Melinda was bright and beautiful, despite her blackened hair and deep eyes. I did not know at the time that she had already been betrothed. We met in the woods near my ancestral home, and the gods smiled on our meeting. I loved her without ever having met her, as so many did. She was a princess of the Holy Clan, and I, a lowly priest of the Blood. I had recently begun my apprenticeship to High Priest Blankar, Ashlar's father. Everyone assumed that she would marry me someday, as I was a promising young magic user. I had care for The Source, they said.
But Melinda blinded me, took me away from so many things I should have done, should have learned from Blankar before the lake took him. I was so eager to plunge into anywhere but there. Love distorted my sight, flawed as it was. Melinda was my escape. She would beckon to me, always beckoning, and I would follow. Deep into the darkest woods, where no others could find us. She would kiss me and pull me into a warped labyrinth of pleasure and beauty. She would say "Come into this night with me."
But she faded, loosing her will to live, as so many do after a hundred years of defending against the vampires and the humans. We are the Children of the Moon, not meant for such strain. How could I have known she enchanted me so? And yet, when she told me she was pregnant, I felt such giddiness. It was unheard of, for members of different clans to do what we did. Little did I know her pregnancy would be our undoing.