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Vam’pirs have to sleep at least every thousand years for a good three or four decades for our bodies to process the information that we gather. Much like a baby.

This is forced upon us, and there is nothing we can do to stop it, but the gain far outweighs the loss of a couple of decades.Changes may have happened during this time, but nothing that great that we couldn’t keep up with them.

And we sleep to heal.I don’t believe that needs explaining, do you?

There is one thing that I have to tell you.

When I do, you will laugh and say, ‘See, I knew that it was fiction!’

That is what the name Kaltos translates into your language:

Atlantis.

Part Two.

Chapter Fourteen.

In my life, sadly, I’ve hurt a great many people. Some unintentionally, while others thoughtlessly. I’ve harmed deliberately, and the intent was there from the start. But there are three people that I bitterly regret the level of hurt I caused.

For a self-centred creature such as myself, I cannot forget the harm done to them, and it bothers me.

You’re aware of what upset I caused Inka and the emotions that remain from it.

I never really meant to hurt her. The intent had been to ease the grief of losing her son. I would go to any lengths to prevent Inka from experiencing pain. Yes, I did cross the boundary with Mihal, but I did it for her.

Even now, I can’t understand Inka’s reaction, and I suppose that makes me a typical bull-headed man.

Anyway, Mihal is Vam’pir and there is nothing that can be done to change it.

However, how about a tantalising fact? Immortals other than vampires inhabit this planet. Also, we’re not the deadliest.Hard to believe that, isn’t it? What’s more dangerous than a bloodsucking, life-draining beast? Oh, there are far worse creatures than us and our kind, the real Vam’pirs. Not the ragged vampires that Vam’pirs work to seek out and destroy. There are the rats of my race. Impure, weak, selfish and prolific.

Vam’pirs still hunt the guilty, the murderers, the thieves, and those who harm children. Those we make sure pay for their crimes. Vampires just seek out blood; it doesn’t matter whose it is either. Vam’pirs have a code, but vampires don’t.

Other immortals follow their own code. Sadly, that is how I caused Pal and Mera terrible pain, that I don’t think they’ve ever recovered properly.

The events happened over two thousand years ago, but they’ve never forgiven me—and nor should they. They say they have, but I know differently. For I hurt Pal and Mera far worse than what I ever did, my beloved Inka. Strangely, I can understand their pain more than I could understand Inka’s. I did more than betray them. Horrifically, I almost caused them to go out into the sun and die. That says everything, doesn’t it?

Out of everyone, they’ve always stayed together, never apart for more than a few years. Pal and Mera’s love strengthened them in ways that Inka and I lost. Even Pari and Emil and Ana and Raymone have not spent all their time together. Yes, their love endures, yet at some point, they spent a few centuries apart.

Pal and Mera never did. In losing their chance to have a child, they clung to each other and wrapped their lives tightly around them. The rest of us were unsure where one person ended and the next began.

Pal and Mera are unique among Vam’pirs in that they only need to make eye contact to know each other’s thoughts. We have to think at the receiver. Pal and Mera don’t. God, there was a time when they never spoke a word to each other. That lasted for centuries. We heard their words, yet they remainedtelepathic between themselves. That was a little disconcerting. But these were my friends before anyone else, and I will not let anybody judge them, not even I’ve that right.

???

Two thousand years ago, Inka and I had just made our way across the ocean to Egypt, where we were to check on Har’chen handiwork. (The great pyramid.) We wanted to ensure that no one had defaced or damaged the Giza plateau. If they had, then we would’ve repaired it.

A midnight arrival revealed Pal and Mera’s unexpected presence. Laughably, we realised that we’d had the same thought.

Pal and Mera looked well, and they said that they were living in a villa near Abydos. I was a little surprised as it was not in the thick of things, but I accepted their invitation to stay. They’d arrived in Egypt seventy years ago, and it had been a thousand years since Inka and I last visited. Others may have come in that time, but not the four of us together.

Pal and Mera’s home was the usual high standard of luxury, even containing six guest coffins down deep in the ground. As normal, Mera thought of everything. However, nothing could’ve surprised me more than what I saw when we arrived at their home. Two brown-skinned babies came crawling out of a doorway, and Inka and I both stopped.

“You surely have not fallen from our ways!” Inka exclaimed in surprise.

Mera rounded on Inka, anger in her eyes.

“Of course not. What do you think we are?” Mera snapped as she scooped one of the infants into her arms.