Is It Love? Stories - Conrad

Mini-Series: Conrad - Chapter 1 (EN)

What am I doing in this hallway, inside these walls that look so familiar to me?

"Nao! Where are you?"

I glance around the empty space, repeating my friend's first name in vain.

My voice echoes back to me, without any response. Oh, I don't like this one bit!

I feel like I really need to get out of here right away! Otherwise, "he" will find me... The vampire from whom I've been hiding for a whole year now already...

No sooner have I ventured a few steps down the long, narrow hallway that I freeze.

My eyes fall on the doors to Viktor's study and to the former bedrooms of my vampire sister and myself.

Just standing outside those imposing carved wooden door makes my stomach tie itself into a knot. I am terrified to be so close to the one who's hunting me.

Is he in his study right now? Was it he, my maker, the Prince of Darkness, who drew me here?

If my vampire heart could beat, it would be on the verge of exploding inside my chest, right about now.

Suddenly the door to Viktor's office opens! I jump, startled.

All my senses are on high alert. Quick, I need a hiding place, but I don't see one!

Oh, it's not Viktor walking through the door, but another Original vampire, whose mere presence makes me freeze from head to toe.

Conrad... Seeing him again is like a slap in the face. Fast, powerful, overwhelming.

His eyes meet mine at once, and they're giving off something intense.

I lose myself in his steely blue eyes. Conrad is a truly magnificent vampire.

He's simply breathtaking, even more beautiful than I remember.

"Elena..."

He calls me by the alias I gave him when I first arrived here, in a sensual whisper that has me mesmerized immediately.

As he takes a step forward in my direction, I step back, wary. What if Viktor is right behind him? I have to be careful.

"Conrad... what are you doing here?"

My voice struggles to come out of my tight throat. What I'm feeling right now is too intense, too weird.

It feels like a wave of heat is radiating through every part of my cold vampire body.

Like something's crackling inside me and then exploding from within like fireworks. Why is this having such an effect on me?

Seeing him again, after more than a year, is shaking me to my core. I have no idea how he feels towards me.

He's always been nice to me, but he's also loyal to Viktor... So is he on my side, or on the side of the Arcane?

Conrad quickly walks over to me.

He stares at me with disconcerting intensity, his two steely eyes penetrating me like a sharp blade.

I am immediately under his spell. Already, back when I was an Arcane Aspirant, I had found him very beautiful.

He was there to teach us how to feed, how to recognize magic, how to survive... Not to seduce us.

I was just a kid to him. An Original vampire like him would never have been interested in a newbie like me.

But it feels different this time. Conrad is staring at me with a sudden interested look in his eyes, which I can't help and which I don't understand.

He's standing very close to me... Much too close. I hold my breath as he lifts a hand between us to rest it on my arm.

And... I don't feel anything. Why is that? I look down and realize that his hand is going right through my arm!

I look at him with eyes filled with panic. What the heck is happening here?

Oh! I suddenly regain consciousness with a start, and I stay very still, staring at the place I'm in.

Phew... I'm in my room, in my bed, in New York.

Even though I no longer require air to survive, I take a deep breath and let out a big sigh of relief.

That was one hell of a dream! Fortunately, as a vampire, I only rarely sleep... I have to tell Nao all about this.

I get up quickly, fully determined to tell him about my horrible dream down to the last detail.

I enter the living room of our loft. But where is Nao?

Ah, there he is! Oops, the concerned look on my roommate's face doesn't strike me as a good sign...

Why such a stern face? I feel like I'm about to get yelled at, although I don't know why.

"Hi Nao, what's wrong? Did you have a bad dream too?"

"Charlie, do you really think that what you just experienced was a bad dream? Because it wasn't."

He shakes his head. He seems genuinely worried, which only reinforces the strange feeling that I feel brewing inside me.

I immediately sensed that this wasn't just any old dream. It felt so real... I really felt like I was standing face to face with Conrad!

I get scared, all of a sudden. Was it a premonitory dream that came to me thanks to Nao's magic?

I glance at the protective ring on my finger, which I've been wearing for a year.

It's made out of rhodium-plated silver, with a beautiful, natural yellow topaz, and it was made for me by a powerful witch from Mystery Spell.

Thanks to this ring, the Arcane vampires cannot find me. And more importantly, it's supposed to protect me from all forms of magic.

I twirl it nervously around my finger.

"It wasn't a dream, Charlie, I could feel you in the astral world. And you know what that means."

"Oh, no... This means I used my astral projection ability, doesn't it?"

"Exactly. And my magic had nothing to do with it. You did this all by yourself like a big girl."

How is that even possible? It's been over a year since I've used my special power, for fear of drawing the attention of the Arcane and putting my life in danger.

For fear that Viktor Bartholy, the Prince of Darkness, would find me. The whole reason I fled Mystery Spell was because of him.

As I keep twirling my protective ring around my finger, I suddenly realize that the metal is burning me.

What does this mean?

To find out more, play "Is It Love? Stories - Conrad" and immerse yourself in an incredible success story!