You Are Loved

One would have thought, you have what you want Alex, what else is there to say about you? A few months ago I would have agreed. Vampire in love... Vampire happier than he has any right to be. But the world is a strange place, as I know all too well. There are far scarier things than me that can, and will, go bump in your night. And no not that kind of bump. Get your mind out of the gutter for a minute because I have a story to tell. I have no embarrassment telling you that my life was shaken. Not a very nice feeling. Needless to say there are a few people in my life that... to put it delicately, don't much care for me. Undeserved surely, I hear you and indeed me thinking. Pay attention. Decide for yourself. Feel the thirst for my story. I thirst for your blood, your life, a hundred times more.

Chapter One,

Mary...

I woke up feeling flustered. Where... Who? What happened last night? OUCH. Oh my god. I must have drunk more than I thought last night. Jesus Christ my head hurt. I staggered out of my bed and in to the bathroom. My mom always kept an Advil container in the cupboard above the toilet. I swallowed two pills without any water and barely made it back to my room.

What the hell happened to me last night?

"Honey, are you awake? How as your time out with Rick last night?"

Groan. Rick. Suddenly all my memories from last night flooded back to me. Rick dumping me, Almost getting date raped, meeting that... Boy? Man? I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised to remember anything about last night. Being with that beautiful... person? must have made me remember. Certainly not the only strange thing I think I remember about him.

"Mary!"

"I can't really talk right now Mom" I croaked.

"When you feel better, Rick called. He seemed upset about something"

" I hope you told him he can fuck off"

Shit. I shouldn't have said that. My mom stormed up to my room. After ten minutes of lecturing about the use of language like that in her house I was finally free to try to recover. I'm not a virgin anymore... The thought elated me more than I expected it would.

After about an hour, and a long shower I staggered downstairs and ate something. I ate slowly, expecting that any food would make me throw up. As soon as I ate though, I felt much better. My sister shot me a dirty look, and I realized that I'd eaten more than her and my mother put together. I never eat that much.

What's going on?

I showered and did some homework. University is not going like I thought it would, although I had made a few friends there. Homework took up most of my day, and I went to bed early.

Heat. Blistering heat. A bridge over water. A harbour. That guy from last night walking down the street quickly.

I woke up. God damn, a dream.

It was a Monday, so I went to school.

University for me is about an hour or so away by public transit. I usually spend the time reading, but this time I was thinking about my dream. I thought I had recognized the harbour. Where was it... I could not quite place it. It was weird though, how could he have gotten so far away? I knew the place was somewhere far... Don't be stupid girl, it was just a dream. What's his name? Alex. Right Alex. It's just a dream.

I sighed and went to my readings.

The whole day was uneasy. I don't have that many friends at school. On the way home I thought I could hear voices talking about me.

I must be going crazy.

The rest of the day was a blur of people talking about me, and my mom bitching at me for being anti social.

At about eight I took two Advil and went to bed.

I dreamed heat again, the harbour, this time Alex is walking with a sick looking girl. Then I saw it, the Opera houses. He's in Sydney! I'm such an idiot; I should have recognized the bridge from the Olympics. Suddenly the dream shifted to a dark cold room. A bunch of people were gathered around a table under a bare light bulb. No windows. Were we underground?

"She'll understand her power soon, so we should start planning to make contact" a voice said. It was a girl's voice. Sweet and melodic, but I could not help but shiver. Something weird was going on here.

"What's the best way to keep her from turning? I've never heard of a power like hers before?" Another voice, Slight Asian accent, like my own.

"Of course her power is different Hans," said the first voice, "we're all different"

A third voice cut in "Who cares what her power is, we can't let her turn. She's too important." This one was gruff and I think older than the rest.

A murmur of agreement went around the circle.

"Either way, we have to make contact now, for all we know she could be here right now! Listening in!" Said the first voice.

"Does it matter?" asked Hans.

"Of course it matters, if she gets spooked, it would give the others an excellent chance to cut in on us and snag her for themselves. She could go either way at this point." Said the first voice.

I woke up with a start.

Shit, I'm late.

I ran to school and did not get a chance to eat, so by the time I was done class I was starving. I decided to stop off and get something at one of the fast food places on campus. When I got into the lineup I looked over the crowded dining area. I caught a girl's eye. She might have been just a bit older than me, but the way she was staring at me caught me off guard. I stood frozen.

"Hello miss, Hello??"

Shit. The guy at the counter was calling out to me; I was blocking the line up.

"What can I get you?" He asked when I turned.

"Uhh, I changed my mind"

"Next..." he drawled, clearly bored with his job.

The girl was still staring at me, with a slight smile, as if she had heard everything I had said. Then she melted back into the crowd.

I felt really paranoid. I went home, but on the way I think someone was watching me.

I got home and my mom had made fried rice, which although it makes me break out is still one of my favorites, and I could not keep feeling weird. I slowly let my guard down and relaxed. I mean, what could possibly happen in my own house?

I took a long shower, played a game on my Wii with my sister and then went to bed.

Time passed...

It was winter when I started having the dreams every night. I dreamed so vividly it was like I was there. People I'd never met, in places I have never been to were suddenly appearing in my head. I could not understand what was going on, but the feeling was not menacing. At least not always...

School was just letting out, and I went to go see a new movie that had just come out. I was still very single, and me being a bit of a loner I went to the movie by myself.

The movie was some chick flick that I could not really remember why I had wanted to go see so badly, and I was still moody when I walked out of the theatre. It was dark, even though it was not even 4:45 PM.. I could hear the sounds of two men following me up the street, but they kept a respectful distance back. After a block or two their sound faded and I could not hear them anymore.

The street was very quiet for so early in the day, although it was a suburb, so most of the traffic would be showing up around 6. I was just walking past the park when I suddenly saw one of the two guys from the theatre sitting at the entrance to the park. How the heck could he have gotten around me without me noticing?

He stepped up and started walking toward me. I saw it was one of the kids I had gone to high school with.

"Hello Mary" He said

"Oh! Hi John"

"What are you up to these days?"

"Oh you know" I said. I was seriously creeped out, even though he was a lot better looking than I remembered him to be.

Suddenly he was on me, Dragging me into the park.

"I am sorry Mary, but you are so cute I just can not resist. You really picked a bad day to go see a movie." He said.

What the hell? I screamed and he clamped his hand on my jaw, crushing the bone. Pain raked my head and I almost passed out.

"It really is too bad, I had a serious crush on you back in high school, when I was alive..."

Now there was confusion mixed in with my pain. Then I saw his teeth. Fangs. Shit. Vampire. I did not think they were real, but from the pain where my jaw used to be and the fact that he clearly had fangs, I guess they were.

He dragged me into a little clearing in the wooded part of the park.

"I'm so thirsty" he said.

And that was the last thing he ever said. He had just finished speaking when an unseen force flung him back and before he hit the other side of the clearing he was ripped apart by the same invisible force, Blood and limbs flew all over the clearing and I was splattered.

I heard more voices.

"Sloppy Hans, Sloppy!"

I passed out.

Chapter Two

Alex...

I looked out the window at the rain.

Time passed. As the sun started to rise, automatic signals from sensors outside the window caused the electronic fibers that were layered in the window to turn black, completely blacking out the window. No more need for drapes.

Time passed.

The sun set, and I was still sitting there. No sleep, No food...

Days and Days passed. Winter set in.

How could it have happened? Gone. The girl I had loved for years and years was gone, and no magical ability could bring her back. She went mad and went into the sun.

I ran the events that lead up to it in my mind. Replaying them from every angle, pain welling up from every instance I failed to do something that could have stopped this. I should have paid more attention to her slowly darkening mood. Each time she drank from someone she became just a bit darker. Slowly we started having arguments and fights. More and more she drifted, more and more I tried to hold on. It was so slow it barely registered on my consciousness. I never saw it coming till it was too late. I was just too busy fooling myself that everything was all right. And I'll have to live with that... forever...

Days passed.

The effects of not feeding were defiantly taking a toll on my body, though they would not kill me. I lost track of time. My skin started to tighten and turn to living parchment. More and more I looked like something from a horror movie. My hair fell out after a few months. The only thing that stayed unchanged were my eyes.

Life was a blur, I could not tell how much time passed.

To conserve energy I lapsed into a Coma.

I felt a trickling down my throat. I coughed and a puff of dust came out of my mouth and nose. Gross.

"He's starting to come around Alexandre, Start the IV"

I felt a pain in my arm. Then again in my other arm, followed by both legs.

Strength slowly returned to my body, with the human blood flowing down my throat, and into my veins...

Slowly I became aware. A beautiful face smiled down on me. Grey/Green eyes, a small dainty nose, delicate lips and pronounced cheekbones, all framed with long blonde hair.

"Aurora?" I croaked.

"Oh good, you recognize me. I guess that means you're still at home in there."

"Your brain was on vacation for a while" A Tenor voice, with a French accent. Alexandre. He had the face of a Greek god. Strong jaw, distinctive nose , short brownish red hair.

It all came flooding back to me.

I first met Aurora and Alexandre back when I was a new born Vampire. The elders of our kind have a saying; ' No-one gets around like a teenager'. The double entendre applies as much to our sudden want to travel the world as much as to the more passionate physical desires of sex and blood.

We were in Moscow. I was walking through Park Vorob'evy Gory looking across the river at the big sports stadium. I felt them more than saw them. I turned behind me and immediately recognized others of my own kind. They looked just like locals, apparently picking up on local customs of dress and language faster than I did. They were holding hands and talking quietly.

It was obvious to me that Aurora was in command of that union, and when I say union I mean they were married to each other, not just in a pitiful religious sense, but truly unable to exist without each other. I noticed the signs of their union with chagrin since I had been mentally undressing the girl. They were young, in physical age at least. I have no idea to this day how old they are really. It is as impolite to ask a vampire their age as it is to ask a human how much money they make.

My sense of smell and taste returned to me in a flash.

"Aww man! Why were you two having sex in my flat?"

A tenor chuckle "Told you he'd smell it"

"What did you expect us to do while you recovered? It's been days that we've been re charging you with blood Alex!" Aurora's soprano voice was shrill.

That was another thing that surprised us when we met. We went to a pub to talk after our chance meeting in the park. Alex, Alexandre and Aurora, I kid you not. Please feel free reader to see this as evidence that this is all real. What author in their right mind would have the alliteration and insanity to name his characters with virtually the same name?

"Please tone it down a bit Rory, I've got a headache that you would not believe" I said.

"It's your own stupid fault for not taking care of yourself!" she nagged and then stormed off to my studio. A quarter of a second later light jazz filled the flat from the speakers I had hidden in the walls. It sounded like the quartet was in the room with us, and would sound perfect wherever you went.

"Why did you guys come here?" Alexandre and Aurora lived in the small down of Kingston, Ontario.

"What we can't drop in on an old friend now?" Alexandre asked.

"Besides, we looked at your probability field and saw that you were going to come into contact with that infernal organization that calls themselves..."

Three Mary...

"The Night Patrol, you've got to be kidding me" "Well it's true" said Hans with a bit of a sulk in his voice.

"Ok run it all by me again" I said.

" Ok, Fine." Linda said. " Every city has a group of people who work there called the Night Patrol. The name is pretty self explanatory. We try to maintain the balance..."

"Between good and evil!" Hans cut in excitedly.

" Hans! Let me explain please."

Sighed and nodded.

"As I was saying, we maintain the balance. Think of it as good and evil if you like. If vampires or werewolves start to have a negative impact on an area, and I'm not talking just killing people here, or magicians or witches or whomever cause an imbalance of negativity we have to restore the balance. Usually by destroying the perpetrator."

"And these dark forces or whatever you want to call them, just let you kill their kind?"

"Actually yes. There is a sort of understanding among those of us with special abilities. If anyone finds out about us we're finished. Humans would destroy us completely. If one side or the other crosses the line where humans would start to become aware of us then they must be stopped. The dark forces don't want to be exposed any more than we do." Linda said.

"So why me? Why did you choose me to join you guys?" I asked.

"Because you have powers, that's why! Like us" Hans said.

"Have your dreams become more real and vivid in the last year or so? Like you were actually looking at something that was really happening, not just the loopy-ness of a dream? Linda asked.

"Yeah, What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Your power is viewing things that are going on, no matter where you are or how far away the event you're watching is. If you learn how to control this power you will be able to see whatever you want. This power would be wonderful to help the Patrol" Linda said.

"So if my power was something really lame you would never have told me about it?"

"No" Linda replied sharply. "We have a duty to snatch anyone with any potential power no matter how good it would be for the watch. If we don't catch you, the dark forces will." "Ok fine, I guess I have to join. I don't want to have anything to do with vampires like the guy who attacked me" I said.

"Excellent" Hans said.

"Ok, Linda said. I'll show you around our offices. As you already know I am the head of the patrol. And this is Hans, Now our second newest member. Hans' special ability is being able to manipulate any man made object. Mine is being able to recognize other peoples gifts, among other talents. The more powerful you get the more gifts you have. "

We left her office and walked down a cream coloured hallway. We stopped at a reinforced door with a key access panel. Linda used her swipe card to open the door for us.

" Within a couple of months you will be able to recognize vampires, werewolves and the rest of the dark people without any difficulty." Linda was saying as we entered the room.

"Everyone this is our newest member, Mary" she said.

The room was dimly lit and full of monitors and computers. All eyes turned to Linda as we walked in.

"Welcome Mary" said a cute looking black woman at one of the monitors. Her eyes and fingers danced around the work screen as she worked. "My name is Marley"

" I'm Ricky" Said a guy who seriously looked like a Viking, complete with long blonde hair and a motorcycle jacket.

"Jerry' said a nervous looking guy who looked like a young bill Gates. "Linda can I talk to you for a sec?"

Hans sidled over to me as Linda moved to look at something Jerry was showing her on the monitor.

" Marley is able to slow down time, and she can extend her ability to anyone within a ten foot radius, so we can all move more quickly through time than our enemies. Ricky is good with weapons. He can handle any weapon ever made as though he spent hundreds of years perfecting each one, but I think he's only a hundred and fifty or so. He's also good at unarmed combat, but that's not his gift."

" Wait, Wait, Wait! A hundred and fifty?

"Yeah, We age slowly after we're twenty, and not at all after we're forty, so long as we keep using our gifts."

"How old are you then?" I asked. He laughed. "Twenty Two, and that's my real age too. Anyway Jerry is in my opinion the most interesting person on staff. Not only is he a complete wizard with technology, he built this setup by the way" He gestured at the computer network " but he also has ties to the weather and disasters, he even has mild precog with events related to them.. He is the second strongest person on the patrol."

"What is precog?" I asked.

" You'll learn our terms pretty quickly. Precog is precognition, or looking into the future. Jerry can see natural disasters, and even some man made ones, a couple of days before they happen." Hans said.

I decided I liked Hans. He had a boyish charm, with no hint of an Asian accent. He seemed like a fun guy and a good friend to have.

I was shown the key to the building, which means I could now see our office. Regular humans don't see anything more than the low office block near a park downtown, but now I could see the special entrance for patrol members, and the extra two floors on our building, complete with massive antennas and satellite arrays on the roof.

At the end of what was a very exhausting day I went home. As I was walking up the steps I looked at my watch, Yikes, I'd been gone for three days. Linda told me that they had arranged a cover story for me, so my mom would not question where I went when I was called out on special duty with the patrol. They had also quit the dead end job that I had been working for me, since I was now an employee of Nighteye Entertainment. Nighteye was a real company that the patrol owned to make money from. They even had their Headquarters in our building. That was the excuse used by patrol members when people asked them what they did. We were all game designers, or middle management types, whichever we needed as an alibi if we ever had to explain to people, like mothers, what we did.