Into the fields of Summer - 42. Days of Calm 2

The following day, I woke up feeling refreshed. I was looking forward to the day ahead, for some reason

I didn’t even bother trying to sleep again even if I woke more than 30 minutes before my morning alarm.

 

While cooking breakfast I was humming, dad walked in to me as I sang to a tune of the week’s top song.

 

“Someone’s feeling good today” dad greeted me with a smile.

 

“Yeah, I dunno why but I love this morning hehe” I replied as I flipped some pancakes. “Your coffee’s ready dad, give me a few more minutes and breakfast will be ready”

 

“Thanks son”

 

I finished my morning worksheets easily, dad was more than proud to see me excel with my studies, just a few more months and I’m taking t he matriculation tests. I’m so ahead right now that by the start of next year dad’s planning to change my schedule from mornings Monday to Friday to just Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

 

Dad and I had some chicken fillets and pasta for lunch. We thought of having food delivered but we had the spare time to cook, sometimes cooking together is one of our ways to bond, I’m really glad I have a great relationship with my dad. We ended up cooking some pasta and meatballs.

 

Victor arrived just after lunch, he brought with him some cakes and cookies from Martin’s Cafe for dessert, and of course dad and I were more than happy for some treats from Martin’s.

 

“Oh goodness, these are the best ever!” I said as I munched some cookies.

 

“I know!, Martin’s planning on hiring more staff actually, it seems that demand has picked up recently, they might actually start doing deliveries” Victor said.

 

“Wow... we need more gym time then, so that we can eat more of these treats” dad added.

 

“Hehe, sounds like a plan” I said while grinning ear to ear as I enjoyed my chocolate cake. Yum, these treats are the best I thought.

 

Early afternoon, Victor and I went to his place, we went to his study and cuddled and kissed for a few minutes, being intimate with my man just gives me so much joy. With therapy, I’ve gotten over some of my trauma and I’m already fine with having sex again but sometimes all I really need is a good cuddle. I don’t know how an old vampire can be such a softie but I’m not complaining.

 

As we removed ourselves from our cuddling, Victor said “I’ve talked with my sire, about the book...”

 

I froze a bit, I totally forgot that Victor was having people look into this, I’m not ready to tell him just yet, I need to know what Yal and Patri are up to. “Uh Huh... so what did he say?” I said trying to hide my anxiety.

 

“Well... it seems like we’re the only ones that received a copy of this book, well... we can meet him over Christmas though, he’s more or less a little bit proficient in Elvish, my sire’s a little bit older than me, hehe, and by the way, he’s more than excited to meet you!” Victor said with a smile.

 

Then Victor looked away as if trying to think hard how to continue “Also, there’s something I’d want to ask from you...” He was getting hesitant.

 

“Uhm... what is it?” I asked.

 

“Well... you’ve improved so much lately, like very much, and I’m proud of what you’ve achieved what you’ve done is unheard of actually, but ... Chris, to be honest, this isn’t ... normal, far from it actually, and it’s gotten me worried, no... us worried, I’ve talked with your dad, and even my sire about this, we have several ideas as to how or why, we’ve been thinking of messed up hormones to some unknown after effects from the vampire bite you’ve had from that incident at the park, we’ve even considered magic ... but vampires or even werewolves don’t have magic, so that’s a dead end, then we have ... the elves? But that’s quite impossible... they’ve left no trace since their disappearance but maybe the book we found holds some clue to it... but it can’t be, if it’s related to the book I should be feeling something different too right? Since I’ve touched it as well, haha, can you believe the theories we’ve been considering, haha, we’ve also tried talking with the Vampire seer but she just kept her mouth shut, so... anyway... can we get a blood sample from you? Uhm, just for testing in one of our labs... nothing to worry about though, we’d just like to know if anything is up” he said.

 

I was crying out... no shouting actually inside, but I had to keep myself calm, ‘trust Yal and Patri’ I thought, “Uh... sure why not? My blood? Hehe, I’m kinda afraid of needles though, hehe”

 

“Okay, we’ll get some blood samples later then?” He said as he hugged me.

 

“Okay...”

 

He then asked me “are you sure you’re feeling okay?, no headaches or fever or any unusual pain?”

 

“I’m feeling fine...”

 

Then Victor had to just continue on with this topic, “We’ve now started asking older vampires as well, maybe what you’re experiencing is something not the younger ones have ever faced or experienced before, my site’s trying to gather some information from the other High Council members as well, maybe they’ll have a clue as to how a human can beat a vampire like Henry or match someone like Raymond, it’s not unheard of for a human to beat a vampire but those cases have only happened when the human was highly drugged up and the vampire very early in his/her change...”

 

Okay, Chris, change the subject, change the subject, can’t discuss this any longer “So... your sire?, you’ve rarely mentioned him, I’m looking forward to meet him, I have to thank him for making you, I can’t imagine my life right now without you” I smiled at him and gave him a soft kiss.

 

“Hmm.. yeah... I suppose I really haven’t talked a lot about him, but he’s a good guy, a real softie as well, he has this very serious and cold facade though, but it comes with being a member of the Vampire High Council, I suppose”

 

“Am sorry what?!”

 

“What?” Victor asked.

 

“Your sire is in the Vampire High Council?!, and you’ve never thought of mentioning that to me?” I was awestruck with how well connected Victor was in the power structure of the supernatural world, I mean he’s already a Governor but having his sire in the Vampire High Council, well... that’s next level right? Like that’s seriously big leagues, like August being in the Werewolf Crescent Council. Shit, Yal was right, I was finding myself amongst very powerful people, goodness.

 

“Well... I might have missed on that detail before hehe” Victor chuckled a bit.

 

“Wait... wait.. don’t laugh this off, I may not know a lot about your politics but this sire of yours is very influential right?” I asked. “This is the High Council we’re talking about!”

 

“Well... being a member of the High Council does give you a lot of influence and power, but he’s just one out of 15 members but yeah, he’s very influential” Victor explained as if this isn’t really a big deal. Then he added, “my sire’s one of the junior members though, he’s just been in the council for almost 60 years now”

 

“Wow... and that’s junior?” I asked.

 

“Yeah... most members have been in the Council for more than a hundred years, bunch of oldies if you’ll ask me” he giggled.

 

“Geez... how old is your sire anyway?”

 

“Well... Luca... is ... well he should be 374 years old by now, just 340 years into being a vampire”

 

“Wow, he’s older than you by 114 years!, he must have lived through a lot”

 

“Yeah, he’s one tough guy, and very smart too”

 

“I can’t wait to meet him then, I hope he’ll like me”

 

“Don’t worry, I have a feeling he’ll like you, he’s the patriarch of our clan or family if you can call it that, we have tremendous respect for him, in effect he is the grandfather of Henry and the rest and the great grandfather of Raymond and Erica.”

 

“He sounds formidable though”

 

“Oh yes he his, he’s fast and strong, he’s a Praeditus vampire too, he’s ability is very formidable, I don’t want to be at the receiving end of it” Victor said with a shudder in his voice.

 

“What’s his ability?” I asked with curiosity.

 

“He’s an illusionist, he can make illusions, he can basically trick you into seeing, smelling, and feeling things, he can make you think that you’re on fire, things like that, or see your worst nightmares, certainly very dangerous, he’s very proficient at is too, all supernatural creatures have some ability to resist but Luca can easily rip through one’s mind barrier, there was this time, while fighting with a syndicate boss a few decades ago, the mobster actually went crazy after fighting with him for less than an hour, it wasn’t even much of a fight at all, with that win alone, he was able to take down the power stricture of one of the most dangerous syndicates in Central Italy in the 1970s”

 

“Oh... fuck, now you’re just scaring me”

 

“Yes... that’s why he’s a member of the High Council, only the best and oldest of our kind are even considered for membership, and vacancies come in rather very rarely, except that time where the expulsion of the 3 leaders of the Blood Army gave way to new members all in a single year”

 

“So how do you become a member of the High Council anyway?” I asked.

 

Victor looked up and scrunched his forehead and rubbed his chin for a bit, as if to remember something then replied “well... there are several qualifications, you have to meet 3 qualifications to be considered for nomination:

 

First, you have to be at least 150 years old, rather ageist I know.

 

Second, you have to have been a governor of a district for at least 10 years

 

Third, you have to have a special ability

 

Fourth, you must have at least sired 1 vampire who’s already more than 50 years into being a vampire.

 

Fifth, you must be a distinguished member in the Vampire business community, say... be a major business owner or investor. Rather vague if you’d ask me.

 

Meet three of those and then you can be nominated by a District Governor or another member of the High Council.

 

All nominees are then called by the High Council for an interview, the High Council then votes for which to appoint via exhaustive ballot, no nominee will be appointed until he or she gains at least 2/3 of the votes.”

 

“2/3 of the votes? Wow... that’s like a supermajority” I commented

 

“Yeah... it can take days if not weeks to appoint a new member, imagine when there were three expelled members, the nominee had to earn 8 out of 12 votes!, I remember during that time, the entire vampire community was riveted, it was the first time the High Council was to appoint more than one member in a single year, goodness, the election of those three took almost a year, there were 9 nominees, goodness, can you imagine the background checks and testimonies the High Council had to listen to for and against the nominees to come up with a decision”

 

“I never thought of Vampires as a highly political group of people” I noted.

 

“Haha, Vampires not political? Oh, baby, that must be one of the funniest joke I’ve ever heard, we’re not like the Werewolves that rely on brute strength alone, hehe, but rather than political or whatever, we’d rather call ourselves as highly judicious in selecting our highest ranking officers”

 

—

Later in the afternoon, Victor and I decided to eat at the diner, it’s been quite some time since I dropped by the place.

 

“Hi Chris!” Sally greeted me as we walked in.

 

“Hi Sally, it’s been awhile” I said.

 

“It’s nice to see you both here” she said as Victor and I walked towards our usual spot.

 

Leo joined us a few minutes later just as our burgers, fries, and milkshakes arrived.

 

Then out of the blue Victor asked Leo “So... what’s this I’m hearing about you and August?” He said with a teasing and knowing smile.

 

Leo gave me a death stare.

 

“I don’t know anything about this, I swear!” I defended myself, my hands were already raised in the air as if surrendering myself.

 

“Hmmm... and where did you hear this from?” Leo asked Victor not convinced of me not having to do anything about this at all.

 

“From August duh... he keeps on asking about you, emails and texts, even calls, he’s obsessed” Victor smiled. Then he added “I’ve known August for a long time, and this is so unlike him”

 

“And what has he been asking? Huh?” Leo asked.

 

“Like what’s your favorite food, color, and stuff, and what you’re into, Geez, I’ve never seen that werewolf so riled up and giddy”

 

“Wow... that bad huh?” I said.

 

“Don’t flatter yourself Chris, you and Victor aren’t really that good at hiding your mushiness as well, you guys are so sweet, I think I’m getting diabetes soon” Leo teased back.

 

“So what’s this all about... you know... you and August?” Victor coming back to his original question.

 

“Well... I can’t deny that there’s a physical attraction and for the longest time I’ve always thought of myself as straight though I’ve never had a girlfriend though, but I’ve never really been drawn to men, that was until I saw August, When we first met him at that restaurant at the Silver Coven Hotel ... Damn I thought he was a fine specimen of a man,sigh, it was the first time a guy made me think twice about myself, but I really ignored it at first but then he got my number and email and then we just started talking... and now I think, well... he’s become a really good friend” Leo replied he had this faraway look when he talked about August.

 

“I have a feeling he wants to be more than friends” I said with a teasing smirk.

 

“No shit” Victor added as he gave me a gentle kiss on the cheeks.

 

“Well... he’s visiting on Thursday, hmm, let’s see then” Leo replied.

 

“Oh... he’s traveling more than a hundred miles just to see you? How sweet!” I teased.

 

“Stop it you doof, nothing’s happened yet”

 

“But something will!” I said as I wiggled my eyebrows. Victor laughed a bit while Leo just flicked some whipped cream my way.

 

“I bet he wants to get into your pants like ASAP” I teased again.

 

“Shut it Chris!”

 

“Ohh... look he’s blushing” Victor teased

 

“Oh you guys are incorrigible” Leo feigned distaste but he was beyond pink at this point, hehe.

 

“We’re just teasing Leo, don’t worry, we believe all will be sorted out between you and August, I have a good feeling about this” I added.

 

Victor drove us back to our neighborhood and I was soon preparing dinner for dad and myself. Dad had a lecture at the nearby university this afternoon, he was slightly tired when he got home,

I really don’t know why he works so much, I bet the Diner already gives us enough income to get by, I mean it’s just the two of us and based on what I know we’re not paying mortgage for the house. This is something I have to discuss with him in the future.

 

After dinner, dad and I hung out in the living room, we watched a few episodes of a new show on Netflix and we were both then soon off to sleep. A good night text to my boyfriend later and then I was off to sleep.