I'd hoped the events last night were only a bad dream, but to my horror, it was all real. I was released from the coffin by that thing called Angelica and ordered to clean the blood off my face and change into clean clothes. I was terribly afraid of her so I did as I was told.
Looking at myself in the mirror I saw a reflection of what appeared to be me, but I was different; somehow. I cannot describe what I saw and felt and smelled, so many sensations, it overwhelmed me. My skin was cold to the touch and when I felt my chest a there was no heartbeat. My horrible wounds had completely healed. I struggled to make sense of it all, as I got dressed in the attire that was placed on my bed.
After a few moments, Angelica came into my room. She had changed her attire and was dressed in an exquisite cobalt colored gown.
"We are going to our home now, bid our good friend Thomas farewell."
I thought to myself but dare not say Thomas Burton was no friend of mine. If not for him I would not be in this dreadful situation.
"Where are you taking me?" I knew I had no choice in the matter, but I thought I at least deserve to know.
"We are going home to Spain, where I will teach you everything you need to know." She adjusted the tiny hat on her head.
"I know I am no longer a man. What is there to learn about being a monster?" I snapped at her.
My defiant remark seemed to please her. Before she could respond, Thomas came into the room with a young girl. Her make-up and revealing attire led me to believe she was a prostitute.
"A farewell gift for my Queen…" he smirked as he shoved the girl in front of Angelica both of their mouths open and there sharp fangs snapped out.
Oddly the girl put up no resistance; she seemed to be in some sort of trance.
Angelica began to caress the girls auburn locks.
"Are you hungry now Franklin?"
As her words pierced my ears I began to feel a pang of hunger. I felt a thirst like no other. She bit into the girl's wrist making her wince in pain.
"Leave her alone!" I yelled as I watched the blood trickle down her arm, I could smell it, sweet, ever so intoxicating.
"You must feed before our journey or you will become weak again." She calmly stated, her mouth dripping with the girls' blood.
"I will not hurt her!" I bellowed out and felt my stomach growl. The hunger that was taking over me made me feel completely out of control.
I watched Angelica drink and I felt myself become so aroused. I could feel what she was feeling. As much as I struggled, I could not fight the urges that had taken over me. I felt my daggers snap out and I shoved Angelica out of my way and I began to drink from the poor girl. I felt her pulse fade as I drank her blood. My face was covered in the girls' blood. I was something wild and ferocious. The girl collapsed to the ground.
I asked in sorrow. "Have I killed this poor child?"
"If we continue to feed she will die." She told me with that eerie smile upon her face, "Or you can turn her, she can be your child, our child." Angelica suggested.
"Never"! I picked the girl up and placed her on the bed.
"I could never do to anyone what you've done to me." I snarled.
Angelica laughed at me, "Never say never, my dear."
I left the girl to her fate and I ran out of the shop and into the night. I hoped to escape the madness of my life, my death. I walked for what seemed like hours roaming aimlessly. I had wondered off into dense wilderness, miles away but, somehow Angelica found me. She told me that we were bonded; that I could never escape; she and I no longer had any family but each other.
I finally relented after her insistent pursuit and we set off to Spain that night. She looked at me with those dark frightening eyes. She talked to me as if we'd known each other for years. She told me Thomas, one of her many children, wrote her upon my arrival, and what he told her about me interested her. She wanted a man who sought adventure.
Thomas was fortunate enough to pay his way out of servitude and offer himself as a procurer. She released him upon that agreement. For a while, I was her new pet.
We traveled at night, the French countryside was beautiful, and so was Angelica, on the outside, but behind her beauty, I saw something sinister.
Before dawn, we rested in a small cottage. She bragged to me about her wealth and her palace in Madrid. She had ruthlessly slaughtered the actual owner and the entire family, hid their bodies, and told the authorities, she was the heir to the palace. Anyone who questioned her mysteriously went missing.
All the while she kept promising to make me an excellent vampire. Even then I knew better. How could she teach someone something she knew nothing about?
We finally arrived in Spain, the long trip was not as unpleasant as I expected. In her own deviant way, she truly was trying to please me. Her palace, or shall I say 'the palace she obtained' was grander than anything I could have imagined. Striking pillars, glorious fountains, beautiful statues, and exotic sculptures with landscaped shrubs surrounded the grounds.
Acres upon acres of land made it a spectacular sight. A dozen vampire guards lined the palace, which was filled with exquisite furniture, extravagant art, and human servants who jumped at her command. They severed her and were paid generous wages and other favors such as status and political clout.
The vampires were each in charge of one human servant who was foolishly hooked on their vampire blood; they would do any and everything for it. Angelica used them to tend to the housework during the day and at night she would feed off them and serve them as party favors to her elite vampire guest.
But the good times would not last for long. Eventually, the humans and vampires would fear her, loathe her or both. They would all realize she was a merciless tyrant without an ounce of humanity.
After a few years, I finally started to adjust to being a vampire and I began to enjoy the hunt. I never had to go far, Angelica would always throw lavish parties and I always had more than enough people to choose from.
The night that changed my afterlife started like any other festivity night. My servant had procured a lovely Sudanese girl. I was about to escort her to my room for the night until another vampire named Miguel, claimed she was his. He had the gall to challenge me in my own home. He snapped his fangs at me, we fought and before I knew it I had ripped his head from his neck.
Unfortunately for me, he was the progeny of an old and well-connected vampire. Luckily his sire, Angelo, was not there that night and it saved Angelica and me from further confrontation. However, there were too many witnesses to cover up the crime and by the next night, I was arrested, by order of the Magistrate.
At the trial, Angelo demanded that I be punished for the true death. But my sire Angelica adamantly protested it. The worst thing about the entire situation was I had no idea it was a crime to kill another vampire. Angelica told me many things, how to hunt, glamour, avoid the sun and silver, but not once did she tell me that I could not kill another vampire. I told you she is a piss poor sire.
The Magistrate sentenced me to half a century of solitary confinement, I was to be locked up, chained in silver, and worst of all starved. After a decade I would most likely die a slow and excruciating death. Angelo was not pleased and stormed out of the hearing. He wanted to stake me himself. I was silent, in shock, and most of all angry. I was furious at Angelica, for once again ruining my life.
I was taken to the Magistrate palace in Toledo and confined to a small room in the south tower; it had a bed and a small window in which I could remove the wooden boards at night. My moonlit view overlooked the vineyard and beyond that the Spanish countryside. The Authority had silver doors installed and removed my chains. But once a week, like clockwork a monarch's servant would come up and torture me by chaining me up with silver. The vampire servant would have on a black cloth mask. It was the same miserable masochist week after week, month after month, year after year.
Several years went by and eventually, I became so week, so disoriented. I thought it was a dream when Angelica showed up.
"If not for me they would have surely killed you." She bragged with her head held high, removing her gown and corset exposing her breast. "Would you like a treat Franklin?" She ripped my shirt off and yanked my pants down.
She got no reaction from me. Angelica made my stomach turn. "Just let me go, please." I fell to my knees and begged.
"Pleeease."
She mocked me and made fun of the state I was in. Her voice seeped through my ear and into my brain... I loathed her.
"If not for you I would not be here!" I tried to shout, but could not my throat was bone dry from thirst.
She laughed and offered me the blood on her boots. "Lick," she clipped, it's the closest you shall get to a meal for a long time, foolish child.
"Why, why didn't you tell me it was a crime to kill another vampire?" I cried as I shamelessly licked the warm blood from her boots. "You told me I could do whatever I wanted." I cried at her feet. "Please set me free. I'll do anything." I begged pitifully. She bent forward and lifted my chin so that I looked up at her.
"Now, now, you know I would never do that. Besides you are doing so well, such a strong handsome vampire."
She ran her fingers through my hair and patted me on the head. She still talked to me as if I was her pet. I was her fucking pet, locked up and chained like a dog.
Twenty years later...
One day a human servant was wondering about. She was so close; I could hear her intakes of breath. She was naive and out of curiosity went up to the forbidden tower to snoop around. She was the first contact I had with anyone for a very long time. The servant must be new because she did not even know I was there. The smell of her blood awaken me in the middle of the early evening, I called out to her. I made up some ludicrous story about locking myself in the room and fortunately, she fell for it.
I pretended to be a servant who accidentally gotten myself locked in the room. She followed my instructions, picked the lock, and set me free. I immediately attacked her, feverishly suckling and draining the very angel who'd rescued me.
It was for the best, once The Magistrate found out she'd released me, the girl would have surely met a slow mutilating death. I covered her with a light sheet and myself with a bulky velvet curtain and ran into the countryside seeking shelter from the sun until dusk. It was days before The Authority discovered the poor servants rotting corpse, but by then I was long gone.