"I have only loved once"

-3-

A dark figure was walking over the town's streets, hiding in shadows, between buildings and carts. Their long demonic black coat on the back, and their face covered with a hood. The man's posture moved slowly, his bloody eyes peeking around.

It was weird for him to leave his homeland, even though there was nothing left back there.

His lover was gone, his family and friends were all gone, buried in one grave under their village, now burned down to the ground. The forest, where he used to play as a child, and where he went on lazy late-night walks with his soulmate, the foreign vampire, was turned into a field, and revolutionaries settled there.

"Cause my love, is mine, mine oh mine"

All he remembered was Olrox's calls, full of fear, and his green worried eyes. Then he was losing his breath, Julia's whip tightening on his neck. He couldn't even fight back, he was weak as a vampire, still not getting how to function, even though a few years had passed since his turning. Memories of that night were blurry, deeply reaching his heart, as he almost died there. He was not sure, how he managed to wake up after the murder attempt.

He was looking for his vampire lover all over the surrounding villages, which were also turned to dust, he searched all over Boston, but there was no sign of him. Years passed, and he was still hoping that the Aztec vampire would just show up there and return, "Because he must've been alive for that time, she didn't kill him, did she?". After almost two decades, people suddenly started whispering around, some rumors had spread, and the Indigenous vampire listened carefully. He kept on distance, but with curiosity joined people in local bars, just to get deeper into the rumors and maybe find his man.

What he knew immediately, was that some other vampire terrorized, as people said, the Boston city. Kwahu soon discovered, that there had also been a murder.

Right before one of the ships heading to Europe was supposed to take off to the ocean, a young female vampire hunter was killed, and her body was left in the middle of a street. Someone even said that there was a young boy found next to her body, unconscious from crying and cold.

"Her name started with 'B', I suppose, how it went... B... B..."

"Belmont, you mean? Yeah, her corpse was found there yesterday. She had that weird stab wound in her chest, but nothing a human had ever made could leave such a wide hole. You think the vampire left after the murder?"

"Belmont... Belmont..."

"Julia Belmont!" The name of a woman who almost took away Kwahu's life. He suddenly remembered that warm night vividly, shivers running down his spine as he felt his chest getting heavier and heavier.

Leaving the bar, his hood fell from his head, exposing raven black, mid-back long hair, six braids ending with beads. Was he a coward? Or perhaps it was just his past hitting him back? No matter the circumstance, the vampire was running toward the docks, deep inside his heart hoping to find the murderer.

The sharp smell of dried blood punched his nose, as he got closer and closer to the place where Julia was killed. His eyes scanned the place around him, catching all signs of a fight that must have taken place there. Weirdly bent lanterns, claws-made scratches on the walls, some broken bricks that have fallen on the pavement. And blood. A pool of dried blood in the middle of the street, with a female's body imprinted in the middle. But there was not only her blood on the ground. He immediately recognized the familiar ichor of blood. A vampire's blood. Olrox's blood...

Kwahu came closer to the long, narrow blood mark on the bricked street.

"It cannot be, no..."

The next thing he remembered, was him kneeling down next to his lover's blood stain, crying so heavy, he could barely breathe. And then a small hand touched his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. Kwahu turned his head around, just to see these watery blue orbs staring into his soul.

"What are you doing here, kiddo? Aren't you supposed to be at home right now? It's quite late" The vampire asked softly, trying his best to not burst into tears again, and also not to scare the boy away.

"You're a vampire..." The boy's eyes widened, dread taking over his body, as he felt his fists clench.

"But I am not going to hurt you, boy. I... My dear friend did something horrible and I'm trying to find him." The Mohican said, touching the blood with his fingertips.

"Him..? The man with green, snake eyes..?"

"Yes. Do you know him? Or where he could be?"

Little boy Belmont paused, seeing in his mind as his mother was killed by the Aztec vampire, life leaving her body, and these bright glowing eyes piercing his soul.

"He killed my mom..."

Something stabbed Kwahu's heart. How cruel Olrox was, to kill a woman in front of her child, how- Why did he do that, Kwahu was in fact alive, there was no reason to get revenge on her. "I am so sorry, boy". Thoughts blinded his brain, and an instant feeling of regret entered his heart. And pain, so much pain, after being aware of what his soulmate did. How could he trust a murderer...

"I am always going to protect you, my dear"

"I know, Olrox. But I want to be strong, so you won't have to protect me all the time"

"I would do it with pleasure, Kwahu. I love you"

This couldn't be the man he remembered.

He did not remember how he ended up in France, in this random small town, with vampires all over the place and him.

As he heard the conversation, Kwahu knew, that Olrox didn't know about him being alive. For the past thirty years, he was dead in his lover's eyes. Seeing Olrox with that priest, or whatever role he played in the catholic church, knowing well how the Aztec vampire was traumatized by Catholics from Spain made him want to cry right there and then. When both of the men got closer to the window, he decided to return back to his current location. The way he was described, how his soulmate talked about Kwahu, how his mood changed immediately, his voice got softer and his eyes brightened.

"Olrox is alive"