The Vampire-Alien Chronicles by Ronald Wintrick

us so, we would soon be exposed.  Other Elders did the same, in the various other locales where Vampires thrive, in their own ways.  I have not been able to concern myself with how others have managed their microcosms of the Community, however, having my hands full with those who are here around me, and I am sure there are extremes of excess, barbarism and cruelty, but I am only one and I cannot be all places at all times.  I have very much had my hands full here, especially since the Community has been growing.
    “You did not ask for what I did to you.”  I said quietly, remembering how it had been.  She could not understand why I was so secretive.  Why things could not be normal between us.
    'Why must we only meet at night?'  She had asked.
    'Why must we be so secretive?'
    'Why won't you come and meet my family?'
    She had e ndless questions.  A more inquisitive Human I had never before met.  Her inquisitiveness was what drew me to her in the first place.  Humans were still mostly Human then, the addition of the Others DNA still in its earliest stages, yet she was brilliant beyond the norm of mainstream humanity.  In that period Humans were for the most part creeping, filthy, barbaric animals, even with their new intelligence and growing consciousness, but she was in a class all to herself.  It was not a thing I truly understood then, but she was, like myself, the beginning of a new breed of Human.  The thing that must be remembered is that the changes the Others have engendered, the changes they are still making, have occurred over so vast a timeline, that the small incremental year to year changes are almost invisible to the casual observer.  Like evolution itself, small changes that help a species survive will be spread out into the species as a whole, as those who bear these changes are rewarded with a higher ability to survive, propagate, and send their specific genetics on down the evolutionary line.  The Others continued to add little changes to the line that created a Natural Selection of the Fittest through unnatural means even to this day, though the dynamics of what is occurring now are vastly changed over what they were in the beginning.  The process has now come near to fruition.
    “The life I have been given, the life you gave me, has been a good one.”  Sonafi said.  “I have not forgotten what I put you through when I was changed.  Or what I begged of you for so long.  I could not stand myself then.  My overwhelming urges and the way I would feel after… but I could not bring myself to suicide, either.  I wished it so many times, but my hand would not bend to my will.”
    “We are very nearly incapable of suicide.”  I said simply.  I had known all along what Sonafi felt.  Her fear and loathing of her own self.  Of the things she did.  Things she could not stop herself from doing when the hunger was upon her.  How she hated herself in her times of lucidity.  That there wa s nothing she could do about it.  “Our will to live is too strong.  It is why so many of us go rogue.  A Vampire assisted suicide.”
    “I did not think life could ever be worth living, but you proved me wrong.  One time I am grateful to have been proved wrong.”  Sonafi said.  “I would now fight ferociously, do anything, to maintain this life.  I have found it to be very rewardin g and worthwhile.  It is hard to believe I thought so differently once.”
    “I don't think any have ever claimed that it is easy to be a Vampire.  Our role may be the biggest one ever cast for a sentient being.  Maybe it was meant to temper us.  Prepare us for something bigger.  Whatever Divinity presides over this our existence has made bigger plans for us.  That is my belief.  He but prepares us for His purpose.”
    Sonafi did not say anything.  Her hands were busy with her packing and her eyes avoided mine.  I could only sigh.  This was the way she got any time I mentioned the subject of God.  She had