They say breaking up is hard to do except when one lover discovers the other is a vampire.

This is a vampire chase drama (a novella, 14 chapters), with psychological elements.

A man struggles with his emotions. She was once his mistress but too many humans have died at her hands. She’s one of a special breed of elite vampires, and now John must do what has to be done.

Excerpt:

Beauty is not a substitute for humanity, and no being can truly live and love without its humanity........

Her expression turned serious. “It was good wasn’t it? I mean our time together.”

I looked down momentarily before looking back up at her. “It was good.”

“Yes, it was.”

“But there is one thing that puzzles me,” I said. “Why didn’t you ever—how shall I put it—why didn’t you ever try to convert me to your side. You had plenty of chances when we were together.”

“You mean why didn’t I ever bite into you?”

“Bluntly put, but yes.”

“It was never an issue. You were my lover.”

“But I could have lived with you forever. Isn’t that how it goes? Your lover forever.”

“You wouldn’t want immortality John and I wouldn’t give it to you. If I had a choice about it I wouldn’t wish it on myself.’’ She paused. “Well it doesn’t matter now.”

“I suppose I should be grateful,” I said.

“Grateful? For what? For leaving you as you are? For loving you as you are? For being able to put aside what I really am and be happy for a little while. You’ve got it backwards John.”

“You deceived me Claudia.”

“Guilty as charged. I deceived you, but I don’t regret it.”

“So why are you telling me all this now? Why did you want me to meet you here?”

“To confess. To tell it all. To get it all out for once. No one’s ever loved me and also chased me to kill me. You’re special. I wanted you to know it all.”

“How admirable. Confession complete. And now I know it all Claudia.”

Her eyes widened again as she looked at me. “You hate me don’t you?”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t hate you Claudia. I accept what you are and I accept your destiny.”

She walked around to my side of the desk and put her right hand over my clasped hands. “Have you not one ounce of pity for me?”

I looked down at her hand gently resting on my hands—so slender and graceful—and felt her soft skin on mine, then looked up at her as I abruptly pulled my hands away from her. “I pity those who so unwillingly gave the blood that runs through your veins. I pity those poor souls. You’re a being that lives in a strange macabre world, not one filled with sunshine, but one filled with storm clouds with blood raining down. Yes, I pity those poor souls whose only mistake was that they ran into you.”

I rose slowly and put my hands on her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes as I never had before. “I regret all the bad things that happen in this world. I regret everything that has happened to you but as the prayer says, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Her eyes locked on mine as she softly spoke in return, barely audible. “But that’s not the complete original version of that prayer John. The complete original version also said, Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace and taking as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.” She paused for a moment with an almost yearning look before she continued. “Yes, I live in that world, but it was raining blood before I ever stepped into it.”