Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

the note. The outside of the envelope was addressed to, The Love of My Life.
    Dearest Erica,
    I am sorry I have to be away for the next few days, but everyone in my family has assured me they will keep you safe. Please do not leave the house by yourself for any reason. I suspect my family will be sticking to you like glue while I am away, anyway. I have instructed them to make sure at least two members accompany you at all times. I simply can’t take the risk of letting Shawn get near you again. I don’t think I would be able to concentrate on my job if I thought for one minute you were in danger.
    Please know that I am already missing you, and can’t wait until I get home Friday.
    Love, Kevin
    A knock on Erica’s open bedroom door brought her head upwards, with Kate standing in the doorway. “Jennifer is back with breakfast, and I was wondering if you would like to hang out with Elizabeth and myself today? We have numerous deliveries for the Meals on Wheels program. The vamps that receive the deliveries are very old and don’t get out much, so they always enjoy company.”
    “Sure, but is it safe?” Erica replied a little skeptically.
    “It will be by the time I get finished. Are you interested?” Kate replied with a sly smile.
    With a return smile, Erica replied, “How long before you are ready to leave?”
    “I’m not on a set time schedule. You’ve got plenty of time to eat, and then take a shower and get dressed. We’ll leave when you are ready.”
    After quickly eating breakfast, Erica grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed for the shower. At least she wasn’t going to be sitting around feeling sorry for herself today.
    An hour later the girls were on the way to their first delivery. A car discreetly followed Kate’s black BMW. When Erica noticed the car following, Kate grinned over to her and stated, “That’s our security. Kevin has assigned us two guards for the day.”
    The schedule Kate had only showed four stops, and Erica at first wondered just how long they would be gone. That quickly changed once they arrived at their first stop. It became next to impossible to leave! Erica felt true compassion for each elderly vamp that she met. One would have to be blind not to see that they were clearly lonely, and in need of company. The girls spent at least two hours at each stop. Once they saw that Kate and Elizabeth had brought someone new along, each one decided to give Erica their life history. Erica wondered if these elderly vamps ever did anything in the outside real world.
    She managed to get a history lesson out of their day, also. She discovered that although everyone relates vampires to immortals, this really is not the truth. Vampires do eventually die, it is just that the usual life span for a vamp is between one thousand and twelve hundred years! Compared to the average human life span of eighty years, it would seem immortal. The elderly vamp that explained all of this to her, Mr. Castillo, went on to explain that vampires stay looking the same as when they were first turned, until they reach the age of eight hundred to nine hundred years old. This is when “old age” starts hitting them. They start losing their strength, and their skin slowly starts turning a powder white, ending up almost translucent. The sun is extremely harmful to these elderly vamps at this point. The more sun they are exposed to, the more damage to their skin. As the vamps become older, their bones also become brittle. The more sun they are exposed to, the faster this happens, also.
    Erica found it nothing short of amazing to hear the knowledge and information these elderly vamps held, the history that they had experienced firsthand. Their stories were told from a personal, firsthand experience, not like reading it out of a history book. The girl’s last stop was to a Mr. Akins, who had actually served as an assistant to Abraham Lincoln! Later, he was also an officer in World War II. They sat with him as he told his story, which Erica found to be utterly fascinating. To have been through so much history and still be alive to tell about it was amazing!
     
    * * * *
     
    Mr. Atkins’s Story
     
    “I was born in France, and came to the United States in 1850. By then I had already been a vampire for a good many years, and had traveled across the world extensively trying to gain as much knowledge as I could. Being a vampire back in those days was not easy, it was important that you move around a lot, so no