“Thank you. It’s hard, but I think we will better understand by experiencing it this way.”
Once they return to the family room with a tray of drinks for everyone, Eliza encourages Alexander to finish.
Alexander continues right where he left off.
***
Everything around me was starting to go dark, and I was growing weak. I no longer had the strength to go on, to survive. That is when I heard their voices: two men and two women who told us everything would be okay. “Here...drink this. It will help,” one of the females said. It was thicker than water and had a strange taste, difficult to explain. It was sweet like nectar, so refreshing and so good. As I drank, I began feeling stronger. I opened my eyes to find myself drinking from her wrist, drinking her blood. I looked for my injured sister and saw she was doing the same. I couldn’t understand why we were drinking her warm blood, pumped right from her veins, without being mortified at the idea. I couldn’t fathom how it could taste so good.
Suddenly the two men grabbed us and carried us away with no effort at all, as if we weighed no more than a feather. They took us back to their cottage to heal and I wondered why they didn’t take us to a hospital instead. It did not take long for us to transform and heal, but we did spend several weeks at the cottage, I don’t really remember much of our first days there. Little by little, our saviors explained what had happened to us. We learned that their names were Elijah, Florence, Isaac, and Constance, and they were vampires.
They had explained that a rebel vampire (even vampires rebel against their parents) had attacked us. They had been trying to hunt him down and stop him for a while, but they were always just a few moments late. That is how they found us, because they were out looking for him. Constance also had a vision of our special abilities and of us joining their family, so when they found us and realized we were the ones she had seen, they completed the Embrace and began to teach us their ways.
***
“See, some mortals have special qualities they are unaware of,” he explains, looking at the girls. “There are also a few who are aware of their abilities. When one with such abilities becomes a vampire, this ability grows and strengthens. For instance, if a person is a good judge of character as a mortal, they might be able to see others’ intentions very clearly as an immortal. Does that make sense?” The two coming-of-age witches nod silently, encouraging him to go on with his tale.
***
Throughout the next few weeks, Elijah and his family provided us with the blood we needed to survive, animal blood, just until our transformation was completed and we could learn to feed ourselves. Our broken bones healed in mere days, and the bruises and cuts were miraculously gone in only a few hours. Everything we needed to stay alive slowed. Our hearts slowed beating, and I noticed we did not need to breathe as much and would sometimes go long periods without taking a breath. We started to lose our appetite for human food and gain an appetite for blood. At this point we don’t have our day crystals yet, and to digest human food can be painful, similar to those with lactose intolerance or celiac disease. Thanks to the day crystal your family blessed for us, it is possible to ingest food, although for us it has no nutritional value. Vampires are not dead like most myths believe, we are the undead. We still require the basic necessities to survive; it is just much harder to kill us, because of our healing abilities. And we don’t age, so that we can always look good to attract or prey.
Being thirsty was a difficult new experience. A horrible pounding would start in our heads, a burning in our throats, noses, and guts. As our fangs began to emerge, our jaws ached. We became very irritable; I remember feeling as though I could have ripped someone’s head off if they so much as glanced at me wrong. This is the best way to describe bloodlust, and why they kept us inside. That way they could teach us to control our thirst and prevent us from harming anyone the way we had been hurt.
***
“We still can get like that now, but we learned very quickly not to let it get to that point. After more than a century, we know how to control our thirst and are usually good at ensuring we do not experience it while we are around mortals. We try to avoid compromising situations that might tempt us to harm anyone to satisfy our needs, but we are occasionally tempted to drink, and in those cases, we have to control our natural urges,” Alexander adds to his memory before continuing.
***
Sophia and I began to notice other changes as well. We began sleeping less and less, as we don’t require more than a few hours, but there’s not much else to do when the sun is out. We began gaining incredible strength and speed, and we became so light on our feet that we could sneak up on each other. That only worked for a short amount of time, though, because we were soon equipped with super hearing. Our amplified hearing could be enough to drive a man insane, and it was one enhanced skill we had to quickly learn to control. We became photosensitive, to the point that the sun would burn us, which was extremely painful. Our physical appearances began to change slightly as well. Our skin lightened to a flawless porcelain shade. We also began to expel extra pheromones that would help attract prey, making us irresistible. Our eyes were a bright red color with a dark ring around the iris. They were not as dark as our attacker’s, but they were red nonetheless. This improved when our thirst was controlled, and our eyes returned to their normal color. The only time they turned red again was when our thirst or bloodlust returned.
During the evenings, our new family taught us how to use all our newfound powers and super senses. They taught us how to survive and thrive in our new lives, if you could call them “lives” anymore. We were shown how to improve our reflexes, how we could run faster than anything creature on Earth and not hit a single thing while doing it. We could do almost anything: scale walls, climb, jump great distances, or even swim across the ocean. We learned to use every corner of our minds. Most mortal’s use only ten percent, but we use between eighty and hundred percent at any given time. We learned about the power of persuasion, and we became more powerful than anyone could ever imagine.
It may not sound so bad so far, but it is. Really, we are nothing more than monsters with a bloodlust–a need to kill. We are doomed to spend our eternity on Earth, and every day of that eternity, we must fight a war against our own instincts so that we do not harm anyone. We need blood, and we crave the blood of humans. Animal blood will never satisfy us the way human blood does, nor does it keep us as strong. To make matters worse, we can smell the blood pumping through human veins and hear their hearts beating. We can also sense the pulse and the blood flow of animals, but it is just not quite as tantalizing as those of humans. Elijah’s clan, or “family,” as we call it, taught us that we don’t have to be monsters. We can live civilly and be invaluable members to society. We learned how to combine animal and human blood into meals that satisfy us and keep us strong, all without causing harm to humans.
Once we were strong enough, we traveled Europe for a few years, trying to find a place to call home. Our new family continued to teach us every day, and we learned about the six traditions. These are a sort of vampire law that a council of vampires came up with so we could live civilly amongst the mortals. We decided to try North America since that was where Constance saw us settling. Once we arrived in America, we began our search to find a better way of existing, and we ended up in Salem.
It was there that I found Matilda or Mati as we now try to call her. She was being held prisoner, and the mayor at the time believed she was a practicing witch. Although persecution was no longer practiced, he was determined to destroy her. He had done things to her against her will, and she threatened to tell his wife and the town. The vengeful mayor conjured up a story and brought back some planted evidence from the Salem witch trials. The townspeople all turned on her and prepared to burn her at the stake. Constance was convicted in 1899, centuries after the Salem witch trials that took place in 1692, where twenty people were executed by hanging. Many people still believed that witches e
xisted and they were correct. Therefore, they continued to execute anyone who they determined was a witch, and since Mati looked very similar to one of the women who was convicted in 1692, people believed her to be the reincarnated soul. This made the mayor’s revenge even easier. They may have been correct about some, but many of the women hanged during the trials were not actually witches.
In an attempt to save herself from a horrible, painful death, she tried to hang herself.
She was almost dead, and her mortal body was beyond saving (due to the lack of medical advancements at the time), but I needed her; I knew she was meant for me.
When I bit her neck to allow the venom to enter her system, close to her heart, it was the most wonderful thing I had ever tasted. I did not want to stop, but knew I had to if she was going to join us. As difficult as it was, I pulled myself away before draining her of too much blood, and then I bit my own wrist and gave her a drink of my own blood to complete the Embrace. We took her to our settlement to begin her transformation and teachings right away.
After we got Mati to our settlement and trained her, we continued our search for help. This was difficult because we could only go out at night. We began looking for a mystical witch we had heard about. She helped our kind, but she had rules as to whom she would help. We spent years searching for her and finally found her in the 1930’s.
About ten years earlier, we had found Caspian. Caspian was eternally twenty-two when we found him, and he had already been a vampire for about 200 years. Caspian told us he was tired of living alone, feeding off any poor soul that crossed his path. He had been trying to live like us, off animals, but he was having trouble and needed support. He joined our family, and we supported him and helped him through the transition.
Caspian did well, but it was difficult at times because he had already tasted so much human blood that it tempted him all the time. The meals Florence prepared helped slightly, but there is no taste like the fresh feed. We kept a close eye on him, knowing he was a member of our family and he had good intentions. He was a good addition to our family because he taught us things and brought a new insight, as only Elijah and Florence were older as vampires. They were both about 350 years old when they found us. Isaac and Constance had joined them about 100 years before us, and they all had something to teach Sophia, Mati, and myself.
The mystical witch we found in the 1930’s was Ms. Edwina’s mother. We told her and her young daughter, your grandmother, our story. We had passed her test, for we have been surviving on animal blood and donated human blood since 1894, when Sophia and I became vampires–the rest of them even longer. Although we did have a few slip-ups in the beginning with some evil beings, we truly tried our hardest to abstain from all mortals. Caspian was the only exception, as he had only been “pure”
for about fifteen years minus the occasional slip-up.
The witch knew this was true because of your Grams, for even as a young girl, she was able to detect honesty. Ms. Edwina did not know it yet, but her mother knew how to tell by the reactions she gave. She was a bit concerned about Caspian but trusted that with our help he could remain pure.
Your great grandmother agreed to help us and provided our family with a mystical gem we wear in our jewelry. It is a rare black diamond called veneficus lamia sol solis partonus, which is Latin for “magickal vampire sun protector,” but we just call it our
“day crystal.” Your great grandmother placed a spell on it that allows us protection that not many other vampires have.
***
“That’s pretty much it,” Alexander says. “What do the day crystals do for you exactly?” Ebony asks.
“With the protection of the day crystal, we can live similar to mortals. It enables us to walk in the daytime and eat human food without an ill feeling. It also raises our body temperature to something that can seem a bit more normal–still cooler than mortals, but not as cold as ice. Our eyes are not blood-red like those of most vampires, and they remain the original color until we become hungry or smell blood, at which time they will turn red or black, sometimes they can change in accordance to our moods as well.
The day crystals also help decrease our cravings for human blood. When we are wearing them, holy water, various herbs and garlic cannot harm us, under normal circumstances these things don’t really hurt a vampire, but make them week or ill.
Everything the day crystal provides us, keeps us from being detected as easily, though there are some vampire traits that still apply.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for starters, we do not age and are immortal. Wooden bullets can slow us down and are harder to heal from than other injuries, but we can be killed with stakes and all the normal things that kill a vampire. Although the best way to destroy a vampire is to behead and burn before the body heals, although if a major life function such as the heart, or brain function cease the vampire will die. We have to be invited into a person’s home before we can enter. Also, we have to be cautious and fight the urge to drink human blood, as the day crystal just decreases our cravings, and we still have the need. It is more difficult around open wounds, and it takes a lot of practice.
That is why it is so amazing that Isaac and Constance are doctors. They deal with it regularly and are always expose to blood. Anyway, I hope all this helps you understand us a little better,” Alexander says.
“Sure does,” Ebony says.
“Well girls, that is pretty much our story and how we became involved with your family. We have been living amongst the mortals civilly since about 1935. Your Grams was only about five years old when we first met. She did not know of her gift of honesty until she was older, but mothers always know their children, so her mother knew and could tell as long as Ms. Edwina was in the room. We have remained allies with your family ever since. Although it has been over twenty years since we last saw one another, we have a strong bond and remain in touch through letters,” he finishes.
“Wow,” says Eliza. “Just...wow.”
Chapter Fifteen
Book of Shadows
“I hope you are not too freaked out over this. I think we can all be great friends now that we know the truth about each other,” Matilda suggests.
“Yeah. It will be nice to have full disclosure with someone outside of our family,” I admit, glancing over at Ebony.
She smiles and replies, “It will be nice to have someone we can trust with our family secrets. I would be up for trying to be friends, as long as you don’t like witch blood.”
We all begin laughing.
“Nah. It’s a little too bitter for my liking,” Isaac jokes.
“I was just wondering where Caspian went. You said he left?” Eliza asks.
“Well, that is a whole story of its own, but the condensed version is that he fell in love with a mortal. They became very close and decided to become intimate. Caspian could not control himself, and in the end, he accidentally killed her. It upset him so much that he decided to run away. He gave us his day crystal and left. It all happened about thirty years ago. Last we heard, he was in Inuvik, Canada,” Elijah says as he shares a pained glance with Florence.
“Wow. That must have been horrible for all of you.” she replies with sympathy.
“It is always difficult to lose a family member, but he lost so much more in her death. We hope to find him and have him rejoin our family one day,” Florence admits.
Ms. Edwina rises from her chair and heads to her private office down the hall. When she returns, she is carrying a large leather-bound book. I notice the book has hundreds of pages; all old parchment with some smudged gold edging, and on the cover, there is a triquetra symbol. Both of the girls perk up with excitement when she addresses them.
“Girls, now that you are old enough and have some understanding, this belongs to the two of you now. This is your Book of Shadows. Anything you may need is in here. If and when you come across something that is not in here, add it for future generations.
Study t
his and learn it, for this book will teach you and give you a few surprises too.
You can also learn about those before you, as there is history in these pages, so make sure to add some notes about yourselves as well,” Ms. Edwina explains.
“Really? What kind of spells does it have?” Ebony asks.
“Anything you can imagine, my dear. You must always remember though that you must never use any magick to improve your life or make things better, easier, wealthier, or happier for yourselves. That would be considered personal gain or black magick, and being self-serving with your craft can prove very dangerous. You must only use magick to help others.”
Ebony releases a smirk from the corner of her mouth. “So I can’t use it to deal with that awful girl at school? That really sucks.”
In a very stern and intimidating tone, Mrs. Edwina looks at the girls and says,
“Ebony Triggs, this is no joking matter. Can you not understand that magick is serious?
I trust you girls, and Wenham needs you.”
“I’m sorry, Grams. I was just kidding. I would never do anything to disgrace you like that–even though, that Mel is her own kind of witch most of the time. You and Eliza are all I have. I am serious about receiving this information and great power, and I am ready to help people however I can.”
“I am glad to hear that. Now both of you girls come here.”
The two girls stand in front of their Grams, ready to receive the power that is rightfully theirs. As they reach for the Book of Shadows together, the triquetra symbol in the center of the cover illuminates with a green glow, and when they both touch the book, everyone in the room can see the energy that flows from the tome to each girl.