As Josette continues……

And so Josette continue to describe her first meeting with Christian and Michel on a hot summers night…..

It would always be that way for the three of us. Many a night I would will myself to breathe as I fell into their arms; yes I would become both their lovers and the three of us would exist in our own world once the sun set. I was the wife to Luc Delacore, a wealthy minor aristocrat to whom my mother secured a marriage contract when she found out she was dying. It was either marry Luc or be destitute and I could no more stomach a life of poverty than I could fly and so I agreed.

I was already Gaétan’s lover and he was more than generous with his gifts and I was willing to give him anything in return in the hopes that one day he would make me immortal. It was our dance and I thought it would go on forever and it might have, until this night I speak of, when my life fell apart and reconstructed itself in the blink of an eye.

By day, I ran a small household, married to a man I did not love but could tolerate, and by night I wandered amongst the world of the Parisian vampires. As society unraveled and the citizens of Paris revolted, the world of the vampires came apart as well, as if they had no other choice but to mimic the mortals they fed upon creating their own living hell. My lover Gaétan would become embroiled it Le Revolution Française as would Gabrielle who had made both Christian and Michel vampires and was reluctant to release them from her bed. Gabrielle and Gaétan would eventually join together in a battle to control the city, leaving death and destruction in their wake, but that is another story.

I did not consciously set out to seduce and fall in love with both Christian and Michel nor did they glamour me, for I was beyond hypnosis. Each had what the other lacked and I found them both intoxicating and as integral to me as the sunshine and fresh air. I could not live without them yet I could not see what was to come, despite my abilities to see the future, to touch objects and watch as images and feelings ran through me like water.

Nowadays, you would label me psychic for I possess the gift of psychometry, yet I read Tarot cards to entertain my mother’s friends at her numerous parties. That is how I met Gaétan and when my mother saw how our relationship was unfolding she encouraged it, hoping it would lead to marriage for he was rich and obviously taken with me.

She had no idea that ‘Monsieur Richard’ as he called himself, was an ancient vampire who could have snapped both of our necks and left us in ruin if he so desired. He had fallen in love with me and my blood and promised me immortality if I gave him what he so desired: my blood. He came to my bedroom one night and took both my virginity and my blood, leaving me ecstatic yet weak, filled with dreams of power and riches. He showered me in clothing and jewels and took me everywhere in Paris and all he wanted was to drink my blood.

I was never afraid. Quite the contrary. I loved the world of the vampire. It was both silent yet powerful, mysterious, glamorous and fraught with drama. I possessed what they wanted, blood, beauty and a willingness to submit to them. All of them. I had power, money and all a woman could ever want, and with Christian and Michel I felt our lives were just perfect and that we would never cease to be together, yet as French society began to crumble all around us, we three were crumbling internally.

Though I had never seen them in the act of making love to one another, I always felt Christian and Michel were bisexual. They were inseparable and would remain so long after I was dead and buried. I was a momentary distraction in their long lives. Though I wanted both of them we never became a ménage a trois. Christian would never hear of it and so I would be with first one and then another.

So much was left unsaid between us, undercurrents of anger, lies told by each of us, promises made though never to be kept. It was the way of things and we lived shrouded in lies; so many lies.

Shakespeare said it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

I am not so sure.