Time passes, this is one sure thing. Another sure thing is change. Kain had seen considerable changes in the world he knew within just the past twenty years. The time had seemed like barely a week. When you are undead, time holds little meaning.
Kain had proclaimed himself ruler of the vampires of Nosgoth. Some bowed to him. Many still didn't. Him and his small but loyal following were seeking out those who would deny their king, and helping them see the error of their ways. The terms were simple. Bow to him, or die.
Kain was hunting alone tonight. Sometimes he still craved solitude - plus he didn't always care to share the spoils. His bat form flitted over a small town. One house caught his eye - a glow from within, very faint. He came in for a landing and arrived just behind the little house, his form rippling and growing back into his vampiric body.
He slipped around the front of the house. One of the boards on the window was loose, and light escaped from behind it. He shifted to mist form and filtered through the opening.
Inside, he saw that the glow emanated from an oil lamp at a bedside table, forgotten to be extinguished, apparently, as the only person in the tiny house was asleep in the bed beside it. A young woman, her dark hair strewn messily over the pillow, fast asleep.
Kain became solid again and approached the bedside. Oh, she smelled good. She appeared to be in her mid-20's. The perfect age. "Ripe," he sometimes called it. He decided he would play with his food a little before getting down to business. It heats up the blood so nicely, and it was a chilly night out there.
In one swift movement, he grasped her shoulders and yanked her upright, leaping onto the bed behind her and pulling her roughly back against him, one hand clamped over her mouth. She awoke instantly, of course. Her eyes flew wide open. Terrified and confused, she struggled but could not move. She realized with dread that someone was holding her down. Fear washed over her in a cold sheet. The smell - she smelled something vaguely like the sickly sweet smell of death - but also earth, and something musky, distinctly male. So, this stranger was going to have his way with her. Tears came to her eyes, her heart sinking. Then, a new fear struck her when she felt hot breath and two sharp points scrape against the side of her neck - fangs...
The stranger wrenched her around to face him. A blur. She saw a gaping mouth, flashing teeth. Heard a hiss that chilled her to the bone. Then in the lamplight she saw his face. His face! Was she dreaming?
"It- it's you!" she cried breathlessly, gasping.
Kain snarled at her. What was this silly woman going on about? Perhaps she hadn't quite woken up yet. He would fix that. He roughly grabbed a handful of her hair and wrenched her head back.
"KAIN!" she screamed in pain.
Shock. He released her suddenly and stepped back. She collapsed on her hands and knees, panting. He stood angrily before her.
"How," he demanded, "do you know my name, woman?"
She panted more for a moment, catching her breath. "You - I saw you. When I - was a little girl...thought maybe I...had imagined it... But here...you are..." she gasped.
Kain thought she was mad for a moment, but then he finally got a good look at her face. Heart-shaped, with big green eyes; her hair, brown. Then he remembered. A summer day. A little girl in a green dress, and her dolls.
"...Yes... I do remember you," Kain said incredulously. "The girl."
The woman slowly and painfully rose to her feet. "Yes..."
"Yes..." Kain recalled. They stood there, staring at each other for several moments.
"Well," the woman finally spoke up quietly, "I suppose you're going to kill me."
Kain frowned. "No...perhaps not. Yet." he said. He examined her for several seconds. The past twenty years had been kind to her. Her hair was no longer cropped short; now it flowed long and sleek past her shoulders. Her lips were full and expressive, and her somewhat flimsy nightclothes revealed her womanly shape. Although a vampire, Kain was still a man, and she was easy on the eyes."Talia... Wasn't it? You've...grown up well."
Surprised at this comment, Talia blushed and looked away. Kain crossed his arms and stood there, staring at her still. She cast a sidelong glance at him. He still looked the same as he did when she had first met him. Tall, powerful and unyielding. His face still bore the same stern expression it had had back then.
"So you now realize what I am," he stated to her.
"Yes," she replied. She stared at his chest, unsure of she should look into his eyes.
"You were unafraid then. Are you now?" he asked.
She fidgeted. "Yes...and no." she finally answered.
Like twenty years ago, he was intrigued by this. He stepped forward and grabbed her upper arms, leaned in close, and bared his fangs to her in a sneer. She stiffened but did not resist. "Why? Why are you unafraid?"
"I...I don't know." she whispered after a moment's thought, her eyes downcast.
He released one of her arms, and tilted her chin up with his fingers- almost gently - to force her to look him in the eye.
"Why?" he asked again, softly.
She stared into his eyes wordlessly. They were yellow. She had never seen yellow eyes before. She closed her eyes and shook her head a little.
He released her and stepped back. "I will allow you to live for now, girl," he announced. He turned towards the window
"I... Wait!" Talia exclaimed.
He turned back, looking at her quizzically.
"Will you come again?" she asked.
He stared at her dumbfounded. No one had ever, ever, expressed a desire to see him again, let alone the first time.
"Again?" he exclaimed, surprise in his voice. "You WANT me to return?"
Talia swallowed hard and nodded. She wondered for a moment if she had lost her mind. But there was something about him that made her want to know more about him.
His stern expression deepened. For some reason he found himself wanting to comply - and it angered him. "If I return, know that I may not hold back from making a meal of you," he warned.
"I...know." Talia answered.
He scowled at her, briefly considering devouring her there and then, but it was a fleeting thought. "Perhaps, we shall meet again...and perhaps not," he said. Then before her shocked eyes, his form slowly dissolved into a grey mist. It lingered a moment before slipping back out through the crack in the window.
Chapter 3 coming soon!