That summer was quite different from others I lived; I can vividly recall how fearful everyone was that particular summer. You could almost cut the tense atmosphere with a butter-knife. Death seemed to be everywhere; a plague fell upon a neighbouring town leaving a huge number of deaths. They said that before one got to that town the stench of death was unbearable and since the belief was that those foul smells took with them the disease itself, nobody wanted to go anywhere near.
I never know who my parents were for I guess I lived with the Baron’s family and served them since my birth. I believe this was so until sometime during that summer visit to the noble’s house, when I was in my late teens, I suffered my awakening. I have absolutely no precise recollection of a previous life.
We were staying in Francesco’s father’s house when amidst my ghastly boredom I fell sick. Francesco was wooing Antonella without much enthusiasm and she was answering him in her lifeless manner. I had to constantly be with them to ensure her honour was kept intact, but I had to make sure that Francesco would not notice me much just in case. He was a good match for her and I had to ensure that things went on smoothly.
At first I thought I was bored sick, but then started developing some disturbing symptoms. I seemed to have a high fever and couldn’t stand the light. Of course I was not really sick; I was just becoming what I am. When I started going through my awakening process they thought some terrible disease ailed me and therefore in fear they sent me to a nearby countryside nunnery to die.
Those days were difficult times; ignorance was even more common than today and with plagues just lurking around every corner, it is very understandable what they did. On one hand they feared for their lives and on the other, they did not want to care for me till I died. Much to the contrary of what they believed would happen I never died.
It took me several crippling months to undergo the whole process, and by the time it all finished and I awoke to my vampire life, the hunger took over me. I didn’t know what to do or what was happening, I was alone and I merely moved by instinct. I had absolutely no other choice. Once I finally was me, a terrible hunger took over me.
I was desperate for something I did not quite understand and like a rabid animal I moved . . . The hunger was so great it burned me inside out until I shrieked in pain. I was thirsty, hungry, and desperate. I did not know what I was doing, and I feel so ashamed of it still. Amidst my hunger, I murdered everyone in the nunnery.
I fed on every single person that had taken care of me those past few months. I paid their goodness with their death. When I awoke I was blind between ecstasy and need and tore one throat after another. I could smell them, and they smelled so sweet! They were unbearably sweet, like hot buns right out of the oven. Once I took the first I couldn’t stop! My animal instinct made me tear the first nun’s white throat. She was a quiet and modest being just a little bit older than me; night after night she dried my sweaty face, and I just drank from her. She tasted sweet, like some kind of syrupy metallic candy. Without knowing it, I was high on my hunger and her blood. After I finished her I took one nun after the other.
Deep down my frenzy I knew that it was wrong but I just couldn’t stop, I was compelled with the need of more deep and rich nurturing substance down my throat. The moment I stopped feeding on one I just wanted more blood, and got more until . . . they were all gone.
The nuns where so afraid, yet they never tried to hurt me. They did not fight me, they did not flee. I believe they let me live in a way.” Her voice broke as she let go of me and took a step back. Lucrecia then turned in a twirl of gold and went to the beautiful black sofa were she sat crossing her perfect long legs in front of her and remained speechless.
I felt her pain stabbing me in the ribs and an awful sadness overwhelmed me till I was on the brim of tears. She looked impossibly perfect with her fragile manner, just as if she were a crystal faerie. Her soft locks seemed to flow past her shoulders making her deep blue jumper seem almost liquid under it. Her marble hands folded over one and other on her lap and in an instant she became a silent queen on her throne, just in front of my eyes. For some strange reason she reminded me of a tulip: full of beauty and fragile looking, but having her true core surviving many winters before and more to come.
Jonathan, still holding my back to him hugged me tight against his chest and whispered to my ear; “I see you are not only a fantastic mind-reader but also a strong empath. I knew you where special from the moment I lay eyes on you at school.” Then he planted a tender kiss on my cheek.
His lips where warm and soft and left my face feeling hot as embers. I wanted to still feel his warm breath and sweet touch on my cheek, but just a few breaths later he continued whispering to my ear: “As you most assuredly know by now, James is my father.
He is the second oldest one of us, he is 240 years old. My mother died when I was quite young, she was beautiful and sweet, and smelled of flowers every time I hugged her. She smelled of Nightblooming Cereus and Lily. Her name was also a flower’s, and it suited her, she was sweet and fragile; my mother was called Violet. She was a good empath too, you know? She could feel for every small thing around her.
I was eight when she passed away; she was shoved with anger by a vampire from another clan that didn’t approve of our ways. Politics are truly hazardous, at least as you can see: that has been our experience. When she hit the kitchen wall she was killed almost instantly, she was nearly human.”
I figured then that Jonathan must be a mild inheritor, a figured that the meaning behind the words “she was nearly human” lay the truth that his mother was probably a very mild inheritor. Thinking about this I remembered James’ words on her being a very good telepath and wondered actually what mild inheritors were able to do for this one appeared to have been quite special after all.
Jonathan smiled with his pleasant memories in front of him and continued, “All of this happened more than sixty years ago, so just in case you are wondering, I’m turning seventy-five next fall.”
OMG! So I was right! I was actually dating a creepy old man! Though I believe that maybe that was probably not applicable in the vampire world, relationships didn’t seem to be as ruled by age as human relationships were. I felt like such a dork! This guy had been around for nearly as long as a grandfather, and we had been dating since Halloween and I hadn’t even really kissed him yet. He must have thought I was such a tease, holding his hands and hugging him but never really kissing him quite yet.
“That lady with silver hair is Ginny, she is my grandmother.” He continued, looking slightly amused as if he had just read my thoughts—right, he probably did since I was a good thought transmitter, yikes!—“She might look slightly older than the rest of the clan because of her hair but if you look at her carefully you’ll see her complexion is that of probably a thirty year old. Her father was a vampire but her mother was not, and my mom was her daughter. She is about one hundred and twenty years old. Ginny is the only mild inheritor amongst us because even though my mom was a very mild inheritor, my father’s blood is quite strong and because of it I am way stronger than what I would be. My mom’s dad was a regular human so he is not with us any more.”
Jonathan looked ecstatic while he revealed his blood ties, like a child revealing a secret after keeping it for way too long. I couldn’t stop being amazed by everything that they were telling me, my still too human brain didn’t know how to process this kind of information. If it weren’t for his firm arms holding me and his perfectly sculpted chest on my back I would be expecting to wake up. I liked being in his arms too much for wanting to wake up if this was a dream, and I knew them too well to know I was awake.
Something was building up inside me meanwhile all this. I couldn’t just put it into words at the moment but somewhere deep down something was happening to me. I was slowly getting distracted from all of them, but this something did not build up so quickly so that I could actually spot it. While I tried to figure out what was bothering me two solemn an
d scrawny figures moved towards me.
Their hair was the colour of pale carrots and their faces were mirrors of each other. Both girls were pale, tall and impossibly thin. They looked like those runway models look like nowadays, on the verge of anorexia, with inexpressive yet gorgeous faces. Their movements were perfectly synchronized while they seemed to walk on air. By looking at them I recalled every mental image I had of what a high priestess would look like in the ancient times. They looked perfect and stern, two completely untainted, inexpressive mirrors that looked way to sacred to belong to the “real” world.
They were both dressed with long, pastel-green, flowing, silk dresses. Both had their hair loose and shoulder length combed away from their high foreheads. Their manes sleek and perfectly cut straight, making their incredibly thin hair look almost razor-like on the edges. These twins looked solemn and serious, yet almost in a trance. I wouldn’t call them striking if I saw them in the mall, but their solemnity reminded me of sacredness once more.
Their eyes were perfect copies of Jonathan’s, yet their expression was not playful as his. Their eyes were like the eyes of an oracle. You could imagine those feline windows of their soul seeing things that no ordinary being could see; they were uncanny bottomless images of his.
When they stood just in front of us they started speaking in a most peculiar manner, they spoke in unison, uttering one sentence each in perfect synchrony. If I were just listening to them and not looking, I would believe that only one person was speaking, that perfect was their eerie way of speech.
“I’m June and I’m Summer” They said in their one-person-speaking kind of way. “We are James’ twin daughters, and Jonathan’s older sisters. We are different from the rest of our family for we share our thoughts completely with each other. We share our feelings and our dreams; we can transmit the dreams of others who are around no more. We can speak for those who were and those to come, we were waiting for you.” On saying the last word they simply bowed and walked backwards until they remained statue-like in the exact same place they were before.
Weird girls, they acted as if they were speaking of something obvious yet in riddles, they completely puzzled me.
Upon their retreat somebody coughed to attract the attention towards him. I searched and let my eyes fall upon a gorgeous man I had completely missed before. He was standing slightly behind the twins and grinned like a Cheshire Cat.
His strawberry blond hair fell bluntly on one of his electric blue eyes making him look like a twenty year old, mischievous Peter Pan. He grinned even wider as soon as he realised he had caught my complete attention and with a jester manner moved forward, nearly dancing diagonally, while he exaggeratedly spoke to me.
“Please forgive my ever-so-grave nieces, they are not very talkative as you can see but believe me they see where eyes do not.” He waved forward with one of his arms making his white t-shirt strain over his muscled shoulders distracting me for a slight second and with a playful wink at me continued: “My name is Corbin and I’m at your service.” Saying that, he bowed mischievously like a comedian and held his exaggerated pose for a second.
His straight hair fell loosely hiding his face and then with a flash of blond, he stood upright at the side of my sofa.
He moved with impossible speed, and cockily arched his eyebrows at me before he continued talking to me with his honeyed-voice.
“You see, darling-doll, the twins don’t speak much, unless they are reciting a prophecy or having a vision. And that doesn’t happen every day. They are quite special, and since they communicate with each other in special ways we don’t completely understand, they don’t interact much with other people. Not even with us.
I’m James’ younger brother, and I am here for anything you need.” He said, emphasising a little bit too much the word “anything” for my taste. He then took hold of my hand and kissed it while he looked at me with his deep blue eyes. Those eyes now looked like the sea in a calm summer day instead of electric, it was the weirdest thing. Corbin’s eyes seemed as unpredictable as his behaviour.
Everyone has a “strange” uncle or aunt I’ve been told and well, I guess Corbin was just it. I remember thinking that he must be Jonathan’s peculiar relative.
He was completely drop-dead gorgeous in a completely different way my guy was. Corbin was much more muscular than any of the other guys in the family and moved up and down like a jester. His face was wholly perfect, with high arched brows and a well-defined jaw-line, and he was flirtatious as hell! How could this guy be James’ brother? He looked younger and definitely sexier.
His lips were perfect and his teeth glowed white with a constant grin on his face. He was one of those guys that knew the effect he had on girls, and loved it. His smug manner just reflected this constantly, so was this that he even reminded me of a proud peacock.
Jonathan looked unexpectedly amused by his flirty uncle; he seemed to be delighted with his odd manners and just laughed lightly at the whole scene. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. He seemed to look up to him in a sort of way—and to think that I was worried he would be jealous!
“My uncle Corbin is one of my favourite people in the whole world,” he whispered in my ear as if answering my unspoken thoughts, “that is, besides you of course.”
I just flushed at his words and didn’t know what to say. I felt wordless and shy, yet at the same time delighted and cherished. His lips still stayed near my ear just making me want to kiss him. I just wanted to truly kiss him so badly and melt in his arms that it hurt.
“Come on love birds! Please don’t interrupt my amazing speech with all the corny stuff and the swooning looks!” said Corbin in playful response to our “moment” and continued talking almost lightly: just as if he’d never been interrupted.
“James is my older brother, so I share his blood more than any other in this clan. We are different yet he is my complementary colour; we’ve always been a team: Not as much as the twins but a team none the less.” Saying this seemed to provoke mild laughter in the room. I believed it was some kind of joke they had or something.
“Ever since we were very young we heard rumours of a prophecy, a prophecy that envisioned a final battle in the vampire world. You see, since ancient times there have been different attempts to rule our world, none of them have ever been successful. There are different philosophies and many power thirsty vampires; this has led us all to numerous wars. To cut things short, this ancient prophecy says that one will come to rule or destroy us all. We have been looking for that newcomer for centuries, and the twins have dreamt of him since their birth. We always believed that we were linked to him in a way and now we are sure. You are that vampire.”
CHAPTER 6
An Ancient Prophesy
Crossing northern seas and more to come
A newborn baby, a rising sun.
From noble cradle born
And human raised,
Strongest blood
Will someday praised.
Raven feathers on his head
Eyes to see beyond the dead.
Amethysts will crown its sight,
In dark moments all its might.
For when the time shall fall
Only he will choose:
To change our world
Or doom us all.
He will see beyond the hearts
And make us see beyond all fear.
The purest blood will make him come,
In newborn’s hands
The truth will steer,
And make our fate forever clear.
The twins recited the weirdest poem as soon as Corbin said that I was some eerie prophesized vampire or I don’t know what. My life had just gone bonkers in a few months, and over-night it became a loony’s dream.
When I passed-out in my holiday house in Punta del Este I was human, and in my mind: I was dying. I woke up and things just jumped off the deep end: I was now a vampire, but not just any regular vampire I was a one-of-a-kind vamp who had f
ar-fetched gifts and could change the world. Take that for a life-changing story.
Both girls recited what seemed an ancient poem in their strange talking manner. Their pale faces became complete blank masks while they spoke, their stares far from here, seeing something distant and ominous. Believe me, it was a very disturbing sight! They seemed to be deep in some kind of trance. It was very difficult to look at them because in some way they were quite scary but it was impossible to look sideways since they were like huge magnets for my eyes.
Only their mouths seemed to move, they were like talking statues that synchronised their voices. Their perfectly even voices could not be set apart one from the other, not one of them uttered a slightly different intonation or had a different timbre. The twins were clearly two people, but at times like this it was clear that they were one soul.
Every one of us in the room fell silent while they spoke; Ginny looked at them in fearful admiration while everyone else’s stare was quite blank. You could see some kind of sweet emotion in Ginny’s face, her lips almost imperceptibly curved upwards and her head ever so slightly tilted to the side. I imagined her seeing something of her daughter in them. Did they look something like she used to be? Did she see things like the twins? I had no answer to any of my questions but I could imagine Violet as a wiry redhead with pale complexion going blank to recite foretelling stanzas.
Distract my hunger Page 5
