Evanescere: Origins by Vanessa Buckingham Page B

had not taken to hunting in Bodmin. As he
approached the village the scent continued on past Exeter, past Salisbury and
on towards London. He feared what a new vampire loose in England was capable of
and was hoping I was not out hunting without him. He felt on edge because of my
absence and the possibilities, but he also gave me the benefit of the doubt. I
had made him second guess me on more than one occasion. If he had been mortal,
he would have had a heart attack by such a scare. Fortunately for him he was
immortal and incapable of such behavior.
    I smiled at his thoughts.
I was amazed that through such a great distance I was still able to hear them.
I informed the old ones of Jacks approach. I gave them a play by play of
everything going on in his mind. They found his internal fear humorous and even
I joined in the ruckus.
    At the entrance of the
sewer, Jack was met by Avitus, an ancient vampire. He was kind hearted and very
grandfatherly. Avitus’ pale skin looked so papery and fragile. I guess living
in isolation and rarely feeding has this effect on us. I don’t think I was interested
in trying an alternative life style. The old one looked to him in passing and
told him I spent my nights with the old ones learning their histories. He also
told him he needed to trust a little. Jack smiled at him.  
    Jack and Avitus proceeded
down the winding maze of the sewers and with my hearing focused I could hear
him approaching us. His thoughts closer to mine. The old ones continue their
stories, for a brief moment reliving the past. At last he reached us and tried
to keep his presence secret from me. I struggled with this because I felt
compelled to draw him near me, but I was lost in the enchanting stories of the
old ones that did not want to lose that focus. I felt something in Jack I had
not felt before, it was a new emotion in him. I hear his unspoken thoughts.
    He was captivated by me.
He saw my compassion and patience for the old ones. Not many of our kind could
treat them as I could. He was surprised when he saw the old ones bow to me with
reverence. I felt honored by this action.
    The histories continued
on, each one just as fascinating as the last. I did not realize how lost I was
in my visions of times long gone. It was not until I saw an armed gladiator
charging towards me and Jack falling back, that I realized he was seeing what I
was seeing. I did not know how I was able to project the images of the
histories so vividly to him. It was as though I had traveled to another time
taking him with me. This was a new talent I had somehow discovered,
    I reached out to Jack and
he came up to me and sat beside me. His breath caught as he inhaled. The look
he gave me was one of curiosity.  I took his hand in mine and suddenly, the old
one’s voice began, it had that far away, dreaming voice, he began the story of
our creation:
    “In the beginning,
Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and earth; animals and man. Then
one-day God realized that every animal had a mate except for Adam, so it was
that with this realization God created woman and named her Lilith. In this the
story of our creation is born. Lilith questioned her place in a world ruled by
God and Adam. She questioned her duty to submit to Adam and this so angered God
and he cast her out of the Garden of Eden damning her to a life of eternity.
    “In this damnation Lilith
was changed and was soon unable to walk in the sun. Lilith became a follower of
the night. For only in the light of the moon was she safe. She found she could
no longer eat the food provided by the Earth, as it no longer appealed to her. Lilith
was so lost in her hunger through her wanders of the lands and near starvation
when she came upon a village sacrificing a bull. The blood spilled from the
bull drove her to near frenzy and she made herself known to the human race.
These early humans believed a Goddess had come from the heavens and they fell
to their knees in worship.
    “In this