Te Iubsec...Forever.

10 Strigoi?

The answer was plenty; plenty could go wrong. Ches started us off by having me breathe with her, inhale, hold, then slowly exhale on her command. We did that several times; I watched for her cue. She placed her hand on my chest, over my heart, then directed me to do the same to her, which I had absolutely no problem doing. She continued to hold my right hand while we breathed together. Ches closed her eyes.

"You were going to be my first Nick," she said softly with a long swallow.

"I wanted you to see where I came from. I thought the memories of my turning would somehow give me the strength and courage to turn you, to make you like me, as I am, Strigoi."

"Vampire?" I said aloud, almost losing whatever calmed mood I had assumed only moments before.

Ches put her cool fingers to my lips, held them there, and began humming softly to calm me again. It worked. After a few moments, I closed my eyes, and she withdrew her fingers and put her hand back over my heart.

"I have not killed; I have never turned anyone against their will or otherwise. My whole life after my turning became difficult. My mother and father would feed me, even my older sister, which worked nicely for a while, and then Petronela was destroyed, and the villagers scattered, my family included. I would never have survived had it not been for my older sister. She and her husband took me, and we fled to the sea. He did not know me, though, the real me, and when he discovered me, what I was, I was forced to leave them."

As she paused, there came a pattering of heavy raindrops on the windows above us and a slow but strong rumble of thunder.

"Sailors I eventually found, and portsmen. They were a rough bunch and often cruel. They lived hard, unromantic lives, and they drank when not working. When they were drunken and passed out, Nick, I would cut them and collect their blood. No one suspected a thing. They were always fighting and hurting one another; there was never a shortage for me. I was paid to service tables and clean a tavern at night and was given a room above cheaply. It was a dreadful way to exist, but I found life relatively easy for some time."

Ches never opened her eyes, and she kept pressing on my chest as if she needed to feel my heart beating. She would pause occasionally and lean forward, touching her forehead to mine for a few quiet moments before proceeding.

"It was in that very tavern that I met Dr. Luca Sandu. He was from Sibiu, traveling to Turkey, Constantinople, to visit his brother. As always happened, some sailors began to have words that escalated into a fight. The doctor and his traveling companion tried to stop the fight, but his companion was hit and fell against a table spilling everything into the floor. The man lay on the floor, bleeding. The doctor helped him up. I usually kept out of sight when the fights broke out, but I was drawn to help them for some reason.

I ran to them, took the stranger by his other arm, and helped him to his feet.

'Please help me get him to our room; I must get the glass from

his arm and stop the bleeding quickly!'

I helped them to the Inn next door and helped carry the poor man up the single flight of stairs to their room. I watched as the doctor stripped the man of his shirt, revealing the swollen and bleeding arm glass still sticking out of his arm and blood seeping around it in a steady stream.

The Doctor removed his own black coat, rolled up his sleeves, and washed his hands quickly in the wash basin, then took his medical kit from the wardrobe and opened it.

'Can you please hold him down? There will be no time for

anesthetic,' he said calmly but with direct purpose.