Working the night shift was just fine with Ray. A night owl by nature, Ray enjoyed meeting the other "Denizens of the Darkness", as he called other people who worked and played after sunset.
Actually, working after dark was a requirement for Ray. He had a small problem with sunlight. But then, so do most vampires.
Working the aptly named 'graveyard shift' at the convenience store was a perfect occupation for a modern vampire. He could interact with people relatively freely. And the occasional robbers who targeted convenience stores at night provided him (and a few of his friends) with welcome snacks.
Ray had waked up after the party in a cave way the fuck out in the mountains alongside another dude. He was used to waking up sore and stiff after a party, and he had woken up in some strange places, but this was something else entirely.
He found a note next to where he had been laying. The note told him that he was now a vampire, and that he should avoid sunlight etc.
The other dude woke up about the same time.
Ray remembered him from the party, sort of.
The other guy read the note. "Bullshit." he snarled and crumpled up the paper and hurled it to the ground. Ray watched him walk straight out of the cave into the daylight.
A burst of flame and greasy smoke, then just a scattering of ashes that quickly blew away.
After that little demonstration, Ray stayed put well back in cave until after full dark.
It was a good 15-mile walk back to town, but Ray didn't seem to get tired at all. Normally, Ray got tired walking from his house to the grocery store a couple of blocks away.
Back at his apartment, Ray discovered that he had been gone a little over a week. The messages on his answering machine ranged from friends and family worried about his absence, to a call from his job telling him that he was fired. Crap.
Showering and dressing, Ray found that he could see himself in the mirror just fine. He was thankful for this small favor, it made shaving much easier.
Eating however was not so easy. He tried to cook, but the smells made him dash to the bathroom to barf. And what he barfed up stank so bad that he puked some more.
Finally done with the Technicolor yawns, Ray cleaned himself up and staggered from the bathroom. A shot of whiskey stayed down and seemed to settle his nerves a bit.
Ray went out to see if he could find some answers. First stop, his friend Jorge's place where the party had been.
"Hey Jorge." Ray called through the screen door. "Get your butt out here! I need to talk to you."
Jorge came to the door wearing nothing but a pair of raggedy old cut-off shorts. "Raymond! Que Pasa?"
"I'll 'Que Pasa?' you! I just woke up a while ago, and I don't remember a thing after the party. What happened?"
Jorge laughed. "Come in mi amigo. You were muy borracho, very drunk. You gave me your car keys and said that you didn't need a DWI." Jorge sat Ray down on the couch and handed him a beer. "One of Sheila's friends offered to drive you home, and from the way you were looking at her, I figured you went to her place."
Ray opened the beer, but the smell nearly made him ill again. He set the bottle aside and turned to Jorge. "Listen, I really need to find that gal. I woke up in a freaking' cave out there on Mount Lemmon."
"Wow." said Jorge, "You must have been even drunker than I thought."
Jorge's wife Sheila came out to see what the commotion was. "Oh, Hi Ray." she said with a yawn.
Ray could never figure out what a dynamite chick like Sheila saw in Jorge in the first place. He had long since concluded that his friend must be a world-class cocksman. Either that or there was something Ray was missing entirely.
"Hi Sheila." Ray said. "Sorry to disturb you, but I REALLY need to find out who took me home the night of the party."
"Sheila giggled. "Good luck finding her. Maria shows up pretty much at random. I don't think I even still have her phone number now that I think about it."
Ray's shoulders slumped a bit. "Thanks anyway." he said. "Listen, if you hear from her, PLEASE tell her to call me as soon as she can."
Sheila shrugged. "Can do." she said.
Jorge gave Ray back his car keys and Ray drove home. Once inside, Ray tacked heavy blankets over the windows and door of his bedroom to bloc out all the sunlight. Around dawn, he fell asleep.
The phone ringing finally roused him up out of a sound sleep. "Huh? Wassit?" he mumbled into the mouthpiece of the phone once he managed to pick it up.
"This is Maria." came a woman's voice.
Ray sat up suddenly, wide awake and alert. "Maria? From the party?"
"I think we need to talk," she said.
"Yeah, I think I have some explanations due." Ray said evenly. "Where do you want to meet?"
"Well, since I'm right outside your door as we speak, how about your place?" said Maria with a throaty chuckle.
Ray looked at his bedside clock. 9PM.
"OK I'll let you in. Give me a moment."
Ray hung up the phone and slipped into some jeans and a t-shirt. He went to the front door and looked out the peephole. A pretty brunette was standing there on his doorstep. Shrugging, Ray opened the door.
"Well, for once you're as pretty when I'm sober." was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.
To Ray's immense relief, Maria laughed out loud. "Thanks, I think." she said.
"Come in, Come in," Ray said as he stood aside.
Maria walked straight to the couch and sat down. She leaned back, crossed her legs, and then she stretched her arms out along the back. "Nice place." she said.
"The joint's a dump." Ray said. "But the rent's cheap and it's quiet."
Ray couldn't believe himself. He mentally kicked himself, 'engage brain before putting mouth in gear', he thought. "Umm, mind explaining to me what this vampire business is all about?"
Maria blushed faintly, "That was a mistake on my part," she said. "You were funny and cute, I was horny. So you and I wound up in the bedroom. I kinda went overboard there when I nipped your neck." Maria paused, looking flustered. Ray got up and poured each of them a drink of water.
Maria accepted hers gratefully. She took a sip, then continued. "I'd intended to only give you a hicky, but when I climaxed, I bit you involuntarily."
Ray unconsciously rubbed the side of his neck as he listened to Maria.
"When I realized I was feeding from you, it was too late, I had to either try to bring you across, or let you die right there."
"Good choice." Ray said wryly. "OK that explains part of it. But what about the other guy?"
"What other guy?" Maria asked, frowning.
"The other guy in the cave." Ray said.
"But I didn't put you in any cave...." Maria trailed off. Then her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. "That bastard Jacques." She hissed.
"Jacques?" Ray asked curiously.
Maria shook herself and crossed her arms over her breasts and hugged herself tightly. "Jacques is the vampire who brought me across a long long time ago. I thought you had just awakened at my place and wandered home. Jacques must have taken you to the cave. The other man was likely to be another of Jacques' playthings."
"Sounds like I owe this Jacques a poke in the snoot." Ray remarked.
Maria laughed and clapped her hands like a little girl. "I would pay a lot to see someone break that aristocratic nose of his." Maria said. "But better you do not even try. Jacques is very old and very powerful. He would surely kill you."
Ray pulled his chair closer to the couch. "OK, Killing a vampire. How can we be killed, aside from sunlight, I mean."
She planted her elbow on her knee and her chin on her fist as she thought. "Well, most of the legends of vampires are only partly true at best." She began. "Silver doesn't harm us, although there are others that it does. Crosses are just crosses." She fished a small golden crucifix on a chain from her impressive cleavage. "And unless you were allergic to garlic before, it can't hurt you now. If you get a wooden stake through the heart. That will kill you. So will getting your head cut off. Or if you were completely burned to ashes or blown to very tiny bits with a bomb. But other than that, we simply regenerate very fast."
Maria pulled a long slim dagger from a sheath strapped to her thigh. "Watch." she said, and plunged the dagger into her chest driving it hilt deep between her breasts. She let her hands fall to her lap and sat up straighter. "See?"
