"I do not understand." Lux said as she stared up at the man called Philip, from where she was rested in the cave. Her back ached from the ground she'd been sprawled across. "You're a Coven? Like witches? Are you like me?"

"Somewhat." Philip answered, as a girl from behind him snorted. "Quiet, Mathilde!"

"My apologies, Philip." The woman — Mathilde, apparently, swiftly spoke, as though worried about what would happen if she didn't profess her regret.

"We are a coven, yes, but not of witches, though some of us — such as you and Fulk, also possess magical powers. We are the feeders of the night. We are those who lurk in the shadows, those who men fear. We are vampires, and so are you."

"Vampires…" Lux breathed, wrecking her mind for information on the creatures. She'd heard about them, in her classes at Hogwarts, but what she knew was few and far between. They fed on blood, on humans and animals alike and couldn't be in the sun. "What do you mean? I was dead, I was burned…am I a vampire now?"

"Yes, my dear." Philip stroked the back of her head. "Fulk here fed you his blood last night, so when you died, you would return back to life. You were so delirious with hunger and thirst, I doubt you remember."

Lux shook her head, stomach churning. "I do not."

"No matter. You'll make new memories with us. We are your family now."

She should've been horrified at his words, at what he was outright stating to her. That she was now a vampire, a creature of the night, but all she could think about was her family, whom she'd left behind after being seized by those men and tried for witchcraft. "My mum…my dad…my siblings, do you know what happened to them?"

"I do not." He moved his hand to stroke her cheek. He was handsome, with dark skin and bright, wild eyes, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. But he was old, too, certainly much older than her. Thirty, maybe? As she glanced around the cave, at all the people watching her from the circle formed around her and Philip, she realized she had to have been the youngest person in there. "You do not need to fear for them, not anymore. You belong to us now. To me."

They left the cave a few weeks later, lurking in the night and heading into a village not too far away. Close enough that, when the sun rose, they'd be under the protection of an abandoned manor. Far enough away, that no one would recognize Lux, though. The dead girl walking, the witch who had been burned and brought back without so much as a scratch on her head.

They couldn't enter homes without being invited in, so Philip made sure to find a massive abandoned one, where the inhabitants either moved or died, leaving all their furniture behind.

"We will move homes every few months." The man called Fulk explained to her. "To keep anybody from finding out about us. We need to feed, and when too many bodies are found and suspicion leads to us, we flee."

"Bodies?" Lux sputtered. So far, she'd only fed on animals with the rest of the Coven. "We kill people?"

"Well, we cannot keep them alive." Adelais, a woman who seemed to be Philip's second in command said, weaving a brush through her hair. "Otherwise they'll tell on us."

"Don't fret. You will get used to it. The killing." Odo, the boy closest in both years lived, and bodily age to Lux, said. He was nineteen when he died of plague, back in the fourteenth century, and also the newest recruit to the Coven besides her.

The manor had bedrooms for just about everyone, with a few needing to double with someone during the daytime when they slept, though when Lux went to go into the same one as Mathilde, Philip appeared from behind her, grabbing her arm and stopping her in her tracks.

"You will be sleeping with me, Lux."

"Philip is a bastard." Fulk sighed as Lux stumbled down the stairs during the next night. Philip was still in their shared bed, sound asleep, and hadn't so much as stirred when she slipped out of the tight hold he had around her waist.

When Lux said nothing, he continued, "I knew the moment he told me to turn you, that this would occur. He has been searching for a replacement for Adelais for half a century. He must be bored of her, after all these years"

She remained silent, moving towards the couch and taking a seat next to him. Her breath was heavy, and her face flushed, despite having been in bed for hours, too scared to make a single movement. Her eyes drooped from the lack of sleep she'd received, and every inch of her body ached.

"He's a bastard." Fulk repeated, leaning down to meet her gaze, which was fixed on the fireplace, roaring across the parlor. "I'm sorry he did this to you. Truly."

"Why couldn't you all let me die?" She breathed. "I think I'd rather be dead right now."

"Because, you are too beautiful to die. That were Philip's words, anyways." He pressed his lips together. "Listen, Lux. You have a wonderful opportunity at your hands. If you can get through nights with Philip, you'll be one of the most influential vampires in the Coven. You'll make your way up the ranks soon, with him at your side. You can have anything you want, with Philip influencing you. What do you want the most, Lux?"

She thought about this for a long moment. "I want children. Several of them. I want a family. Can Philip provide me with that? I mean…we…could I be pregnant now?"

Fulk shook his head. "Vampires cannot have children. I meant along the lines of material goods. Do you like jewelry? Or dresses? You could have as many as you want."

"I suppose." She lifted her shoulders in a feeble shrug, throat closing up as she blinked back tears. While she should've been ecstatic at the idea of endless jewels and dresses, all she could focus on was the concept of never having the family she'd always dreamed of. It was as though a piece of her soul was being torn out of her chest, somehow even more traumatic of a realization than what had occurred with Philip the day prior. "I really can't have children?"

"I'm sorry, if that was important to you."

Lux gulped. "Jewels are nice. But I would prefer not being with Philip."

"To deny him is a death sentence for you, Lux. Not just from him, but Adelais, and the rest of the Coven. All of them are fiercely loyal to him, except perhaps Odo. He has always been a skeptic."

"And you?" She raised a gentle eyebrow. "Where do you stand?"

It was Fulk's turn to be silent.

Lux's scream was loud enough to wake the entire Coven from their rest.

"Lux!" Philip cried, rushing from the bedroom they shared and into the restroom. Their newest manor house was even larger than the previous, with ten bedrooms and six places to bathe and use the restroom, instead of simple chamber pots like other places possessed.

"What happened?" He demanded as he swung the door open.

Behind him, other members of the Coven poured into the bedroom, all glancing over his shoulder with wide eyes and worried expressions. Fulk was among them, biting his lip, and Odo looked terrified. Only Adelais seemed ambivalent to whatever plight Lux had come across.

"I can't see myself!" She blubbered, hands on her cheeks as she stared into a mirror. Her reflection was absent, mirroring only the background, as though she'd become invisible. "What's wrong with the mirror?! Why can't I see myself?!"

Adelais snorted.

"Quiet!" Philip shouted, not so much as turning his head to look at his second in command, though she clearly knew it was addressed at her, as she clamped her mouth shut. Taking a step towards Lux, he outstretched his hand, and placed it on her shoulder. "We vampires cannot see our reflections. It isn't anything to fear."

Lux cried harder, tears streaming down her burning red cheeks. "I will never see myself again?"

"I'm sorry, my dear." Philip wrapped an arm around her, embracing her, too tight for comfort. Yet she knew better than to resist, than to say no. So she leaned into his touch, sobbing into his shirt. "It's going to be okay. You have us now. You have me. And I'll never let you go."

It was meant to bring her comfort. Yet she felt bile rise in her throat, a bile that refused to fully leave for the next three hundred years she spent in his arms, in his embrace, in his bed.

"Will I go back to Hogwarts?" Lux asked Philip one day, as August waned and September approached. The sun had just begun to peak over the horizon, and they'd climbed into their shared bed together, Philip wrapping an arm around her and placing his hand on her bare shoulder.

"Why would you want to go back to Hogwarts?" He frowned. "Do you want to leave me? Leave your Coven, your home?"

"No, I did not say that." She swiftly interjected, as she felt his grip on her shoulder tighten. "I was merely inquiring."

"I see." He looked her up and down, clearly not believing her. "Well, no. You will not be returning to Hogwarts. I do not believe they allow vampires in their halls."

"Did you go to Hogwarts?"

He let out a chuckle, and she let out a breath of relief, sensing his mood lighten. "My love, I was thousands of years old when Hogwarts was founded. No, I did not attend."

"Oh." She shifted in his grip. "I didn't know you were that old. Er…how old were you when you died?"

"Twenty nine. Not much older than you."

"I'm sixteen, though."

"Thirteen years difference isn't much, in the grand scheme of things. You'll soon come to realize time is meaningless, when you're immortal."

When Philip went to kiss her, she didn't react. She never did. She simply sat there and allowed it to happen, allowed him to take control of her body in any which way he pleased. When his touches turned more needy, when his grip on her moved down from her shoulders, she sighed, closing her eyes and drowning it out, just as she drowned out everything that had occurred over the past few months.

In the distance, a fireplace roared.

Time went by in an agonizingly slow blur. Lux learned quickly how to pass the time, sleeping and feeding and reading as she watched the outside world grow and develop without her. She never would've been able to experience it as a human, the advancement of society, so she told herself to be grateful. She was witnessing history being made in her newfound immortality. A new country was founded, far across the ocean, but she'd never be able to visit it. Kings and Queens were crowned and ruled and died, but she'd never be able to witness them up close. Empires formed and collapsed, homes were erected then abandoned, family lines died out.

And Lux was there to watch it all from the shadows, never able to get close enough to touch, but enough to be tempted, tempted by a lust for life.

What had become of the other Erzsebets, she so often wondered. Had they died out? Her parents and siblings would be long dead, but perhaps they had children, whom went on to have children of their own.

Lux soon forgot what she looked like. She was blonde, she remembered that, but her facial features became a blur to her, a memory she couldn't quite hold on to.

But she remembered her mother's face as clear as day. The pained expression Mary Erzsebet wore when the men stormed into their hope, grabbing Lux and manhandling her into the dungeon. An anonymous testimony had been given to the local sheriff, citing her as a witch.

She was, but even if she wasn't, it wouldn't have mattered. Her fate was sealed the moment the mysterious person confessed to seeing her with a spellbook.

Lux had never been a violent person. But whoever it was that turned her in, whoever it was that ruined her life, she wished they were still alive, only so she could rip out their throat, watch the life leave their eyes like it once had to her. She wanted to kill, and the urge to do so grew as her humanity slipped away.

Losing track of time was easy. She drowned herself in jewels, and dresses, and all the other luxuries Fulk had once promised she would possesss, as long as she kept Philip happy. She grew used to her times with Philip. Sometimes even enjoyed it. But even then, there were rough nights, nights where Fulk would comfort her and explain to her that it was worth it, in the end. That she just had to power through.

Fulk always left her in higher spirits.

It was sometime in the 1950s when she and Odo slipped out from the massive home the Coven was currently crashing in, and into the night. Odo and Fulk had become the two people she relied on the most over the passing centuries, her two friends in a Coven of misery, of men and women and their sharp fangs that would hunt her down if she made the simplest of mistakes.

But Odo was fun. He was kind, and he didn't make fun of her when she had questions about the specifics of vampirism, unlike Adelais and Mathilde so often did. So, they'd claim to be going feeding and sneak out of the home, and instead, go about the town, bar hopping and dancing and meeting humans, not to eat, but to learn about the current world from.

There were radios now — things that played music at one's command, instead of seeing live music. Oh, music was so different now! Men sung openly about lust, women danced seductively, and the outfits they wore were positively scandalous!

Odo was a man attracted to both women and other men, which apparently wasn't horrible, as the Bible decreed. It had been ages since Lux last opened her Bible, though she kept it in the drawer next to every bed she and Philip shared, occasionally taking comfort in the pages, in the passages about Heaven. Though, if she ever did meet her end, she doubted she'd be going there.

Even so, Odo had to be careful about his attractions, when it came to men. He stuck to women, mostly, when at bars, speaking to them shamelessly, dancing with them and flirting and occasionally following them into the bathrooms, only to leave giddy and flushed in the face before the sun rose.

"I will take a gin and tonic, please." Lux ordered from the man at the bar, Odo at her side.

"Me as well, thank you." He said.

"Two gin and tonics, coming right up." The man nodded at them, before turning his back to get to work on their drinks.

"I'm going to go speak to that woman, in the frilly dress." Odo said when the drinks were given to them, directing his chin towards a girl spinning around with her friends. She was beautiful as they came, with auburn hair and a bright grin. "Will you be alright on your own?"

"Of course." Lux patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck."

When he left, she began sipping on her own drink, feeling the bitter sensation in her mouth and grinning at it. While the taste of blood was her favorite, one could never go wrong with alcohol.

"Did your boyfriend abandon you?" A voice said, and when she turned, she realized a boy was speaking to her. He had red hair, like the girl who had attracted Odo's attention, with freckles across his face and a smirk, much like the one Fulk often wore, that she'd learned to mirror. It exuded confidence, which certainly helped with the man's handsome facial features.

"He isn't my boyfriend." Lux responded, glancing over at Odo. "He's just a friend. Family, almost." That was what the Coven was, after all. Family.

"Then he won't mind if I buy you another drink?"

"I don't think so, no." She responded, a blush creeping across her face. It had been so long since she'd had a proper conversation with a man outside of the Coven, and a handsome man nonetheless.

"Tell me, what is a gorgeous girl like you doing in a pub without a boyfriend?"

"I'm just having a spot of fun." She tilted her head to the side. "And you? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was also looking for fun, but I think I found something better." He raised his eyebrows, and her blush increased. "May I know your name?"

"Lux."

"Lux, a beautiful name, for a beautiful girl." He placed his hand atop of hers in a gentle gesture, and she felt goosebumps run up her spine. "My name is Elias."