Last Bite

Chapter 1&2

Date: 1775

My name is Antwon Le'Delon. Baron, artist, and vampire. Born 1755, reborn 1775. Third and last-born child to parents I've long since forgotten. Raised as a commoner under the watchful eye of my uncle Baron Le'Delon. Greed was the one word all of my family had in common with another. Mainly my parents wanting my uncle's wealth and my uncle doing everything he could to give us none of it. 

I was able to avoid my family's greed and envy for twenty years and then I became the center of everything. My uncle did us the great kindness of catching tuberculosis which he knew meant he needed an heir and fast. He overlooked my parents to spite them and since both my siblings has perished quickly from the same illness, I was the only option. This caused my parents to throw me out of their home out of rage. And my uncle wouldn't take me in since it was out of law that I was to inherit, not love. 

Several months went by where I spent my time as a tavern worker. I cleaned and swept the floors, washed the mugs and plates, anything I was told to do. While it sounds rather dull, it was the best time of my life. I had a small group of friends that I thought I could trust with my life and a lady who I planned to make my own one day. All of my happiness ended when my parents died from a fire that burned my childhood home down with them inside and my uncle gave in to his illness. I received all that was supposed to make a man happy. And I hated it.

 The days would drag on after I became a Baron. Slowly one date changed to another. It was during these agonizingly slow days that I found myself wandering the streets at night. Many would advise against walking the London streets alone at night but I had little to care about. After a time, the streets would blur together and lose their distinctiveness.

I wouldn't say I was depressed or at my wits end. It was just an endless boredom. The life of nobility is always so sought after by the common folk but to those who live the life of luxury it becomes very dull very fast. It wasn't that I couldn't do anything as a Baron, it was more that I could do anything I wanted. That brings about its own type of boredom. There wasn't any excitement in the, so called, adventurous things I've done in the past.

My friends and lover that I would spend these evenings with had long since abandoned me. Once I had inherited my uncle's land and title I went from a penniless tavern boy to a Baron. This split my friends into two groups, those that immediately hated me for my luck, and those that started to constantly ask me to loan them money. In time I found myself to be friendless. That's when I began drinking more and wandering the streets at the darkest hours.  

It was around on one of these midnight strolls that I met Alamond. I, walking through one of the many parks in the city, saw a man, Alamond, leaning against one of the lampposts that lined the streets. He looked at me as I walked by, his pipe burning with embers.

"I say sir," he said. I stopped and turned to him. He smiled as smoke circled around his teeth, "What is a gentlemen as fine as yourself doing wandering the streets alone?"

Through my life I have learned to avoid strangers that walk the streets at night. But really at this point it was something of interest. "Not that it's any of your concern, sir, but I was just walking to clear my head."

With one blink of the eye the man was from the lamppost to my side guiding me down the street, "Well, good sir, allow me to be your guide for this evening then." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. It seemed as if he was barely using any effort to move me even as I dug my heels into the ground, "What do you call yourself my friend?"

Already regretting the choice to speak with this man, I begrudgingly responded, "Antwon. Antwon La'Delon."

"You mean of the La'Delon family?" my vigorous guide stopped suddenly, halting me in the process. He unlatched his hand from my shoulder and took a step back. After looking me up and down for several seconds he let out a giggle and gave a dramatic bow, "I had no idea I was to be the host of such a prestigious guest this fair eve!" the man let out another impish giggle that unnerved me.