A Shade Darker ✔️

{Prologue}

March 18th, 1617

Billie

"One day our community will flourish. We will not be overcome by those unlike us. We will not be ignorant, nor consumed by emotion. We are animals, we are cold blooded creatures! The humans seek to kill us. We will be strong, we will kill them first..." My tongue and throat swell with the anticipation of tasting my first drip of human blood. I imagined it sweet and rich, dark and thick. The urge to stick my fangs into a beautiful woman's neck and suck her dry until her skin turns pale like mine.

Our leader shouts to us directions in which to go. I stare at the weapons laying amongst the leaves of the forest we had dominated. I had learned soon enough that animal blood was not as desired as a human's. I remembered being a human, being scared of the vampires, the terror throughout me before I was turned. Now the terror in their eyes that I would see soon makes an evil smile come to my face, a tick in my pulse. Having someone fear me was empowering.

I start for the weapons, ready to go out and seek my first kill.

Collin, our leader, grabs my wrist as I reach for a sword. I had been through training of how to kill. Of how to dominate and thrive. This was against me, reaching for weapons.

"What are you doing?!" He growls, his eyes red and glowing like mine and everybody else's. They reminded me of the blood I was hungry for. He glances down at the weapons all in a pile. I remember the day me and the other's were turned.  These weapons were from our past lives. Thinking about it sickened me. The past was to be left behind.

"These are what you use" Collin growls again, his mouth opening for a hiss, showing off his blood stained fangs.

My fangs were virgin. Had never punctured the neck of a human before. I was just a beginner like my friends. Although, they had more of a rough start than I.

I glance over at Mike and Tre who stand looking at each other. Their skin was pale like mine, yet with their resistance to the training and our new way of life, I found myself wanting to stick my fangs into their necks and wonder if their blood would still taste like that of a human's. Tre whispers something to Mike before walking off in the direction of the village. Mike stands there and looks at the ground before his eyes revert in the direction of Tre. He looked scared, scared of his own kind. I felt myself turn angry at the way my friend had already been giving the signs of being a traitor.

Anger pulses throughout me and I jerk my wrist away from Collin.

He swipes his claws along my back, something painful but not harmful to me. My blood would dry quickly and the pain would cease. He gave me nothing but a flinch of a reminder as to what my job was.

I walked into the night, ready to feast.

March 18th, 1717

Tre

Our colony thrived as Collin had promised. The trees in our forest had grown tall enough to provide a well secured living standard. Friends of ours already had been given the job of building our treehouses. My job was easy enough. Prepare, feast, and select the captured women at random to become our slaves. I found it quite enjoying, although sometimes I did have to fight the urge to drain every last drop of blood from them. The urge was usually subdued by a glass of blood, making my hunger and instinct not as strong.

A hundred years went by quickly in our community, even though waiting for the trees to grow higher for more protected living space was kind of a bore. Everything else was routine by now. The other vampires were nice enough. Though there were still the once like Alex and Collin and Liz who still saw us as outsiders.

When we were turned, all of us who weren't part of the original colony, most were accepted. Me and my friends, Billie and Mike were a part of the lucky ones. We were lucky of not having all of our blood drained by the vampires who turned us. No, we were strong enough and of good enough health and physique to be able to hunt for other humans. The ones not strong enough were sucked dry of their blood and killed if they were male. The females we caught, if beautiful enough were sent to the Elite. A new program in which five beautiful women were picked at random and each of us was to choose one of them to become our new mistress. The other women were either sent back to the selection or were killed. The women we found that were not considered beautiful enough, but were weak were kept as slaves in our quarters built especially for them.

It was quite fun actually, like playing a make believe game. It was like survival of the fittest, and the males all got free sex out of it. Of course unless your mistress refused then she was killed and you chose another. I thought being a vampire would be scary and hard to get used to. But after my first taste of human blood, there was no turning back. I had quickly adapted to my life and had not missed my old one. I sat and wondered what life would be like hundreds of years from now. If anything would change.

March 18th, 1817

Mike

The sight of Billie's red eyes scares me, Tre's too, but it was Billie I had worried about. Two hundred years in to being of our kind and Billie was acting as if his old human life meant nothing to him. His eyes had quickly turned the color of the glass of blood I had this morning for breakfast, although I could never really tell if it was time for breakfast or dinner. I haven't seen the sun in two hundred years, not since I was turned at the age of eighteen. I should be nineteen by now, almost twenty. But as I was told by the other vampires, my age at which I was turned would stay my age forever. And my body would not show any signs of changes besides the way my skin had lost it's healthy glow and turned gray and dull. Or the way my eyes had not turned red like Billie's and Tre's, but stayed my natural color, only more vibrant. Billie's eyes changed as the rest of his personality did within a week of being turned. Now it seemed that my best friend had turned evil, like the rest of the vampires I was surrounded by. Only then had his eyes changed. Tre's took longer, months even to change. Once he got his first taste of human blood, my other best friend, too, had changed and left me feeling like an outsider.

I had strength and stamina. In my new life, I was considered family to Collin and Alex and Liz. Collin was my father, my leader. Our ruler or king. Alex was my uncle. Liz was my sister. Billie and Tre were my brother's. We were Prince's. It was hard imagining myself of great power and wealth. It was weird to see other vampire's bow before mine and my family's presence. It was strange to be allowed any woman I wanted and have to choose one of them to become my mistress. I was tired of this life, I felt as though I would never get used to it.

Yet as my father, Collin, opens the doors to our castle and throws in a terrified looking woman with a deep gash on her leg, I am told not what to do. I pounce, move faster than the speed of light. She's frightened and I can't feel any emotion. I can't feel anything but hunger and all I can smell is her sweet blood. She screams and it echoes through the walls as I sink my fangs into her neck and save not one drop of blood.

After I have finished, she is dragged away. Liz enters, my sister. She is the only one I find myself having much respect for. My hunger is subdued and my mind returns to it's normal state. I feel dirty. I feel like escaping.

Liz pushes her black hair out of her red eyes and sighs.

"You are still changing, brother" I shake my head and stare at the portrait of Collin on my wall.

I could still taste the sweet human blood on my tongue.

"May I ask you of something, sister?" Liz nods. I had trouble reading emotions from people's eyes these days. All of them just remained their color, never had any insight.

"I wish for a deep sleep. And I wish to not wake for a long time" Liz walks towards me and motions to the hard marble slate that served as my sleeping quarters.

I lay on my back and she presses a cold thumb and forefinger to my forehead.

A hint of a soft smile plays on her lips before I close my eyes and see darkness.

YAY! FIRST CHAPTER! I TRIED TO MATCH ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF VAMPIRES FOR THIS, WITH MY OWN TWIST. I ACTUALLY DID SOME RESEARCH. I HOPE YOU ALL LIKED THIS! FEEDBACK WOULD BE GREAT!