Four Days in Sunny August

Thoughts race through my mind as I sit at a cafe in Paris. It's been almost four months now and the scars on my face are completely healed from my meeting with Jaroslav in Russia. I have deserted my hunt for the rest of the clan at the moment realizing that my efforts would end in a meeting with either Ivan or Michael. Vampires generally regroup and strategies very quickly when one of their elders has been murdered. Attacking now would be foolish even for the most experienced vampire hunters and that I am not.

The past few days of my five day stay in Paris have been spent courting a young Parisian woman whose only fascination with me is the way I talk and my innate ability to pick up her language eventhough I claimed to be from the United Kingdom. Her innocence is something has been a breath of fresh air in a violent and troublesome year leading to the death of my sister and the realization that my father is now part of the group responsible for what I have become. I welcome the pleasure. Everytime I meet his girl I am constantly reminded of the first time I learned of my regeneration abilities and how the slow growth of my severed arm actually made me feel warm all over.

I see her approaching the cafe in the distance. I wonder if she even has a clue about me and the kind of person I am. She must have told all her friends about this foreigner she met at local bar in the city. I wonder how she is going to react when I have to pack up everything I find so dear about her and get back to my work at hand.

I think of all the women in my life and how at some point in the relationship I have had 'bigger' callings to attend to. I sometimes wish this life never caught up with me and I hadn't made the choices I did.

I watch her pretty face as she kisses me on the cheek and asks me if I have been waiting long. I listen to her talk in her innocent voice and realize that its time once again to move on with my task at hand. I would love to spend the eternity given to me with her but my father would eventually find us. That is something I do not wish even on the most evil people I have come across.

I offer her a cup of coffee and tell her to meet me in my room. As I kiss her on her cheek and leave the cafe towards my room. I know what must be done before I leave Paris and I know why I have to do it. The struggle will be short before I snap the neck and drink whatever blood I can muster out of her.

You only hurt the ones you love ...

Taken from the Chronicles of Jacques Belmonte - Book Two
Music while writing this post - Celine Dion - All By Myself