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

one would realize that you were not aging.
    “So, I had already changed my name more times than most human women color their hair these days,” he stated as he winked over at Erica. “I had run into a Mr. Abraham Lincoln while spending some time in Illinois, and we immediately hit it off as friends. When he won the presidency in 1860, he asked me to come with him to Washington and be his assistant. I accepted, and the next four years I watched a man try to keep a country together, that was falling apart at the seams.
    I did the best job I could for that man. He had my respect, but after he died I felt like I needed to move on. I did a little traveling, spent some time out west, and even managed to fall in love. My Maggie was the very first person I had ever confided in to reveal what I truly was. She accepted me as is, and we were married a short time later. Unfortunately, she and our baby died during childbirth. You know those things were commonplace enough back in those days for humans, but when I learned she was carrying my child, I didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have vampire doctors back then, and her weak human body just couldn’t handle it.
    “My original plan was to allow her to deliver the baby and then change her over if I needed to. We had even discussed this, and she was okay with me doing so. Unfortunately, I waited too long. I had never turned anyone, and wasn’t exactly sure how to go about doing so. Maggie was already so weak and sick, I didn’t want to inflict any more pain on her. The baby proved too much for her body to handle, and she died in her sleep at night. She had only been pregnant a short time, so I felt confident the baby was nowhere near ready to be born. When I placed my ear on her stomach and heard nothing, I simply buried them both and moved to Germany. I had to get away and grieve.
    “By 1914 and the start of WWI, I moved away to get away from the war. I ended up coming back to the United States and managed to keep a low profile all during the war. I had already seen, firsthand, the devastation it caused here alone during the Civil War. I really didn’t want to get involved in an all-out world war.
    “I ended up settling down in North Carolina after the war ended, but my thirst for knowledge was stronger than ever, and by the time World War II had started in 1939, I found myself at the Norfolk Naval Academy. I graduated with top honors and my first duty was on the USS North Carolina III as the medical officer. They soon realized I spoke numerous languages fluently, and quickly had my time split between medical and intelligence.
    “That USS North Carolina was such a beauty she was even named “Showboat!” And we soon found out that she had some strength behind her also! By June of 1942 the crew had undergone extensive war training and we were shipped out to the Pacific. One of our first assignments was to protect the “Enterprise.” She was a carrier ship. We encountered a Japanese carrier soon after and sunk it. That brought retaliation in the form of bombers and torpedo planes that caused the Enterprise to take three direct hits. We ended up in the fight of our lives that day, and lost our first man. That day was a wake up call as to what we really were up against.
    “Shortly after that we were reassigned to protect the Saratoga. We were attacked twice within a short period of time and one almost sunk our ship. We lost six good men that day. The ship, after being hit, began filling with water on the damaged side. The crew went into emergency operations. Half began working on closing up the hole, while the other half actually flooded the other side so that the entire ship didn’t go down. She was horribly leaning to the damaged side as is, and it took the entire crew to keep her afloat! Somehow, we managed to skirt around disaster, and made it to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
    “We helped with the bombing of Nauru, helped protect Bunker Hill, and airfields at Kavieng. We also helped assist with the capturing of the Marshall Islands. We aided marines onshore by providing gunfire as they engaged in some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific.
    “You know, the USS North Carolina ended up receiving fifteen battle stars for all of her work in the war. By the time we were finished, we had lost ten good men. Considering all the battles she was involved in, for a ship to only lose ten men through a war is saying something. We did have sixty-seven injuries, plus one