It wasnt so long ago.No,In terms of time,it seems like just yesterday.But in all truth,it was many years ago.
Most hunters dont ask questions, questions get you killed. What good are questions?
But for those few,those rare few,questions make all the difference.
I had become a monster as you recall.
I went through Italy from France, following and stalking every vampire hunter and killing them in cold blood. None of my own kind dared to question me.I became known by Emili Winters, for my real name was not safe. The DeShard name was not safe, the clans were back . And I was damned,like many vampires.
I killed with no remorse, the pasison of my life was gone.
Elliot had betrayed me, and I would never forgive him.Even in death.And some how I hoped for hell, that he was burning in it.
I went through Eurpope killing bathing in the blood of the hunters that I crossed. Men, women, young, old. I killed them and their familys if they had any. For 200 years I ravaged the country side, I stalked,pounced and killed in dark corners my name was a whisper of fear and I enjoyed it. I became an animal, nothing less than that. Hunters feared me,every mortal feared me. They would not know me till I sprang,I seduced them, the men with ease, the women with promises of things they could not have. It was simple... too simple I felt like a god.
?Kill a man, and you?re an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you?re a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.?
I could see Elliot laughing at me as I gave in to it, the taste of human blood, the feeling of a young childs neck in my hands,the feeling of desire and pasison before and after a kill. I hunted the hunters and those they knew.I was untouchable even by the rouge clans, they even feared me now..
I was just like my fellow kinsmen,they were monsters hunting int he night,takign what they wanted when they wanted even when the hunger wasnt the only thing that drove them on. No, theres more than food,theres desrire too. A young woman can be much more to food to a male vampire, just like a young man can be more to a female vampire. But that was never any interest to me.
Every hunter knew me. My name was a whisper of fear,more fear than any other name. Emili Winters, But they all knew me then. Vanessa. True demon in all her glory. Never had the world seen one like me.
Hunters protect their own,many fight alone. But theirs a bond there. And for those who have families, more to loose. More for me or anyother vampire or demon to gain from that kill.
He could have killed me. You must understand that. Before I go any futher, he could have, he should have. By all rights a hunters life is full of death,the hard cold truth of it all. Destiny and all that. Most hunters pass the blood down through their families, a mother may pass it to a son, or a father to a daughter, but it is passed.Just like a sire makes a new play mate, a new vampire.
He was too late to save the woman,her son. She had been a hunter and the blood in him was strong, this I recall. They hated and loved me back then, vampires, my kinsmen. I killed hunters, and their families like goats to the gods sacaficed for their blood. Bathed in it. But They hated me too, I killed them,my own kind.Any who I crossed,all who I crossed. The clans were lucky, those lucky few, that band.
Theres something to be said about immortal blood. The way it tastes. Dark,powerful,exotic. It fills you up just the same as any other blood.
He came upon me,just as she died.Her son he was ten maybe,he was long dead. He had a stake in one hand, sword int he other.The whole stake thing,was a wonder to me,would it really kill me? I had heard some could be killed by it, and toher could not.Beheading though, that was a death for us, hell its death for anyone mortal or immortal. I was more worried about the sword.
He was young, they were all young.Hunters made in their youth, teenagers some.Some in their early twenties I never met one over thrity,short life. Short brutial life,full of blood and death,its always about blood, first and foremost. He was handsome, he had that dark charm most of the male hunters carried with them. The females were the same,dark dangerous,deadly as all hell. That look in their eyes, hard,cold stare of death,and behind it a hate, that rang so clear.
He was alone, like most hunters.They hardly ever banded together.Back then it was at least so true.Times changed... hunters changed, but I'll get to that later. His hair was long,like many of the men in that time,slicked back, dark brown. His eyes crystal and the softest shade of brown,with gold in them. He was the kind of man any woman might desire.It was the late 1800's as I recall, my tirade has lasted a long time, years in blood and shame and hate for what I was.The world had changed, but I had not.
"You really have done it now." His voice was firm,it travled far,his accent was loose,not a hint of frnech on it,italian I thought or maybe english,but not french. "Have you had your fair share yet?Or do you wish for more?" His arms he held out,as if offering himself to me.
I starred at him,whipping the blood from my lips, "another hunter come to kill me, well then lets see what you've got." In all truth I wasnt hungry,I had my fill of the blood and death at least for that night.
"Thats why I am here," He said stepping forward sheathing that stake in to his belt, and that sword along his back. He starred in to my eyes, I knew they must have been bright virbant violet.
"Your eyes.." He stated flatly,in all truth he seemed shocked. I can't say I balme him. When most vampires, least the lot that I knew then, feed their eyes are red, shades of ruby or crimson,from the blood lust. Mine have always become violet after a good meal, or even blue as they once were after a very good meal. I was different from my kin in that way,when I hunger my eyes are those shades of red,like a demons should be.
I could have snapped his neck, my feet were posied to move, I could have been gone out the window or even through the wall at that point. His death would have been easy, very easy. But I didnt strike,I did nothing but stare at him.
He took another step forward, a dangerous move for an unarmed man, even a hunter. "Your the one, the one I've heard talk about."
"Yeah." News traveled quickly even in those days, news was out about me, who I was what I did, and how I enjoyed things of this nature. Killing hunters then finding a nest of immortals to kill, that was next on my list. "I am the vampire who kills hunters then kills her own kind."
He shook his head, "waiting for someone to take you out?Or are you just bored. If you intend on taking out all the hunters in the world,I suppose I should be next." " I am not in the mood anymore, I have a nest to find. Maybe another night." He stepped to block my forward motion to leave, " Then I guess,I am going to have to stop you here and now,Vanessa." My brows perked at him, he knew my name it wasnt surpising, but it was how he said it. "You should kill me,I have killed countless humans, inncoents,that boy there,so many like him." He starred at me in to my eyes, " your right you have, but I can see in you eyes." He starred,deeply. "Your in pain,grieving. For loss,for love,for the lives you have taken thus far.Your also angry.But at your sire,and at yourself."
"Anger gets ya through." "No, anger will not last, it holds for only so long before it breaks.Then and only then you will see all the blood,yes the anger will pass."
"I am a monster,plain and simple." "Prove it then, kill me.I am unarmed." I looked in to his eyes and shook my head, "No,I won't"He nodded, "You were made a vampire by the one who changed you, but you still have control over what you do,your in charge of your soul.Your only a monster if you choose to be one."
"Who are you? Why are you helping me? I've killed hunters, humans,women and children, why are you helping me?"
"Yes I am a hunter, a mortal man,who knows what you have done.Its in your nature to hunt to kill. Cian Winters is my name,and I am helping you for two reasons. One, if you stop this blood bath now, you will become someone to be counted,I can see that in your eyes. Two, my family knew yours once."
Now my raven brows arched high under my wispy bangs, I looked at his face again, it did seem oddly familar to me. Then it hit me.
Before I had become an immortal, there was a fmaily who lived down the lane from my parents house, the Winters family.They were from London, they had ason, many year younger than I. The man before me, was the grandson of that boy. His name had been Liam, he ahd a fmaily and that fmaily had family and Cian was the direct line. Hunters they were all of them,the mother ,father,sister perhaps... someone passed it down.
"My family knew yours,my grandfather Liam before he was old and burried,talked of you much. Of how you were so kind to him,then when you married Elliot DeShard,something sprung up in him, a power he said that he couldnt fight.He knew all about your kind fromt here after, he had children and his daughter carried it over and she gave it to me. My mother you see, was very powerful,and she was killed, a few years back. I became a hunter then too. I found out about the DeShards, and all that had transpired, you seemed to disappear,I long thought you dead, till I heard the name Winters, being whispered about. I wondered for a long time why you would use that name."
I nodded, it dawned on me then why that name I had used. I had heard it was the name of a powerful family of hunters,and that it struck fear in immortals hearts, and that other hunters trusted it.. I had tainted it, that trust with their blood.
"It suits you,V Winters. My grandfather always did fancy you.." His voice was very smooth,like liquid gold. "He said to me when I was but a boy, ' If she lives still, she is not mortal any longer,Elliot would have seen to that. But it is likely that he being the bastard that he is, would have betrayed her by now. If you find her one day my boy, remind her who she is..' My father spent years looking for you, and came up with only the heads of the clans, yet not Nate or Vlad. "
"I went to London for a few hundred years." He nodded to that , " The pain you feel ,its in your soul.Do not think you lost it to the devil, no you gained it when you lived off animal blood and did no harm to huamns, but now that soul is bathed in innocent blood. Thats why your in pain, I see it in your eyes. Your not like the DeShards or the clans, or any other immortal, for if you were I'd be dead now.If you can find a way back to what you were,you'll be rid of the pain, and perhaps become a good person behind the vampire."
I knew he was right, yet I only nodded. "You can change."
He left me there, with much to think about. I then reisned my self to the cliffs along the italian sea.I lived in that hole for a hundred years and change, feeding only on the animals that passed my way.I wept for the inncoent,and cursed my maker and his family. When I came out it was day light and I bathed in it,wishing that all the myth was true that the sun would kill me, it just stung my eyes. I wandered back to France then, and stayed for a while till the 1900's had passed. When the day was new, and cars ran the streets,and I the ancient walked the slowly thinning forest otuside of Marsay, I fell in to Rhydin. It is now 2009. It seems in the passing of worlds, time moved, for when I walked in Marsay it was barely 2007,so two years had passed in the fall in to the power I know now as the nexus.
Rhydin greated me, with its old world flare and new world technoligoy, radios,cars and guns. Yet the old world reamined in sword,satke, and cloak.
I have met many hear from the earth relam, and a few from france, one it seems from even before my time. Time seems so fluid now...
I can leave Nosgoth at mid day and be in Rhydin before the sun has set. The power of magic flows here as it never did in France, I never saw it as I see it now. Cian was right, I choose my path. And no longer do I bathe in that blood, repented and weeped for it, and will make due payment for all thsoe lives I once took.
I know by now Cians annestors must live in the new world, a new line of hunters living in the citys of New York or Chicago. The great citys where vampires live and are born. There are my kin here as well, different kinds of them, old world,new world. Some kill here,I have stopped them my self, some do not. It seems I am not the only one witha soul or conscience.
But I carry the name Winters with me. It has been mine for so long even before I recalled Thomas, that which was my brth name But I am not that person any more... perhaps I am just Vanessa. Or maybe it is that I hope to be Vanessa Walsh. Even vampires can dream..