The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(10)

The most horrible dread crashed into me. My men—all dead. All skewered as if they were no more than children. All ripped apart, devoured, by these despicable creatures.

“What are you?” I whisper.

“Not what,” the woman rasps. “But who.”

She brings her bloodied lips to my ear. “I am the witch you have come to destroy. I am Morgan Soren. But my powers have grown beyond your imagining. No longer will you pitiful humans be a threat to my kind. For now…” she touched a spot on my neck, making me recoil in disgust, “…it will do me great pleasure to show you what it’s like to be as I am.”

Her head whips forward and she sinks her fangs into my neck.

All the world goes dark.



***



I wake up with my hands bound to the sides of my body. My head is heavy. Thinking is… difficult.

How am I still alive?

The last thing I remember is that blasted creature lunging for my neck. I was sure I was dead, just like the rest of my men.

But now…

What twist of fate has kept me alive?

I fight through the grogginess and do a check of my body.

It’s hard to tell at first, but I don’t think anything is broken. Considering the despicable way I saw the mass of creatures rip my men apart, it astounds me that I’m still in serviceable shape.

Eighteen dead. One alive. Why me?

It has to be because I’m the Lord Commander. But whatever advantage these witches think keeping me alive will bring them, they are sorely wrong.

There’s a stiffness in my neck. That seems to be the only injury I’ve sustained.

I look around the room. Where am I?

Everything is dark. It’s also cold. We’re obviously far from the middle of the inferno.

I push against my bonds, testing them for a weakness. But I’m tied tight. The only way I’ll be let out is if they decide to release me.

I snort in disbelief at my own thoughts. Release me? They’ve probably only kept me alive to torture me and get information out of me about The Vorcellian Order.

I’ll never give them that. There is a sacredness to who we are and what we do that will ensure I will never give our secrets away.

“Kill me, then, witches,” I hiss. “Because I will never give up who I am.”

A voice in the darkness shocks me by answering. “Unfortunately, Lord Commander, you already have.”

From behind me walks the same creature who I thought had ended my life.

Immediately, I tense. How had I not sensed her presence?

It’s because of the heaviness, I tell myself. It’s dulling my senses.

But deep down, I know that isn’t true. I didn’t hear her… because she wasn’t breathing.

“What are you?” I whisper as she steps around me. “Where are we? What do you want?”

“I want to make you understand what it is to feel fear,” she answers. “I want you to know what it’s like to be hated and reviled. I want you to see the falseness of your Order and everything you stand for. But most of all, my darling…” she leans into me, tracing a nail along my bare chest. “…I want to see you burn.”

I keep my face strong, and I stare into her malevolent eyes.

“You wouldn’t have kept me alive for that,” I say.

“Oh,” she laughs. “How wrong you are.”

“I know how your mind works, witch,” I snarl. Hatred pulses through me at being so close to her kind. “You can’t deceive me. I know what you are.”

“You think you know?” She laughs again. Then she steps away and considers.

“Your world is small, Lord Commander. Your beliefs are what limit you. Beliefs in your God, in sins of the flesh, in the rightful order of creatures…”

She trails off. “In the morning, when the sun rises, you will learn what you truly are. And you will discover what your persecution of those different from you has cursed you to become.”

She turns and leaves without another word.



***



For hours, I remain in the dark, counting down the moments until my death.

I’m now certain that death is imminent. Death by fire. They are preparing my body for it.

I haven’t been given food or water. They want to starve me first. They want me to feel the desperation before being given into the flames.

But surprisingly, I do not feel the pervading weakness that indicates a lack of nourishment. There’s a distant type of thirst, deep inside my body, and it’s both stronger and more subtle than any I’ve felt before. But I feel it lower than on my parched lips. I feel it down in the whole of me. I feel it in my chest, in my gut, in my torso and loins and legs.

It’s not something that mere water can fix.

What is happening to me?