A NOT SO HAPPY DEATH
The un-dead don't always live forever. Sometimes an end is necessary so a future may continue. To bring about that end or most any other end, death can be and often is necessary. Thing is ... death isn't only for the living ... and just who benefits from death? ... Who oversees the continuance of said future? ...
Atop of his castle high on the hills of Florence at the dusk of night, Prince Lucio looks out at what stretches before him. His castles are many and are scattered wide and far though right where he finds himself in this instance is where he finds peace to be most ... soothing... only his property in Catalonia can provide him as much ... peace. Being who he is, what he is, his eyes are capable of seeing further than the eyes of normal man and better yet with the dimmed light dusk brings.
No matter the quality of sight or of the level of certain heightened senses, it still can be odd or more than odd the impact of a blanket of snow can have the worlds of the living, the more than living and those placed between one world and another. He can also see further afield ... he can see with great accuracy what is to come his way.
Succumbing to the thoughts he could not help but have, he speaks to himself as he speaks to the vastness extending out before him. 'My time is near ... they are coming. Is it here I must face my demons or perhaps it would be best if I were retreat elsewhere?'
When it comes to those of a certain persuasion and to a liqueur which anyone with any regularity or normalcy would simply know as blood, the words thirst and lust can mean very different things. If you were to then bring those two words together in such a circumstance and in the world of the un-dead ... well, you could have the beginnings of the ingredients for something very deadly indeed ... as for the exact recipe? Keep on reading ... if you dare ...
The world is not what we know it to be ... it never has been.
The world is a vampire ...
And what do I get for my pains?
Betrayed desires and a piece of the game.
Bullet with Butterfly wings - Smashing Pumpkins
If you have given a chance to this story, I don't even have to tell you what a vampire is. You have already been drawn to it, mesmerized by horror, romance, beauty, desire, glamour, grotesque, or an unhealthy combination of all.
Because let's be honest, vamps can find themselves at home in every genre, as long as we are moved to ask the right questions, seeking answers to all that feeds our fears about what lies beyond life and the perils of acting unbridled upon laws of attraction.
Yet, there is something special about this story. It is not the product of one, but many aesthetics combined. A coven, if you will, of writers inflicted with a thirst for a certain type of story.
You will meet brand new characters, created solely to sustain this universe, others might be known to you, as you have seen glimpses of them through our collective narratives. For all we promise an interesting turn, as they step into this story with deep knowledge of themselves, and one another.
United by an unbreakable bond, our vampires must mourn a loss, solve a mystery, crown a prince, and make it to the last page without meeting the ultimate consequence.
... Six vampires ... seven authors ... one story ... and it is about to get extreme ...
A PRINCE ...
Death breathes and blood flows. A crimson river flows, pulsating through each living soul, taunting, testing and challenging. Resist or give in? There is no such thing as just a taste. Once the barrier is broken it is difficult to think of anything else ... there are times when the domino effect is unstoppable. Desire is always strong. It is even stronger when it begins before death occurs ...
Vladislav Strauss ... a giant among mere mortals ... a powerhouse among beings thought of as more than mortal ... a centerpiece between two worlds ... his time has come ... is to come ... he knows not of whom will bring about his end only that his end is nearing though he can speculate.
He himself is indeed more than mortal and not immune to death.
For him death will only come once for it is not death that makes him more than mortal ... it is life that has him so and his birthright sees him more than a prince. He is The Prince, and his death will bring about change ... a necessary change so many may believe.
Prince Lucio as he is more widely known ... he who rules with glory ... is known by many names and only those who are brave or close refer to him by such a name and few are stupid enough to speak this name in his presence.
Quick to impose dominance, quick to impose his will and quick to take a lover to his bed with none ever to be titled Princess or Queen unless they already come with such a distinction ... it always was only a matter of time and not an if when it comes to a possible demise. His want to either rule the world, both worlds, or to burn them down, will see to it that his end must come. Six with hearts darker than those of mere mortals come together at Lucio's castle, or more precisely to one in particular of which many are his; some arrive before the end and some after, some, if not all, have been here before at some time or other as they also have been elsewhere.
Are any of these six responsible for the demise? Who knows and who, if anyone, can investigate or determine such a thing? Is there a seventh? ... One who hides in plain sight, ready to take his place in a monarch ... ready for a new world where a modern kind of thinking rules the way forwards ...?
So there is to be a benefactor ... just who may that benefactor be ...?
***
'Lady Calista ...'
She heard the voice speak before she saw who it belonged to, and she turned to view him before he could continue. Turning allowed her to see a blond-haired man ... if that is what it could be said he is ... with skin as pale as her own and with patience she waited for his voice to speak again.
'... I am , and I believe we both have a journey to make, and your destination so happens to be just as mine is ... Florence, right? If you have no objections we could travel together.'
'Hmmm ...' she offers a brief quizzical look as if to suggest she is considering his suggestion, suggestion or offer or something else she could not be sure. '... I had been expecting to travel alone though things do change. To travel with any kind of company, however partial, would come of my own choosing.'
'You can choose me mi 'lady. I would be nothing more than a gentleman unless you require something else.'
'But you are not such, are you, a man gentle or anything similar in kind?'
'No, though I am not all so different to your good self ...'
'Perhaps and perhaps not, ... allow you to accompany me I shall on one condition.'
'Which is ...?'
'Tell me, what do you know of whom else is due to converge with invites like ours ...'
'You do not want to know more about your new travel companion first?'
'There will be plenty of time for that ... won't there? Besides ... I do believe we are not alone ...'
She watched as his hands moved before him, being placed on a platform top a little more than waist high. He didn't see as first though when he does catch her glances, he removes his hands from plain view ...
'Careful now ...' he says. 'Despite what you have become and what I so happen to be, I hear your touch can still have its affects ...'
'Oh ...' she says, surely while blushing if she still were capable of such a thing, 'I meant mothing by it. I apologize ...'
'Apology not necessary and accepted none the less ...'
It may be just as well that he refrained from asking as if she had official or unofficial ownership of the place with which they are on their way to ...
