The Blood King (Wattpad Exclusive Version)

Blood King (Part 1)

March 9, 2005, 7:23 p.m. Miami

Have I ever told you about the time I regained my faith?

I was certain, almost convinced, of the fact that there is neither a god nor a devil.

The Greek used to say that the vampires of old, the direct descendants of Exois, had powers equal to the gods’. They were beyond immortality, invincibility, and invulnerability under the sun. They were also capable of imposing their will on the forces of physics. They had the mental powers to read thoughts; and in some cases, they could move things with the power of their minds and impose their will on all living things.

More than once, I had asked Amorgos how these abilities could be achieved; but he couldn’t answer me. For Amorgos, the tale of Exois and his immortals was just a vampire legend. The truth was that none of the vampires he met before me exhibited any of those amazing powers. They were immortals with inhuman strength and almost-invincibility, but they were ruled by the limitations of the night. Not even the ancient immortals in the hidden caverns of silence were that powerful.

The Greek disappeared before I could fly, before I was capable of reading thoughts, or even before I found Exois and made his blood mine. I do not have all the powers of those vampires of old, and I don’t have an explanation to the why. Maybe there was more to it than the blood of the first. Maybe all of it, just like most tales about my kind, was just a myth; and as it usually goes with that sort of thing, everything was a half-truth, historical facts taken out of proportion.

The fact was that I, with fewer years than most recent ancient ones, already had twice their power and knowledge. I was capable of feeling life in a way no other living creature could. I realized that my abilities were expanding into something not even I could comprehend. I was becoming something that perhaps the ancient forces of old, the ones who commanded the fragile power balance of creation, might have noticed and finally decided to do something about it.

As my mind went over thoughts regarding faith, Amorgos, and immortality, I found myself back at the beach on that cold Miami night of March 2005.

With my eyes wide open, I stared at Erika standing several feet in front of me. As though controlled by a force bigger than reason, I opened my mouth. “There’s no God or devil or heaven or hell. There’s only life,” I whispered the words of my faith as I had done for centuries.

As I finished whispering my words, I realized that I couldn’t remember when I began talking in the first place.

“Believe this. Kiss my lips and gain your mortality,” Erika said, extending her left arm toward me, invitingly, for the third time.

This time, I walked with confidence toward her, only to stop a half foot away.

“You better be real, witch,” I said softly but menacingly.

“There’s only one way to find out,” she whispered back.

She leaned forward as her lips searched for mine. I grabbed her forcefully by the waist. She held me by the shoulders; and suddenly, I remembered everything. I pushed her away. My eyes moved quickly and, looking around me, I realized I was back in that night when we switched bodies with a kiss.

“Come and claim your mortality,” Erika said, offering herself again.

I remembered every detail like a memory that never happened. I hesitated while her eyes met mine with a bit of confusion.

“You’ll never have another opportunity like this one,” she said.

My stare turned murderous.