Written in the Stars

Chapter Seventeen

Jean had only been recently turned when he met Celeste. He was perhaps a year or so old to her 200 hundred or so years. She was not the oldest vampire he had ever met but she was among the most powerful. His sire was also a fairly young vampire who had not intentionally turned Jean. He had simply been looking for his next meal and had been forced to run off before he could complete the transaction, leaving Jean there, bleeding out in a dark alley, left for dead. He had managed to crawl into a dark recess where no one discovered him for the few days he needed to complete the transformation.

By this time Celeste had been back with Izabela on a couple of occasions, with the longest being over 50 years. She had always managed to come to her senses and remember what Izabela had done to her and her family. She had not grieved for long over the loss of her family, her heart hardening with every mile put between her and the burning wreckage of what used to be her future. She had decided to make herself a new one and she was able to by selling a small amount of the jewellery she slept in. A few of her gold chains got her passage to mainland Europe and a couple of her rings got her a new wardrobe and a place to stay until she decided who she was to be in this new life.

She jumped between countries for a hundred years, so as to avoid raising suspicion and remade herself where ever she went. It was easier in those days. But she also began to create a reputation for herself through her own kind. She was known as insatiable, angry, murderous. Every village she passed through was razed to the ground with only a few survivors to tell the story of the blonde woman who had rage in her eyes and poison in her mouth. They told tales of how she took no mercy and left no survivors. Death followed in her wake. But she was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen. When she first wandered into town they had thought her a blessing from the old gods. Someone so inhumanely beautiful could only bring good tidings. Then came the third night of her stay when everything changed. She became the devil. She killed with no thought or remorse. Of course this was during the summer when the traveling was easy and mountain passes were not made insurmountable. The winter was a whole other story. She would spend the entire season in one village where they were unable to get help. She set up court in the biggest, most lavish house and ran it like her own little kingdom. The people were mostly left to do what they needed to, to live their lives, but the most beautiful of the lot did not survive the first month. Those with the devils hair colour did not survive the first week.

And so she passed the first few centuries of her new life in this manner until she came to France. In France she felt renewed and fell in love like she never thought she would again. She fell in love with the cities and the language - and by this time she had become a quick study of languages, able to pick them up as quickly as she wanted - and also with the people. This was a time of great strife for France with England causing issue and the people too. A woman calling herself Jeanne d'Arc was going around, convincing the peasants that she had a direct line to God and was the leader of his army. Of course, Celeste knew God did not exist, she was all the proof she needed. But she could certainly celebrate another woman standing up for herself and others. Celeste just felt lucky she had not stopped in Domremy where she was from, otherwise this woman would not be here to fight for those rights. She had the devil's hair colour after all.

Jean and Celeste crossed paths one fateful day. Jean by this time had spent a few years with his condition and had managed to find his position in society. And he had found it to be a high one. Once he had discovered the magical community in France, Paris especially, had he had found a way in with the royal court. He had found himself amongst those with the power. Those with the money. And most importantly, those able to make the scandals go away with the general public learning nothing of them.

Celeste, after setting herself up well in a large townhouse near to Versailles, found herself at the palace paying homage to the King and Queen. A bachelor caught her attention, and whilst she did not usually find herself that way inclined, she just could not take her eyes off of him. He had raven hair and the brightest green eyes she had ever seen. He seemed to be the counterpart to her blonde, blue eyed looks.