A Mythology

“Now, my child, you will sit and learn the ways of the vampire.”
        “I am not a child.”
        “Wee have traditions you know,” the young man said sharply, his fangs bared for a moment and then gone.
        “I am thirty years older than you,” the old man said indignantly.
        The young man chuckled. “Than how I look, yes. Miranda brought you over, Stephen. You should know by now that appearances are not the way of the world.”
        “She said she loved me,” the old man said, the fire going out of him.
        “She probably did, for a moment. Long enough to bite you and then be gone.”
        “Elvin --”
        “No, sorry.” The young man sat up from the couch, his eyes bright with amusement. “I don’t want to hear about your sadness, nor how much you hiss her. This is what she is, Stephen. This is what she does: we all deal with the impossibility of our lives in different ways. She breaks hearts, yours and hers. Imagine it, old man,” the words almost gentle now, purring, “imagine how old she is, how often she’s loved and been lusted after. For a moment, she opened her heart again, for you. Let that be enough. You were honoured. Let it be.”
        “How old are you?”
        Elvin shrugged. “Enough that I don’t count.” He sighed. “Now sit over there on the other couch and we’ll begin again.”
        Stephen sighed and sat down, staring across the darkened room.
        “Yes?”
        “You do know fashions have changed since the seventies, right?”
        “Well, yes. Indoor plumbing, for a start.”
        “I meant the nineteen seventies,” the old man snapped.
        “Can’t be bothered to redecorate. Besides, in about five years the floral patterns, wood walls and such will come back: eventually everything does. Tradition is important for us. It’s continuity, no matter where we are or what guise we take. We’ll start with creation.
        “God casts a shadow. This shadow is entropy. Also, in a smaller form, us. We’ve been around a long time, Stephen. Vampires are about then oldest story there is, older than gods and demons. The world wasn’t a safe place, when man began. Sure, there were gods, but gods only help those who help themselves. They don’t exactly do anything.
        “They can’t even mend broken hearts.” Elvin laughed, softly. “I did not mean to speak of such again, only that Miranda broke mine once, too, long after we’d changed.”
        “And?” Stephen said.
        “And there used to be more of long ago. Before the flood.”
        “Pardon me?”
        “You believe there is a God, yes?”
        “Would I have become a vampire if I had?”
        The young man shrugged gracefully, his eyes somehow unfocused and clear. “Takes all kinds. And even if there is not, there was a flood. Call it the Jewish myth of Sumerian or whatever cause of god you want, it happened.”
        “You’re being serious here?”
        Elvin smiled languidly. “I’ve found it seldom worth the effort. But yes. What did you think such myths were?”
        “Memories of wetting the bed,” Stephen snapped.
        The vampire was silent a few moments. “Are you serious?”
        “It’s a common enough fear, and reaction.”
        “Ah. Well, there are most of us then. The sun wasn’t as bright most of the time, due to the clouds.”
        “Clouds.”
        He grinned. “Vapor canopy cloud cover, if you want a nice modern term for it. Where did you think most of the rain came from? It was darker then, and we had less problems with combusting and such. A few too many deaths here, some idiot starting up vampire religions there. claiming Jesus came back as one of us -- all those usual things, and He got pissed off.”
        “So you’re saying the flood was to reduce the number of vampires?” Stephen said slowly.
        Elvin shrugged. “That’s the story as I know it. Miranda lived through it, so you can ask her for details later.”
        “And the whole arc thing?”
        “Noah was a vampire, you know. Needed some food.”
        Stephen stared at the other vampire in shock.
        Elvin grinned widely. “That part was a joke. Come on, I’ll take you outside and show you how to hunt. It’ll be fun. This is the part of ‘ways of the vampire’ that’s actually useful. Though you’ll find quite a few of the older ones watch the weather channel fanatically, just in case.”