Marty awoke with bright sunlight assaulting his face from the open window. He had slept in his clothes with his shoes on, awkwardly sideways on the bed and his arm was numb and useless. He could barely lift it and had to use his other hand to move it into a position where the blood could rush back into it. He endured the pins and needles of the arm coming back to life by sucking air through his teeth against the sting.
Following that immediately the memory of what Mirella had told him the night before rushed back like the blood to his arm. He still had trouble believing it. Vampires? How? When did they ...? How could they have ... ? His mind was already racing. Also, he was starving. He called Cassidy to meet for lunch. He had to talk with someone and he had a hunch that Cassidy knew more than she had let on.
He met her at a small cafeteria downtown that she frequented. It was dull and somehow sullen inside. There was a long counter on one side where you started with a tray on one end, proceeded down the line selecting food and ended at a register where a gaunt old woman sat on a stool in front of an ancient cash register. The rest of the place was just plain folding tables with gymnasium folding chairs. Why does Cassidy like these kind of places? he thought as he proceeded down the line of cuisine offered. He took a turkey sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup and a can of coke from the refrigerated case near the register. He paid and joined Cassidy where she already sat with her meal.
"Hey Marty." she said casually.
"Cassidy." Marty returned. "I think you know why I asked you to lunch today."
"Mirella." Cassidy said flatly.
"Yes. You know about her ... condition as she calls it?" he asked knowing the answer.
"Yes. I know. And I also know that she is crazy about you. Believe me, she would never have been making out with another guy. She was just thirsty."
"Just thirsty? That's all you have to say about her murdering someone?" he replied fervently but trying not to raise his voice.
"Yeah, I mean, she only drinks from bad people. The world is better off without them. I was freaked out when I caught her, too, but when she explained it all to me it made sense. She does us a service."
"A service?" he asked bluntly. "You call murdering people a service? How does she qualify people as bad? What criteria does she use? Who is she to decide if someone should live or die? If she witnesses someone committing a crime she should report it to the police, not kill that person and drink their blood." He was growing red with anger now.
"It's not like they take the decision to kill lightly, Marty." Cassidy started. "They take an oath to their Council that they will vet their victims stringently and if they're caught going against that path the penalty is usually death. Vampires are everywhere. Their Council has Representatives for every State and there are local magistrates with officers who monitor vampire behavior in their area. They have their own regulations, just like the police, and instead of jail, it's a meal for the vampire."
"Their Council, you say? Stringent oath, you say? Their Council doesn't have the power to take human life."
"Oh but the State Government does? There is such thing as the death penalty, isn't there? Marty, people are judged all the time. Years in prison, life in prison, or death by electric chair or lethal injection. Vampires are just using those penalties as their opportunity to feed, to stay alive. They need blood to survive just like we need food and water. We kill cows for their meat, we cook and eat whole chickens. What makes it so different if people are the livestock? At least the vampires only take the bad livestock." She laughed.
"But they don't have the justification to take life."
His voice faltering ever so imperceptibly.
"Why don't they? Because they aren't elected? Those representatives are elected. There's a whole vampire government in effect that most humans know nothing about. Their purpose is to govern vampires and hide their existence from humans."
"I can't believe you're equating the murder of innocent humans to the killing of livestock for food."
"What's the difference, Marty? Livestock is livestock. How many cows committed murder? And I've been telling you that they don't take the innocent ones. Just the bad ones. Always the bad ones."
He had barely touched his food and he didn't feel much like eating anymore. He pushed his tray to the side and leaned in close to her.
"So you're defending her? You think that it's okay what she does?"
"Yes." She said staring into his eyes without blinking. "She, and all of the other vampires, provide a service to Mankind that the police and politicians cannot do. They rid the world of scum one drink at a time."
He stood upright launching his chair backwards. The sound of it colliding with an adjacent table garnering only a casual glance from the few other patrons. He turned for the door without another word. She watched him walk out and then pulled his tray toward her. Hmmm he didn't touch the soup.
Marty drove home in a haze. He couldn't believe what he was told these past two days. My girlfriend is a vampire who feeds on bad people and my friend not only knows that my girlfriend kills people but thinks she is doing Mankind a service in doing so. How am I supposed to react to this? They know I'm a cop. I took an oath to go after murderers. I should arrest her, them. Cassidy is complicit in Mirella's murders ... She only feeds on bad people. That's what they both said. What if they are doing the police a favor? Every cop watches criminals walk on technicalities all the time. We know they're guilty but can't do anything about it. Maybe vampires could rid the world of those people without the red tape of police work?
No. I can't succumb to that kind of reasoning. Their reasoning. Vigilante reasoning. I swore an oath to uphold the law, not to play judge and jury. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Everyone deserves due process.
Still, a lot of bad people walk because of defense attorneys ...
`
Mirella was uneasy. She had been since revealing her secret to Marty. That has nearly been a week and she has had no word from him. Her mind wandered with possibilities. Had he simply decided he was done with me? Was he still struggling to comprehend? Did he intend on contacting her at all? Was he afraid of her?
With all of these unanswered queries floating about her mind, she stayed close to her phone. She occupied her time as usual, all the time concerned about her status with Marty. She stalked, she fed, she went out with Cassidy once but was so morose she cut the engagement short.
Nearly two weeks passed by the time he called. Here we go, for better or for worse she thought hearing his greeting.
"Marty, thank God you finally called. Ive been so worried about your reaction and how you felt about me. Before you say anything please remember that I do love you, no matter what you say now."
"Mirella, I've been thinking about this for a long time. I'm still uncertain if I accept it as truth. I care for you. And so, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. However, I need to see it for myself somehow. To try and understand that vampires do exist and that you are one of them. I've thought about what the books and movies have taught me about vampires and I'm not sure what is fiction or not. You can be seen in a mirror. You say you are immortal but not undead. You can eat and drink regular food. I've come to the conclusion that there are but two ways you can prove to me this is truth.
I have to see you feed on a human, or you have to display your superhuman strength and speed, if that is a thing with vampires."
"Yes, I do have superhuman strength and speed. I also heal at a superhuman rate. I'd be happy to do whatever you need to accept me. I suppose the easiest is the speed or the healing. If you let me come see you I can show you my speed or you can cut me and watch me heal before your eyes."
"I couldn't hurt you, even if I knew you would heal instantly. Demonstrate the strength and speed for me. Come over anytime tonight. I'll be here."
"I can come now. I'll see you in a minute."
Mirella hung up her phone and stepped outside. She took to the air in a giant leap and covered the distance to Marty's apartment in a minute. She rang the doorbell. Marty opened the door and his face showed shock.
"How?" He gasped.
She sped across the room as fast as light and back again now holding one of his refrigerator magnets. She disappeared from the front stoop and appeared in his kitchen in the blink of an eye.
"You see? I am telling you the truth." She lifted the refrigerator with one hand and set it back down.
"I've told you my secret and proven it. All I ask is that you accept me as I am and keep my secret with me."
"Does Cassidy know?" he asked testing her.
"Yes."
"Why would you reveal yourself to her before me?"
"Because that's how we met. She caught me feeding in the alley at that club. She came out just as I was finishing and freaked out. I thought I was going to have to kill or turn her but after we talked it out and she understood we became fast friends.
In fact, she went with me when I disposed of that body and then we went back to the club." she laughed.
"I don't see what's funny about murder." Marty spat at her. "You kill people. You kill people and drink their blood. A cavalier attitude about it will not ingratiate you to me. I'm a cop. I should arrest you. Give me one good reason I shouldn't turn you in for murder."
"Because you love me." She said softly but with an upward inflection, prodding, hoping..
"That's irrelevant." He retorted, dodging the trap. "I took an oath ..."
"So did I. I took an oath to The Council to never take a life that was worthy of continuing. I can only feed off of the dregs of society. The thieves, liars, murderers and drug dealers and gun runners, the wife beaters and child molesters. The worst people that the law hasn't already captured or, for some technicality, had to release. Our behavior is monitored. We have vampires and people helping us everywhere. Even in the police force."
"On the force?! How could a cop help you kill people?"
"They don't assist with murder. They help keep us hidden. Dead ending missing person reports on those we have dispatched or misguiding a homicide inquiry into a simple missing person so there aren't as many resources devoted to it, so it can remain unsolved. They help us clean up after ourselves and in return we clean up the bad people that they can't punish. There's a delicate symbiosis."
"I can't believe" a pause not wanting to say it aloud "there are cops helping you." he sat down, clearly exasperated at this last revelation amongst a host of revelations.
He stared at the table struggling to comprehend it all. After a long few minutes of awkward silence, he spoke.
"I can't." Was all he said. He shook his head slightly. "I just can't."
Mirella was confused. "You can't what?" she asked of him putting her hand on his arm.
"I can't do any of it. I can't help you. I can't see you. I can't know what you do. I can't be around you knowing what you do. I swore an oath to the laws of my country. That is my identity. I'm a cop. I swore to protect the innocent and uphold the law. I can't help you kill people, even if they are guilty but get out on a technicality. That's the law at work. It's getting better all the time. We aren't judge or jury. We can't convict and sentence someone to death because you're hungry. We don't have that power. You don't have that power. And as long as you're going to keep on living the way you do. Which, obviously, you must, then I cannot be part of your life." Tears were running down Mirella's cheeks as he spoke just as they did his. His voice hitched a few times as he said it but finally he said it.
"Mirella, I love you. I think that I will always love you. I'm not going to turn you in to the authorities for admitting that you murder people. I'm just going to look the other way and move on with my life, without you. You have to go now before I change my mind."
She was sobbing openly now, pleading.
"Marty, please, I beg you, don't shut me out. I didn't choose this life, I was chosen. I cannot change who I am. I am not evil. Please believe me." She clutched his shirt and hung from him begging him to reconsider.
"I do believe you. That's why I'm willing to look the other way but I can't be complicit in your future murders. You have to go. We cannot see each other again." He pulled himself away from her and stepped back to the doorway holding open the door so she could leave.
She slowly gathered her bag and moved toward the door.
"Marty I-" He held up his hand to stop her. "Okay. I love you." She said and listed toward the door feeling at once drunk and sober, both haze and clarity. Understanding and hating. Loving.
She walked out the door. He watched it close behind her. Heard the gentle click of the mechanism and fell to his knees crying.