Coldness and hunger was all that Alejandro Cassimere felt as he sat upon a stone bench situated on a sidewalk and next to a lamp post along the main trade road of Kemperbad. In his gloved hands, he carried an old but lovingly cared for lute that was a gift and a reminder of his homeland to the south, Estalia. He was a bard by trade, upon his brow he wore a an extravagant wide-brimmed black hat with a painted red feather attached to it, his hands were covered in gloves of polished black leather and the rest of his garments was an exquisite affair in the colours of crimson and cream.
He sang a mournful song in his native tongue as his fingers plucked the strings of the musical instrument and the occasional clinking of metal coins could be heard as passerby's generously dropped a coin or two into the small wooden bowl that was laid out near him. Already, a small crowd had gathered to listen to his music which on some nights would be upbeat and cheerful, other nights it would be proud and stirring and on some such as this particular evening, it was a sad thing that moved more than a few of his audience to tears.
Yet despite the attention and profitably generous appreciation of the crowd, there was one thing that interested the Estalian more than any amount of coin in the world. Focusing his mind towards the music that he played, he tried to ignore the distraction caused by the throbbing, warm heart-fires within each of the audience members. A part of him, the side that was dominated by the wild, monstrous thing that lay within all of his kind wished for nothing more than to rend the flesh and gorge upon all around him until he became bloated like a tick.
Discipline and control was the best weapon he had against that hideous side of his being for without both, he would be no better than a beastman or an orc. And so he continued to sing his sad song towards the crowd as he always had done for more than a century now. When the Estalian finished, he gently stood up and gave his audience a formal bow with a flourish of his hat as they clapped and applauded him with more than a few adding some extra coins to the bowl.
Thanking his audience in a purposefully exaggeratedly accented Reikspiel, Alejandro picked up the bowl and poured its contents into a thick leather pouch which jingled with coin. The bard returned to the bench where he had performed and he retrieved his traveling cloak which hung on the back along with his sword belt which held the scabbards of his Cinquedea and Ropera. With another gracious farewell to his already dispersing audience, Alejandro sharply clicked his heels and turned away from them with a soldier's discipline before walking off to the lamppost lit streets.
The familiar stench of human civilization was comforting for Alejandro for he had spent the last few weeks travelling through the dangerous wild woods of the Empire. It was nice now to have a place to rest with a roof over his head and thick curtains to keep away the baleful light of the sun. What he was especially glad for was the steady supply of mortal blood which towns of this size were capable of providing.
The mere thought of the succulent libation that was the crux of his kind's existence served only to heighten his hunger. Perhaps he should go visit one of the higher classed establishments owned by the Belladona family where he could use his well earned coin to pay for a rather "expensive meal". As he walked down the muddy streets, he picked up the scent of spilled human blood which was enough to awaken the predator within him.
Sniffing the air a few more times and trying to determine where the smell was coming from and how fresh it was, he quickly pinpointed the direction which it came from and that it was not far away. Surveying the area around him, he found the smell to be coming from a rather dark alley to his right and he had a strong feeling that what he found there was not going to be pretty. Confident that his supernatural abilities would see him through, Alejandro moved towards the alley with a silent stride.
The bestial part of him began to rear up within his psyche and he was forced to focus his will upon chaining it for he still was within a mortal town and it would not do well for him to draw any unwanted attention. His pace began to quicken as he moved closer towards the source of the fresh blood and with his enhanced vision which pierced through the darkness of the night, he caught sight of a single individual's heart-fire, the person he had detected was hurriedly walking away in the opposite direction of Alejandro. Had he been spotted? he wondered and decided that no, he shouldn't have been for it would have been impossible in this darkness.
The smell of human blood became significantly stronger now and with it, his mouth began to salivate at the opportunity of a free meal. Quickly did Alejandro find the source and what he saw filled him with a mixture of disgust, pity and hunger. A black haired woman lay dead in a seated position with her back to the wall, her head was lowered down, her dress had been cut open around the belly along with the stomach, Alejandro could see that several organs were missing and at a closer look, he noticed the bloody slit that had been cut across the woman's throat.
A murder he quickly deduced, the victim was probably one of the local whores. Shaking his head with some disdain, Alejandro had seen too many of such crimes like this in the dark places of human society from Tilea, Estalia, Araby and even Kislev. Judging by the way which the woman's organs were removed as well, he guessed that she had been killed by some mad cultist of the Dark Gods or perhaps a necromancer, a deranged serial killer or someone looking to sell fresh organs to a university doctor.
As much as the idea of feeding on the freshly dead, mutilated woman was both a bit on the repulsive and attractive to Alejandro, he was not quite sure how he could feed without soiling his clothes which had just been cleaned. Squatting down so that he could get a better look at the corpse's face which was mostly covered by her long black hair, he could not help but wonder if the woman had any children or family waiting for her. Brushing away a lock of hair which concealed the dead woman's face, Alejandro was surprised to see that she somewhat resembled his sister who had already grown old and died of natural causes a long time ago.
'Tonta' whispered Alejandro with a sigh for the sight of it made him decided on what he will be doing next. Ever since that little beastman raid on that inn back in Bretonnia, the vampire had been unnecessarily putting himself in dangerous situations, especially when the whole damsel in distress thing was added. Was he trying to stave off the ennui that almost all of his kind feel over the course of their long "lives" or was it the beast within finding way to make him indulge its appetites for violence and bloodshed?
Such thoughts would have to wait for another time as he began to focus his will upon the Aethyr. Ancient words from a long dead civilization began to escape his lips as he channeled the Wind of Shyish which he then twisted into Dhar. The feel of the Dark Wind was rather soothing to Alejandro as he began to faintly glow with an emerald green aura. The light of the aura then transferred towards his right hand with the palm opened and facing upwards, it then rose up into a small green ball of sorcerous energy and he grasped it.
Absorbing the power within the ball of necromantic energy, Alejandro then reached out for the dead woman and he placed his right hand over forehead. Images began to flash through his mind as the memories of the dead woman entered his head, he saw her life go by from the little idyllic farmstead in the Reikwald where her father died trying to defend his family from a beastman raid, to the hardships of making a living in Kemperbad. He saw that indeed the woman who was named Bertilda had a son and three daughters as well as her own mother who had become rather sickly.
There were times like this when Alejandro wished that he learned to stop caring about petty mortal concerns, yet it somehow just never went away for him. As Bertilda's memories flowed into his mind, he finally saw the last moments of her life. The woman was at her usual spot away from the other "working girls" where a young and nervous looking fellow approached them.
The young man who surely must be the murderer was a thin, sandy haired fellow with brown eyes, pale skin and was dressed in a manner which spoke of some wealth yet not much above the common peasantry of the Empire. The murderer of course showed Bertilda some coin and after she accepted, the young man led to a rather empty looking warehouse near one of the local butcher shops where he attacked her. There was a brief struggle at first but the lad was quick to slit Bertilda's throat with a knife and then all went black.
Breaking his connection with Bertilda's memories, Alejandro shook his head while trying to shrug off the momentary disorientation for such magic was something he was not very used to. Slowly standing back up, Alejandro thought it would be appropriate to cover the dead woman with his cloak but he quickly dismissed the idea for it would serve little purpose. Looks like he was off to find this butcher shop, he was hoping to have a nice quiet meal of courtesan tonight but he supposed that murderer or serial killer would be just as good.
Knocking upon the front door of the butcher shop, Alejandro waited for a moment to see if anyone would answer, not that he needed to for already he had detected the heart-fire within. It was not hard to find out which butcher shop he needed to go towards for the smell of spilled blood was still fresh and it was easy for him to follow it. Knocking on the door once again, he finally heard the single occupant within the building shout towards him 'We are closed!'
Knocking on the door once again and with more force to it, he detected the single individual stopping with whatever he was doing and making his way towards the front door and repeating that the store was closed. Alejandro then heard footsteps upon wooden floorboards and soon the individual was at the front door which opened up to reveal the sandy haired youth who had murdered the woman.
'I told you we-'said the lad before he suddenly stopped in mid sentence as he caught sight of Alejandro. 'Oh sweet Sigmar, are you with the Belladona's?' asked the lad with a sense of alarm and the bard suppressed the urge to outright kill the youth for to be mistaken as Tilean was a grave insult to any Estalian and mutually in vice versa.
'Yes, I am' lied Alejandro while switching to a Tilean accent.
'I… I promised Marco that I will be paying the Don in a week's time' said the lad who began to sweat with fear. The boy then looked into the eyes of Alejandro and it was all the Estalian needed before he worked a mystic charm and he dominated the mind of the young man.
'Could you invite me inside please?' asked Alejandro who honestly did not need such invitations like a Necrarch would but he considered such decorum as important as his usual feeding practices.
'You can come inside' said the lad in a now emotionless and monotone voice as Alejandro stepped inside the butcher shop.
From the outside, the Estalian could smell the scents of animal blood and death as a faint and very weak trace of Shyish clung to the place. The interior of the butcher shop was nothing unique compared to other stores around the Empire except that there was nothing on display and by the smell of things, it seemed to have been that way for some time.
'What can I help you with?' asked the lad blankly as he was still held under Alejandro's mental control.
'Why did you kill that whore earlier?' was the bard's reply.
'I needed the meat so I can sell it' said the lad and it did not surprise Alejandro for he had seen worse over the years.
'I see, but why do it? Why not use cows, pigs, chickens or sheep?' questioned the Estalian.
'Most of the livestock around the area have been slaughtered to help feed the Emperor's armies' was the answer the lad gave him in the same blank expression 'lots of fighting I hear against the beastmen and northmen up in Middenland, Hochland, Ostland, Ostermark and undead in the east around Stirland.
'So what there were no livestock, what about rats? Or dogs and cats?' asked Alejando.
'The Rat Catchers are already selling to the other butcher shops that can pay them' replied the lad 'I only have the money to pay for a few rats but not enough to pay back what I owe money to the Belladonas.'
'You borrowed money from a Tilean organized crime ring?' questioned Alejandro with incredulity for that was one of the many, many ways that people ended up dead back in the south.
'My father gambled and drank a lot and he left me with all of his debts' shrugged the who began to sweat with concentration and Alejandro knew that the young man was already trying to break the Estalian's mental control.
Pouring more of his will into the lad's mind, Alejandro was able to reassert his domination which was now making him even hungrier. 'So out of desperation, you murdered a woman and what? You planned to make sausages out of her organs and pass it off as pork?' the Estalian then said for he remembered seeing a musical play in Altdorf a century ago about a murderous barber-surgeon who killed his customers, took their money and had their bodies turned into meat pies by his wife.
'Yes' replied the lad who had no way of lying to Alejandro.
With a grunt then asked 'was this woman the first person you killed?'
'Yes' replied the lad blankly
'Listen up lad' Alejandro then said 'I want you to go to the nearest constable's office, confess to what you did and show them the body'
'But I will be hanged for that' blankly replied the lad without an inch of fear due to the Estalian's mind control.
'Just do it' commanded Alejandro with an annoyed growl and the lad obeyed before walking towards the front door. Deciding to make sure that his mental control still remained in place, Alejandro soon followed the lad back out into the streets.
The next night…
Seated upon a soft bed that was covered in a finely woven sheet and blankets of Bretonnian origin, Alejandro gently brushed a lock of reddish hair away from the face of the young woman named Anke who would be his next meal. He had found the girl to be selling flowers earlier this evening and after working his own, non-supernatural charms on her, she agreed to meet him at the inn where he rested during the day. He noticed that there was a somewhat troubled look on Anke's face and out of courtesy he asked with false concern 'is there something wrong?'
'There was an execution earlier this morning' replied the flower seller who surprisingly seemed disturbed, especially considering how common public executions especially are in the Empire.
'Oh? Who was it?' asked Alejandro who had a feeling that he knew who.
'A butcher named Gernot' replied Anke 'they say that he cut up some whores and made sausages out of their guts.'
'I am sure it's an exaggeration' spoke Alejandro in a comforting manner to the girl.
'I hope so, I am just glad that they got that monster off of the streets' Anke then said.
'Yes, a real monster…' Alejandro quietly spoke as he leaned his head closer towards the girl and he saw her close her eyes for what she believed would be a kiss. Opening his mouth wide open, the Estalian revealed his sharp fangs and he gently bit into the flower seller's neck and he eagerly fed.