Recalled to Life

IV

        I was true to my word. A promise was a promise, and though I had failed in fulfilling it prior to this, now my heart was set. I wouldn't falter, I wouldn't be weak. And Cassiel, so understanding, decided to reward me on my newly-made decision. I was admitted into the previously forbidden dungeons, and she was my escort. I was determined to prove myself, and would not shrink back from any challenges that met me down in the abyss of my coven's cellar. I was one of them now. I was their equal in every way, except, of course, in a contest of pure power.

        A week had passed since our talk in the garden, and we had had many more since then. The life of the Immortal was uneventful, it seemed; I was still too young to go out into the world so for now I remained behind my coven's closed doors. They wouldn't take any chances with my 'old self' surfacing again, and needed to be completely sure that I was initiated in both body and mind. It would take time and I, still used to the fast-paced mortal society, needed to be patient. But because of the company that Cassiel and a few other vampyres provided, I knew the wait wouldn't take very long.

They taught me things- not only the rules, but how to obey them and what they really meant. I took my mortal victims without hesitation, the pitiful wretches, and began to learn how to harden my heart.

        Cassiel grew impressed.

         Dressed in finery that was unknown to me and to most of the medieval world, she was ahead of her time. Delicate crimson bedecked her slender form, the enchanting dress trimmed in black lace and almost resembling the Victorian style of centuries later. Her dark auburn hair fell to her milk-white bare shoulders, and in the dim candlelight of my room it shaded her chestnut eyes.

        It was quite different from my drab attire, though at least it had been changed from my ragged farmer's clothing that I had worn when I was a mortal. The linen was softer and dyed a deep black; I found that I couldn't look at light colors for an extended amount of time without my eyes hurting in consequence. It would fade with time, Cassiel and Alexander had said, but for now my wardrobe was made up entirely of dark browns and greys, and of course, black. While her dress was ornate and even beautiful, I wore only a simpleton's clothes. Not that I was used to anything different; Tzan had taken note of the mentality of the era and hadn't bothered to change it for me: practicality over fashion.

        I blended into the shadows with my victim because of this.

        I held a young boy within my grasp, freshly caught from the outside world. Dressed in serf's clothing, no doubt he had been plowing the fields when he was captured and sent to his fate. His blonde hair appeared a dark shade of brown in the candlelight, and he made not a sound, nor struggle as I drank from him and bled him dry.

        "You are getting more efficient," Cassiel praised watching me with her indecipherable chestnut gaze. "and you are becoming stronger. I will stop giving you such easy prey next time; you can soon learn to hunt by yourself."

        I dropped the still-warm, dead body of the blonde boy to the floor. Someone would come around later to pick it up, knowing that I had fed.

        "Does that mean I get to leave this place?"

        "No, not quite. We're still not ready for you to go; the world right now is a more dangerous place than ever. Already there is growing talk of another witch hunt in the east."

        So I was to be a prisoner here no matter what. But at least, as she had said; it was for my own safety. Or was it?

        "They do not think I can handle my own against the humans? My Sire taught me a few things, as did you. Do you think I have learned nothing during all that time?"