• I lingered before the secluded abode, girdled by pine forests hailing the arrival of the cool northern wind. Evergreen needles danced from their twigs. Wrinkled branches were oars that rowed the frantic air. Into the lavish yet stinking parlour I strode, clutching a book and pen in my hands. I knelt gingerly before the source of the revolting stench – lifeless corpse.

    ‘A jawless, Caucasian female corpse in her mid-twenties, dressed in a bloody nightgown lay sprawled on the carpet.’ Black ink scrawled over a blank page of the book as I bore a measuring stare upon the sight. Gazing from a pool of blood was my reflection, an average-looking lad who was too young to be a detective, presumably.

    The rustle of the forests still reached my ears, echoing the presages of a hailstorm between the blood-splattered walls of the abode. Footsteps wrung my attention to the corridor beyond the doorway. Relief rippled through me as my apprentice trudged her lissom feet reluctantly across the floorboards. Nevertheless, concern replaced relief after a brief scrutiny upon her pale, alabaster face. I obeyed my first impulse, thus had crossed the few steps between us and enfolded her in my arms, indulging myself in a personal moment of bliss. Before any words of solace were spoken, alas, I was attacked.

    An inhuman force threw me towards a far end of the parlour. Hitting full-length into the wall had caused me to bleed profusely. Immense pain surged through my body, rendering me helpless as an infant for what seemed like hours. Reminiscence brought into my mind an image of the intruder dragging my apprentice away from me in haste. Ivryl Bellissa, my dear apprentice, whom had never known of my love for her. My heart ached for Ivryl’s return despite the excruciating throb of pain felt in my head. The corpse twitched.

    My frown deepened as an eerie chocking sound emanated from its throat, followed by a fountain of blood. Suddenly it clicked. Pieces of puzzle gathered into a whole. The kidnapper was a vampire. The corpse was turning into a vampire. The odds of rescuing Ivryl in my mortal state were negligible. An asinine notion surfaced from my thoughts. All pain forgotten, I snatched a table knife from the kitchen to finish the reviving corpse off, and then pressed the blade into my flesh. At that very moment our blood mixed, my entire body convulsed involuntarily, keeling over before the last strand of consciousness slipped away.

    Regaining alertness, I grimaced as a familiar scent stung the back of my sensitive nose. My tongue tasted fangs in my mouth. Yet I resisted the onrush of lust for blood as my worry for Ivryl’s safety raged within my chest. I inhaled sharply as her scent registered around me. Without further ado, I dashed from the abode and fled westward into the forests, closing in on the trail of my sweetheart’s scent.

    Driven by sheer will power, I followed my new senses beyond a cave’s dim maw. Through the labyrinthine caverns I came up to a grand chamber. I was nigh on swooning over the intense, telltale breath of Ivryl’s existence somewhere nearby.

    ‘You’ve changed,’ a dark voice snarled.

    I dropped into a guarded crouch by instinct, studying the distant figure intently.

    ‘The lass’ mine,’ the demonic vampire hissed.

    I stared into my own murderous eyes, ruby red as they should be after altering oneself into a bloodsucking monster. Mirthless growls escaped from me. A hunter after the hunted, he stalked forward languidly till both were within striking distance, each betraying no expression yet knowing with acute precision that either could reach the other within a single, effortless leap. The stale air was dead as two statuesque bodies tensed, alert. A rat scuttled hurriedly behind me, followed by the hollow sound of a skull spinning on the floor. It stopped; he sprang forward.

    I dodged then immediately regained balance. Attacking and parrying, our feet barely touched the ground. I whirled around and landed a deft blow on the vampire, shooting him a murderous glare. As did I when he first attacked me, the vampire slammed full-length against a wall but with such a force the chamber caved in and crushed his bones to dust.

    My heart twisted into agony, for beyond the rubble, was Ivryl, her wrists handcuffed onto the wall of a now-ruined chamber no larger than a coop. I flitted irately across the rubble to release her from the cuffs, ripping the metal confines viciously till they screeched in protest, yet leaving her velvety skin unscathed.

    Thou held me in thine embrace,
    render one’s breath cease to phase,
    fervently our fingers laced,
    reason threatened to efface;
    thy lips meld with mine in ways,
    lustful fire lunged into race,
    thy soft lips a sensual case,
    nonetheless I backed a pace.

    Raw hunger for blood so fresh,
    flowing twixt warm mortal flesh,
    my soft voice deemed never good,
    taint the trees to baneful mood;
    to me thy tears hath confide,
    thy soft voice arousing lilt,
    ‘Let me in thy life abide,
    devour my blood without guilt’