Chapter 83

Quickly, I pull the pages to my chest, looking up at the vaulted cieling above, biting my trembling lip, and blinking tears away. How had I not realized? It had been in front of me the whole time! The handwriting, I knew it. I knew it very well. My skin burned, nerves on a knifes edge, as I look down at the words once again.

It was a letter from Furlow...

Natasha,

If anyone could figure this out it would be you. You were always tenacious when it came to puzzles. You must be surprised to find this letter in such a strange place, but it was necessary.

By now you have likely figured I am not who I have told you. My name is not Furlow Marta, but Fideous or better yet Piru. I have had so many names, so many lives from a humble nomad to a great King of a predatory nation. It must hurt to find this out about your mentor, but remember my words. If you have a secret to keep, keep it.

I never told you what I could do, because I feared what that power would do to you. I knew you were like me, but I was unsure of your character. A daywalker, an anomaly so great there had only been one other - myself. It surprised me the first time I saw you walk into the sun, and it made me weep to know I wasn't the only one. So long I had been alone.

I still remember it so crystaline that it was as if it happened a moment ago, your golden hair reflecting the light of the sun as the wind lifted your tresses as if they were the rays of the sun themselves. You looked so beautiful and strong, like a goddess, but behind you was a deep dark and long shadow of sadness, loneliness, and fear.

Once I saw that I knew that I could no longer hold my mantel as a nomadic begger. The name I had used to met you Furlow Marta was gone - the name of a dear friend of mine during the second age - I had to return as Fideous the Great.

I started planning, and returning to the shadows that are the phantom world. I knew there had been a darkness stirring deep within the vampire world. But I had simply ignored it. So I started an inquiry among old friends and through my own investigation. It took time. I planned to return to the vampire world with you beside me as an equal, a friend, and an apprentice.

While I did that, I watched you, taught you. I wanted to see what kind of person, kind of vampire, you would become. You were so different from me in so many ways, both hopeful and bitter, young and old, sweet but determined. As time went on I realized you would be a better person than I could have ever hoped. I have lived for nearly a million years and seen the rise and fall of many civilizations. You would be better and stronger than I.

Now I must tell you, tell you what you really are. You are not a vampire.

I jolt at this, blinking in surprise as I stare at those five simple words. I whisper, 'What do you mean Furlow?'

So I continue to read:

You are something far different, you are a superior creature. A creature that doesn't need blood to survive, truly. You gain your strength by means of the sun. The urge for blood is something that will slowly fade, much like milk for a babe. You won't gain your full potential until that need is gone and when you do... Natasha, you will be a god on earth. No matter how strong a vampire, you will be their master.

My heart slammed in my chest at this information. Was this why my need for blood wasn't strong, but why was Nick's blood so intoxicating still? Would that also fade with time? Would food no longer appeal?

I continue eating up Furlow's words:

Now I can not say you can't die. I never have but it is still possible though I do not know how yet. All things come to an end, even for someone as old as I.

If you have read my story as Fideous, then I must rewrite a few things. First off, I did meet Vama, I did meet her in the cave and I did beg her to take my blood. However this is where the story diverges, she refused to drink it. She never bit me. Over time, as I started to grow old, we came to love each other and she kissed me.

I jerk and reread that sentence once again, and feel my heart race as I continue reading, cheek flush with excitement:

That kiss sealed my fate. Weeks later I woke to find the sun hurt but didn't burn me like Vama. My senses were heightened and my lust for blood was strong. She saved me from my own clansmen killing me and we ran. The love of a vampire is what creates us, I do not know how but it does.

The first age between Vama and myself was of learning what we could do. An era of vampire birth, learning about our power, and Vama turning others from a single bite. She did try kissing others, but it never lead to what I am. So we learned.

However it was also the time when vampires nearly wiped humanity from the face of the earth. Human's became scarce and I begged Vama to stop the madness. She refused and I knew unlike her, I could. So I ended millions of vampire in a matter of hours to save the human race. I won't say what I did was right, but it was necessary.

The love of my life died in my arms. Vama understood why and knew she had been wrong; power had corrupted her.

After that, a new age dawned and new clans were established. I was crowned King and I ruled Kotowa for 53,000 years until three clans took it upon themselves to rebel, leading to war, and thus I knew I had no place in this world any longer. I was jaded and tired. Renouncing my throne, I abandoned the world I was born to. But you can't, you aren't like that Natasha.

I forced you into solitude to teach you to observe. But I knew eventually the world you were born from would slowly entice you towards it. In time, I knew you would find this, find my true identity and thus gain a broader prospective.

I wasn't born to rule like you were. I am a poor imitation of what you can become. You are powerful and you will come into this power. I have told you my story, the parts that needed revision at least.

Now that I have told you this. I must tell you what I have found. Hope is a dear friend I made many years ago and I learned she had been poisoned and thus knew that the man that has started a new group, the Silent Phantasma, is after me next.

So I came here and wrote this and the clues leading to it. I need you to understand that I can not save this world alone. This man wants only the purest of bloodlines to remain and he knows I'm his only obstacle. I can't be sure if he can kill me, but I know I can't allow him to get to you. He is pursuasive and extremely dangerous. If he ever found you as you are - so young - he could convince you that his thinking is right.

You are young Natasha, too young to truly understand how dangerous this world can be, but I fear you will learn so, as you gain years.

So I hope he gives you time, time to grow and age so you can fight him with a strong mind, because his is powerful. His name is Zoran Dracul, a cruel ruler of a dangerous clan. His mind is warped and in some ways I feel I was the culprit. He sees me as the ultamite weapon, the prize and I fear I will have to end my own existence in order for him not to gain the power he desires.

If you have found this Natasha, than I have died, failed to destroy him because of my own passive disinterest. Do not become like me, save this world. Because without you, it will be destroyed by a mad man.

I have faith in you, and I hope for you to become the light this darkened world needs. Diminish the shadow that lingers behind you, face the light and let it envelope you.

Your Friend,

Furlow Fideous Piru Marta...

July 24, 1803

I stare at the name, and remember the man. He was always so quiet, so unwilling to share his life before me, and now I knew why. Furlow was always so wise and yet disinterested until a few months before he died. Was it then he saw that I was a daywalker, an anomaly, a creature far superior to that of the vampire society?

Now that date became even more glaringly obvious. That was the day he died, the day I came home at sunrise and he had told me to run. His fear, no dread, now understandable. He knew what was about to happen long before I ever would.

Slowly I fold the paper and murmur, a slow burning anger stirring deep within, 'Zoran Dracul.'

So you have found me, a voice boomed into my mind so loud that I cover my ears and crumble to the ground with a cry of pain.

So young, it booms out inside me again, my eyes watering and my teeth gnashing from how this voice seemed to split my head open and little whispers come trickling in like water in a cracked bowl. Some hoarse, some young and old ring out with those words, Naive, beautiful, she is ours...

Standing up on shaky legs, I look around for the culprit. Was he here? How close? I need to run, as terror gripped my insides, twisting them. My legs are like rubber, I couldn't flee.

Dear child, do you actually think I would come to such a degrating place, the voice rings out again, but this time my mind is stone, as the whisperers after those booming words come forth, disgusting, vial, destroy it.

'So you are Zoran Dracul, leader of the Silent Phantasma,' I reply, looking around, suddenly feeling vulnerable among these isles of dead men's words. The silence of the masive room and darkened shadows among them glaringly stark.

You are frightened, so you should be. Oh the plans I have for you, Zoran speaks into my mind with glee, voice still like thunder ringing in my ears as my breathing quickens, the voices after giggling and cackling.

'What plans?' I call out, finding myself walking back towards people I knew were safe. I had to get away from this voice, this horror and fear that permeated my being.

You believe you are safe here? How naive. All you care about will be destroyed little one, and then you will beg for me,' Zoran says with merth and I hear the whisperers, friends, lovers, family too...

I could feel the color drain from my face as I stop at ths stairs leading deeper into this building of knowledge and I yell out as flashes of my family and lost friends burn across my vision, 'Leave my family out of it!'

Each step brings you closer, whisperers say with glee as the voice booms out in a happy tone, Run, little one, I will catch you no matter where you hide.

With that the hum I hadn't noticed in my head disappears and I collapse to the ground. The power of fear disappearing from me, the letter spilling out around me. My heart was racing like a train in my chest as I look up to see the dark entrance that lead down to the lineage room. The yellowed pages of the letter spilled out in front of me.

My breathing sounded like a windtunnel in my ears. I was hyperventilating, something I hadn't done since my childhood. Every instinct inside me told me to run, to hide, to find safety. Where was safety when he said there was nowhere he couldn't find me? My body shook with this horrifying knowledge.

Then just as quickly my breathing quieted as that power I had felt just yesterday slides back into place, like a well worn coat. Blinking, I murmur, 'So be it.'

With my hands still shaking, I pick up the pages of the letter, folding them precisely and replacing them in the envelope. Standing back up, my body so wobbly I grab the wall beside me. It took everything I had to push down the power, pull my emotions in check, fold the envelope, and place it in my pocket. Furlow's written words and voice ringing out, If you have a secret to keep, keep it...

No one could know about this yet, not yet. If they knew, something told me that Zoran would attack sooner. Closing my eyes, I focus on calm serenity. If Nick had felt my fear, he would come. I needed to have a lightness of heart, as if someone had jockingly scared me. I needed that to be his assumption.

But my only worry was if he could read my mind. We were indelibly linked and I couldn't let him know this. I had to keep the man I loved alive. Somehow, somehow I had to protect my ancestral family, the last of my human side alive.

Taking another steadying breath, I walk down the worn steps. I had a name that needed looking up.