with a hint of mustache above his heart-shaped full lips. I’d like to run my fingers on his tempting slightly opened lips. His sufficient facial hair was plastered perfectly on his chiseled jaw. If I had the heart, then everyone would say I was falling in love at the first sight.

Thank Moon Goddess, I was a vampire, I didn’t do love. I admired his figure of God’s creation, so I answered while still staring at the newspaper’s front page,

“He sure is, Mr. Tanaka,” I smiled at him and carried through,” Even better, he looked much… much better.” I smiled even wider.

“But…,” Mr. Tanaka protested because of what I read after that:

'A scientist had been kidnapped when he was on his way home, last night. The vampire cop reported he was grabbed when he was on his side. He said the rogue vampires attacked in a pack and were too powerful for him to handle alone. By the time the back-up came, they had already fled. Mysteries still lingered on why the rogue vampires kidnapped the scientist. Will he still be alive? Or will he be their next victim lying with scattered body on the ground?’

A horror that I thought, thinking our last resource to survive as vampires, the human kind protector would end. But then again, if he was dead, then it was impossible for the crystal ball to show the future that he successfully made. Thus I replied right away,

“Ya, I got it, Mr. Tanaka. Has Viktor called to report about this matter?”

He popped his eyes like they were about to get out of their place while tilting his head,

“Might my lady summon him? Might he had just arrived at the station and questioned the vampire cop or in the medical fixation? It was said down there that the vampire cop is in really bad shape because of the rogue vampire pack attack.” Mr. Tanaka pointed to the most bottom part of the page where I hadn’t read it yet.

“Ah ya, thank you. Mr. Tanaka. Can you please call the other three and asked them to get ready with their horses?”

He meaningfully smiled like he already knew what my last line was,

“They’re on it, my lady. As soon as I summon my staff, they’ll be finished with readying the horses and they’ll set off to seek for the rogue vampires…”

I cut him before he even finished his sentence,

“Tell them to wait, Mr. Tanaka. We need to know from Viktor first what kind of rogue vampire pack that we’re dealing with. It’s definitely rare for rogue vampires attacked in a pack. Or they finally evolved and can think better. It’ll be a disaster if that were the fact.”

“Yes, my lady.” Mr. Tanaka disappeared into the dark to summon his staff so that the news could travel fast to my three horsemen who had been readying their horses in the stable near the castle’s gate.

At times like this, I missed my werewolf ways of communicating through minds. As a werewolf, I could call them and had meeting in our minds.

But as vampires, I could only contact my subordinate one by one, only the ones I turned by myself.

Though it was worth it to leave the werewolf life after I was cursed, it was painfully difficult to shift to human shape after I was in rage becoming the war-wolf.

It took me days to get through the horror process. Then after I shifted to human shape, I was born as a vampire, wasn’t be able to shift again to wolf. My life as a vampire began that time. My family had anticipated when they found me had difficulty in shifting back to human shape.

They kept me in the dungeon with comfy red and leather bed with warm room closed from any sunshine that possible was trying to get through.

From a young vampire full of rage, they kept on feeding me with willing human blood from all over the castle, all the wise high-ranking staff in the castle. So I understood their wisdom and gradually lessened my raging blood of a young vampire.

Talking about you are what you eat, I literally ate the best blood to shape who I was today.

There were two kinds of wolves inside each of us. How we became, depends on which wolf we always fed. Fed the bad wolf, you’d become bad. Fed the good wolf, you’d be the best creature walking on earth.

[Viktor? Have you questioned the vampire cop about the abduction of one scientist last night? He is the answer to our future…]

[Viktor?] 

I tried to summon him, but to no avail…

-to be continued-