8. Creatures

Lilja could only stare at him unbelievingly, like he suddenly grew a third eye or something like that. Vampire? Did she just land in a cheesy teenager novel? She doubted it, and Jyrki didn’t look like he was joking. The tall man sighed. “You do not believe me, do you?” She slowly shook her head. “Well,”, he continued, “at the party you were quite sure that I am some kind of dangerous creature. At least you acted like that, do you remember?”

As soon as he said that, her memories came rushing back to her like a high-speed train. At least she felt like that train ran over her. When she remembered the fear she felt, the black eyes staring at her, and the raspy voice telling her she would die know, she felt nauseous. She could have died that very evening, she hadn’t been far from it. Jyrki watched her with a pitying expression on his face. “It is totally normal that your brain suppressed this information. You nearly died that evening. For one week it certainly looked like you would not make it. That…thing that attacked you. It was an Undying as well, but he was a beast, not cultivated like me or my friends. He nearly crossed the line.” He seemed to ponder for a short while, then he spoke again. “When an Undying drinks directly from a human, from the vein as we call it, he or she can drink a certain amount of blood before it gets dangerous for the human. Normally we do not need more than a few sips, but he was determined to kill you, that is why he wanted to take the whole. He did not pass the line, but considering the strength you already used when you invaded my mind, you were closer to death than life.”

She had to let that information sink for a little while. She nearly died. It made her shiver to even think about the possibility. She wasn’t necessarily happy with her life in Finland or her life in general, but the thought of not, well, existing any more had never crossed her mind. But there was something else he said that troubled her. “I invaded your mind? What? How is such a thing possible? And when? And…?” She couldn’t even formulate a real question out of the thoughts that raced her mind. Jyrki pulled a grimace before he answered. “It hurt pretty damn much. I suppose you must be very strong, but Vilho knows more about that. But your question brings me to the second thing. To what you are. You are no human, at least only half. The creature you are, it is very rare. Even I have never met someone like you before, and I am on this earth for quite a while now. I have only heard few things, hearsays and legends about your species. They are called the kultaveri, and it is said that your blood tastes like god, or like heaven to us. That is also why your species is so rare. Most never even reach adulthood.” Suddenly many things made sense to her. The reason why her mother had always been so overly protective, the reason why they never visited Finland or Lilja’s grandparents. And the reason why her father had left the family when she had been young. Her mother had always tried to protect her from people – no, she had to correct herself, from creatures – like Jyrki. And then she died.

“So, you are going to kill me?”, Lilja asked, her voice shaking. “You are going to drain me from all my blood because you are a vampire, and I’m the tastiest blood bag that ever existed?”