Ever After

Chapter 13

-“Doc” Dr. Parker’s Point of View-

I watched them, William and Corrine, so in love so happy. They reminded me of my wife, who had died many years ago. We too had the happiness, like Corrine and Will had today. I lived for her, I was happiest the day we married. I had never loved another before her, and never would again. I owe this solitary existence I have now, without her to my only brother. He has caused me great pain, but also he led me to strive hard to be the best doctor I can be.

I sit here in my office, waiting for my next human patient to arrive with some ailment. I will know once I shake their hand what it is, before any blood pressure checks, blood panels or diagnostic testing is even done. This is why I have become a doctor, to help and heal with the abilities I have thanks to my vampirism.

I do owe my brother that much, he made me this way. I have saved so many human lives, since I have lived so long. I no longer try to keep count anymore. Men, women and children, even those who have not been born yet. I have felt conditions dangerous to the mother of the child and prevented a possible heartbreak and tragedy for its parents to be.

My brother is Leo Parker; yes the Leo who now leads the Dark coven. He is a vampire as well, but he was one long before me, and the one who changed me. We were close as children, but Leo was always troubled, and angry. I could see a tendency toward a rougher life for him. I chose to go in to medicine, and Leo got in trouble with the law, when we became adults.

Our parents dis owned him not long after we graduated from high school. Leo was accused of murdering a fellow classmate of ours, and in that era, CSI did not exist. Leo never denied it to me, but did to the authorities. I knew then, he was evil. I tried to keep my distance from him, and focus on my own life. I went on to college, and forgot my brother’s evil tendencies.

Leo disappeared, my junior year, of medical school. My parents never bothered to have him looked for. I had heard he was in with a bad crowd, accused of stealing, and other more vicious crimes. I never admitted he was my brother when his name came up, it was best to just forget him.

It seemed he wanted it that way to; he never contacted me or the rest of the family. Years passed and I completed medical school and was now a resident at New York General Hospital. I was happy and doing what I loved and newly married to my wife Anna. I had met her at a family picnic; her parents were friends of mine. I remember how beautiful she was, very tiny with long auburn hair and a heart shaped face. I fell for her the day I saw her, she and I were soul mates as the old saying goes.

Our happiness was to be short lived, sadly. Leo appeared again, only months after our marriage. It seems he saw the wedding announcement in the papers, so he decided to visit me and congratulate me. I was thankful Anna was out when he came calling.

He looked absolutely awful and sick. I was afraid to even let him in the house, but I had no choice he was still my only brother. He was uncharacteristically nice, commenting on our lovely new home, and how proud he was of my success in the medical field. I felt something was off about him, the look in his eyes was just wrong.

I tolerated his one hour visit, and hoped after it was over he would leave and move on. I only wish that would have been what had happened. He did leave, but only after making a strange and highly impossible request. He wanted me to gain him access to the hospitals blood supply.

I was speechless at his strange request, and told him it was not possible. I was a general doctor, and not a surgeon yet, only surgeons had access to the blood units. I went on to ask why in God’s name he wanted blood anyway. He only got angry, and proceeded to tell me he was in fact a vampire.

I of course, instantly thought he was mentally ill, and considered calling my good friend who was the head doctor in the mental, ward. Leo seemed clinically insane to me. He had a wild look in his eyes that I would never forget. He then told me his coven was in trouble, having raised the alarm in the area they lived, from hunting, as they called it, too much.

The police were investigating all of them, and they had to cease hunting humans and find blood some other way. The missing person’s rate had been climbing I had heard, but until now never even considered it might be from vampires feeding. I tried to be logical with Leo, as I still thought him insane, calling himself a vampire.

I questioned him thoroughly about his supposed condition, and it seemed many of the things, were myths. Leo said many vamps lived and moved right amongst the normal humans. It was when he showed me his fangs, I believed him. They were ever the slightest bit longer than human’s canine teeth, but they had sharp points, only visible up close.

I was in shock when he let me feel his skin. It was at least ten degrees below a typical human body temperature. My own brother was a mythical creature, and now I knew it. I wondered what he would want now since I could not get blood for him as he asked.

I soon knew the answer to that; he wanted me to join his coven known as the Dark ones or the Dark coven. They wanted me to become a vamp and use my medical connections to get their coven blood, or weak victims if needed. I was sick at the thought of sacrificing my patients to supply these monsters with blood to survive, never would I agree.

Leo became irate, he started throwing things, and ranting. I owed him a favor he said, and that he really was not asking, but telling me I would join the Dark coven. I refused I couldn’t comprehend everything he had just told me to begin with, and I wasn’t joining some coven of blood hungry creatures.

Leo became silent after he raged for a good thirty minutes; he looked at me and said nothing for a long time. The only thing he said to me was I would pay for not helping him, and I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. I would later learn he was right. The next few weeks passed and I never heard from or saw Leo.

I worried he was planning something. I eventually quit thinking about his strange visit, and went on with my new life with Anna. We had decided to start a family; she was so excited to be thinking of our family getting bigger. I to was looking forward to children and a long happy life with Anna. I would never get the chance to realize those dreams, as Leo did return four months later.

I had been working double shifts; we were short handed at the hospital at the time. I got home very late one late November night, and the house was dark. It was nearly one in the morning, so I did not think it unusual. Anna did always leave a candle in the lantern just outside the kitchen door, but I expected she forgot tonight.

I found the door unlocked, and I knew something was wrong, we never left doors open, and mud was tracked all over the floors. I called for Anna and got no response. I lit a candle and found my way up stairs, to a scene I have never forgotten to this very day. I entered our bedroom, the bed was un made, and Anna had apparently gone to bed earlier.

I shone the dim candle light, and was shocked at what I saw next. Anna was lying across the bed, she appeared to be resting, but her eyes were open and looking at me. I ran to her, and knelt at her side, that’s when I saw the bite marks on her neck and blood all over her satin nightgown. I grabbed a sheet and held it to her neck, to stop the bleeding.

She looked at me, fear in her eyes and told me she was sorry and she loved me, and that my brother was still in the house. Anna begged me to get out, to run away. I had to try to help her, but she kept begging me to leave the house. I picked her up and sat on the edge of our bed. Anna died in my arms only minutes later, she was the love of my life, and now I had just watched her die.

Leo emerged from a dark corner, just as I lay Anna down on the bed; a pain in my chest was ripping through me. I would always remember that pain, it was the last human feeling I would have, and it was the pain of my heart breaking. The next few minutes were a blur; Leo told me I was now paying for abandoning him, and his coven. Anna had died because I refused to help them. I would now become one of them and it was not an option.

I woke days later; I recall the pain to this day. I felt waves of intense searing pain wrack my body for days and when I final woke I learned I was now a vampire. Leo had taken my human life and Anna, and all I had known away from me. I was now one of them, a monster, and a killer. The thing humans feared and avoided even speaking about.

I stayed with Leo and the Dark coven for a few months. I had no choice. I was new to this world, their world. I did not know how to survive in it yet so I had to stay. I killed as they did.

The hunger for blood was strong in my early days as a vampire. I could not control myself. It was not long though, until I could think clearly again. I knew I had to leave the Dark coven. I had to find others who were like me, who did not kill, and got blood some other way. I ran away one night, and never went back.

I wandered alone, avoiding humans as much as possible. I did still need blood, but I took from humans only what I needed to survive, and did not bite deep enough to produce venom. I lived this life for a long time a few decades at least, always hoping to find others like me. I found my way to New Orleans, it was easy to blend in with humans there, and by that time, I was good at it.

I could control my thirst, and socialize amongst them whenever I wanted now. I saw Dr.Pratt at a nightclub not long after I arrived in town. I as all vamps could sense he was one of my kind. I knew he was different, he interacted with humans easily, and he didn’t treat them like his next meal.

I had met others, but they all were hunters. I did not share my feelings about preserving human life with them. I became friends with Pratt, after many months of us watching each other and being sure, we were both the same kind of vampire. Pratt introduced me to his coven, the Followers, and to a new life.

I became one of them and later an elder leader. Pratt wanted to travel and do medical research, so I became the leader and chief elder of the coven when he left for Europe. I am still the chief elder today, and I have four other elder’s who help me lead the coven. I do my best to watch over, and protect my coven.

I tolerate no deviation from our code of rights; no member kills, hurts, or torments any human or living creature. We live in peace and avoid conflicts if possible. I had to do my best now to protect my newest coven member, Corrine. I worried she and William were in extreme danger, and now both of them were weak and ill.

I had no contact with Leo since Vincent; one of my former Followers left me to go to him. I knew he was still with them, and by now, he was either the chief elder of the Dark coven or he may have moved on to Europe, as many do after a time. This was what worried me the most, if Leo was the chief elder now, he would be irate when he learned I had been the one to kill his favorite, Vincent.

This could be detrimental to the Followers. If Leo was angered by his death, as I expected he would be, he would seek revenge on my entire coven and me. This could be critical, the last time he sought revenge he had taken the only thing in my human life I had ever loved, my Anna. I wasn’t going to sit back and let him kill Corrine and William. I was preparing to protect them, from his evil wrath, no matter the cost.