Blood & Power [Book One of The City of Eternity Series] [✔]

1.4: Surreptitious

I'd participated in a few more fights before I'd given up my need to spar. I hadn't been satisfied with the level of abuse I'd been given, barely amassing a few gashes and cuts on my face. I'd made my way up the concrete steps from the lower floor and walked straight out the front door.

I looked up and down the street but wasn't looking for anything in particular. The light in the sky would keep the majority of the vampires off of the street, which meant my morning walks would often be alone and peaceful. There was something about being able to be here that did something to me. I had been underground for centuries which allowed the world to pass me by.

While vampires could theoretically live amongst humans previously, it proved to be a difficult task - given the burning in sunlight and desire to feed on any human neck that passed us by. Some time ago, when many vampires held status, monetary worth and conviction they established small, functional bases underground. Then, as a species, when we realised humans had developed too much knowledge of us for us to live freely, we'd resigned to rest in them, performing the same unlucrative tasks we do now out of sight of their prying eyes.

It seemed to be a dying circle; when we were free up here we wanted to return, and when we were stuck down there, we wanted nothing more than to be up here.

I'd made my way to a small, serene park in the middle of this area that was often used for city celebrations. Even now the park had the lingering string of fairy lights strewn over the various tall trees that I imagined had been from the last festival.

I found myself walking while looking at my feet. The sky was painting itself in brilliant hues of red and pink and casting a blanket of warm light splendour onto the city. The sharp branches of the bare trees were standing tall against the colour, allowing them to bleed into my mind. The darkness of the night had given up in its fight and parted ways to allow the day to take its place.

I stumbled through the new onset of snow, the previous paths we'd carved out being filled in the early snow. The sky mocked a fresh batch of white to fill the gaps I was currently creating. The sun had peaked its head over the wall, filling the sky with a blaze of light. As this sunlight travelled up my body I had grimaced and shaken; the habitual reaction to the sun that I hadn't quite left behind. I'd been safe from the sun for a long time, but the scars of its touch would lay on my mind until I eventually ceased to exist.

Before the emergence had taken over this city, and the witches had shut themselves off from the rest of us I had requested the immunity all of us desperately craved. One of the only perils the world had left to offer in exchange for "this crime against nature" as Central had put it, was the sun. A vampire in contact with direct sunlight would be incapacitated for several minutes before burning away. It was a long, painful process that all of us feared.

Several attempted spells by witches I had previously bonded with had finally granted me the immunity I wished for. If only I could find the witch that had managed to do it for me; I imagine I would be in a happier place than I am now. She had left me as one of the few that could happily walk around as a human would. It was a subtle pleasure to be able to abandon one of the blatant flaws of this existence; it made me feel closer to humanity in a way. Like I hadn't completely thrown away my soul despite the many years that had gone by since the venom had pierced it.