Exactly 200 years removed from the Revolution Mirella still thought about her family from time to time. Did anyone of her family's line still live? She knew that she was still forbidden to leave San Francisco and still bound by the rules but she wondered.
When she was first set free in this town it was little more than a town and she lived on cattle more than humans. There simply weren't many humans around then. Now there are multitudes. And plenty that she could hunt within the rules. Much had changed since those first days here but she still felt the watchful eye of the vampires. She had watched the Mexican town of San Francisco turn into the city of San Francisco, California of the United States and she now, after all of these years, conceded and considered herself an American. Though, that is very recent. Out of spite she refused that concession for more than three fourths of her time here.
She spent many of the years alone, taking a lover from time to time but never for long. She always felt alone in her curse and divulged it to no-one. Relegated to the night she hunted and fed and spent her free time reading alone in her room.
All of that changed when she met Cassidy. She felt something in Cassidy, a kinship. Cassidy had caught her in the act of feeding but Mirella didn't immediately kill her. She was uncertain why but instinctively felt that Cassidy would understand. She was frightened, a little, of Cassidy's reaction but Cassidy reacted the way Mirella thought that she would.
"That is so cool!" she had said "I always thought vampires were real. What kinds of powers do you have?"
The conversation went as expected. Mirella swore her to secrecy and showed her what she could do. She started spending nights with Cassidy at the club and found it convenient as many meals happened across her path there.
Then came the party; and Marty. She had never been in love. She didn't love the British Officer that had been courting her in 1775. She never loved Arturo. She didn't love any of the few men she had been with over all of those years but she fell in love with Marty, and quickly.
She didn't want Marty to find out her secret the way that he did, nor when. She was apprehensive about telling him at all. After all, he was a cop. Well, a cop in training anyway. And now he knew. And now he didn't want her. He said that he wouldn't turn her in for murder but he didn't want to see her anymore: couldn't he had said. She sobbed in her bedroom.
Cassidy tried several times to get her to go out but she didn't want to go anywhere. She was heartbroken. She spent weeks in her room crying over losing Marty. What was he doing right now? Is he thinking of me? she would ask herself over and over.
Finally, she made a decision. She would break the rules and let the vampires sentence her to death.
She didn't care to live anymore, not without him. She set out that very night with the intention of breaking the rules. She picked a man at random, caught him by the arm as he passed an alley and she fed. She drank deeply. It felt good to be bad. She threw the body in the nearby dumpster and walked away.
She waited at home for the magistrate to come get her, but they never came. She waited for days. Then she had to feed again. Again she found someone at random, fed and haphazardly disposed of the body. Again she waited for the Magistrate to come get her but they didn't show.
Maybe they aren't really watching me at all? After all of these years? she thought as she approached one more random victim. She pulled the woman into the alley as she passed and drained her dry. This time she left the body in a heap right where she had fed and walked away.
Then they came. It was at sunset the next night. The knock on the door that she had been expecting for so long.
She opened it defiantly. There stood three officers of the Magistrate.
"You'll have to come with us." one of them said.
"It's about time." she spat back and walked toward one of their cars before they could cuff her.
`
Just like 1776, Mirella found herself in a windowless prison cell. And, again, the only way she could tell the time was how they regularly gave her a pig to feed on. Only now it wasn't soldiers who watched over her but guards of the Magistrate.
Every evening they brought her a pig. Every evening she fed and they came and took the drained carcass. Nights went by. Days went by. She slept, and she fed.
She slept, and she fed. Finally, after a few weeks of this monotony, they came at an irregular time, shortly after they removed the dead pig.
Now the time is finally here she thought as they unlocked her cell and took her by the arm down the hallway. Will it be death by sunlight? Will they remove my head or drain me dry? she wondered as they loaded her into a car.
She sat cuffed in the back of the car in silence as the officer drove her to the Magistrate's building in the city. She knew where it was. They all did. She only saw the front before but now the car turned into the underground garage beneath the building. After a few turns he parked the car next to two more officers. She was helped out of the car and taken to another, smaller, cell.
After what she guessed was a couple of hours they came for her. They took her, cuffed and shackled, down a narrow corridor and up a flight of stairs and she found herself again in a courtroom. Again in front of a tribunal.
"Mirella," the Magistrate began "you have spent more than two centuries here abiding by the rules. Would you care to argue for yourself as to why you broke them now?"
"I want to die" she said flatly. "Sentence me to death. I don't care how you do it, just kill me."
"So you have nothing to say in your defense? You admit freely to breaking your solemn oath to abide by the rules of The Council?"
"Yes. Kill me." she spat
"Very well, then." sighed the Magistrate. "Officer, take her away."
The court officer took her by the arm and led her down the stairs, back down the narrow hallway and into the small cell. There she awaited her fate. Surely they will sentence me to death she thought to herself I was blatant and without repent. They have no choice but to sentence me to death.
And then the officer reappeared. He opened her cell and led her down the hallway and back up the stairs. There was the tribunal with the Magistrate seated in the middle.
This is it she thought. Finally an end to this curse.
"Mirella, you have been found guilty of violating the rule against the random killing of humans. However, we have decided to spare your life."
"No!" she screamed. "You have to kill me! It's the rules! I have to die!"
"Yes, it is your desire to die which has led us down a different path. You will be jailed. Your access to human blood revoked by any rules. You will be remanded to the prison and you will feed only on livestock for the remainder of your days. That is the ruling of this tribunal and I stamp it with the official seal of the Magistrate, bound by The Council."
"NO!!!!!" she hurt her throat with the volume of her shriek. "I must die! Please let me die! I cannot live another night. I want it to end. Please end me?!?!?"
She continued shrieking as the officer dragged her down the stairs and back into the cell. She thrashed at the bars trying to break them but they did not budge.
She threw the small cot in the little cell and smashed the combination sink and toilet to bits. At this last several officers entered her cell and returned the shackles they had so recently released her from and tied her down to the concrete floor by a hardened steel ring anchored there.
She struggled for some time against her restraints but her rage gave way to sorrow. She began to weep openly.
Prison for life? Living on the blood of animals? I won't do it. As soon as tI have a chance I will kill the guards and they will have no choice but to kill me.
They left her there for hours and she wept. She was weeping when they returned. They took her, bound still in the cuffs and shackles, back to a car and back to the larger cell in the prison. There was a pig waiting for her. She drank. She drank and she wept.
The next evening she awoke to find Lanius sitting outside of her cell.
"It's been a long time, Mirella." he said.
"Yes." she replied, confused.
"I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing here?" he half asked.
"Okay" she said.
"I saw your name come across my desk and was surprised. You've spent more than two hundred years in exile here, following the rules, being a good vampire, and suddenly you start killing random humans and beg for death at your trial. It seemed odd to me. I was curious. What brought you here?"
"If you must know it's a man. I fell in love with a human."
"Did you reveal yourself to him?" Lanius queried with one eyebrow raised.
"He caught me, feeding. It was an accident. I was planning on telling him, anyway, but not like that. He didn't think I was feeding. He thought I was kissing. And he left me."
"So you told him the truth to try and win him back" he said finishing her thought.
"Yes, but he wouldn't accept me. He said he loved me but he couldn't accept that I killed people." and then, sheepishly, she revealed "he was a cop."
"A policeman? And not one of ours?" Lanius asked.
"No. He's not one of ours but he said he would keep my secret. Please don't kill him?" she begged
"What's his name?" Lanius asked dryly.
Mirella didn't want to answer. She didn't want Lanius to hurt Marty. She sat there, silent, for a long time.
"What's his name?" Lanius asked again, this time more of a command.
"Promise me that you won't hurt him." she demanded of him.
"I assure you, Mirella, I will always refrain from hurting a human that I don't have to but I must speak to him. I need to know if he can be trusted with our secret. Now tell me his name."
He stood and approached the bars. She could sense the rage in him despite his stoic outer appearance. She was afraid of him, very afraid. She knew he could tear her apart and she would be powerless against such a strong, old vampire.
"Martin Gendron." she said finally, with a downcast glance oozing shame from every pore knowing her cowardice.
"Thank you, Mirella. I'm glad you decided to be cooperative and I'm truly sorry that you did what you did, even if it was in the wake of heartbreak. It cannot be forgiven. I will speak with this policeman personally. I assure no harm will come to him if it isn't absolutely necessary."
"Tell him .... Tell him that I forgive him, and that I love him." she said through the first tears welling up.
"Good bye, Mirella."
`
Marty pretended he didn't notice the black SUV camped outside of his house the last couple of days. He was real casual, even when he walked right by it seeing the guy sitting inside. He just smiled and went on his way.
When his doorbell rang, he was ready for anything. He half expected the guy to come bursting through but it didn't happen. He opened the door. It wasn't the guy from the car. But this guy looked dangerous.
"Hello, Martin." the man said
"Do I know you?" Marty said.
"No, you do not. My name is Lanius Dunn. I am an associate of your friend Mirella."
Suddenly Marty was very afraid. Did Mirella send this guy to rough me up? To kill me to keep me quiet? If he's as fast as her I have no chance of escape. Keep him talking, bide your time, find a way out of this, man.
Seeing the look on Marty's face Lanius grinned.
"Don't worry, Martin. I'm not here to hurt you ... not if I don't have to. That is up to you."
"Sure, I didn't ..." Marty couldn't finish the thought.
"You know what I am and what I can do. Mirella told you our secret. I can sense your fear. I can also sense that you are a good man. And you're a policeman."
"Well, I'm in the academy. I want to be an inspector."
"We have our own police. Did she tell you that?"
"No."
"We have rules, Marty. Surely she told you that."
"Yes, she said you only hunt bad people."
"Yes, that's true. We clean up after humanity taking the worst of you. The ones the police can't take care of. And we have our own police, we call them the Magistrate in each district, who watch that vampires don't break the rules."
"Is that so?" asked Marty in a voice that was still too shaky for his own peace of mind.
"I have much that I can tell you about us Martin but I must get assurances from you that you will not reveal us. If you don't convince me, well ... I'm sure you can imagine that I can make certain you remain silent."
Marty stood tall. He was doing his best to not be terrified but he could feel the fear deep inside him. He knew this vampire could kill him any number of ways and there was nothing that he could do to stop it but he was not going to be bullied, not even by him.
"As long as you vampires stick to your rules, you'll have no problems from me." he said with what he hoped was strength in his voice.
"All is well then." Lanius said with a reassuring smile. "I'm glad that I can keep my promise to Mirella and I don't have to hurt you."
"You .. You spoke with her?"
"Yes, of course. How else do you think that I found you?"
"Is she okay?" Marty asked with trepidation.
"She is as well as you can expect. She asked me to deliver a message to you. She asked me to tell you that she forgives you ..."
"She forgives me?" Marty asked.
"And she loves you." Lanius finished
Marty sat down at this last bit. He leaned on his elbows and sat with his head in his hands. He missed her deeply. Hearing that even though he rejected her that she loves him and forgives him brings new pain to his heart.
He wavers on his decision about her but then remembers that he's going to be an inspector. How can I investigate homicides with a wife who commits them? he convinced himself.
"Well now, my new friend" Lanius began "you must have questions. Let me answer them."
Marty asked all he could think of Lanius about vampires and was convinced of his decisions, all of them. Convinced that he could not be with Mirella and convinced he should not, could not, do anything about the existence of vampires in his world. When he said good bye to Lanius after their long palaver he was saying good bye to Mirella forever and he knew it. It hurt his heart, but he knew it.