Take Me for One Last Ride

Artemis, the Fledgling

The walk down the ominous hallway did not help the panic that had engulfed me while I followed Lord Raziel.

"You never answered my question, Lord Raziel." I muttered beneath my breath, folding my petite arms over my slender and cold frame. I was persistent because nothing that had happened up to this point made any sense. A deep sigh came from the tall figure that was leading me to... the throne room. Nothing else was said until we made it there.

Five men stood in a circle with a man sitting on the rubble that looks to once be pillars, my eyes followed Raziel as he took his place at the circle and he gestured me to the middle to face the grotesque leader.

Every step I took was a shaky one, my nerves were all over the place; when I made it to the middle of the circle, my legs gave out underneath me.

"Why so feeble, child? You have the strength of the divines, yet, you are cowering like a peasant woman." The grotesque vampire with such wrinkled and scarred skin arose from the wreckage and made his way towards me, stopping just a tad bit away from me and kneeling down to my current height.

Without any further thinking, I blurted out the same question that had been on my mind since my awakening.

"Why me?" After all my frame is petite and slender, I am feeble now and I must've been feeble as a human. The vampire placed one talon underneath my chin and lifted it up, so my golden eyes met his.

"You don't remember who you are, do you not?" He then grabbed ahold of my face and forced my head from side-to-side to examine my face. "Artemis, a great Sarafan Priestess, before the inevitable downfall. Thought to be murdered by Moebius for reasons unknown, but yet, is now in the flesh in front of me..."

He chuckled over his own statement, as if he won something, none of this made any sense to me. A Priestess in my past life? It was all too confusing. He let go of my face and grabbed ahold of my arms, a bit too harshly as I winced in pain, the vampire did not seem to give a damn.

"Arise with me." He slowly got onto his feet, forcing me up onto my own two feet. The vampire looked over at Lord Raziel and let go of my arms, leaving a lasting red mark onto my pale skin. "She is your responsibility for the time being. I trust you will help her unlock what is deep inside of her and please, change her into something more fitting."

Lord Raziel bowed his head to the vampire and stated. "Yes, Lord Kain." Before beckoning me to follow him and turning his pale back towards me.