A long, long time ago…

In the beginning there were only three. But the three soon became four, and she who joined them last was Ellessin. Malkoran was so moved by her beauty and cunning that, instead of taking her as a slave, as they oft did, he offered her a place at their side.

For in those days they were the masters of all, wherever they went; even to the edges of the world, where the land meets the unfathomable seas. Their very names struck fear and dread in the hearts of even the hardiest of men. In the millennia before the Common Era, they were named Malkoran and Ellessin, Samyaza and Namtar.

Famine and Death, Pestilence and War, the Four Horsemen, as they were known in present days, for their story had, much later, been turned into myth and legend, and blended with religious nonsense.

They were gods – or so they called themselves. But to be gods in truth, they lacked an essential trait, for they were not eternal. Mere mortals were they, and soon they set out to obtain immortality.

They travelled far and long to reach their destination, and there they met the one they sought: the Ancient Seer, a woman said to be as old as the world itself. And old she was, for her black skin was leathery and much wrinkled; and her hair, so fine and white, was like a cloud upon her brow. Her gnarled limbs did no longer permit her to rise from her cot, and she had no teeth. And yet she was very much alive, and her deep voice was strong and did not tremble. "You have come at last," she said as her great-granddaughter led them inside her hut.

The four looked at each other in surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise: she was a Seer indeed, and they had not been led astray. "O Ancient One, we have come a great distance to benefit from your knowledge and wisdom," Namtar intoned. "Tell us, Seer, how shall we achieve our objective?"

It was a test, of course. If she didn't know what their objective was…

"Only the gods may grant you immortality," the crone replied without hesitation. There was a malicious gleam in her black eyes.

"And how may one commune with the gods?" Samyaza asked, her pretty, delicate face alight with eagerness. "How do we summon them to us?"

"Summon them?" the Seer scoffed. "Who are you to summon the gods, child?"

"We are the Rulers of the World," Malkoran retorted haughtily. "The gods must have heard tales of our deeds, as all men have."

The old woman's cackle was a daunting sound. "The gods do not concern themselves with the affairs of mortals."

"Is there then no way to communicate with them?" Ellessin asked, despair rising. "None at all?"

The Seer remained silent for a long moment, eyes closed, so long that they thought she must have gone to sleep. But her eyes flew open as Namtar approached her, and she grinned a toothless grin. "If one truly wished to do so…" She paused then, and Samyaza, impatient as ever, unsheathed her dagger, and moved closer to the crone. Malkoran held her arm, however, and hushed her when she tried to protest. "No mortal man has ever lived to tell of his encounter with the gods," the Seer continued, heedless of the blade in Sam's hand.

"We have lived through more in the past decade than any man ever will in a lifetime," Namtar said angrily. "We have earned the right to demand a boon from them."

The old woman smiled again at that, a chilling smile that sent unbidden shivers down Ellessin's spine.

"Now tell us what we wish to know, you withered hag," Samyaza demanded imperiously, waving her dagger threateningly.

"Indeed," the bed-ridden crone said sweetly, "there is a way. The gods might be inclined to answer your pleas if you were to provide a sacrifice of sufficient worth."

Malkoran scowled. "Have we not provided enough sacrifices over the course of the years? We have spilled the blood of hundreds!"

The Seer gestured dismissively to denote the insignificance of his words. "Puny weaklings of little value. That will accomplish nothing, Malkoran Devandar." Malkoran's eyes widened slightly at the mention of his full name. Devan had been the name of his sire, the -dar suffix added to mean 'son of'. Last names were not common, in those days, and rarely used when they existed.

"The only worthy people in the world are ourselves, Wise One. Your advice is therefore useless, for sacrificing ourselves would rather defeat the purpose, would it not?" Namtar told her with an unpleasant smirk.

"Let us be away," Samyaza declared suddenly. "The woman has obviously lost her mind – she speaks only in riddles. We will not find our answer here, my friends."

The Seer's evil cackle followed them out of the hut.

That night, long after Samyaza and Namtar had retired into their tent, Malkoran spoke quietly. "You understand what this means, do you not?" His brown eyes were fixed on the crackling fire, the reflected light of the flames dancing wildly across his irises.

"Of course I do. I am not stupid," Ellessin replied curtly.

"They might be having the same conversation as we speak, my love. Although they never were fast thinkers, it is true, not like you and I." He turned his keen gaze on her. "We cannot delay. The prize will be granted to those who act first."

"Then let us not waste any time," Ellessin said, standing up and unsheathing her dagger.

"Now?" Malkoran asked, frowning. "While they sleep?" Even to him, who had murdered countless innocent souls in cold blood, the thought of killing their companions, unarmed and unprepared, was shocking. Mal had a foolish, twisted notion of honour.

Ellessin huffed in annoyance. "Would you rather find a blade sticking out of your chest when you wake? There is no time to waste, my heart."

Malkoran nodded eventually and they set out into the night, the bright moonlight turning Ellessin's raven black hair a silvery white.

Samyaza and Namtar were bound and gagged, and brought out of their tent. Despite being asleep and taken by surprise, Sam had managed to cut a deep gash in Elle's thigh, and Namtar had almost smashed Mal's teeth, but in the end the traitors prevailed.

There were no rituals, no written mantras, not in those days. They had to improvise. They gutted Samyaza, spilling her entrails upon the earth, and Malkoran detached Namtar's head from its neck with one swift stroke of his short sword. They burned various leaves and herbs in the fire, and for hours they chanted, words of summons and praise, of appeal and awe, until their throats were sore. They persevered, deep into the night.

And finally They came; not from the Heavens, as the betrayers expected, but from the bottomless pits below the surface of the Earth. The ground split beneath their feet with a crumbling sound, swallowing the corpses of the ones they had called friends for over thirteen years.

And She who came first was Lilith, who appeared to Ellessin as a woman clad in red and black; and Her gown was misty and constantly changeable in shape; and Her eyes were filled with pure darkness. And She was beautiful, so beautiful that Elle feared for her sight; and She was terrible to behold, a figure of might and sheer magnificence. Feeling suddenly weak, Ellessin fell to her knees, prostrating herself at the demon's feet, unable to look upon Lilith's infernal body. She wept in terror, for she knew now that the Seer had tricked them. The old woman assuredly was a demon-worshipper, feeding power-hungry fools to the false gods of the Netherworld.

In her distress, Elle caught no glimpse of He who appeared to Malkoran, the demon Fenrir – He who had, by a twisted irony, been turned into a mythological figure of god-like importance, centuries later. Mal never said a word about what transpired between him and the beastly demon, save that their encounter was one he'd rather erase from his memory.

And Lilith said unto her: "I greatly enjoyed watching you perform that pitiful ceremonial, little human. It pleases me that you have betrayed and sacrificed two so close to your heart to achieve your purpose. Rarely have I witnessed such evil, even committed by one of your kind. You amuse me, and have indeed accomplished the improbable in doing so. I shall therefore reward your efforts." She raised a graceful hand, and a great chill came over Elle, and she fell flat to the ground, quivering, her body twisting under the strain and the terrible pain. "You shall receive what you yearned for: eternal life, from which you shall never be released, even should you beg for it. Endless solitude, an unyielding curse. And in your loneliness, in irrational despair, you shall doom others." Lilith laughed then, and the sound was enough to freeze Elle's blood in her veins. Her heart stopped beating; she couldn't breathe. "And this man whom you hold so dear in your black, wicked heart," – and at this Lilith indicated the space where Malkoran must lie; at this point Ellessin had almost forgotten that he even existed – "shall be your salvation as well as your bane."

And then, as abruptly as She had arisen, Lilith vanished.

When Ellessin finally came to her senses, minutes or hours later, she couldn't tell for certain, Malkoran was lying flat on his back, eyes staring at the lightening sky, for dawn was upon them. For a moment Elle feared that he was dead, but he blinked when she knelt at his side and turned his face to hers. His eyes, once a dark brown, were now as golden as sand under the blazing sun. Noting the alarm in her features, Malkoran stroked Elle's cheek in reassurance and smiled triumphantly. "It is done."

They soon discovered that they had been granted more than they petitioned for. They were stronger than any human, faster and more agile; but Mal now craved the flesh of men, and Elle their blood. The mortals they preyed upon – the few who survived – were transformed in their image, although they were but pale copies.

No wounds, no matter how grievous, could do them lasting harm, for they healed instantly. They were not only immortal, but indestructible. They had paid dearly for this ultimate prize, for they had committed the most treacherous perfidy, but indeed it seemed that the reward was worth the cost. They were now gods in truth, gods made flesh, and free to roam the world and rule it as they willed.

But the euphoria was short-lived.

For years they lived as king and queen of the known world, and enjoyed the many pleasures everlasting life had to offer, and they prospered, Lilith's words of foreboding and impending doom forgotten for a while as the memory of their encounter with the demons faded in their minds.

But then Malkoran committed the greatest crime of all: he broke Ellessin's heart.

'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned': truer words were never written, and yet they were only devised millennia after the appalling deed was perpetrated.

Upon finding Malkoran in the naked arms of another woman, Elle reacted without thinking: she slayed her rival, slicing her throat open with her dagger and then, discarding the blade, she threw herself at Malkoran, biting and scratching. He did nothing to stop her. He knew he was at fault, and accepted the punishment.

But they were both surprised to see that Malkoran didn't recover from the wounds that Ellessin inflicted. Indeed the marks remained, and he bled.

Shocked, Elle took a step backwards, and contemplated the man who held her heart; and she understood then Lilith's words. Only she could undo him, and he her. He was her bane and her salvation.

Despite her rage and sorrow and grief at the loss of their love, she could not bear to do him harm; no lasting harm, in any case.

So Ellessin fled.

For years she wandered aimlessly, and she soon realised that the world was larger than they had assumed; indeed, there were other lands beyond the frightening seas and immense mountains. For she could fly, and she explored the Earth in all its grandeur and diversity. And she met people in her travels, but ever she hid from their sight, for none could understand what she was, what she had become, and all feared her and abandoned her the moment she revealed herself to them.

Centuries passed before Ellessin finally gave in to the urge that pressed her to pass on the gift that was also her curse; for she saw now that Lilith had known all along of the crippling loneliness and misery that would sooner or later assail her heart.

It all began in Memphis, in the land known as Egypt, in the days of the Old Kingdom, as it is now called. It was there that Ellessin, the Original Vampire, Accursed Daughter of Lilith, encountered Imhotep, the first of her children, another naïve mortal who believed he could summon the gods and live to tell the tale.

Ellessin saved his life and ruined it all at once. His life, and too many others afterwards.