A Civilized African Vampire

"Hmm, this is delicious, I love Type-A blood," Adriel Brown said to himself, as he savored the last drops of blood in the survivor's body, before discarding the cooling corpse. Normally, like most conscientious Vampires, Adriel would snap the corpse's neck to make sure that it did not reanimate. In a world full of Zombies, however, he had to amend this habit, and brought a heavy rock down on the corpse's skull instead.

The person whose blood Adriel had just drunk, a red-haired, plump Caucasian woman in her early forties, was finally dead for good. Destroy the brain and you destroy the man, woman, or creature, for good. In a world gone mad, there were very few absolutes left, but this was definitely one of them. No force on the planet Earth, Vampire or Zombie, could bring her back. Adriel had lured her and her companions out of their Zombie-proof hideout by pretending to be a lost survivor in need of shelter. The nameless woman's single moment of altruism had been her undoing...

Six feet two inches tall, broad-shouldered and beefy, with long, thick and dark dreads, and clad in a long Black leather overcoat, faded green sweatshirt and Black jeans, his feet encased in well-worn Black cowboy boots, Adriel cut an imposing figure. Dark-skinned, handsome, and with a roguish air, he'd always been a strong man, and becoming a Vampire had made him immensely powerful. A power that hadn't waned, not even in the dark days since the whole world went to Hell...

Since the Zombies began to rise, craving the flesh of the living, life had been nothing but Hell for the race of the Vampires. The bloodthirsty Undead had long understood that a predator who exhausts his or her food supply will face extinction. The Zombies don't seem to understand any of that. Nor were they capable of anything resembling sentient thought, though some of the fresher Zombies did have their moments.

Adriel Brown had roamed the world for quite some time, ever since he encountered an ancient Arawak Vampire named Talok while fleeing from British slavers on the island of Jamaica in 1817. Adriel was thirty years old when he crossed the threshold separating mundane humanity from the dark realm of the Vampires. Talok's blood transformed Adriel into a powerful Vampire, one gifted with strength, speed and resilience far beyond his years...

Inspired by the successful African revolution against the French colonial powers on the nearby island of Haiti, the Maroons of Jamaica fought against the British colonial powers, and Adriel was at the forefront of the battle. To the Maroons, Adriel became something of a legend, the Blood Prince. The one who did not fear the British soldiers guns, or the hangman's noose. For, like the night, he always come back...

After Adriel became a Vampire, he used his newfound supernatural powers to aid his fellow Maroons in the ongoing conflict against the British colonial forces, and their struggle didn't end until 1838, when slavery was officially abolished in Jamaica. In 1907, Adriel journey to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he stayed until 1977. Adriel returned to Jamaica that year, and was visiting friends in London, England, in 2017, when everything went wrong. Zombies rose, causing chaos and threatening human and Vampire alike...

"We're going to need a lot more than these stragglers if we hope to make it to next spring," came a voice, and Adriel turned around and smiled at his companion, Zineb Jaber. The tall, slender, bronze-skinned and raven-haired female Vampire, originally from Morocco, shot Adriel a wuthering look. They'd been together since before the Zombie Apocalypse, and while they were more than allies but less than friends, Zineb's presence continued to annoy Adriel at times.

"Says the woman who killed three and glutted on their blood, leaving a brother with bare scraps to feed on," Adriel shot back, and Zineb smiled and shrugged. They'd been roaming the remnants of a nuclear-ravaged London, England, wandering under the darkened, ash-filled skies for ages without finding anything to feed on beside stray cats and packs of marauding dogs that now roamed the vast, and mostly dead, metropolis.

"Oh come on, Adriel, these are the first humans we've seen in weeks, I couldn't help myself," Zineb replied, and she shot Adriel a wink, which caused him to roll his eyes. Feeding on animals was something he did out of necessity. The animals had become plentiful lately, since many of them learned to steer clear of the hordes of mindless, flesh-eating monsters which their former owners had become. Animal blood was fine, but human blood was...something else.

"Zineb, you're young, so perhaps you haven't figured out that we must eat to live, not live to eat," Adriel said, shaking his head. Not for the first time, Adriel wondered why he bothered with the nascent Vampire. Zineb had been created mere years before the Zombie Apocalypse, and still lamented the loss of the old world. Oh, and she hadn't figured out the new, ahem, blood economics of the new world. In a world where humans were scarce, and Zombies were plentiful, Vampires could ill afford to be gluttons...

"Dude, you sound like my grandpa used to," Zineb laughed, and Adriel watched as she tentatively poked the smashed skull of the human on which he'd fed with the tip of her boot. So much for respect for the dead, Adriel thought grimly. He was so wrapped up in his dark musings that the stench of the Zombies almost caught him by surprise. Sniffing the air, he whirled around, and Zineb shot him a puzzled look. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by...them.

Zombies, long considered the stuff of science fiction and horror novels, cult television series and films, have now become a grim reality for all denizens of the planet Earth. They're a threat to every type of fauna, from humans to animals, and even Vampires. Adriel and Zineb stood back to back, fangs bared and claws extended, surrounded by two dozen 'fresh' Zombies who had the wherewithal to sneak up on the Vampires, rather than loudly announcing their presence by moaning.

"We're going to be deader than your Grandpa if we don't get out of this," Adriel said, and Zineb nodded. The Zombies came, and the Vampires waded into them. Lashing out at the slow-moving, mindless flesh-eaters with his claws, Adriel roared out a challenge. The Zombies answered his challenge with their odd half-scream, half-roar, something they did while agitated, and surrounded him.

"I'm sorry," Zineb said, and Adriel, who'd just decapitated a burly male Zombie in overalls, briefly glanced at his companion. Zineb had a pistol drawn, and oddly enough, she was not aiming it at the Zombies. Rather, she was aiming it at Adriel. Smiling, Zineb blew Adriel a kiss, and then squeezed the trigger. He had time to register surprise when Zineb fired, and he cried out as the bullet thudded into his chest. Adriel went down, and the Zombies surged upon him...

"You evil bitch, I'll make you pay," Adriel cried out, trying to ignore the pain in his chest and fight off the Zombie horde. In spite of his superhuman strength, the Zombie horde threatened to overwhelm the stalwart Vampire. I am not going out like that, Adriel swore to himself as he fought against the flesh-eating monsters. He crushed a red-haired male Zombie's skull, and decapitated a dark-skinned female Zombie, but more stepped up to replace them. Moaning loudly, the ravenous creatures began to pull him down...

Adriel Brown first saw the light of day on a plantation in the environs of Trelawny, Jamaica, in 1787 and last saw it in 1817 when he became a Vampire, thanks to the ancient Arawak Vampire known as Talok. Since those days, his life had been nothing but pain and betrayal, so, in a way, being betrayed by Zineb Jaber, the Moroccan female Vampire he'd taken under his wing, shouldn't have surprised him. Treachery is the way of the Vampire, Adriel reminded himself.

"Hang on," came a voice, just as the Zombies began raining on Adriel, and the beleaguered Vampire thought he heard gunshots. Had Zineb come back? Not likely. Whoever was shooting had to be quite a shot, for the Zombies began to drop like flies. Adriel was lying amid a pile of them when the sound of approaching footsteps caused him to look up. Someone stood over him, a tall, middle-aged Englishman with brown hair, blue eyes hidden behind horn-rimmed glasses and a brown trench coat. In his hand he held the proverbial smoking gun...

"Mister, hello there, say, were you bit?" Mr. Trenchcoat asked, and Adriel shook his head. The man held out his hand, and Adriel took it, and amazingly, the slender man pulled him to his feet. Adriel looked at his savior, and smiled hesitantly. In this day and age, people didn't often come to the aid of strangers. Altruism had gone out of style when the first Zombie rose up and fed on the last good Samaritan...

"I'm fine, thanks, I'm Adriel," Adriel said, and he held out his hand. Mr. Trenchcoat looked at him and shook his hand after a brief hesitation. Before the man could speak, however, another figure appeared. A tall, curvy young woman with light brown skin, lively brown eyes and a thick Afro. Like Mr. Trenchcoat, Miss Afro was also carrying a gun.

"I'm Lincoln Murray, and this is my daughter Arianna," Mr. Trenchcoat said, and Adriel nodded respectfully, thankful for their help. He was still nodding when Mr. Trenchcoat suddenly aimed his gun at him. Adriel sighed. The wounds he'd sustained in battle against the Zombies had vanished already, thanks to his Vampire physiology's amazing healing powers. He wasn't back at a hundred percent yet, so he couldn't snatch the gun out of the old man's hand...

"Arianna, please check him for bites and weapons," Lincoln said, and Arianna nodded, flashed Adriel an almost apologetic smile, then searched him. Adriel rolled his eyes and took off his coat, and allowed the young woman to examine him. Usually when a woman was feeling him like this, it was a prelude to sex. How things had changed thanks to the Zombie Apocalypse...

"Dad, he's clean," Arianna said, and Adriel exhaled sharply, even though he'd quit breathing over a century ago. Lincoln still looked at him with suspicion, but he lowered the gun, for which Adriel was grateful. No bullet could kill him unless it were made of silver, but he didn't like the way they felt while piercing his flesh. Looking at Arianna and Lincoln, Adriel considered them for a moment before speaking.

"Thanks for the help, folks, but I have someplace to be," Adriel replied, and his words seemed to surprise his new acquaintances. Zineb was gone, and Adriel very much wanted to catch up with the treacherous little minx and make her pay for not only wounding him but also leaving him as meat for the Zombies. Along with sunlight, and fire, being torn apart and eaten was one of the few things that still elicited fear in Adriel's non-beating heart...

"There's no one else left in London, young man, the only place where there's any survivors is Berkshire, it's where we're headed," Lincoln said, and Adriel considered that. With the ruins of London crawling with Zombies, the only human survivors would have fled the metropolis and headed for small towns or the British countryside. Less populated means fewer Zombies...

"Oh, really? That's good news," Adriel replied, and he smiled at Arianna and Lincoln, meaning every word. I'll have to play it nice in order to earn their trust, but it will be worth it, Berkshire promises to be quite the feeding ground, Adriel thought, and he nodded at his new acquaintances, who looked at him wearily.

"Adriel, perhaps you could come with us," Arianna said, and Lincoln shot her a look. Adriel pretended to hesitate and looked at the father/daughter duo. It was astonishing how some people refused to let go of the habit of helping strangers, even in an age where the ravenous dead walked the Earth. Lincoln looked Adriel in the eyes and gritted his teeth, clearly unhappy with his daughter's words...

"Adriel, whoever you are, if you come with us, you play by our rules, the moment you become a threat to my daughter or myself, you're dead, is that clear?" Lincoln asked, and Adriel nodded soberly. The moment passed, and the three of them hit the road. Berkshire proper was about fifty one miles from London, and it wasn't going to be easy to get there on foot. Still, it was better than the alternative. London was crawling with Zombies, making it inhospitable to human and Vampire alike...

"Sir, you have my word that I won't harm you or your daughter," Adriel said, and the Vampire instantly cursed himself for saying these words, for unlike the rest of his kind, he had a certain sense of honor. Sure, to him, most humans were little more than food, or casual entertainment in the form of sex, but he was of ancient stock, and his word was his bond.

"Hope you're a man of your word," Lincoln said to Adriel, and then the three of them hit the road. Along the way, they fought a few fellow survivors, and killed some Zombies. When they arrived in Berkshire, they found a ragtag band of survivors, some five hundred strong, having banded together against the Zombies. It wasn't what they were expecting from a town the size of Berkshire, but it was better than nothing...

When the trio arrived in Berkshire, they were immediately taken to the settlement's leader, a man named Raphael Morgan, and as far as post-Apocalyptic leaders went, he wasn't that bad. Tall, bearded, grizzled and burly, with dark brown hair streaked with gray and piercing blue eyes, Morgan reminded Adriel of a certain bat-wielding villain he'd seen on a certain TV show before the world went to hell.

"Welcome to Berkshire, folks, I'm Morgan, if you're going to stay with us, it's best we get acquainted," the bearded man said, and Adriel watched carefully as Lincoln and Morgan shook hands. The talk went fine, for they were offered food and a place to stay, after surrendering their weapons and consenting to a search. Adriel, who didn't need weapons, surprised everyone with his sheer compliance.

"I've been on my own forever, it's good to see people again," Adriel said, and Lincoln shot him a look, while a smile creased Arianna's lovely face. This cutie is oh-so tempting and ripe for a good plucking, if I can only get her away from Daddy, Adriel thought, and he smiled nonchalantly at Arianna. The young woman winked at him, and a sinister, I-know-what-you-want smirk filled Adriel's face.

While most of his fellow Vampires liked to roam the world as solitary predators or small packs banding together for mutual protection, Adriel was a firm believer in infiltration. He didn't just pretend to be human, he loved to blend in among them. He learned such skills several lifetimes ago as a Maroon fighter on the island of Jamaica, roaming the wilderness, evading the British colonial forces and fighting their army through guerilla tactics. Adaptation and infiltration were key to survival...

One of Morgan's people, a man named Mattison, took Adriel and Arianna on a tour of the 'secured' portion of Berkshire, which consisted of a few buildings surrounded by a twenty-foot-tall wall that the survivors managed to erect to protect themselves from the Zombies. They were surrounded by the dead at all times, with tens of thousands of the flesh-eating monsters pressing against the fence. Adriel and company had been lucky they'd been spotted by scouts who led them in through a secret underground entrance. Otherwise they'd have been mowed down by the Zombies...

"Welcome to Berkshire, folks, enjoy your stay because we are it as far as human settlements in this part of England, as far as we know," Mattison said, and Adriel looked at the tall, elderly Black man and smiled. This old codger must be out of his damn mind if he thinks I am staying here any longer than I have to, Adriel thought, and he smiled at Mattison and nodded.

"There must be other survivors somewhere, we must let them know there's help," Arianna said, her voice and eyes filled with hope, and Adriel nodded, 'accidentally' brushing his hand against hers. To his apparent surprise, Arianna briefly squeezed his hand, and Adriel flashed her his brightest smile. While most Vampires were driven by the need to drink blood, and either avoid or confront danger, Adriel was far more complex. Being an elevated Vampire meant he had superior abilities, along with dimension, intelligence and personality, rather than mere sentience...

"I agree, we can rebuild the world," Adriel said, and Arianna nodded. Mattison, bless his heart, took this as his cue to exit. Left to their own devices, Adriel looked at Arianna, and then, in a heartbeat, crossed the distance between them. The two of them kissed passionately, and then, in the remnants of this abandoned factory which the survivors had converted into a storage unit, they began making love...

"I've wanted you since I first saw you," Arianna confessed, as Adriel hastily undressed her. There were few things in life almost as precious than blood, and a beautiful woman was one of them. Adriel feasted his eyes on Arianna's voluptuous body. The young biracial woman, presumably born of a White father and an African mother, looked simply beautiful in the low light. Her light brown skin glistened, and Adriel could feel her sweet blood coursing through those veins...

"Right back at you, gorgeous," Adriel replied, and he laid Arianna on an ancient but sturdy table, and went to work on her. Kissing her passionately, he caressed her erect nipples, thumbing the areolas and massaging them. Arianna lay there, a happy grin on her lovely face, and Adriel licked his way from her breasts to her round little belly, and finally, the space between her legs.

"Oh my," Arianna cooed softly, and Adriel buried his face between her thick brown legs, and began eating her pussy. He hadn't gone down on a woman in quite some time, his ill-advised nocturnal trysts with Zineb Jaber not withstanding. Adriel took his sweet time as he teased Arianna's clitoris with his tongue, and stimulated her labia with his agile fingers. As he got going, the young woman writhed and moaned, enthralled by what he was doing to her.

"I can tell it's been a while, Arianna, don't worry, I got you," Adriel said, and Arianna locked eyes with him as he rubbed his long, hard dick against her puffed up pussy lips. With a swift thrust, he entered her. Arianna sighed happily, and Adriel raised her thick legs in the air, giving himself more room to work with as he began fucking her. Passionately they went at it, and Arianna screamed like a banshee, uttering words that would have made her poor daddy Lincoln blush. Little did she know that Adriel was just getting started...

"Oh fuck, Adriel, I love your dick," Arianna said, much later, after Adriel dicked her down good and proper, and left her pleasurably sore. They were lying on the floor when she unexpectedly grabbed his dick and began sucking it like her life depended on it. Adriel was quite surprised by the sight of Arianna kneeling before him and sucking him off, but he definitely did not protest. Some surprises are actually worth the trouble...

The following few months proved to be uneventful for the human settlement of Berkshire, supposedly humanity's last redoubt in a world overrun by Zombies. Lincoln was not thrilled about Adriel and Arianna becoming an item, but the old Englishman had to admit that his daughter was a grown woman and that she made her own decisions. Adriel tried his best to be polite and friendly to Lincoln, who never quite warmed up to him. He had big plans for Arianna...

The people of Berkshire were stocking up for the coming winter, and this meant more and more raids and marauding expeditions into the surrounding countryside. Men and women with guns went out to hunt deer, and scavenge for non-perishable goods. They were low on medicine and guns, and ammo. Something had to be done to solve those problems before it was too late...