Blood & Power [Book One of The City of Eternity Series] [✔]

1.1: Crave

Blood.

A silent craving that lingered on the tip of my tongue, settled in the back of my throat and deprived the pit of my stomach.

The craving had been circling for days, swarming my mind with ardent desire. It was an unfeasible task to ignore the whispering that danced in the back of my head, chanting 'feed, feed, feed' on an endless loop. Over the course of the week that I had been dry, it had become progressively louder; verging on agonising.

I vividly remember what hunger felt like as a human. The laughably crude pangs that twisted my gut then were pale imitations of the hollow void that demanded mind-numbing feasts now. After a few days of hunger as a human, those pangs would dull - the need to eat was still there, but your body would give up, simply eating away at itself. The hunger now - that was a different beast that chose to eat away at the mind.

I breathe in the cold air as we walk wordlessly down the street; our nearest machine in one of the more rundown areas of Eastern. The cobbled streets wind through the heart of the zone passing worn down colourful buildings. The buildings felt ancient despite the city barely being fifty years old; their facades were worn smooth by the more unfortunate weather. The street itself, a river of grey stone flows onwards, carrying the echoes of footsteps long gone. It was barely past midnight but the comfort of darkness had already draped over the city. The vast blackness that expanded across the sky and engulfed all of the previous light was almost absent from stars, but a few dull ones flickered every now and then. The streetlights dotted along the road were misted by the snow that was lightly falling and ice had blanketed the pathway ahead of us.

I looked over to my companion on this walk, Kara, who was lumbering along by my side, placing one foot directly in front of the other. Her lips have been in a straight, emotionless line since early this morning - they were usually plump and pulled into a genuinely happy smile. The hunger that was plaguing both of us kept us in a tight grip of unhappiness. It was hard to evoke anything when starvation was nipping at every square inch of you.

Despite this, Kara was a warm woman, with brown skin and thick, curly hair in a deep chocolate shade that cascaded down her shoulders and back in natural waves. A small ceramic white daisy was pinned behind her ear, partially hidden by her flowing hair. Her large, almond-shaped eyes held a natural intensity, their current orange hues only amplifying the shimmering glare. Kara's face was slender and sculpted, with high cheekbones that caught the light and gave her a natural glow. If I didn't know better, I would think she was crafted like a vampire, her graceful lines evoking a hauntingly timeless aura.

"Hurry," She had hissed through her teeth. The eagerness to speed up was one I shared, but Kara was younger in the bloodline and that came with a more ferocious need to feed. It was a need that I understood, having gone through its deepened effects near the beginning of my life. It had lost its edge on me as the years had gone by - I could go for longer periods without blood and keep my composure; she could not.