Visiting Professor [Zinovia]

[julian]

Julian hated working at other Universities. He had become so comfortable at Columbia and hated wasting time looking for what he needed. But this is where they had the book, that's what they said online anyway. He needed that book.

The stacks were dark at this hour. Only a few fluorescent lights beamed down between the rows of bookshelves.

"Where the hell is it" he mumbled, walking slowly down the aisle.

The hair stood up on the back of his neck. Sure, the stacks were creepy, but he had been in them hundreds, if not thousands of times before. He was used to it. But something gave him the chills.

"Is someone there?"

No reply.

But still he felt like there was something around.

"Come on, who's there? I know its pledge week, but I really have a lot going on and don't have any patience for..."

Suddenly, right in front of him, something jumped out - almost appeared! He shouted and jumped back.

[zinovia]

Zina loved watching him work. He really was quite brilliant. She'd been visiting him in his lab at Columbia for the past few weeks. He was researching blood rituals in Latin America and they had exchanged 'theories' about a rare cult that formed in Chile in the 50s. Zina had all kinds of suggestions for the professor. She had been there, after all.

She slipped effortlessly between the shelves, remaining nearly silent as she danced around him. She wanted to give him a good surprise. As fast as she could manage, she moved in front of him so it would seem almost as though she appeared from nowhere.

"Up late studying professor?"

[julian]

"Where the hell did you come from!" Julain said, almost falling as he stumbled backwards.

She always did this to him, but he didn't know how. He would be working and then, wham, there she was. Perhaps he was getting too into the subject. He always did that. Speaking of which, where was that book...

There, he was doing it again!

"You have to stop doing that! One of these days, you'll give me a heart attack. How do you sneak up on me all the time, anyway?"

[zinovia]

"Lots of practice." she said to him. She loved the thrill of the chase. She did the same thing with all of her victims. Once targeted, she would follow her victim until they began to sense her. Then she would close in, tighter and tighter, untils he could smell the fear. It was rare when she actually killed, but that just meant she had to make it count. Julian, on the other hand, was safe. She would rather destroy a stain glass window than a brilliant mind such as his.

She noticed a piece of paper in his hand. Historias para las generaciones. He was obsessed with his latest research.

"Planning to do a little light reading at this late hour?"

[julian]

Julian's brow furrowed as he looked at her. He then recalled the paper in his hand.

"Oh, yes, this. It very well may be the lynchpin in my research."

His voice became more excited as he began to speak.

"You see, a foreigner, British actually, came across the small villiage in his travels and proceeded to document what he saw, all of the artifacts."

Julian's eyes turned to the shelves and he once again began searching for the book. He walked slowly down the row until his eyes caught it.

"Here it is!"

He quickly pulled it from the shelf and began paging through.

"His work was referenced in an obscure jounral from 1957. See! There are pictures and everything!"

He paged through more quickly and stopped upon a picture of a small green cup. "This was the chalice! This is was they used for their sacrifices to their Gods." He continued paging through, not skipping a beat in his story. "It was the High Priestess of the clan that received the sacrifice each night..."

He stopped cold. Looking down at the page was a picture of a beautiful woman. His eyes couldn't believe it. He closed his eyes and opened them again. He looked up at Zina.

"Its you!"

[zinovia]

Zina smiled as she watched his excitement. He always seemed to get swept up in his historic zeal. She loved that about him. What passion and drive. She was that way, back at the Hermitage in Petersburg. That was so long ago.

She listened carefully as he began to tell his tale. "...British actuallyl" She looked down at the book with trepidation. It couldn't be! Could it? She hadn't seen Gregory in over 50 years. He couldn't have published it...

She listened as he continued, her thoughts wandering as he spoke. Yes, yes, the chalice. Made of jade actually. She crafted it herself, had to use symbols the locals already believed in. But Gregory, how could you.

"Its you!"

All the breath went from her lungs. She was shocked. Sure enough, a lovely picture of herself was staring up at her. She remembered when Gregory took it. She never revealed her true secret to him, but she never thought he would publish what he saw!

Her eyes went up to Julian's alarmed face.

"Julian, I can explain." She stepped closer to him only to see him take a step back. She thought momentarily about dispatching him and ridding herself of the whole problem. No, she couldn't. Not him.

"Julian, its complicated but if you'll just listen. I want to tell you, everything."

[julian]

He stumbled backwards. No, this can't be! he thought to himself. How is this possible?

He was afraid. Visiting by night, always surprised him, knowing things that noone else would know, about blood rituals?! Now this?

She had never indicated any threat to him before, why was he so afraid now? Because there is a 50 year old picture of a woman standing right in front of me!! he thought, his mind a blur.

"Keep your distance." He took another step back. He looked down at the book and saw the caption beneath the picture, his mouth moved to say the words "High Priestess" but nothing came out.

She stood directly beneath one of the horrible fluorescent lights and his eyes focused on her face. Her skin was smooth and pale and her eyes were dark, almost black. She stood firmly and even her expression looked unnatural.

"What are you?"

[zinovia]

It was that look - they always gave her that look when they knew, but didn't know. Normally it didn't bother her, but she hated to see Julian looking at her like a monster. She slowly stepped closer to him, out of the direct light, trying not to alarm him.

"Julian..." She paused. It was never easy explaining it. Best to be direct. "I am a vampire, Julian." She looked him directly in the eyes, prepared for his panic.

"I was born in Russia on the day of the October Revolution. I became what I am now in the siege of Leningrad. I've traveled the world, seen tribes that no longer exist, watched history unfold. I swear my intention is not to harm you." her features softened but her eyes never left his.

"Please," she motioned her hand toward a cubical. Not even over dedicated undergraduates around at this hour. "Let's sit. I will answer your questions."

[julian]

His eyes grew wide. Vampire. But that was impossible, that was stuff from the movies, from television. No, this was a joke and it wasn't very funny.

He blinked slowly as she went on. This was real. This was very real. He thought for a moment about all she must have seen over the last 100 years. He had so many questions running through his head. Where had she traveled? What was it like back in that small village in Chile? How did she convince them to give her their blood? How is this possible? How did one become a vampire? Does she kill people?

He looked from her to the cubicle. What he wanted was a drink, a very strong drink. But the questions were burning in his mind, he did want answers. Then again, maybe a public place was best. But, if she wanted to kill him, certainly she would have done it already. His mind was moving too fast, back and forth. He turned back to her, looking right into her eyes Does she kill people?

"um, yeah, I mean, yes. Yes." His tongue felt tied. He turned to walk toward the cubicle. Though his body moved, his mind was miles away. Briefly, he thought it possible that she could attack him from behind. He dismissed it. He couldn't think this way - if something happened, it happened.

He sat opposite her and again looked at her features. He was always aware of her beauty, he thought of it quite regularly. Now that he examined the details, the utter lack of lines on her face, the perfect contour of her lips.

"You really aren't lying to me, are you?" he paused took her silence as affirmation. He sighed deeply. "That's what I was afraid of. I, I don't quite know where to begin." He stopped and looked at her imploringly.

[zinovia]

Sure she regularly enjoyed the company of mortals, but she didn't make it a habit to expose herself to them. In fact, she had confided in only 2 others over the course of nearly 100 years. Both were dead now, thinking about them made her sad.

She turned her attention to Julian. Poor Julian. She could hear his heart beating fast and could almost taste his tension in the air. She planned on feeding later in the evening but it was already 1:00AM and with the hunger building in her, she was now regretting her decision.

"You really aren't lying to me, are you?" he asked her. All she could do is look into his eyes. Denial. It was always strongest amonst the scientific types. She didn't fit into any neat categories, she herself couldn't quite figure out where her kind fit and how. She saw him at a loss for words.

"I'll begin then, you can ask questions when you feel comfortable. You see, I don't regularly let others see what I am. You and I could have been quite content carrying on our discussions late into the night without this complication." she sighed heavily, "Alas, even I couldn't explain away that picture."

Her eyes moved to the book still in his hands. Damnit Gregory, why did you have to publish your work!

"I came to Chile in 1951 from Spain. I wanted to know more about the indiginous people that the Spanish had so mercilessly conquored. I was near a very small village when one of the villagers saw me moving through the woods at preternatural speeds. He called out to me, yelling 'High Priestess!'. Rumor spread and eventually I decided to play along. I gave them hope and they gave me sustinence. Gregory, the author of your book there, arrived one day to research rumors of blood sacrifices. I found him most entertaining and let him observe our rituals. I even let him take photos. But I made it clear, that our small tribe required privacy and he would do us grave harm should he share our secret. I never thought he would betray us.

"Eventually I grew bored of the jungle so I staged my own sacrifice to the Gods and another young woman took my place. About six years after I left, war ravaged the area and the village was buried."

Zina stopped and looked carefully at Julian. He was listening intently, but he had calmed down. She could hear his heart beating slowly in his chest. It distracted her, really. No, she had to subdue her hunger.

"Julian, I know this is a lot to take."

[julian]

His nerves had calmed considerably but he was still in utter disbelief over her story. The details, the timelines were right on with all his research to date. And the name, Gregory, it hadn't been on the book anywhere. The story was anonomously written but the journal had cited his name to it. There was no way Zina could have known, unless, she was telling the truth?

"So you are telling me you were there, fifty years ago..."

He shook his head and looked down at the picture in the book.

"But you are here today, exactly as you were then..."

He looked back up at her.

"And you are able to do this because you are a vam," he paused and blinked hard, looking Zina in the eyes. "Because you are a vampire?"

He couldn't believe he even said it.

"So you drink blood, this much is obvious. Obviously you drink human blood..."

He paused, looking hard at her. He leaned forward and whispered, "Do you kill people?"

[zinovia]

Zina had never been ashamed of what she was or of what she had to do as a matter of course. She didn't kill her victims each time she fed, but she had no qualms taking life to satisfy the hunger. She didn't know how Julian would take this news. If he could somehow understand, somehow accept, then perhaps things would be fine. If he couldn't accept it, if he condemned her, she would have to kill him. He would leave her no other choice.

Zina spoke slowly and carefully, her thick accent coloring her words. "I do drink blood, it is how my body manages to feed itself. And I do drink human blood because without it, my existence becomes bland and dull - my senses deaden. I feed regularly and though I rarely take the life of my meal..."

Zina paused very briefly. The subject was annunciating her hunger and she found herself acutely aware of everything around her, especially the very alive mortal sitting across from her. Every sense was alive as she watched for his reaction.

"Make no mistake. Julian, I have killed and I will kill again."

[julian]

His eyes widened and even he felt his heart racing. He wanted to run away, to hide. But he couldn't. He couldn't run away from one hundred years of history. She was a walking textbook! Her eyes had seen so much. But she killed[/i] people.

He remembered reading about vampires growing up. He actually enjoyed their stories. They naturally appealed to his special regard of history. But this was real, this wasn't a novel. I wonder if she killed tonight. I wonder if she'll kill me.

His mind was in a million places at once and he started to feel the room spinning. He was sweating.

"Excuse me." he cleared his throat, "I'm, just, I mean, I'm not feeling very..." his eyes rolled back in his head and he slid off his chair to the floor, catching the edge of the table with his forehead. His eyes opened after only a moment and he felt a trickle of blood down his forehead. He was too dazed to speak.

[zinovia]

Zina saw the look in his eyes and she was concerned. She could smell the sweat in the air and hear his heart pounding again. He was getting paler and she wasn't sure if he was planning his escape or having a panic attack.

Before she knew it, he was on his way down. She went to catch him, but not before his head connected with the table. She got behind him just in time to ease him to the floor.

Then it hit her, that smell, that sweet smell. It flooded every one of her senses. She was hungry and in her arms was a perfect meal. What if she just took a sip, a small drink to satisfy her.

No. No no no. He was already afraid, she couldn't risk terrifying him. He might go mad!

Her eyes went black with the hunger and she felt her teeth prominately behind her lips. She saw his eyes open and she turned her head to the side so as not to alarm him. Her body shivered all over and she could only think about one thing.

"You're bleeding, Julian." She whispered.

[julian]

"...you're bleeding."

The words brought him to his senses. Julian raised his hand to his head and felt the sticky substance that was coating his hairline. He shot upwards only to be rewarded with a dull pounding in his frontal lobe. He looked at his hand and saw the blood. Remembering who was in the room with him, he shot around to look at Zina.

"Your eyes..." he pushed himself backwards across the floor, afraid of what she might do. "Are you ok? What's wrong with you?"

He knew it had to do with the blood. He could feel another trickle running down his face. He quickly moved to wick it away.

"You won't hurt me, will you?"