200 Years Ago…
She couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t believe it, yet her eyes stared past him into the afterlife, cold and dead. Her body was limp as he kneeled and lifted her into his arms. In the distance, he heard them, those humans, screaming.
“Send those demons back to hell where they belong!”The scent of ash and blood filled the dark sky, but it was all an afterthought. The human’s Holy War against vampires, their pope, and their fear all mean nothing to him. Not without her. The days of bloodshed and terror faded away at the sight of her pale, blue-tinged face. She couldn’t be gone. She could not have left him behind in this world to persist without her.“Look at me,” he whispered, stroking her face. “Look at me and say something.”His jaw trembled, and his eyes burned as she did neither. They had vowed forever, yet she did not move. Slowly, he dropped his gaze to her chest, where the glint of silver, still burning her insides, caught his eye, turning her blood to ash and sparks of light. Her blood soaked the black fabric of his robe as he pulled her up against his chest. The cross burned against his sternum, but he could barely feel it as he felt his heart growing hard and cold. The cold sparked a white-hot burning fury that started to boil in his veins. His power heaved and ebbed. The skin of his face skin itched as he felt the wounds starting to heal. The humans calling for more blood and more death resonated through him. They had started this. They had called for death. So, he would give it to them. “I will kill them all,” he said as his cheeks grew warm with tears and his wings stretched out like a great shadow around them. “Their blood with soak the land.”“Kill them all!” A human screamed nearby. He lowered her body to the ground and pressed one last kiss to her cold lips. “I will see you again,” he said as he rose to his feet.It would not be today or the day after, but some day in the far future when a human or another vampire was powerful enough to cut him down. He turned, and his eyes focused on the group of humans nearby. They would drown in their own blood. He spread his wings and spread them, letting them lift him into the air. They stopped, staring up at him. He felt the feathers of his wings ripple and begin to turn black with his fury.“Angel?” One of them gasped. “That’s no angel!” Someone else cried. “Kill—”He darted down, snatching the man up and ripping out his throat. He drank the gushing, hot liquid greedily, draining his body. The blood fed the fire on him. In the distance, he heard someone screaming, a loud inhuman, roaring repetition of that word. The humans turned into fountains of blood. Torn to pieces and drowning in their blood. They swung their swords for the last time as he broke them and cracked their shields. “Kill!” The voice screeched, shaking the air with its fury. “Kill! Kill! Kill!”The human soldiers gripped their crosses and trembled before him. He broke through their defenses and swept the battlefield. It wasn’t until blood flowed like a river through the trenches in the ground that he realized that he had been the one screaming. He hovered above the bloodied battlefield and felt nothing but fury. Where had they all gone? Their crazy, feverish desire to kill? Weren’t there more humans to tear to shreds? It hadn’t been enough, considering the pope’s war cries. Were they all the forces he could manage to send into the vampire’s world?The wind smelled of the decaying blood of humans and vampires. Hundreds if not thousands of lives had been lost on this battlefield, and in the distance, he saw the gate that the humans had torn into the vampire’s world, their underground sanctuary, begin to close. He flew towards it as it was sealed closed, leaving behind thousands of bodies. He slammed his fist against the stone. It shivered under the force, but the gateway was closed. The war was over, but the hatred still burned in him. He would simply use the other gates to exact his revenge on the humans from above.Current Day….
“Please!” The woman cried, scrambling to try and escape him. It had been decades since a human had enough knowledge and enough guts to try to escape him. This one was weak and only slightly more pitiful than all the others. “Please, I didn’t do anything! I’m innocent.”
She sobbed as he dragged her down into the underground caverns towards the gates of his home. She was the noisiest of his recent steals. He threw her into the cage where he kept the humans he’d stolen from the upper world. She shrieked and darted away from the corpse that was still rotting, bloodless and unmoving. He grabbed the other human and dragged him forward, biting into his neck and draining him until he no longer moved before dropping him to the ground. The woman he’d just procured curled up against the wall, rocking in utter terror that made him smile. He licked his lips and wondered if he could hold off on devouring her tonight or if he would just have to hunt again.He chuckled and turned to grab the woman as she shrieked. His fangs pierced her neck, and he drank greedily. He wasn’t even hungry any longer, but the thrill of feeling her heart stop, of dropping her to the ground carelessly eased a bit of his anger. More. He decided, looking down at the body as her eyes went dim and tears rolled down her cheeks. More blood. More bodies. More humans dead by his hand. If he had to drain the entire upper world to appease his fury, he would. He turned and exited, heading back to his lonely keep. The lingering scent of his wife’s perfume still hung in the air from when he’d accidentally knocked over the bottle a few hours ago. He had saved what he could, but the scent had driven him out of the keep earlier. It was fading now, but his eyes fell on the gilded edges of his wife’s portrait. He lunged forward, darting across the room and pressing his hands to the stone on either side. He had moved this portrait years ago, he was sure, when he thought that he would simply waste away in despair. He pulled back with a cruel grin. It seemed that even she did not want him to stop his quest for blood. He walked back out of the room, casually setting the mountain of corpses ablaze to make room for more as he passed on his way to the portal to the upper world. The world above changed over the years, but the fury had not dwindled. Twilight had begun to descend over the city. It was cold, likely winter now. He liked winter for how much more time he had to catch his prey.Soon, it would be dark for more than half the day. Perhaps he would go on another murdering spree that would leave the human police baffled. The flickering lights above the streets were false but as bright as pure daylight. People trudged through the snow, not looking at him. He scanned them, looking for his first prey of the night, yet none of them appealed to him. Once, it had not mattered, but he had grown selective with his rampages recently. Young, vibrant, full of life and vigor were his current prey of choice. He stopped in the middle of a silent rob. The sound of sirens in the distance caught his attention as a large metal box rushed towards him. The men in the front seat screamed. A loud blaring sound filled the air, shaking the cold air. Then, one of them lunged across the seat and pulled at the wheel in the other man’s hand. The metal box turned and skidded, tumbling over and crashing. “Son of a bitch!” The man cried as it came to a stop. The box opened, and the man hauled himself out as the sound of sirens grew closer. “Grab her and get moving. I’ll deal with this asshole.”The man whirled and lifted something metallic in his hand. An explosion cut through the air. He felt something hot and small shoot past him at incredible speed. Something broke behind him, and he tilted his head. Whatever the thing in the man’s hand was, it was lethal. He bared his fang. It had been centuries since a human had opposed him. He saw in the man’s face the face of a bishop he’d killed so many centuries ago and darted forward, ripping the man’s head from his shoulders. “What the fuck?” One of them cried, scrambling out of the car. He grabbed the man and slammed him down to the ground before driving his foot into the man’s chest. Blood spurted out of the man’s mouth as his bones cracked and caved under the force. He stomped on the man again and again. Then, the last man came around the metal box and tried to escape. He cut the man off, stopping him and wrapping his hand around the man’s neck, squeezing until his eyes bulged and his neck snapped. He dropped the body, feeling a bit eased, feeling better when he heard something scraping nearby. He smelled another human and slowly glided towards it, wondering how he would kill this one. The woman was standing, shaking as she backed away from him, holding her hands up. Her face was covered with a swath of dark, soft-looking cloth. “P-Please, h-have mercy, I—” A strong wind blew by, unwrapping the cloth around her face and blowing off the hood from her head. Dark curls rushed up in the wind, and eyes he had only seen in his dreams for the past several centuries looked at him. Her face was just the same, and he stopped, staring at the woman. “Please…” she pleaded. He could barely breathe as he whispered, “Trinitia.”TrinityI had had only planned to pick up some cash from the bank. My mother was sick, and my father was taking care of her while I worked at my dead-end waitressing job. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was enough for now while I was still in school. I had only meant for this to be short deviance from my route home. Normally, I wouldn’t have even thought about deviating from my route this late in the winter because of how dark it was, but this bank location was close enough on the way home that it wouldn’t make me too late. My job was on the better side of town, so I thought I’d be safe. Then the robbers had come in swinging their guns and demanding the money from the tellers. I had been the only other person in the bank that wasn’t behind a desk, so as soon as the police showed up, they dragged me up from the floor and pressed a gun to my head as they hustled me into the car and dared the cops to shoot. I remembered trying to keep quiet and not draw any attention to myself as they drov
TrinityI lowered my head and followed the three women to the bathroom and let them put me in the bathtub. They tended my wounds and washed my body like she was some precious princess. Meanwhile, I had to force myself to breathe through my rising panic as I tried to figure out if I could escape this place in one piece. They put me into a dress that was more fabric than I would have ever chosen but wasn’t tight or uncomfortable. I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror.The gown was trimmed with a metallic color somewhere in between gold and copper. I thought of red gold for a moment, something out of an old mythology book. The dress flattered my figure, but it wasn’t something I would ever wear outside of a renaissance festival.I looked like I belonged in a painting from the Middle Ages. When I was dressed, and they’d fixed my hair the way they wanted, they led me out of the room and down the hall. I tried to breathe, taking in every inch of the building and trying to plot my way out.
Lucianus She was as beautiful as I remember in the dress, trimmed in the blood gold of my station. Our station. My lips twitched as she glanced around and walked cautiously toward the main table. I remembered how timid she’d been the first time she’d dressed for dinner like this, as a proper vampire noble. She was as timid and as beautiful then. I couldn’t help myself from touching her. The warmth of her sent a thrill through me as I thought about her could fading body from so long ago. I taster her skin and shuddered. I wanted more of her. The way that she had trembled and squirmed beneath me.Looking back, I realized that her fear had been reasonable. It had been years since I had considered what I looked like to anyone. I preferred to spend my days drifting through the castle as little more than a wraith before going to the human world to catch my next prey.I had missed her so much. To have her back like this, so completely untouched by time, made that battlefield from so long a
TrinityI couldn’t think. How long had I been here? He had told his servants to take me down to this dark place. I hadn’t seen even a glint of red light or torch light since they’d brought me down here. Something clinked in the dark. I turned sharply, startled by the sound. The door opened, and light flooded in, burning my eyes. I squinted and covered my eyes, wondering who it was. I didn’t recognize the person, but my heart filled with hope as she came towards me. He had to have realized his mistake. Had my pleas reached him? How long would it take to go home?I got up just enough, a little dizzy from the time since I’d last eaten or drunk anything. Then, she shoved me back to the ground. I twisted as she kneeled over me, and someone else came to restrain me. “Let me go!” I cried. A sharp, hot pain cut through my palm as I screamed. I felt dizzy, feeling the blood leave me. I shuddered and tried not to cry at the pain. Then, she wrapped something tight around the wound, and the
TrinityThis time, I made my breathing seem weak. The torch was relit just as he opened the door and the light of it filled the room. I realized then that the torches had to last at least a few hours at a time. If vampires ate at the same rate that humans did, I estimated about four hours. I shuddered. I was lucky to have made it a day losing blood so frequently without food or water to help me replenish. If I had any doubts about whether or not these people didn’t intend for me to live long like this, I didn’t have them any longer. The weaker I seemed, the easier it would be to get this done as soon as possible and make my escape. He left me quickly the next time he came. I blocked out the pain. I didn’t even whimper. It took him several minutes to get his fill, then he stood to leave. I waited, shifting just enough to make sure more of my skirts were caught between the door and the frame of it. I heard him walk away.Finally, his footsteps were gone. I sat up quickly and checked t
TrinityThere was no way out. I couldn’t outrun him. I pressed myself against the wall, waiting for the moment that he would attack and kill me. His eyes were blood-red as he approached, looming over me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. The fear was making me dizzy, but slowly, I started to accept that I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I felt oddly calm, almost hysterically calm like I’d taken Valium in the middle of a gunfight or something. I felt on edge and oddly too calm. My hands were shaking. My heart was racing and my mind was so clear that I could almost see my memories glittering like little stars in my mind.“Food has no right to run away,” he said. His eyes narrowed. “You’re asking for your death.”My heart lurched as I stared at him. “You kidnapped me.”His eyes narrowed at me as if he didn’t expect me to speak. It made me angry in a way that I couldn’t suppress.“You’ve kidnapped and tortured me! You’ve done terrible things to me. What ma
LucianusI returned her to the dungeon, dragging her naked through the hallways and strung her up so her toes barely grazed the floor. She didn’t wake up then, letting out a soft groan and turning her head. The light caught her face, and I thought of my wife’s face in the cool light of torches at night. My blood boiled as I pushed that thought and lifted my hand so the long, cursed whip appeared in my hand and spiraled into a pool on the floor. My mouth watered. The fury in me was itching to get out, even as I just wanted to drain her dry and ravish her. She woke up with a screech of pain when I swung the black whip, and it cut across her chest, turning the skin red. It would take almost nothing to break her skin. The cry infuriated me. I struck her again and again until the welts turned bloody, and she was screaming in agony. The scent of blood made my mouth water even as I couldn’t seem to pull back on my fury. I saw her eyes looking at me from within her dead face and imagined w
TrinityThe woman scoffed at me. She stood and struck me across the face. My face stung, but I didn’t cry out. Was she allowed to do that? How hard had she hit me? My ears were ringing like a bell, and my jaw throbbed. I tasted blood in my mouth as if I had cut my cheek on a tooth. I was more surprised there was any blood left.“You’re an idiot if you think you have the right to call our master by his name just because you have the late lady’s face,” she hissed. “Do your best to learn your place and await the day that the master will release you into death. Do not speak any further. You will only irritate me.”She left then and closed the door behind her with a loud, metallic groan, yet I didn’t hear a lock click. Was that the castle’s doing or her doing? I didn’t know, and I couldn’t bother to focus on it. Until I was down from this position, until my hands were free, trying to run away again would be impossible. Besides my hands, I couldn’t even imagine being able to walk. Somethi