Twenty Fourth.
In the years that followed Maddie's death I became a recluse. I travelled around different parts of Europe but stayed hidden in the shadows. I found that I could drink the blood of wild animals to sustain myself so I wouldn't have to hurt humans. Early in the seventeenth century I decided it was time to come out of hiding. I knew that I could live undetected amongst humans as long as I didn't kill. I chose a small hamlet just outside of London to rejoin civilized society. I was able to secure a home and even meet some of my neighbors. The problem was that after three or four years without aging people started to notice and I had to move on to avoid suspicion. The humans were getting smarter. I overheard a whispered conversation in a pub one night. They knew we existed and that we could be identified by our night walking, cold body temperature and fast healing ability.
I couldn't keep from laughing at just how wrong they were. I walked in the day, my skin was warm and I had learned how to turn my healing off and on like a switch. These men couldn't have been more wrong about vampires. It was sad, if any vampires came into town the men would surely be a target with those kinds of beliefs. I sat with my mug of tea giggling, but suddenly I felt someone's eyes on me. I whipped my head around and found myself staring into the face of a man I had seen before, the one who had played a part in turning me.
He sat in the empty chair next to me and ordered a drink. When he turned back he had a somber look on his face. He was surprised that I was still alive, that meant that she had been right. I was confused, it meant who was right? Was he talking about the vampire who turned me, the one whose voice I heard right before she killed me? Who was that, I still didn't know but he must since they had worked as a team. He had to tell me. He looked at me strangely. He didn't realize that I didn't know who that other vampire was. I watched as his face softened and he leaned in close to whisper. The woman who killed me, turned me into a monster was my own birth mother, Katerina Petrova. She was a vampire.