You were officially going insane. There was no other word for it. Life in castle Dimitrescu was like nothing you ever experienced before, but that wasn’t what had you almost crawling up the walls. No, that was the Lady of the castle herself. You would be the first one to admit that you maybe had a crush on her. Scratch that, crush wasn’t exactly the right term to describe your complicated feelings towards her. She was never far from your thoughts and everything she did just made you feel things.
She was constantly touching you, for one thing. A hand on your shoulder here, a touch to your head and neck there and it drove you absolutely insane in all the best ways. And you couldn’t just blame those feelings on being touch-starved either, since her daughters were touching you a lot too, and while it felt nice, it never felt as intense as a single touch from your Lady. But as time went by you decided to follow Cassandra’s advice and stopped worrying.
The work you had to do around the castle kept you busy as well. You still worried about things to come, it was only natural, but you couldn’t do anything until Duke contacted you. Still, you found yourself feeling more on edge every day, especially when you had some free time. To ease your troubled mind, you decided to browse the library on information on Heisenberg, but you came up empty handed. Except for a few mentions in passing you couldn’t find anything on him, which made you wonder how exactly his relationship was to Lady Dimitrescu.
What you did find though, were books upon books on Vampires about their hierarchy and their culture. It was quite informative, and you were often found pouring over the old tomes and your own notes, trying to make sense about what had happened to you. The information in the castle library was the most useful you found yet, and while you still didn’t know what curse exactly befell you, you at least could figure out a bit more about what kind of creature you are.
Seems your first guess wasn’t too far off, from what you researched. You stumbled upon the term “Dhampir” early in your research and decided to look into it. Dhampir’s were told to be the offspring of a human mother and a vampiric father, and while they had all the vampiric traits, they still had enough human traits to live like one. Dhampires had a few other powers ass well, which neither Vampire nor human possessed, communicating with animals being one of them, being able to still eat human food being another.
It was also said, that some Dhampires wouldn’t fully awaken until they met their fated, if they had one, that is. Some of them would show certain traits, like heightened senses and inhuman strength, but they would only unleash their full potential if they were bonded to their fated, which was a whole other problem. The curse took your ability to find them away from you, and it seems that the boiling blood was another side effect of that curse. You could somewhat unleash your full power, but only under situations where you felt scared or threatened enough to lose control over yourself completely.
Being a Dhampir might be the most likely scenario yet, but you still wanted to research them further before you told Lady Dimitrescu of your breakthrough. It still felt good to have a potential name for what you are though.
“Ah, there you are!” Daniela’s voice exclaimed and you almost startled. It seems that it had become her sole purpose to try and scare you enough to show a visible reaction, since she would always pop up unexpectedly. Most of the time you could sense her before she struck, but when you were deep in thoughts, just like in that moment, she actually made a pretty good job of sneaking up on you.
“Nice try, but you won’t get me that easily. Is everything alright?” you asked and took in her excited pose.
“Mother asked me to chase away some trespassing Lycans and I wanted to ask if you wanted to come along.” Daniela said and you perked up. It has been ages since you got this kind of work out, so you replied, “Sure, just give me a few minutes to get ready.”
“Don’t be too long!” Daniela yelled after you and you hurried to your chambers, notebook under your arm.
***
“How many Lycans are we talking?” you asked, when the both of you ran out into the night.
“One pack with five to the east and another pack with six to the west. It would be faster if we split up, if that’s alright with you.”
“Shotgun for the pack of six!” you said, taking a turn to the west, laughing at Daniela’s indignant cursing, “Sorry, I don’t make the rules!”
“Oh, don’t worry, I will finish first and come to save your sorry ass!”
“Ha, you wish!” you yell back, but weren’t sure if Daniela had heard you. Your path took you to the lakeside, and sure enough, you could smell them before you saw them. You slowed your steps and fell into a crouch, trying to sneak up on them, but they were way to occupied with the stag they managed to catch. How would you chase them away though?
Even though you were disgusted beyond believe by the Lycans, you didn’t like to kill them in cold blood. They had the same right to exist as you, so you only really disposed of them when they attacked first and there was no other way. Sadly, when a Lycan like them set your eyes on you, they would chase you until they got you or you killed them. They were Lycans of the seventh Generation or even later, mostly turned by accident and they lost every last shred of humanity they had, turning them into mindless creatures, driven only by their instincts.
Daniela may be powerful enough to be a threat and scare them away, but since you were still more human than anything, they wouldn’t feel threatened by you, so you really only had one option, even if you didn’t like it. They came way too close to the village anyway, and they would make a good example to stay away, even if they turned into dust. As silently as possible you pulled out one of the new knives the Duke gave you. It wasn’t your usual metal knife, as Duke wrote in a little note, and it would prove quite useful in his opinion, even though you didn’t quite understand why. Knives that weren’t forged from metal were usually more prone to break.
It was over before they really noticed that you were even there, so occupied were they by the carcass of the stag. You tried to kill them as quickly and painless as possible, but the last one moved just as you tried to slit his throat, which made his death not as swift as the others. A big sigh left your mouth as you cleaned your knife on a patch of grass, but you were quite proud of yourself too. You were pretty sure that Daniela was still chasing her pack around and you decided to go and look if she could use any help and to brag.
“So, you are the one who is killing all my Lycans.” Came a gruff voice from behind you and you whirled around. He wasn’t quite as tall as you, but he still oozed danger from every pore of his body. There was no doubt that a Lycan of the higher generations stood in front of you, his gray hair swaying in the breeze and his figure illuminated by the full moon. His eyes were hidden by small sunglasses and on his shoulder rested a massive hammer, that you were pretty sure could crush you with one single hit.
“It flatters me that you would think I could be able to kill all of them. Whenever one of them falls, five others will crawl out of their hiding hole.” You said way bolder than you felt. You needed to buy yourself some time until Daniela arrived. Maybe the two of you together could take care of him, but you alone weren’t strong enough. Or she could get back to the castle and call for help, but either way, you needed to buy time and think of a plan of action.
“I can smell your fear, little one. You are all alone, aren’t you? I have never seen your face before, so it doesn’t matter if you die here and now. No one will miss you.” The man laughed and a shiver ran down your spine.
“What makes you so sure that I am alone?” you ask, your voice cracking. Keep him talking, keep him talking, keep him talking.
“Nice try, kid. But enough dilly-dally. It’s time you meet your maker!” he said and lifted the hammer as if it weighed nothing. Cold sweat was running down your back as you glanced at the rather small knife in your hand.
“Don’t even think about it.” He said and raised his free hand, and you tightened your posture in anticipation of an attack. But it never came, and the man’s brow furrowed in displeasure, but you had no time to ponder that, as you started to run. Not that you came far, the guy was upon you withing seconds, hammer raised for the blow. Your instincts took over and you ducked under the swing, sliding though the gap in his legs, slicing it in the process.
“I like it when they fight. I may not be able to take your little knife, but I will kill you.” He growled and charged at you with inhuman speed. His hammer grazed your shoulder when you barely managed to roll out of his way, jumping to your feet. But you were too slow for him, and with one swing of his hammer you were flying towards the lake, pain and panic constricting your lungs. You couldn’t swim. Right before you hit the surface you could hear Daniela, screaming something you couldn’t understand. It didn’t matter anyway as you felt cold wetness enveloping your body, pulling you into its depths.
You were always scared of the water, especially when it was cold, and your father used this against you mercilessly. But the fear you felt clawing at your heart was nothing like never before, when pictures flashed before your minds eye. A ship. A woman. Water, water, water. “You’re standing in my way. Alcina belongs to me.” A cold voice. A beautiful woman, chaining you to a pipe and rising water. You were drowning. You would never see her again and she would take her.
No.
You would never see her beautiful golden eyes again.
Miranda would take her.
Who is Miranda?
NO!
You were out of the water, your blood boiling…
***
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