Crimson's parents were killed by vampires when she was 6 years old. Because of that she's sworn vengeance on all vampires and spends every night tirelessly hunting for vampires to kill. Lamech is the leader of the biggest vampire clan in the world...
I had been so happy as I had walked into Crimson's room. She wanted to talk with me. She initiated a conversation. But most importantly. She had said my name.
It had sounded like music to my ear and at first, I had been stunned and not understood my own happiness. It wasn't until she had said it a second time that I realized what made me happy and that it was the first time she had used my name.
As the conversation had gone on, my happiness had mellowed somewhat however. It was clear to me that she wanted to know something of importance and that the answers I gave her wasn't the ones she wanted.
I remembered that small piece of information I had gotten from Aideen. Information that made me certain that something had happened to Crimson's parents and that she blamed me for it.
So I took my chance.
"Does this have anything to do with your parents?" I asked and as she opened her eyes and looked at me, I knew that it did.
"Yes," she said and I saw the tears well up in her eyes.
"Tell me about them," I prompted her and then stayed silent as I watched her hesitate, but slowly deciding to speak.
"They... They were wonderful. But they died when I was six. Killed," she said but stopped. Her tears had started to fall.
"By vampires?" I asked and she nodded stiffly. "From this clan?" I continued and got another nod.
"Did you know?" she then asked in a shrill voice. Pain, anger, and sadness mixed all together.
"No," I said and a shaky breath left her, though she looked somewhat disbelieving with the slight narrowing of her eyes. "The dealings that a vampire had with a witch from the Starlight coven was nothing of that sort," I continued to explain. "And I can ensure you that if a vampire from here killed your parents, they were breaking laws I put in place the day I took over the clan."
She frowned, but thankfully the disbelief left her eyes. "What do you mean?"
I sighed and drew a hand through my hair. I guessed it was time to tell her about how I became who I was.
"My father was the type of vampire that is the reason for your hatred towards us," I started my story. "He killed humans and other creatures just for fun. He... He would even play with them before finishing them. And I'm not proud to say that I used to not be much better. For the first one hundred years of my life, I killed to eat. I was never as cruel and brutal as he was though, and that's all thanks to my mother.
"She didn't enjoy the need to kill to eat. She wanted to live without doing that, but back then it was unthinkable for a vampire to not drain and kill their victim. However, she was very particular with what humans she feed of. She only drank the blood of dying humans, humans that only had a few days to live left anyway. It was her way to try to not be a monster."
I looked carefully at Crimson as I spoke. Her eyes had been harsh, but they had softened as soon as I talked about my mother.
"My parents argued about this difference often," I continued. "My mother would plead with my father to feed more like her and he would call her a fool. When I was slightly over one hundred years old, they had their final argument. My mother walked in on my father feeding of a child. Their argument spun out of control and didn't end until my mother was dead."
I paused for a moment. It was seldomly that I let myself think about my mother and I had hardly ever talked about her. I took a deep breath and went on.
"After that I started to feel sickened by my father and his actions. I was even repulsed by myself and all the lives I'd taken. It took me about ten years from my mother's death to move away from the clan. I wanted to find another way to feed, one that wouldn't require me killing people. For many years I feed in the same way as my mother had. I'm a bit ashamed to say that I resented that. Everyone's blood taste different. Yours for instance... The reason I lost control when I first tasted your blood is that it is magnificent. I've never tasted anything like it. I'm not sure what the reason is, if it's as simple as the fact that you're my mate or if it's because you are strong. You see, a dying person's blood doesn't taste that good because the person is weak. The stronger the person, the better the blood tastes.
"Anyway. After many years on my own I met a woman."
At those words Crimson's eyes turned sharp and narrowed. I suppressed a smile at her signs of jealousy.
"I ended up befriending her and telling her what I was. She was the one that suggested that I try to drink her blood, not all of it, just a little. I did almost kill her that first time. Not draining a person is hard in the beginning. But I managed to stop in time. She and I lived together for a couple of years before deciding to return to the clan. I wanted to show the rest the way of eating that I had discovered."
A wave of sadness washed over me. I had no idea how many times I had wished I had made different decisions back then.
"My father was not pleased to see me, less so by what I suggested. He did however pretend to take what I said into consideration and said that he would think about it. I left her alone for the shortest time, simply to go and get a book from the library. When I came back, I found my father throwing her corpse to the floor."
I paused again. Took a few deep breaths and even though I could still see the jealousy in Crimson's eyes, her sympathy towards me was stronger.
"So at age 181 I killed my father and took control over the clan. As soon as I had done that, I called the other important people within the clan for a meeting and explained what my first change within the clan would be. We would stop killing to feed. We would find people that were willing to give their blood and let them live with us. I did have the good argument of the pleasure that a willing person feels, something that wasn't particularly known at the time. Some, like Alair, were happy about the idea, some of them hesitantly agreed to try, others refused. I spent about fifty years implementing that change. Many vampires left, to many's surprise a lot joined, others that heard of our more peaceful way of living that wanted that too.
"We haven't been perfect. But the law within the clan is to not kill unless it's for protection, and deaths, for protection or by accident, should be reported to me. That's been the rule since fifty years after I took power which was about three hundred and fifty years ago. Accidents do happen, but I know about them and I know that no witch has been killed by anyone from the Midnight Refugees. Or, if someone has, they have broken our law and I'll gladly help you figure out who and punish them accordingly."
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