Her laugh was high and cruel as it bounced from wall to wall of his prison.
"Vegetarians? Oh you have to be shitting me? There's no such thing as a vegetarian vampire my pet. There are vampires and there are those who have been converted, subdued into willingly stripping themselves of their powers and hiding amongst the sheep. Yes, you're starting to get it now aren't you my precious little puppy? The Cullen family as you call it was all our design. Why bother with dungeons and shackles and wardens? None of those would be reliable anyway. No, real power comes from allowing the prisoner to think they are free. I think it's time for a little re-education on vampires, don't you think?"
The tip of her boot caught the prisoner under his chin, forcing him to look up from the bloody puddle he had slumped into and stare into his torturer's scarlet eyes. "And I expect you to listen closely." Her smile was dazzling. "There may be a quiz."
"Did they ever tell you where we came from? No? Many years ago there was a war in hell. The details aren't important now. The Dark Lady Nyx, Seventh Lord of Hell, Mistress of Shadows, First and Last of her name was usurped from her throne and sent into exile on a desolate plane which she was unable to leave. And so she sent her favourite servant along with some of his most loyal followers to your realm to prepare the way for their mistress, find her and her mate a suitable vessel and open the gate to their world so that their brothers and sisters could join them in this realm."
Her back was to him as she poured over the instruments of her trade, glinting in the dim light under a thick layer of blood. His comrade's blood? His? He struggled to form a coherent thought through the fog that had settled over his brain. If he could just keep her distracted long enough…
"A vessel?" Were his brain less soaked in pain, the prisoner may have been shocked at the ugly croak his voice had become or the delicate froth of blood it brought to his lips.
"Oh silly me, she laughed, a girlish tinkle this time. You see, in this realm, a demon without a vessel is little more than an intent. A naked demon cannot survive for long here without a host body. They enter the soul of a human and phfwiit." she made clasping motion with her porcelain hands, "you get a vampire."
She must have somehow sensed his confusion for she still had not turned around. "Yes, yes I know. You thought, you thought. I'll get to that bit in a minute. Where was I? Oh yes! Then frankly we got used to it. We liked the power and our dominion over the little sheep that littered this plane. Free from servitude to our Mistress and we thought why? Why let ourselves become servants again when we've worked so hard to build this beautiful kingdom? And it was beautiful. The humans cowered from us, disease and death waltzed arm in arm through every street and every crevice of this little world and on top of it all we lorded. Gods."
"But oh no," she continued, selecting something long and slim and ragged, "the ever loyal first servant wouldn't have it. Powerful and silver tongued as he was, his challengers eventually subdued him and his supporters. They tried killing him of course but he was too powerful. It was all they could do to lock him up and guard him night and day, building new and more elaborate prisons around him as he destroyed or escaped the old, replacing the legions of guards he slaughtered. On and on for a millennium."
A sizable splinter of wood had come away from his chair due to her ministrations, small enough to slip under his tattered sleeve. Close enough that his shackles didn't hinder him. Nothing that would harm her if he were only a mere human but perhaps enough distract her. If only she got close enough. Just for a second. He retracted his shaking hand. Evidently she had not seen him as she continued unabated.
"Eventually a new vampire with the ability to 'cure vampirism' emerged. On rare occasions some vampires can carry unique abilities from their demon if that demon was particularly powerful. In this case, a demon-human union whose demonic abilities had manifested in such a way that it allowed them to remove demons after they had fused to a human body".
"It is in the nature of a demon to battle for dominance and centuries of power struggles had churned the hierarchy. Few of the original challengers remained alive but the leaders at that time, Stefan and Vladimir, jumped on the chance to be rid of him once and for all. The First Servant's demon was torn from its host, the vessel destroyed and that seemed to be that."
Her beautiful face was alive with terrible promise as she turned, fingers wrapped around her prize. "And this is where it gets real fucking interesting."
Her breast heaved with unnecessary breath as she came closer.
Almost, almost.
"As I said, a naked demon cannot survive long in this realm without a host. They thought him dead and he would have been, had he not happened across a young soldier, dying in the muck."
"Tell me boy, would you like to live deliciously?" The young man whipped his head around, as much as he could with his burning, tattered throat. But the night was empty. His horse had run in fright from those things, whatever creatures had attacked him and the road where he lay dying was as silent as Gods. And yet the voice came again.
"I see your dreams… in your head such beautiful lust for power. Such a shame, what a shame, all that potential… lost."
"Who are you? In the name a' almighty Gawd help me!"
A laugh, rough as gravel and smooth as summer winds. "Would you like to lead legions boy? Command an army that no God would dare stand against?"
"An' what power have you t' offer me these wonderful things?" He grunted through the pain. The young man's voice was growing weaker. The stars above were fading. And yet that voice sang clear in his ears, in his very brain. A man or woman's he couldn't tell and yet there was something so familiar about it. The burn in his wounds grew hotter.
"You must say yes boy, for it will only work if you are willing and if not, you will die. But by all means return to your prays. See what your God has planned for you."
The boy laughed humourlessly. "I'd be damned if that fucker could plan a piss up in a brewery." And with his second to last breath whispered, "I accept."
"Very well, now listen carefully. Do as I say and together, we shall make beautiful chaos."
And then the boy screamed as the fires of hell itself enveloped him.