Once past the gatekeeper, who had let him in with few questions asked, Santarinus scaled the wall of a nearby cottage and watched the villagers go about their trivial, insignificant lives. Adopting the mist as camouflage, the vampire silently scrutinized the unsuspecting locals, scouring each and every one for a gold amulet.
After mere few minutes, the opportunity presented itself in the body of an attractive young woman who had just left the house straight ahead of him. Around her neck, she wore a necklace that bore a strange symbol, one that seemed familiar. It was definitely the amulet of his first victim, but why did he feel that he knew it, somehow….
'Coincidence,' he spat, and leapt with ease onto the rooftop of the building she lived in. Even though he had not waited long, Santarinus grew impatient, and felt an interesting sensation of dizziness pass over him, the kind you felt just after waking up, a sense of drunkenness, and yet awareness at the same time. It mattered not, as Raziel had warned him of this months ago. Soon his lips would drip the fuel to his divine powers.
The woman finished tending to a horse that stood tied to a fence near the house, and then returned inside. This was his opportunity to move in for the kill, and he had not intention of passing it up.
Carefully and quietly, he leant over the edge of the thatched roof, shielded by the mist. He could only just peer through the window below him, and saw that she was alone, simply tending to a stove in the corner of the warm, cosy room. He allowed his legs to go limp, and fell from the roof, flipping over in mid air, and landing silently in the snow drifts that surrounded the cottage. He slid the window open gently, and slipped inside, the girl still unawares his presence.
According to Raziel, the blood of humans tasted best when the victim died terrified, and Santarinus planned on doing just this. He crept up silently behind the girl, who on closer inspection looked the same age as Santarinus, about twenty, although, of course, he was reborn. As he reached for her throat, he spun around, unsuspectingly, then gasped.
'San-where have you….?'
Suddenly forgetting all his training, Santarinus plunged his fangs into the girl's throat, feeling red liquid beginning to ooze from the fresh wound. He sucked deeply, and her body went limp as it was drained of all fluid.
Before long, the task was done, and he allowed the corpse to sink to the floor, lifeless, pale, and cold. For a split second, he felt a surge of guilty that because of him, such a pretty women had met such a violent end. Then it was gone. He turned to leave, but stopped as his eyes fell upon the amulet that was now soaked in blood. It still hung from her chest, and although the design was simplistic, it struck a chord with Santarinus, something deep and meaningful that he couldn't explain. In fact, now that he thought about it, it wasn't the amulet that seemed familiar, but this victim. Who was this precious gem that he had so violently struck down? Why did she cause long forgotten memories to stir in the depths of his mind…?
'Are you finished?' A voice asked, coming from the doorway. The vampire spun round, to meet ht eyes of a pensive looking Raziel. 'I see you have…..fed,' he murmured, looking over at the girl. For a moment, he seemed to desperately want to say something else, but he spoke no more.
'I seem to recognise this lady,' Santarinus said, also looking down at her, 'but it matters not, for she is dead.' With that, he silently left the room and leapt across, over the city walls, into the uncertain future that lay before him.
Raziel bent down, and removed the amulet from around the girl's waist. Flipping it over, he read the inscription, and his eyes widened. In small, black letters, someone had carved a message into the gold:
'For my darling fiancée, I, nor this amulet will ever leave you,
Ever yours…
Santarinus
