This was my first attempt to write a period piece. My beta, givemesomevamp did an awesome job by cleaning it up for me. Thanks soooo much!
I reworked this one shot before reposting and JaspersDestiny kindly betaread it for me. I'm sorry for the headache! Thank you!
Erszebet won judges choice in The Nightmare Before Christmas contest. Woohoo.
WARNING: This story is dark and is full of violence. Be prepared.
SMeyer owns Twilight.
A feral snarl ripped from my throat as someone disturbed my solitude. Due to the rank filth cluttering the city of my youth—of my life and death—I could not smell the intruder. I knew this would be no chance encounter, for none would traipse beneath London without reason. I could sense it was a vampire – a vampire that had a connection to me, although I had no clue how that could be. I wish they would just leave me in peace.
Wherefore I chose to reside hither, surrounded by cesspools, rotting corpses, and the stench of humanity's slops, all that surrounded me would wither hence, just as I yearned to do. Instead, I remained unchanged, never forgetting and forever mourning.
I growled again, warning the intruder that I was in no mood for company. Although the steps slowed, they still approached. Anon, a man stood ere me—one I thought was long dead, another victim of my pain and thirst.
I burst out laughing, the first time in o'er one hundred and sixty years, from the surprise and absurdity of the situation. His golden eyes beheld me warily, no doubt taking in my less than proper countenance. I had not bothered with my dress for some time, allowing it to decay til the threads fluttered to the floor, finding their respite amongst the dirt.
Everything about the being standing before me seemed out of place in my home. His clothing was impeccable; he wore a tricorne hat atop a powdered wig. The style of this age made it simpler for a vampire to blend in with the humans. He wore his long, narrow frock coat trimmed in beautiful gold braiding. His white woolen stockings were faultlessly clean, and the light blue breeches he wore o'er them were equally kept. The golden buckles on his shoes matched the exact hue of his eyes.
Curiosity welled within as to what caused this particular vampire to have eyes akin to that of an angel instead of a demon. I was intrigued more by the color of his eyes than I had been about anything in the last century and a half, but not enough to seek his company.
"Thou art sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, a poor unminded outlaw sneaking home to thy kin. Hie thee hence!"
"Thou hail from Elizabeth's era?" he questioned me.
The mention of her beautiful name sent me into a spiral of pain. My hands came up to my hair, pulling it at my temples, as I shouted, "Never mention that name!"
He took a step back and held his hands aloft. The golden-eyed man bowed his head slightly in a gesture of respect as he muttered, "I meant no harm, Sir. My name is Carlisle and I have been searching for my sire for some years. I apologize for the intrusion."
I relaxed, my hands untangling from my hair and falling to my sides. Perhaps this Carlisle could at long last bring me my only wish: final death.
I had heard the mutterings on the streets above of this new version of my mother tongue, and I was versed in it, though I had no reason to try to speak it til now. I did not know how educated this vampire was that stood before me. I did not wish to repeat myself once I began my story.
"I have not forgotten thy face, boy. You were my first meal in fifty-three years. My intentions were not to curse thee to this demonic life. Now ye have met thy sire. I want naught to do with thee. Get thee hence!"
He nodded once and turned to leave ere hesitating and turning bout to face me once more. "This life doth not have to be accursed. I have never fed from a human, instead drinking from animals. There may be hope for thee, my sire."
I laughed another hearty laugh and it echoed eerily throughout the sewer.
"My actions and my love cursed me. I will be naught but a demon twixt now and my final death. 'Tis all I covet. I want only for my final death. I crave it, but those damned Volturi will not give me that for which I yearn."
Carlisle gasped, taken aback by my foul language regarding those held in highest esteem.
"How could love make thee yearn for death?" he asked, his curiosity irritating yet captivating. His choices were interesting, in a manner becoming an antick. He refused to feed from humans, his protestant beliefs still forming his principals even as a vampire. I couldn't help but wonder if I told him of my tale of horror and woe would his disgust and righteousness call for my end? The pain of reciting my story would bring pain, but if death followed, I would welcome it. "Carlisle, I have been tasked by the Volturi to tell all vampires I meet of my tale as a punishment: a tale of caution. Tis only fair that I do the same for my child. My name is Alistair. And, yes, my human years were during Elizabeth's reign, although I am unsure of the exact date."
The name soured on my tongue and my countenance contorted in pain as I uttered the phrase. The gent paid no heed. He listened intently and I could see him absorbing the words, his thirst for knowledge evident.
"I was approximately twenty-five years old when I was changed in this very city. London was filled with roaming orphans. Thievery and the brutality of those in power were predominant. I was one of those orphans, forced to steal scraps of food to survive. When I was but a child, the laws changed, forcing all able to work or find a home in jail. I was hired as a sweeper and tasked with removing waste from the streets of Westminster. 'Twas my task til my death.
"I was fortunate to work in the wealthiest of areas, or that was my thought at the time, but it was indeed a curse. I worked at night so the wealthy would not have to see the urchins scurrying about the streets. It was there, in blackest night and surrounded by filth, that I caught the eye of Isadoros, my sire. She approached me on the street and persuaded me to join her through promises of a full belly and a night of debauchery. Instead, I was her meal and new caitiff.
"Through our time together, I found that she had the ability to predict what gifts a human would possess if they were changed, and my ability was much coveted - as it still is.
"I worked for her for many years, naught more than a servant. I had the luxury of proper attire but I had to perform for her - tracking down those that owed her debts - in order to feed. Unlike other trackers, that snipe Demetri of the Volturi to name one, I can sense another's location by mere mention of their name.
"After nearly twenty years of doing Isadoros' bidding, I grew weary of her greed and longed for freedom—something I had never truly experienced. I managed to escape, always keeping track of her location, to forge my own way in the world.
"I traveled and enjoyed being a nomad for a time til I met my love, my mate… my undoing."
I closed my eyes, ignoring Carlisle as images of Erzsébet flitted through my mind - her delicate features covered in a sheen of sweat as I lifted up her petticoats with one hand and my other found its way beneath her smock. I recalled the way her full lips felt against my neck as I carried her to the bath and undressed her as our servants finished draining our victims.
I will neither forget lapping the blood off of her creamy breasts as I spread her thighs and entered her, slowly rocking back and forth and listening to her moans of pleasure til we both reached our release nor the sensation of her warm tongue running down my chest, tasting the life-force that she had ordered drained from virginal women for our enjoyment, ere she submerged herself to bring me the pleasure that one usually had to seek out from harlots, not a noblewoman such as herself.
My uninvited guest cleared his throat in a human-like gesture, bringing me back to the present and to the tale of my Erzsébet.
"I wandered to Transylvania, an area full of superstitions, making it easier to move about openly. People believed I was a monster. I was given a wide berth, not needing to attempt to blend in as we do in the large cities such as London. I was passing through the city of Trencsén when I caught the eye of Thorko, a manservant for the local countess. He pleaded for me to return with him and introduce myself to his mistress, citing that she was quite interested in the occult and supernatural beings such as myself.
"I could not resist being in the presence of nobility, especially after my many years of servitude and my human life as an orphaned carlot. I acquiesced, and the moment I laid eyes on his mistress, I was entranced. I take it ye have not yet met thy mate, Carlisle?"
"No sir, I have not." His eyes darkened slightly and I could see the weariness therein. He was lonely and wished for companionship just as I had.
"When ye meet thy mate, 'tis an instantaneous pull. Ye will be enchanted immediately and might not recognize the pull hence, but 'twill not wane. When separated from thy mate, thee will pine and wither hence as I have til ye art reunited or upon meeting final death."
He nodded in understanding and I continued with my tale. "Thorko had been correct. She was indeed interested in me, recognizing my supernatural nature immediately. I did not give hence our secrets but chose to let her create her own suppositions. Alas, I turned the conversation and focused on her. I should have run as soon as I learnt of her troubled past, but we art cruel and bloodthirsty creatures by nature. I felt I had found the perfect woman for me: Countess Erzsébet Báthory de Ecsed.
"During this time, great kings, princes, and members of the judiciary were all among the ranks of the Báthory family. For many years, fear of losing their hold on power pushed the family into intermarriage, with some of the usual problems of this practice produced as a result. Unfortunately, some extraordinary difficulties arose—namely hideous psychoses— and Erzsébet was of the most sadistic.
"According to Erzsébet, she was plagued by terrible and violent seizures from a tender age. Although she was more active than most, she spent many hours inside, reading and pursuing an education—something almost unheard of among the Báthory family.
"Erzsébet was delicate in her features—almost frail looking. She was slender of build, tall, and although I loved her with all my heart, even I must admit that her personality did not match her countenance. She was cruel and unstable from our first meeting.
"In her eyes, her most beautiful feature was her gloriously creamy complexion. Others were not as impressed—finding her skin ordinary—but we all offered her praise. If the praise was not heartfelt, a fit of rage would shower down and death would come slowly to those that had faltered.
"She was mesmerized by my pale and flawless complexion and often asked me my secret. My intentions were for her never to realize my true nature.
"As 'tis in this time, war in the 16th century was a brutal affair. Her husband was a war hero, but he left her for many a year while fighting against the Turks. She excitedly revealed details about how her husband employed a horrid device of torture upon others: articulated claw-like pincers, fashioned of hardened silver.
"I remembered her eyes flashing with delight when she explained that if they were fastened to a stout whip, it would tear and rip the flesh to such an obscene degree that her husband had abandoned the apparatus in disgust, leaving it at the castle when he last passed through the area.
"Her boredom was rampant and her tastes were of a certain slant—cruelty and the occult at the forefront—thus she began to gather people educated in the sinister arts while her husband was off fighting. People such as Thorko—a self-proclaimed sorcerer—were given lodging and lavish quarters. There were many who claimed to be witches, sorcerers, seers, and alchemists but who had no gifts and sought naught but my love's comfortable lifestyle and fickle generosity. There were also those who were truly dangerous—those who practiced the most depraved deeds in league with the Devil. They taught her their crafts in intimate detail. She was enthralled, but learning such unspeakable things was not sufficient to quench my love's thirst for the dark arts.
"Erzsébet was not alone in her sadistic interests. Her aunt was amused by her preoccupation and introduced her to the pleasures of flagellation when punishing those in her husband's domain, a taste Erzsébet quickly acquired. Equipped with her husband's silver claws, she indulged herself, milling hence many lonely hours at the expense of the prisoners in her dungeons.
"The more they screamed and the more voluminous the blood, the more gleeful and orgasmic her amusement. Erzsébet showed me that first night how she preferred to whip her subjects: on the fronts of their nude bodies rather than on their backs. Not only did this increase the potential of damage, but she could watch their faces contort in horror and pain.
"It was very difficult—nigh impossible—to keep from dropping to my knees and draining the blood from those who were poor beings. The scent of her arousal mixed with the blood was the sweetest aphrodisiac I had ever experienced.
"We conversed as she tortured her prisoners til the wee hours of the morn, and then I joined her in her darkened bedchambers, bedding the Countess of Blood.
"I watched her as she slumbered, trying to reconcile the beautiful, peaceful woman that slept next to me with the maniacal demon that had beaten a man with her flail til his genitals were torn from his body. I watched her breathe in and out, staring at the curve of her breasts as her chest rose and fell, and I knew that I could not live without her."
I paused, trying to form the words to explain the depth of my love to this young gent in front of me, but how doth one explain love? Tis something experienced, not taught.
"I knew Erzsébet was cruel and barbaric, but I had glimpsed a side of her no other knew that first night. She confided in me, speaking of her loneliness and of her insecurities in her duties while her husband was absent, and even of her fear that she would not gain the throne though she was next in line to rule Poland.
"History sees her as cruel and inhumane. I saw her as a woman who lived past the normal life span of a human during that time. She was an intelligent woman who acknowledged that maintaining her youth and vitality were of the utmost importance. She had absolute divine right to power in her eyes - and those of the Báthory line. She understood that power was hers to keep and protect, and she knew what would be essential to attain all that she sought. Sexual desire, sadism, and drive for political power were blended into a central passion: the need to rule. If she lost her youth, she could forfeit all, and that very thought terrified her.
"Yet, after that first night, she felt the same pull as I and was willing to give up all that she sought for my companionship. The pressure that had been placed upon her from her youth had been compounded with her husband's absence, and she longed for an escape. She had Thorko fetch her some commoner's clothes, and by the nightfall we had stolen out of Transylvania, traveling as a recently wedded couple."
"We were both happy, I believe. I was able to give her the gift I had sought for myself only a few years ere: freedom. Yet one cannot change their very nature o'ernight and she was a born leader, albeit a cruel one, but a leader nonetheless. Within a fortnight, she longed for her home, her castle, and her position of power. Even though I was her mate, I was not enough for the human Countess.
"When word reached us that her husband had returned home to find her missing, she could not bear being apart from her precious Transylvania any longer. We returned and the Count forgave her for her indiscretions, her romantic liaison forgotten if she swore never to gaze upon my countenance again. She atoned and I left with a heavy heart and a forlorn mind.
"I wandered aimlessly for twenty odd years, only feeling the sting of being separated from my Erzsébet. I wished to return and rip the Count's arms from his body and bathe in his blood, but I respected her choice and forced myself to stay thence from my mate.
"I still remember the elation I felt when I learnt of the Count's death—history states that he died in battle, but history is ever twisted by those in power. The count died from stab wounds inflicted in a Budapest nunnery after refusing to pay for services rendered. Truly, the reasons mattered not though it was an ironic death for a war hero. All that mattered was that my love was once again free and I could return to her side if she would but accept me.
"I returned to Trencsén—to Castle Cachtice—and gazed upon her once more. Yes, time had taken a toll on her appearance. The angelic complexion had long since faded to something less than perfection. She had reached forty-three years in age, but to my eyes and to my heart she was a youthful woman and naught could ever change that.
"I made a fatal error in haste to return my lover's side. I had not fed in o'er a fortnight, and when an aged Thorko ushered me inside, she was engaged in a masterful torture session—a young male servant hung from the ceiling in chains, nude, while she whipped him with her favorite silver weapon. The scent of blood o'erwhelmed me and I could not control myself. Through the castle I bounded and ripped into his throat, draining the youth dry."
I looked at Carlisle—caught up in my tale—as the remainder of Erzsébet's story caught in my throat. If I had been more careful, I could have experienced many more years with her – decades, possibly an eternity. Yet I had to finish in order to spur him to action. I would finally receive what I longed for, what I deserved.
"It was obvious that I had not aged a day since we had last seen each other, and with my sudden attack on one of her servants, Erzsébet was convinced it was due to the blood. She ordered me to wait in her sitting room while she consulted with her most prized occultists—Thorko, a forest witch by the clepe of Darvula, and an alchemist named Dorottya Szentes.
"She sought their opinions on my drinking of blood and my appearance. They were enjoying her hospitality and did not wish to disappoint, thus they did recall a case—obviously fabricated—many years ere and in a distant place whence the blood of a young virgin had caused a similar effect on an aged person of nobility and good grace.
"With such clear evidence at hand, Erzsébet was convinced that hither was a brilliant discovery: a method to restore and preserve her youthful glow forever - or at least until she assumed the throne.
"After her consultation, she returned to me and asked me if my secret was the blood. I refused to tell her and she requested I join her in her bedchamber with one of her virginal ladies-in-waiting. Without warning, Erzsébet drew her hand back and knapped the girl across the face, her sharp nails drawing blood. She pulled the girl to her and smeared the blood on the backs of her hands, swearing that she could indeed see a difference in the state of her once glorious skin.
"She ordered Thorko to bring a dozen virgins to her bedchamber so she could fill her bath with their blood in order to achieve a youthful countenance once again. I cried out in protest and knew I could keep my secret no longer. She dismissed Thorko and I told her of my demonic nature—my immortality—and how it came about.
"I explained that it was a secret I could be destroyed for revealing and that it must stay betwixt us. She understood but requested that I transform her on the spot. I informed her of the bloodthirsty newborn years, the pain of the change, and cautioned that if she wished to rule Poland, she would have to remain mortal.
"I longed for her to choose me over her birthright, but I knew she would not. She still begged me to change her, vowing no one would be the wiser. She told me we could rule forever side by side, but I could not acquiesce in good conscience.
"I could not stay hence from her though she did not choose immortality. I would stay with her, I decided, convinced she would eventually choose me. She longed for immortality and was thus convinced she would wear on my conviction. In her mind, I would change her and she could rule Poland as an unstoppable force.
"Throughout the next five years, she would bathe in virginal blood. She informed me it was the blood of her prisoners, although I knew this was an untruth. And although I am filled with shame now, I admit that I partook in these activities with her, many a time, turning her bathing ritual into a night of erotic dalliances. I took her word that prisoners were used, ignoring the truth I knew in my heart: when I would leave for hunting trips, Erzsébet and her witches roamed the countryside by night, hunting for suitable virginal girls as raw material in her quest for beauty.
"After hearing the local clergy beg for assistance in finding a missing girl, I decided that the lies must cease. In order to prove her carelessness, I informed her that I would be hence for a night, instead disappearing into the shadows of the castle. I watched as she brought in twelve local girls to her bedchamber. She and her servants hung them alive and naked, upside-down by chains wrapped around their ankles. Their throats were slit—muffling their screams—and their blood drained into Erzsébet's bath. She stripped, entering the vessel while the heat of their young bodies still remained in the thickening, sticky crimson pool, and the last drops trickled down o'er her face.
"A thirteenth girl, an amazingly beautiful maiden no older than sixteen, was forced to watch. Darvula produced a calming elixir and put her under an erotic spell. I watched as she was undressed ere she joined my Erzsébet in the bath, writhing against her and suckling on her breasts. The bath was thick with blood and I could not see in its depths, but I knew that Erzsébet was inciting this hysteria by massaging the virgin's cunt.
"I could not stand by a moment longer, o'erwrought with lust and the thirst for blood as they stepped out of the bathtub and onto cloth that had been spread upon the ground. I watched the blood as it slid down their warm bodies, and I stepped out from my hiding place.
"I joined both of them on the floor, licking them clean of blood as all three of our bodies intertwined in an erotic display. I suckled on the virgin's breasts as Erzsébet lapped at her most intimate parts—til she reached under the cloth and produced a dagger. She pierced the girl's upper thigh and the virgin's scream echoed through the room as Erzsébet drank her blood directly from the source. The girl writhed and whimpered beneath her til she turned pale and still."
"This one act was my undoing. After the girl's heart stopped beating, Erzsébet insisted that she had been drinking the blood of girls for five full years and any bloodlust she would feel after she was changed would be counteracted. In the heat of this erotic moment, and in my selfish need to have her forever, her logic seemed sound and I kissed her deeply one last time as a human.
"My need overwhelmed me once again and I took my beloved on the cloth next to the virgin's cooling body. As we both reached the height of ecstasy, I sank my teeth into her jugular and created a true monster by injecting my venom into my dearest Erzsébet.
"The pain coupled with her troubled mind changed my love. When Erzsébet awoke, she did not run into my arms, free of bloodlust, but instead ran to a mirror and screamed in rage. Although she was more youthful in appearance, she was forty-eight years of age when turned and some of her imperfections remained. She quickly calmed herself, sure in the conviction that if she drank enough blood her imperfections would disappear, hence she went on a rampage."
"Her control was outstanding when she was a newborn, but it was likely due to her engorging herself in the blood of virgins. Although our nights were filled with blood and ecstasy, I became an afterthought to her as she struggled to become more youthful, draining up to thirty carlot girls a day.
"I was tasked with disposing the bodies, but when it was evident that she was garnering attention, I refused. I explained that she was careless and that if she continued to draw notice by disposing of so many humans, we would be called out. She balked, and her trusted occultists were given the task instead. From that day forth, bodies were disposed of in haphazard and dangerously conspicuous locations - tossed into the stream behind the castle, buried in the castle gardens, and stuffed in wheat silos.
"I endured another five years with Erzsébet, attempting to bring back the inner beauty and loving woman I had known ere. Yet her mind deteriorated more with each passing year as her obsession for beauty eclipsed our love. She had become skilled at holding off her political foes even when mad, but after five years she realized that the blood of carlot girls was having little effect on the quality of her skin.
"Ye must understand, in these years I witnessed her assist destitute female subjects - a woman whose husband was captured by Turks, another who had company forced upon her unwillingly and was with child. Many saw her kindness; not just I. But more saw her cruelty.
"Erzsébet no longer used her favorite silver weapon, instead flaying prisoners with her bare hands and then ripping them apart while feasting on their blood. She would enter a state of madness, cackling madly as she removed genitals and performed bawdy acts with them as their owners watched, horrified. She would drain children whilst their parents looked upon her, and then she would rip the children to shreds. Many a time I tried to control her—to stop her—but it was obvious any love she had for me had long since waned and been replaced by evil.
"Alas, I could not break the pull of my mate and I stayed for those few precious moments she would grant me: the gentlest kiss, a loving embrace, or a night of passion.
"I lost hope that she would ever return to a proper state of mind the day she decided that carlot blood was defective and full of impurities. Better blood, cleaner blood, was required in order to regain her beauty. We quarreled for hours, but with her power and her equal strength, my dearest won out. Erzsébet established an academy in the castle, offering to take 25 girls at a time from proper families and finish their educations properly. Indeed, their educations were complete, as were their lives.
"Assisted by Dorottya, those poor souls were consumed in exactly the same beastly fashion as the anguished carlot girls who preceded them. Erzsébet became more careless in her actions, and during a frenzy of lust, four drained bodies were thrown off the walls of the castle in plain sight of the local clergy.
"I had taken my leave of the castle, delivering important papers to Moldavia, and was absent during her oversight. When I returned, villagers had already collected and begun to identify the girls. Word of this horror spread rapidly and soon reached the Volturi."
Unshed tears of venom formed as my voice choked once more, remembering the wretched day of her final undoing.
"I am sure ye art aware that Martin Luther's tradition of bringing evergreens indoors to celebrate Christ's birth had spread far and wide by Erzsébet's time, so it was no surprise that she had one placed within the castle's main room, although hers was decorated in a ghastly manner, not what Luther had envisioned.
"I returned on the eve of Christ's birth, just after the humans had raided the castle, and I was horrified by what had unfolded in my absence. Two girls had been eviscerated, their entrails hanging in decoration on the wintergreen tree with the smell of rotting flesh filling the room. Disembodied heads hung on the tree, the candlelight sparkling in their cloudy, lifeless eyes.
"Another girl lay upon the table, drained of blood and left in a bawdy pose, her torso pierced with holes. Hither and thither were several living girls, some of whom had been tortured, their countenances mutilated, and the bodies of some fifty other girls had already been discovered on the castle grounds.
"Stefan Báthory, King of Poland, travelled to the castle under Matthias, the Holy Roman Emperor's command. Stefan had hoped to clear the name of his kin and instead witnessed her grave crimes. When I came upon their countenance, the King had ordered her immediate death and Erzsébet was laughing maniacally. I steeled myself for the bloodshed that would commence.
"It never came. Dozens of vampires in long, dark cloaks swept into the room, restraining both Erzsébet and myself. She was roaring in outrage but I merely bowed my head, awaiting my fate. I soon discovered they were the Volturi—the feared rulers of our kind—and the three brothers had made the journey to Transylvania in order to witness Erzsébet's misdeeds.
"I was ordered to extend my hand, and I did so without quarrel. Aro came forward, gave a tertiary explanation of his gift, and lightly touched one finger to my palm. He attempted to do the same with Erzsébet, but she continued fighting against our captors and thus they simply removed her hand from her wrist in order for Aro to obtain her memories."
I could not withhold the sobs that had threatened to escape since I began my tale and I was forced to pause, allowing my grief to spill forth. Carlisle said naught, waiting patiently as I wept for my love.
"I apologize, Carlisle. Tis difficult to discuss the moment my heart was violently ripped in twain. Alas, I must continue. Aro realized my part had been slight, yet my attempts to control my dearest were in vain. He explained to his brothers and they spoke amongst themselves, deciding our punishment.
"The two figures that swept into Castle Cachtice next startled my dead heart, for I had spent many years in this corner of the world and recognized them at once: Vladimir Țepeș and Stefan Muşat. Both long dead relatives of Erzsébet, both mighty rulers from this area in years past, and both vampires.
"Vlad commanded Erzsébet be released immediately under the guidelines of the treaty in which the Romanians surrendered control of the vampire world to the Volturi. The lands that held the Carpathian Mountains were to fall under their rule unless they were unable to control the vampires within their borders. Vlad called Caius a liar and a fool, and I was certain another war was brewing ere my visage.
"Caius stated that they had allowed the foolhardy Vlad and Stefan to rule the humans in their territories prior and they proved it could not be accomplished without undue attention. Stefan then informed the brothers that Erzsébet was bound by human blood to them, and if the Volturi harmed her, it would be considered an act of war.
"Caius countered that Stefan Báthory, as well as Matthias and countless others, knew of our existence and should also be destroyed, since the same treaty outlawed humans to know of our existence.
"Discussions continued betwixt the warring parties throughout the night. Whilst they discussed our fate, Erzsébet's occultists were gathered for trial by the humans. The sun was setting on the day of Christ's birth when they finally came to an accomptment: the human rulers would be spared so order could be kept and the area would not fall under the rule of the Ottomans.
"Vladimir and Stefan would no longer attempt to rule o'er the humans since such spectacles created undue attention, and they were not to interfere in their kin's affairs whilst they ruled. Unbeknownst at the time, this signaled the end of the Báthory reign.
"Stefan Báthory accompted to a mock trial. He assured all involved that he could convince Matthias to order Erzsébet to house arrest for the rest of her days. They placed Dorottya in her stead, walling her up in the dungeons with only an open brick to pass food and water. Two of his most trusted men were ordered to guard Dorottya til her death ten years later. They never revealed the true identity of the woman in the cell.
"Vladimir and Stefan accompted to Erzsébet's execution after her human servants testified to the depth of her madness. In a cruel twist of fate, Marcus claimed me as the Romanian's kin due to my mated status with a Báthory. He ordered that I remain under Volturi protection and I was not to be harmed. Alas, he knew the cruelty of such an order, for his mate Didyme was sent to her final death during the Romanian/Volturi war. His motive was to stick a knife in the side of those responsible for his mate's death and seal me to a meaningless existence. Vlad and Stefan refused to claim me, but Caius and Aro stood by their brother's order. Aro added one clause to Marcus's order: I was never to create another vampire, for I had proven my judgment in this regard was flawed.
"I was restrained and forced to watch as Erzsébet was slowly quartered and burned in a pyre outside Cachtice on the twenty-fifth of December. She screamed my name til she turned to ash. 'Twas one hundred and sixty years ago.
"With Vlad and Stefan refusing my kinship and requesting I leave their territory after the harm I had inflicted, the Volturi returned me to London to Isadora's coven since I was in a fit state and thus unable to care for myself.
"I refused to feed, as I do now, for sixty-three years til a young knave, searching for demons to destroy, came upon me and Isadora's coven. In a fit of bloodlust, my control weakened, and when ye crossed my path, thy fate was sealed. I thought ye dead and never envisioned an accidental transformation. Alas, I digress.
"Once Isadoros saw my limbs alive once more, she ordered me into servitude and madness leapt forth from my heart. In a fit of rage, I destroyed her and the remnants of her coven, burning them and dancing twixt their ashes. Once I was free of my greedy sire, I returned to my home amongst the sewers and sat, unmoving, til our paths crossed once more, love no longer part of my being.
"I have broken Volturi law, inadvertently transforming another, and it is your duty to inform them of this misdeed."
I looked into my child's eyes and was taken aback. No hatred or disgust shone therein, only compassion and…love?
"Alistair, my sire, thou art not without love for there art many types. The love a child hath for a sire, perhaps. I give thee my word, I shall never divulge my sire's name. I am traveling on the morrow to the new world in hopes of discovering my path, but I shall visit again, my friend."
I looked at this creature standing before me and forced back a smile. Fate is a flighty temptress! Perhaps my existence was necessary to facilitate the creation of one that could bring demons back from the deepest recesses of hell. Yes, it must be true, for a feeling I had not experienced since losing my love sprang forth within my heart: hope.
"Do not bother visiting more than once a decade or I shall be forced to end you, my child."
His golden eyes searched mine once more before he smiled, nodded, and went along his merry way.