Shadows of Eternity

Chapter Eight

W hen in Los Angeles, Rohan made his lair in the top floor apartment of a hotel that had been built close to a hundred years ago. The clientele tended to be men down on their luck, the rent was cheap. But everything worked and over the years, he had made a lot of changes and accumulated an eclectic assortment of furniture. All four rooms were painted the same shade of pale gray. He had replaced the old brown carpet with a plush dark blue. The fireplace in the living room was red brick, the sofa dark-brown leather, the round coffee table an antique he’d picked up somewhere in Italy. A state-of-the-art TV hung on the wall across from the sofa. The kitchen was empty, as he had no need for appliances. The bedroom was large and held only a king-size bed and a five-drawer dresser, also an antique. He’d had the bathroom redone with all the latest fixtures. He hadn’t bothered to ask the management for permission for the upgrades, and since he’d paid for all the renovations himself, he figured the owner would have no reason to object to the improvements.

His lair in California was the closest thing he had to a permanent home. He had no need to own a house or much of anything else. Since joining the Native dance troupe, he had spent nine months of every year traveling from state to state and city to city. He bought new garments as fashions changed and discarded the old ones. He had nothing to tie him down. The clothes in his closet and his car were the only things he owned.

Now, reclining on the sofa, he let his mind wander to the distant past, when his people roamed the Great Plains and there were few whites west of the Mississippi. Life had been good then, the summer days spent hunting the buffalo, exploring the Black Hills, fighting their enemies, the Crow and the Pawnee, stealing their horses and their women. It had been a good life, until he tracked the white man who had killed his best friend.

He had intended to kill the vehoe when he found him, but things hadn’t gone quite the way he’d planned. The man had turned out to be a vampire. Rohan would never forget his shock when he’d plunged his knife into the vehoe’s belly and the man had laughed in his face. Shock had turned to terror when the vehoe’s eyes went red. But the worst was yet to come. The vampire grabbed him by the arm and sank his fangs deep into Rohan’s throat. That was the last thing he remembered until the following night, when he woke in a cave. Pain had ripped through him. Certain he was dying, he had stumbled out of the cave, driven by an urge he didn’t understand.

It had taken several agonizing nights before he realized what his body was crying for. And then he’d come upon an injured fur trapper. One minute he was staring at the blood leaking from the man’s arm. The next, he was lapping it up and when that wasn’t enough, he had buried his fangs in the man’s throat and drained him dry.

Horrified by what he’d done, he had vowed never to do such a thing again. It was, of course, a vow he couldn’t keep. With time, he had learned he didn’t have to kill. Just as he had learned he could do some truly amazing things. He had discovered he could simply think himself wherever he wanted to go and he was there. He could move faster than the human eye could follow, jump great distances, climb a wall like a spider. He learned that he healed almost immediately, that he was incredibly strong. He also discovered he could call his prey to him, that he could mesmerize them with a look, compel them to do his bidding.

Of course, early on, he’d left the tribe, not trusting himself to be near those he cared for. Those had been long, lonely years, when he hid out by day and hunted by night.

Years had turned to decades.

Decades turned to centuries and he didn’t change, didn’t age, while the world and its people evolved. And he had evolved with them. He learned to move among humans, to control his hunger, how to blend in with humanity, how to handle cash and drive a car, use a cell phone.

He had thought himself content with his existence, until the night Leia came to the stage door and changed everything.