The Vampire-Alien Chronicles Read Free Page B

occurred.
    Even if I were somehow ever able to become complacent, I would have Sonafi to remind me, to keep me vigilant.  I had sometimes even to walk on eggshells around my own children.  Sonafi became almost mindlessly ferocious directly after child -birth.  I was sure to keep my distance during these times.  Though I love her dearly, I cannot fail to notice the look of insanity, the pure primal madness, which comes into her eyes when she is guarding her newly -born.
    Were it up to me entire, I would engender no more offspring, the entire Vampire race already sprung from my blood, my loins, to begin, but Vampires are not plagued with the same genetic deficiencies as Humans, the genetic influence we received from t he Others much more complex, older, more evolved, there can be no problems with inbreeding, nor do I have control over Sonafi's reproductive cycle.  Unlike Humans, a Vampire woman consciously controls her fertility.  I wouldn't have a say in the matter even had I wanted.  I did not attempt to dictate to Sonafi.  It would do no good if I did and our relationship is one of mutual respect, so I don't.  She makes these decisions and I abide them, for good or bad.
    My part in the process is a brief one, relatively.  Then I tend to steer a wide berth around her, especially right after she has birthed.  She will look at me in a way, sometimes, that makes me think that it is a struggle to recognize me, her instincts rising and trying to take complete control of her.  It was losing children to the Others that changed her.  Something of her had been intrinsically altered.
    “I see that you are determined that we should relocate somewhere else.”  I said to steer the conversation away from the old hurts.  Our offspring are born ready to fend for themselves.  They are born ready and willing to fight.  Ferocious.  Independent.  But no match, when they are young, for the Others.  The only reason the Others had not eradicated us entirely was our too similar likeness to themselves.  They can no more tolerate the sun than we.  When they come, they must come in the night, and the night is the Vampire's friend.  We are the night walkers.  The night is our home as much as it belongs to the Others.  The old legends are absolutely correct about that, at least.
    “Will we never return?”  Sonafi asked.
    “Never is a long time.”  I said.  “I admit I miss the Old Country.  The New World does not fulfill me the way the Old Country did, but here there is only one enemy.”
    I was descended of the race of Humans who would later become the fierce nomadic Kurds.  Black hair.  Light brown skin.  Dark blue eyes.  Nowhere could I go in this new land without generating curious looks.  I would never be fully at home here, but neither would I be persecuted or hunted by its Humans.  Not unless I stirred them, and then like a swarm would they attempt to rise and engulf me.
    “There are hundreds of us now in the U.S.  How long can we remain unnoticed?”  Sonafi asked.  “And then what?  Where will we go then?  Imagine a television show 'Most Hunted' with us as the guests of honor; 'Root out the Night Walkers in your neighborhood!'  We wouldn't stand a chance.”
    “They have television in Europe and the East.”  I pointed out.  “Plus they remember us.”
    “I guess you have a point.”  Sonafi agreed reluctantly, a smile that revealed her own milky, predominant teeth warming her mobile face.  I had successfully changed the subject.  Diverted it from those old anguishes.  It would never matter how many children had come before or after.  My Sonafi would never forget those which had been lost to the Others.  Once they left the nest, they were on their own and Sonafi divorced herself from them, but while within the nest, while still young and defenseless, they were Sonafi’s to guard, and she did so jealously.
                 
    CHAPTER 2
                 
    The night was