Crave - 3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Jenson woke up drenched in sweat, his heart racing. “Fuck,” he muttered, running a shaky hand through his damp hair. He searched for his tablet in the dark room and checked the time. It was still pretty early yet.

“Lights, 50%,” he said, and blew out a breath.

Light illuminated the room, chasing the shadows away. Knowing there would be no more sleep, Jenson got up, grabbed some clean clothes, and left his room. He wandered down the dim, deserted corridor to the showers. It was quiet since the first watch was busy finishing reports, and the second watch hadn’t stirred yet. He figured he had at least 30 minutes before anyone would be up and moving. After a quick shower, he wandered down to the galley, which was mercifully empty. Jenson wasn’t very hungry, but knew he needed to put something in his system. He didn’t feed last night before bed, and was starting to feel the effects. After warming a mug of O-negative he leaned against one of the galley tables and waited for the remaining vestiges of his nightmare to clear. They had been happening more frequently the last few nights. It wasn’t surprising; the nightmares always seemed to increase before he saw him again.

With a shake of his head, Jenson straightened up, rinsed his mug, and headed back to his room. The ship would be arriving at Anglia in a few hours, so he packed his things and made his bunk, before finally deciding it was time to go out to face the world. He took one more look back at the tablet laying on his bunk before walking out the door. He knew he was putting off checking his messages, but part of him really didn’t want answers.

“Jens?” Audra’s voice called to him from behind.

He turned, making sure to put a smile on his face. She wasn’t fooled, and he could see the concern in her eyes as she walked up to him in the corridor.

“You had another one.” It wasn’t a question. Her mouth tightened in a frown.

Jenson sighed. “Audra ….”

“I know, I know,” she said, bringing her hands up in a placating gesture. “I hate to see you like this.”

He waited, not speaking.

Audra closed her eyes briefly, and sighed. “Did you feed yet?”

He was grateful she dropped the subject, and gestured for her to continue on to wherever she was headed.

“I had a mug this morning.”

Jenson thought he saw a flash of relief in his sister’s eyes before she looked away, and felt a pang of guilt. He really did hate worrying her. She started walking towards the bridge, indicating he should follow. They walked silently down the now busy corridors, both lost in their thoughts. As soon as they entered the bridge, the first watch captain, Lieutenant Haran, hurried to Audra’s side and saluted her. He handed her the tablet he was carrying, and walked with them, updating Audra on their ETA and the status of the ship. With a nod, she dismissed the male and sat in her chair. She looked down at the tablet in her hands, and Jenson knew her well enough to know she was trying to make a decision. Finally, she looked up at him.

“Did you check your messages this morning?”

Jenson shook his head. He could tell from the sadness in her eyes that she had, and it wasn’t good news. He really hadn’t expected anything different, not after so long, but he always hoped. Without another word, he turned and left the bridge, with his sister’s soft “I’m sorry, Jens,” following behind him.

In order to distract himself from the unpleasant thoughts hovering in the back of his mind, Jenson went down to the hold to help get the cargo ready to be off-loaded. It was tedious, and not particularly hard work, especially not with the anti-grav simulators on the ship, but it served its purpose. He also got along well with the males working in this section, so there was a lot of joking back and forth and good natured teasing that the envoy was ‘gracing them with his presence’. The laughter was exactly what he needed to pull him out of his self-pity. Before he knew it, he heard the ship wide call to get ready for landing. He joined the rest of the males in the seats lining one wall of the room, and prepared for the stomach plummeting descent.

When they finally landed, Jenson said his goodbyes, with a promise to join them for drinks in a couple of days, and went to his room to grab his pack. The rest of the ship was a bustle of activity as the crew readied the ship, and themselves, for a well-deserved two-week layover. The month long mission with him to the Vensa system was the last leg of a yearlong tour for Audra and her crew, with only short, very infrequent returns to Anglia. On those stops only Audra and one or two others would go down in a shuttle to pick up supplies, or the occasional passenger, like Jenson.

As the hatch opened, Jenson followed several other crew members off of the ship. He knew Audra would be a couple more hours, writing reports, and making sure everything was off-loaded. They had already made arrangements to meet at the Council Compound, before going together to see their father.

He wove around tearful greetings, and clusters of families still waiting for their loved ones to disembark, on his way to the rover he kept at the station during his off planet missions. It was an older model hover vehicle, practically ancient by constantly changing technological standards, but he loved it. After clearing the station’s security checkpoints, he drove out into streets of the surrounding city. As he drove he saw hundreds of Anglians, and many different species of off-worlders, out on streets and walkways. He loved Anglia, but he didn’t miss the bustle of the capital. When he accepted the position as envoy, Jenson was offered a home in the Council Compound, located in the heart of the city, but he valued his privacy too much. He also had no interest in living in the underground city with its perpetual nightlife, where many of the younger vampires made their homes.

He drove for quite some time before moving past the busy core to the quieter neighbourhoods in the surrounding countryside. Eventually, he turned down a dead end street lined with only had a handful of large, fenced properties, stopping at a gate which looked like steel, but was actually comprised of several alloys not found on Anglia or Earth. After opening the gate with a retinal scan, Jenson wound his way up the long tree lined driveway until his home finally came into view through the deep purple leaves. It was built to look like an old southern plantation home, but instead of wood, the structure was made up of alloys similar to the gate. If necessary, the building could be locked down at a moment’s notice, and be virtually impenetrable.

Jenson knew people might think he was paranoid for taking all of these precautions, but he felt he had reason to be. In his nearly 150 years of service as an envoy for the Vampire Council, he had been confronted by several hostile races, and dangerous individuals who put his training to the test. Part of an envoy’s job involved visiting off-world colonies of vampires as well as visiting planetary government leaders to help pave the way for any vampires who wished to relocate to other planets. While some vampires were creating colonies on uninhabited worlds, others chose to live in clusters on inhabited ones. Unfortunately, some races did not take kindly to vampires ‘infringing’ on their territories, even if the vampires in question were their own descendants.

Jenson was also well aware of Anglia’s violent past: a terrifying time when Anglia’s first human colonists had been newly turned, and thirst reigned. The feeding had been ferocious, and it had taken months before any of the new vampires learned to control their bloodlust. Pleas for aid to the Earth government eventually led to shuttle drops of bagged blood. Once the hunger was sated, order and sanity eventually returned. It had taken almost half a century before Anglia fully recovered, and began to resemble the world he now knew. He understood logically that such an occurrence would be unlikely to happen again, but he had travelled to enough planets where order and law were precarious at best, to leave anything to chance.

He parked the rover in the underground bay and, after grabbing his pack, took the lift up to the main floor. As the second the door slid open, he heard faint, muffled screams coming from the left wing of the house. Jenson could feel a familiar tightening in his chest as he hurried down the long corridor to a reinforced door. He pressed his palm to the scanner and ran in, barely hearing the sound of the door sliding shut behind him, as the screams grew louder. Jenson approached a room at the end of the short hall in front of him, dreading what he was going to see. He stopped short at the door, and watched as several vampires tried to subdue a male who was thrashing violently on the floor. A hover chair stood to the side, close to the scene, tipped at an odd angle. As he watched, one of the vampires placed a sedation spray against the screaming male’s neck. For a split second, a pair of crazed, brown eyes met his before the screaming stopped and eyes mercifully closed. He could see blood all over the male’s face and neck. Looking to his right, Jenson noticed a frightened looking younger vampire, one of the new hires, dressed in white, holding a shaking hand to his neck. Blood oozed through that male’s fingers, staining the pristine fabric. Feeling tears burning in his eyes, he turned, and made his way slowly back down the hall. He knew he would get a report from his staff later. Right now he needed to be alone.

From the foyer, he climbed the stairs to his rooms located in the right wing of the house. He didn’t even undress as he fell into bed. For a few moments the tightness in his chest was almost suffocating, until the welcome numbness started to sink back in. He let his mind drift; searching for happy memories. Anything, as long as he didn't have to remember the look in those achingly familiar, brown eyes.

<><><>

“J, how long have you been an envoy for the Council?”

Jenson turned to the boy, putting down his bow on the small, square table beside him. He was still amazed by how much Merrick had grown since he had last seen him, a little over a year ago. Apparently human children changed a lot between 15 and 16 years of age. He was getting tall, almost 5’9” already. Jenson wouldn’t be surprised if the boy eventually grew taller than his own 6’2”. He was also starting to lose the baby fat in his face, and had some definition in his arms. It was obvious he spent a lot of time working out and practicing the martial arts programs on his father’s ship. Jenson guessed it was to give him something to do in the long hours aboard space vessels, traveling from one planet to another.

“Almost 140 years now,” he said as he watched the boy grab an arrow from his quiver.

“What did you do before you were an envoy?” The boy asked before raising his bow and firing in one smooth motion. Almost a perfect bullseye.

“You’re getting much better.”

Jenson noticed a blush creeping up the boy’s cheeks before he ducked his head, letting his blonde mop of hair fall in front of his eyes.

“Thanks,” Merrick muttered. He took a deep breath before looking up again. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

Jenson smiled. The boy was tenacious, he’d give him that. “I always knew I wanted to be an envoy. Regular schooling for a vampire usually ends when we are a little over 40 and then … “

The boy looked up quickly, shock evident in his expression, obviously checking to see if Jenson was joking with him.

“We are a very long lived people, Merrick, so we study and train in a wide variety of subjects, and for several careers. Some vampires have training in up to 10 professions. We choose the one that calls to us the most. I wanted to be an envoy for most of my life, so I applied a little after I turned 50. Envoy training usually takes another 10 years: both academy training, and working with a senior envoy until we are deemed ready to go out on our own.”

“Why 10 years? I thought envoys just visited different vampire colonies to make sure everything was running smoothly?”

Jenson knew the question was spoken out of genuine curiosity and not to insult, so he wasn’t upset with the boy’s unintentional disrespect.

“We’re not only trained in diplomacy, Merrick.” He reached out and ruffled the boy’s hair. Merrick pushed his hand away with a laugh.

“Ok, what exactly does an envoy do?”

“I admit, we are primarily negotiators and peace keepers, but we also have extensive combat and weapons training which make us effective in combat, if needed” He picked up his bow again, and took an arrow from the quiver behind his back. After a perfect bullseye he turned back to the young man beside him with a smirk.

“Show off,” Merrick said with a laugh, sticking out his tongue at the big man.

“Why did you take so long to apply for envoy training?”

Jenson stiffened. He thought for a few moments about the best way to answer the question without inviting more questions he wasn’t willing to answer.

“Sometimes unexpected things delay us from reaching our goals.” he said finally.

Merrick seemed to accept the explanation, much to Jenson’s relief.

“That would make you .. 197 years old?” the boy asked, tilting his head to the side, like an Earth puppy.

“198 this year.” He watched Merrick process how long 198 years actually was.

“So you’re over twelve times older than I am?” A suppressed smile twitched on the boy’s lips.

“Yes …?”

“Well come on, old man, we should hit the rest of these targets before your eyesight gives out.” The twitch was now a full-fledged grin as Merrick leapt out of the way of the playful slap aimed his way.

“Impertinent child.” Jenson chuckled.

“Child?” Merrick turned to Jenson with an exaggerated look of horror. “I’ll have you know that I have been mistaken for 18 at least twice this year. And Ambassador Keerie said I looked like a very mature young man.”

Jenson couldn’t stop his snort of laughter. “Ambassador Keerie is a 110 year old Anphilian. That’s ancient for their race.”

“That still doesn’t mean … “

“And she’s blind!”

“Hmmph … well ….”

Merrick’s look of indignance, having had his brilliant arguments blown apart, made Jenson roar with laughter. Merrick tried to look outraged, but quickly lost the battle. Tears of laughter streamed down the boy’s face as he leaned against Jenson, trying to catch his breath.

After their laughter finally subsided they decided to put their equipment away in the shed, and find Merrick some lunch. Merrick was handing him the last of the targets when a pretty vampire girl walked in, eyeing the boy with obvious interest. Merrick didn’t seem to notice her as he continued to chatter about his family’s upcoming trip to Anphilia. He’d been studying about the planet and was excited to visit the underwater cities, and swim in the crystal caves. The girl left fairly quickly, obviously disappointed that she couldn’t catch the human boy’s attention.

“So,” Jenson interrupted, when Merrick stopped for a breath “Any special girl in your life since I saw you last?”

Merrick visibly startled.

“Um … no.” This time his blush was bright red as it went down his neck and under his shirt. “No girl.”

Oh? No girl? “A boy then?” Jenson smiled at the young man, who had stopped to lean against the fence that surrounded the training yard. Impossibly, his blush seemed to deepen.

“No. Not a boy either.” The boy swallowed visibly and looked up, with what appeared to be worry in his normally clear, laughter filled eyes.

“Jenson, I ….”

A commotion in the yard interrupted what Merrick was about to say. One of the young trainees had lost control of the anti-grav gloves she was using and two students were bouncing around in the air, yelling for someone to get them down. After watching with amused interest as the instructor finally managed to get both students safely back on the ground, Jenson walked Merrick to the Compound’s dining room before saying his goodbyes and heading home.

It wasn’t until much later that Jenson realized, in the twelve years he had known him, he had never heard Merrick use his full name before.