not want to be disturbed.”
“Should I take my gun?”
“No, I will give you one.”
They went out to the backyard one more time and Alejandro gave him a small box.
Guillem opened it. It contained what must be the oldest gun he had ever seen in his life.
“Where did you get this relic from?”
“It is a flintlock double pistol in perfect condition. Nice eh?”
“Nice? Yes. In a museum, maybe I should use my weapon.”
“Little princess, you cannot understand the beauty of that weapon. It has way more history than you will ever have, so stop complaining. Here, this is how you use it.” He said showing him how to reload it by preparing the powder and inserting the bullet and powder down the barrel. “Now let's see how you hide it in your self.”
“Hide it?” Guillem placed it in his pocket, but it was too big. “What are you talking about? If I had my coat I could hide it under there.”
“Sebastian told me you want to learn the basics of supernatural stealth. Hiding something like this is the most basic and useful trick you can learn, you just need to practice. There is more power in your blood than anything a magician will ever be able to do. When you master it, no one will be able to find it as long as it is hidden in your person. Now, keep trying until you manage to do it.”
He gave Guillem a couple of hours to practice and then said.
“Enough. Let's practice some gun play. Follow me.” Alejandro led him to a small paint ball field in the far end of the backyard with a few trees, bushes and other artificial obstacles. “Go to that side. Hey! Sound the bell in a minute.” He yelled to someone. “Be ready to start little princess, I am going to kick you pretty ass.”
“But, we are just playing right? I could kill you, I have already used a gun and I was not so bad, besides you explained to me a gun does not hurt me so much.”
“I could still destroy your hand or shoot you in the head, your brain still works, doesn't it?. Give me your best shot.” Alejandro said smiling.
As soon as the bell rang Guillem hid between some bushes and carefully aimed and fired at Alejandro hitting him. He fired once more and noticed that Alejandro was shooting blindly because he did not know where Guillem was located. Guillem took his time to reload, aim and fire as much as he could while he had the advantage over Alejandro. By the time Alejandro found him Guillem was pretty sure he was quite hurt, it was not long before Alejandro stopped returning fire. Guillem had received a couple of shots, but he barely felt them, he commanded his blood to repair the damage done to his body as he had done before.
“Alejandro?” Guillem yelled. “Are you ok?”
Since there was no answer he got up and started running to the place he last saw Alejandro hiding, he had just ran a few meters when suddently in front of him appeared Sebastian, howling in anger and brandishing a wooded stake, with a quick movement he stabbed Guillem in the chest with it. As the stake ran through his heart his body became unresponsive and made him go back to the same dream of drowning.
When Guillem opened his eyes Sebastian was standing above him with the stake on his hands and a huge hole open in Guillem's chest where the stake was before.
“You will learn NOT to humiliate me in front of my slaves. Now you are in my solarium and I am sure you will enjoy it!”
Guillem was lying on the floor, he tried getting up, but he was chained by his ankles and wrists to the floor, his left arm's fingers were immobilised as well.
“YOU ARE A PREDATOR! Alejandro and everybody else is just game to you, you have to remember that!” Sebastian yelled at him.
“Why did you do that? Are you crazy?” Said Guillem while he forced his blood to fix his body as much as possible, but all he managed to do was improve his wounds slightly before he got too hungry to continue.
“Crazy? Maybe... But you you will learn this lesson. You are my child and you will behave properly, from now on NO more compassion for anyone inferior to you. Neither Alejandro nor the little ladies you are so fond of using for pleasure deserve anything from you. I am YOUR sire and my public image rides with you, I will accept NO LESS than your complete obedience and I demand you to behave like the predator you are from now on!”
“You are crazy, let me go!” Said Guillem fighting to free himself, but he could not break the chains keeping him immobilised.
“See? Can you see yourself?” Said Sebastian showing him a little mirror.
“No? Because you are no longer a simple mortal! I know you will remember the stake through your heart forever, but I am going to make sure to engrave this lesson on you.” He said as he moved away from him.”
A small door in the ceiling started to slide to the side leaving a small round hole.
“Now you will feel how much fear you are now capable of feeling. You will understand that you are no longer a simple mortal!”
“Do not do this Sebastian!” Said Guillem agitated then he closed his eyes and started praying, trying to control himself.
A few hours passed, Guillem kept praying. Until finally he felt the sun started coming up and a small beam of sun light came through the roof hole hitting a few centimetres away from his left hand.
“You have to be kidding, right? Sebastian? You made me! I am sure you do not want to destroy me now!”
“Let me go... Come on Sebastian! LET ME GO!” The light was about to reach his fingers.
The light touched two of his fingers and it started burning his skin so intensely that he had to use all of his self control to keep all the fear building within himself from overcoming him. He felt as his fingers disintegrated as the sun touched them.
“Sebastian, you made your point! LET ME GO NOW!”
The small door started sliding back and deflecting away the beam of sun light. Guillem felt how his body stopped responding sending him one more time into the Guaire river, alive and drowning, trapped once again in a nightmarish cycle.
Finally he opened his eyes, Sebastian was leaning over him. Guillem felt in his mouth the taste of the most exquisite blood he had tried in the past few days. Sebastian had a small wound in his wrist. He was smiling and for some reason Guillem did not feel mad at Sebastian for the last events.
“Hello Guillem.”
“What time is it?”
“8pm.”
“What day?”
“Just one day after our little discussion, I have one small extra lesson for you. How does my blood taste?”
“Exquisite, I have not tried anything that tasted so exquisite so far.”
“Well, that taste you love so much will make you addicted if you are weak. Another beautiful side effect is that the more you drink it, the more your reason will cloud and you will find yourself thinking about me. You will obsess with making me happy and doing anything I order you to do and only my wishes will give meaning to your existence.” Then his face changed to a demoniacal grin. “I am sure after tasting my blood I do not look so bad to you, do I? Keep causing me trouble and I will force you to drink more of my blood. It would be tragic to have to do something like that though, I want you to keep your independence as much as possible, otherwise you would no longer be useful. I will keep watching you. Now feed and cure yourself. After you do it the girls will take you to see me, I will be waiting for you.”
“What about my hand?” Guillem said looking at the missing fingers on his left hand, instead of the fingers he had a nasty burn.
“Cure the wound and by tomorrow night your fingers will grow back.”
Guillem got up and saw as two of the girls entered the room pulling another cart with another vagabond, he drank from the guy until leaving him almost dry and then they brought another one, they did this a few more times until he managed to cure his wound which proved to be exceedingly difficult to repair. Then one of the girls took him to Sebastian, in the way he kept thinking about his feelings and what he had just told him a about his blood. He was not angry about last night's events, was that the
blood affecting him his mind? Should he be mad instead?
They went down another stair to a second basement, only this time it was what seemed like a torture chamber, there were many machines he had seen in movies and some small prison cells with chained and face down vagabonds, everything was very humid and dirty. In the middle of the chamber he saw Alejandro hanging from the ceiling by chains attached to his wrists, he was unconscious and looked older than the last time he saw him. Sebastian was standing next to Alejandro with a whip in his right hand.
“Here, take this whip and show me you have learned something from our last conversation.” Sebastian said as he handed it to him. “You know what you have to do.”
“Yes Sebastian.” Said Guillem, he whispered to himself “I am sorry Alejandro” and holding the whip in his right hand he started whipping Alejandro's back. The pain made him come back to his senses, but he still did not complain at all.
Guillem kept whipping Alejandro for over half an hour until Sebastian finally stopped him.
“Enough, that will teach him to never let his guard down again.” Sebastian approached Alejandro and cutting a small wound in his wrist fed him a drop of his blood. Now Guillem, go away and enjoy the rest of the night.
Later that night Sebastian send a girl to bring him to a small chapel in the basement where he was praying. When he arrived Sebastian asked his servants to bring in an old television which he turned on, there was a late news show being replayed at that moment.
“The